New Apartment

Here's a diagram of what we hope will be our new apartment.  It's on the 11th floor of a building that is just about equidistant between the two base entrances.  It's on a road that's about a 5 minute walk from the main train station in town.  About 10 minutes gets you to the local mall.  Most of the apartments in this building are rectangular with the only real windows facing out over the balcony.  This one is different because it's on the side of the building, and that means more windows.  The genkan (entrance) has lots of storage space for shoes and other stuff, and there's a small alcove with a window directly across from the front door.  The area is fairly narrow, but as you turn right and proceed into the apartment, the walls V out and expand resulting in a fairly powerful psychological effect that makes the living room area feel more spacious than it probably is.  There is a large window to the left the looks out over the city, and you can see Tokyo bay in the distance dotted with ships, and Sarushima (Monkey Island) as well.  There is an odd large closet that was passed by earlier on the left.  We have contemplated making it Rowan's room, but I don't think he'd appreciate it.  The kitchen is essentially part of the same room, which Kerri likes, and I'm not quite sure if we will have a proper "dining" area.  We might go with a kitchen island with bar stools.  The tatami room is ours (of course), and Rowan will get the adjacent room.  There is no carpet (thank goodness), and we'll probably have to get a bed from Rowan's room.  Kerri and I will sleep on the tatami using futons, and we'll put them away during the day and use the room with our kotatsu (low table) for schoolwork or whatever.  The balcony looks in towards the city, but there's not much of a view that way.

It will cost about $1180 a month (that's including a $150 maintenance fee), and we are hoping to get a base parking spot which will save us about $300 a month in parking fees.

They are going to put a single air-conditioner in (not sure where), so we'll probably need to get another one on our own dime.  Additionally we'll need to buy a range (standalone ovens being somewhat unheard of here) and possibly light fixtures.  Otherwise we have most everything we need already.  We were thinking about hiring  movers (something we've never done), but now it looks like we'll get to overlap significantly with our current house and be able to move leisurely.

The apartment hunt began in earnest at the beginning of the year.  We scoured various online sites and saw several good candidates and sent off our inquiries.  We got to see a few places at first and were pretty disappointed by what we saw.  The apartments were small, cramped, old and dingy, and were going for about $1000 to $1500.  And that was a Japanese lease.  A $1000 apartment jumped to $2000 when it was converted to a "Navy Base Lease."  The main difference between the two types of leases is that the navy lease allows us to break the lease with 10 days notice, and we're pretty much guaranteed to get our deposit back (barring egregious damage).  Also, we don't need a japanese guarantor (japanese citizen or company willing to pay your rent if you flake out).  Needless to say, we decided early on we'd probably end up needing to get a japanese lease if we wanted to realize significant savings.  We figured we'd get a guarantor company to cover the guarantor requirement.

We had a falling out with one of the first agents that showed us around.  I could never quite figure out what his issue with us was, but it was the first time I'd ever encountered such unprofessionalism from a Japanese agent.  He flat refused to show us any more apartments and we were very disappointed as that company seemed to have all the apartments we were interested in.  We proceeded with other contacts for a while, and then we took a break as I had to travel to Bahrain for work for 3 weeks.

After returning, we started up again, contacting our current agent for our house (who we love and would like to keep working with) to see if she had anything.  She showed us one apartment that was again disappointing, but we wanted to take one more shot with the previous company to see if we could see some of the apartments we were most interested in.  I called the main Tokyo office and requested to not speak with the person they would usually refer us to.  The gentlemen who ended up helping us was very nice (an American citizen but 2nd or 3rd generation Japanese Hawaiian) and came down to Yokosuka one saturday to show us several apartments.  There was one that Kerri absolutely loved, but it was a little far from town and the base.  Then there was the one that we settled on above.  There were actually 5 or so different apartments in this building available, but we liked this one the best.

Kerri made us wait 24 hours before deciding, and then we told the agent we wanted it.  Since then there have been some hiccups, but hopefully everything will work out.  First, the guarantor company that the building accepts rejected us, probably due to our strange visa situation (we don't fit in any of the normal boxes).  So we asked some friends that we have made here if the wife would be our guarantor (she's Japanese).  They said yes, so we go their info to the agent.  I need to get a "signature certificate" from the US Embassy tomorrow morning which is in Tokyo.  This is a notarized document that says my signature is actually mine.  Here in Japan they use official seal stamps for important things like buying a car or getting a new apartment, and since I don't have one my signature has to do the same thing.  This enables that to be official.  Also, we were told by our agent that he found out our apartment is actually owned by the prefecture, so it would take longer to process everything.  This has us a bit worried as I've scheduled our current lease and payment cancellations for next week.  We are hoping to hear something more solid before then, otherwise we might postpone.

So that's where we are at the moment.  When we get in we'll take some pictures and post them.  For now, there is the layout above, and here's a picture of the building.  Our apartment is the 3rd from the top on the side closest:

Moving time

We have found an apartment closer to base and are looking forward to moving in soon (hopefully!).

Per some previous comments, some of you wanted an idea as to why we would do something so unexpected.  We've always said that we didn't want to live too near the base as we really wanted to feel like we were "living" in the country and not be too dependent on the base.  While the sentiment remains true, since living here for 2 plus years now I think we've been able to reformulate just what constitutes "living" here.  What follows are my attempts to break down the various reasons for why we have changed our minds about living in Yokosuka.

1)  City life:  In our experience, the areas close to a US base tend to cater to the baser needs of that community, resulting in some of the seedier neighborhoods we've encountered (encrustations I've called them).  We assumed that was what Yokosuka would be like.  However, in reality stepping off base is really like stepping into Japan, literally into the center of Yokosuka city.  There is a particular street/area that is known to cater to the young sailor types, but it's actually very small and there have been some attempts to make it nicer.  But beyond that, Yokosuka really has its own identity separate from the base, and it's the closest thing to a "city" that we have around here.  It has the most restaurants, the closest mall with movie theaters, and the closest thing to a real "vibe".  And it's pretty darn cool, no matter how you look at it, to glance over at the bay and see ships, submarines and an aircraft carrier on any given day.  My personal preference has always been city life and while we have enjoyed our house in a small fishing village, the call of the city definitely pulls on me.  Since moving to Yokohama or Tokyo (which some of my coworkers have done) would also mean an even longer commute, the closest thing to "city life" going on here is Yokosuka.

2)  Activity vortex:  We currently live about 30-45 minutes from the base (depending on mode of transport and traffic).  We don't really know any of our neighbors and there are no kids nearby.  We have zero social reasons to be where we are currently.  Kerri and Rowan are very frequently driving in to the base or the other area where people from base live (Ikego) to meet with the homeschool group for activities.  Consequently we are *always* at the base regardless of our preferences.  The reality is, 90% of our weekly/daily activities really do revolve around the base, so exiling ourselves 30 minutes away for no good reason has started to make less and less sense.  Also, we are never able to really stay and enjoy Yokosuka because we always have to "get home".  I can count the times we've had dinner there on one hand.  I'd rather live close to the base so that I can be home quickly, and then still have energy to go out and explore the city.

3)  Cost savings:  We currently pay about $2000 a month for our house.  It's a really good price for the place, given it has 6 rooms and 2 toilets.  Of course, there are only 3 of us.  It just doesn't add up.  And anyone who knows me knows I have an aversion to big places as we will inevitably fill them up with junk we don't need.  How did we get here?  Well, when we arrived, it was confusing due to the fact that I was told one thing about how I would be paid housing, and then it was changed as soon as I arrived.  But we didn't really have enough time to understand the implications of the change, plus we didn't have much of a context with which to evaluate the available options when it comes to housing.  Most people here are paid a set amount for housing based on their "grade" or "rank".  We were going to be under that system originally and figured we would get X amount of money per month to spend on housing, or we would lose it.  We budgeted between $1800 and $2000, and found a place that fit our budget.  Also, Kerri really wanted a house, so we weren't looking at apartments.  Again, for the price, it's a great place.  But...my contract changed (I was the first one to sign it) the week we arrived, and actually we are paid our housing as a set amount that is lumped in with our paycheck, and we get to keep whatever we don't spend.  Now, we didn't really think we could find a place much cheaper than what we had, but as time went by and we became more educated on what was available, we realized we could probably find an apartment that actually fit our family size for somewhere between $1000 and $1500.  That's a lot of savings to be had, money we could be putting towards retirement or at least preparing for a future in which we don't make as much as we do now.  If you also include my personal desire that we might eventually get rid of our car, and the savings add up that much more (closer to base/city = less need for a car).  When I really got our budget under control last year (thank you YNAB), the sheer magnitude of how much we could be saving really hit me.

4)  Adoption and the future:  About a year ago, we started the adoption process that eventually ended in disappointment.  Part of our motivation for that was to see if we had this big house for a reason.  Maybe we were meant to focus on having another child and building our family life there.  But as anyone who has kept up with this blog knows, that didn't happen.  While we were saddened, it was also freeing in pointing us towards the direction we are now headed in of consolidating, getting smaller, saving more and getting ready for the eventual move out into Japan separate from the base.  Oddly, moving closer to the base is going to help us be better prepared for that eventual separation.  Meanwhile, Rowan's friends and activities are all base centric, and for the next 5 or so years he's going to need some stability in his life.  We are aiming to stay put until Rowan is out of the house and embarked on his own life, and we think it will be better for him if he's closer to the locus of his activities.

There is still a chance this current apartment will fall through, but so far so good.  I'll do another post on the process.

Holiday Season

Sorry, no pictures...those of you on Facebook can ask Dad and Mayen for pictures if you want them. So the holiday season is over, and it was a lot of fun! Dad and Mayen visited us during Christmas and New Years. We were really looking forward to it, and we had a couple of special things planned. First, we went to nice onsen ryoukan (japanese style inn with hotspring baths) in Hakone. This was our first experience staying at higher end place, and it was really something special. The ryoukan (Fukuzumiro) was made up of several different buildings connected together and it just rambled on and on. The baths were interesting, unfortunately indoor, but man did they get hot! Hotter than anything else we've experienced I think. The rooms were big and the futons comfy. I think the most different aspect was all the attention the staff paid to us, much more than we are used to! In Nagoya, we actually commented on how nice it was to be totally left alone to our own devices. Definitely a different experience in Hakone. But it wasn't too irritating. The most incredible part was the full on kaisekiryouri meal that we had on our second night.  I had heard that this was a specialty of the nicer ryoukans and boy was it ever!  At first we didn't know what to expect, so when the first course arrived, we thought that was the meal.  We were a bit concerned by the lack of any rice, so we asked for some.  They brought one bowl for Rowan.  We expressed a desire that all of us would like some rice, at which time we were told that we would get rice *later*.  That's when it dawned on us that this was a multi-course meal.  Sure enough, by the time the rice actually arrived, I wasn't sure if I could eat it!  Each dish was an amazing collection of tastes, textures, colors and designs.  It was incredible!  Also, we didn't know what we were getting until it arrived, including the fugu tempura!  I had already decided that I wouldn't bother eating fugu since I was told the flavor wasn't really all that impressive and it's usually insanely expensive, but oh well, I guess I've tasted it now (tastes like fish...).

For Christmas and New Years Eve we mostly just stayed home, ate food and watched movies.

For New Years Day and the day after we had managed to get rooms at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo.  This is a military run hotel that we have access to and it's very reasonably priced given it's location.  We weren't sure if there would be anything open after New Years as most Japanese have the time off and stay home, but we figured we could at least try.  As we thought, most things were closed, but Dad did manage to get footage using a new camera he brought along to learn with.  Apparently someone in the Philippines wanted footage that might be used in something.

Anyway, we were glad that we could share the holidays with family, and glad to show our lives as well.

Coming up we don't have any big travel plans really.  The next thing on the horizon is a visit from Kerri's sister and her husband in the summer!  That should be fun.

In other news, we are actively looking for a new apartment, close to the base, smaller and cheaper.  Kerri and I are really excited about it (Rowan not so much).

We are also continuing to try and round up anyone interested in starting a Reformed church near the base and are getting ready for another push.

-JC

2012 Missed Photos

In preparing the previous Nagano post, I realized we had tons of photos from 2012 that we never got around to posting, mostly due to my procrastination.

So here are some photos from 2012:




 This was a short day trip we took on the ferry from our town of Kurihama to a temple complex in the mountains just across the mouth of the bay from us. It was such a surprising experience as we had no idea what we might find over there, we just took the ferry to see what was there.

 
 Here are the pictures from our trip to Kyoto over Thanksgiving weekend in 2012. We thought we were being clever to go on an american holiday, but turns out there is a Japanese equivalent that usually runs on the same weekend, so it was crazy, especially with all the beautiful fall colors. However I don't think we enjoyed it as much as we could have for some minor reasons. Next time.

 

 Rowan and I took a day trip to Hakone to see a sulphur pit. I know sounds like a ball of fun, and it was! We got to check out the sulphurous emanations, and eat black egg shell eggs cooked in the sulphur water, and eat delicious food at the restaurant there. We also took a walk around a part of the lake.

 

 These are miscellaneous 2012 pictures that didn't really make their own category...

 Enjoy!

Nagano Trip

Last weekend we took our first road trip in Japan. We've driven to the airport before, but not much further than that. Rowan and I drove to Hakone once, but it was just a day trip.  We decided a while back to take the Veteran's Day 3 day weekend to go to Nagano and see the snow monkeys.  We had heard they were still not getting into the onsens as it was too warm, but we hoped by the time we went things might be getting colder, but no snow of course.  When it snows up in Nagano, it can get pretty dicey, so we weren't sure we wanted to go there during the snow just yet.

So we started off on Saturday morning.  What we had hoped would be a 3.5 to 4 hour road trip turned into quite a bit longer as we encountered awful traffic in Tokyo as we switched from one freeway to another.  Of course, there are very expensive tolls on the freeways (not so free), but we calculated that for the 3 of us it would be less than if we all took the train.  It turned out to cost about $150 in tolls for the round trip, much less than taking the train.

We've been using Booking.com to book hotels/ryoukans here, and I have to say, I love it.  We found a very reasonably priced ryoukan near the monkey park with Japanese style tatami mats (which we prefer).  Japanese breakfast was also included.  We opted out for the dinner, but kinda wished had gone for it as it was difficult to find restaurants open in the evening.   The park is near Yamanouchi, which is a very small tourist town.  Seems everything shuts down in the evening.  We had to do a konbini (7-11) dinner one night.

On the drive up, we stopped at a cool old castle (Matsumoto).  We got there pretty late due to the Tokyo traffic, so we had to rush though.  We didn't get to the top floor as the lines were so long, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

We arrived at our ryoukan (Miyama), checked in, and promptly left to try and find a place to eat.  It took us a while to find somewhere with a parking lot, and when we did, it was an old mom and pop place.  The food was ok, but what was awesome was the apple they gave us for dessert.  Humongous, and amazing!  Apparently they grow apples in the region and they are some of the best we've ever tasted.  We bought flat of them before we left to enjoy later.

The next morning I hit the public onsen attached to our ryoukan for a shower and soak.  It was outside and extremely hot!  The hottest onsen I've ever been in, I couldn't get close to the water sources without it starting to scald me.  Needless to say, I stayed as far away as I could.  But it was delicious.

We then headed up to the monkey park, parked outside and proceeded to hike about 20 minutes up to the final waystation.  There we waited as others gathered.  We didn't know exactly what was going on, but eventually figured out that the monkeys all spend the night up higher in the mountains, but come down sometime in the morning to the onsen area where they can get a bite to eat (from the park caretakers) and soak in the onsen if they want to.  It was getting a little chillier, so we were hoping they would.  Eventually we spotted them climbing down the mountain toward the little valley with the river and an onsen that had been built for them.  I assume that there are natural onsens where the snow monkeys typically soak in the winter, but this one was built so there would be easy access to view them.

Unlike any other wild monkey involvement I've had previously, here all the people were permitted to simply walk by, around and through the monkeys with no protection whatsoever.  The rules are strict (no feeding, looking at, talking to, or otherwise harassing the monkeys), and because of that, the monkeys just ignore humans completely.  They ramble around us, through legs, etc... with no indication they care two hoots about us.  It was charming.

They did in fact get in the onsen, as you can see in the pictures above, and there were some fun antics involving the dominant male asserting his dominance by mounting his female frequently (probably just for fun, as Rowan pointed out), harassing other monkeys, and at one point snarling at a young toddler girl who was making a little too much eye contact at his level.  Otherwise, it was just fun to watch them do their thing, mainly looking for food and grooming each other.

After a couple of hours, we headed back and located some food.  There was a sort of road-side store with goods from the area where we bought our apples, persimmons, some local beer (tried that later, very good) and some other food for later.  Then back to the inn where we crashed for the afternoon after soaking in the onsen again.  That evening, we headed back to a restaurant we had thought would be a good candidate, only to find it closed, which was when we decided to eat at 7-11.  Good thing is you can find some pretty good food there, so it was fine.

The next day we checked out and headed back to Tokyo, by way of the Daio Wasabi farm.  We were delighted by this place with its carefully cultivated riverbeds used to grow the wasabi root.  We bought some fresh wasabi in a tube there and tried it out a couple of nights later with some local sushi.  It was amazing!  I've never had fresh wasabi before it turns out.  Hard to describe, but sweeter than you'd think, and with less of the horseradishy harshness most people think of with wasabi.

After that we drove back home in about 4 hours and that was it.  Good fun all around and enjoyable weekend trip.

Adoption - Answer to prayer

Well, we received the answer to our prayers concerning our potential adoption today.

ISSJ stated that after our homestudy, they decided our family did not fit with their policies and we would not proceed any further in the process.

We are, of course, disappointed, as our hopes of having a daughter added to our family have not materialized.  However, we recognize this as an answer to our prayers from the beginning, which was always for God to direct us in this process towards His will for our lives.  We resolved to tell the complete truth during the entire process, not hiding any of our opinions or reasons for adoption that might be unpalatable or politically incorrect.  We have our suspicions as to why we were rejected, though we cannot be certain as the specific reasons are not divulged per their policy, which we knew about from the beginning.  Regardless of ISSJ's reasons, we recognize God holds ultimate sway over the hearts of men, and so we take this as His way of answering our prayers for guidance.

In another way, this opens a new and exciting chapter in our lives, as we see ourselves free to pursue other tasks and directions in the medium to long term, instead of devoting ourselves to raising another child.  We continue to pursue opportunities for the Kingdom and relationships that may lead to additional opportunities.

Recently, we began working with an organization in the US (http://ministrytothemilitaryinternational.com/) that seeks to plant a reformed (PCA) church near the base.  We are helping to organize meetings to see if there is enough interest to do this.

We are also thinking about moving closer to the base to reduce our rent and save more for the future (when our income is likely to decrease significantly).

We continue to reach out to other like-minded ministries and establish relationships in hopes of finding our "place" in the mid to long-term future.

Anyway, that brings us up to date.  The long horribly hot and humid summer looks to finally be finished, and we are looking forward to the cool fall season.

Churui, Hokkaido WWOOF Trip

Ok, so we got back from our trip a few weeks back and I'm finally getting around to a post.  This was our first WWOOF experience (volunteering to work on a farm/business in exchange for food and lodging), and we picked Hokkaido in what we thought was going to be full summer to escape the heat.  However, turns out the first week of July is still quite pleasant overall and it wasn't the hideous heat and humidity that defines summer in our part of Japan.  The switch got flipped the week we got back.

In any case, the weather was very lovely in the little town of Churui, whose main claim to fame is that it is near the site where a Naumann elephant fossil was found, and it is (I think) the childhood home of a famous manga author (Fullmetal Alchemist if anyone is interested).  The climate reminded us a lot of the Willamette Valley, very green.

Hokkaido grows most of the country's fresh produce and there is much more ranching of various kinds.  Its history as part of Japan is actually pretty recent, having been "settled" by the Japanese in the last couple of centuries, displacing the local Ainu people.  So in some ways it has a similar feel to the "West" in the US, certainly feeling younger than the rest of the country.

We arrived on a Friday night and hit the sack upon arriving home.  Mrs. Uragami picked us up at the nearby local airport (Obihiro) and dropped by the local town festival (matsuri) that was in swing, as Mr. Uragami was manning a booth and selling food.  She picked up some leftovers for dinner and we drove to their house, which is a combination house/restaurant/meat shop.  We were told to be downstairs at 8:30am for breakfast.

Breakfasts were pretty western affairs, as I think she figures it's better off for most people.  I would have been happy either way, but we didn't complain.  Often we got to sample some of their meats for breakfast with toast, drinking yoghurt and light veg.  She's been hosting WWOOFers for 10 years, so she's probably had lots of experience with what people prefer.

After this we gathered up the dishes and washed them (along with whatever was left over from last night's restaurant crowd).  Then the day's work really began.

At first, we were tasked with yard work, weeding, and generally tidying up the outside of the place.  I manned the gas powered weed whacker, while Kerri and Rowan helped with weeding and window washing.  It took me a couple of days to clear all of the property, plus another plot of land (the old house).  We would work til just before lunch, when usually we would break for something simple.

Sometimes we got a rest in the afternoon before working in the meat shop, depending on what tasks were available.  We did a lot of washing of bloody, greasy buckets and machinery, but also laid out strips of pork jerky on drying racks, extruded and twisted strings of sausages, and cut pig stomachs into bite-sized chunks (which we then ate with lunch, yum!).  There wasn't always a ton of work to do and we were usually done well before dinner.

We were asked to cook 3 dinner meals for them, as they like to try different foods.  We tried to come up with some stuff they may not have had before, so we decided on stroganoff, filipino adobo and rooshti.  We needed a grater for the rooshti, so we ordered one from Amazon.jp hoping it would arrive before the last meal (it didn't, we ended up just making potato, onion and carrot hash).  All of the meals were hit, especially the adobo, which I must say was the best I've ever made.

The meals they made for us were excellent, from tempura, sushi, genghis khan (meat cooked on a shield), and some simpler, but very satisfying, fare.  In between all of this of course, they occasionally had restaurant customers, which we did not wait on, nor cook for, but we did wash up the dishes.  It was fun to use the kitchen facilities.

Rowan helped out where he could, but often he just played outside in the massive growth of some strange plant that we were told got pickled in the spring for food.  The Uragami's son also works with them, and his wife would often come over with their two sons, Sosuke and Kesuke.  Sosuke was probably around 4 or 5 and pretty  much thought Rowan was awesome.  Rowan wasn't so sure, but he's always happy to run around with someone.  When we left, Sosuke was inconsolable about the loss his new best friend and cried for quite some time.  This was actually the day before we left, but he couldn't bear the thought.  Rowan was a little nonplussed by the whole experience.

All in all, it was a great experience and I look forward to trying more WWOOF places closer to home (when it gets cooler).  I was looking for something that would allow us to see a different side of Japan and spend more time with people in their homes, and also give Rowan an opportunity to experience different kinds of work that he would otherwise never be exposed to.  8 days was a bit long though, I think we would cut it down to 5 max, and usually just a long weekend.

Oh, almost forgot about the onsen that was a 5 minute walk from their house.  A real onsen has natural mineral-laden spring water that is super hot.  This place was much cheaper than they usually are in our area (only about $5 a person) and we were over there 3 times.  The genders are separated, which is good as you're going to be naked.  The deal is you first have to scrub yourself raw (and everyone's looking to see how clean the gaijin will get), then you can soak in extremely hot or extremely cold pools of water for as long as you can take it.  The fact that genders are separated also means that Kerri has to go it alone, which has always been a bit nerve-wracking.  But circumstances dictated that she overcome that issue and she ended up having a good time as she was bombarded with questions by curious locals.  Perhaps not as relaxing as it could have been, she nonetheless enjoyed herself.

Well, we don't have any further trips on the calendar, but if we have any thing fun to post, we will.

-JC