Warrens in a DUPLEX!

Konnichiwa! Ogenki desu ka?

Good Afternoon! How are you?

Watashi no uchi wa Kadena desu.

My house is in Kadena.

I wanted to upload some pictures so that you guys can have a tour of our place!! A little background, our duplex was built in the 1960's and is pure cement, which is great in tsunami season, not so great for aesthetic reasons. Fun thought: every time we want to hang a picture I have to rent a cement drill : )

When you first walk in you will notice our noren curtain, otherwise known as a Japanese window or doorway curtain. This marks the entrance to the living room. Now, I should warn you. It's very green. When I was picking out the paint I called Jonah to ask him whether we should paint the living room tan or go crazy and paint it green? We decided to paint it green. It was kind of shocking when we finished, but now I think it looks so Japanese and fun. Hope you like it!!!






TA-DA!!

I will eventually be covering the chair with a matching slipcover, but for the moment I'm using one of our throws. Thanks to Mom and Davis Town Square for the slipcovers and curtains : ) The chair, bookcase (shown here as a tv stand), coffee table and end table are all government-issued furniture. We were only allowed to bring about 2300 pounds of stuff with us here, so most of our furniture stayed in the states. The government furniture is really pretty nice. I especially like the buffet and hutch, not pictured.

As you can see our kitchen is pretty small. Apart from the refrigerator, all of our food is actually stored in a pantry in the laundry room. Remember how I said this place was built in the 1960's? : )






Well, that gives you an idea of what our new home looks like! Downstairs we have the crazy green living room/dining area, half bath, the kitchen and laundry room. Upstairs we have three bedrooms and a full bathroom. We hope you enjoyed the tour!!

p.s. if you decide to come visit you may get to see Minnie in rare form, showing off her ferocious moves.

...ahem, you have a little grass on your mouth.

Warrens in BASE HOUSING.

I probably should have wrote about our experience with housing when it was fresh on my mind. This week's earthquake and language lessons are really the latest news, and probably more interesting to you, but housing in Okinawa is an important topic for military families coming here to live, so there ya go.

WARNING: If you're not military, this post will be boring. That's why I'm posting 2 today : )

 I guess maybe it helps to know that housing is the most stressful part of your first week in Okinawa? I put a question mark there because really I'm not sure if it helps to know that beforehand or not, but you'll discover it soon enough. The good news is, housing is the most stressful part of your first week here in Okinawa.  : )

Disclaimer: What you read here was my experience and might/might not be yours.

Our priority in our housing experience was finding a pet-friendly place to live as Minnie doesn't like it anymore when I stuff her in a pocketbook in public. So we put that we had a dog in our housing application. We were offered two options, both in the same tower on Kinser. They have a "live where you work" policy, so Kinser is the closest base to Futenma, where Jonah actually works. Our housing options were tier 1, meaning the best option for us as far as proximity to work. However, they were not pet-friendly. I guess it's safe to say that although you should put that you have a pet in your housing application, they will not let that affect their decision in offering you a tier 1 house. Now, in the past you would have had two options: 1. send your pets back to the states on your own dime. or... 2. volunteer to live somewhere that has pet-friendly housing avaliable, as far away as Camp Courtney.  However, the Commandant of the Marine Corps recently visited Okinawa and found out about the various problems with housing. Ever since, the housing office has been a little more sympathetic and accomodating. A little more. Don't expect much. We were upset about our choices and came up with a list of vacant houses in neighborhoods on Foster and Lester (because there is no officer pet-friendly tower on Kinser). We found out that you only are offered two tier 1 places and if you deny them then your TLA stops. Supposedly. However, that's not entirely accurate. In our case, we were told we could volunteer for tier 2 pet-friendly housing, if it was avaliable. We also have friends who were able to refuse tier 1 housing options if they were unlivable (dirty, mold, etc.) or if they have pets (like in our case). If you have a valid reason like that to refuse your options, they will either offer you another tier 1 option or in our case, they can offer you a tier 2 pet-friendly option if no other tier 1 pet-friendly options are avaliable. I hope this makes sense.

So, we didn't even look at the tier 1 options, as they were not pet-friendly. We asked if there were any tier 2 pet-friendly housing before we refused the tier 1 option so that we could keep our TLA from stopping. [side note on that later]  She was able to tell us that there was tier 2 pet-friendly avalible, but she could not tell us where until we officially refused our tier 1 non-pet-friendly options. So, since the risk was gone we went ahead and accepted tier 2 right there. We were VERY surprised to learn that we would be living in a tier 2 duplex on Kadena Air Force Base. We had thought we would be assigned to a neighborhood on Lester, called Old Lester, but there was no availability. Instead, we were assigned to tier 2 housing on Kadena, which needless to say is as nice as tier 1 housing on a marine base. Shocker.

And we lived happily ever after. The End.

Just kidding : ) But seriously, for those of you who are planning to come with pets, go in with an open mind and gracious spirit, but have a battle plan--> a list of places on Lester or Foster that seem vacant, ask to see references to back up their answers when they tell you a BS answer or blow you off, and a receipt from the vet on base in Okinawa to prove your pet is here. The best advice I got is to "be assertive, not aggressive."

I do not mean to say housing in Okinawa is unaccommodating or ridiculous, I just want to share my experience and let you draw your own conclusions.

I also know that for many of you coming, this won't be a problem. I also have no qualms about any housing (towers, duplexes, houses, multiplexes) here on Okinawa, I just have a pet and need pet-friendly housing, of course. *Also, if you're moving here and you want to get a pet in Okinawa, I suggest you put that on your housing application and get a pet as soon as you can, before your initial appointment with housing. Otherwise, you may be assigned to a non-pet-friendly place.

[Sidenote: I'm throwing this out there, COULD be wrong, but to my understanding, IPAC will ask you when your move in date is. They will determine when your TLA stops based on that. I don't think there is a lot of communication between the housing office and IPAC. So, if you refuse tier 1 housing, know that in some cases your TLA won't stop until you move in to your tier 2 or counter-offer tier 1 housing.]

Remember: "Be assertive, not aggressive."
Semper Fi!!

Warrens visit the Aquarium

It's kind of overwhelming when you first get to Okinawa because you have no phone, no car and no idea what you're doing. Luckily, we had awesome sponsors who drove us around to get to all of our checkpoints and familiarize us to the island. I'll be posting more about our housing experience later, but I thought I'd share what we did once the whirlwind subsided and the dust settled : )

We went to the aquarium! We had read about this place before coming to Okinawa and really wanted to see the huge whale sharks. So, we got some yen and headed north on the expressway. As you can see in this picture, we are driving on the left side of the road like good Okinawans. We are also going 80+ km, which is the fastest speed limit on the island and approximately 50 mph. The fastest speed off the expressway is 60km, which is about 35 mph. This is truly upsetting for Jonah.

We also yielded here to the fake Japanese construction worker telling us to get in the other lane. Isn't this hilarious?

Can anyone count how many cute things
are going on in this picture?  

In the background is Iejima island and the East China Sea. 

The aquarium is actually part of a larger park, called the Ocean Expo Park. It's located at the northern part of the island.Once we got there we had lunch, which was really good. The picture above shows some typical Okinawan food. The bitter gourd is on the left, there's some fish tempura, sweet potato tempura (sweet potatoes in Okinawa are bright purple!), seaweed salad and Japanese curry.

 You can click any picture to make it larger.

After lunch we headed into the aquarium and one of the first things you can do is pick up starfish. I learned later that those black things in the background are indeed alive and called sea cucumbers. I saw one at the beach recently and was told that you pretty much have to wear water shoes while swimming in the ocean here because of all the coral and sea life and... things that don't like to be touched.

I'll insert here that Jonah is now scuba-certified and ready to go diving if you're ever in the area! We have been told that you can dive with the whale sharks here in the ocean (in a containment area). He's hoping to do that soon! Below you can see the whale sharks in a 7,500 ton tank they have at the aquarium. There are three whale sharks here and they are each around 7 meters long, which is about 20 feet! There are also manta rays swimming with various kinds of schooling fish, like tuna and bonita.

Well, if you guys ever head this way we will take you to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium! Love yall!

Warrens in SEATTLE

Well, on March 25th we flew from San Diego to Seattle, WA for the first leg of our trip across the world. It was a full-time job to get out of Pendleton. First the movers came, all three sets (household goods, unaccompanied baggage and finally, storage). We spent the last three or four days in California going in  circles from IPAC to... no, I guess we just circled the IPAC building many times over.  Bless their hearts...

Jonah checked out of the squadron and we picked up our tickets, headed to a strange place in the middle of San Diego to drop off the 'ol faithful four-runner and said our goodbyes. I didn't really think I'd miss San Diego, but I do. I started thinking about some amazing friends I left behind, Pizza Port, La Jolla and the dry, dusty mountains of Camp Pendleton. I really loved living on Camp Pendleton actually. But lets just get back to the PCS story...

We got to the airport that afternoon and checked in to the AMC counter, which was so discreet we walked by it a few times before realizing where it was.  So here we were at about 5:30pm in Seattle and our flight didn't leave until 1am. We ate at a resteraunt to kill some time, and then it was 6pm. No, just kidding, but it did feel that way. Luckily, earlier we had seen a sign for the USO while we were looking for the AMC counter. We went to check it out and it was really AWESOME. There were free hotdogs, free wifi, computers, bunks, a kids playroom and a movie-viewing room with comfortable seats.  This definitely helps the time go by when you have a long layover. So, at 11:45 or so they politely kicked us all out so that we didn't miss our flight. We walked over to our gate and waited. They pre-boarded the mothers and babies and everything seemed good. Around 12:30 am everyone pretty much fell asleep. At 1 am I woke up to the mothers bringing grumpy, screaming babies back (foreshadowing our flight experience),  but everyone was still asleep around me and I sort of panicked when I saw what time it was. We were supposed to leave at 1 am. Finally about 1:30 the official told us the flight was delayed 24 hours.  CRAP.

I was VERY surprised to learn that they would be putting us up in hotel rooms for the night, complete with meal vouchers for the day. Amazingly enough, our hotel was right across from the airport (literally walking distance) and there was a tram there that took you all the way into the city.  We slept the rest of the night and in the morning took the ride into Seattle. We went to the Space Needle first.

We had some Starbucks coffee atop the Space Needle just to make the experience truly Seattley : )


Next, we went to Pike Place near the water for lunch. I enjoyed this more than the Space Needle actually. It had a really neat market inside where people were selling gorgeous bouquets of flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables, tote bags and tshirts and most importantly, fresh seafood. I had fish and chips and I can't remember what Jonah had. Sorry Jonah.

Our plane delay was really a BLESSING in disguise. I had always wanted to see Seattle, and to have an all expense-paid afternoon in Seattle courtesy of the Department of Defense was fantastic. The Marine Corps certainly gets theirs but sometimes you have little opportunities to get yours too!

We headed back to our hotel after lunch. We took showers, ate some dinner and rested before heading back to the airport. I have to say, it worked out well because we were more well-rested for our journey ahead than we had been the night before. We flew to Anchorage, Alaska first and had a two-hour layover at a tiny airport that we shared with some Japanese people on the only other flight leaving there that night.

We boarded the plane again and traveled most of the night and morning to mainland Japan. We landed at Yakota Air Base and we were able to walk Minnie. I really enjoyed the AMC flight because the food and headphones for movies were free. We probably ate six meals on that plane during our whole trip. It could have been pretty expensive. However, the best part about the AMC flight was that I was able to keep Minnie with me in the passenger cabin the whole way to Okinawa. Most of which, she was underneath a blanket in my lap.

We flew over Mount Fuji on our way to Oki. It was really neat because the very top of the mountain broke through the clouds. I was extremely grateful we were able to see the beautiful snow-capped mountain and the cloud ring around it- it was an unusual sight. We finally arrived at Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa around noon on Saturday (Okinawa time).

Overall, I think the trip from Seattle to Okinawa (layovers included) took about 20 hours. If you flew AMC from San Diego and your flight wasn't delayed, it would take well over 24 hours to get here (counting layovers). This is by Katie Warren's math, which is not extremely creditable but I think that's right...?

Whew! There's our PCS story, minus Minnie's grand plot to stay in California, which is a story in itself and this is sooo long already, so thanks for reading! Or should I say... "Domo Arigato!"      (...Mr. Roboto)

Warrens in HAWAII

Hi Friends and Family!
PCSing overseas is a lot of work, but I finally have all my stuff in Okinawa in a house I can call my own (well, not really) and now I feel settled enough to blog. Please don't make any assumptions from my delay, I will be on the ball now about updating my blog weekly with our latest adventures and proof (pictures).

Well, in February while we were waiting on Jonah to go to SERE school, we decided to be spontaneous and hop on a flight to Oahu, Hawaii! We had a lot of fun staying at the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe Bay and exploring some of the lesser known (better) parts of Oahu, including the North Shore.

One of my favorite things we did was snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. Luckily, this was relatively close to the USMC base, so went a few times here to swim with all the fishes. There was such a variety and it was amazing to me how close all the fish were to the shoreline, it was unbelievably easy. Although, Jonah did talk me into swimming out past the reef to the other side. In-between my lookouts for sharks, (eek!) I was able to see some larger fishes.

Interesting story. We also scammed some scammers to get free tickets to a luau. We were told we could attend a meeting and recieve free tickets to a luau, whether or not we bought the product. Convinced by my husband, we attended an hour-long meeting in which we were pressured into buying something like a timeshare. Refusing as politely as we could, we were then questioned on our financial decisions and told that we were not risky enough to ever be successful financially.  This coming from a scammer in a tacky Hawaiian shirt. Later, we would go home to google this company finding out they have changed their name countless times to avoid lawsuits and have been banned on the Better Business Bureau. Well, we persevered and kept our cool and FINALLY were allowed to leave with our free tickets to Germaine's Luau!! Yay! We definitely earned our $140 prize. That night after some bbq and a few Mai Tai's we were enjoying ourselves and were proud to have scammed the scammers (evil laugh).

The next day we decided to rent body boards and take them to North Shore for some swimming. After scanning the waters, I made a wise decision to take pictures of Jonah attempting to do said activity. This picture shows how big the waves were on North Shore in the winter. The waves and current will take you under for a few somersaults and then spit you back out with just enough time to gasp for breath before doing it all over again! However, North Shore was GORGEOUS and our favorite part of the island.  There is a town called Hale'iwa that is both quaint and charming, with gift shops and eateries. To me, North Shore is more what you picture in your head when you think of Hawaii- slow-paced natural beauty. Downtown and Wakiki Beach just doesn't compare.

We got the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor together and really enjoyed our visit. This photo was taken on the USS Arizona Battleship Memorial. Behind us you can see the USS Missouri Battleship. We toured the USS Bowfin Submarine as well.

There is an incredible beach on Bellows Air Force Station, near MCAS Kaneohe Bay, that is picturesque. We visited this place the day we were leaving. We collected some sand here for my sand project. One of my friends from Bible Study at Whiting Field had a collection of different color sands in glass jars and bottles, each from a different beach they had traveled to together. I thought that was a neat idea, especially since we will be traveling to quite a few different beaches during Jonah's military career.

The Cabanas at Kaneohe Bay are the place to stay if you're looking for inexpensive lodging. It might not be the best place for kids, because you don't have a bathroom in your hotel room. You have to leave the room to go to the communal bathroom, which is sort of like a locker room with showers, toilets and sinks. But the rooms were very clean and comfortable. The view is.... INSANE. I was surprised to leave my simple hotel room and within 100 feet I could take this view in. You could watch different aircraft coming in to land at MCAS Kaneohe Bay and the beach was pretty secluded, with the exception of a few campers. I would definitely recommend this place if you're feeling less luxurious and more adventurous.

We love and miss you guys and next week I'll post about our PCS across the World to Okinawa : )