Our Adventures in Atsugi Japan

Yamato Yutori No Mori (Cloud Park) So we have been trying to explore some of the parks around the area and today we went to what is called cloud park on base. This park is fantastic it has climbing areas, rolling slides and a bouncing area (cloud). This park is huge with a lot more aside from the playground including huge barbecue areas and a walking trail. This park can be seen if you drive around base and head toward the east gate, however it takes a bit of work to actually get to the park. When going use this parking area  it is the closest of the 2 parking areas to the playground. We spent about 2 hours there today and if it did not get so warm the kids could have probably played all day. That is one thing to note, this park is open and has very little shade so on a hot day bring plenty of water and go early in the morning the good thing is that the park opens at 9am. This park is definitely a must see. Here are some photos I took to give you an ...

A few weeks ago we decided to go to Tokyo Disneyland on a whim (this is not something I would really recommend). Disney Tokyo is made up of 2 parks: Disneyland and Disneysea. We have been told that Disneyland is more for the the younger kids so we only when there this time but I am sure we will go to Disneysea at some point. So this is how it went.     First of all save yourself a lot of hassle and do not buy tickets online. It took us 2 hours to come to the conclusion online purchase was not going to work for us. We apparently have to many safety features on our credit cards and debit card that it was making the purchase much more difficult. So to save yourself the trouble we had go to the ATM at the Main Exchange (or near the Depot) and pull out some Yen (this is where the online purchase helps you to know how much you will need to withdraw). Then go to the 711 or any 711 and you can purchase the tickets there. The 711 on base was very helpful with this process so...

So when we set up our HHG we were originally told not to do the unaccompanied baggage (used to be called express shipment) due to the fact that it would arrive the same time as out HHG. I am here to tell you that is not true do not let them tell you that. I did more research and found out it’s not true and a very good Idea to send it. Your accompanied baggage is picked up a few weeks before your HHG and is shipped via air via Space A so it will likely arrive when you arrive in Japan if not shortly after and by time you get housing; ours arrived before we even arrived. Once you get housing you can go to personal property and arrange for your unaccompanied baggage to be delivered. I used a bunch or resources to pack our unaccompanied baggage; if you take to Pinterest and google and just search for “what to pack in unaccompanied baggage to japan” or something similar it will bring up a bunch of lists. One that I think I took the most from was at worldtravelingmilitaryfamily.com . I left ...

(Updated with our furniture) So I know I said I would post photos of you 4 bedroom townhome on Atsugi when we got assigned housing, well that may have to wait a few months. After spending a total of 20 days at the navy lodge we were told they had no 4 bedrooms available for us. Our options were then to either move in town or take a 3 bedroom and we were given the option to have a 4 bedroom possibly in May when the air wing moves to Iwakuni. We chose to take the 3 bedroom which landed us in the towers. Many people think we are crazy because they would love to live in town (it is mandatory to live on base right now) however if we chose to live in town we might end up being forced to move back on base again if a 4 bedroom becomes available. If they were to come to me in 6 months to a year I would say heck yeah let's do it but when we were offered it I hadn't driven in town yet (I still haven't) and I would have to bring my kids on base for school every day; honestly thi...