News from Smith Point - Hurricane Ike

I don't know whether to consider our news from Smith Point good news or bad news.  In this terrible storm we fared poorly, but much better than some.  It could have been so much worse.  We appreciate all the support we have gotten in the form of good wishes, prayers, and for our friends at the Point for their help in preparation for the storm and especially in providing news of the aftermath.  We don't know yet the full extent of the damage to our home.  We're anticipating that the upstairs might be OK, but the downstairs will now be open air.  The Anderson's moved our truck and trailer to higher ground, but the surge was higher than expected and the truck filled with water to the dash.  We're planning on Troy returning soon to work on clean up and salvage, but don't know yet when he should travel as the electricity may not be restored to the Point for up to 4 weeks.  

- Vanessa   

Thanks to Bill Pirsch for the photos.  We appreciate all the information we can get from so far away.

Pictures from Smith Point - Hurricane Ike

This is our place.  The downstairs is completely washed out and we lost almost all of the exterior walls.  The air conditioner is gone.  That red mower in front came from someone else's place.  The pile of debris is huge, as the trees adjacent to our house must have filtered the flow of water.  We don't know yet if the interior stairs are intact.  Louis's house across the street is in similar condition with everything downstairs washed away.  A dead cow was in front.
This is Ralph's house next door to us.  He also lost everything downstairs.  All the leaves were blown out of the nice tree that we look out at from our living room.  Those may be our appliances next to his house!  
Amazingly, most of the pier survived.
This is where the two houses that faced the pier were.  They are completely wiped out - even the pilons of the one on the left.  Wow.  The Picket's home is the one behind on the right.  Although it looks intact, it was knocked off the pilons and will have to be demolished.  That happened to quite a few of the homes.

This is almost unrecognizable to me as the Anderson's beautiful home.  The down stairs bathroom, exterior and interior steps are gone.  It is so, so sad.

Our Friends in Japan

Hello again! It's been a few days since my first entry. We received some of our stuff from the US yesterday so that was nice. The Army allows you to send some of your things in advance of your household goods. We put together some clothes, bedding, towels, toiletries, dishes, cutlery, etc. We had been using paper plates and some plastic dishes that the Army lent us so it is nice to use our own stuff. We have some friends here in Japan. Some of our closest friends, the Mizushima family, we met the first time we came to Japan in 1994. I was a teacher at a Japanese high school and Hidemi was the head Japanese teacher there. We hit it off right away and soon became friends. We had many, many wonderful times with them. Hidemi's wife, Masako is an excellent cook and would prepare feasts in their home. They came to the US a few times and have traveled to Europe, Vietnam and other interesting places. Hidemi is a poet and Masako is a piano teacher. They have two grown children, Yoko and Ushio. Yoko has lived in Jacksonville, FL for many years. Ushio lives in Tokyo and leads a rock band in his spare time. (I think the band is called Stewart. They just released an album that can be found at Virgin records.)

When we arrived in Tokyo, they were the first people we visited. They invited us to their home. It is unusual to be invited to the homes of the Japanese but we are like family to them. The Japanese do not entertain at home because typically the homes are very small and crowded. The norm is for people to meet at restaurants or parks or karaoke bars. So we have always felt fortunate to be invited to the Mizushima home for some of Masako's cooking. We took the train and when we stepped out of the train station gate, Hidemi was standing there. He said that he had predicted we would be on that very train and therefore had just arrived but we knew he must have been waiting for a while. It was a short walk to his home and it was a great feeling walking into that familiar and warm house. Masako was waiting at the door and greeted us with a huge smile and hugs for all. Masako's 97 year old father lives with them and Masako is his nurse. He greeted us with an enormous smile and said, in English, "Hello, welcome!" He had been practicing this for several days. It was very sweet. He is a wonderful man who loves to laugh and smile. We call him Grandfather. We stayed for about 6 hours and ate some of our favorite dishes, like burdock root and beef, shrimp and crab croquettes, tofu with soy, green onions and fish flakes, grilled salmon, onigiri, and more. Of course there was some ice cold Kirin beer. Hidemi and I love to drink together. We always have a good time and this occasion was no exception. Ushio arrived just as we finished our meal so we got to have a good visit with him too. It was a splendid evening for all. Maddie even enjoyed the food and liked riding the trains. We made some plans to get together again and called it a night. Maddie had her first day of school the next day so we didn't want to stay too late.

I wanted to say a little bit about drinking and driving in Japan. The blood alcohol level that will get you in trouble in the states in .08. In Japan, it is .03. If you have one beer, then that pretty much puts you over the edge. If you are caught, they take your license away and fine you about $10,000.00. It's even worse on the base. They do random breathalizer tests when you enter the gate. If you have ANY alcohol in your system then you are considered DWI. Even if it is less than .03! So the basic rule is that you do NOT drink and drive. EVER. In fact, you don't even drive the day after you have been drinking so as to ensure you don't have it in your system. At first I thought it was rather strict but after you get used to it you understand what it is all about. There are so many people walking and riding bikes! You have to be completely aware of everything around you when you are driving. It would be a nightmare if people were driving after drinking. It's pretty easy to plan ahead with a designated driver or just refuse to drink if you have to drive. Thank goodness for the trains! I guess that's all I have to say about that.

That's it for now. Love to all.

Maddie with her new teacher

With the group on first day of school

Beer vending machine

At our new home!

On the train

Maddie in billeting

On the plane

At the airport in SFO

At the airport in IAH

Happy Birthday to Troy

Welcome to our blog! We decided to create this blog for our family and friends. We will do our best to write about our experiences living in Japan and share personal stories of our lives.

Today is my birthday. I am now 44 years old today so I figured it would be a good time to reflect on our recent move to Japan.

It all started with Vanessa posting her resume on the DoDDs website. We thought we would see what happened. Our first (and only) call came from Camp Zama, Japan. They were looking for an Assessor, which was what Vanessa wanted. She got the job and we were scheduled to make our international move in 4 weeks. We actually got real busy and were ready to go but some passport issues (and Fedex issues) caused some delays and we were finally on our way about 5 weeks later.

We put our house on the market and left for Japan. Our dog, Jelly Bean was put in a kennel cage and we all flew to Tokyo via San Francisco. We were met by the principal of the school and were loaded in a van to go to Camp Zama. We tried to get Jelly Bean to take a bathroom break before we loaded in the van but he was too excited and couldn't go. It took us about 2 or 3 hours to drive to the base so it had been 27 and a half hours since he last went to the bathroom. When we got there, Jelly Bean hopped out and headed to the first tree. He went for about 5 minutes straight!

Our first 10 days were spent in billeting. It was basically a hotel room. It was a pretty good place to get over the jet lag. Maddie did great and tried to stay up at night so she could sleep until morning. Maddie was great for the entire move. She really amazed us with her positive attitude and enthusiasm for this move. It was hard on all of us but she never, not once, complained or expressed regret. Jelly Bean had to stay in a dog kennel with all of the other dogs while we were in billeting. The kennel was about a mile or so away from us and was up a very big hill. The employees at the kennel were not allowed to walk the dogs due to an incident where someone was bitten by a dog that turned out to have an ear infection. As a result, we had to walk him ourselves so he could go to the bathroom. It was tough but we all got through it.

After 10 days, we moved into our on base housing. It is a two bedroom, one bath house. It is small but we are a cozy family and we will get used to it. We are waiting on our furniture to be shipped to us from the US. The Army provides any furniture we need in the meantime. We have been settling into the home and getting used to the surroundings. We will be glad when our furniture arrives!

Madeleine started Japanese school this week, on Sept. 1st. She has to walk to school and back because they do not allow the kids to ride bikes or be driven by car. This keeps things simple at the school in the mornings and after school. Maddie meets a group of kids at the base gate every morning and they all walk together. She likes the school and has a Japanese language teacher that works with her 4 hours a week. We also hired a personal tutor once a week to help her with her school work and the language. We decided we would learn Japanese as a family but Maddie will be immersed so we hope she will pick it up quickly. We are very proud of her!

Vanessa is enjoying her new job. She is fitting right in and the other teachers and assessors are good to work with. She gets to go to Okinawa for a week (next week) and meet with all of the new assessors and get some training. I hope she also has some time to relax on the beach. She has worked so hard for so long. She has been absolutely amazing during this whole international move. She has stayed positive the entire time. (I wish the same could be said for me!) I'm so thankful I have her in my life.

Well, I'm ready to end it here for now. There is more to tell but I will pick it back up later. We have met with our Japanese friends and have done some exploring in the area. We have a trip planned for Madeleine's birthday that I'll let you know about. I want to thank our wonderful family and friends. Everyone was so supportive of our decision to move half way around the world. You were all great and we really appreciate it. --Troy