Tsunami signs

Tsunami warning sign

I've noticed some new signs around Okinawa (the one pictured above is at the Tengan post office near Camp Courtney).

Although Okinawa barely felt the effects, the signs were prompted by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.  Red signs are for water levels 5m and below, yellow are 6 to 19m, and blue are for 20m and above (approximately 16ft, 20ft to 62ft, and 66ft respectively.

To give a little perspective, waves were measured at 10m (~33ft) at the Sendai Airport and the highest were almost 38m (~125ft) at Miyako.  Water went up to 6 miles inland.  While the Tohoku earthquake was an unprecedented magnitude, the following tsunami was not the largest in Japanese history.  In fact, Japan averages one tsunami every 7 years.  Being aware of your surroundings and knowing what to do in a tsunami definitely can't hurt (here's a guide from Kadena).

I believe housing agencies are required to tell tenants if they're living in a tsunami zone, but just in case you're not sure what zone you're in, this guide has detailed maps of the island (pages 8-18).

What's that smell?

Sometime back in November or December we noticed a funky smell in our house.  The smell went away after a couple of days, so we didn't think anything of it.

Well, a couple weeks ago the smell was back.  Big time.  I decided it was time do a little investigating.  I emptied out the yuki-shita (the below floor storage in our kitchen), pulled the plastic tub up, prayed that the chick from The Grudge wasn't down there, and climbed in.

The empty yuki-shita

And discovered at least 2" of standing, skanky water. (Thankfully there's a little wooden platform I could crouch on and I didn't get wet.)  Looking around I spotted a little drain in the wall that was clogged.  Apparently the drain molded over, trapping water in the crawl space and creating a swamp below our feet.  Wonderful.

Foundation vent and drain

See that tiny drain in the picture above?  Yeah, who knew you had to check on that.


At first, I thought the foundation vents had let rainwater in.  Which probably makes you wonder, why would homes have such vents in the first place?  Traditional homes need air flow to keep the house safe and comfortable.  Back in the day, families would build a fire to cook and warm the living space.  A fire means smoke, definitely not something you want building up in your house.  So the vents are designed to draw air up from the crawlspace to keep smoke from accumulating.  Now people use kerosene heaters that can also create fumes.  Plus, Japanese homes usually don't have any insulation or central heating. The vent's second purpose is to help keep the temperature comfortable.  Instead of relying on a/c in the summer, cold air from the crawl space helps to cool the rest of the house.

Later the work crew discovered our bathroom sink had a leak.  The leak must have been slow enough to let mold grow (not a difficult task around here).  Then maybe a combination of rain from the typhoons and water from the sink backed up.

Our foundation/crawl space

The crawlspace is maybe 3 feet at the tallest.  Definitely felt bad for the crew who had to fix the leak and clean the swamp up.  But now our house doesn't smell like an old aquarium, so I'm happy.  And I'm definitely checking that drain from now on!

Pink flowers

One of the funny things from our trip to Agena park, we found pink plastic flowers from a local car lot attached to a tree on the top of the castle.

Now whenever I look out our window at the castle, all I can see is the pink flowers!

How did I not notice that before??

Our tatami room

My favorite room in our house is the tatami room.  Tatami are traditional Japanese mats made out of straw and placed on the floor like carpeting.  Although our tatami are faded and well-worn, the room often smells like sweet and clean like grass.

Looking into the tatami room from the living room
(the genkan is the door on the right)

Horigotatsu

Our tatami room has a low table with an area below the floor called a horigotatsu (掘り炬燵).  The space underneath the table is a comfortable place for our legs and has a built in heater.  In the winter, a futon blanket can be placed between the top of the table and the frame.  We don't have central heating (or basically any type of insulating on the house) so we have to use individual heaters.  Makes more sense than trying to heat or cool all three floors like our townhouse in Virginia but can also be a pain to turn on space heaters throughout the house.  Although it doesn't get cold enough in Okinawa, in mainland Japan the table and blanket is a cozy gathering place for the family.

Edit:  Here's a great article about using the kotatsu and winter weather by You, Me, and a Tanuki.

Below table heater

Our kotatsu table is removable (the top and frame are stored in the space below, with extra tatami mats to place over the opening in the floor).  Although we haven't had any friends or family come visit yet, switching the tatami room from a formal dining room to a guest room would be very convenient.

Another nice feature of using tatami, the mats are completely removable.  Not too long ago, a potty training toddler had an accident in the tatami room.  Even after thoroughly drying and cleaning the mats, a faint smell lingered.  So I pulled up the mat and put it out in the sun for the afternoon.  No more pee-pee smell.

Back and front of tatami

Speaking of cleaning, tatami do require some special maintenance   First, make sure you frequently check under any objects for mold.  Here is one example of mold growing under a futon mattress.  When we first moved in, I used the tatami room to store all of our boxes and packing paper.  A few months later I had a nasty surprise waiting for me underneath all those boxes - the dreaded kabi (mildew).  I also take the extra mats out of the closet and make sure they're aired out from time to time.

Tatami cleaner

To clean the mats, I first vaccuum making sure to follow the direction of the straw.  Next I break out the Swiffer and put a special cleaning pad on it.  I found ours at Makeman but I'm sure other stores like Aeon have them too.  So far, I've been able to get up every mess the boys have put down with just a little scrubbing and sunlight (but we're careful not to allow red wine or other stain-makers into the room).

The mats are spendy to replace (I think around $150 to $200 per basic mat (our room has 4 regular sized mats and 4 customs mats, so you do the math)), but I try not to freak out too much about the tatami.  Much like carpeting, the mats need to be replaced from time to time. (And so do the shoji screens, another part of our washitsu, which I'll cover in a future post.)

The tatami room is a special treat while living in Japan.  I know not every family is lucky enough to enjoy such a traditional space and love using ours as much as possible.

Exactly!

Jenn from Maybe If You Just Relax totally nailed NaBloMoPo for me!  The exciting parts of my Friday was buying holiday soap at the commissary and taking the boys to their check ups.

(Although to be fair, these soaps smell ah-mazing!  I want to eat my hands after using the gingerbread one.)

(And bonus points to Hubby for noticing the new soaps when he got home from work.)

The boys are doing great.  They're a little on the chubby side (especially Owen who's 91st percentile for weight and only 15th for height) so we'll be cutting back on the juice and milk.  But they're cruising through their milestones and are perfectly healthy little troublemakers.

Isaac carb-loading for a long day of ornament snatching

Our genkan

Welcome to our house!

Looking into our genkan

We have a Japanese style home, so the first room after the front door is called the genkan (玄関).  The genkan is an entryway where the transition from the unclean outside to the clean inside takes place.  Shoes are removed before entering the rest of the home and there's also a place for umbrellas, bags and jackets.  (I'm always surprised at how fast and elegantly Japanese people can remove their shoes!  Even people like the movers or handy men just seem to pop right out of their work shoes and right into the house.)

Getting used to taking shoes off at the front door was a little strange at first.  But after seeing how much cleaner our floors are, I'm definitely a fan of leaving our shoes and dirt in the genkan.  Now wearing shoes inside seems as weird as wearing them in bed.

Our 下駄箱 (getabako - shoe closet)

We aren't super strict about the genkan.  If a guest feels more comfortable wearing shoes, that's cool.  We don't usually wear slippers or socks in the house either (I can barely get my 3 year old to keep his pants on, I'm not going to fight him over socks).  And sometimes I'll cheat (there's no way I'm going to try putting my high heels on after getting into Spanx, bustier, and ball gown!)  But we generally try to stick with the tradition as much as possible and never allow shoes or slippers in the tatami room.

Definitely another part of Japanese life that I'll miss when we have to move.

Christmas time is almost here

New decorations!

Seems wrong to already be thinking about Christmas shopping.  I just took down the Halloween stuff a week ago and haven't even hung up some Thanksgiving decor.

Usually I'm the person complaining about stores putting out Halloween supplies in August and Christmas stuff before the end of October.  But last year we waited until the proper time in December to buy new holiday decorations and they were already sold out.  I learned my lesson that if you see something you want, you'd better buy it!

Last year we also bought a fake, pre-lit, white and iridescent tree because I didn't think we could get the real thing here.  And the only unbreakable, toddler-proof ornaments we had were glitter-covered white and silver.  White and sparkly on top of white and sparkly basically made the tree look like Edward Cullen.  By the time I realized how pathetic our tree looked, there was nothing left on base on change up the look.

So this year when ornaments hit the shelf in October, I bought!!

We're doing traditional green and red for the first time (we usually have a silver and blue theme).  I kept the price tag as low as possible with one big-ass tub of plastic bobbles and I'm hoping to find some cheap stockings and garland for the rest of the house.  I'll probably end up ordering those decorations from Target.

Speaking of shopping online, I'll also be ordering all the gifts after payday on the 15th.  I don't want to wait too long and not have the presents delivered in time.  I've heard the generally rule is to have everything in the mail by December 1st.

Can't wait to see the new ornaments hung up!  Having a fake tree just sitting in a closet and the Christmas channel on Pandora radio makes decorating early very tempting.

Spooky decorations

As I said last post, we're pinching pennies to help rebuild our savings (although space a helped make the trip home affordable, it still took a good chunk out of bank account).  To help get the house into a festive mood, I made a couple of projects I found around the web.

First up, Martha Stewart's witch's curtain:

Decorations in the living room

I bought a box of black garbage bags then cut them up and stretched them out while watching TV on night.  I had so many from just the one box that we hung the curtains up around our living room.  Fun and totally cheap!

Another garbage bag craft is How About Orange's spider webs.  Although I didn't get around to it this year, definitely something to keep in mind for next Halloween.

We also skipped carving pumpkins this year.   Instead I snagged a couple of plastic jack-o-lanterns at the BX.  The real pumpkins quickly went bad last year, no one can really see our porch, and the boys don't know they're missing out on anything.

I moved an Ikea light from Owen's room into the living room and used some old purple party lights to add the final touches.  And voila!  An entire room decorated for under $20

Spooky!

On base housing?

Early Tuesday we got a phone call letting us know that we were at the top of the base housing list.  I had completely forgotten we were on the list.  We could view the available house and needed to make a decision to accept or decline by the next morning.

We set off in Praripoon's downpour to check out the Camp McTureous townhouse.  The first house was immediately available and literally across the street from the elementary school.  The second, which was still waiting to be cleaned, was further up the hill near the pool.  Both were the same floor plan: two stories, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms.

Front entry

The entry is very small.  The kitchen and laundry are the first door on the left.  No more hanging laundry!

The laundry area

Kitchen

The counters were stainless steel.  There was a large pantry, lots of cabinets, and standard American appliances (fridge, stove, dishwasher).  The front patio is right off the kitchen.

Front patio

The front patio had outdoor storage with a locking door.  The storage was large enough to store the recycling bins and garbage cans.

Further down the front hall is a half bath on the left and a large storage area underneath the stairs on the right.

Storage area

Downstairs bathroom

Both the kitchen and front hall lead to the living room.  The room was large enough to split into a dining area too.

Living room

Off the living room was a second patio and yard.  The yard ended on a slope, but we were told we could request a fence to be added.

The back patio and yard

On the second floor were the bedrooms and two full bathrooms.

The upstairs hallway

In the hallway was a large linen closet.  The two smaller bedrooms are on the right, the bathroom at the end, and the master bedroom to the left.  The upstairs bathroom had a large tub and shower.

Closets in the bedrooms

Bathroom

The master bedroom

The master had an en suite bathroom (the sink was separate) and walk in closet.  The room looked large enough for our queen bed and end tables.  And the walk in closet would have been great for our clothes.

En suite bath and walk in closet

The bathroom

We needed to decide quickly.  Stay off base or move?

Pros of McT housing:
- Storage!!  There was so much storage!  Much more than our Japanese house has.

- American kitchen.  No more fighting with my little oven and tiny fridge, a big plus over the holidays and for birthday parties!

- Dishwasher.  The Japanese house has no dishwasher and we both hate doing dishes by hand.

- Enough room for an office.  Right now, Chris doesn't have a quiet spot for a home office.  With three large bedrooms, a walk in closet and the storage area under the stairs we'd be able to find somewhere for Chris.

- Location.  Very close to the school, shopette, and pool.  Although we're not very far now, we'd be able to walk to the McT pool instead of driving - the boys would love that!

- Two stories.  Our Japanese house is a single floor with the boys' rooms right off the living room.  The mess of toys and books end up all over the living room.  And we have to be careful not to wake them up after bedtime.

- Separate rooms.  The Japanese house has a very open floor plan.  I know great rooms are very popular right now, but I can't stand it.  I can't keep the boys out of the kitchen, noise carries throughout the entire house, if one room is messy the entire house is messy.  The McT house had doors separating the kitchen, hallways and living room.  I could easily put up baby gates to keep the boys safe while I'm cooking.

- No bills.  No stressing about the summer electricity bill.  No fussing with GI Bill Pay and yen rates.  No trips to the konbini.

Cons

- Moving.  Although we qualify for a free move (the base housing was at 100% when we arrived last year so we had no choice but living off base), I do not want to move any more than we absolutely have to.  I don't want the boys to be disrupted again.  And I definitely do not want to spend another holiday season fighting mountains of boxes.

- No character.  The entire McT house was tile floors and concrete with plain vertical blinds.  Reminded me of a school or hospital.  Our Japanese house has wood floors, features like built in shelving, curtains and other details that make a space feel like a home.

- Bad internet connection.  I've heard the on base provider was close to dial up speeds.  We use the internet quite a bit, so a slow connection would be awful.

- Traffic.  I worry traffic in the morning.  I know most Marines have similar schedules.  And being close to the school would mean morning and afternoon buses.

- Noise and privacy.  Living in a townhouse in Virginia meant having neighbors right on top of us.  Not sure if we wanted to lose our privacy and put up with possibly noisy (and nosy) neighbors.



The choice came down to convenience and practicality verses culture and adventure.  In the end, I decided to stay off base.  Although the extra room and the American appliances would have been nice, I just didn't want to give up a once-in-a-lifetime chance of living in a Japanese house.  I've studied Japanese language and culture for most of my life, so the opportunity of having a tatami room and traditional entry is very special.  We'll be back in America and back to a "normal" house in just a couple of years.

Typhoon damage

Looks like Typhoon Prapiroon is going to skip us.  Definitely glad that we won't have another typhoon but bummed that the weather this weekend is stormy and Foster Fest has been canceled.

I've heard that Super Typhoon Jelawat would have been rated a Catagory 3.  The Air Force weather center on Kadena measured gusts as strong as 115mph.  I'm not sure how strong Sanba would have rated but I've heard that Jelawat was worse.  Two big typhoons back to back has certainly taken it's toll on the island.

Thankfully, our house sustained very minor damage and our cars were untouched during both of the storms.  We weren't here for Sanba and we returned to find a missing barbecue cover and lid (Chris eventually found the cover but no luck on the lid).  During Jelawat, besides losing power for about 14 hours, some of the gutters were ripped off the house and shattered, a few wooden slats in the fencing were broken, and our shed now has a slight crumple to the roof.

The wide spread damage I'm seeing is the stripped branches and uprooted trees around the island. Workers quickly cleaned up the downed trees and piles of debris, but Okinawa is definitely looking bare.  In fact, it almost looks like a typical autumn scene with all the leaves gone.

The bougainvillea in our front yard

Before the typhoons in June

The field behind our house after Jelawat and Sanba

Before in July

Overlooking the same field, taken last October

The current view

We're used to seeing the island green and lush year round, so it's nice in a way to look outside and see a more familiar fall look (even if we can't wear long pants or scarves yet).

My Japanese bathroom - part 2

Because Owen woke up with a high fever this morning, we didn't try for the flight to Elmendorf, Alaska (I think it ended up being canceled, so maybe I saved us a trip).

Although I'm waiting to see how he feels this afternoon, I'm thinking our plans for today are doomed too (there's a festival in Kin Town with fireworks tonight).  Since we're staying home, I'll do the domestic thing and finally finish the second half of the bathroom post.

As I posted before in part 1, the typical Japanese house has separate rooms for the bath and the toilet.  In America, this would be counted as a half bath, but here it's bigger than some of the closet-sized water closets I've used.

Sink for hand washing

Our sink is a full sized sink and used primarily for hand washing.  Our tooth brushes and other toiletry items aren't stored or used in this room.  I've seen some sinks that are attached to the top of the toilet (the grey water is used for the next flush).  

And the best part of our bathroom: the amazing toilet!

The remote control

It has a heated seat, the lid automatically opens and closes, plus a bidet and washlet (with some sort of massage feature, not quite sure what the リズム (rhythm?) button does).  I was scared to use the water jets at first, now I'm in love with getting a mini-shower for that not so fresh feeling.  Definitely wished I had one of these when I was pregnant (could have avoided those awkward post-labor peri-bottles).

Another common feature that our toilet doesn't have is a handle with a big and little (大 and 小) flush feature to conserve water.

Slightly related, one of my favorite features about Japanese public toilets: the child seat!  I've seen several different styles, the one below is from the Okinawa Zoo.  Absolutely love not having to do the balance the baby while trying to pull up my pants dance routine.  

Baby seat in a bathroom stall

Koi nobori

We finally got our Boys' Day banners hung up!

The boys helping me get the koi ready

Now I'm just hoping that I interpreted the instructions correctly and we don't have a catastrophic koi collapse  lol

Ishiganto stones

Seems one of the first things you learn about Okinawa is the meaning of the shisa guard dogs.  But a lesser known talisman is the 石敢當 sign.

The view pulling into our neighborhood

As I've been running out in town, I've noticed lots of little stone plaques inscribed with 石敢當 (ishiganto).  At first I thought, wow, a lot of Okinawan families have the same last name.  (Instead of displaying an address number, most Japanese homes will display the family name.  The Japanese address system can be very confusing (for example, there's two neighborhoods called 西原 (one's pronounced Iribaru, the other is Nishihara), so letting visitors know they've found the right house by identifying the family name is important.)

Ishiganto on the left, the family name plate on the right

Then in Makeman's garden area, I noticed a separate display for the ishiganto stones and name stones.  Come to find out, the ishiganto stones are placed where roads end in a T or splits to keep evil spirits from entering the house.

Always learning something new!

My Japanese bathroom - part 1

The Japanese love being clean!  While American homes have a single room for the toilet, shower/tub, toothbrushes, medicine, ect, Japanese homes typically separate these into two or more room.  In our home, we have one room for the toilet and a small hand washing sink.  Near the washer and dryer we have a large sink for brushing our teeth and cabinets for storing clean towels and medicine.  And finally we have the actual bath room.  

From my understanding, Japanese typically bathe at night before bed.  (Makes sense to wash off all the dirt from the day before settling into your nice, clean sheets.)  I usually join the boys as part of our bedtime routine.  

Getting ready for the mayhem

First step, getting clean.  I sit on the small stool while the boys play with their bath toys - they absolutely love having an entire room to splash in!  We take a shower with our hand-held nozzle, making sure to have the soap and dirt completely rinsed off.  (I got our bath accessories from Aeon in American Village, but I've seen cute sets at Nitori too.  The blue bath mats are cushy in case Isaac slips on the tile.)  

Part two - relaxing! 

While this part isn't necessary (we only do it once or twice a week if we have time), it is very nice!  I believe the "proper" thing to do is fill the tub with enough water to cover the body from the neck down.  But the tub is deep enough that the boys could use it as a swimming pool, so I only fill it about halfway.  Also, the hot water helps heat up the room in winter.

Definitely going to miss our Japanese bath when we PCS.