I think I'm liking this Okinawan thing to call a condo complex a "mansion". I mean, I guess if you look at the whole building, then, yeah, it is about the size of a mansion. But unfortunately, we don't occupy the entirety of Yuri Mansion. We only occupy apartment 301 (3rd floor, 1st apartment of 2). There are 6 floors (the ground being parking) so that means 10 total apartments. So the math means we currently have a tenth of a mansion at our disposal! ;-)
I know, I know, you'd be excited too, right? Mainly we're just so darn glad to be out of the hotel & off-base. We're finally LIVING in Japan & not just driving thru every so often, maybe stopping for dinner. ;-) It's going to be fantasmic. Too bad the first day is quite a rainy day indeed! It could be worse. It's just some water. At least it's fresh!
So you've probably deduced that today we officially "moved" in, which only really means that we set down our 4 suitcases & 2 carry-ons, all crammed with personal items along with some plastic bags of other things we've accumulated in our less than a month here. Also, Josh got to rush there at 11am, when the furniture store delivered our brand-new Whirlpool appliances. Yeah, we chickened out of using Japanese appliances (they're not just different, they're also MUCH smaller in capacity). So we bought them on-base (for our landlord), so we could actually fit enough dirty clothes & food in them to be comfortable. ;-) Immediately after the movers set the appliances down & took their modest delivery fee, Josh rushed back to pick up Betsy from one school so she could head to another (that's her job, going from school to school, therapizing the kids).
That's correct. The Supra is still not back in our lives yet, 6 days after we left it at Camp Kinser (southernmost base on the island, about 16 miles south, top speed being 37 MPH). So therefore, Betsy dropped Josh off at his bike, chained up on Camp Foster by the bus stop (where he last abandoned it), and Josh rode the mostly downhill couple of miles to Yuri Mansion, where he got to hang out from about 12:20pm until 3pm. One of 2 servicemen showed up in that timeframe, so we have a working home phone now: (098) 936-5255
**Email me if you need details on how to call Japan from the US.
For lunch, Josh dashed across the street to Italiano & ordered one of the more Japanese takes on Italian cuisine that he saw on their menu, a 10-inch pizza with squid (both rings & tentacled pieces)& seaweed on what was claimed to be a mayonnaise sauce (but which Josh suspects may have just been a fairly normal white sauce). He didn't save any for Betsy, but he did take photos:
He washed it down with some Pocari Sweat, which he'd been eyeing for a while:
Turns out, it's basically an energy drink that replenishes the body after heavy perspiration, hence the "sweat" portion of the name. The English portion of the description on the can was quite humorous:
We're loving the odd-sounding Japanese-to-English translations. I mean, the words make sense when you think about them for a minute, but just don't sound quite right. ;-)
After enjoying the rain from our balcony, Josh set about assembling the inner components of our brand-new refrigerator & beginning on the washing machine (fighting with the hot water spicket - he has a blister to prove that). Betsy arrived around 2:30pm on a break from her day. She sampled some canned tuna on crackers (since Josh didn't save any of his funky pizza - that really needs to be rubbed in good) & after giving up on the gas guy (no hot water for us!), off we flew to drop Betsy off at her office.
We're not sure if our scuba class for this evening is still happening with the rainy weather. We're supposed to be in the pool. I guess we'll find out tonight!
Keep in touch, y'all!!
Betsy & Josh
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1 comment:
Mmm. Pocari Sweat! That sound great! But it sounds more like a skin excretion from a squid! (That doesn't sound quite as great. Even for someone who grew up in a greek culture.)
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