Buddha Buddha Buddha

Arrival: Thursday, the 30th of September, Japan time.
We got to the Navy Lodge, an institutional, Motel-6 like place that we will call home until we secure off-base housing.  They have placed it at the farthest corner of the base, highly inconvenient and away from the commissary and Exchange, away from the schools, library and theater, away from Eric's work and away from all the restaurants, except Chile's.  The kids love it, but Eric and I tired of it after a couple of meals.  We are right next to the housing center and the Auto Port - very convenient as we have no housing nor vehicles...  The Auto Port/Gas Station convenient store is,  appropriately, convenient!  We can always get cereal and milk without having to hike 3 kids across the base and then schlep it all back.  Very convenient!

Over the weekend we visited the house in which we shall call home very shortly.  It is not nearly as institutional as the Navy Lodge, but, as one friend put it, not likely to win any architectural awards.  It has the look of a castle's barbican, complete with arrowslits (or loop holes!).  In Japanese terms, it looks a bit like the yakura, the square buildings placed around the bailey used for storage (ya = arrow, kura = storage).  For whatever architectural panache the outside is lacking, the inside more than makes up for.  It is brand new, the toilets do everything but give you fiber, it has great storage, it is just around the corner from a park and quite near friends, it has an oven and... it has A DISHWASHER!   It is a stretch to call it a dish drawer, unless the drawer in reference is the utensil drawer - but it is a dishwasher!  That was one job title Eric and I were both happy to shirk...

The next week was our Area Orientation Briefing.  It went something like this: people in charge of stuff, telling us things, giving us important information to remember.  Blah Blah Blah.  The week ended with Cultural Orientation.  Introduction to Japanese food, Japanese language, Japanese history, Japanese English (or Engrish), blah, blah, blah.  The Japanese accent makes English sound a little different.  The Japanese learn English for a number of years in Jr High and High School, so their grammar is impeccable.  It really makes American's look like ignorant lugs.  However, understanding their English with a Japanese accent takes a trained ear.  Japanese has no 'f' or 'th' sounds and the 'l' and 'r' are interchangeable with a sound somewhere in-between, quite similar to a soft 'd'. The only sound that ends in a consonant is the n/m sound.  Otherwise, all the consonants end in one of five vowel sounds.  So, for example, Eric's name become "Eriku".  It is quite simple, once you get used to it.  However, it does leave room for some interesting interpretations.  Let's take "love" as another example: "rubeh".  You love it?  Want a rub?  You're a lub?  Blah Blah Blah.  Or, as a Japanese says it: buddha buddha buddha...