Driving in Japan

Yesterday we went to this briefing of the base and took our drivings test. You literally have to rewire your brain to drive on the left side of the road and to read all of the crazy signs they have. We found out that Japanese drivers are considered professional drivers because they have to go through so much training and actually pay $2,000 to obtain there drivers license!! Crazy, huh? They take driving very seriously and for that you do not see many japanese that drive. Unlike Utah and most of the US, the pedestrians have the right of way always and if you happen to hit them you literally pay the price and it cost thousands of dollars. The smaller the person is the more you have to pay! Oh, and they also will walk right in front of you, so paying attention to road is essential. The roads are so tight as well, you think your going to get squished.

It is such an interesting culture and learning about it is essential. We learned some of their customs which include:

they do not eat or drink while walking, do Not show any PDA (they don't even hug), they have very specific chopstick manners, they are very conservative in dress, frown upon tattoos, don't like when people are loud, etc. There are so many things, but there all things that shows much respect and proper manners.

Tonight we are going out into Fussa and having Ramen!! I am so very excited! We also move into our place today and get some temporary furniture! Japan is amazing so far and all of the people are so friendly and wonderful! It is like the community of Yokota is a little family!

The Adventure Begins

Our adventure started with our trip to Seattle. We got there on Monday at 2:00pm, the USO on base was amazing. A USO is a place for military members to go while there is time before there next flight. They have bunks, showers, food, couches, nursery, computers, and really comfortable chairs. It was so nice to relax there, after a bit we decided to go explore downtown Seattle where we saw tons of homeless, which was sad, we went to the Taphouse where they had some awesome food, went to see the space needle, and all of the architecture there was awesome!! We then stayed up till 4am till our flight to Japan was ready, we did dose off here and there though, and the flight took over 10 hours.

We with our neck pillows handy we tried to sleep as much as we could. The flight didn't seem too bad looking back on it. You just didn't ask what time it was and it just all blurred together lol. We arrived there at 8am, our sponsor was there and took us to housing. We got a place in a tower and are on the 8 level. It is really pretty and I'll put pictures up soon. We move in on Friday, which is Thursday US time. The time difference is crazy and jet lag sucks. I felt like a robot lol. We got through it though and got so much done. We met some great people in Davids shop, got our post box number. The PO Box is so crazy, to open the box it is by letters not numbers. While driving around you can smell this tree they have and it has a sweet candylike smell. I wish I could explain it better, but it is amazing! There is so much that we saw. The base is small and cozy, but has much to see. I thought Seattle had tons of trees, but Japan has so many beautiful trees and agriculture, and farming is everywhere. I will be sure to put more pictures up and it will explain for itself. Miss you all and love you too!!