An Update, wohoo!!!

Has it already been over 2 weeks since we last updated?? Wow, time is really going fast here, well actually the days don't go fast, but when I sit back and actually realize that we have been here over a month already that just seems insane!!! Since I am a countdowner (is that even a word?) we have 35 months left here in Okinawa! Sounds extremely long, but if it goes like this past month it will be over in a *few* blinks of an eye!

Depending on the day and which one of us you talk to you will hear that either we like it here, we love it here or we *wish* we were somewhere else...can anyone say Europe? But, that isn't the case, the Air Force sees it best if we stay in Okinawa for the next three years, trust me I have asked if we can move sooner apparently they don't go for early releases lol So I am bound and determined to make the next 35 months a fun adventure, because after all our blog is titled Adventures in Japan!

One of the first adventures we have had is eating at a little Japanese restaurant called Arin Krin or as others refer to it the Garlic House. I found this restaurant while searching the OkinawaHai website (which is a website written by military spouses (mostly wives) about different places here in Okinawa and the best part is they give awesome reviews, so just by reading some of the reviews I can determine if it would worth our interest to actually go to them! We have already been to two different restaurants that were featured on the OkiHai! And they both got a thumbs up from Bryan and I!

Back to the Garlic House. After reading about this restaurant I knew we HAD to go to it. I mean Bryan LOVES garlic so I figured this restaurant was made for him! After driving around the restaurant in circles literally, about 6 times (there were only 4 parking spots for that place, and so we kept circling the block looking for another spot to park) we finally found a parking spot! The restaurant was a very cute little place with lots of tables and we were shown to a seat fairly quickly, after reading that you should have a reservation I was a little worried that we would be waiting a long time, but we didn't have to!

We ordered 4 different items off the menu which thankfully we did, because the portions are soooo tiny here. Seriously now I know why Japanese people are so skinny, they hardly eat anything! Maybe I can learn from them! We ended up ordering the shrimp, chicken, fish and fried mashed potatoes! They were sooo yummy!! However...because of the small portions we were still hungry when we were done there so went down the street to the Big Dip icecream parlor and had some *expensive* icecream =) It was a great date night out for us, even if we did spend most of the day/night lost!

The restaurant! It even had little 'garlic people' painted on the side!

Yummy garlic chicken dish!

The garlic shrimp, was my favorite!!!

The deep fried Mashed Potatoes with cheese, these were awesome!

The garlic fish!

yummy icecream place!

Our icecream! Mine was a coffee flavored, and Bryan's was Blue Wave, it was like bubblegum with pineapple chunks!

And here is just a recent picture we took Sunday morning on our way to Church,  we found a cute little park that had an awesome view! We can't wait take our Little Bella there!!

Our New House!

Well we got into our new apartment, now we just need OUR furniture to arrive! We have temporary furniture that is loaned to us until our stuff gets here sometime in December, but I'm hoping for sooner!

So far we love our place, it is super spacious! Which is a good thing and a bad thing! That means more for us to clean lol but there is no carpet so at least we don't have to vacuum! Just a broom and a swifer get the job done!

Hopefully these pictures can show you what it's like! Once we get our furniture in here and decor hung up I will take more pics to share so you can see it all then too! Otherwise right now, we just a ugly couch, table and chairs, and 2 dressers. We don't even have a t.v.! Please tell me how I am going to survive without that!?!?

There is just sooo much to see and do here it is crazy! I think we are on information overload right now! With Bryan still learning the ropes at work and now this week he is at FTAC classes which last this week and next week, he is learning a lot about what his job will be here and what this base is all about. And then there is me, I am just trying to remember what side of the rode we are suppose to drive on, and where to buy groceries, and how to find my way home by myself (which is actually harder than it sounds)!!

We have another busy day today. Bryan will be in class til sometime this afternoon we are guessing til around 15:00 (3pm) and then we have to head over to Camp Foster (marine base about 20 mins away) and register our car there. Then hopefully we get back in time because I have an AMMO Wives Social event to go to tonight, so I am kind of excited to go and meet other wives of Bryan's coworkers!

Well, that is all the new news I think we have for now! Hopefully more exciting things happen that we can share later on!

Our kitchen looking in from the living room

Standing in the kitchen looking towards the living room

Living room looking from the door way

Living room looking from the balcony

Our balcony over looks a baseball field!

2nd Bedroom

Master bedroom

Master bedroom's bathroom

Front of our building, we are the apartment on the bottom right, all the windows are ours

3rd Bedroom

We're Here!!!

Well, we are here in Okinawa!

Bryan has been here almost 2 weeks now and I have been here about a week as of tomorrow. Time here sure does fly! We have been super busy since we got here. Bryan has been learning the ropes at the shop he will be working at, and when he gets home (or during the day) we have briefings for housing and such.

Speaking of housing, we finally found an apartment after looking at 4 different properties we found one that fit our criteria! Here in Japan normal bedroom sizes are super small along with their houses! So when we walked into this 3 bedroom 2 (full) bath house we knew this would probably be our home!

Of course I forgot to take my camera with me when we went to look at properties so I can't show you pictures, but I will shortly because...we signed papers last night! So we should be picking keys up at the end of this week.

Another major thing crossed off our to do list, was buying a car! We are going to be eventually buying another car for Bryan to drive since we are living off base we kind of need 2 cars so we both can get around. I love the car that I picked out, it's called a Will VI (made by Toyota) and is baby blue and a just a little funky looking car! We pick the car up on Friday so we can't wait to be mobile! We have been relying on walking, bumming rides off people Bryan works with and taxis, so it will be nice to have our own transportation!

This next weekend we will hopefully be able to start moving things into our new place, however our household shipment (all our stuff from the States) has not yet arrived =( so we will be getting loaner furniture from the base. But at least we will be out of the hotel we have been living in!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Here are some pics of the new car, because I know everyone is probably dying to see what Japanese cars look like!

My new car!