Saturday my sponsor was set to pick me up to go phone shopping. Can't do much here without a phone! I woke up exceedingly early and decided to go stretch my legs by taking a quick run around. As I'm running (in the dark) I suddenly had a fear of a habu snake attack, etc. So many new nature noises! I made it unscathed, thank goodness! After my run I headed over to the Officers Club Café for breakfast. Quick service, nice staff, great food! Glad to find a good place to eat. My sponsor then picked me up and took me to the BX. At the BX there is an AU store and a Softbank store (the two most popular cell providers). Picked up an IPhone 6. Phones are different here in that we don't get locked into a "plan". You have the option of outright buying the phone or you can have the cost of the phone split up into equal payments to be paid over two years, with the cost being rolled into your monthly bill. They offer a discount if you have the phone cost split over two years (my take on this was their was to have you on "contract"...I use that term lightly as it is different than the US contract most people would think of). imessage texting is free, however, other texts and calls cost money. In addition, voicemail is an extra fee each month (after 3 months of a free trial). Tethering (to make your phone a wifi hotspot) is free. I chose a 5gb monthly plan with tethering and a 64gb phone. My cost each month is 4580yen (this changes based on conversion rate, currently this would be $37). Yes, $37/month for my data and my phone cost! An amazing feature the company offers is the ability to change your data plan as frequently as you need. Say next month I realize I want more data, I can just stop by the store and request the change. A few weeks later I want to decrease my data to the lowest amount, again, I just head in and make the request. There is no fee to do that. Their saying was, "you can't change your phone but you can change your data plan!". When my other half gets to the island he will get his own phone with AU. The "family plan" is where they link our phones to allow free texting and phone calls between the two. He will have his own phone and plan and I will keep mine. However, we will be able to communicate as frequently as we want between the two of us without cost. The personnel at the store were very efficient and knowledgeable. You pick your phone out, your plan, sign some paperwork, then come back in 1 hour to pick up your activated phone. When I went to go get mine they put it through a quick test. My phone actually ended up having issues in the fact that the speaker was not working. They immediately tagged the phone as "broken" and asked that I come back in another hour and they would give me a different one. When I went back my new phone was perfect! The broken phone was an oddity, the employees said that had never actually happened before. After I got my phone my sponsor took me out to a Jamaican Café about a 5 minute drive off-base. I got a jerked chicken sandwich. It was amazing! Sponsor dropped me off at my hotel room. I collapsed into bed about 1730! My body is still trying to recover from my trip over.
Sunday my sponsor took me out to Tenkaippin; a ramen restaurant. Words cannot describe the amazing food I ate! You choose the type of noodle (I believe there were 9 options), add any extra toppings you want, and get various sides if you want that too. They will ask if you want garlic in the ramen (garlic is very popular here). I do not like garlic so I did not get it. I chose Shio (later I found it this means "salt"). I wanted to try a noodle topping (it comes on the side for you to add yourself). I forgot the name but it was basically a white rice ball surrounded by egg and in (soy sauce?). It was interesting but I don't think I'll get it again. My sponsor got chicken dumplings and wholly goodness those things are delicious! My dish was so filling that even though we ate at 1100 I ate nothing else the rest of the day. 
keep the journal going! I love reading up each day or so!
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