October 2006

Hi Everybody

It is now the second day in October. Sorry it has taken me so long to post. Just trying to get my bearings in a new country. At first I felt excitement about being in another country, then the newness of everything was fun and adventurous. Now I am in the stage of the newness wearing off and missing all things familiar to me. I've had my "blue" days but Ronan and Josh keep me sane. I have started volunteering at the Yokosuka Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS). This is a great organization that is set up to assist those service members and their families with financial needs. The people I work with are great and this give me an opportunity to put Ronan in daycare so he can be around kids his own age. The downside is he got the sniffles after Friday's daycare visit. I expect he'll bring various viruses home. It's inevitable.

So Josh, Ronan and I have done little exploring since our arrival. We have tons of time. I am sure the previous statement will come back to haunt me when we only have a couple of months left in Japan and are scrambling to see the sites. That is what happened to us in Port Hueneme, California. We were discovering restaurants and beach parks in the last few months we were there.

So here are my likes and dislikes of living in Japan thus far. We'll start with the positives.

• The area seems very safe.
• The streets are clean and mostly litter free.
• The speed limits are low.
• When out shopping, riding the trains or eating out in restaurants, the Japanese person is very polite and bends over backwards to communicate with you.
• There is no tipping in Japan. That was hard to get used to when we first started eating out. Of course you should tip at restaurants on base.

A few negatives are:

• The Japanese people love their cigarettes and there are few NON-smoking facilities. If there is a non-smoking section in a restaurant, it is usually right next to the smoking section so you can still smell the smoke. Or some restaurants don't allow smoking until after 5 pm but because they allow smoking at all the place retains that smokers odor.
• The Japanese do not seem to "let you in" if you are trying to merge into traffic. If you come upon a closed lane and need to get into the other lane, forget it.
• And the typical Japanese woman is much smaller than me so it is hard to shop for clothes out in town. But these are all points that can be gotten over easily.

Josh, Ronan and I took a train ride to Kamakura this past Sunday. It rained but it was still a nice trip. Check out some photos I will post after this message. I miss all my friends and family terribly. I hope some of you can come visit. Everyone is welcome. And Josh and I hope to make stateside at some point next year.

Love,
Kristin