WE ARE NO LONGER HOMELESS!

You read correctly; we have a home. It's a 3-bedroom apartment on the 4th floor of a hotel. You walk in the front door, there's a desk person, an elevator, and on one side of the building it's hotel rooms, and on the other side there are apartments! So there's also a restaurant and a spa on the ground floor! Oh yeah baby - stumble downstairs in my pajama pants for pedicures and massages - loving THAT!

It's 1/2 a block from the beach, and a walk away from convenience stores, restaurants, a fantastic park (with a skate park, playground, and tennis courts), and a very short drive to shopping and other stuff. We have 2 parking spaces underneath the building, and enough square footage to put our big American bed and couch. Not a large kitchen, but we'll make do.

So here's the complicated process: Our household goods are still being shipped here, due at the end of July. So we need to borrow beds and a dining room table and a couch for a month. It takes a week to get that stuff. So we arranged to move in on Monday 7/2. We have to start up Internet service - that's separate, and they don't know if we'll have to use DSL or fiberoptic (fiberoptic is ideal because it's blazing fast) - depends how close we are to the "switch" or whatever other lingo there is involved here - that's Craig's gig. The housing company we got the place through arranges to start up gas, water & electricity. We are going Saturday to do a walk-through. We also need to arrange to get a satellite from the Military, as well as a fridge and a washing machine. It's all very drawn out & complicated- oh, we still have to find me a car too! Add to all this the whole converting-yen-to-dollars stuff and whatnot. Lots of money and hassle and confusion.

Mia, for one (Craig & I too) are very happy not to have to search anymore, I'll tell ya!

2 more things - 1. Okinawans loooooove vending machines. You'd never die of dehydration here if you always kept 110 yen in your pocket for the iced tea/coffee/soda/juice machines that are EVERYWHERE. Pictures to come.
2. this place has the cleanest bathrooms on the PLANET! I went into a convenience store bathroom (like 7-Eleven) and it had a STUNNING bathroom - nicer & cleaner than some homes I've visited in the US. These folks aren't necessarily rich, but they're clean! gotta go sign a lease!