Top products from r/okinawa

Before you leave the US, transfer your cell phone number over to Google voice. Buy one of these and set it up with your Google Voice account. You can transfer your wife's phone number as well and add it as a secondary account. Incoming and outgoing calls to the US will be free.

Sign up for Amazon Prime. Your basic necessities can be found at the exchange and commissary, but they do a shit job in keeping their levels of stock maintained.

If you decide to go through a major provider for cell service, avoid Softbank. The coverage is garbage. AU is pretty decent and you can bundle with internet for a discount.

You should consider grabbing an international driver's license from your local AAA. You will need to take a short drivers ed course before you can get your base license, assuming you already have your stateside license. It's only offered on certain days, so if driving is an absolute necessity, you can rent a car with your international driver's license until you get your base license. Your sponsor should be able to take you around, so consider this tip low priority.

AFN satellite is pretty limited in their programming. If you want Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, you'll need something like a Roku or Apple TV and a DNS Proxy. I'm signed up for SMART DNS and I can access all the programming from those providers. I also have a Sling Box slinging cable from my brother's house to me over here. If you have family that is willing to pay for an additional cable box, you might want to invest in a Slingbox.

There is an auto resale lot on the base. You can find some good deals, but none of the cars have a warranty. If you decide to buy a car off base, you should avoid the places by the base that cater to Americans. A lot of cars are older and high-mileage. You should explore options off base. Try switching the language to English and browsing Crossroad. I'm sure the translation isn't perfect, but it will give you a good idea of what's offered here.

Good selection at Cookpad.

Some recipes here too, good selection and even found ninjin shiri shiri here.

Here's a book on Amazon that seems to have received some good reviews.

This might be the most obscure thing I've ever seen requested here lol. You might have some luck on Amazon JP though - https://www.amazon.co.jp/山崎産業-C3-000U-MB-清掃用品-コンドル-自由箒B/dp/B0049JWELG/ref=pd_sbs_60_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EAE8VEPESW84DAXPQF9Q

They might even be on the US Amazon. I'm guessing you're not looking for a normal large push broom used on store floors and stuff, but that smaller, thinner one common in Japan.

I got curious, so I started searching a bit. One problem with many things like this is that the domestic and overseas models can have different names. Unless you're directly involved in the hobby it can be difficult to know if you're looking at the same or different models.

For the first model it seems to have the same name. In Japan the going rate is 60K or $560: https://www.amazon.co.jp/YAESU-FTM-400XDH-430MHz%E5%B8%AF-%E3%83%87%E3%83%A5%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%90%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89-%E3%83%87%E3%82%B8%E3%82%BF%E3%83%AB%EF%BC%8F%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B0%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC/dp/B018JW1S4C?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
Or: http://www.cqcqde.com/shop/81_28962.html

In the US it seems to cost about $650-680: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0182SG7PS/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687642&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00I41EOAY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=Y0058A9MQSVVNQAMY4W2

But one place mentions a mail-in rebate for about $530 in the end: http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-014544

So it seems new things are a bit cheaper here, say 10-15% or so. But with warranty and other issues it might not be worth it.