We bought our (Shiho's) car

6-21-07


It has been an uneventful week really. We have all taken it pretty easy and relaxed. Although there has been the occasional argument between Shiho and I about the car we are going to buy…
We have been continuing our search for a car over the past week, and this has been our main focus. On Monday we were preparing to borrow a neighbor’s car to drive 2 hours to buy a car from a Marine family over at Iwakuni, which is the nearest US military base. The wife called though and canceled before we left, because her husband is deployed to Australia and she lacks the power of attorney to sell the car. We actually canceled buying a car last Friday in Fukuoka to buy this car instead.
But all is not lost, we have had many local dealers bringing cars for us to look at, the 30 minute drive to Shiho’s moms. The Nissan dealer ended up bring a 1998 Toyota Lucida kind of like this one except blue. http://www.autoweb.co.uk/car_detail.asp?cdID=1268144
Well, we ended up buying it for $4710. +/- . They have to do a bunch of paperwork and government required inspections that will take about 2 weeks. During this time period, the police will have to come out to verify that we actually have a registered parking space for the vehicle. The dealer said he will give us a car to drive so we can get around, so that will be nice.

Anther big thing that did happen is that we bought the biggest coffee pot we could find at the local store. This was a big 6 cup pot, about half the size of ours in the US, but it works great. Nice and slow brew, so makes a nice cup of coffee.
We actually did borrow the neighbor’s car to go to town to buy groceries and go to pick up my alien registration card at the city office. This is my new government id.










We are in the country here. On the way from the office we saw a monkey running down the road. This guy was probably 40-50 pounds; I was surprised how big he was. Shiho said that they come down more often in the winter to find food near the river.

For next week we are hoping to go to Fukuoka and check out the Costco there. I would like to by some nice Japanese appliances for our future house. We also might take a trip to Nagasaki or some random hot springs in Kushu. Also will get business cards made for Shiho and I. Will have to go to ATM a bunch of times to get the cash to pay for the car, but will be fun. Have to get my hanko 判子, or stamp made, since this is what is needed to receive packages and do any type of financial stuff here.
The rainy season has officially began here. It has rained on and of for the past week, but today it has been coming down all day. The river is higher than I have seen before, but nothing like Typhoon season I hear. (*8

Not sure if I posted the pictures from the beginning of our trip in Osaka but you can find them here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/52807TimeInOsakaAsWeStartOurNewLifePhase

Here are the most recent pictures from Tsuwano

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/JapanLiving1