Mongolian BBQ Night

One of the things we always enjoyed about our first tour in Japan was the Mongolian BBQ nights at the base restaurants. When we checked out all the literature left in our TLF when we arrived, I spotted an advertisement for Mongolian BBQ tonight. Russ and I made a mental note to try to attend. Basically they put out trays of a bunch of vegetables and you start with a bowl and fill it with whatever veggies you want in your stir fry. Then you add meats. There's usually a chicken, beef, pork and shrimp option.  They weigh it next and you pay by the ounce for the meal. Then you add in all the sauces to flavor it however you like and they then take it to the grill and stir fry it for you. When we were here before they had you guess what you thought each meal weighed and if you guessed it within a half ounce, (I think), you got your meal for free. The kids used to love to try to guess their meal weight. I think they each got one for free during our three years there. We were amazed at how inexpensive our meals were tonight. We both got rice with the BBQ and a bowl of soup plus our tea drinks and the bill was only $13.50.  I think that was cheaper than our lunch at the food court  in the BX today. It was exciting to see that they are still doing Mongolian BBQ nights here. I'm sure we will be back for many more during our stay. It's fun because it is different every time you make it. We've tried several of the stateside Mongolian BBQ restaurants but they just don't do them quite like they do here.

We discovered another familiar logo at the same restaurant where we had the Mongolian.  I had to stop and take a picture even though we didn't order any tonight. It looked like they had quite a few varieties in the display cases. We've now officially been here a week and it's funny how these little signs from home can make me quite happy right along with the memories of things we loved from our first Japan tour.

A Glimpse at our TLF

Whenever you are PCSing in or out of the country you usually have to spend several weeks in the TLF (Temporary Living Facility). We can stay here until our shipment arrives and/or we find a house to live in. We thought you might like to see where we are living currently. It is like a mini apartment with a small kitchen and basic kitchen essentials, a living room, dinette area and a bedroom and bathroom. Most of the buildings here are concrete and made to withstand the winds of typhoons. This past weekend we were on watch for a typhoon that was coming our way but it ended up changing directions and we only saw a little extra wind and rain from it. We still made the trip to the Commissary and stocked up on water and bought some candles and matches just in case. The TLF also has a free laundry area with two washers and two dryers so I don't have to go far to do laundry. The TV has several base TV stations that give all the information on the base and any activities coming up. There is about 8 other AFN stations that bring stateside programing of Sports and popular TV shows. There's a movie station and a Family station for kids' cartoons and there are three sports channels showing football, baseball, golf and whatever is most popular in the states. Then there are the memorable AFN commercials. Since they can't broadcast stateside commercials they make their own commercials. Some are quite funny and others are very strange. Some are the same ones we were seeing in England 10 years ago. Then there are about 8 or so Japanese stations. Even though we can't understand what they are saying they are sometimes fun to watch because of their silliness. Sometimes they even show American movies with Japanese language dubbed in. For some odd reason I enjoy watching them and trying to figure out what they are saying/doing. I took a picture of this one just to show how bizarre they are sometimes. This was a man dressed like a woman with green hair and they were doing some sort of comedy act.

A Glimpse of Japanese TV.

Finding our Way Around

We woke up on Thursday refreshed from a full night's sleep and ready to see a little bit of the base. Our sponsor provided us with a base map when he dropped us at the TLF and Russ used that to route out a walking path to the BX and Commissary. First we found the Post Office and checked our mail. It was exciting to find some mail from a sweet friend from GA. It made our day. We walked to the food court in the BX and had our lunch at Popeyes and then did a quick walk through the BX to see all the shops before heading to the commissary to get some groceries for our TLF. Since we were walking we had to just get the basics so we could carry it all back to our apartment. Russ had an afternoon meeting at Civilian Personnel so I spent a few hours getting the rest of our bags unpacked. We walked back to the BX after his meeting and got our cell phones so we would be able to communicate with the kids. We both got iPhones because we were told we can text and do facetime for free when it's iphone to iphone. Since all the kids have iphones that made the decision easy. There are several cell phone companies that have stores on the base (which was very convenient and easy). We went with one called AU. I remembered reading several blogs and articles from others who all recommended AU as the best for good cell phone signal both on and off the base. We will pay about $140/month for both phones with data and (somewhat) unlimited calling in Japan.

Russ started his new job on Friday. He called me at lunchtime and said that one of his co-workers had invited us to lunch off base. They came and picked me up and we headed to a Soba shop. One of my favorite meals when we lived in Iwakuni was Yakisoba so there was no question what I was ordering for lunch. Russ ordered a soba noodle soup. In Japan, there is no tipping in restaurants. Most of the time you just point to pictures to order food or in some restaurants they have plastic food displays outside of the restaurants where you can point to what you want to order. I totally enjoyed my yakisoba and had not lost my chopstick skills after 20 years away. We had quite a hassle trying to get back on the base after lunch since they decided they wanted us to get temporary passes instead of using our orders to come on base. It was almost an hour wait to get our temporary passes. I'm looking forward to finally having our IDs and Driver's Licenses so we can go on and off base with ease. That won't happen until next week though.

For supper we ate at Chili's. It was just like being in the states...same menu. I got my iced tea for free after finding a fly floating on the side of the glass. Ewww.

A Glimpse at a Japanese Menu

This is Yakisoba. Yum!

Sayonara USA

Here's a picture of us in the Atlanta airport ready for our flight to Japan. Our flight left around 10:15 a.m. and we arrived early so we could return our rental car. We each had two suitcases as well as carry-ons and I was amazed that there wasn't a shuttle bus to get us from the rental car drop off into the terminal. We had to walk with all our luggage up several floors to catch a train that dropped us at the baggage claim area of the terminal. As we walked I kept seeing pieces of my suitcase tire falling off. I was a little worried I'd be dragging my suitcase by the time we got to check-in. Doing all that walking with all our luggage was one of the hardest parts of the whole trip. We were worn out before we even got started. We were thrilled to see we both had TSA pre-check notations on our tickets which allowed us to speed up the check-in process.

Our flight to Chicago was about two hours long and we had to rush through the terminal to find the gate for our next flight. (more walking) It was already boarding when we got there so we barely had time to stretch before we were back on a plane for the long flight from Chicago to Tokyo. Our seats weren't together on this flight.We had the food serving station between our seats so we couldn't even see each other as we flew. We both ended up in the middle seat of sets of three. It made it difficult to stretch out our feet or find a comfortable sleeping position.I tried to stand up whenever the girl next to me stood so that I could stretch a little bit. The plane was a 747 double decker with about 11 seats across a row. There were movies or TV shows playing on the monitors the entire flight and they fed us two meals. The flight time for this flight was about 13 hours total. We both tried not to sleep too much so that we could survive jet lag a little easier. After we exited we had to fill out customs paperwork and then find our luggage and walk through customs with it. They then took our luggage cart and put the luggage back on our flight to Okinawa.

Our last flight from Tokyo to Okinawa was about three hours. This plane had plenty of open seats and I was able to find an open row of five seats to lay across and sleep for most of the flight. Russ stayed awake and ordered what he thought was an apple juice but it turned out to be a chicken broth. It was a great introduction back into the world of guessing what you're actually getting when you can't read the writing on the packages. He said it was actually very good. I was glad I slept through that part.

We got to Okinawa at about 8:30 p.m. last night and Russ's sponsor and his boss were both waiting for us to give us a ride to the base. We checked into the TLF (temporary living facility) and were settled into our room by about 10 p.m. We had at this time been traveling for about 27 hours straight. I was wide awake when we first arrived. After about 2 weeks of living out of suitcases I was ready to get unpacked and settle in before sleeping. It didn't take us long to feel tired though so we were able to go to bed at normal Okinawa sleeping time. That allowed us to instantly be on their schedule which made jet lag almost non-existent. It was dark when we drove to the base so we're looking forward to exploring a little bit today.
It feels good to finally be here after all these months of planning for the move. Since this is our second time living in Japan it feels very comfortable to be back. I have no doubt we will enjoy our time here.

The Sign in the backround says "Welcome to Okinawa"

All our luggage

Saying our Goodbyes

The hardest part of the moving process is saying our goodbyes to friends and family. Goodbyes have never been easy for me. We hosted a party at our house in mid-August as our way of saying goodbye to our church group. We had a great turnout and enjoyed a night of singing together. Russ and I provided all the food and asked those attending to bring drinks and desserts. I feel like we've both grown by spending time with our South Fayette church group. We've learned a lot from them. We will miss them greatly. Our last official service with them was on Wednesday, September 16. I did fairly well with all the goodbyes but there were a few that were harder than others and they brought a few tears with the goodbye hugs.

We made a trip to Colorado the next week to spend a little more time with our kids and grandkids. We enjoyed playing outdoors with them on their new trampoline and reading stories to them at night. There is nothing like grand kid snuggles and hugs. We knew we would see them again at Amber's wedding but saying goodbye as we left them was still rough because we knew it would be awhile before we were at their home again. I think the boys sensed it too. I tried to take plenty of pictures since they will be much bigger the next time we see them.

Hannah and Amber came the last weekend of August and we worked on finalizing wedding details and taking gender reveal photos for Hannah's new baby.I totally enjoyed just hanging out with my girls and having a few good laughs together. I tried to cherish every moment I could with each of the kids and grandkids and I enjoyed every hug I could coax from them. Brayden has always been attached to me and he didn't want me to put him down all weekend. I think leaving my kids will be the hardest. We've never been this far away from them. Knowing I can't hop in the car and drive to see them whenever I want will be a big adjustment. Yay for technology to bridge the distance though.

We knew we'd have quite a bit of family at Amber's wedding so we made our final farewells to all of them this past weekend. Since we had all our kids and grandkids in one place we arranged to have family photos taken the day before the wedding. Several of my sisters, niece and nephews and one of Russ's brothers attended the wedding so we had a big lunch together on Sunday before we all parted ways. We said our goodbyes to Amber on Saturday night as she left for her honeymoon, to Hannah and family on Sunday morning as they left early to take a friend to the airport and to Cory and family Sunday afternoon. Each one was equally hard but I knew that they were all supporting us in the move and would be diligent to keep in touch with us as we traveled to our new home. We love our kids and are so proud of the lives they are living.Wish I could take them all with us. January will be here before we know it and I'll get to enjoy some more family time then. 

Moving On to Our Next Adventure

Life is an adventure...or at least it should be. Most of the time, you never know how wonderful an experience can be unless you are willing to give it a try. We've always kept an open mind when it comes to new adventures and like to keep people guessing where we'll end up next.

Russ and I started out the year 2015 with two options in front of us. One was for him to retire in September after his birthday and the other was to do one more overseas tour before he retires. For the first part of the year we kept both options in mind and started preparing our house to be put on the market in the spring. We cleaned the house from top to bottom and then began the process of finding a realtor. I learned a long time ago that when you are selling a home, you need to find an agent who is aggressive, a good communicator and a good negotiator. After a little research I interviewed six realtors and chose our realtor, Kali, after putting them through a few tests. She came in and staged our home and we put a bunch of stuff into a storage unit to open up the rooms and make it look clutter-free for selling. The sign went in the yard in early May.

In early June, Russ got an email with a job offer with the Air Force in Okinawa, Japan. We were in Jacksonville at the beach when the offer came in and we talked about it and prayed about it and decided that we would go on one more adventure before retirement. Our house sold just when we needed it to and we began the process of preparing for the move to Japan. We started with passports and medical evaluations. Russ had a ton of paperwork to fill out and then eventually we got our orders for Japan. It was a little stressful getting all the details for the movers worked out at such a short notice but in the end it all worked out. Our first movers came on September 3 to pick up our quick shipment. This is the one we should see first (in approximately 6 weeks from when it left us). The second movers arrived on Friday to pick up our storage shipment. We had to sort our house into what we were taking to Japan and what we were storing. We decided to store our bigger items like the baby grand piano and king size bed and pare down to less furniture. Our last shipment was picked up on the 8th and 9th of September and we won't see these items for about two months. It's always an odd feeling watching your entire belongings ride away in a truck. We are living out of two suitcases each and began living in a hotel as of Tuesday, the 8th. Our house closing is today and we will be officially homeless until we arrive in Japan. We've found a buyer for our car and will give it to it's new owners on the 20th of this month. It's been a stressful summer preparing for the move but we can now relax a little bit and take care of all the last minute details before leaving the country.  

We're both excited about this new adventure we are taking. It's all fallen into place so nicely and it feels like it's what we're meant to be doing right now in our lives. We know from experience that we'll enjoy our time in Okinawa and that we will meet some more awesome people to enhance our lives. We'll definitely miss our friends here in Fayetteville but we try to always keep our eyes looking forward to what is ahead. This will be our first overseas tour without the kids. It will be hard to say our goodbyes to them but we know that we can still keep in touch with texts, facetime, skype and email. I'm already planning my first trip back in January to welcome my newest granddaughter into the world. I hope to keep up with this blog so that anyone who wants to see our pictures and hear about our lives in Japan, will have a place to go to find out what we're up to. Feel free to leave comments and questions and I'll try to answer all.