Almost 3 weeks in Japan!

We have been in Japan for almost three weeks now. Ed is getting into the swing of things at work and I have been job hunting and doing all of the check-ins we need to get done. (I have a job interview next Thursday!) We were only in the Navy Lodge for 5 days before moving in to our apartment. We have a two bedroom highrise apartment on the 6th floor of Rokuban Tower. Rokuban sounds really cool and Japanese, but really just means 6th as in the 6th Tower. It is one of the older towers on base but the apartments have been kept up to date and it is really very nice. We have a huge balcony overlooking some townhomes and a wooded hill so it really doesn't feel like we are on a military base.

Some things we've noticed already about the Japanese culture is that they are very respectful, rarely get angry, and they are always apologizing (even when its not their fault!). I can already see why people fall in love with the culture here. Another thing I love about Japan are the vending machines. In the vending machines there is a blue row and there is a red row. Blue is for cold drinks and red is for hot...you can buy hot coffee in a can straight out of the vending machine! Ed's favorite is the Cafe Au Lait and mine is the Aloe White Grape juice with real chunks of grape!

We've noticed some of the wildlife in the area. There are crows on base that look very similar to crows back home except that they have very thick beaks. They are called Jungle Crows. There are also falcons called black kites (the Japanese call them tobis) everywhere. We have read to be careful of them because they have been fed so much by humans that they often dive toward your head.

We have had the chance to go out into town a few times. We ate dinner at a Ramen place on night and ordered by pointing at pictures on the menu. We have learned arigato (thank you) and a little bit of counting. Its tough because its not like you can sound things out and at least read it...we have no idea how to pronounce the Japanese characters! We have three train stations nearby and have discovered that they are easy to use. There is a button for English at the ticket machine and the names of the stops are also written in English letters. So as long as you know what stop you are trying to get to its fairly straightforward. We went to an oriental furniture bazaar the other day and bought a solid wood desk and home bar for what we think was a great price! We visited Kamakura and saw the Great Buddha there. It is the second largest Buddha sculpture in Japan and was cast in 1252. The body of the sculpture has survived a tidal wave and an earthquake which destroyed its base, but the base now has shock absorbers to prevent that from happening again. You can see in the picture below that the Great Buddha also has Great Slippers. :-)

While we were out we also had some tasty snacks. Soy sauce appears to be the main ingredient for street vendors. We had some sort of fried dough balls on a stick covered with soy sauce (see the stand behind me in the picture) and rice cakes dunked in soy sauce and then warmed up. The rice cakes were very good and are served with a seaweed wrap...neither of us ate the seaweed but perhaps I will try that next time. We haven't had any sushi yet, but our household goods are being delivered on Monday and I will be getting my sushi making kit so we'll give it a try!