The Fit.

Here's Heather pulling our sweet looking 2006 Bright Blue Honda Fit 1.3S out of the "garage".

Obviously, I wasnt offered a lot of choices in color. So I took Blue over Pink, and Copper. In a country where 90 percent of the cars on the road are black, white, or silver, this one is easy to find in the parking lot, and moderately visible to the nutcase drivers here who will pull out in front of you on a daily basis. One note on the "garage", is that we really have underground parking, meaning we have to raise one of these car racks/elevators up and down to get our car out from under the one on top each time we come and go. Very inconvenient for the person underneath as you have to do all the raising and lowering. Currently we are "borrowing" one topside from an empty apartment while we wait on one to hopefully become permanently available.

Sunday afternoon Misc.

Just a quick update to let you know that we worked to fix the pictures link today, moving it from snapfish to Yahoo photos, which should work for everyone. Maybe there is no need for registration unless you want to sign in and download some of the pics. Just click the link over in the left column. Sorry for the earlier trouble.
Heather had a Dr. visit on Saturday and he gave her wrist a thumbs up and told her just to take it easy for the next week or 2. Good news indeed.
After screwing up and missing the time on the OSU vs. Tenn. game, I managed to get out of bed this am to catch the second half of the Memphis game. Had a phone chat with Matt, Drew and others who were enjoying it at the Bogey. I must say I liked the outcome. Go Bucks!
Japan did have another jishin (earthquake) today that was a 6.7. Second one this week. It was cenetered and caused a bit of damage out on the west coast. No damage in this area, but it did roll the apartment back and forth pretty good.

Speaking of Pizza

Im sure that it's obvious from the pictures we are posting, no ones going hungry here in Utsunomiya. While we already dearly miss our Columbus pizza favorites Enricos, Emilios, and the Bogey, we have managed to find some, I guess you would call it reasonable pie here. With pizza names like "Ocean Cream", "Garlic Punch", "Potato Country", "Chiki-Teri", "The New Funky", and "Ebi-Mayo Bingo", how could you possibly go wrong? Ahhh, and we cant forget Heathers favorite, "Casual Sausage" :). Believe it or not the Domino's here is actually pretty good. We generally wouldnt touch "Doms" in the States, but like most American chains you find here in Japan, it is actually better than at home. Its usually pricey, but it arrives to you looking like it does in the pictures, and the taste is pretty good(Not like the box it arrived in). Of course looking at the menu's below you have to notice pizzas like the "Tuna Mayoler", the locals can put some pretty whacky things on their pie. Ordering by phone is quite the challenge and unless you like, seafood, corn, mayonaise or other odds and ends, you must order your "American Special" with care.
http://www.chicago-pizza.com/menu/index.html
http://www.dominos.jp/items/combinations.html
http://www.pizza-la.co.jp/menu_e/menu110_pub.html

A few friends drop bye on a Thursday for Pizza and Beverages

Rick , Mark, Shawn, and Takahira drop bye for dinner.

Rick B. and family will also depart back to the US next week.

A few pics of our apartment:

So long to Dan and Kelly:

A little Samarai feast and some Karaoke with Dan and Kelly on their final Utsunomiya Evening. Best of luck to them on their return to Ohio.

Meet our Language Teachers:

Out to dinner with our Nihongo Sensei's: Kevin's teacher Shinobu on the left and Heather's teacher Kyoko on the right.

Harley visits during a business trip

Small incident in my first week

Ouch! Yes, I was the first casualty! Yes the beer is much stronger here in Japan and it could possibly make you fall down and break bones if you consume too much!

So here we are, the first post.

To bring you up to date, I arrived in Japan on February 7th and Heather followed 10 days later on the 17th. Thus far our time has been spent getting acquainted with our new home and its surroundings. As of this weekend we finally finished unpacking and have our apatto whipped into order. It is a nice size for us, is close to the center of town and the train station, and thus far we are happy with the selection we made. While the apartment is about 8 years old, we also like the nice views it provides of the city and the surrounding mountains.
I started with intensive Japanese 4 hours a day 3 days a week for the first month and I must say it was quite difficult. Now I will proceed with 4 hours a week and have of course daily immersion. I am learning quickly how little of this language I have mastered for the amount of training I have had over the last couple of years. Heather is also settling in to weekly classes, which consist more of day-to-day survival training. We have different sensei’s both of which are excellent.
Myself and some of the wives have been teaching Heather about the many good restaurants and local watering holes, and many of the other families already here on assignment have been showing us both the way around town. Heather has made some friends and is also tutoring a couple of the locals in English, and will soon start with a small group of 6-9 year olds.
With the weather already warming it will soon be time for the Sakura to start blossoming bringing on the “O Hanami” season of Cherry Blossom festivals. The parks will be full of drunken revelers as they take this party season very seriously. I am sure we will be right in the mix on that.
I’m also looking forward to the warm weather and I hope to purchase my motorcycle soon. Driving here daily is a chore and bicycling and motorcycling are much better choices for daily transportation. The surrounding rivers and mountains seem to offer some choice trails for offroading. Sorry for the length of this post, but it is sort of my test of the new blog. As we get things adjusted, Heather claims she will become the Key Blogger from here on out. See ya! kevin