American Village

Today I went out with my friends Grace and Abby to a shopping center called American Village. It is recognizable by the giant ferris wheel. They took me to lunch at a place called Sushi Bar and it was so good! It was probably the best I have ever had. 

It was so cute, after we finished eating they gave us this little itty bitty scoop of orange sorbet with a baby spoon for free! Yay!

One of the stores there has a huge SEGA sign on the side of it! I haven't been in it yet but every time we drive by I think of the old Sega we used to play on as kids. 

After lunch they took us to a ¥100 yen store ($1 store)! They are all over and we went to a little one that was inside another store called Makeman. I could have outfitted a whole house with the variety of stuff they sold there. They have tons of great stuff (way better then a family dollar or anything like that) and I wanted to get everything!

One of my favorite finds is pictured above. Do you know what it is?! I do! It is a ongiri maker (for making rice balls). You put cooked rice in each side and then press it down in the mold with the press. I needed this so bad a few weeks ago and now I have one! So happy. I can't wait to make more Japanese food now that I am here (and once I get into our house that actually has a kitchen)!

Shells

So on our short walks on the beaches so far we have picked up several shells. Here are just a few:

We found these on busy beaches in the middle of the day so they must be nothing fancy but they have them everywhere along with lots of bits of coral.

There is also a ton of sea glass. That's all over too!

Mom, I hope your ready to start picking up tons of sea shells! 

I can't believe I live here!

People are so nice here! Today my friend Grace took Logan and me out to see some of the beaches and then to dinner! The pic above was actually from the other night but the one below was at the Kadena Marina. 

Then we went to a private military beach that i can tell we will be visiting a lot while we are here. 

You can camp and snorkel here and just walking around we found lots of pretty shells. 

Then Grace took us out to dinner. At this place you put your money in a machine and poke the button for what you want and it spits out a receipt with lots of Japanese writing that tells the waiter what you want. I assume it says something like "garlic rice, please". After you sit down, the waiter takes it and comes back with amazing deliciousness. 

It comes out it had the rice in the middle with eggs still cooking around the outside. They pour the soy sauce over right after they put it in front of you and then you get to mix it up and eat it! 

It was so good and filling! I could only eat half but Logan enjoyed his and the rest of mine. The miso soup was also probably the best I have ever tried! 

Getting things done!

I feel like we got so much done today. It feels good. This morning we got a call with two house offers!! We were really worried that we wouldn't get one here on Kadena but one of the offers was! The way it works is that they give you two places, then you get to see them and pick one. I was worried that the one here on Kadena would be old and ugly and then the other one (it was on Camp Lester) would be super nice and new. Happily, it was the opposite. The one here on Kadena was nice and renovated and the one over on Lester was yucky and old. EASIEST choice ever!! I forgot to get a pic but our new house looks like the apartment complex below (example of the outside from online). We will be in apartment B and it has two floors.

There is still a family living there so it will be a while before we get in (that was the only down side). They said they move out next Wednesday and then the housing office will go through and clean it all up. What I really like abut the house is that it is at the top of a hill, has a new kitchen and lots of storage! It is kinda in a little bowl on the hill so you can't see any cool views but it is still really nice. We won't have to worry about typhoons at least! It is also in the branch boundaries that we want to live in!! So happy! 

After that, we went and picked out a car! It will be ready to pick up on Monday afternoon. It is a pimped out Honda Fit! We went and got the down payment. I think Logan really liked holding all that cash! lol.

I really wanted this yellow Honda Fit but this one is a lot nicer (and the yellow one was gone by the time we got back to the lot). So here is my new car!! It is a 2002 but only has like 22,000 miles! We call him Tokyo Drift or Drift for short!

The inside is really nice and clean too and it has a full back seat (for all our visitors). You might also notice that the driver seat is on the right! That is going to take some getting used to as well as driving on the left side of the road! 

We also plan on getting Logan a new car too. He is going to Florida in a week for about 3 weeks so we don't need two cars yet but when he gets back we will probably get another car. This will be the fist time since we were married that we had two cars! 

First Week and Mailing Address

We will have been here a week so far tomorrow (Friday) and it seems like we have not really gotten much done. This is because it is hard to get anywhere with out a car and that includes getting a car.  But we are loving it here more and more everyday!

When we got here it was dark and raining. We had been on the plane for about 28 hours and they let off all the families with kids off first and loaded them in buses and then right when the buses came back to get the rest of us we had lightning within 5 miles and said that we couldn't get off the plane for an hour. I was so close to just going crazy right there but after about 15 minutes Heavenly Father answered my prayers and they started deplaning again! I really was a divine intervention.

After getting our luggage Eric our sponsor picked us up and took us to our hotel. All we did our first weekend is sleep eat the groceries (Eric was so nice to get us) and go off base our first time to go to church (because we don't know where we are going to live, we don't know what ward we will end up in yet).

Then so far this week we really have only been getting all of Logan's work stuff taken care of. I have gotten to tag around with him a bit too. I got to go in to his office building (not the secure room where he will actually be working) and meet some people he will work with. We had to sit through a all day new comer orientation, and have been working on getting him all squared away so he can leave again on the 5 of October.

Still even though we have not been able to explore as much as I would have liked we have been able to see some cool things. Just last night when we were walking back from dinner we saw these guys. They have huge bats here that are really really big! You can't tell from the picture but these were hanging down almost a foot long and their wing span was even bigger. I looked it up and they can get as big as having 5.6 feet wing span! And I don't doubt it! 

On Tuesday I went to the Relief Society activity with a woman named Vashti.  We were introduced on Facebook a little bit before we came here and so I asked her to take us to church last Sunday. She was so sweet and drove us and then fed us that Sunday night. We have been in contact ever since and are becoming good friends. After the RS activity she took me to a little convenience store to get some treats. I got some purple sweet potato ice cream and this Asian Pear Fanta. They were both really good! It has definitely been fun to try new things. 

From where we are staying you can even see the Ocean!! If you look real close there is a thin strip of blue right above the buildings. That is the East China Sea!

As much fun as it is to live in a hotel (cough, cough... its not...) I actually can't wait until we get a real place. We went to get more information on Tuesday and we found out that it is mandatory for us to live on base (so no off base option. sad) and it sounds like they are pretty full here on Kadena so they may send us to stay on Foster Marine Base that is about 20 minutes down the road. I really hope they don't! We really want to stay here on Kadena close to where Logan works and to stay in the ward that we have already been to a like a lot! They have 5 days to call and let us know what our options are. After we pick a place we still can have over a week wait before getting into the new place. At this point, Logan will most likely be in Florida before we move in. 

Our biggest need right now is that we need to get a car. We got our licenses on Wednesday so we can now actually buy a car but that is easier said then done. We found one on Monday but by the time we went to see it again today it was sold :(  So no yellow Honda Fit for me. Out here none of the cars are that expensive but there is a lot of paper work involved and so once we pick out the car it will be another few days before we can pick it up. Every day without a car is very difficult because the base is so big there isn't much we can do without one and Eric can only drive us around for so long.

So I feel like once we get all the big details taken care of we will really love it here! The weather is warm a beautiful every day. It does rain a lot but never for very long. It is so fun exploring and finding new things. We have also been very blessed to have a good sponsor. He has been kind enough to pick us up and take us around when he can. It has also be great having a full size BX (like a huge walmart without the food). It has shoes, a Bath and Body Works, clothes, lawn mowers, scuba gear and lots lots more! It is like a mall and I love it!

People here are also so nice. My friend Vashti also invited Logan and me to go with her and her kids to a baptism at the beach. It was really amazing! It was our first time at the beach and we went to this place where the ocean had eaten out all these arches in the rocks and it made a little cove. That was a fun experience. I can't wait now until we actually can get to the beach to go swimming!

We also have a mailing address now!! It is

Logan and Anna Dixon
PSC 80 BOX 20181
APO, AP 96367

The way this works is that this is just like a stateside address but it takes a lot longer to get here and if you send a box you do have to fill out a customs form. I hear that the best place to use is USPS with their flat rate boxes. They are able to get here pretty quick but you can use whatever ends up being cheapest. Technically it is like sending a box to California as far as you can track or have to pay for and then it gets put on a plane in San Francisco. If you need more detail, I would suggest going to the post office and asking them (because I have never mailed anything!). I will also just put out there: I promise if you send me mail, I will send you back some too with lots of fun Japaneses stuff! I've been waiting until I can get off base to find some fun treasures but I promise I'm thinking of you all!

If you want to call, my magic jack is not working but you can use Skype or an app called Text+ to call/text me for FREE (Email me if you want more info on that)!

First Meal off Base

We ate off base for the first time today with our sponsor. He took us to a taco rice place. Apparently this is one of the unique meals on Okinawa.

It is honestly just like taco salad but it was really good! It also looked better but I has mixed it all up before I remembered to take a pic. 

So this is taco rice with avocado and it was so yummy! I can't wait to try some more new foods! 

Some Food

When we got here, a guy picked us up from the airport. He is called our sponsor and is in charge of helping us get settled. When Eric dropped us off at our room, he was so nice to give us some groceries! It included the basics: stuff for sandwiches, cereal for breakfast, snacks and these great smiley face cookies!

Today we walked to the BX (like a target) to get our new phones. I am now a proud owner of the iPhone 5s! We also stopped by the commissary and I found japanese food! It was so exciting! 

We ate the romen noodles for dinner. Logan's was pretty good but mine was so salty it was inedible. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that we couldn't read any of the instructions. Lol.

Exploring Base

The BX and commissary.

Bringing home some food and new phones.

So tropical!

Cutest little snail!

Where we are staying. We are on the fourth floor somewhere on the left.

And here is the view out to the side of our room. That is the East China Sea! 

We made it!!!

After 28 hours from airport to airport we have finally made it to Okinawa! 

I'm so tired so I will write more tomorrow but here are some pics of our extended stay hotel for the next few weeks! 

Iwakuni Marine Base

Last stop till Okinawa! It is about midnight back in Washington which means we have been traveling for more than 24 hours and are still not at our final destination but we are not too tired and still excited to see our new home for the next three years.

I didn't get any pics flying into here but it was beautiful flying over all these small islands. Even the smallest ones were covered in trees all the way down to the water line. When we came in to land it felt like we were going to decent into the ocean but at the last second we were over dry land. I guess that's just how landing on islands is. 

I wonder what it will be like landing on Okinawa! Four more hours and we will find out. 

Ps. Me and Logan are smiling really big because I made him take like 4 before I got one I liked and he was telling me it was my last chance. So I look pretty good but Logan has way bad hat hair! Lol! 

First Stop in Japan!

We are a little over half way to Okinawa. Our long flight is over and now we are waiting at Yakota AFB for them to get our flight ready again. The plane was just a regular 767 plane and kinda old. We were in the third row back and had a good view of the movies being played. They showed Ice Age, Rio, Avatar, and the Blind Side plus a few old TV shows.

We had French toast sticks for breakfast and then chicken, gravy and mashed potatoes for lunch or dinner... I'm not sure. It was not that great tasting but that is no surprise.

We made it to Japan but still have to fly to Iwakuni and then on to Kadena! Another 8 hours from now. Probably the coolest thing we saw on our flight over was Mt Fuji! 

 Here we are on the plane. 

Below is the terminal at Yakota. Just chilling for now. It is 9pm mt time on Thursday back in the states but 12 noon on Friday here. My sleep is so messed up I don't feel like I will have any problem falling to sleep tonight and getting used to my new time zone.

4:20am

Got our tickets. Seats 3K and 3H (the two right seats together). 

Somehow I'm still awake. The blob sitting next to me is my dear husband. 

About 4 more hours till we board for our 10.5 hour flight to Tokyo. Then we have two 2 hour flights with 2.5 hour layovers at other bases in Japan. We will get in Okinawa at 8 pm their time. That is 24 hours from now (it is 8:20 pm there right now)!

Thanks Shelby for the songs. They have been great to listen to! 

Flying to Japan!

So we have started our final leg to Japan! That means we are hanging out at the airport all night before our flight. Literally. 

It is 1:30 right now and we got to the Seattle airport at 11:45pm Wednesday night. We hung out and then got in the ticket line around 12:30. Check in begins at 2:30am Thursday and then we get to wait at the gate until our flight leaves at 8:50am! I hope we get some sleep on the plane!

You can't quite see it but there are a lot of people in line (most are sitting on the floor like me). We are 4th in line so we hope to get pretty good seats.

Our baggage is behind me. Two checked bags and two carry ons each. We got a cart and it was the best $5 ever spent! We would have never made it to the line with all the luggage. But what we have right now will be our only stuff until October so we had to pack as much as possible.

So far we have played cards and eaten our chipotle burritos. I can tell Logan is already getting loopy by the funny random noises and comments he has been making. It should be pretty entertaining by 4 in the morning! I will try and keep you posted. 

Other interesting things so far. We are only allowed 2 checked bags each and when they announced it, it was pretty funny to watch some guys faces knowing that they have to pay $116 for each bag over that! Ouch! We also saw a some people apparently experiencing the escalators for the first time. Imagine the scene from Elf but with a middle eastern family of 3 and you can probably imagine how funny it was to watch!

Salt Lake to Seattle

I feel like the last half of our trip went really fast. It was great being able to spend a day with Michelle and Clarke. We went to the Salt Lake temple and it was great being back since the last time was when we got married. 

After the temple, we brought some lunch back to Grandpa and Grandma Dixon's. It was great being able to see them! They are so special to us. 

The next day we drove on up to the Tri Cities area spent the night at the Garnica's. I wish we could have stayed and hung out with Robin and Fred and the kids longer but Logan was anxious to get up to Seattle and fix the car up to be ready to sell. 

We cleaned and cleaned and it looks really great now! It will be sad to sell. Bradly was such a good car! If it doesn't sell then we will be happy to have it when we get back but it will also be nice to not have to worry about it. 

On the day before we left, Logan took me out to the botanical gardens. They were so beautiful. We had a fun time walking around. I think my sister Katie would have loved it here. It was very whimsical. Here are some pictures:

I think Logan was trying to break in or something. He is so silly.