"New" Car

I finally picked up my car. I have been looking around and around for a cheap car to get me to and from work. I had a few a criteria of what I was looking for: (1) Air conditioning; (2) something really small; (3) Something you can't buy in the states; (4) something that is really ugly, and: (5) something good on gas. I hit a land mine with this one and it is especially ugly! I bought a 1998 Daihatsu Move. It is considered a "micro" car. It has 4-cyl's and TURBO Charged! I bought it from a creepy American guy who goes to the auctions here in Japan and buys cars, "fixes" them up and sells them mainly to service members. He has a Facebook page that I have been following for a while. He posts cars on there and I saw this one a few weeks ago and started to inquire. Up until now, I have been taking the blue La Festa every morning to work, working for 10 hours or so and stranding Shannon and the girls at home. I thought it was about time I buy myself a commuter. The guy had to fix it up and do some repairs to it before I could pick it up. I finally got her this weekend and she is beauty. I cleaned her up really good and she is ready to go tomorrow morning.

This is the Move fitting nicely into our only parking spot. I have to park it two blocks away at the owners' business parking lot. 

Pretty sweet!

Things are still going well and we are slowly expanding our radius of comfort. We both took the train yesterday solo. I took the train to base to pick up the car and Shannon took it to go shopping for LC's school supplies. We both made it back, too. Work has been really slow with all the DETs being out at sea. 3 of the 4 return this week so things should start picking up. Hopefully I can fly more. We haven't been able to fly these past weeks because the only helo we had back at the squadron (the 4 DETs too the other 8) was broken. 

They are telling me that I will be taking over a Detachment in July/Aug of this year. To explain a little what that means is something like this: I will be the Officer in Charge of a 2 helicopter, 6 total pilots, and ~20 maintainers on a ship that deploys. We deploy on Destroyers and Cruisers and we pack up our people and gear, load them all on a truck and take them to the ship. We onload everything on the ship, fly the helicopters on the ship and the ship becomes our home whenever they deploy. So I will turn over with the current OIC probably in July/Aug. The ironic piece to this all is that it is looking like ill be the DET OIC on the USS MCCAMPBELL. This ship was my sister, Sonya's, ship that she was stationed on from ~2000-2004. Sonya was on it when it was finishing up being built in Maine, road it around to get it commissioned in San Francisco (I was there for the commissioning) and then eventually be stationed in San Diego. So pretty neat. A few years ago it was moved to Japan to relieve one of the older ships out here.) But how coincidental is that?! Since all ships and squadrons out here are considered "forward deployed" there are no work-ups or training exercises before they deploy. They/We are always ready and whenever they leave port it is for a mission. So that is pretty cool that everything we do is operational out here and you don't have to do all those stupid exercises and war games and be evaluated. It is looking like I'll be deployed for a few months (Set-Nov) and then home for the holidays. Hopefully we can hit some good ports too. 

I took LC and E to the Sagamihara park this weekend that is about a 15 min bike ride away. We have an awesome bike trailer that Poppy and BB gave us. I get the strangest looks from the Japanese. I don't know if they haven't seen one before or they were laughing at me because it was a lot of work towing the girls up and down hills. The park was awesome though. It had tons of Cherry Blossom trees that are just starting to bloom. There were awesome fountains and playground equipment too. We will have to frequent that place as the weather continues to get nicer. 

Overall we have been pretty happy with our house. It is really close to a lot of things. 10 min walk to the train station, 5 min drive to the Army Base (Commissary), 15 min bike ride to that park, parks all around, grocery stores and a quiet neighborhood. This is the little side street we live on that never gets any traffic. So this will be our little lane like we had in Coronado where the girls can ride bikes and play on without having too much traffic interference. 

This was the Sagamihara Park. There is a petting zoo and other really cool things. There was even a giant tree house that kids were playing on. I know that thing would not be allowed in the US probably because it is "too dangerous". But this park is going to be so awesome in a few weeks when the Cherry Blossoms really start to bloom. The Japanese like to sit under the trees and spend the whole day there eating and relaxing. 

This is my cars Title. Like all Japanese paperwork it is hard to tell what it actually says.

All our bills and contracts that we sign are like this too. And to pay your utility bills you take them to a convenience store like a 7-11, Family Mart or Circle K and pay at the cash register. I thought that was a joke but that was how I paid our first round of bills and it is true. 

Before you can register or title your car, the police have to come by your house to make sure you have a spot big enough to park it in. So, the police came by did some measurements and were on their way. That same day, an "official" looking statement was placed in our mail box. So we just assumed that after the police was done measuring the spot they dropped off that statement. So the next morning I took that statement to the place to get the car registered. I handed them everything and then presented that statement that I thought indicated our parking spot was good to go. I handed it to her and she said, "Sir, this is your gas bill. Where is your parking slip?" So I had to take my things from her and left embarrassed.