Misawa

We've been here for almost 2 weeks so I guess I should make a post about our new home already. Our flight to Japan went well, I'm glad that the AF paid for a seat for Annelise. There is no way that I will be flying back to the States with her on my lap, she weighs more than 10 pounds and is a complete wiggle worm; 13+ hours with her on my lap would not be fun. Anyways, the flight was smooth and we made it through Immigration and Customs just fine. We stayed overnight and then caught the bus from one airport to the other and flew to Misawa. The airline employees were so helpful and the flight attendants even gave Annelise a toy JAL airplane.

We're living in billeting right now, looking for a house whenever we can. It gets pretty hot and muggy here in August and September so we're looking to live off-base where they have air conditioning. If we end up on base, we'll have to buy a bunch of dehumidifiers and more fans. We bought a car and are picking it up this afternoon, it's not quite what we wanted but it's a good car for a good price.

We've been trying to do things off base, we attended an event at the International Center just a couple of days after we got here and went on base-sponsored tours of Misawa and the next town over. We've also found a couple of restaurants we like, but won't be eating out much because it can get expensive fast. The portions are small so sometimes you have to order more than one of something.

John has started work, although who knows when he'll get started doing his actual job. There's so much to do to get set up that he feels like he'll never get started! I can't wait to get into a house so that we can unpack and then I can get involved on base. My life right now revolves around doing laundry, washing dishes, taking care of Annelise, and leaving the room for a little while each day so I can check my e-mail and the maid can clean.

We really like it here so far, although I'm sure some of the new will wear off eventually. I'm already looking forward to a trip to Okinawa to see the Malans, I can't wait to see more of Japan! We're hoping to see one of the winter festivals with the huge ice sculptures and we'd like to do one 'exploratory' trip a month. There's so much to do and see, I'm sure we'll be fully occupied for quite a while!