Sunday morning we set out to go to the parade. Walking from the Navy Lodge, we walked past some of the townhouses (which we'd love to have because they have small yards, but for which the waiting list is likely extremely long) and a couple of the stand alone houses for the bigwigs. We walked through a really cute tiny little tunnel (there are several large hills in the middle of the base). The topography almost reminds me of Hawaii (minus the beaches and palm trees).
As Charlie mentioned, we wandered off base briefly and it was a whole other world. On base, it's easy to forget you're in a foreign country. However, we quickly realized that, even though the parade started off base, the drumming and pagentry, etc. didn't start until the floats and people got to the center of the base, so we came back in. I think it was called the Mikado Parade and I believe it's mainly to recognize/commemorate the Japanese/U.S. relationship. We blopped down on the grass to watch the parade and a Navy wife struck up a conversation with us. I've noticed that there's an extremely strong sense of community and many strangers have noticed we were new and taken time out to talk to us and give us tons of advice about being on base and living in Japan. Turned out this first lady is a USO director. She lives off base. One of the big debates is whether to live on or off base. Some feel that, you're in Japan, you should experience Japanese culture to the fullest and live off base. But it's more expensive (deposit can be equivalent to 4 months rent) and there's a lot to get used to for example, there's no central air or heat, which means families stick to one room for much of the hottest and coldest months. Advantages of living on base obviously include convenience and, for me, being close to the hospital, especially if I'm on backup call for the night.
After the parade (or rather after we got sick of the crowds), we wandered over to the NEX and got lunch. Sitting on a bench eating lunch, another Navy wife engaged us in conversation and gave us some more advice. We looked into cell phones and were extremely disappointed to find out that we can't use our iPhones here. Since AT&T subsidizes the price of the the iPhone, they lock it so it can't be used with any other service. We could buy new phones, but that's obviously expensive, so we're going to make do without which will be extremely difficult! Next stop was the Purdy fitness center where we took turns watching Nathan while the other person worked out in the gorgeous new 50 meter pool. There was no one else there except a few kids in the far right lane!
Sunday night, my sponsor Andy took us out to dinner at an Italian place on base with her family of 3 boys. She and her family started out in Sicily when the boys (now ages 12, 13, 14) were babies and have traveled all over regardless of the kids ages, so that's encouraging for us. I keep hearing about great traveling opportunities but I worry about trying to do it with Nathan. According to Andy, it's totally doable. One of the first things we want to do it going skiing and to the ice festival up in Saporo.
Monday morning was my first "real" day of work, meaning I had to put on my uniform (which is a MAJOR production that I'm not sure I'll ever get used to) and go check into the hospital. As soon as we stepped onto Labor & Delivery, about 3 people said, "What a fat baby!" One of the other OBs, Dr. Copenhagen, said, referring to Nathan, "So this is why you've been held up." Charlie and Nathan tagged along so that Nathan would be close for breastfeeding (there's even a breastfeeding room right off L&D). We had breakfast at the cafeteria and ran into Franchi, who pointed out the Admiral of Navy Med West and the commander of the hospital.
I did as much checking in as I could in the morning and then we caught the shuttle back to the Navy Lodge to attend a housing brief (and get on the on-base housing wait list) only to find out that we wouldn't be allowed to attend until the next day. So we stopped by the childcare center to sign up for babysitting for next week while Charlie and I attend the Area Orientation Brief (about Japanese culture and driving, etc) I'm really nervous about how Nathan's going to do in day care because he's still not really taking to a bottle (a sippy cup we tried last night worked only marginally better). We then walked to the main gate and got our ID'd registered for multiple re-entry and then went off base to get cell phones. We ended up getting pretty cheap plans with limited minutes because incoming calls and calls between the two of us are free. The sales lady spoke really good English (she said her dad was an American soldier) but it was really weird to sign a contract in Japanese! I crashed once we got back to the lodge and unfortunately Nathan slept poorly again last night.
No comments:
Post a Comment