Orientation, day care and our new home

Monday was a big day. It was the first day of our Area Orientation Briefing, Nathan’s first day of day care and we signed the paperwork and started to move into our 8th floor apartment in Rokuban Tower.

The first day of orientation seemed to be alot about what you’re *not* supposed to do. Such as, don’t drink and drive. In Japan, 0.03% blood alcohol level is the first level for which they can issue you a fine. And apparently there are sobriety checks *everywhere*. Also, any and all weapons in Japan are illegal, including knives. And the Japanese criminal system is a lot harsher and more strict than ours. If your case goes to trial, there’s a 99% conviction rate (I guess alot of cases are thrown out before they get to court, but they can detain you for 23 days before charging you and you have no right to an attorney during questioning). Also, the Navy prohibits going to Japanese massage therapists (not sure why) or going into Japanese drug stores. The later is because many over-the-counter medications are opium-based = failure of Navy drug testing.

Nathan did fairly well in his first day of day care. I was able to stop by at lunchtime to nurse, which was a good thing because he’s still not taking to the bottle very well. I’m not sure what’s going to happen when I’m working full time and can’t take time out in the middle of the day to come to nurse. The day care workers keep pretty detailed accounting of diapers, napping, and feedings and give it to you at the end of the day, which is nice.

I had biked to orientation on Monday so that I could get to our housing appointment as soon as orientation was over. Of course it was pouring ran all day. I ended up wearing Charlie’s black Google fleece over my uniform, which is *so* not regulation, but I did care; my pants were completely soaked in 5 minutes. Thankfully they dried pretty quickly. At the end of the day though, not only was it raining, but the wind was getting so strong that I almost couldn’t move at all on the bike when I was headed directly into it and Charlie almost had the stroller and Nathan carried away by a gust! Nathan was cozy though as Grandma Jahncke had bought him a fleece jumpsuit with a hood shortly before we’d left the U.S.

Charlie met up with me at the housing office and we signed the papers and ordered loaner furniture to be delivered the following day (since our stuff won’t arrive for at least another month). Then Charlie made several trips in the in-climate weather on a combination of the shuttle and the taxi to lug our 7 bags plus additional junk we’ve acquired in Japan over to our new apartment. I made a quick run to the minimart and saw some impressive surges/crashing waves just beyond the hotel.

Tuesday and Wednesday, the weather was gorgeous. Orientation Tuesday was boring, but Wednesday was all about Japanese culture. We got a bit about the history of Japan. In addition to stating dates in the Western way, they also count in distinct periods. We are currently in the Heisei period, dated from 1989, which is when the last emperor passed away and his first son took over. We heard about the shogun (first one to unite the country under a single government was in 1185) and the samuri as well. We heard about how Japan was a completely closed country until Commodore Perry (an American) came to Japan in the mid 1800s. Next we had a crash course in Japanese language and instruction on cultural awareness about the etiquette of bowing and face cards (business cards) and gift giving. Right before lunch they made us watch a ludicrously cheesy video about table manners and chop sticks. There certainly are alot of rules about how to pick up bowls and chop sticks, etc. In the afternoon, we learned about Japanese sports and even got a demonstration of Kendo (martial arts using sticks). Finally to end the day, we got instruction on how to use Japan’s extensive train system (Tokyo has 265 stations).