We have arrived!

 I thought I would take you back 8 months ago when I composed my very first blog post. A lot has changed since but I wanted to give you a peak into the past:

So it has been a little over a month since we arrived in Okinawa. I am not going to lie and say Trevor and I absolutely love it here, but I will say that we are starting to LIKE it. This move has been a HUGE adjustment and learning experience. All the comforts of home (friends, families, pets, TV, shopping, people who speak English!) have been taken away and now we are just trying to start over with what we do have here. 

We have moved into our house and out of the wonderful (NOT) Shogun Inn. The neighborhood is gorgeous with views overlooking the pacific side of the island.

  Don't you just love how the front of the house has no windows?? Needless to say the front of the house is not the most aesthetically pleasing.  But don't let this fool you, every other side of the house is covered in windows and sliding glass doors, in fact there are too many of them!

View from our backyard

Our neighborhood consists of about 25 houses, mostly Japanese but there are Americans mixed in. When we initially started looking one of my requirements was that I wanted American neighbors, well I got my wish but it turns out our American neighbors totally suck! Despite the language barrier our Japanese neighbors have proved to be super friendly and social! They all walk their dogs and will stop to say hello (or attempt to), children will run into our yard to catch butterflies and EVERYONE smiles!

Now on to the inside of the house.....It is a 4 bedroom 1 1/2 bath. It is a fairly new construction and very clean however it is hard to adjust to the worlds smallest appliances (oven, washer dryer, non existent dishwasher) and small rooms. The full bath is on the first floor so going up and down the ladder-like staircase gets a bit old. Just for reference, we pay 180,000 yen a month~ about 2200.00 US dollars. Thank goodness we have our OHA (overseas housing allowance) otherwise we would be living out of a box!

Entry way

Tatami room

What is a Tatami room you might ask? Well from what our housing agent told us, Tatami rooms are in all traditional Japanese houses and are used for social gatherings (usually a low table sits in the middle of the room), sleeping quarters or a safe place to keep little children. Good old Wikipedia sums it up pretty well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami

Kitchen and dining