A lot has been happening these past few weeks besides all of our explorings.  A couple of weeks ago we got our “express” shipment.  It contained mostly the rest of Chris’ work clothes, his office/work supplies, and best of all BIKES!  At least Chris’ bikes – 1 road bike, 1 fixie bike and our tandem.  Chris very quickly hooked up with the local bikers, all seem to be fellow engineers in the facilities group here on the base so in between rain storms he’s gotten to go out for a couple of rides.  I can’t seem to catch a good picture of him ’cause he takes off so fast.

Here’s Chris doing a little cycle cross as he traverses a small landslide with his new riding buddy after one of the recent deluges.

Another accomplishment of ours is that we both passed our driving test and have our Japanese drivers licenses.  And we bought a car.*

This was an accomplishment as driving is on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side.  The secret to remembering how to stay in your lane especially when making turns is to “Keep your hiney on the liney.”  We practiced driving on the base a bit and then ventured off base.  We even drove north yesterday to Otake to check out a  bike shop which we never found but we did have some great oysters at the Oyster Queen.  Even with the American name no one spoke English and the menus were all in Japanese.  Where would we be without Google Translate!

Then it was back to Iwakuni to do errands.

Later we had dinner with biking buddy Bill and his family at their favorite Italian restaurant here in Iwakuni.  It was very good but so interesting being in an Italian restaurant with the menu’s in Japanese and an Italian decor with Japanese lanterns and other touches of Japan.

We’ve also found a house to rent.  Tomorrow we sign the final papers and pay an exorbitant amount of money upfront and move in on Tuesday with temporary furniture from the base.  Our household goods should arrive sometime in mid September.  So stay tuned for more house pictures.

*We just took the car back to the dealership to have some work done on it since it wasn’t running very well by the end of our travels yesterday and we weren’t sure if we’d make it home.   Just thought you’d appreciate the maintenance department.