House hunting is OVER!

Yep, we found a house. The shortage of housing here is unbelievable so the fact that we found one is great, let alone one that we are really excited about. All of the other teachers we arrived with have already found a house, so we were beginning to feel a bit left behind. Last Sunday, we were on a drive and noticed the Japanese housing agency that had already shown us a few houses was open. We decided to stop in and use our best Charades to ask if there was a "clean house" available. First they showed us an apartment that was nice, but too small for even our bed. Then, when they were about to turn us away empty-handed, a lady from the back of the office came out with the floor plans of a NEW 3 bedroom house right next to the Kintai bridge! It sounded too good to be true at first and I tried not to get my hopes up. We went to see it the next day and it was everything we hoped. The only downside is that we won't be able to move in until December when it will be finished. The lot is really neat. It is within walking distance of a a bunch of Iwakuni's tourists attractions: the Iwakuni castle, Kintai bridge, and the beautiful park where they supposedly have a lot of their festivals and such. Gggrrr..I wish I could post pictures! (The problem is I don't have a card reader or USB cable to download the pics onto our laptop.)

Today's Firsts:

Japanese Language Class. Tonight was our first Japanese language class at the city hall. A bunch of people from the base were there. The teacher started off by listing the differences between Japanese and English, some of which were a pleasant surprise: no plurals! no silent letters! vowels only have ONE sound! no articles (the, a..)! My spirits weren't as good when he started talking about the three types of symbols they use to write and ONE of those types has over 3000 symbols we should memorize. SWEET! The resounding anthem for the class was "Not now... we will learn that next week." By the sounds of it, we will be learning a LOT next week.

Days in Japan: 38
Days I've approached the driver's side door thinking it was the passenger side door: 38

Finally!

I told myself I would start this the week I got here, but here I am, over a month later writing my first blog post. Instead of kicking myself for the missed entries, I plan to slowly fill in the blanks over time. I haven't found a way to upload pictures yet, but I will fill those in later too.

This weekend's FIRSTS:

The other side of Japan. Last night we drove the furthest we've driven since we got here. Initially we were going to go for just a short jaunt through the countryside for the sake of "getting out," but at sunset we found ourselves on the other side of the island. We dipped our feet in the ocean and made several attempts at getting a good picture of the moon. It was beautiful. Cindy (another teacher who arrived when we did and has been our good buddy ever since), Matt and I just stood there in silence, with our feet in the waves, listening to the ocean for a good few minutes. While Iwakuni is on the ocean, the waves are broken up by the scattered surrounding islands, so this was pretty cool. All the weekend fun made me realize how much I need to break away from the classroom work and GET OUT!

A short little detour of a hike. With little shrines spotting the trail, we were expecting somethinng magnificient to be just around the corner! You can imagine our good laugh when we got to the top to find a lumber/junk yard in the middle of nowhere.

This old lady must have been at least 90 years old and she was pushing this wheelburrow along the side of the road. We couldn't beleive it! Matt pulled over, got out and offered to help her (using Charades of course) and she simply smiled at him and most politely waved him off. We think she was heading to a cemetery up the road with her wheelburrow full of flowers. The elderly people here are amazing! They do things you wouldn't ever see people their age doing back home. The secret to long life I am sure...

I love Japanese maps!

Horse. No, I didn't get to ride a horse, rather Matt and Cindy decided to EAT it! Matt pulled it off the Sushi "go-round" and ate it before he even knew what it was and claimed it was the "best roast beef" he had ever eaten. I applauded both of them for being so brave, but I told them that if they didn't want me crying over my beloved childhood horse, Sheeba, they wouldn't encourage me to follow suit.

Church. Today was the first Sunday I felt healthy enough to wake up for 10:00 church. It continues to amaze my how identical church is to home on the other side of the world. It felt good to be back. The Relief Society lesson consisted of me, the president and three others, one of which was the only girl in Young Womens (poor thing).

Quotes of the weekend:

Tessa: "I think I'm getting car sick." Matt: "You'll be fine, just eat this donut."

Other quotes I don't want to forget:

"Tessa, you can't tell me how to drive if you failed your driving test!"

"The Dingo ate my baby!"


Days in Japan: 37