Nov 18 – Who Doesn’t Love Yellow?

We woke up this morning ready to explore our new home.

For the most part this place is completely deserted. There are only 3,000 people living here between the three bases, which are quite huge. There are no lines at any businesses and no traffic any where to be seen – quite a change from living in D.C.

The first store we walked into was run by the Spouses’ Association. They run a variety of programs for the wives including, for next month, Japanese wrapping techniques, Christmas parade of homes, Kimono wear, Japanese calligraphy, Japanese language classes, knitting classes, weekend outings. For $15 a year I can be as involved as I want. I signed up for everything I could.

The food court turned out to be pretty awesome – Popeye, Burger King, Subway, Anthony’s, plus two sit down restaurants. The prices were comparable to home, except we don’t pay taxes on the food. YUMMY.

The food stores here are called commissaries. They are full of a variety of American products. The vegetables and fruits leave much to be desired but they had most everything else I usually buy. The prices were super cheap, even less than what you would pay in the States. For example, cereal is around $2, a bag of chips $1.50, can of pop 39 cents. They will order you in anything you need that they don’t have so it’s not like there is anything we are really deprived of. And again, no tax! We’re going to save a ton on groceries.

They didn’t put too much thought into decorating; everything is painted yellow. Each building looks exactly the same and it is easy to get lost. They all have brown signs to label them. If I had to judge this place on creativity they would get a big fat “F”. Good thing the scenery is so beautiful on the outside.

Watching television here is interesting. All the commercials are military made and focused. You can’t help but feel extremely patriotic. We only have 10 channels to choose from. None of them are infomercials, which is the saddest thing ever. I’m totally addicted. The shows are also backwards time wise. For example, we watch ER and Amazing Race in the morning and The View and Good Morning America in the evening.