Feeling A Bit Bloggier

Sorry for neglecting my 3 faithful readers for so long, well 2 since Em already knows whats going on. As you most likely know we are in Japan, it’s been about 19 days now. Veterans! When we arrived they put us into the Misawa Inn, which is the on base billeting. It had a kitchenette, living room and 1 bedroom and bath. It was also stifling hot and humid for the first 8/10 days. Then it has begun to cool off and rain more. First trip to the housing office told us that there were no four bedrooms available on base. Disappointed we convinced ourselves off-base is better and ended up finding a nice house, but would have to wait a month to move in. Then the next day we got called with news that we got approval to get one of the available 4-bedrooms on-base in the “field grade” area which is right next to the “company grade”. [I as, a captain, am in the company grade officer level. Major, Lt Colonel, and Colonel are the field grade officers and the military is picky about mixing rank levels.] So we decided to take one on base. We are now just completing the process of convincing ourselves that on-base is superior, which it is…I think. Really, there are a lot of pros and cons on both ends, but the convenience of being on base won out.

Our home is a 6:34 minute walk to Max’s school. He started today! It’s fun and crazy that I have a first-grader!! (My brother must be freakin’ out sending his daughter to college this year! Good luck Madi!) It is also only a 3 minute walk from our door to the clinic door. This makes it an easy commute. I can’t blame traffic for being late on my way home anymore. Also, we plan to do a lot of classes and activities so it will be nice not having to come on and off base so much. Max is taking piano and some sort of Japanese Martial Art. Sam is doing gymnastics. (Em gave him the choice between gymnastics and dance. He chose the lesser of the two evils luckily). Em is taking a ceramics course, for which she is wicked excited! I am doing a bonsai class as well as a short survival Japanese language course and a Japanese cooking class. I may also do a little bit of dentistry while I’m here, but that is still up in the air!