Early Days

Photo summary of the first days in Japan. I felt overwhelmed and excited at the same time.  

We arrived on August 3rd and it was stinkin HOT! However, we pretty much missed the first two weeks of the miserable heat because we were not allowed out of our hotel room. It sounded crazy to me when I first heard we could not leave the room for 14 days, but the US Army was not kidding!

Once we were released from ROM (restriction of movement) we moved into a hotel in a near by city while we waited for our housing to be assigned. 

Machida

Lots of great shopping in Machida. We stopped to look at an appliance store and found refrigerators, dishwashers, and tiny ovens.

Machida has some fun parks. We liked watching the kids come down this long slide.

Sagamihara Park has an awesome tower that gives a great perspective on the surrounding area. On a clear day you can see the SkyTree in Tokyo. 

If you zoom in and look over my left shoulder you will see the helicopter tower that is right by our housing on Camp Zama. When we left Des Moines we thought we were also leaving airplane noise. Not quite.

Signs at Yatoyama Park warn not to even get close to this dangerous mushroom. Even touching it can cause harm or death!

Yatoyama park has demonstration rice fields so you can get a close up look at how rice grows. We notice rice planted all around the city in any open spot that is not used by a building or parking lot!

Last month the wife of one of Kimball's co-workers took me see the Zama Sunflower fields. She told me that Zama City is know for its Sunflowers and every year they have a huge Sunflower Festival - except not this year:( Sad to see the Sunflower fields all in bloom but no one to appreciate their beauty. I was glad I got to see - maybe next year the festival will return!

While we were staying in Machida we took a short trip to see  Odawara Castle. It was still way too hot for walking around outside! But the views of the ocean and mountains were spectacular! 

My favorite part was riding on the Romance train. They call it that because the seats are in rows of two. It's a nicer, more expensive way to travel by train and its great if you're going for a longer ride. Seats are reserved and there are restrooms and food available. Very comfortable way to travel!

We lucked out and were able to get housing after only about a month living in the hotel in Machida. We are pretty happy with our quarters. We live in a 3 bedroom townhouse that is part of a 4 unit building. Below are some pics of our building from the outside. I will do a separate post someday about the inside of the townhouse. - 1064D

This is only a small mantis - I can do a whole post on the bug life living with us in Japan!

I love the view of the mountains from our place. In this pic you can see the North Tower. This is the other option for living quarters. The towers (North and South) are newer and more modern in design/layout, but I prefer the townhouse with a little bit of yard. Speaking of which - that is a downside for Kimball. He thought he had escaped yard work, but turns out we are responsible to keep our grass mowed. Luckily our next door neighbors shipped out a few weeks after we arrived and they gifted us their lawn mower.

View from our back yard

Final pic is of Costco in Zama. We can get in with our US Costco membership but not all services are available unless you buy a Japan membership. It is just beyond amazing how many people are there on a weekend! They have some of the same Costco standards but they also have unique things. Maybe that needs its own separate post as well.