As American as Japanese Baseball...

Well I guess it's time for an update... huh?

Let's see... what all has happened in a month...???

George left for 'simulator training' in Seattle, Washington for a week, then took a couple of weeks of leave and headed home to Georgia. He got to spend some quality time at his Dad's visiting with his dad, step-mom, brothers and sisters. Then he went to north GA to attend a 4 day long bachelor party at a cabin on a lake. Our friends Tray and Jessica finally tied the knot on July 3rd after several years of dating. We're so happy for them and we're so happy George was able to attend the wedding, he had a great time!

On the Fourth of July George got to spend time with my family and go to a Braves game... I'm jealous he got to do both! Then he finally came back to me here in Japan!

What did I do while he was gone...? Well, I had my first experience with Space-A(vailable) traveling. In summary, if military aircraft are traveling from one base to the next and they have extra seats, you can go to the terminal on the base and request to get on one of those flights, and if they have room... you basically get a free ride! It's a wonderful deal if you can actually get on the flight! I tried 4 different days to take a Space-A flight back to the states and then I was going to hop on an Air-Tran flight to GA. It never happened. It was very frustrating to pack each day, go to the airport, sit, wait and then come back to the house. Oh well! I just wasn't meant to go to that wedding!

On July 3rd the base here hosted a 4th of July festival, complete with fireworks! I entered a pie in the bake-off! It was my first attempt at entering a contest for something I've baked. You all read about my magical oven so I hoped with that on my side and a delicious recipe from my Aunt Joy, I was set! I baked a trial pie (chocolate chip pecan) a day or two before, done with a homemade graham cracker crust. It looked good and tasted good too, so I was feeling pretty good about my pie. I decided that the pie didn't look like a fabulous pie, even though it definitely tasted like one! I borrowed cake decorating tools from a friend/neighbor and garnished the pie with a butter cream frosting and some raspberries (much more for the look than the taste). I showed up on time, and there were only 7 pies entered in the contest. Odds were on my side. They judged, and announced the winners. First and second place were both apple pies and third place went to a pecan pie. I didn't win but I'm really happy I entered anyways. It was a good experience and definitely made me step out of my comfort zone... something I'm trying to do more of!

My Pie


I had a great time watching fireworks with friends and neighbors (all of whom really are my family here!) I worked a lot over the last few weeks to. I'm really enjoying my job. The children are a lot of fun and seem to enjoy my company too. I've even began considering (maybe) getting a master's degree in some sort of ESOL, and teaching English as a second language. Who knows? I'm way ahead of myself at this point.

Fireworks from the roof of the squadron... C-130 tails in our view! Very Cool!


Anyway, the day after George got home, we had some friends move here to Japan from Little Rock. We took them in for about a week. They kept us busy and it was fun to play tour guide and host them. They actually moved in the apartment directly across from ours, so their kitchen faces ours. It's nice to have more friends here!

As far as exploring Japan... we did venture off base this past weekend and we went to our first Japanese baseball game! Boy, it sure was entertaining! We drove our car (which seats 7) and 7 of us went to the game! It was about a 30-45min drive and it wasn't too bad! We bought tickets and made it into the stadium. George threw his ticket away as soon was we entered because the ticket lady tore his ticket. Well... at this stadium they have 'checkpoints' and check your ticket as you pass through them. Hahaha. Silly George. We bought a general admission ticket and to our surprise the giant general admission section was completely crowded and there wasn't a spot in the crowd to stuff 7 Americans! The boys of the group got the idea to go to the ticket sales counter and try to exchange our tickets. I was pretty concerned because how on Earth would you explain that in Japanese??? Somehow... they did it!!! We got to move to the other side. It was similar to a college football game in that the visitors sat on one side of the stadium and the home team on the other. We were moved to the visitors side, and I finally fit in... I was the only person wearing a red shirt on the home side, but fit right in on the new side! The game was exciting. Each team had an (unofficial) band playing and the fans cheered constantly! I didn't know what they were saying most of the time but it was entertaining to say the least! We could clap along to the beat and make up our own words, we had a good time cheering.

My favorite part of the game was the 'Victory Balloons!!!' Two of the guys brought us balloons! They were in funny shapes and you had to blow them up really big, then hold them there and then when it was time... you let them go and they flew around and made a funny noise. Maybe you had to be there, but I think that is something that should be taken back to the states for their sporting events! At one point I argued that we couldn't do that because American's are too lazy to clean up the balloons. Someone argued back that here in Japan no one was dropping sunflower seeds, or popcorn, or peanut shells on the ground, and that they clean all of that up in the states. Touche'! Maybe American's aren't so lazy after all??? :)

"Victory Balloons... each team lets them go.. long before the end of the game and we actually know who is victorious"


The food there was great. They had noodles, rice, other traditional Japanese dishes, hotdogs, corn dogs, KFC (which is what George and I ate!!!) ice cream, beer etc. The joke is that American fast food is 100 times better in Japan... and that was our first attempt at KFC. It really was good! The batter was different and the fried chicken seemed healthier... (if that's possible). The 'beer girls' carried around small kegs on their backs and had a pump to pour beer. Here's a picture of that!

Beer Girl


We left in the 8th inning to beat traffic but are really glad we went! It was a great experience!

We want to plan a big trip somewhere extra fun soon! I've been looking around and we will let you know when we choose a destination! Asia has given us endless possibilities... China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia??? Who knows??? Maybe we'll see them all before we move... we hope so!!!

Dreaming...

Chelsea