Lots of pictures, but not too much going on...

I have to say, not too much has been going on recently, but somehow Chris and I have lots of pics on our camera... so, I guess I will share a few of them!

Koshi (praise God) is pretty much potty trained. She goes outside, potties on her mat, and then comes back in a looks at you like "where's my treat?" It's pretty cute. Here's a pic of her getting her first bath in the shower... she looks thrilled, doesn't she??

Then, the other morning, I was putting on my makeup and she decided that she was going to stick her head up my jacket... and then she didn't know how to get out. I was cracking up so hard, so we had to get a pic...



My parents asked me the other day what were some unique/weird things about Japan... I couldn't tell them too many at the time, but since I've been looking I've come up with a ton. So, I'm going to share them in each post. Here's #1:
Many of their toilets here have a handle that comes out the side and has several options on it... We've seen these toilets in people's homes, hotels, department stores, you name it... To sum them up, they're pretty much just butt sprayers. A little tube comes out the back of the bowl and sprays out water on your rear. Chris loves them! He claims that he has to use much less toilet paper thanks to them. I, on the other hand, was curious about using it, but freaked out when the water actually started spraying and stood up. It then proceeded to spray water on the entire toilet and all over my clothes, so I ended up using a LOT more toilet paper than normal. Different ones have different options... some will play a flushing noise while you go (I guess so no one can hear you??) and others have other buttons with pictures on them that I'm scared to try. Anyways, here is a sideways picture of one:

I've also had some requests for pictures of our place... so here's a picture of the outside of our apartment building. It's called Florence Emi and there are 6 apartments in the building...

The balconies on the second floor there are ours, and the one on the right is the one that they chose to haul our piano over with a crane. (The thought still freaks me out)...

Here's a picture of our entrance... the cabinets have racks in them for all our shoes since it's customary to take off your shoes when entering a home in Japan. I'll be honest though... there's no room for any guest shoes in there because they're completely full with my shoes.
And here are some pictures of our bedroom... these are a sideways picture of the curtains that I made...

We normally have a black carpet that goes under our bed and covers up the ugly brown tile design that they put in the middle of our floor... but, Koshi decided early on that this was one of her favorite places to potty. So, it got cleaned and is rolled up in the corner of our room until we decide that we've really got this potty training thing in the bag.

That's it for now!! I have my first job interview this evening... it's to teach English to older Japanese students. A friend used to work there and really loved the job, so we're hoping I get it! I'll let you know what happens!

Puppy Pics...

Ok, so I guess Chris and me are like new parents because we quit taking pictures of ourselves and just take pics of our puppy. It was a long week of potty training, but I think she's finally getting the hang of it now. We keep the back door open and today she let herself out and pottied on her mat outside... I was so happy I thought I was going to cry! =)

So, a lot of our friends here have dogs (it's kind of a pre-children trend)... one of the dogs had a birthday this past week, so we had a doggie party on the beach with them. It was so fun! The beach wasn't one of the nicer ones we've been to (see pic), but it was one of the few that allowed dogs... There were probably about 6 dogs there and most of them were MUCH bigger than Koshi and they were chasing balls out into the ocean. Koshi was pretty timid though, so it was a big step just to get here in the water a little bit... and then we stopped when she started shivering!
She's grown so much in just a week! And she's also become a lot more playful... here's a video of her chasing her ball around the living room!

Not too much else has been going on... we're still working on unpacking all of our stuff and trying to learn Japanese. I also was very amused because I saw a very ripped Japanese man with a mullet at the gym the other day (and I thought that was only an American hillbilly thing)...haha!

My birthday was also this last week and it was really hard to be away from home!... but we skyped my family to open presents and I got some great things from both them and Chris!

Love you all!

News...

Hey everyone...Haven't updated in a little while, but things have been going well here. Chris and I have both received all of our belongings in the last two weeks, so we've been very busy getting things put away.

The last couple of weekends, we've visited two different beaches. Last weekend was one on the base and looked really cloudy. But this week, we went to one up north a little more and it was gorgeous.... it actually had sand on the beach instead of just coral and the water was the clearest green I've ever seen. Unfortunately we forgot our camera, so we don't have any pics, but I guess that's just an excuse to go back another time!! And hopefully we'll remember sunscreen this time too cause we got a little fried, even after borrowing "48" sunscreen from a friend... the sun is so hot here!!

But the biggest news is that Chris and I got a puppy!!! She's an adorable Oki mix (which basically is a mut mix of the dogs here on the island.

She has such a sweet personality... and definitely loves to cuddle with us! Chris and I kind of feel like parents right now though because we're cleaning up lots of messes on our floor and not getting much sleep cause she cries all night! But we love her already!! She belonged to a litter of puppies that was found abandoned on base and the police send them to the base's kennels where they put lots of dogs up for adoption. When we saw her we knew we had to get her!!

Still thinking about names, but we're thinking of naming her "Koshi" (it's Japanese...) Let us know if you have suggestions for names or any tips on training a dog!!