Getting Settled

The view RIGHT NOW from our back door! Another beautiful day in paradise!

Greetings once again!

Unfortunately we are still NOT online, however, through the magic of WiFi, I thought I might drop a quick note on here to let you know that we are, indeed, alive and well!

The move in process has been busy, chaotic, exhausting and happy. There never seems to be enough time in the day to unpack things and we hve come across MANY things and said "why did we bring this?". It seems that in most ways, the "less is more" concept would have done us well. Fortunately our little home is only about 200 square feet less than our house in Oregon (although we also are down a garage and a couple of closets). The furniture that we recieved from the Govt. Lot is actually pretty nice, very durable and not as ugly as we thought it would be. SO, all in all, things are getting settled.

This is photo of the pathway by our house - our apartment is in the photo too, but I didn't have time to doctor it with an arrow to show you where - sort of straight back the path to the right of the tall reddish building (ours is only 5 stories)

The highlight of our week was actually sitting down for dinner, at the table in OUR OWN HOME! That first night we ate here, we had a rotisserie chicken, sushi (made fresh at the commmissary) and couscous... not a particularly normal meal, but hey, we were all here and in one place. The girls are getting accustomed to us harping on them for their manners again (so much of it went out the window the last few weeks). And sadly, Alessandra's habit of walking while snacking, it getting squashed as I write this!

Their have been some interesting things to learn about living in Japan. Wehooked ourselves up with Satellite cable. We opted for the regular satellite (and will add the AFN (Armed Forces Network) later this week. I think with so many options and ideas going around, well, I don't know why we made this decision in this order, but we got our tv hooked up and wow, we have cable - granted, most of it is in Japanese, but we have cable nonetheless. I think next time we willnot be quite so anxious.

Which brings me to the internet. SO, we opted for Fiberoptic (supposedly super speedy and wonderful). I signed us up and a day later got the call that the phone company actually has to drop another line into our neighborhood (not just our building). SO, we are on the wait. I am going to see if I can keep trying this WiFi thing in the time being and we may just wait it out until the phone company gets it together. It is tough, I feel disconnected and out here, but I know it will happen ALL IN DUE TIME! :)

On the positive note, we have gone on MANY walks. We live(literally) right on the walking path to Araha Beach. The path goes all along the ocean front, beach front. fishing front... etc. (you get the idea) and it is all brick and paved. Olivia enjoyed riding her scooter (and it shoud be a great place to ride a bike). Alessandra actually enjoyed going in the stroller - something I couldn't beg her to do in Oregon. The girls and I took a walk the first morning we were here and we put our feet in the water and saw a cute little crab running around. They also played at the big Pirate Ship Park. AND ALL THIS, within a few moments from our doorstep!

Today, we walked about a 1/2 block down and had breakfast at a little cafe. They serve pancakes there (which I guess is rare in Okinawa or Japan for that matter). It was so yummy and again, only minutes to pancakes - on foot. Life is good.

So, I am going to stop writing for now (still more boxes to upack), but I will share more soon!

Love to you all!