Lease Signing, Bill Pay, and Moving In

Monday, August 17

I woke up, worked out, scooped litter boxes, and did the dishes. After they cleaned the room, I went to the NEX and Commissary for a few things. The cats needed tuna and I needed mouth wash, and water. I forgot to pick up something for lunch, so I decided to go to Hamakatsu. I was craving katsu and they have amazing tonkatsu (pork) and tori katsu (chicken). I decided to have both, tonkatsu and tori katsu. I love that you make your own tonkatsu sauce.

After lunch, I went to the grocery store for some fruit. I can buy a small container fruit, just for me, for around 100 to 300 yen (0.94 cents to $2.82). I got watermelon in one container. In another container, I got orange, kiwi, pineapple, and honey dew melon.

I picked up Doug from work and we went to the Ginza (Yonkacho). While deciding what to have for dinner, Doug got a message saying starting tomorrow, his ship will be on home to work. This means Doug can only go to work and home. He can stop for essentials but no dining out. We can get take out. This is to limit him getting Covid-19 and then passing it to his shipmates while they are under weigh. Yes, Doug will be under weigh at the end of the month.

With this news, we decided to go to Pepper Lunch. You cannot really do take out there. Instead of going back to the car, we walked to Pepper Lunch. Doug got the steak with rice and I got steak with bean sprouts, green beans, and carrots with a side of rice. We then decided to get some groceries out in town and some drinks at 7-Eleven. We went to AEON to look for anything we might need and for some groceries. Doug wanted to buy some more candy for work on the 100 yen floor. Then we went to buy groceries. We bought some two packages of ground beef, noodles, and cafe au lait. We spent 2,475 yen ($23.25).

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Tuesday, August 18th

Doug and I went to Housing for our initial paperwork meeting. We set up our lease signing, move-in inspection, move in date, and loaner appliance hook up date. It is all taken place this Friday. We are ecstatic to be able to move in at the end of the week. Doug will be going under weigh on August 31st. I wanted to have a place and at least our household goods delivery date before he leaves. Well, we will have a place before he leaves and Doug will have to call household goods for our stuff.

After Housing, we went to G.I. Bill Pay to set up rent, utilities, and getting faster internet. You can choose to pick if you want your rent to come out of one paycheck or two paychecks. We choose two paychecks so it doesn’t hit the account all at once. The utilities will come out to the closet paycheck date. I am glad we can use G.I. Bill Pay to have it come out automatically and don’t have to run around to figure out how to pay the bills.

Then we went through the McDonald’s drive thru on base. That was an experience! Since you order on the right side of the vehicle. We got lunch and I took Doug to work. I went back to the room to eat my Big Mac and fries. After lunch, I went to Navy Fedreal to get $3,000 for the lease signing. Then I went to Community Bank to exchange to yen. Our $3,000 was turned into 312,000 yen. I took it back to the room and added it to the money we already had. I wanted to make sure we had all the yen we will need for Friday (891,256 yen in total). We have a little more yen than we need, which is fine. Most restaurants and shops only take yen, no debit/credit card. We always make sure to have yen on us because you never know.

Doug got a hold of household goods and they can deliver our stuff on Thursday, August 27th. This means we will need something to sleep on. We decided to get some sleeping bags and pillows from the NEX. I went to the NEX to get the sleeping bags and pillows because you never know when they will restock things. What was exciting was the sleeping bags and pillows both were 20% off!

For dinner, we had tacos! I used the beautiful ground beef we got from the store. They were amazing! I love how fresh everything is here out in town. At the Commissary, the meat is frozen then thawed out. I also don’t care much for there meat.

Wednesday, August 19th

I got up and did my morning routine. I worked out, ate breakfast, and did the dishes. I forgot to scoop the litter box. I can always do that tomorrow. The plan for the day is to get some items for the apartment since our household goods won’t be delivered for almost a week. Like we will need a pot and a pan to cook. Some cooking utensils and bowls.

I decided to go to Gobangai (5th Avenue) Mall. I wanted to look at the 300 yen store and the 100 yen store. The 100 yen store has more kitchen items than the 100 yen stores at the Ginza. At the 100 yen store I got two bowls, two sets of stainless steel chopsticks, a strainer, a cat mat, cooking chopsticks, and a spatula. At the 300 yen store I got two bowls with cats on them and a reusable bag with penguins on it. Then I went to Ellena, grocery store, for some fruit. I just bought some watermelon for breakfast tomorrow.

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I went back to base for lunch. I made myself a cup of Ramen. It was cheese curry and it was delicious! I just stayed in the room until Doug got off work. I picked him up from work. For dinner, I made fried rice. It was amazing!

The Commander Officer of the base released the newest PHO. We are no longer allowed to dine in at restaurants. We can order take out. There are a few restaurants that offer take out. Its not a big deal to us because Doug’s command was placed on work to home. Doug is allowed to go out to shop for essentials. I am allowed to go out and do what I want within the PHO measures. I don’t want to put Doug and his shipmates at risk, so I am only going out to get stuff we for the apartment and food. I consider that essential.

Thursday, August 20th

Let’s see, I got up, worked out, ate breakfast, scooped litter boxes, and did the dishes. The plan is to go to the Ginza (Yonkacho) today. I need to find a small pot and pan that are for an induction cooktop for the apartment. What is an induction cook top? It uses a magnetic field to heat up the whole pan instead of gas or on an element like electric.

At the Ginza (Yonkacho), I went to both 100 yen stores. I knew one of them had pots but I couldn’t remember which one. The first 100 yen store didn’t have pans so I left without buying anything. I then walked to the other end of the Ginza (Yonkacho). The other 100 yen store is by the entrance near Yoshinoya. I found a pot and pan. The pot was 700 yen ($6.62) and the pan was 500 yen ($4.73). I also bought two pads to put hot pans/pots on. Then I decided to go to AEON to look at some things. I ended up buying a scrub brush for the dishes, some cat chopsticks, and some plastic chop sticks. I then went back to base.

I decided to go to the NEX to get us some towels to use when we move in. Doug and I get rid of some stuff before we move. It makes sure we aren’t packing around old items with us. We got rid of our towels and kitchen cooking utensils. There are items they won’t pack like food even non-perishables and garbage cans. Anyways, I bought towels at the NEX because they were on sale and discounted for military. I bought Martha Stewart towels for $7.19, they were suppose to be $8.99 for the military price and $20 original price. I was pretty happy. The cheapest towels they have at the NEX are $7.99 and they feel tough.

I then went back to the Lodge to start packing all of our stuff. Tomorrow will be tight on time to get everything out of the room. Doug called me about an hour into packing to go get him from work. I picked him up and then we went to the NEX because he needed a planner for work. They had three options and the one he liked was plain and the most expensive. He needed it though. He also needed a notebook. After the NEX, we went to the NEX Food Court for dinner. We ordered pizza and cheese sticks from Anthony’s. While waiting for the food, we decided to check out Baskin Robins. This was a bad decision. We both got a cold cappuccino. I got caramel and Doug got cookies and cream. After we got our drinks, maybe two minutes later our food was ready. The cold cappuccino’s were delicious. I am glad I am finding about it now. I won’t be tempted unless on base.

We made our way back to the Lodge and ate dinner. While eating Doug started watching a new Netflix documentary High Score. It is about early video games developers and creators. In the first episode, it discusses my all time favorite game, Pac-Man. Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man, he discussed how he catered it towards females because they like food. He’s not wrong. Then the episode leads you to two guys, who dropped out of MIT, to create expansion packs for arcade machines to make the games difficult. This would allow arcade owners to turn a profit on the game because Gamers were starting to figure out the pattern. They made one for Missile Command and were working on one for Pac-Man. Well Atari sued the guys for their Missile Command expansion due to copyright infringement. Atari settled the suit by having the guys work for Atari and get permission for anything new they created. For Pac-Man, they needed permission to sell the game from Midway (company who distributed Pac-Man in the U.S.). Midway decided to keep the Pac-Man brand going and turned it into Ms. Pac-Man. I love that Ms. Pac-Man was originally an expansion pack that got turned into its own game. I am looking forward to watch the rest of the limited series.

I finished packing up the room. Doug and I took a load to the car. Just so we can get a head start for tomorrow. We are excited to spend the last night at the Lodge. We have spent 44 nights at this Lodge, this is including our 14 days of ROM. I am glad to finally have a place.

Friday, August 21st

It was a hectic day!!! I got up early because of Gigi snuggles. She likes to lay right behind my upper back. She can be sweet. I laid there for an hour and then Doug got up. We got ready to go to Housing. I made sure I had our money. Doug made sure we had our final bill to turn in to get some money back. We went to Housing and we were early. Once the realtor got there, we went to discuss the lease. We have a housing counselor who conducts the meeting. Doug signed the lease, we paid the realtor, we got the originals for everything, and we over garbage (burnable and non-burnable) and recycling. The garbage is going to be interesting. There are special bags (Sasebo-city bags) that you have to use and you must sort it correctly. I will be fine, Doug is the one I am worried about.

Sasebo-city gives you one coupon book per household member, there are five coupons in the coupon book. Doug and I get two books so we have 10 coupons. We get a new coupon book at the beginning of the year. My plan is to stock up on the bags because the coupons will expire. For recycling, you just need to use a transparent bag and make sure to sort it (plastic, paper, cardboard, and etc.). There is a calendar you must follow for your cho (neighborhood). For example: our burnable garbage is collected every Tuesday and Friday, non-burnable is collected once a month, and recycling is collected twice a month. It is important to know the date because non-burnable and recycling use the same area for collection. The bins are close to the apartment building. The recycling and non-burnable are as you exit the parking garage on the left. The burnable garbage bin is the right at the end of the parking garage.

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After Doug signed everything, we went back to the Lodge for the cats and were to meet the realtor at the apartment for the move-in inspection. Calcifer and Gigi were not happy about the car ride that only lasted ten minutes. Once we got there, Gigi was fine, Calcifer tried to find a place to hid. Doug and I were going to start unpacking the car but the realtor arrived. I unpacked the car and Doug did the move-in inspection. After I unloaded the car, I went back to the Lodge for the rest of the stuff. We had one suit case and all the items we have bought since being in Sasebo. It took me two cart loads to get it all! I was able to turn in the room keys at noon, which was check out time. Then I went back to the apartment.

Doug helped me unload the car because they were done with the inspection. He forgot how much stuff we had. I laughed at him. At this point, I was starting to get hangry even though I had some watermelon earlier. Once we unloaded the car, Doug went to the NEX to get a router for the internet. I stayed at the apartment because we were getting our loaner appliances from the base from 1 to 3 p.m. Doug left without telling me how to use the intercom system. Yes, we have an intercom system to let people into the building. I called him to make sure I knew what to do. Its easier. You pick up the phone to talk to the person and hit the key button to let them in.

The people delivering the appliances got here at 1 p.m. on the dot! I let them in. Success! They brought all the appliances up and then came in to hook everything up. They set up the refrigerator, washer, and dryer. They just placed the microwave, dehumidifier, carbon monoxide detector, and two ground plugs. I signed for them and was given the directions for them in English. As soon as they left, which was 15 minutes later, I started laundry. I have heard Japanese dryers take a long time to dry, we shall see how long it takes. To wash, it was about 35 minutes are the recommended setting. They dryer takes two hours to thoroughly dry the clothes. Hence why most Japanese hang dry their clothes. There is a spot on the balcony to dry clothes. The largest load the washer machine will do is 45 Litres (12 gallons). It is a small load of clothes in the U.S. I will be doing laundry more frequently.

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Doug called me once he was done at the NEX. He was surprised at how quick they delivered the appliances. He also grabbed us Taco Bell while he was on base. When he came back, we ate lunch, Doug set up the router, and I was working on organizing our stuff we have. Doug kept getting side tracked about things and interrupting me in the process. He eventually was able to get his stuff ready to go to work. He has watch all weekend, so I will be home alone (this will be happening a lot). We were expecting a delivery from Amazon Japan. Since we have an address out in town, Doug decided to see how much Amazon Prime Japan. It is $5 a month. He ordered a cat tower, two air mattresses, and a hookup for the car. Doug scheduled the delivery between 2 and 4 p.m. Before I took him to work, I wanted to check our mailbox and the delivery guy came with our packages. The poor delivery guy looked hot and tired. I am glad he didn’t have to take the package all the way up to the sixth floor. We took the packages up, then I took Doug to work. I came back to the apartment to work on cleaning and organizing.

About an hour and a half after I took Doug to work, he is texting me about how he forgot to bring two games to work. He told me twice, this means he wants me to bring them to him. I am nice, too nice. Thankfully, we only live ten minutes (driving) from base. I found the games and the controller he wanted me to bring. I took them to him and luckily I wanted to get some hand soap from the NEX. I went on base to the NEX, his ship is at SSK (Japanese Shipyard). I bought some Bath and Body Works Soap. Some advantages of the NEX is they do carry Bath and Body Works and Victoria Secret body care. The only thing is they don’t run sales on them. They do have a military price. It is okay, I wanted it, so I bought some soap. Covid-19 and being an adult makes you happy for hand soap.

I get back to the apartment. I am finally able to clean and put everything away. I was able to put the cat tower together. This is the first cat tower I got to put together without Doug. I am pretty proud of myself. Then I made myself dinner, Ramen. I took a shower and went to bed. It was a busy day.

Saturday, August 22nd

I get to start a new routine in our apartment. Well maybe tomorrow. Doug wanted me to call his Grandmother last night to show off the apartment. Well we need to get lights for the living room and bedrooms. I called her this morning and she was happy for us. I then called my dad and mom to show them. My favorite part about the apartment is the view. It is beautiful.

Yesterday, I discovered in the fridge a water tank and an ice drawer with a scoop. Today, I found ice in the drawer! I am ecstatic! I was already planning on going to 7-Eleven to buy a bad of ice. August is the hottest month here. The heat and humidity is crazy here! It is worse than Florida. The plan today is to get stuff we will need around the apartment. I made a list we shall see what I can find!

For lunch, I tried Cup Noodle Seafood. It was good but I still like the Curry flavor the best! Then I set out to go to Gobangai (5th Avenue) Mall. I went to Seria (100 yen) store and the 300 yen store. At the 100 yen store I bought some cushions for my outside balcony set for when it gets here and some items to sew Doug’s command patch on his dress uniforms (in case he needs them for deployment). At the 300 yen store, I bought a mat for the cat’s litter boxes and some more wash clothes. Then I headed to the Ginza (Yonkacho). I just went to AEON for curtains. I really didn’t like what I saw and their selection was slim. I ended up on the grocery floor to buy food for the weekend. I bought some fruit, sliced beef, bacon, teriyaki sauce, a couple of coffee drinks, some chocolate bread, and Sasebo-city bags.

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I took everything back to the apartment. Doug messaged me and asked if I would bring him dinner. He didn’t like what they were having on the ship. I don’t know what he is going to do when they are under weigh or out for deployment, hopefully he will suck it up. I went to Chili’s and placed a To Go order. He wanted a burger with bacon and cheese, bacon and cheese fries, and two orders of skillet queso. I brought him dinner and then decided to go to AEON Daito. It is about 25 minutes away. It started to rain, my first time driving in the rain in Sasebo. It was easy. Made me reflect on the hour of rain we would get in Florida. Thankfully people in Japan can drive in the ran.

At AEON Daito, I was able to find some curtains for the living room. I bought two sets to see how that would do. Then I went to look the grocery store area. I have noticed that even if they are the same store you can find something different. I found some caramel popcorn and some fruit. I decided I needed bell peppers to go with my sliced beef for dinner. I also looked at drinks and bought a couple I haven’t seen yet. We will see if they are any good. Then I left AEON. I decided to take a different way home. It was exciting because it was a part of Sasebo I haven’t seen yet. It did get scary at the end. I was was going down a one lane road that was only 1.5 meters wide. Luckily I never came across someone going the opposite direction.

I made it home and made myself dinner. I decided to make teriyaki beef with yellow and red bell peppers and udon noodles. I just boiled the udon noodles, I should have made more of a stir fry with them. Doug gave me the idea after I plated everything and was ready to eat. Maybe I will try it again later in the week when Doug is home. Doug and his watch. He has shore patrol. Him and another sailor from his ship walk around the Ginza from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.

I went to bed early. I didn’t sleep well last night. I slept in the living room last night and I decided to sleep in the Tatami room. We shall see.

Sunday, August 23rd

Today is Pokemon Go Fest 2020 Make Up Day 2 for the Asia Pacific Region. Ninatic forgot to turn on the shiny for the unown letters. I was happy with what I got last weekend, today was just a bonus. I did get one shiny today, it is the letter ‘o’ unown. I didn’t have that one. Successful Make Up Day 2. I also forgot to include on Friday, I can reach a Poke Gym from my apartment. In Denver, I couldn’t reach a stop from the apartment. I am happy.

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I talked to my mom for about an hour and half. It started out about the curtains I hung up in the living room. The apartment came with curtain rods and the pieces for the hooks to go into. I bought curtains not knowing if they had the hooks on them. I was lucky. They have the hooks on them! While I was talking to my mom, Calcifer disappeared. He went into a cabinet under the cook top and didn’t come out. I searched the apartment three times looking for him. I left to go get curtains for the Tatami Room and the Game Room and then he came out. He scared me. I now know not to let him in that cabinet.

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I went back to AEON Daito to get one more blue set of curtains and to pick out curtains for the Tatami Room. I tried to call Doug to get his opinion, but no luck. At first, I was going to go with these green and light green leaf curtains. Then, I was like, I can get what I want. I picked a orange, black, and light green circle curtains. The circles have different patterns on them. I got another set of blue curtains for the Game Room. Yes, it will match the Living Room but its Doug’s Game Room. They only had three colors to choose from those. They were beige, pink, and blue. The apartment has white wallpaper and the beige curtains would make it too neutral. I am not about a neutral look. Pink would be okay but Doug doesn’t like pink. I also prefer blue over pink. They did have a cute teal pair of curtains but I couldn’t justify the price. Then I went to look at bathroom stuff because I have been wanting some Jiji stuff, the cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service. I found a mat to go in front of the toilet and I bought another one for in front of the shower room for now. I also found a hand towel with Jiji on it. I decided I needed that in my life. I also bought a cheap knife so I could slice the bread I bought. I decided I spent enough money on that floor and went to the first floor. I wanted to get a filter for the faucet at the Watts (100 yen store). I found a filter for the faucet, a sprayer head for the faucet, and some scent stuff for the built in sink filter. Then I left AEON to go home.

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Right before I got home, Doug called me. He asked me if I found lighting. I completely forgot even though I made a list. Dang it!!! He was like you can turn around. Yeah, as I pull into the parking garage for the house. I will just go back out. UGH! While I was on the phone with Doug, I hung up the new curtains. I am proud of my choices. It is starting to feel more like home. I cannot wait until we get our stuff. That will make it feel like home.

I went to the AEON in the Ginza (Yonkacho), no luck for lighting. I did go to the 100 yen floor and bought a push light to have at night. It is just for when I turn off the hallway lights right before bed. I bought a few more things on the 100 yen floor, like a scrub brush for the shower room, a cute pencil pouch, water bottle cleaner, clear plastic bags for cat litter and pads. Then I went to the grocery floor to pick up meat for tomorrow’s dinner. I picked up more of the sliced beef I got yesterday and some drinks for Doug. Then I headed back to the apartment.

For dinner, I made pork belly with Cup Noodle Curry. It was amazing!! I finally had some chocolate bread. I had to buy a knife in order to cut it. I just bought a cheap knife at AEON.

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