Wei and I just made gyuoza which I would call jiaozi in Chinese and I keep getting really confused. They are the dumplings you fry in a pan and they are absolutely delicious. Today marks the second day of our mad house hunting spree but guess what! We both found places we like. Yesterday we looked at 5 places, yes 5. The realtor picked us up on base and showed us a couple places and then dropped us off at her friend's office, who then proceeded to drive us around to another 3 places. Wei picked an adorable little Japanese house, located right up the hill from the train station, next to a shrine, with a rock garden in the back. I hadn't fallen in love with anything yet. Our trip had been so long, I had to sit down and eat my snacks Wei had packed me for the day. If you don’t know what a bento is, google it. Japanese mothers spend hours every day making tiny faces out of hard boiled eggs, rice, and various other things for their children’s lunch. Wei is becoming one of these Japanese mothers, but for me it’s great! Go to any store and you can find what looks like a cookie cutter, but is used to shape rice or bread. And the tools get smaller to crate little faces for the bear shaped rice balls. It’s a little crazy, but fun.
So today, after a long and hot day at work wearing hard hats and hearing protection to block out the jackhammer on the other side of the wall of my office, we jumped in another car again to see apartments. I could have told the man to turn around when we pulled into the ugly, brown set of apartments, but I made myself get out of the car and look around. The poor guy wanted to show us about 5 apartments spread throughout the complex, but we had to stop him about half way through because I hated all of them. By then I was frustrated and decided I wanted a house. So he took us way up another hill to an awesome house with really high ceilings and an attic. Two problems: the house next door looked like a jail and the master bedroom window looked out over a graveyard. On the way back, he mentioned he had another place very close to base that had opened up today. As he described it, I knew exactly where he was talking about. It was the same apartment a guy on my ship had who is leaving in the next few days. I had been up once before when Ellyn and I first started looking around because I had heard it was nice. I asked the man to take me back once more, so he got the key and we went up. It has a great kitchen with glass cabinet doors, a bedroom, study room, large living room, and tatami room (Japanese floor made of rice straw). It also has a small balcony overlooking the “Honch” where everyone goes out drinking, but oh well. I still loved it when we went back, despite the fact that it goes against everything I wanted in a house, a cute little place by the beach with a garden. I had to face the reality that I am not in San Diego and that part of my life will have to wait. The man also told me that someone had planned on visiting the place this morning, but had canceled. So all the signs seem to point in the right direction. I think I have found my new apartment!
Tired, but excited, Wei and I began out trek back to Zushi, but had to stop again and eat our snack of rice and tofu. We then took the train back and made dinner. This morning we had out first Command PT, where the entire ship comes in early at 6 am to work out together. The work out consists of arm circles, jogging, and other random exercises I never knew existed, they say just to remember it is meant to be a bonding experience more than anything else. We had to wake up at 4:30 am to get there on time, which might be a reason why we want to live a little closer!
Tomorrow we take our test for our Japanese driver's license. I'm not sure how I'm going to do driving on the opposite side of the road....and it's not like I've had any time to practice.
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