{More from Okinawa}

We arrived here sunday evening.

FIRST DAY

On Monday a lot was accomplished. We bought a van, which we can't take home until we get our driver's licenses (just got those an hour ago). Shane went to the Housing Briefing and they put us on the list. We are supposed to hear our options tomorrow, BUT being that it's the military i am not too confident we will hear about it tomorrow. :) We bought our cell phones. We could have bought I-phones, which are FREE, BUT we would pay $150.00 a month for just the data plan on both of them. That doesn't include the minutes yet. Not to mention, Shane was told by the salesman selling the I-phones that if we were going to be stationed here, she recommended going with a different company, cause their cell service on base is "not good". Long story short, we went with a different company and also decided to just get a cheap plastic phones and we are only spending about $60.00 a month total for everything. Shane and I get as many texting and minutes as we want, back and forth to each other. BUT if we want to talk to anyone else it is costly.

REAL JAPANESE FOOD

We also went off-base and had our first real japanese food. YUMMY! We ordered fried rice, miso soup, and gyoza (fried dumplings). The fried rice was awesome. They bring it out to you in a skillet just like when they bring your fajitas to you in a restaurant back home. In the back they mix up the eggs and then just pour it in the skillet and leave it like that. Then they pour the rice and meat and onions, and whatever else they put in it, on top of the egg. So, when they bring it out the egg is just about all cooked now. They give you two large spoons and you mix it all up yourself. They have little jars of all kinds of different spices, oils, etc. It was fun looking through all of it. They also had tables in their where you sit on the floor on mat's. There is a word for the mat, but i don't remember it right now. You take your shoes off....your shoes need to be straight and pointing towards the area you will be eating. You are not supposed to step on the mat. I also learned that you don't pass food from your set of chopsticks to someone else's chopsticks. AND you don't stick your chopsticks in the rice, to where they are standing up in the rice. Both of those things are something they do for funeral's. The food was awesome.

DRIVING

Driving freaks me out. As i am sitting there in the car i am scared as i watch everyone drive on the opposite side of the road. I am wondering if i will be able to do it! I can totally see myself wrecking! We just got our driver's licenses today. It was a very easy test. We should be getting our van tomorrow or Friday. We bought a red mazda van. It was $4,500.00. CHEAP. That's what most of the vans average. They are nothing fancy at all. They are in good shape and get us around. That's all we need. Cars here are tight, small, compact, little, and boxy. They are a lot like toyota prius's(a car we had in texas)....in fact, i have seen a lot of prius cars around here....but most here are a little more boxy than the prius.

ON BASE AMENITIES

We have a two story commissary and BX center. It's decent. They even have Jessica Simpson heels and wedges! That made me happy b/c i like her shoes. :) They even sell gucci purses. I was surprised. Not that i want one. We have two large swimming pools. A movie theater, lots of american restaurants, etc. I don't think i want to go through the whole list of everything b/c it will take longer than i want to spend on it. It's just really nice and convenient. They have soooooooo many activities going on on base everyday. And there are lots of fun things happening off base all the time. The Japanese have lots of festivals, different types, and i can't wait to go and watch! We will never be bored. There is so much stuff for kids to do as well. It seems endless.

TRAVELS

We went to a newcomer's briefing today. They told us how far we are from other countries around us. We are only a one hour flight from south korea. We are less than an hour flight from Tawaiian. We are about a two hour flight from the Phillipines. About 2-3 hours flight from singapore. About an hour or less flight to china. About a six hour flight to Australia. 6-7 hours to new zealand. About an hour to Tokyo. We can easily go see all those places, plus there are sooooo many islands we can see that are surrounding us. At the newcomer's briefing we also were briefed on ocean safety. Here, they have some of the best scuba diving spots in the world....so you can guess that shane and I will take advantage of that.

EMPLOYEES

Most of the employees here on base are japanese. The employees at the BX and the Commissary. The maids, etc. I think this base provides lots of jobs for the japanese people. And apparently being a bagger at the Commissary is a competitive job for the japanese. You won't see a young person b/c they give them to the more adult people. They don't get paid an actual salary. Their salary is tips. Everytime they bring your bags to your car you are supposed to tip them. I guess some people go crazy with giving nice tips, while others like me, will just tip the average which is about 2-3 bucks.

JETS

We have two other bases right next to us....At Sheppard Air Force Base, there were lots of T-38 training jets and T-6s which are prop planes also used for training the pilots who go to Sheppard. Here we are seeing f-22'S, F-15's and 16's flying everyday and helicoptors all over the place. We were outside when one flew right over us. It was soooooo loud! I really like it though b/c its just so cool. I hear there are lots of really cool jets that we will get to see.

They call Okinawa the Keystone of the Pacific.

I will keep posting and hopefully soon i can post some pictures for you all! :)