6 months?! Has it truly been six months? Our handful of
faithful readers have been no doubt speculating what we could possibly have
been doing for 6 whole months…but it’s been fairly uneventful, folks. Not only
has life just gotten in the way of having time to blog, but there hasn’t been
too many noteworthy Japan-related events. I guess this is the inevitable “let
down” period of living in a new country for 2 years…after 2 years the “new” has
worn off and things that once held so much wonder are now just…trips to the
store. J
Here’s a small list of things we didn’t do in the 6 months
since our last blog, but in theory, could have completed:
1.
Thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail
2.
Been 65% of the way through creating a tiny
human
3.
Learned how to do neat things in Adobe Photoshop
4.
Went from
Cape Town to London and back on a motorcycle
5.
Grew some gourds
So, now that you know what we haven’t been up to, here’s a
little rundown of what’s been transpiring since January! J (Note: J here, warning you this is a long
read, but worth it. Bonus pic of Pepe, if you make it through.)
February
Umm…yeah, so it was like REALLY cold and we didn’t do much
at all. I mean, what does anyone do in February besides enjoying the random
Federal holiday off? Maybe I’m being too harsh on February…it does have
redeeming qualities (Valentine’s Day, I guess)…for us the big event of February
is, of course, J’s birthday! This year we
had planned a cozy little trip to the mountain town of Nikko, which we had
heard great things about. Everything was all set…deposit on the cabin made,
snow chains shopped for and purchased, and then the sky fell down. Literally.
The day before J’s bday we received about 10 inches of snow…followed a mere 6
days later (on Valentine’s Day) by about another foot! So, needless to say, we
had to postpone our Nikko trip seemingly indefinitely because our “reschedule”
date had to be pushed back as well (story to come later). So, the word for the month of February was
most definitely snow! J and I had quite a lot of fun venturing out in it and
playing…I especially enjoyed trying to run full speed through the snow and
shoving J with all my might…which wasn’t much, but it was fun nonetheless. It’s
not every day you can safely take a running dive at your significant other. And
we spent literally hours building a snow ring around our firepit and just
walking around and enjoying the snowfall. Many memories were made…and many snow
days off of work were enjoyed! Maybe Winter 2015 will top it? J J’s birthday was
low-key (we had no choice lol) but I was able to gift him with an epic
masterpiece of his precious Pepe (see below). Jonas here: I will say being an
adult is no fun sometimes, I felt like an old man looking at the weather and
saying we should just hunker down. But it really paid off. We had a blast and
got texts from a few friends stuck out on the road for literally days trying to
get back to base. Store were sold out of all food, it was madness. We even had
Facebook messages going out from neighbor to neighbor asking if they had
certain food items, because everything was shut down. It was really cool to see
the base come together like that. We also went to Okonomiyaki
(Oh-ko-gnome-ee-ya-key) for my birthday celebration with our Japanese friends!
This is a food cooked on a griddle in the table. There is a technique to it and
I had no idea what they were ordering, but it was really good!! And of course
super fun with our Japanese friends. Like Liz said earlier, when we first got
here they were Japanese friends. They are still Japanese but they really feel
like part of our life now in a way that I didn’t expect.
March
March was pretty laid back…we were pretty deep into saving
for the summer travel expenses, so we tried to keep our other expenses low and
just keep plugging along on the Dave Ramsey plan of paying off our debt! A big
update on that is coming in November…stay tuned! And yes, I’ll actually try to
blog about it in time lol. Definitely the biggest event for us this month was
J’s his big presentation at the Japanese Pentagon! Jonas here: So a while back
I got a call from our Command Chief asking to meet with me to discuss
Resiliency. I teach it on base and am currently the lead for the program. He is
a really good man, but very high on the food chain around here so I was really
nervous about meeting him. I arrived and there were two Warrant Officers from
the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (Japanese AF) waiting in the lobby. I introduced myself and found out they were
in on this meeting too. Now I am super nervous. Anyway, the short version is
they wanted me to come to the Japanese Pentagon (Ichigaya) to present the
concept of Resilience at the annual Command Chiefs conference. This would be
the highest ranking enlisted military men from all 85 JASDF bases. One of the
most surreal experiences is how down to earth they all were. Very friendly,
kind, and curious. Japan struggles with suicide, and while our resilience
program is not intended as suicide avoidance, it does contain a lot of skills
that help people cope with life. Coping well is pretty much the opposite of
suicide, so I was excited to share with them and maybe help them stand up their
own program. It was supposed to be a three hour presentation, and I expected to
take about an hour of that. I had the two Command Chiefs from Yokota with me
and we were all going to speak. What it turned into was my one hour presentation,
then an hour and a half of them asking me questions and details and my opinion.
It was amazing! They couldn’t get enough and it was wonderful! Chief Laurent
did a wonderful job giving his reasons why the program is valuable and gave
perspective that I don’t have because I am not a Command Chief. After that Command
Chief Master Sergeant of JASDF called the room to attention for me and
presented me with a coin from him to thank me. If you don’t know about Military
Challenge coins, it’s a pretty big deal. They are a very real way of saying
thank you and many times are worth more than official recognition, like a medal
or decoration. Most leaders guard who they gives coins to so they continue to
mean something. After that the real fun began because they took us upstairs and
we all got together in a big room and had appetizers and drinks and everybody
just relaxed and hung out. The groups would
be one or two Americans, an English speaking Japanese Chief, and less English
speaking Chief that had questions or just wanted to talk. It was so much fun!
Many had questions about the program, but lots just wanted to talk. And we
really wanted to know about them. The night flew by and in no time it was time
to get on the bus and head home. We got to bring our friends and my boss, the
Stormans, and our good friends, Cody and Kelsey Ramirez. Both have been vital
to Resilience at Yokota in their own way, and we got all our wives to come with
us. It was a really good time. I cannot think of a moment in my AF career that
has topped this experience. We are working with our Japanese partners still to
find the best way to launch this for JASDF. If you are interested, our program
was born out of the Army program, that has its roots in the Upenn Resiliency
program. There is a lot out there and it will change your life. I have been
teaching almost a year now and it is amazing. I am also surprised how much of
it I find in the Bible as we study God’s word. I thought I found some new psychological
science and I find out that much of the same knowledge was hiding in the Bible
sitting on my bedside table.
April
The word for April was BRUNO!!! In early March we braved the
drizzling rain & low temps to wait in line at 0600 on a Saturday for
tickets to Bruno Mars in downtown Tokyo! We both love his music and we knew it
would be the chance of a lifetime to see an American artist in Japan. We were
not at all disappointed; let me just say right up front that if you enjoy his
music at all you simply MUST see him live…he is, without a doubt, even BETTER
live than his recordings! How is this possible, you say? I have no clue, it
just is and he’s one talented dude! We
went with some great friends & it was a wonderful time…memmmmmories! J Our other fun event
for April was my good friend Jennifer taking our pictures in front of our
beautiful street full of cherry blossoms! It was fun and a really cool
experience to have someone you’re friends with do something professional for
you. And I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the gorgeous cherry blossoms…they
don’t last long enough to get tired of them! It was a very good month indeed. J
May
Early in the month we ventured over to Ome to the shrine,
which was also our very first outing in Japan way back in May of 2012…so, it
was an anniversary trip of sorts or as we say “Japanniversary.” Except this time our good friends, the
Stormans, joined us so it was even better!
May also brought me a huge running accomplishment…me running the farthest
distance I’ve ever ran in my life…also known as a 10K! I was using a 10K
training app for about 5 weeks leading up to this moment (most of the runs on
the treadmill) and I was SO very excited & proud of myself. Of course, I
could have never gone that far without the help and support of J, aka the best
pacer in the world! He’s my rock and I am so happy to be on this life journey
(and fitness journey) with him! I am very happy with my running
accomplishments…and have literally come so far in a year. I remember all too
well when I could barely run 60 whole seconds at a time! I thank God and my
wonderful hubby for sticking with me and making me a runner!
June
The beginning of June is always full of angst…will the kids
make it here w/o us spending all our savings? Will the military flights work
out? But luckily this summer, the answer to both was yes! J was able to grab
the kids and get back fairly quickly, which was such a blessing. Our friends
the Barteks made them right at home as they got “stuck” in Okinawa for three
days. Poor babies having to go to the beach and BBQ, and play video games on a
tropical island. After they arrived we were all counting down until the 25
th
when we would venture to Tokyo Disney Sea! It was SO.FUN!!! Since it was a
weekday, we enjoyed smaller crowds and the wait times for the rides were very
short. We were able to utilize the Fast Passes and ride everything we wanted to
ride…and even a few things we didn’t want to ride (aka Tower of Terror). It was
a wonderful day and I definitely understood some of what the Magic Kingdom
boasts about. My favorite ride by far was Indiana Jones…riders sit in a Jeep
and enjoy the feeling of driving through Indy’s tomb in search of the Crystal
Skull. It was super fun, the Jeep drifting around corners inside the ride and
dodging objects that flew at the car! Awesome! And one of the only rides we
rode twice.
J
As a family we really enjoyed the 3D Toy Story “ride”…explained here:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/hollywood-studios/toy-story-mania/
It’s really, really cute… go read about it! Overall, our
legs were killing us when we left but we made the most out of our 8-ish hours
in the park! Tokyo Disney Sea…CHECK! And we loved it so much, that J decided
that we “have to” go to Tokyo Disneyland for my birthday this year! Oh, darn.
;)
Jonas here: I just have to say that this was a trip of a
lifetime as a father. It was wonderful to get to spend time with all the kids
on different rides and in different ways. It really was magical and I don’t
think any of us will ever forget it. I will also say that proper planning made
it much less stressful. We saved enough that we could just got enjoy and not
worry all day. We gave the kids spending money and we didn’t even spend as much
as we thought because food wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought. Our frugal and
practical tip was we packed a cooler so we didn’t eat much in the park, and we
are Americans so we packed chips and PB&J and didn’t have to brave any odd
food choices. The curry in the park was really good though, and aptly served in
the Aladdin themed part of the park. They piped curry smell in at the entrance
to the area. It was really crazy but cool.
July
July found us starting to prepare for our rescheduled, but
now family trip to Nikko on the 4th! A good friend of mine had helped me make
the reservations both times…the original reservation was for J & I and then
when we decided to reschedule we thought “what the heck, let’s take the kids
with us in July!” and that was it. Three days before we depart, I decide to
double check our reservation and make sure I have budgeted correctly for the
cabin…you know, being a “planner” I do these types of things. Come to find out,
our three additional guests were SIXTY dollars each PER night…so our balance
due was roughly $350 for two nights! Which was about what I had budgeted for
our entire weekend. Soooo, sadly, we had to cancel yet again and just say
“maybe next year” to Nikko. L
Instead, we found out that Fuji-Q Highland amusement park has discounted
tickets for people who don’t ride the rides! So, J, & I enjoyed just
strolling around the park while the kids got to ride! They were SO excited, and
we got blessed with another great day with no lines and the older kids enjoyed
riding several of the huge roller coasters multiple times. So in the end, I
think it worked out pretty well and I’m sure the kids would agree! And we got
home in time to see the base fireworks…what could be better than that?! The
rest of July seemed to fly by and sadly J had to head back with the kiddos on
the 18th. Amazingly (and after a really, really, REALLY long trip)
he made it back very quickly, returning back to work on the 23rd! In
between, he did the following:
As I write this its 31 July here in Japan and we are on Day
4 of our new diet/exercise journey…much more to come next time about that!
Feeling great, but very sore… and looking forward to our next adventure…San
Diego for Thanksgiving!! We have a whirlwind trip planned, but I’m really looking
forward to it since I’ve never been to southern Cali! We hope this finds you
and yours having a wonderful summer! God Bless & much love to you all!
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