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