true love

We found out that a friend of ours lost their baby last month. It's such a heartbreaking thing to hear that a couple has lost their child. Though they didn't get to know their little sweetheart, that child was loved beyond compare. Being so far away, it's difficult to be comforting to friends who are hurting. All we could really do was pray.

Our friend Julia came to visit, and in preparing things to do during her visit, I came across an amazing pathway devoted to children who had passed away. It was near a Buddhist temple that I thought Julia would be interested in visiting. At the temple, you could purchase a pinwheel to place on the path in remembrance of the child. We placed one on the hill with the others, a tribute to a life that never got to be. It was beautiful, with the pinwheels standing out in stark contrast to the snowy hills they were placed on.

It was a small way to pay tribute to true love.

snow and ramen

One thing about moving to Japan that we've been excited to experience is the festivals. Winter and Spring seem to be the times with the most festivals up here in the Tohoku region, so we haven't really gotten to experience any thus yet. We just missed the Chrysanthemum festival (it was the weekend we arrived so we were beyond jetlagged) and the salmon festival just happened to be the same day we had already planned to go to Aomori to visit the aquarium. Then came Christmas, which is more of a western holiday; and New Year's, which Japanese families spend at home. We are extremely excited about the upcoming Snow Lantern Festival at Hirosaki, but it's not until next month! Our time in Misawa has been relatively festival-less. So when we heard about a Ramen festival, we were excited!

Now, some have asked if events (or even school) is delayed when there is snow on the ground. In Misawa, nothing is cancelled unless there is a fluke dump of snow that measures in several feet. So even though we have received 24 inches of snow over the last 48 hours, nothing was keeping us indoors!

We bundled up and drove (carefully) to American Park. We got pretty good parking and only had to walk a few blocks to get there. On the way, we had some fun playing in the snow. At some places, it was up to our knees!

We got to the festival and were excited to see several ramen booths open. For those of you who have never had real ramen, there is pretty much nothing better to warm you up on a cold day. We love trying new ramen and this was the perfect place to find it!

We wandered around, watching people make ramen and eat ramen and try to stay warm in the freezing snow. It was a great time to people-watch! People huddled around to keep warm, and others congregated around the space heaters that were set up.

Finally, we chose our ramen. I went to a booth that made yakisoba (mmmm) and then put it in broth to make yakisoba ramen, which is something I'd never seen before.

We crowded around the space heater and enjoyed our ramen. The local news crew came by to cover the event and there was even a magician who had shows to entertain the kids.

While this was no Sapporo Snow Festival or anything as huge as that, we had a lot of fun watching and participating in the Japanese love of all things ramen.

how i love thee

I just had another morning dose of how amazing Japan is, and it wouldn't fit in my facebook status update, so to my blog I fled.

Our garage door was broken. So this morning, I got on the phone with our realtor, who basically calls the utility places for us since most of them don't speak English. He let me know he would get in touch with the company who makes and fixes the garage doors and get back to me with an estimate of when they could come fix it.

There are about 6 inches of snow on the ground right now, so I didn't expect to hear back that they were coming for hours or even days. In NC, the snow would have meant that it'd be weeks before someone could come out and take a look at it, and that doesn't include the time that it would have taken to order parts and come back out to install them.

Five minutes later, he calls me back and lets me know that the garage door man is on his way and will be here shortly. Two minutes pass (I know I tend to exaggerate at times, but I swear this is two minutes to the tee) and the doorbell rings. It's the "garage man" and he is here to take a look at the door.

He fiddles around with it, figures out the problem, gets his tools and step ladder out of his car, and fixes it. Then he tests it out 5 or 6 times to ensure it works consistently. He proceeds to call our realtor to let him know it's fixed, passes the phone to me so our realtor can tell me that it's fixed, I pass the phone back and then we both bow and he's gone. The whole transaction took about 10 minutes, and if you've been lucky enough to see my video of how slow garage doors in Misawa take to open and close, you'll know that at least 7 minutes of that time was taken with the door opening and closing.

So from the time I decided to call our realtor to the time I sat down to write this blog, it took about a half hour.

Japan, how I love thee.

thanksgiving adventures

Thanksgiving was an eventful day, and was different than any Thanksgiving we had ever had. Normally, we have all the family traditions that we have tried to upkeep even though we lived so far away. Parade in the morning, decorating the tree, watching “White Christmas,” and the whole turkey smorgasbord. This year, though, it seemed like none of those things were going to be in the mix, at least in the way they normally are. Our household goods aren’t due until January, so there were no decorations (and we were in the lodge, so we couldn’t get a tree even if we had the decorations to put on it.) The parade would be shown live…at 1 am our time. And who wants to cook a Thanksgiving dinner in a tiny kitchenette for two people?

So we basically made other plans.

The plans made our first Thanksgiving in Japan an amazing day, filled with new traditions and old ones.

We have some friends who have been in Japan for a long time. When I say long, I mean nearly 20 years. Needless to say, they know the ins and outs and are a wealth of information and great ideas for things to do around the area. We went with them, and some new friends as well, to the beach. While this may sound like a nice place to spend a Thanksgiving day, let me remind you that we live in the northernmost area of the main island in Japan. This means cold weather and snow for a good part of the year. That part of the year had started, so our beach trip was quite literally freezing. We arrived and hurried to bundle up in the massive amount of layers we brought with us. It was 0° C and snowing, though our awesome Swackett app said that it felt like -4° because of the wind chill. It was beautiful and brisk, and we were excited for a fun adventure.

We walked the beach with different purposes. Most of our friends had the purpose of looking for sea glass. The fishermen up here use the glass fishing balls, and they often wash ashore. Apparently the area we were in was a prime spot for finding these treasures. My purpose, though, was to find some great photo opps. (Does this come as a surprise to anyone??) We were all rewarded one way or another! Most of our friends ended up with sea glass, I ended up with some awesome pictures, and we all ended up having a great time.

Here are some of the pictures from Shipwreck Beach. By the way, these are real shipwrecks.




After Shipwreck Beach, we all felt that we needed a warm place to warm our body temperatures (and go to the bathroom!) so we met up at a local shop that sells tofu donuts. The donuts were amazing, the bakery was adorable, and we had our first experience with a traditional Japanese bathroom.





After our trip to the beach was over, we returned to Misawa to join our work associates at my principal's house for Thanksgiving. We had an excellent turkey dinner and more pie than one could even imagine. It was a warm, inviting event and we felt right at home with our new friends. One of our friends even brought her Yorkie, so we got to play with him and find a new friend for Seamus once he gets here.



Later that night, I watched the parade, skyped with our families, and began my online Black Friday shopping! All in all, it was a great first Japanese Thanksgiving.

snow and sushi

We are loving all of the "firsts" we are having here in Misawa. This week, we experienced our first snow and sushi in Japan. Ah, which one to start with...they were both so much fun!

Now, you know I'm really not the biggest fan of either snow OR sushi. I don't the combination of wet and cold that snow often brings, and I don't like to partake in much of what comes from the sea. So me telling you that I enjoyed both of these must say something about where we are!

The snow was crazy. It wasn't just that we received real snow for the first time since we left Reno several years ago, but it was the fact that it was bright and sunny for most of the day. The snow seemed to come out of nowhere, and then it just kept going. And going. And, wait for it, going. For about 24 hours, it snowed continuously. It was only overcast and cloudy for a small portion of that day. At times, it would snow lightly, with huge, puffy flakes. Then were the times that it felt like it was being dumped all at once. Either way, it was a pretty entertaining day just to watch the weather. Needless to say, my students had a hard time concentrating since we have an excellent view out our window. They had a blast playing in the snow at recess.

Like the snow, the sushi was crazy. We went to Kappa Sushi after hearing about how great it is from a friend as well as a Japanese local.

What we didn't know was that it would be more the experience than the food that made the night so much fun. When you sit down, there are several sites to take in. First, the food comes out on a conveyor belt. There are plates of sushi that are pre-made, and you can take the plate right off the belt if it looks like something you want. Second, there is a touch-screen where you can order something specific to be brought to you. Third, there is a track above the conveyor belt that holds the bullet train. Yes, the bullet train. Any food you order from the touch-screen is brought to you on a little yellow shinkansen that beeps to let you know it's coming. We had an immense amount of fun ordering our dinner!

So to sum it up, we've had snow and we've had sushi, but we've never had it quite like we got to have it here in Misawa.

day 4 (and 5)??

It's been a long couple of days.

Yesterday, we went to see the St. Louis Arch and then left Missouri, excited at the prospect of coming back someday and exploring St. Louis quite a bit more than we were able to on this trip. We drove through Indiana and Illinois, and then stopped in Louisville, KY for...as if you didn't know...some lunch at Spaghetti Factory. It was by far the biggest (and probably nicest) OSF I've ever been to, though the food wasn't nearly as good and we're used to. It was amusing, though, so have the option of iced tea or sweet tea to go with our meal.

We left Louisville and traveled through West Virgina, which took FOREVER; Virginia, which was full of fog and rain; and finally entered North Carolina at around 2 am. We drove down to Spring Lake, which is right outside the base, and crashed at an icky, smoky hotel. Don't stay in Spring Lake if ever you come through here! (Well...if you do come you should stay with us anyway, but you get the picture.)

So after two hours of sleep, we got up this morning and met with a realtor. We were able to look at a few houses and neighborhoods and have pretty much decided on Sanford as our town of choice. Then we recouped at Waffle House (which, I have to say, is just as yummy as I remember it being years and years ago! It was the only thing I really missed about leaving the south as a kid...and Ben loved it too, so I'm pretty sure we'll make it a weekly weekend-breakfast habit) and then it was off to the airport so Ben could fly home in order to finish his last two weeks of work and packing up of the house.

I was able to check in at the base lodge at Fort Bragg (MUCH better than the lame hotel from last night) and am about to eat dinner and then crash for the night.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Pictures from the trip, and from around NC, will be coming shortly!

the beginning of an era

So this was by far the best New Year's I've ever experienced. Some of you have heard already, but I got myself engaged last night. It was beautiful and, needless to say, I'm SOOOO excited! (Yes, with that many "O's") This is the wonderful man mentioned in the New Year's post from last year.

It was a beautiful night. Knowing how much I love that scene in Say Anything, he stood knee-deep in snow outside my apartment with the boom box playing our song until I came outside to see what it was all about. He ran up the hill, got down on one knee, and asked me to be his wife. It was the best moment of my life!

Though nothing can quite compare to that, other things have been good as well. It's been snowing like crazy here...we had the biggest snow storm in 17 years the other night. Usually I'm not one for enjoying snow storms, but it was actually kind of fun being "snowed in." I do admit that I will be excited once it melts and I'm able to leave the apartment once again. Not knowing we would be in for a snowy surprise, I refrained from going to the grocery store this week, a decision I quickly regretted once I realized my poor Saturn would not be able to make it over the four feet of snow blocking the exit to the carport. Luckily, the 'rents conned my sister's boyfriend (who has 4 wheel drive) into taking her to the store and bringing some food by my apartment. Thank you, Steven, my hero for the week.

Christmas was great too...several relatives came into town, and it was nice seeing them again. A whole evening was spent playing Trivial Pursuit, which will happen when you have 11 people each trying to play on their own teams, but, alas, someone finally won (quite possibly because he was the only person still interested in the game) and it was over.

By the way, the ring is white gold with three round cut diamonds in the middle and then there are two strips of gold on either side with smaller diamonds inside them. I love it. :D

according to the picture on the box, it's a tiger

This has got to be the best joke I've ever heard.

A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get it started."

Her boyfriend asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?"

The blonde says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a tiger."

Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She lets him in and
shows him the puzzle spread over the table.

He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and
says, "First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to
assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger."

He takes her hand and says, "Second, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice
cup of tea, and then....." he sighed, "let's put all these Frosted
Flakes back in the box."

On a side note, it snowed the other day. It was beautiful! I don't usually like the snow all that much, but this time..it was a good thing.

spam-a-licious

Hi. It's snowing outside. That's about it for this week.

I found some spam haikus to share. Gross.

My friend pork shoulder
I return to you. this time
I've brought mayonnaise

And who dares mock Spam?
you? you? you are not worthy
of one rich pink fleck

Oh! Mighty is spam.

Bringing surprise to each bite

Rejoice all taste buds