Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Time

December has been a pretty uneventful month for us! Chad's squadron was put on lock down for about a week and half because a couple Airman in his squadron got in trouble for an alcohol related incident. Since tensions are so high between the Americans and the Japanese right now, anything alcohol related gets your squadron put on lock down. This means that nobody in the squadron was allowed off base unless you were going to eat. I thought it was pretty nice of them to even allow them to go off base and eat. That made the lock down less painful! We've been under all sorts of crazy restrictions lately. Well I guess I shouldn't say we, really it only applies to the service members but I still feel like I'm being restricted! For awhile there they weren't allowed to purchase alcohol after 10PM on or off base. That just got lifted this last week though. They still have a 11PM curfew and are not allowed to drink in off base establishments. The purpose of these restrictions is to show the Japanese that we can be responsible. There are always going to be a few bad apples in a bunch though!

Last night, Chad and I attended his work's Holiday Party. It was a pretty fun time! They served us a delicious dinner and even had money on the bar, so the free drinks were nice! They were playing all sorts of entertaining games. Chad and I didn't partake in any but it was fun to watch! One game was like the show Fear Factor. They had to drink squid ink and eat nasty stuff. One thing they ate was an egg with an undeveloped bird inside. Disgusting! I'm glad I wasn't up there but it was fun to see the people who were brave enough to try it! Haha! They also gave away lots of prizes. It would have been nice to have won of the door prizes, maybe next year! :) The party was Las Vegas theme so they had Roulette, Black Jack, and Poker tables set up to play at. That was pretty cool. Overall, it was a fun night out of the house!

Today is Christmas Eve here in Japan! Usually I would be attending Christmas at my Grandma Cogswell's, but instead Chad and I are just hanging out. I am going to miss all the traditional things that we usually do with family. Tonight, at 10PM our time, we're going to Skype with my family and open all the presents that my Mom sent. I think I am more excited for them to open what we sent them! I can't wait :) I also can't wait to open all the presents that have been sitting under my tree for oh so long! Even though I won't be there on Christmas morning to open presents, I'm happy that technology allows us to still enjoy the time together in a sense. Tomorrow morning, we'll wake up and open presents via Skype with Chad's family. We bought all the fixings to make a Christmas dinner, so I look forward to that as well!

Merry Christmas all! I hope your holiday is filled with family, gifts, and happiness! :)



Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Snapshots 2

Now that we've been here for a few months, I don't have as much fun stuff to blog about. So I think more and more of my posts will be of random pictures that I find on my phone that I have a story to tell about. I think those posts are more fun anyways!

Last Wednesday was my first day of my new job. So far, I am really enjoying it! I am starting to catch on to all the different processes, so that's good. Plus, all the people that I have worked with are super nice! I'll be working every week day now, so that will keep me busy! It'll be nice to have extra money in the bank too! I'm excited! We started off leaving Myah out of her cage while we were away. She was good for the first couple days but on Friday, I came home and saw that she had unwrapped several of the presents that my Mom had sent us. I was very upset! So now, she'll just have to stay in her cage all day everyday! I feel bad, but I can't have her destroying my place because she's bored!


Myah has started to sit on the back of our futon in our spare bedroom and just stare out the window. She loves the outdoors! She has even started laying on the back of our couch like she's a cat, a BIG one!


The bases around here have been having several concerts lately. There was a Hoobastank concert at the bowling alley on our base a few weeks ago. Chad and I aren't really Hoobastank fans, but we took a walk up to the bowling alley to check it out. We took Myah with us too! She liked staring at all the people.


Our neighbors went to Toyko and brought us back these little treats as a token of thanks for helping them out while they were on vacation the week prior. I thought they were so cute with the giraffe print! They are banana carmel custard cream filled or something like that. I didn't think I would be a fan but they were actually really good! Chad and I hope to go to Toyko sometime while we're here, so we'll have to look for these to send home!



Ever since we've gotten to Japan, Chad has been obsessed with Dragon Ball Z. They have these Dragon Ball Z drinks in some of the vending machines around here. Whenever we see one, he has to get one! Not only do they taste good, it's like an orange energy drink but he also is trying to collect all the different cans. I tease him and say "gotta catch 'em all" ... but I'm like oh wait, that's Pokemon lol. We started collecting them when we first got here, but Chad had drank them so now he's trying to collect the unopened cans. A full set actually goes for a lot of money on Ebay! Some of the cans are harder to get than others. I think we're missing 2 or 3 to make a complete set. We also found a Dragon Ball Z puzzle in one of the local stores, so we spent a few nights putting that together. It was fun!

It's not everyday you see one of these in the mall! There was some performance going on in a shopping center that we were in one day. This thing like came out of nowhere and was like prancing around. It even like tried to bite Chad's crotch, lol I don't know what that was all about but it was pretty funny!



It rained all last weekend, which was a bummer! Trace Adkins came to town to put on a show for the military bases. He was on Kadena on Saturday night. It was an outside concert, unfortunately it was raining! That didn't stop Chad and I from attending though. I am glad we did because it was a lot of fun and a great concert. We enjoyed it! The best part is that it was free, can't beat that!


We're getting ready for Christmas around here, only 21 more days! I've only been staring at the presents my Mom sent us for 40 some days! Half way there :) She also sent this door cling to hang up on our door, so we put that up this last weekend. I really like it! :) We sent out our families' gifts last week, so they should be getting those hopefully this week! I can't wait for them to open them. I am horrible with surprises!


That's about all the fun that I've had in the past few weeks. Hope you enjoyed! :)

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Cars, Cars, Cars!

There are so many cars over here with unusual names! I started snapping pictures whenever I saw some interesting ones. I am sure over time, I will have enough to make another blog post, so this is just part 1!

Probox

Space Gear

Moco

Life

Terios Kid

Leaf

FunCargo

Cube to the third?

Swift
Fun fact: That symbol on the left hand side of this Swift means that it is a new driver. You must have this symbol on your car if you've had your license for a year or less. It's to warn other drivers that you are a new driver, so you might do stupid things lol.

Tanto
Cefiro
Dingo
Fun fact: Almost all American owned vehicles have a Y on their license plate, like shown above. That is how you can tell if it's an American driver or not.

Note
Latte
Spacio
MarkII
Familia
Stingray
That's
Naked

 

While we're on the subject of cars, the Japanese aren't required to have their kids in car seats. We will often see kids climbing all over the car, in the front seat, infants being held. It's crazy!

Well that's it for now! I've seen lots of other car names that are unusual and funny, so I'll have to do a part 2 when I get pictures!