Hi Guys!
Well, Nick and I have begun trying to assimilate to this place.
We have two tatami mat rooms in our house so we decided to try to utilize that space by buying a futon! A futon is not like an Americn futon, but a type of mattress that the Japanese use to sleep on, on tatami mats. So it goes tatami mat flooring, futon (mattress), you, and then a blanket over you. The mattresses are only like 6 inches thick but that's why they lay them on the tatami mat flooring because it adds a certain amount of "fluffy." (When we were out buying the futon, we were bring helped by a Japanese sales associate and she was trying to describe the comfort of the different mattresses by saying "fluffy" but, in Engrish, it sounded much more like "fuh-frie." Gotta love it!)
So we've been sleeping on the futon mattress the past couple of nights and it's not bad. It definitely isn't a bed, but since we still don't have sheets or blankets for our loaner bed, it works! Nick wants to sleep on it the whole time we are here. It's been two nights so far and I already had to give him a neck massage this morning, so we will see about that!)
In other efforts to assimilate, we bought some Japanese garbage bags and toilet paper, we have a Japanese fridge, and we've been taking our shoes off first thing in the entry way. The Japanese have a very complicated garbage system, thus the special bags. In fact, it's so complicated we have yet to actually throw anything away because we know we will mess it up and you have to write your name on the garbage bag so they will know it's us! The only thing you can flush down the toilets is Japanese toilet paper, which actually dissolves in water, so we had to buy some of that. Luckily, it doesn't matter what kind of soap or anything you use because otherwise we would have to buy Japanese shampoo and conditioner, which would prove difficult until we figure out those Japanese characters.
And the whole "not wearing shoes in the house" has been going OK, except when you have already tied, or buckled, or zipped your shoes up and then you realize you forgot something, somewhere in the house and you have to just quick run and get it. It's so much effort to undo your whole shoe most of the time, especially in Nick's case with his military boots, so we just kind of tiptoe quick around in our shoes. Don't tell our neighbors!
We were also going to get Japanese cell phones because the cell provider on base seemed like a scam and everyone is always complaining about their terrible service. However, we found out it is not a scam so instead we have phones through Softbank on base. For being the country that used to be so far ahead of cell phone technology, Japan now seems to have fallen behind. The best deal we found was on base and we have unlimited calling between Softbank phones between the hours of 1am and 9pm. After that, it's 5 cents a minute. Also, to call a phone not with Softbank, it's 5 cents a minute all the time. And the funny thing is that we have unlimited data for a reasonable amount. Their phones are also much more expensive and most everyone it seems is still using flip phones. It just doesn't seem to make sense!
Anyways, it's time for me to go make some headway in looking for a job. I got my official tour of base and Iwakuni yesterday so now I feel like I belong here and it's time to make some connections!
Ta for now.
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