Out of "The Fog"

If you have read my blog on The GTMO Life, I welcome you to our new life chapter in Sasebo, Japan.  I've visited Japan before, but that was in 1992 and I was a 16-year-old exchange student living in Hiroshima for 6 weeks out of that summer (Thank you, YFU, Mazda, and Dad). It was a memorable experience, and I doubted that I would have the chance to visit Japan again let alone LIVE there for an extended period of time. But, here I am!

Today marks our third day in Sasebo (located on Kyushu in the Nagasaki prefecture), but I count it as our first official day. 'Why' you ask? Well, if you've never traveled to the other side of the world, you may not be familiar with the phenomenon (aptly nicknamed by our housing counselor as "the fog") of severe jet lag.  Since getting off the plane in Fukuoka, we have been wandering around like zombies trying to force our bodies to believe that it's really day instead of night and vice versa.  We were lucky to have Saturday and Sunday to simply focus on staying awake during Japan daytime hours and holding onto sleep during the night.  

Today I thought I would be proactive and walk to the elementary school (located outside the Main Gate) to get my son registered for classes.  My son and I took the 10-15 minute walk from the Navy Lodge to the Main Gate in sunny 45-degree weather.  Quite the change from the Caribbean!  So far I've found the base to be pedestrian friendly and rather scenic considering the base is shaped like a horseshoe around the water and there are mountains on either side of the base.  I barely made it off the base when I was detoured to security to inquire about getting the proper pass to get back on base.  Unfortunately, they don't give out temporary passes and they had to call my husband's sponsor to pick us up.  Then we walked all the way to the other side of the base to meet my husband and explained that his presence was necessary to get me on and off base until I acquired my own ID card.  In the end, the school was kind enough to drop the paperwork off at the Navy Lodge. From there we had lunch at the food court which is twice the size of the Taco Bell/KFC/A&W joint in GTMO.  After that we split up and I killed some time exploring the library and Navy College areas until we met up again at Housing for "The Briefing."  The best thing that came out of this two hour meeting was that we will most likely end up in Hario Housing (located 20-25 minutes from Main Base) in a unit much bigger than our humble GTMO dwelling. YAY!!

Aside from the errands I have to run to get us settled on base, I started making a mental list of the details that I found interesting and endearing about the Japanese culture.  Some of them were new discoveries and others were reminders of things I witnessed when I was here 20 years ago.  The problem is that I can't remember most of them long enough to get them in this blog!  Note to self: Carry a small notebook.  Here's what I DO remember:
1. Humble, welcoming disposition from every Japanese person with whom I've come in contact
2. The Japanese "haw haw haw" chuckle is for real.  It's hilarious!
3.  "Hai dozo!" means "here you are"

I will now occupy myself with other activities in an effort to avoid sleep before 7pm!