It's Been a While
It's been a while since we've blogged recently. I have to say that since our move on base, things have slowed down considerably which I have to admit is actually really nice. I think in a lot of ways I was ready for the suburb type life. Right now our family weekends have been about having family time, BBQ in the back yard, playgrounds, and getting organized still from the move.
Out in town, things have not been as rosy as we'd like them to be as well. A taxi driver was found murdered and immediate evidence pointed to a sailor. However, right now it's proving to be a little bunk. I'm not quite sure how much has been stated in the general media, or what I'm allowed to talk about but let's just say our Japanese neighbors are not too friendly with us right now. It's typical when things like this happen. Nothing too crazy will happen. Maybe a house will get egged, tires slashed, or something will be said to us by a passerby on the street and we know that it wasn't something kind.
With the dollar falling in value it's also much more cost effective to stay on base. We've been able to save a lot more money these days which has put us much more on par with our goal. After all, this move to Japan wasn't just an adventure but also a way for us to save our pennies and buy "The American Dream", a nice house somewhere.
We haven't decided where in the USA we'll go, but we do know that we'll be going back... just not yet. We've found that although we appreciate other cultures, America is our home. This started out as a way to save and ended up to be so much more. It's encouraged us to not be so apprehensive about trying something else overseas one day. Maybe it's turned us into a family of nomads... I'm not quite sure yet. I think we'll walk away from this knowing that there are good and bad elements about Japan just like there are good and bad elements of America, and probably the same would go for just about any place in the world. There's a certain amount of pride that goes with knowing that our family can "hack it" just about anywhere. Above all we know that we will miss this place when we are gone. Mike just signed on for an extension, so we'll be here for at least 2 more years. Until then we've got to soak it all in.
Out in town, things have not been as rosy as we'd like them to be as well. A taxi driver was found murdered and immediate evidence pointed to a sailor. However, right now it's proving to be a little bunk. I'm not quite sure how much has been stated in the general media, or what I'm allowed to talk about but let's just say our Japanese neighbors are not too friendly with us right now. It's typical when things like this happen. Nothing too crazy will happen. Maybe a house will get egged, tires slashed, or something will be said to us by a passerby on the street and we know that it wasn't something kind.
With the dollar falling in value it's also much more cost effective to stay on base. We've been able to save a lot more money these days which has put us much more on par with our goal. After all, this move to Japan wasn't just an adventure but also a way for us to save our pennies and buy "The American Dream", a nice house somewhere.
We haven't decided where in the USA we'll go, but we do know that we'll be going back... just not yet. We've found that although we appreciate other cultures, America is our home. This started out as a way to save and ended up to be so much more. It's encouraged us to not be so apprehensive about trying something else overseas one day. Maybe it's turned us into a family of nomads... I'm not quite sure yet. I think we'll walk away from this knowing that there are good and bad elements about Japan just like there are good and bad elements of America, and probably the same would go for just about any place in the world. There's a certain amount of pride that goes with knowing that our family can "hack it" just about anywhere. Above all we know that we will miss this place when we are gone. Mike just signed on for an extension, so we'll be here for at least 2 more years. Until then we've got to soak it all in.
posted by Unknown | 7:48 AM
5 Comments:
By the time you return the housing market issues should have been worked out. If not, even better. You'll get a house on the cheap in 2010.
Josh is going to be bilingual by the time you leave! :)
Well, that's what we are hoping when we return. I'd like to think we were one of the couples who knew from the get go that we couldn't afford a half a million dollar house and pretty much knew it was a bubble. We are hoping that we played it out smart. As far as being bilingual, Joshua really only knows how to tell people hello (morning, afternoon, evening) and a waiter Thank you when he gets his food. He likes to think that he can sing twinkle twinkle little star in Japanese....but he's really just pretending.
2 more years? Are you feeling pretty excited about that? I'm out of the loop and didn't realize you were moving. I really liked living on base when we were in the south. It has a college dorm sort of comraderie to it.
We've been playing with the idea of orders elsewhere, maybe Hawaii. The adventure is appealing, but staying in SD is still #1. Too much family stuff going on.
We sure do miss you guys.
We like it enough to stay and the economy back home is nothing we really want to go running back into. We have a goal of savings and the pay is ridiculously better than anything that we could get back home. We enjoy living on base much better than out in town. It's a nice change. There are good sides to both. I highly recommend doing an overseas tour to anyone in the armed forces as it really introduces many to utilizing more of their military benefits that maybe they didn't even know about before. We miss you guys too!
First of all, congrats on your extension! It sounds like making the move on base was a good one for you guys. I know what you mean about the dollar being weak and how expensive things off base seem at the moment. Plus with the steadily increasing prices of fresh fruits and veggies after the "poisoned" gyoza scare with China, I'm buying more and more stuff from the commissary, and I'm so thankful to have that resource!
I've been trying to watch the taxi driver issue closely after the lockdown in Okinawa and now this new period of heightned sensitivity locally. They recently cancelled Negishi Friendship day, so I hope this isn't the beginning of some really bad times...
The movers are actully here as I'm typing and packing us out for Guam. We'll really miss Japan, but certainly are ready to move on from sea duty here, which has had its really rough patches. I'll be excited to continue to read about your adventures here even after we transition to another island in the Pacific. You guys have come such a long way since you arrived- big kudos!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home