Our first home

Randy had to save enough money to get us a house off base and I had to sell my car and save for my plane ticket so it took a little time. When the day finally came for me to leave my family and Randy's family took me to the airport. I had never been on plane and now I was going to Japan with 2 suitcases and $20.00 in my purse! (It's still hard for me to believe that our families were so supportive of this) Anyway, one suitcase contained all my clothes and the other contained my "household goods" which were a 4 place serving set of Corelle, some silverware, one pot, one frying pan, and a few towels and pictures. Once I arrived in Japan, I found Randy and we got on the bus to Yokosuka. The bus arrived at what used to be the bank and Randy left me standing there while he ran to get our car at the Marine Barracks. I was terrified but so happy to be with him. It was late and dark so I could not see anything. We drove to our house at 5-7-9 Takeyama. As Randy searched for a place to park, our neighbors showed us that the entrance to our front door was actually our parking spot. Our house was huge! It had a kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom on the first floor and upstairs there were 4 bedrooms and a balcony. I thought houses were supposed to be small in Japan so that was a shock! My hubby had a castle for me! When we woke up the next morning Randy ran to the store right next to our house and got us some canned coffee out of the machine which was cool because we did not have that in the states. We got dressed and went to the base for my id card and to sign up for command sponsorship and to get a few groceries and some yen since we were living off base. I met most of Randy's friends that day which was fun. None of them were married so there were no other wives to meet. And then about 3 days later Randy left for 2 weeks of training at Mt. Fuji. So there I was in Japan, in a huge house off base, not knowing how to drive or even get to the base for that matter, and alone!! Welcome to military life!