All of our internal clocks are still making the slow adjustment to 16 hours in the future. It's been a lot of waking up at 1 AM falling back asleep at 2:30 AM and waking up again at 6 AM wanting to go back to sleep until 9 AM and being spent like we pulled an "ole college all-nighter" by 4 PM.
But waking up this morning was no trouble at all. About 7 AM we heard a very loud pressure-washer sound against the window, which brought both my husband and I quickly out of our beds. The downpour was immense, and the grey scene made it nearly impossible to remember the sunshine of days past. Knowing we had scheduled two house tours for today, my husband and I just looked at one another and said "this is going to be fun." We went back and forth for a while about who would be better equipped to run in the rain to the NEX to purchase an umbrella or two. But being the forward thinker he is, hubby asked the folks at the front desk of the Navy Lodge about it and discovered they had loaner umbrellas. Great news!
The mist/fog/humidity/rain obscured the landscape like I have never seen. The camera is pointed right at a big green mountain in the picture below. The mountain is actually only (at most) 2 miles away as the crow flies. THAT'S how much moisture was in the air.
We left the lodge around 9 AM and walked across the puddle-riddled madness that was the base. Hubby was a superhero, carrying Aria the whole way, as she "helped" by holding the umbrella (which he was, of course, already holding). At one point we went into the food court just to escape the rain for five minutes. My right side was dry and my left side was soaked, because I was trying to keep my purse (slung over my right shoulder) dry.
Funny discovery... breaking in leather shoes in wet weather is less painful than breaking them in any other way. However, the slipping and sliding of bare feet inside wet shoes makes walking rather difficult. Blisters and scrapes still happened.
The first realtor we met was very kind. She drove us up a series of terrifyingly narrow and winding roads up the side of a mountain. Out of nowhere she stops the car with a jolt, throws it into reverse, and backs into a tiny parking space. Just like that we were at the first house on our list of potential rentals. It was quaint, and certainly a home we thought we could be content with. But you never jump on the first thing you see. So we decided to wait. While talking with the realtor, asking if she had anything with two bathrooms, she told us about a listing that was literally coming available for the first time at noon today. We asked to see it later in the day, and she said as long as the base housing office was alright with it, she was happy to show it to us.
Aria impressed the realtor as she exuberantly sang Japanese children's songs in the back seat, pronouncing each "muusuunde, hiraiite, te o utte, muusuunde" with perfect diction. Her streak of impressing every Japanese person she meets is still going strong.
We had 45 minutes after being dropped back off at the base before we saw our second realtor, and second house. This one was a little further from the base, in a more rural(ish) part of town, very reminiscent of Goshogawara, where my grandmother and uncle lived. This was the "nastukashii" feeling I had been waiting for; that feeling of comforting familiarity. This, save for the slightly more tropical and mountainous landscape, was the Japan I remembered from my childhood visits to that little city in northern Honshu. But the quaint surroundings did not detract from the very modern and lovely home we toured. It was just about as perfect as a house could be. A home my husband and I agreed we would be proud to host parties at. A home we felt we could be very happy living in. Almost instantly, the first, very darling home we toured, had been trumped.
We were dropped back off at the base by the second realtor around 1 PM. As I stepped out of the car... I realized my purse was missing. I had left it at the second house! I felt horrible. But the realtor, in a show of incredibly accomodating show of compassion, rushed back to the house and retrieved it for me in less than 30 minutes time. She even begged me to check the contents of the purse to make sure all was as I had left it; a sign she wanted me to know she was trustworthy. Without any knowledge of whether it was culturally acceptable, I asked if I could pay her at least the gas money for her trouble. She insisted it was fine, and she only wanted to make sure we were okay having waited on her for her return with my valuable possessions. SUCH graciousness is so very rarely seen elsewhere, and is so very classically Japanese. It never fails to humble me.
We had about 20 minutes before the first realtor was to arrive to take us to our third house of the day. The base housing office employees were apparently stunned by our expediency and proactiveness. Some families barely manage to tour two houses in a week, and we were on our third one of the day. Go us!
The third house was by far the furthest from the base, but also the largest, and in the prettiest neighborhood. It was beautiful and stately, already equipped with wonderful amenities like a refrigerator and oven (something the other two houses lacked).
We were left with a lot to consider, and no mental energy left to consider it, so we called it a day and headed back to the base. The rain had stopped, the skies had opened, and the sun was smiling down... aggressively driving the sensation of 175% humidity home. I would have looked around at how beautiful the mountains looked now that I could see them again, but I was too busy trying to find the nearest indoor space to duck into. So I will provide pictures another day.
Realizing we needed to stock up our pantry and fridge we made a quick trip to the NEX and Commisary. At which point my husband noticed many people grabbing non-perishables and palates of water. "Maybe this typhoon headed our way is going to be a bigger deal than we thought," he said. So we followed suit, and loaded up on the necessities in case the storm gets rough. Aria helped out (very enthusiastically) by grabbing random packages of Polish sausage, boxes of Aunt Jemima pancake mix, and cans of peas and throwing them into the cart. Contrary to the stereotype of a two year old just pulling everything off of every shelf, she was surprisingly selective and seemingly purposeful in what she chose. That is not to say the majority of her selections weren't returned to their shelves moments later with a look of bafflement on our parental faces. We did, however, end up buying a few things she picked out.
The rest of the evening was quiet and calm, with hotdogs and boxed potatoes au gratin (both courtesy of Aria) as our dinner. Honestly it hit the spot just to sit down in comfy pants, eat unpretentious food, and relax after our action packed day.
Given that the typhoon is only getting closer, I think the action is only going to get more exciting from here.
But, leather shoes can shrink as they dry--shoe trees or feet are the best solutions.
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