Konnichiwa!

The first week in Japan was a busy time filled with exploring the base, applying for housing, looking for a car, and taking an orientation class. Luckily the base has a bus system that helped us get around, although it was hard getting used to waiting around for a bus when back home, you could go wherever you wanted whenever you wanted.

The week long orientation class taught us about all the different customs we had to be aware of...for example, when eating out in public, never ever put your chopsticks in your rice bowl! This is considered extremely rude...who knew? We've had a couple of close calls with that one, but we've caught ourselves just in time. Here's a picture of Mike at a sushi place that had a revolving bar. You just pick up the plate that you want and each colored plate has a different price. Then you stack up your plates and that's how they figure out your bill!

Another part of the class was a field trip out in town. This was probably my favorite part of the orientation because it actually got us out to mingle with the locals and see the sights. Before we left, they taught us how to navigate the train systems and they gave us a little card that basically said in Japanese, "Please help me. I am lost. I need to find my way back to Yokosuka Naval Base." Mike and I vowed that we would not have to use our cards. Thankfully, we were successful in that goal.

We decided to go see the Great Buddha in Hase, which was about 25 minutes away by train. It was absolutely amazing to see all these places that were thousands of years old. One of the things you have to do before entering the shrines is to purify yourself by washing your hands with the water they have stationed at the entrance. We were warned in our orientation class not to drink from here, as tourists are commonly seen doing. We were good on that one- I can't imagine people trying to drink from a communal hand washing station, but it must happen pretty frequently for them to warn us about it.

A downside of traveling as a couple is that you have to ask someone else, a stranger, to take your picture if you want a couple shot. Other than the language barrier, which we overcame pretty easily with some hand gestures, the Japanese are very enthusiastic about taking your picture. And they're good at it! The man who took this picture of us in front of the Great Buddha told us how to pose and even got down on the ground to take this shot. This turned out to be our best picture from the trip. Oh, and by the way, we paid 10 yen to climb into that Buddha. Kinda cool!

Here are my first overall impressions of Japan and its people- everything is so clean, the locals love taking pictures, Japanese women are experts at wearing high heels no matter how much walking they do (see picture), and people really ARE nice here. We didn't have to use our "Lost" cards, but there was a moment on the way back home when we weren't sure which platform we were supposed to go to, and I guess based on the confused expressions on our faces, a Japanese man asked if we needed help and pointed us in the right direction. I think I'm really gonna like it here...