Overall, our transition to Japan has been pretty easy. Being on the base has helped. The commissary carries American products. The base is small enough that being without a car isn't too inconvenient. Everyone here speaks English. We have yet to fully throw ourselves into the Japanese culture, and from what I can tell if you end up living on base you don't really have to at all. We are excited to jump into the culture, learn the language and find some good authentic food, but for this past week it's been kind of nice that not everything is so new.
Since the time here is 13 hours ahead of the east coast, functioning like normal humans during the day has been our biggest hurdle. For the first 3-4 nights, the boys (and us, but less so) would wake up in the middle of the night and start bouncing off the walls. We tried to keep them up during the day, but trying to wake a sleeping baby from a deep sleep is harder than you'd think! Then if you actually do get that baby up, sometimes you wish you hadn't. So, our second day here, we all took naps from about 2 pm until 10 - big mistake! Starting a few nights ago, we finally have 2 kids who are sleeping through the night and getting back to a regular schedule. Nathan and I are still going to bed pretty early and we're all facing the day at around 4:30 or 5 in the morning. It's kinda weird putting Leo down for his 1st nap at 7 am. We'll get there!
Wilson's been a trooper and excited for every new opportunity and park we meet. Leo's always been our sensitive guy and has been a little more hesitant to embrace our new surroundings. He hasn't been eating that well and clings to his bottle and Nathan and I as much as he can. Nathan and Wilson went with our sponsor's family to a really neat park today and Leo and I hung back to have a more low key day. We're hoping with some more time or maybe when we get settled in our new house he'll start feeling more comfortable.
Nathan and I are attending a 4 day orientation starting this Tuesday. It's here that we'll get our driver's licenses, cell phone options and other necessities like that. They also take us on tours of the city and the other base that is about 30 minutes from the main base, Hario Village. We're excited for that and hope to learn a lot more about Sasebo.
Our move in date for the house is June 14th. We're getting some loaner furniture that's installed and taken away by the Navy because our stuff isn't supposed to show up until mid-July. It'll be fun to move out there, with or without our stuff.
We're starting to car shop and thinking about taking the plunge with a (sigh) minivan. Nathan's getting excited about the idea of a scooter for his short 20 minute commute. There are tons of scooters here, so he'd fit right in!
Nathan went in to work a few days last week and has been checking in and meeting some of his new co-workers. He gets next week off for the orientation class but will then start his work full time. I'll have him come on a do a guest post to describe his new job once it gets going.
Overall, we've had a pretty good time here. The weather has been pretty perfect. We went to the pool yesterday and the boys had a ball. There's a great library here and we had fun in the kids section there. Posted everywhere are activities to do with the boys, so it looks like we'll have plenty for them to do and lots of other kids to meet.
Nathan and I are attending a 4 day orientation starting this Tuesday. It's here that we'll get our driver's licenses, cell phone options and other necessities like that. They also take us on tours of the city and the other base that is about 30 minutes from the main base, Hario Village. We're excited for that and hope to learn a lot more about Sasebo.
Our move in date for the house is June 14th. We're getting some loaner furniture that's installed and taken away by the Navy because our stuff isn't supposed to show up until mid-July. It'll be fun to move out there, with or without our stuff.
We're starting to car shop and thinking about taking the plunge with a (sigh) minivan. Nathan's getting excited about the idea of a scooter for his short 20 minute commute. There are tons of scooters here, so he'd fit right in!
Nathan went in to work a few days last week and has been checking in and meeting some of his new co-workers. He gets next week off for the orientation class but will then start his work full time. I'll have him come on a do a guest post to describe his new job once it gets going.
Overall, we've had a pretty good time here. The weather has been pretty perfect. We went to the pool yesterday and the boys had a ball. There's a great library here and we had fun in the kids section there. Posted everywhere are activities to do with the boys, so it looks like we'll have plenty for them to do and lots of other kids to meet.
Glad to hear that it has gone so well. Thanks for keeping us updated. We have been thinking about you so much.
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