Some of the little known facts

--This is what it all looked like the first day we arrived at Misawa. As I came out of our hotel, I took this picture. It was almost 4:30 pm. Any guesses about what happens at 4:30 pm every weekday (I am not sure about the time on weekends)? Wherever you are on base at that moment, you will hear two anthems played over the radio. First--Japanese. Absolutely beautiful and kind of sad, I think. And then--American. Very proud and chipper:) So if you are driving at that moment, you simply slow down and put your car into park for two minutes or so, even in the middle of the road. If you are outside, you do what you are supposed to do when your anthem sounds. This picture was taken near the place where two flags are flying high side by side--Japanese and American. It's pretty cool.

--I miss our van that is left in storage in Orlando. Well, actually, it's in South Carolina by now.



Our new van is a Honday Odyssey that doesn't have sliding doors. I think it's about a size of Mazda 5, if I remember correctly. It has over 101K km which is what? 70K miles or so. It has

almost no trunk space, unfortunately, so if I leave my stroller in the trunk, I can't go shopping with kids. It's a 96 and was only $3000.

It does have an additional trunk thingie on top where we can put some recreational gear or wet stuff. And the biggest plus right now is that I can recognize it in the parking lot because of that tall thing on top. (Although, because of it we didn't fit into one of the underground parking garages at the mall. We noticed just meters before we went under, thankfully).

--We live on base, but in the North area. It's about 10 minutes drive from our area to the main base where the Commissary and the BX are. In fact, everything else we use on base is there--Robert's clinic, library, places to eat, etc. The only great things that are really close to us in the North area are Katya's school and Alex's preschool.

Obviously, any sort of house is better than the hotel room at which we stayed for two weeks. If we had waited for and off-base house (a four-bedroom), we'd have to live in these conditions for at least three more weeks... just couldn't do it. No A/C either.

--Our home is townhome style and is about 1435 sq feet. Three bedrooms are upstairs. It also has a nice hill in the backyard, which will be just perfect for kids to use for sledding. Most townhomes are still empty since they just recently remodeled them half a year ago. Officers and enlisted live in different areas in Misawa. Most families in three bedrooms houses have no kids or have two kids.

--It is very safe here on base. Kids can play outside, and I feel very safe about it even if I am not right there with them. I could potentially get in trouble though if someone sees Alex playing without parental supervision, since you have to be five to be able to do that. I'll let you know if I do.

--Here are some more pictures of our place:

This is our backyard-hill.

--Speaking of trouble. On the second day of me driving here in Japan, I got a ticket on base! I got pulled over for "failing to stop". WHAT?? Seriously. I guess I rolled through the stop sign. Actually, I remember thinking in my head, "Yeah, that's a good enough stop.". It was 90% a complete stop, but I got pulled over. And then there I was with all three kids, sitting and waiting, and waiting and waiting, and not sure whether or not I am supposed to come out and go talk to the policeman (like they do in Ukraine) or wait for him to come to me. I don't know, it is Japan after all. So finally, a police WOMAN came out and gave me the whole lecture about failing to stop. Katya and Alex loved it:) Then she went back to her car and I (seriously) waited for another five minutes while she was checking something. At that point, I felt like I didn't care anymore about whether or not I'll get a ticket or how much it will be:) Anyway, the end of the story is that I lost three points (you can lose up to 12 before your license is suspended). I had to go to the Security Forces Office where they simply told me that my husband has to let his commander know his wife got a ticket.

This is for you to see what the nature looks like near where we are.

Thank you for listening. Sorry for a lengthy post. I hope in the future I will learn to categorize my blogging better.

Do pobachennia.
Lyana