Surprises

We have had a few surprises about moving to Japan.

Our apartment and apartment building are amazingly clean! The apartment was spotless when we moved in and so far the building appears to be close to spotless. Very well done!

The locals who work at the on-base food courts are hard and dedicated workers. I have yet to see a person standing around. They are always cleaning, cooking, serving, preparing. These people know how to take care of their businesses!

The island is not as pretty as I thought it would be. I had pictured the island of Oahu or the Big Island of Hawai'i. So far I have seen run down buildings in Okinawa. Lots of traffic. And tons of older people who walk everywhere. But no beaches, beautiful gardens or sun kissed skin. I am being told that the Northern part of the Island will more than fulfill my original expectations of moving back to an island, but due to our bundle baking I have not been up to being out and about.

The cross walks chirp at you. Is it like this in other parts of Japan? Each time I drive through a chirping intersection, I crack a smile. I think the chirping is for the blind people to know when and where to cross. It is an interesting concept and I am glad blind people are so well taken care of.

The storage we have in our apartment is astounding. Almost all of our things are put away. We only have about 5 more boxes to unpack of things that I actually need to put away. The boxes in our ginormous storage areas are our Christmas stuff, clothes I will not be able to wear while pregnant, clothes I will only be able to wear after delivery and clothes I hope to fit back into a few months post-baby-delivery. Then a few boxes of clothes L has outgrown and will grow into.

The speed at which JCPennys is able to ship and send things we can only order on-line. Though M and I have lived in 5 different homes, we have to buy curtains EVERY time we move! That is expensive!! Not one place has yet to be a place where we can reuse all of our curtains. But JCPennys had us covered! They had exactly what we needed, shipped it quickly and did not charge us crazy amounts to have it shipped! Thank you JCPennys! Walmart however SUCKS! They are saying it will take up to a month to get our order here and when I clicked an APO address, the shipping cost more than doubled. No more shopping on-line at Walmart!

The sense of community of base and in base housing. Do you know that a neighbor saw us moving in with our stuff. She came over to introduce herself. Me in all of my unshowered, pukey glory smiled and shook her hand. She asked if there was anything I needed. I said, "No, but thank you. Oh wait, do you happen to have tums?" I had been up the night before with the end of 1st trimester heartburn and was not wanting to deal with heartburn for the day. We only have one car and M was at work. The woman ran to her house brought out her bottle of 5-6 tums left and handed me the bottle. Later in the day, she rang the bell while I was showering. M, who had gotten home early and had stopped to get me Tums, answered the door. Do you know that my neighbor had gone to the store and bought Tums for me?!?!??!?!?!?!?! M thanked her and said he was actually able to get me some, but what a lady! Acts of kindness are a regular occurrence in the building. I am grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

These are just a few of my most recent thoughts. Have a great day!