11. Starting Off , Exploring and Work!

Well the new year went by quickly, and before we knew it everyone was getting back to their normal routines and we had to find jobs, get paperwork done, get a car, all sorts of things that come with the territory of moving into a new environment.

We were fortunate at the time that my wife's father was the principal at a local driving school.  He had retired, although he was still in his late 50's, from being a Japanese policeman, and was the head of two driving school's.  Driving schools in Japan are where 99.99% of the people here go to learn to drive and get their licenses.  It isn't mandatory but without paying the money and going to the school it's next to impossible to pass the driving test that the Japanese police run at the official testing station.

You can get your license by graduating from the school or by taking the test, believe me for most people it's easier to pay the cash and go to school.

We were fortunate in that he was able to give us a car that they had used at the school.  It wasnt fancy, but it had A/C, a necessity here, and ran very well.  They took great care of it at the school.  I was lucky too, in that at the time all American's had to do to get their licenses was to have their stateside license translated into Japanese, pay a fee, go to the license station and fill out some paperwork, take a class, and get your license.

The rules have changed now, but that's another topic.  So, I got my license, we had a car, and now we had to fill out paperwork for keeping me here legally.  I came to Japan on a tourist visa, pretty unorthodox at the time, even though we were married, but we were only legally married in the US.  We had to file a bunch of paperwork with Japanese immigration and with the local city office and file marriage paperwork and more paperwork to get our daughter legally registered, and more paperwork to apply for residency.  All sorts of paperwork but we got it done in the first week after the New Year holiday ended.  Here in Japan at the time EVERYTHING shut down during New Year's, gas stations, supermarkets, banks, department stores, I do believe that the only things that were open were the airport and temples and shrines that people traditionally visit over New Years to wish and pray for good luck in the upcoming year.  We did that too, and I will talk about that in another "Step Away From History" part.

Well things at home were unusual for me and for the family too.  This big American, and to them here I am a giant.  My wife is about 5 ft tall 110 lbs, her mother not much different, and her dad, tall for here, but still well under 5' 10" and weighed maybe 140 lbs.  Me I am about 6'4" and at the time weighed about 210 lbs.  So everything I said felt to them like it was coming down from the ceiling and loud.  There was what seemed like to me a truce had been decided upon without consulting me.  My wife and her parents weren't talking much and of course I couldn't talk to them, so things were as they were.

It was decided that I was going to work at an English Conversation School as a teacher.  This was decided by my father-in-law and his cousin who was called into the discussion because he could speak English.  He was a journalism professor at the national University here and was involved with many peace related activities.  (Another footnote and "Step Away From History" section related to Okinawa, the military here, Peace Studies, and it's history)

But before I actually started working I had roughly a month or so of time to explore my new surroundings.  I never realized how big the island was from my time in the Marine Corp.  Even though I had been many different places on the island I had never been "down south".  My perception of size changed quite a bit.  Driving here for the first time was an adventure too.  Driving on the "right" side of the road, unbelievable traffic.  (The population of the main island of Okinawa is roughly 1.1 million people, living in a space not much bigger than the Milwaukee metropolitan area and having somewhere in the neighborhood of 700,000 registered vehicles)  It could take as much as an hour to ninety minutes to travel 7 or 8 miles.  Unbelievable to the uninitiated and frustrating too.  Driving manners were quite different, people running red lights, not stopping at stop signs, yellow lights meaning speed up, and cutting other drivers off all seemed to be a normal part of the routine.  Yet rarely seeing accidents or every hearing about them either.

So I traveled around nearly every day from morning until late afternoon, just learning the roads, and learning about my new surroundings.

Eventually I started work at a school called International Friends Academy, an English conversation school, in Naha.  Naha is the capitol city of the prefecture (state) of Okinawa.  It has a population of roughly 300,000 people in an area not much larger than maybe the city of Milwaukee east of the river to the lakefront and from the Wisconsin Ave to Capitol drive and roads that twist and turn every which way imaginable.  Not to mention two way streets no wider than an alley.

Looking back at it, I am forever grateful that I took the time to check things out and learn the roads.  It made things so much easier for me as I started working and had to commute to work everyday.

Since both of us were starting work, my wife and I, we also had to find day care for our daughter and we were lucky to find a small school across the street from where I worked.  It made things convenient for both of us as where we both worked was about 5 minutes walking distance from her school.

I have to add here as a side note, you may have noticed that I have not been using my wife's or daughters names when I have been referring to them here.  They both requested that I do not use their names.  And out of respect of their wishes I have not included them here nor anywhere so far in these pages that I have written.  To those that know they know who I am talking about, and to those that don't know I apologize if it makes it more difficult to read.