Konnichiwa! Sorry it's taken so long...

Finally, things have slowed down enough for us to write and be a part of this fun blog! Great job creating it Andy & Sarah, love the dark background! Caleb, sorry to hear about your surgery... ouch. I liked the pics from your day trip. I'll attach a few of our photos. Just to give everyone an update: we moved into our new place, and now have cell phones! We stayed at the Navy Lodge, (a hotel on base), for about 9 days, and after being on the road for 4 weeks before then, we were ready to have a permanent home. Three kids in one hotel room was a little crazy, but we survived!We got a place on base, a three bedroom apartment on the top floor of a 9 floor building pretty close to the center of base. We have a beautiful view of the green mountainside, and the ocean (Tokyo Bay) right beside it, and it's pretty roomy by Japanese standards (1,600 sq. ft). Initially, we wanted to live off base, but the places were much smaller without good heating or cooling and we'd have to pay a bit more. It's nice not having a mortgage or utility bill and having the convenience of everything we need so close (especially with little ones). The other nice thing is that the Community Center is right across the street from us. That's where we're going to sign our family up for some fun cultural classes. Like a language class for me, a karate class for Marissa, and Sean wants to take a Taiko drumming class (finally he'll have time for a hobby). They even have toddler ballet for Kelea! But we don't want to stay on base too much, there's so much to see and do outside the gates. :) Last week during our orientation they showed us how to navigate using the trains so we took a "field trip" 20 minutes north to Kamakura (where most of these pics were shot). It's an ancient city with lots of temples and shrines. In the top photo, you see me washing my hands (most people do that to show respect before approaching the temple), but I was just trying to wash the sticky ice cream off my hands. I had been carrying a cone behind my back and it had been running down my hands. Sean told me after we crossed the street onto the temple grounds that it's impolite to eat anything there and they didn't have any trash cans. So I tried to hide it and occasionally would take a big bite in a corner somewhere, but most of it ended up in my hand. :) Right now we're not doing anything exciting, just unpacking our suitcases, buying little necessities like a broom, trash cans, towels and food. The bulk of our personal belongings comes next Wednesday, and we get cable internet/TV tomorrow. So, life's getting back to normal, as much as it can be now that we're in Japan! We've gone out in town to eat a few times and Sean had us try something called "takoyaki" which consists of a chunk of octopus fried into a round dough ball. Kelea and Marissa liked it, but I just bit into the doughy part and left the middle octopus part alone. Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to bite into the middle. :)
Last weekend in our attempt to simplify we bought a little Mazda SUV, a '96 with about 40 thousand miles on it, which only cost us $1800. It has A/C and a 3rd row, so it will be just fine for us while we're here. But we had to get the title transferred over, which required a trip to Yokohama about 30 miles north of here on the way to Tokyo. So we all hopped in the car for a half day adventure! It cost about 20 bucks in tolls, and it took us longer than expected to get back because of our stop at the IKEA furniture store. It was jam packed with people because it was a national holiday. Who knew that Japanese people would like Swedish furniture as much as I do! We only got lost a couple of times--if Sean didn't read Japanese, it would have been a total fiasco!! Everyone is so polite here, and the locals like to comment on our kids' curly hair. All in all, we're having a good time, and look forward to having some of you come visit us! Sorry this post was so long, but we haven't emailed since we got here. Next one will be shorter. Love you all!