Our new neighborhood

Taking a break from boxes to take a walk and snap a few pics around the neighborhood...

The blue "HIMARAYA" is a sporting goods store and the yellow box to it's right is one of the main grocery store chains, "San A".

These shops are in a bitty building: "Body Talk" sells "cool & sexy club style" clothes, "Ma-ru maru" is a bar. "Kushikado" sells yakitori which is grilled chicken on a skewer. It smells awesome!! We look forward to giving that place a try!!

There's a new dentist office in our building and there's this one just down the road! LOVE the toothbrushing fish!!

Now, let's head down the seawall....
First, we pass this pink building which houses a hair place, a tax place, "Oh, Yeah! View and Pizza Bar," and "Glamorous-- Cafe and Bar of High Rank"... The one con to our place is both bars are open until 2am.... :/

A look back over your shoulder looks to the end of the seawall path.

But, let's head on to the beach...

A very cool rock cropping with a little tunnel through it!

a look at it from the other side...

Across the entrance to the fishing marina, is a little island with some more cool rock croppings!

Out on the jetty-- the family that fishes together, stays together!

And there she is--- Araha Beach!!
Very empty right now compared to what it will be in just a few months when the weather warms up!!

BIG moving day

So.... yeah..... this was our dining room waiting for the movers.....

These are the piles of stuff from the hutch and other gov't furniture pieces, as well as things we'd put back in original boxes and that kind of thing.....
I have a few wishes from that day--- I wish I'd gotten a picture of all the boxes of our belongings lining the hallway outside our apartment!! I also wish I'd remembered to set aside a pair of shoes to wear.... thankfully, I realized that in time to grab my water shoes before they got packed!! I also wish I'd remembered to set aside my purse!!! We stepped out in the hall at one point and there it was the next thing this little packer was going to be wrapping in newsprint and sticking in the box!!! I quickly said, "Sumimasen!!" (excuse me) and grabbed it. He looked at me, then realized and had the same "oh, no!" look on his face as me!!! WHEW...... Especially since we'd made careful consideration to set aside our laptops and personal things we'd need in the tub so they wouldn't get packed..... guess I didn't think I'd need shoes or my purse containing my ID!!

But, they got it all packed up and loaded up then headed to the Oceanfront Property.......

Rodney met them there while I stayed behind to do the final clean-up of the apartment and he got these great unloading pictures!! They had carried the big stuff up the two flights of stairs, but for the boxes, it was "need is the mother of invention"......

They used a couple of reusable wardrobe boxes (green) and two plastic crates all duct taped together to make that platform on top of the truck and the four guys (one in the truck; one on the balcony) began to pass the boxes up to our balcony!!! He said there were people stopping to take pictures :)

 

 

Rodney said he felt like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice conducting the music as he directed which room for what boxes as they just kept coming in and coming in and coming in......
So, when all was delivered and the movers were gone, here's how things looked....

kitchen/living space

 

the 'garage'

2nd bedroom

living room

I knew those high-on-the-wall outlets would come in handy for something or other!!

 Then after four days of unpacking.....

Broken down boxes and boxes of packing paper and bubble wrap waiting to be picked up!!

kitchen/living space

2nd bedroom

garage

And you know how you almost always have to make little tweaks to a new place.....

This is our pantry! It works so well for that, we also got a second one for all the things we'd had in the hall closet in the tower. Both of those cabinets live in the 'garage'.

In both bathrooms they have installed shower curtain rods. But the one in our bathroom is so high, when we hang the curtain on the hooks, the bottom of the it comes above my knees!! So, I had the idea to check about some chain at the local hardware store and they had the perfect lightweight chain for the job AND it's even tinted blue that coordinates with the curtain!! (It's the little things! ;0)

The dryer is on the shelf above the washer and I have to stand on my toes to reach in there to make sure I've gotten everything out. The filter is in the back of the dryer and I can just barely reach it!! So, then when putting clothes in and out of the washer, there's not room for the washer lid to just be open. At first we would prop it open with the softner or detergent bottle! For awhile we even used a roll of shop towels!! Then when my friend, Jaclyn, came to visit (those posts later!) she had the idea to use a bungee. We had one just the right length and -- voila!! It works great!!

Humidity here really makes mold an issue, so I didn't want to have to close the 'garage' all the time, yet, didn't want to have to see in there all the time, too, knowing it probably would be a bit "busy" in there. So, I decided this split curtain Rodney brought back from Korea last year would be the perfect solution!!

And, since we live in Japan, it's only appropriate to have our Japanese Shisas ("guard dogs") on our front porch. The symbol on the ball is the symbol for Okinawa..........

Now it's just a matter of getting all the details worked out for how to use such a different space.
But, regardless of the smaller space with very little closet and storage space, we are LOVING our
Oceanfront Property in Okinawa!!!! :0)

The moving of the gov't furniture

We'd found our new home, so it was time to get all the paperwork in order and the move date set up. Well, again, we couldn't be moved in just one day. Government furniture is contracted to one moving company, while personal property is contracted with another. So.....

We had to have all the government furniture empty for them to take it; which meant we had piles of stuff sitting around of the things we removed!! We went a step further and had most of it out in the living area. That's two bookshelves, a chest of drawers, two nightstands; also, already in the living area was the desk, buffet/hutch, and table and chairs. The only things we didn't have out there were the two dressers. It actually worked well to put the clothes from the dressers into suitcases!

We thought we were getting the same government furniture, but---SURPRISE!!
Rodney's sister called it "60's government chic"! So, this was our new hutch. In the tower we'd used the hutch more as a display case, but here since we have so little cabinet space, we'll use it for our dishes.

We have two of these nightstands which work well as end tables in the living room.

 
This table actually fits a bit better in this kitchen space than I think the other one would, so I'm ok with it. It has two leaves (not in) that really make it a sizable table!

This desk, on the other hand, just wasn't going to work. The other desk had a file drawer which was just what we needed. Obviously, this one doesn't, so we took it back right away.

Here was our biggest issue with the "new" furniture-- We had two dressers (the other one did not have a mirror) and when I opened the drawers to kind of wipe them out, I noticed this...um.... smell..... Now I knew they'd been stored in a warehouse, so I figured it was storage smell. So, I opened all twelve drawers and went on to other things for awhile. An hour or so later I walked back into the bedroom and about passed out!!! It smelled like a combination of storage/old people (no offense!)/cigarette smoke/ and I don't know what else!!!! It was bad!!! So, I spent the first month trying all kinds of things to get the smell out, but nothing worked!! (Keep in mind we're having to live out of suitcases for the most part!) When I finally called the housing office to learn our options, I found out we'd had a 15 day window to request any trade outs!!!! The desk was one thing to haul downstairs to the car to return ourselves. the dressers a whole other matter!!! So, I kept an eye out on the online yardsale, but didn't really find anything. Then Rodney had the bright idea for us to go check Yellowbox which is basically an Ashley furniture store. Low and behold, they had a chest and dresser of a discontinued model that they wanted rid of!! And, we got an extra "floor model" discount, too!!! And, as if it couldn't be any sweeter, for a small fee, they'll haul government furniture back to the warehouse!!!

Now we have bedroom furniture that does NOT stink!!!  AND we were able to finally unpack those suitcases!! :0)

Can't you just see the JOY on our faces?!?!!?  ;0}

Oceanfront Property in Okinawa

After all our looking, we decided this just had to be the place!!!

This is the streetside view of our building. Our unit is on the right-hand side, middle balconys. Alaha Dental Clinic is on the ground floor. Next door to the dentist office was empty, but now houses a clothing store.

The entrance to the parking lot of A.P. Manhattan (A.P. stands for apartment!)... That's my little green Funcargo straight across the lot.

Our place is on the 3rd floor (2nd balcony up).

Unit 301
The wooden slat door behind the open front door opens to the master bedroom balcony.

Looking back at the entry...
The cabinets on the right are shoe shelves! Since the Japanese don't wear shoes in the house, they have them right inside the door.

The laundry 'room' contains the guest sink (You can see the corner of the basin.). Straight back is the guest shower room, which actually has a small tub! The guest toilet room is on the right directly across from the sink.

First glimpse....
R to L: kitchen bay, 3rd bedroom, 2nd bedroom, Master

Kitchen bay

The small 3rd bedroom will be our "garage"!

2nd bedroom

Master bedroom

Master bath

View off the Master bedroom balcony

Looking down into the parking lot from the Master balcony. That's Rodney's little red "toy" car in the left-hand corner of the parking lot!! 

Our building from the seawall....

Then it was time to get all the paperwork signed and the move scheduled!!!