What a difference it makes being able to get out and about now that we have our Japanese Driver's licenses and rented a car. Whew! I spent another day in another orientation and Mitch took the kids out in the rental car to look at cars/SUV's for me to buy. I'm was trying to decide how much room I need in a car/SUV and looked at things like the equivalents of the Pathfinder, Forerunner, Monterro, and Lexus. Most of the cars/SUV's here are from 2000 or older and average $3,000-$7,000 depending on where you buy them from. The used dealerships charge more, but give you a year warranty, which would be nice with Mitch gone this next year.
I left the orientation lecture today at lunch and had Mitch and the kids pick me up. We went back to the same place Christina, my sponsor, took us for lunch last week. The kids had a blast putting the coins in the machine and selecting our lunch from the vending machine! There were no regular tables left, so we sat at the traditional Japanese table and pillows.
The kids loved it and it worked fine for me, however I don't think Mitch was too comfortable! I look "glistening" in this photo because it is hot, humid, and the food here was hot too!
The Japanese people LOVE kids and bring them specific plates, bowls, cups, and utensils with cartoon like characters on them :) Everything I have eaten here has been fabulous!! Still don't know the name of the place, but it is on Highway 58 between Camp Lester and Kadena Air Base and next to some Mexican place!
After lunch we went back to the hotel and the kids and Mitch napped. I drove for the first time off base from Camp Foster to Kadena Air Base and it wasn't too bad! I just kept telling myself "left, left, left and blinker is on the right!" I found the housing office and signed off on our new house! If things go well, we may not have to move for 3 years!! Longest time we have ever spent in one house! I even got permission to paint the rooms :) I might have to get in Pinterest later and review the photos I pinned of room colors!
I made my way back to the Westpac hotel at Camp Foster, only hit the windshield wipers once! Once the kids woke up from naps we loaded back into the rental car and headed back to the Kadena Air Force base to look at some cars Mitch had seen earlier. I looked at a Black Lexus SUV or Toyota Harrier which is what the call it here and really liked it. Reminded me a lot of my former BMW X3. We then drove off base to B.C. Used Car lot and looked at a few more cars/SUV's. We spent about an hour and decided on the Lexus SUV that we had looked at on base, called Jerry and told him we wanted to buy it! Mitch and Jerry will work out the details tomorrow of an exact price and complete the payment and paperwork :) I am so excited to have found a car and house, both of which are MUCH BETTER than I ever imagined!!! YEAH! Now, if I could just get over this nasty cold! It isn't like me to be sick and to be this sick, yuck!
To celebrate the purchase of my new car, we went to Chili's down the street to celebrate. It was familiar and the kids were tired, we promise to be more adventurous with our dining choices in the future.
Mitch just had iced tea to drink and when I questioned why he didn't get a beer, he said he was worried about being pulled over on base. The alcohol limit here is 0.03, which is one drink, so you can't even have one drink and drive............Good thing he had tea because the base guards had a random stop point pulling onto Camp Foster base today and he had to do the breathalyzer! Man we were lucky today! While we were sitting in the long line of cars to go through the stop point we practiced our Japanese and Cooper and Mackenzie both did GREAT. Mackenzie kept saying "Hippo Konnichiwa" which means hello in Japanese. When we got to the hotel Mitch took them to the front desk to speak to the Japanese people there :)
Our plan is to head north to the Aquarium tomorrow. Should be some great photos to post! Sayonara!
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