After an unsuccessful attempt at getting the Honda guy in town to give us a new 2010 CRV for $5k under asking price (enter: stare down), we walked away from the dealership. In my past car purchasing experience, they followed me. Here, they did not. Soooo we decided to check out some other cars for the heck of it. We stopped by the Toyota lot under the impression they would give us a Highlander or 4 Runner for $10k under asking price ("umm, don't you want to like give these things away?"), but that didn't go as expected either. So we were then onto the Ford dealer to check out Hybrid Escapes. And what do we see on the certified used lot next door? A 2007 Honda CRV with 18,000 miles. 
Sold. Tag it. Done! Meanwhile, this car looks like a peanut compared to the trucks that people drive down here.
For our flight out of Japan, we were assigned the good ol' "Freedom Flight" out of Yokota air base, about a couple hours north of Atsugi. This is the same flight folks take when they want to fly free as "Space Available" back to the States. I never took advantage of Space A despite best intentions, but I know now I wasn't missing out on anything. After getting a 4 am shuttle to Yokota, waiting for 6 hours there, flying 1.5 hours to Misawa, waiting in another lounge for 4 hours, and then a 8 hour flight to Seattle (we were spared the stop in Anchorage), I can safely say I rather just throw down some dolla' bills for a direct flight.At the least the girl next to me on the plane was enjoying Ice Age 3 as much as I was. It's always nice to have a giggle buddy in crime, even if they are a complete stranger. Oh Sid, you offer such comical relief.
This past week, we moved out of our Japanese home and onto base temporarily before we fly out next week. And I have to say, base living has a couple things going for it!
1) I don't wake up to a 30 degree room. Seriously. The lack of central heating in our off base home was probably the worst thing about living off base. But that's our bad - we really should have had a Japanese friend teach us how to use the timers on our kerosene heaters. Anyways, on base you can use as much heat as you want. It is ridiculously comfortable to walk around and not have to preplan every move.
2) Cable. Well primarily HGTV. I've watched about a dozen episodes of House Hunters over the weekend to make up for years of its absence. Also, commercials - real commercials. Off base, our AFN satellite only offered military propoganda and information spots. Its nice to watch a show without intermittently being informed about the capital of Kansas (Topeka!) and told not to shake my baby.
Other than that, it is a tad claustrophobic to be in this single room for a week and a half. Erik is in Guam for the week to round it his time here with his buddies as they enjoy the lovely shows that Guam has to offer. I have basically just been hanging out and meeting up with dear friends for random lunches and dinners... and running back to my hot box room to catch the next round of Curb Appeal.
