Urasoe Shi

 We made it to Okinawa!

Sorry for the wait, we've been pretty busy the last few days trying to set up house and such. Okinawa is beautiful, and the weather right now is great, warm but not stifling, and it feels like there's always a breeze coming from the ocean. 

On Monday we met in the lobby of the hotel where we did our quarantine with the other JETS, and then we were ushered onto a shuttle and to the Haneda airport. The flight to Naha was fairly smooth, no problems, and then the nice people from Urasoe City Hall met us at the airport with a cute banner that said "Welcome Braden, Melissa, Clara, and Taran." They asked if we were hungry (we were very hungry, as we had not had much to eat at the airport or on the flight) and Clara was craving McDonalds, so our first stop was Mcdonalds haha. After two weeks of cold meals the hot burgers and fries were amazing. 

After that, Braden was taken to the real estate agent's office while the kids and I were taken to a big park containing the ruins of Urasoe Castle. It was really interesting.

The views were AMAZING. The ruins were cool too, you can see them on the right of the picture where Taran and Clara are running up the path. I'll have to take a better picture of them next time. After Braden finished at the real estate agent's office, we all met up at the apartment and the real estate agent showed us the apartment and gave us the keys. It's a really nice little place, clean and well maintained, though the exterior is not very attractive.

For the last few days we've been doing a lot of shopping and exploring. The people at City Hall have been really great, taking us shopping and showing us where we can get good deals. We ordered some furniture from an outlet store, delivery on Wednesday, and then we were able to buy a stove and food. I'm glad I can finally cook again. Despite not being a very adventurous cook, and despite regarding cooking as a chore, I love eating home cooked food. 

We live very close to Urasoe Park, which is BIG, and contains not only castle ruins but a big playground and slide as well. The play area is on the other side of the park, so it's a bit of a walk, but totally worth it.

The kids really enjoyed playing around in the park, even though the big playground was closed due to Covid concerns. They still got to ride the big slide though. There were so many butterflies and birds, and it was so sunny and warm. It's easy to forget that it's November!

Braden is getting settled into his new job at Urasoe City Hall, and today he got to interpret for a couple of Marines who called City Hall with questions. 

The kids liked the big tree outside City Hall. It had a lot of vines on it and the kids told me it was the tree's beard. The building itself is pretty large, and Braden works in the International Relations Division on the 4th floor. It's only a ten minute walk away from our apartment, which is very convenient. 

Yesterday we got to visit Urasoe Elementary School, where the kids will start school in April (the Japanese school year begins in April, and we decided to homeschool until then so that the kids can learn a little more Japanese before they start). City Hall told us that all the kids starting first grade next year are required to have a health exam, and it happened to be yesterday. So we went, along with a bunch of other Japanese parents and their five year olds. We were the only foreigners that I saw, but the staff were very helpful and patient with us as we tried to navigate from one room to another. It was a fairly basic health exam, with quick checks of vision, hearing, teeth, speech and development, and then a doctor checked his heart and lungs. Taran was very sweet and told everyone ever 'konnichiwa!' and was greeted with smiles every time. Clara had fun tagging along and watching the proceedings. When it was over, we took the kids to the local convenience store for an ice cream.

Today, the kids and I rode an Urasoe City Bus for the first time. We don't live super close to any grocery stores (very different from when we lived in Nagoya and there were THREE within easy walking distance). We went to the nearest department store called San-A (in Japan, a large department store is like a small mall, with lots of stores and even a food court). We had fun exploring and then we ate some food and had ice cream at the food court. I filled a backpack and a big bag with stuff and managed to get it home, though I was sure tired by the time we got off the bus and trekked up the hill to our apartment (we live nearly at the top of a big hill). 

Anywho, that's all for today. Tomorrow we're going to a JET meetup near Okinawa City. Next week, our furniture is coming and I'll take another pic of our apartment when it's more filled up. The big appliances will come later, when we can get to a second hand shop. In the meantime, someone at City Hall gave us a medium sized fridge and we have a coin laundry nearby, so we haven't gotten a washing machine yet.

Until then!