A Japanese Christmas

For Christmas, we went skiing in Nagano! We met up with about 30 other people from George’s squadron to carpool/caravan up and out to the mountains (a four hour drive). Nagano is where the 1998 Winter Olympics were held, and has great skiing. We arrived Thursday afternoon and to our surprise, there was no snow on the ground. Anywhere. I was pretty devastated that we wouldn’t be able to ski! It did eventually start snowing and on Friday morning when we woke up, there was about a foot and a half of snow! We took a shuttle (and by shuttle—I mean riding in the back of the owner’s van) from our bed and breakfast/hotel about 200 yards up to the ski lodge. George and some other friends of mine headed off to the beginners hill to get our ski-legs (like sea legs… get it?) acclimated and most of us made it successfully down the hill. We did that a few times then headed to the restaurant at the top of the mountain to grab lunch with the rest of the group.

The snow was incredible. I’ve never skied on such fresh powder! It was unbelievable. Because it snowed continuously, the visibility was pretty awful. Also, my goggles would not suction to my face very nicely, so they were pretty foggy. It actually wasn’t that bad knowing everyone else couldn’t see either, it kept the slopes relatively safe because most people weren’t flying down them. I don’t know what it was about my boots, but they were digging into my shins. By the end of the day I could hardly walk and both of my shins were pretty swollen. George made it without any injuries and overall it was a very successful and fun day of skiing.

That night was Christmas Eve and we and the other 30 people did a white elephant gift exchange. It was really funny seeing the types of gifts the single guys brought along compared to what the married couples brought. In the end I wound up with some Christmas socks, funny sunglasses, and some funky jewelry.

The B&B we stayed at served us breakfast and dinner, which was really nice to not have to brave the snow storm to find dinner. George and I had our own room, with two twin beds, which was great because there were other rooms with 5-8 people in them!

On Christmas morning we headed out for the slopes again, but my shins hurt SO bad that I only skied one run and quit. Poor George. I had left him to ski some more advanced slopes the first day and the second day I left him again; I just couldn’t ski another minute. I went and sat in the lodge and had hot chocolate, played on my iPhone and hung out with one couple and their 2 kids. It was a lovely day of people watching, but I was pretty bummed to not be able to ski. My shins hurt too badly though!

After a long afternoon nap I went to my first Japanese onsen!!! I have been looking forward to going to one of these since we arrived but have needed a group to go with. An onsen is a traditional Japanese bathhouse. They separate the genders, and it’s a place where you get completely naked, shower and then sit in very hot springs/bath tubs and relax. I am modest and was a little afraid and nervous to be completely nude, but it actually was alright once we all were and I knew everyone else felt the same way. And it was SO incredibly relaxing. I got a little overheated in the first tub and just wanted to get out of the water, it made me a little lightheaded and I wasn’t sure I’d last the whole hour… I’m just glad I didn’t pass out! We discovered an outdoor onsen at the back of the building and it got added to the list of things to have in my dream house. It was a stone pool, with a waterfall and the water was hot but the rocks outside of the water were cool, and the air was freezing. It was actually very lovely, and I really want one of those someday! The onsen was one of my favorite Japanese experiences so far. I just couldn’t believe that I was sitting in the mountains of Japan, naked, on Christmas night, surrounded by friends. It’s certainly not the way I’d ever imagined my life to work out, but I really am so fortunate and blessed to be able to experience all of the adventures that life here in Japan has to offer!

The next morning we got up early, dug our car out of the snow (Man I hope I never have to live somewhere that I have to dig my own car out. What a pain the butt!)

I didn’t take many pictures on this trip, but here’s a few of them! The first and third nights we walked down the street from our hotel to a bar run by Australians, and the bartenders were from the UK, they were so nice and we had a really fun time getting to know them, and I think they had an even better time hanging out with 30 crazy Americans. :)Haha!





Here's George and I on the third night!


I hope your Christmas was filled with tons of adventures, laughter, and love.

XOXO,
Chelsea

P.S. I thought this was cute. It was a painted picture in the hotel stairwell... it made me miss Cheyenne who was left at home to be cared for by our neighbors! She did get a new doggie bed for Christmas, so I think she forgave us!

Defining Home

One thing we military spouses find ourselves doing is redefining the word home. My parents still live in the same house I was born in, and the back bedroom there will always be "my room", and that house will forever have a place in my heart as home. I moved away to college, and after long nights of studying at the library, I would just want to go "home" to my dorm-room. I upgraded the following school year to my "home" in a townhouse. The year after that to a house, living with my 3 BFF's. We had a blast living there, and those girls certainly helped it feel like "home". The next year, George and I were married and moved across the country to Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas in less than a year and a half's time. Crazy huh? Each place, just being with George, made it feel like home.

Living in Japan we certainly cannot drive the 4, 8, 15 or 20 hours "home" to Georgia. But there's always the thought in my head when I'm complaining to George that I miss my family "you know what? I don't live there anymore. I haven't for many years, and home is wherever I'm with you." Living a life as a military wife doesn't give you much leeway to be home sick for your family. I will always miss them, with each passing holiday, birthday, town events etc... but it's nice to know we have a great "family" here in Japan as well.

I have a song I've been singing for a month or two nonstop in my head. I've posted it on Facebook before, and will post it here now; just trying to spread the love. The lyrics speak to me just as much as the musically talented multi-person band does. They're hippy-esque, with some folk, rock and indie thrown in. I just adore them and the song. It's a duet. Here's the lyrics, and a link to the video:

Home
By: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjFaenf1T-Y

Her:
Alabama, Arkansas
I do love my ma and pa
Not that way that I do love you

Him:
Holy moley, me oh my
You're the apple of my eye
Girl, I've never loved one like you

Her:
Man, oh man, you're my best friend
I scream it to the nothingness
There ain't nothing that I need

Him:
Well, hot and heavy, pumpkin pie
Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ
There ain't nothing please me more than you

Both:
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you

La, la, la, la, take me home
Mommy, I'm coming home

Him:
I'll follow you into the park
Through the jungle, through the dark
Girl, I've never loved one like you

Her:
Moats and boats and waterfalls
Alleyways and pay phone calls
I've been everywhere with you

Him:
That's true
Laugh until we think we'll die
Barefoot on a summer night
Never could be sweeter than with you

Her:
And in the streets you run a-free
Like it's only you and me
Geez, you're something to see

Both:
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you

La, la, la, la, take me home
Daddy, I'm coming home

(talking)
Him: Jade
Her: Alexander
Him: Do you remember that day you fell out of my window?
Her: I sure do, you came jumping out after me
Him: Well, you fell on the concrete, nearly broke your ass, you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you out to the hospital, you remember that?
Her: Yes, I do
Him: Well, there's something I never told you about that night
Her: What didn't you tell me?
Him: While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was going to be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you, and I never told you until just now

Both:
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is where I'm alone with you

Him:
Home
Let me come home
Home is wherever I'm with you

Her:
Ah, home
Yes I am home
Home is when I'm alone with you

Her:
Alabama, Arkansas
I do love my ma and pa
Moats and boats and waterfalls
Alleyways and pay phone calls

Both:
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home
Let me go home
Home is where I'm alone with you

Christmas Drops

Just wanted to post this link:
(Just copy and paste into your browser... I can't figure out how to make it an actual link... sorry) :)

http://www.andersen.af.mil/news/video/index.asp?cid=183&sid=17684

This is what George's unit gets to do every year for Christmas. It's a huge privilege for the air crews here at Yokota to get to participate. Since it's George's first year here, he didn't get to go this time, but we hope he'll get to next year.

It feels good to know they're spreading Christmas cheer!

Merry Christmas,
Chelsea

December to Remember

Well since we’ve been back in Japan, there’s been a lot going on! We attended George’s squadron’s Christmas party which was BIG fun. They gave away a couple thousand dollars worth of prizes, but George and I didn’t win anything! George somehow or another wound up on the stage, pulling the ticket numbers out of the bag—so it’s probably good we didn’t win anything, that may have looked suspicious. I particularly enjoyed getting dolled up, and seeing George in a suit. What a handsome guy!
This is us at our friends house with their tree before the party



What else has been going on this month? The following weekend we went to downtown Tokyo with some friends of ours for a birthday celebration. We had dinner at a delicious “Mediterranean-fusion” restaurant. It was an 8 course meal and was fabulous. We walked around downtown afterwards and had a drink at a British pub. There were 14 of us for dinner, and it’s really difficult to find a bar in Tokyo (that doesn’t have a cover) that will hold/accept 14 Americans! We were successful though! Our friends were so gracious and drove us both to and home from Tokyo, give or take a couple of hours each way. The traffic was pretty atrocious!


The next weekend George went down to Okinawa to run a few missions. He always enjoys getting off the base and exploring the world! While he did that, I finished up my statistics course that I was taking here on the base. Math is by far the subject I excel the least in, and I am pleased as punch with the “B” I got in it!!!
The same day I took my final for that course, I also attended the Christmas party for the school I teach at. The women who run the school did a great job planning the event; there was food, Christmas song singing, a visit from Santa Claus, and gifts for all of the children who attended. It was a great time, and the parents and children were all very sweet.

This past weekend while George was off in southern Japan, my friend Lacey and I decided to have an ‘adventure’ day. We took off from the base around 11am and made it into Tokyo (Ryogoku) around 12:15. We had lunch at a café near the train station, along with coffee and hot cocoa, and then we walked over to the Sumo museum! It was actually pretty small, and there really aren’t that many artifacts to look at in a Sumo museum. We did get a kick out of the pictures on the wall of the 69 different champions from the beginning of Sumo. We are both looking forward to attending a Sumo match next month! The sport only lasts a few months, and there aren’t many events, so we hope to get tickets! Oh! The best part…! The facility that the museum is in is also the training facility for the Sumo wrestlers! We passed 2 different Sumo guys before I got up the courage to ask the third one to take a picture with him! He very reluctantly agreed! We have no idea what his name was, but Lacey and I enjoyed pretending he was the most famous Sumo wrestler of all time.



We found a fireworks museum to hit up next. The museum was the size of my bedroom, very teeny, but the gentleman working in there was just as precious as he could be. He was passionate about fireworks and was very excited to tell us about them, but his very little English and our even less Japanese didn’t allow him to share too much of his knowledge. There was a lot of pointing at pictures, gestures and saying “Wakarimasen, Gomen Nasai!” (I don’t understand, I’m sorry!) It was very interesting to see the inside of a large firework. We spent about half an hour in there with him trying to learn what we could!

The inside of a Hello Kitty firework. Pretty neat, huh?




After the fireworks, we walked over to the Edo museum. Edo was the time period from 1600-1800ish here in Japan. The admission sign said it would take a few hours to get through the whole museum, and we were running short on time, so we chose to just see the special exhibit that was advertised all over Ryogoku. It was about $12 USD to see, but there was nothing at all in English. I mean… not even a sign. Occasionally there would be a year on a photograph, but even that was rare. From what we could gather, it was an exhibit of small painted sculptures, depicting everyday life of the people of Japan throughout the Edo period to present day. It was interesting, but we couldn’t read anything, so we don’t really know what it was. We did enjoy making up our own stories about the dolls, what they were doing, and why.
We took the train home, had a quick bite to eat at a good Chinese restaurant near the base, then I went and had a full and delicious dinner at my friend/neighbor Caitlin’s. I’m so thankful for her and all of our other neighbors who really help make Japan feel like home.

Christmas is this week and it’s the first one we’ll be away from family for. Even if it’s split up between his family and mine, we’ve always been with some sort of family for Christmas. George and I are so thankful we are together for this holiday season, we know there are many who are not with any loved ones for Christmas, and who are serving all over the world. We also know that we may not always get to be together for Christmas, so we’ll cherish this one and try to make memories that will get us through future ones, should we have to be apart. I hope you find yourselves surrounded with lots of Christmas cheer, laughter and love!

Merry Christmas,
Chelsea

The Long-Awaited Continuance of China!

Hello. Sorry for the delay. Things, such as life, prevent me from blogging on a consistent basis. My bad.

Day 3 of China started off pretty early! We had the hotel breakfast and then hopped on our tour bus and took off to the Ming Tombs. This was a good hour or 2 away from our hotel so I brought my travel pillow and was able to nap for a bit on the bus. (With the help of George’s shoulder). The tombs are where all the emperors of China have been buried. We took a walk down Sacred Road, which is a stone foot path through the heart of the land that everyone is buried at, with tons of statues. The Chinese culture is very symbolic. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Chinese calendar years; I was born in the year of the Rabbit and George the year of the Ox. (He thinks and I’m not looking it up) Anyway, on Sacred Road they have giant depictions of all of the ‘year animals’ as well as others.

There were children from our tour group that were climbing all over these big statues and their proud parents were taking pictures, and no one seemed offended so I thought it would be okay to do it too. I chose the camel to climb on… why? Well… I don’t know, but it has humps and it looked doable and fun. Boy was I wrong! I tried stretching one leg over the neck of the camel, but was too short, and my jeans were too tight to accomplish this feat, so I tried from the other side. I eventually gave up and had George take my picture of me sitting on his foot. Well I had gathered a few spectators that seemed to be amused by my slipping, sliding and shrieking because of the slipping and sliding… who encouraged me that I could do it. Another couple cheered me on and Jon said he could do it. I said- then you do it! And he climbed up it the first try; no slipping, sliding, or yelling. So then- I was determined to get on that stupid camel too! He got off, and I tried again, unsuccessfully- so then he climbed back up (effortlessly) and pulled me up, while George lifted me. How pathetic. I got my picture though! Check it out.




After the Ming Tombs (where we never actually got to see a tomb... because the land there is spread out over 100’s of acres) we drove to another government mandated factory, this time for Jade. It was neat to see all of the sculptures and learn a bit about the history of Jade in China, but nothing terribly exciting. They were selling Jade sculptures for the equivalent of $100,000 USD. They were certainly cool, but I hope I never have enough money that I could ever feel the need to purchase a horse sculpture for 6 figures. If I ever am (not that it wouldn’t be awesome) you have my permission to slap me, and tell me to donate the money to an animal rescue. Deal?



We had lunch at a cloisonné factory/ restaurant. This was my favorite meal, because it tasted like American Chinese food. Living in Japan, you’d think we would get delicious Asian dishes, and we do, but they don’t taste the same as if we were in the states. The ones we eat are far more authentic, and good, but different. The cloisonné stuff was very beautiful, and I did enjoy seeing how that was made. It’s all hand painted and very beautiful, but we didn’t purchase anything from this store.

My favorite meal we had in China. Yes, those are french fries, they were very close to McDonald's fries... but I didn't eat them!





Next, we were back on the bus for another half hour, passing an almost Disney world! Apparently sometime in the 1990’s someone began building a Disney theme park in this region, but the company went bankrupt. So there stands a beautiful entrance complete with ticket booths and turnstiles, and a giant Cinderella castle, but it was never completed. This made me very sad! The abandoned theme park was quickly forgotten because we arrived at the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!

Yes, I did it! We did it! Looking back on it, I just feel so fortunate that I got to see the GREAT WALL. And it was… well… great. The entrance to the wall was grand and fabulous and Trevor Whatever explained that we had two choices of how to spend our 3-4 hours at the wall. We could A.) Go left… he explained this option to be interesting, relatively flat and a nice casual walk. If we were happy that we made it to The Wall and we could say we had done it—take this option. OR B.) Go right. Which would take about 2.5 hours to get to the top of the wall (for the point that we visited at, obviously it goes on for hundreds of miles), and it was a very steep climb. This was for people in excellent shape that wanted to challenge themselves.

So in my head… obviously… we’re going left. We did it. We made it to China, we were at the Great Wall; we could walk along it, take pictures and enjoy our afternoon. I look at George and can tell exactly what he’s thinking… “We are totally going right!!!” DAMN. Then we have a verbal conversation… and somehow or another he convinces me that we can do it- we’re here, this is our one chance in our young adult lives to climb to the very high point of the wall, we’ll do it together, and it’s going to be amazing, wonderful, awesome and the view at the top will be incredible. Wanna know what? George was wrong. It hurt like hell. When Trevor said it was steep, he didn’t mention it was stairs. And I’m not talking about a few stairs… this was STAIRS, gigantic Titanic kinda stairs. Which were all uneven. One step… excuse me… stair… would be about 5 inches tall and the next would be 18 inches. It was awful. All of the pictures on the wall are George 25-50 yards ahead of me cheering me on and taking my picture… of me gagging on the polluted air, thighs and calves burning, heart racing, sweating, using my hands to climb up these giant stairs. My nose was running, it was cold, but I was hot, I had to use the bathroom (no nice bathrooms anywhere in China, much less on the great wall), basically… you name it—I was complaining about it. I really am thankful that George puts up with me.







He was patient and sweet the whole time and kept telling me how accomplished I would feel. Well, after 2.5 hours of climbing, I made it. We did it! We were very proud of ourselves. Unfortunately—the view was not very impressive. I could tell that it should have been impressive but it was SO hazy that the view from the first tower was just about as good as the eighth! George disagrees, but my legs, which burned for weeks… know that I am right. It took us about an hour down, a trip to the gift shop and the bathroom before we were back on the bus, napping until we reached our dinner stop. This meal was “Hot Pot”, which is a lot like Shabu-Shabu (for all you people who are familiar with eating at restaurants in Japan). Basically, they give you tons of raw meat, noodles and veggies and an individual pot of boiling water to cook your own meal. It’s very good… though I really did question the sanitation of it al. The chopsticks were passed from meat to veggies to noodles and back… which is fine, I didn’t get sick, but just felt it was questionable. Overall, the meal was very good!

Me with my hot pot dinner:


We drove past the Olympic Birds Nest stadium and the giant cube building as well, and the bus driver pulled over so everyone could take pictures… ours didn’t turn out so well, but it was nice to see all lit up. While we didn’t tour it ourselves, we had friends who were in Beijing the same week we were (though not with our tour group) that did go inside and were horribly disappointed. They said the building is already deteriorating (these were built just 2-3 years ago!!!) The track is falling apart, the bathroom sinks are falling off the walls etc… it has just not been kept to the standard that other Olympic facilities have been. Maybe my bias is being from Atlanta and how proud us Atlantian’s (???) are of hosting the Olympics. Our park dedicated to it is immaculate and one of the biggest attractions and prides of Atlanta. To hear that Beijing has taken little pride in their Olympic land is pretty disheartening.



When we got back to the hotel that night I showered and then paid for the optional event of the night… a full acupressure body massage. George didn’t want one, but my legs were still twitching from the wall and my feet hurt too, so I didn’t feel I could turn down an hour and a half massage for $30 USD. Ya know? The woman arrived to our hotel room at 8:45 on the dot. I had imagined she’d bring a massage table, or be wearing a uniform or something… but she was casual, in jeans and a jacket, texting on her phone when I opened the door. She put her purse and jacket on a chair in our room and then got to work. She had a plastic garbage bag filled with tea leaves, which she used our bathroom sink to fill with hot water. She had me sit on the edge of our bed and put my feet in this bag… kind of like a pedicure, but only with the soaking and lotion. She spent a good 50 minutes massaging my feet, which including putting pressure on each little part of my foot, from my ankle to my toes, and whacking the heck out of my heels. Sometimes it would even hurt. She didn’t speak a lick of English except for: “Okay?” And I didn’t speak any Chinese except for “Ni How” which means hello. But… we got along just fine. The funniest part of this for me was George was just sitting there in the hotel with me. He put in headphones and read a book in a chair in the corner, and I watched CNN while she gave me my massage. The whole situation was completely humorous to me, and when she’d tickle my feet (I’m pretty ticklish) I couldn’t help but laugh, not only because it tickled, but because of the entire situation. The rest of the time was spent rubbing my legs, back, behind (also funny) and a bit of my arms. It was nice, but I’m glad I didn’t spend more than $30 on it!

I don’t think I even got out of bed when she was done, and slept straight through to morning. I was too tired to care about how hard the bed was!

The next day was day 4 of 6… and the highlight of the day was the Panda pen at the Beijing Zoo. I don’t know if many of you know that I love Panda’s, and it’s even George’s nickname for me, but now you do. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the tout, err—the people yelling in the streets and standing at the door to our tour bus when we’d pull up selling us, socks, hats, watches, jewelry, scarves, and you guessed it (well… maybe you didn’t…) PANDA HATS. I’m not talking about a baseball cap with a Panda printed on it… I’m talking about a hat that when you put it on, makes you look like you are a panda bear, complete with a nose and everything. From the moment we arrived in China I saw these and wanted one to wear to the zoo. I’d repeat it over and over… “Today, I’m going to get a panda hat”… but then I would never get one. Well, we were leaving the hotel that morning, on the way to the zoo and I still didn’t have my hat! Lucky for us, there was a tout (I don’t really know if that can be used as a noun), selling the Panda hats… the only words he seemed to know in English were “Hello… Pander, Pander… Hello!” Yes, not even Pan-Duh, but Pan-DUR. We got a kick out of this and after purchasing my hat (for all of $3USD), repeated over and over again the rest of the trip “Pander, pander!”







We went to the zoo and only had 40 minutes to spend there. This is where I was annoyed we were on a guided tour with a schedule. For the most part it was really nice but sometimes I’d want to spend more time there… like the zoo… I would have liked to have had more time to see the other animals, and not just 40 minutes devoted to the panda’s… although they were the main attraction, and I did love seeing them. Trevor said there’s only about 1600 panda’s left in the whole world… SO sad, and hard to imagine. That makes me a very sad Panda. (South Park anyone… anyone?) They were just as cute as you would imagine, laying in the sun and eating bamboo. We got some cute pictures of them and then were off to the second stop of the day… the CCTV tower.

I have to give credit to our friend Jon for taking this photo with his very cool camera/wide angle lens. Thanks Jon L!



This a building where radio and television antennas live, similar to the Space Needle in Seattle, except this one literally below freezing at top with huge gusts of freezing wind. We spent all of 3 minutes at the top then were ready to get outta there! Brrrr! It was a nice view though, it was a very clear day with clear skies and we all agreed we wished we would have gone to the Great Wall on this day! After the tower we went to another government factory, this time a silk factory! This again, was very interesting but we didn’t make any purchases. They showed us the life cycle of a silk worm, and how their silk is made into different things. Their main focus was on silk comforters, which really did feel quite lovely. They’re similar to a down comforter, but are hypoallergenic, and feel more like cotton. We were tempted to buy pillows made of the silk, but decided against it. There were quite a few purchases from our tour-mates though! One guy who was allergic to down found this to be a great alternative, and I agreed that they would probably make a very good substitute!

The machines where the silk is extracted from the silkworm cocoons:



After the silk factory was lunch, which sorry for you, we can’t remember what we ate… and then we went to the Pearl Market. Now, we heard “pearl market” and weren’t really sure what to expect, but it was absurdly overwhelming!!! It was in a giant building, that was about 6 stories tall, and each floor was about the size of a Sears or a JC Penny’s. These floors were packed full of vendors shouting “Hey Lady! Special price! Come look!” They were selling everything from tea, jewelry, electronics, ‘brand name’ handbags, art, shoes, to Chinese souvenirs. Oh my goodness. We were told by Trevor that we could bargain for everything and that if someone told you a price of 1,000, you offered 100 (Chinese RMB). Well, I am non-confrontational. Arguing generally terrifies me. I want everyone to be pleased all the time. I never want to make anyone mad, and I don’t want to be yelled at. So putting me in a bargaining situation was not a good thing. If someone told me they couldn’t go lower, I’d say okay… to which George would jump in and get them down much lower!

I tried bargaining for a pair of boots but didn’t do really well. I finally told the lady that I didn’t want them anymore because she was yelling at me to buy them, which made her really mad. So she and her other vendor friends started yelling at me and grabbing my arm and backpack to stay and give them more money for the shoes. I have never had anxiety issues, but I seriously almost had a panic attack. George had wandered another aisle over and I freaked out! I felt trapped, and afraid! After literally pushing my way through them, I made it away from the crazy boot ladies just fine, but was kind of scarred by the situation. We also ran into some problems with them grabbing George (‘cause he’s so handsome) and pulling the camera case off of him, which was pretty frightening for me. I was sure we would get pick-pocketed! (We didn’t). However, the entire experience was not wasted and we both had a few successful purchases with nice people, and were kind of addicted to the bargaining by the end of the afternoon!

We finished there with our purchases, and headed to the Temple of Heaven, which is where many of the Emperors would go to worship during their reign. There was a park to walk through, and there was a lot going on! Exercise classes, dance classes, singing lessons, guitar players, hacky-sack players, old men playing cards, and people flying kites. It was a whole ‘nother side of Beijing, and more pleasant than the “Silk Market”. We really enjoyed watching everyone enjoy their late afternoon activities. We had time to walk around the Temple and enjoyed looking at the history of it. It just had a new paint job in 2008 (same year as the Olympics… coincidence?) so it was stunning, and the colors were so vibrant, it truly is an immaculate treasure of Beijing.






When we finished there, we headed to dinner, to the Peking Duck feast! They served only duck as the meat option, with rice, soup, and veggies. The waitress showed us that we’re supposed to eat it rolled in a very thin flour tortilla, with cucumber and a barbecue sauce. That’s the best I’ve got to describe it. It was very good! I had imagine the duck to have a glaze to it, almost like a ham does, but it didn’t. I think it was the first time I ate duck. It tasted almost more like pork to me than poultry, but I don’t think George agrees with me on this. It was a nice meal, and we were glad to get back to the hotel at a decent hour. We met up with 2 other couples from the tour and went back to the Hutong district (via cab) to check out the night life. There were people playing hacky-sack and more tout’s trying to get us into their bar/restaurants. We had a good time listening to the very Emo-ish music of the Beijing singers, and then made it safely back to our hotel and fell fast asleep. There really wasn’t a dull moment on this trip!




Day 5 was our free day! There was nothing planned on our tour guide itinerary but Trevor was in the hotel lobby to give us directions to anywhere we wanted to go. 6 other people from our tour group were going to head the “Silk Market” which was similar to the Pearl market from the day before. Since we truly felt we had done almost everything there was to do in Beijing at that point (though we knew we hadn’t) we figured we’d tag along on that adventure… and adventure it was. We went into the situation knowing better of how to guard ourselves, what bargaining techniques would work, and what kind of prices to expect. We got there at 10:30 planned on meeting back with the group at 1:00. We had a grand time looking around. This one had about 4 floors, but was bigger than the market from the day before. We bargained our behinds off and got tons of fun stuff. When we met back with the group, we decided to have lunch there at the market, go back to the hotel and drop our bags off so we didn’t have to carry them all day and then plan something to do for the rest of the afternoon. We did all of this, and then they called and said they wanted to go back to the market for more bargaining fun. We couldn’t say no; we were too addicted. We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening there until about 7ish. We finally made it back to the hotel, dropped off our goods from round 2, and then walked towards the local mall which was down the street, to find a restaurant for dinner. It was after 8 at this point and things seemed to be closing… we made it to the mall food court by 9 and ordered a semi-decent meal for our last in China. However, we did find a Coldstone ice cream there, where I got cake batter ice cream with marshmallows!!! SCORE! It was delicious!

We made it back to the hotel and spent a good hour packing all of our good deals into our suitcases. I’m still not sure how it all fit… but it did!

We had breakfast the next morning at 5:30am and then were off to the airport, where we made it to our gate in plenty of time, the flight home was seamless, (minus a few rude flight attendants) and made it to Tokyo. We took the two hour bus ride back to the base, and arrived around 5pm. I’m sure there are many witty stories involved on this day, but it’s too exhausting to get written down. The vacation came to an abrupt halt when I got back to the base at 5 and then had to attend my statistics class! UGH! What an awful way to end a vacation!

Here is a picture of our loot from China, and of Cheyenne wearing the "Pander hat"... which she really didn't care for! Hahaha!



We had a fabulous time in China. It really is an intriguing country. Before we went on the trip we heard a lot of people say “I’m glad I went, but would never go back.” But we’re glad we went, and would love to go back sometime in the future. The history and culture are so rich. It’s so weird to think of how young the USA is in comparison to so many of the countries here in Asia. The difference is thousands of years, and I actually find it wearing to think about.

That’s all for now!
Chels

P.S. Click on the link to my shutterfly page at the top right of the blog to see ALL of the pictures from our trip to China!

Beijing China... Part Uno

Well hello friends, family and random readers! I’ve heard I have family and friends of my friends who read… which is very exciting news to me! I am happy to announce that George and I just returned from our first big vacation since we moved to Japan: Beijing, China! Yay! We really had a lovely trip!

This was our first experience taking on a foreign country (or a non-foreign) country with a tour guide. We were pretty hesitant about touring China with a tour guide but felt we would be in good hands based on the experiences of our friends here who have done the same trip. There were about 40 people who went on the trip from our base and about 50 from another base here in Japan! That’s a lot of Gaijin. (Which means foreigner in Japanese). We took on China with great force! Our group from here was separated into 2 groups, which put 19 people on our bus, and 20ish on the other. Our bus was mostly couples, all of us relatively young in age, and the other bus was mostly families with kids.

We had a wonderful tour guide. His name was Trevor and he would often say “eh- whatever” at the end of his speeches about China… to which we nicknamed him- (fittingly) Trevor Whatever. I still get a kick out of this. Ha! :)

The first day was spent traveling to the airport in Tokyo, the flight to China, the airport there, dinner, and checking into our hotel, which was really nice except for the most awful hard, spring-digging, crunchy, bad, horrible, (insert 100 more negative adjectives) mattress. Relatively boring, but hey- isn’t the first day of vacation usually boring… or at least bothersome?

Day two was Thursday; Thanksgiving Day and it was FAR more eventful. We had the hotel’s breakfast buffet, which was actually not bad—not great—but not bad! Then we joined our tour group (which Trevor Whatever referred to as “our family”) on the bus and we headed to Tian an men Square. We were dropped off at the center of the action, which consisted mostly of beautifully structured monuments, memorials and government buildings. Trevor gave us the history behind a lot of it; google it if you’re interested… I learned way too many facts to share in one blog. And I don’t always remember the correct facts; since I’d hate to share false information—I’ll just recommend you google it yourself. :)

Us at Tiananmen Square:


We headed to the Forbidden City next. This was something I had never really learned about. Basically, thousands (here comes a possibly inaccurate fact) of years ago, the Emperors in China had this giant palace they lived in that had somewhere between 9,000-10,000 ROOMS. THIS is not an exaggeration. Can you imagine having to clean 9-10,000 rooms? I guess if you’re the emperor of a powerful country you would have servants (slaves?) to do it for you- but that sounds WAY too overwhelming. You couldn’t even play hide-and-seek safely! He also had concubines. And thousands of them! I learned that the term “Dragon Lady” means the emperor’s wife. She would often get to choose which concubine would “service” the emperor, and wouldn’t always choose the most attractive one… or maybe Trevor was making a joke—who knows? :)



It took us 2-3 hours to walk through maybe a quarter of the “palace.” It was beautiful and truly amazing. The intricacy of the architecture was incredible—which is how I felt about almost everything we saw in China… well, at least the stuff that’s more than a couple 100 years old! (I’m talking mostly about the bathrooms there… one word to describe them… EW.)




We hiked up a giant hill to Jingjang park, where we could see the entire (well, what we could see through the smog) Forbidden City. It’s incredible to me that for hundreds (maybe thousands?) of years the people of China couldn’t enter or see into the “Forbidden City” I’m sure they created many stories about what went on in there. We made the hike back down the hill and headed to the Tea Shop.
I won’t comment a lot about the Chinese-government mandated shops (mandated because we were on a tour and they’re required to make us visit them) but I will say I did enjoy the tea shop. They did a ‘tea ceremony’ where we tried a few handfuls of Chinese tea. The woman explained what temperature to drink the tea at, how to drink it properly, how to hold the cups etc. It was neat to see that, but wasn’t crazy about the prices!

JinShang Park


After the tea shop we rode to Hutong, which is a much older district of Beijing. In my book “1,000 Places to See Before you Die” it recommends you go to Hutong and take a rickshaw ride. I was SO happy to learn this was on our tour itinerary! It’s a district that is being torn down and renovated. You can see the charm of it fading with each corner you turn, but it still had plenty for me to fall in love with it. The streets were so much quieter, a little less touristy, and overall one of my favorite things we experienced in China. The rickshaws were men of various sizes (we were lucky to have a larger ‘driver’) who could pedal us, and even tried ‘racing’ some of the others. He gave us a blanket to drape over ourselves and it was actually a really precious memory. It was so sweet (warning: getting sappy) holding George’s hand experiencing something so special. He says to me “I told you I would show you the world” and I couldn’t help but smile. I had to secretly pinch my own arm… what a lucky girl I am. I’m lucky to not only live in Japan, but get to travel Asia and visit other fantastic countries and cultures, all with George, which is the best part of it all.



After our lovely little ride, we attended an Acrobatic Show, which actually was really awesome! I’ve never had the opportunity to see a Cirque Du Soleil show but was told this show was pretty comparable. I can’t imagine the production value of this show even grazes Cirques but I was pleasantly surprised by the performers. It made me ill watching their bodies twist and turn, balance upon one another, do flips, turns, and jumps. The theater sold popcorn… which was popped in your very own bag in the microwave behind the counter. I also had a peach flavored coke (er—soda for all of you non-Southerners), which was delicious.

Dinner rolled around finally and we feasted on… I don’t remember… but all the food was good. They’d seat us at (usually) 2 tables of ten, which gave us the opportunity to mingle and interact with the other people on the tour. There’d be a giant ‘lazy Susan’ in the middle of the table and the food would just keep coming. There was always leftovers and we were always full at the end of the meal. Luckily we walked SO much on the trip there is no way I didn’t lose weight on that vacation… well… at least I didn’t gain any. 

We were so exhausted at the end of the night, we were so thankful to get back to our hotel room! And we were greeted by the floor of a bed. Ugh. As we were entering our room, a room service team showed up, and not speaking to us at all, (nor a smile) they came in, stripped the sheets from our bed, put a feather topper on the mattress and re-made the sheets. We didn’t ask for it, but were very pleased with it! At least then we didn’t feel the springs from the bed digging into our bones and muscles. The following morning we learned there were other people on our bus that had complained to the staff about how unbearable the beds were, and didn’t receive the mattress toppers they had asked for! Ooooops…. Guess we got it!  (FYI they all called back down and did get their mattress toppers!)

So that was day 1 and 2. I’ll update with pictures and the rest soon! I hope y’all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with family, friends, adventures and love.

XOXO,
Chels

Samurai Surge

George has got to do some really cool things since we arrived in Japan SIX months ago. Can you believe that we've been here almost 6 months (We're about a week shy)?! It has truly flown by. We've done absolutely nothing, but we've done so much. I guess I mean we have so much more we still want to do so it's pretty scary to think how quickly 6 months went by.

It's pretty interesting that I already have "the itch" to move again! We moved 4 times in 22 months and it blows my mind that I get to live somewhere for an entire 3 years; it feels as if it'll be an eternity. However, we can all judge by how quickly 6 months went by that 3 years will not do the same... soon it'll be time to say sayonara para Japan. Yes, I did just use English, Japanese and Spanish in one sentence? AKA, I'm tri-lingual; AKA, I'm awesome. :)

Okay, so... back to George getting to do awesome things. This past week his squadron did what they called a "Samurai Surge" where they sent 7 C-130's into the air as an exercise to see how many airplanes could be launched at one time on short notice... 7 made it, out of 9 that were here on station, and George got to co-pilot one of them. A group of us spouses showed up to take pictures and show our support. It was really neat to see them all take off, land, drop things from their planes and such. It sounds silly but I can't help but feel proud to see little acts like that. I am proud of our country and proud of George and all the other guys/gals that support it.

Here are some pictures of the event! (George is flying the 5th plane in line!)









This is an update... I forgot to mention that there was a competition between George's plane and the six others to see who could drop their thing with the parachute on it(I have no idea of the actual correct term) the closest to the target, and George's crew won! Go George! :)

Happy Halloween!

Hope this post finds you in Happy Halloween spirits! (Pun intended). And I hope you like our new page! I took a computer course this semester and learned a little bit... I am just pleased I have been able to apply it to a situation in which I'll really use it. That's always a nice thing! :)

This weekend we stuck around the base and I've done a ton of studying for finals which are this coming week. Boooooo! The weekend wasn't all work and no play though, I assure you we celebrate Halloween!

There was a Typhoon headed our way and there was the potential to have to evacuate all of the planes from the base so George was basically "on call" (not that he's a doctor) to leave at moment's notice and take the planes elsewhere... but luckily we only saw some light rain. It was pretty steady rain, raining most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday but nothing serious.

George and I borrowed costumes from my sister and her boyfriend this year for Halloween... well, the dress my sister gave me was huge on me! (It was huge on her when she wore it too, to be fair!) So somehow I convinced George to switch costumes with me! It took quite a bit of convincing, but he reluctantly agreed! We went to party #1 which was hosted by Adam and Melissa... it was mostly people from George's squadron; it was a lot of fun to see everyone dressed up and the decorations at the party were amazing! I've had some vertigo problems in the past and during the party experienced some serious dizziness and headaches, hot flashes and just overall yucky feelings so we left a little earlier than we planned but we had a great time while we were there!

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The next night we went to a party our neighbors Kyle and Julie threw at their place... they had a new baby a few weeks ago so I had a good time snuggling baby Connor... he is SO precious and even had me thinking for a minute that I can't wait to have kids (don't worry, it was only for a minute!) :) Since I couldn't convince George to dress up as a woman again (I still can't believe I talked him into the first night) we pulled an old "Beer" costume out of the hat and I ended up dressing as a dog... in which I wore all black, safety-pinned a "tail" to me, drew a black nose on, and wore Cheyenne's collar and leash... it worked! It was just fine! We usually get pretty into Halloween but we both had a lot going on this month and didn't pull anything great together!




Sunday night (tonight) I made dinner for George and 4 of his single friends; it was nice to cook for a big group. And we passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters, which is always a good time! We spent the day studying and cleaning the house... and this week will be finals for me, work for George and then hopefully will do something very Japanese this weekend because I haven't had a good Japanese experience in a long time, which is really stupid because hello... we live in Japan!

Happy Halloween!

Chelsea

California

What a weekend. Last Friday I took a very quick adventure to California to attend my brother’s wedding. No, not my little brother, but my “new” big brother. It’s a very long story as to how he is a “new” brother so let’s see if I can give you a very quick summary.

My dad was married and had two children, it didn’t work out… he married my mom and had me and my other 2 siblings. We never had any contact with our other siblings. Very sadly, my sister Heather passed away several years ago, before I ever had the opportunity to meet her… but September of last year my brother, Joe, contacted us! Thank God for Myspace. Since then we arranged a visit and got to know him and his fiancée (who came along for the trip) and it’s been wonderful getting to know him. It’s something I’ve always wanted and it’s so nice to have something on my list of things to do before I die checked off. :)

Ok. So. My parents and brother and sister all flew to California for his wedding! I left here on Friday at 4:00pm and arrived in LA on Friday at 9:30am. Try to wrap your head around that time change. I arrived before I left and the confusion of it all proves that time traveling is rather difficult. Once at LAX I had to go through customs and security, get my bags and go back through security before I could board my flight to San Francisco. This took 2.5 hours. I couldn’t believe how difficult it was! AND THERE WAS NO BATHROOM anywhere from the time I exited the plane to the time I had re-checked my luggage. I couldn’t believe it. On a funnier note… There was a drug dog who kept sniffing a Japanese woman standing near me because she had an apple in her bag. When he would find it he would get a treat. I think that dog knew he would get a treat, even if finding the same lady. OR that lady had drugs in her bag that the guard didn’t find because he kept assuming it was the apple. Either way, that dog got several treats.

So I made it through security and found an American Starbucks and splurged for a Venti Pumpkin Spiced Latte. (AKA HEAVEN). Luckily my flight was delayed because I really needed that coffee. I made it to SFO and found my family, who had to wait for me because of my delayed flight (did I mention that I was doing all of this traveling with no cell phone or computer? Risky… huh) We drove down the coast to Santa Cruz, got checked into our hotel, planned to have dinner with brother Joe and went to the restaurant to meet him. We wound up at the wrong location but got to see some high school drama students dressed as zombies performing “Thriller” on the sidewalk, so I considered the restaurant mix-up ‘a win’ on our part. We made it to the restaurant, ate, met some of Joe’s childhood friends and family and had a great time. I was so exhausted and jet-lagged, (up for about 36 hours at that point… I think… the jet-lagged impaired my math skills even more than they’re normally hindered)… I fell right asleep when we got back to the hotel and slept through the night.
The next day was the day of the wedding! We got up early and went to the venue to help set up. We folded napkins, set the tables, helped with the centerpieces etc. They had some really neat ideas… check out the pictures.

All of us on the first night!



The ceremony was wonderful. Carissa, the bride was SO beautiful. She wore a dress that I believe belonged originally to her grandmother, and she looked amazing. My brother Joe was just as handsome as could be. The ceremony was picturesque, taking place under a pretty tree, and the aisle was lined with funky pumpkins and beautiful flower petals. Check it out.

The beautiful aisle!



Congratulations Joe and Carissa!


The reception was fun too… there was a great slide show, showcasing their childhood pictures, that made me cry… it was so neat to see pictures of Joe and Heather (my other sister). She was so beautiful. They served soup, had cake, some dancing and a bouquet toss (Alison caught it, making it bouquet #25 she’s caught… okay… I made that number up.) Any who, it was a great wedding, and it was really awesome to be there celebrating Joe’s marriage. They’re a great couple and I know they’ll be very happy!

All of us wedding guests from GA (and Japan)


The cool centerpieces.


We walked around the Santa Cruz boardwalk, saw a ton of sea lions and had dinner (more pizza) and hung out. It was fun to see my family! I hate living so far away from them; I really do love them so much! I wish they could all move to Japan!

The next day we drove back up the coast, had breakfast, took some really awesome pictures at a giant rock on the beach with the prettiest view, and the stinkiest stench (which we couldn’t decide if it was coming to the dead washed up sea lion or just from the stagnant water in the cove)… but it was neat. My parents were flying out that day so we parted ways with them, and drove to San Francisco. We checked into our hotel near Fisherman’s Wharf, had lunch at an In-and-Out burger, drove up to the Golden Gate Bridge (it was rainy), found a shopping district and got in some good retail therapy, watched the Giants lose to the Phillies (Boooo… Phillies suck!) And then took my brother back to the hotel so he could catch the shuttle to catch his flight back to GA.










That night my sister, her boyfriend and I went to an Irish pub to have a snack and a drink or two. There was a little bit of Karaoke going on… and I maybe(slash- did) sing a song or two. The first one went pretty well, I even got quite a bit of applause from the audience but then the DJ put on Taylor Swift’s, You Belong With Me… which I cannot sing because the key is so high… I got way less applause on the second song… but who am I kidding? I only pretend like I can actually sing anyway!
We headed home and passed one more Irish pub on the way back to the hotel where an amazing girl was singing “Stand by me” and I insisted we go in and listen. We met a group of ladies from Ireland who had come in to swim a mile in the SFO Bay for a charity. They were really entertaining and we had fun dancing!
The next day we drove back to the Golden Gate Bridge to take some additional pictures; these turned out much better because the weather was beautiful! Then we drove up to Sonoma to do a little wine tasting. California really is the prettiest state I’ve ever visited. They get the giant trees, the rolling hills, and a beautiful rocky coast; it truly is breathtaking. I think the view Californian’s experience makes up for the fact they’ll likely fall into the ocean someday and disappear. But hey, I’m in Japan and our Earthquakes are possibly equally as dangerous… so who am I to judge?






The wine was fabulous, it was fun to try new types of wine, and the experience did confirm I am a white wine drinker; the sweeter the better, I say! I napped on the way back to San-Fran so was refreshed for more wine in the hotel lobby and then dinner at an awesome Prime-Rib place. I haven’t had a good steak since I’ve lived here so it was a treat to eat such good food while in the states! I miss American food more than anything. I miss Chick-fil-a, Cherry Coke Zero, potatoes, pizza, curly fries, milkshakes, giant salads, Marble Slab… OMG the list could go on and on. Don’t get me wrong, Japanese food is good… but there’s nothing like the option to choose from any American restaurant I want. I hope you all savor the American food you’ll eat for dinner tonight, and think of me as you do! :)




Okay. So. We had dinner, then went back to the hotel for bed, and I had to be up to catch the shuttle to the airport at 7:30 the next morning, for a 9:40 flight to LAX. The shuttle stopped at 6, yes, SIX other hotels to pick up people and I checked in for my flight at 9:13am. I was SO panicked. I would have missed my flight had it not been for the incredibly kind elderly gentlemen in front of me in the priority security line. No, I did not have a priority ticket but thought I’d try it anyways since I was running so late and the security line was seriously the longest I’ve ever seen at any airport; I’m sure I would’ve waited for at half an hour, and since the flight was already boarding when I checked in, there was no time to spare!!! Oh. The kind elderly gentleman. When the ticket-checking-lady asked me if we were traveling together, I said no, and he said yes so I could get through the line cause I told her my flight was already boarding. Whew! I made it back to Japan a full 24 hours after I woke up for that original flight, a whole day and a half after I woke up. (And I say again, time travel is difficult…. I don’t envy Doc Brown).

I came home to a very happy-to-see-me-Cheyenne and a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a “welcome home” card from George. He’s so wonderful. It made leaving my family a little bit easier, which always bums me out for at least a little while. I caught a cold while in the states and am still fighting that, doing homework, and getting over the jet-lag. I think the 5 day trip was the perfect amount of time. I hope your weekends were less exhausting but equally exciting to mine. It was great to see family and good ole America. Love you guys.

Chelsea