Living life in the Land of the Rising Sun: A Little Closer to Settled

When we left the states in September, I think Russ and I both expected to be settled into our new home by Christmastime. Sometimes things have a way of taking a different direction than you thought they would. The good news is that we're no longer in the TLF (temporary living facility). Those two dark hotel rooms were starting to get to both of us.

We began the process of looking for an apartment to rent in mid-October. Our plan was to find something we liked and have a lease signed at about the same time our household goods (HHG's) arrived on the island. We had our realtor, Noriko set up a few appointments to view apartments and also asked her to check into one that was mentioned to Russ as a nice area to live. We were told that two apartments would be coming open in the Bel Air Mansion ("mansion"--their name for apartment complexes) in Ishikawa and that they were American-style apartments (very spacious). Noriko set up an appointment to view these first because she had a feeling that we would like them instantly. She was right. We were in awe of the openness of them as well as the storage space and instantly fell in love with the area. We still went to the other appointments she had set up for the day but we knew that our minds were already made up that Ishikawa was where we wanted to move. First time we've ever selected the first home we were shown.

Ishikawa is on the Pacific side of the island but is right at a narrower section so going to the East China Sea side is a short drive. The Bel Air mansion has six floors I believe and there are two apartments on each floor. The two available apartments were on the first and second floors. The first floor apartment was opening up in mid- December and the 2nd floor apartment in mid-January. We chose the second floor apartment because it had a better view of the ocean but that meant that we would have to wait a little longer for it.

Typically for civilian government employees we are allotted about 90 days in a TLF to find your home. (the military have much less time). Our dilemma was that if we waited for the 2nd floor apartment we would go beyond that 90 TLF limit. Noriko talked to the owners of the Bel Air apartment building and found that he owns another building in Yogi that was a little smaller apartment but still more Americanized. He told her that he had an opening in this building and would be willing to let us rent here on a month to month basis until the apartment we wanted was available to move into. He even offered to help move us over there when it was time to move.

While I was in the states with the kids, Noriko took Russ to see the Yogi apartment and he video taped it so I could see what it looked like. We both liked the apartment and thought this would be the best plan for us. They began the paperwork process while I was gone and we were able to move to the Yogi apartment on December 1. The base provides temporary furniture and basic dishes for any who move into a house before their HHG arrive. The temporary furniture arrived in the morning on the 1st and we picked up the dishes later that day. We had to supplement with a few extra items but we were thankful to have all of this provided for us. Our HHG's are here but we have them in storage until we move to the permanent apartment.

We are loving the apartment. It's an open concept floor-plan so we are enjoying the wide open rooms and light. It's three bedrooms and two baths and has an ocean view as well. We're on the fifth floor of what is called the Pacific View Mansion. Since it's on the Pacific side we get a little more wind than the East China Sea side gets. Last spring they opened a huge mall in Okinawa called the Aeon Rycom Mall. I was excited to see that our Yogi apartment is very close to this mall. More on that in another post.

We were hopeful to get the internet set up shortly after moving in but it's not worked out like we planned. They use fiber optic lines for wireless broadband internet here and evidently our apartment didn't have them installed yet. When they came out to install the internet they realized that they couldn't run the lines through the phone lines like they usually do so they needed to send a surveyor out a week later to decide where they would run the lines. They then told us they wouldn't install them until after the New Year because the Japanese typically take about 10 days off for the holidays. So at this point we are questioning if we even want to bother setting up the internet here since we will hopefully be moving within a month of their estimated installation time. No internet definitely makes blogging a little more difficult so be patient with me. I will try to get several posts written this week and use a hotspot on my phone to publish them.

We are feeling a little more settled here. I can cook some of my simpler recipes and we have more space to spread out. I'm loving my ocean view and evening city lights leading to the ocean. We are learning patience as we wait and are enjoying the exploration of this section of the island for a few months. I've learned that in all things you have two choices, you can complain about what you don't have or enjoy what you do. We're choosing to enjoy these few months and look forward to being finally settled in the spring. Here's a glimpse of what the apartment looks like: