School Buses

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned the school buses here in Japan, but each one seems to be different and unique! I always see this bus driving near base and think it's so funny, I finally had my camera with me and took a picture of it as it drove by! Neither of them are very good, but I tried. :)

Da-Ru-Ma Festival

I am pretty sure I already blogged about the Daruma Festival I attended, but have just 2 pictures I wanted to share from it. George and I colored in our dolls eyes, and we're both looking forward to our wishes coming true so we can color in the other!

Here's a picture of us with our warm chunky sake.

And here's one of us buying our dolls. Sorry my back is to you. Thought it would be neat for you to see the dolls lined the streets!

An Overnight Culture Trip...

Oh brother. I haven’t written in ages, and it feels good to get something written down!!! January came and went, February is flying by too. Which is good news for me- I’m ready to get this deployment over with! So far the support has been incredible. Truly. I have only made myself one or two meals since George left. Everyone just keeps feeding me, or inviting me out to lunch and dinner. It’s so wonderful to have people here to lean on when this whole military life rears its ugly head. So far, I’m doing very well. I’m sad of course, and I miss my best friend, but skype is my saving grace. I’m so so so so so so happy I can hear his voice, and see him. I can sit here at the computer and chat, just like he was in the room with me! Obviously it’s not the same, but it could be worse!

I got to go on a very neat trip in January. My awesome friend Kate invited me and our friend Lacey along on an overnight onsen trip with the culture club she belongs to. There were 8 American women and 6 Japanese women. We left the base on Friday morning and took a chartered bus to a town called Kusatsu, it’s a touristy hot springs attraction. We stopped at some funny Japanese rest stops, and tried some new things to eat. One of them was a pancake drink from a vending machine. Imagine liquid pancakes with butter and syrup. But don’t think of it as too thick. It was actually pretty heavenly. :)

We got to our hotel, checked in and went off down to the village area. It was snowy where we were and the streets were icy. We had lunch, (I had chicken and rice along with some edamame with salt. So delicious!), walked around a very stinky but pretty sulfur hot spring, and did a little shopping. We made it back to our hotel and did a little onsen-ing. Yes, the giant naked hot tubs. Still sounds a little weird when I say it like that, but it’s not weird at all. (Well, maybe just a bit).

The products they have in the bathrooms are incredible. Face washes, moisturizers, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, foot lotion, collage treatments etc… of course they are for sale in the gift shop. A lot of us fell in love with a face wash that’s a gel, and as you use it, your skin peels off. It doesn’t have the substance of an exfoliant but does the same thing, but on a whole ‘nother level. When we found it at the gift shop, it had labels on it that resembled an award for 2010 and the Japanese women we were with encouraged our purchase, so a lot of us bought a bottle of it. I do love it.

After the onsen we went back to our room and put on our Yukata’s, which is a type of traditional Japanese dress. Most of the people at dinner were wearing them. We had a really fun time taking pictures in them. We couldn’t stop giggling and doing funny poses. Thanks for being fun roommates Kate, Lacey and Stephanie! It was SO fun to have a girl’s weekend, just what I needed! AND of course, I forgot my camera at home… so thanks to Lacey for sharing these pictures with us all!






We had dinner, which was a buffet at the hotel. This was my first Japanese buffet and it was fun to try a lot of new dishes, with the aide and guidance of our Japanese hosts! I didn’t find anything that I fell in love with, but it was still fun to try. After dinner we went and sang karaoke! The hotel had rooms set up, similar (but on a smaller scale) to the black cat karaoke I’ve talked about in the past. We took turns singing American songs and Japanese songs. We tried to do songs the Japanese women would know. I think one of them even selected YMCA. Which let’s face it—everyone knows it! We had a great time drinking wine, Lambrusco (a new favorite if none of you have ever tried it, it’s an American kind of wine? It reminds me of sangria in a bottle…) and champagne. We shared snacks and fruit, and sang Happy Birthday to our friend Stephanie. I discovered sweet rice cakes on this trip, and now I eat them like candy. (I’m sure they’re not that good for you, but they’re better for you than American candy, that’s for sure).

We went back to one of our hotel rooms, and since this was a “culture trip” the women brought different Japanese crafts for us to make. We made a cellphone charm, origami, and chopstick holders before it was time for bed (and maybe some others that I can’t remember!) We went back to our Japanese style hotel room which consists of bamboo mats on the floor and basically a sleeping pallet that’s stacked in the closet for a bed, with a buckwheat pillow. I brought my own pillow so that helped some. It actually wasn’t that bad, and very common for a Japanese hotel. (You also take off your shoes before you enter the room).

The next day after breakfast where I tried nato, (fermented soybean, that I truly almost made me throw up at the table), we went to a demonstration of how “in the olden days” they would cool off the hot springs so the towns people could bathe in the water. It’s naturally super-hot… I don’t remember the temperature now, but know that it’s smokin’. I got to participate in it, which was really neat. They took giant long planks of wood and splashed them in the water with incredible force. I found it very difficult to maneuver, but the demonstrators seemed to have it figured out.  I don’t know if there are any photos of me doing this, I’ll have to ask around. It was neat to see!

After that, we walked around town, had lunch, got a few Chu-Hi’s for the road. And then took the bus back towards home with a stop at the famous Kokeshi doll factory! We were very behind schedule for the day so we just a short time to spend there, but it was very cool to see! The factory we stopped at makes (I think) 90% of the world’s Kokeshi dolls, so it was pretty impressive. They had traditional dolls, newer style dolls, dolls wearing different uniforms and outfits, children, pets etc. I bought a little bride and groom Kokeshi couple, and a Kokeshi Mary holding baby Jesus doll. They are all really cute. That factory sells things at the annual Bazaar the base holds so if I’m in town that weekend I’m really looking forward to getting some more as gifts! (And maybe a few more for myself.)

It was a really culture-filled weekend. I wish I spent more time traveling Japan instead of sitting on my butt around the base. I do get out way more often than some, but not as much as others. I really am looking forward to finishing school so I don’t feel guilty spending my weekends away from my books and computer and the studying I’m neglecting!

Pass this blog around to your friends. I get really excited when I get a new follower. :)

Mucho love,
Chelsea

George's Mustache

George and some of his buddies he's with decided it would be a good idea to follow the icky military tradition of growing a 'stache while deployed. Trust me. I'm just as disgusted as you are. He's so proud of it. Thought it was too funny to not share. This is not even two weeks worth of growing. It's only going to get worse. Why he wants to cover up his handsome face is beyond me!!!

A quick message from George!

Chelsea's followers,

I just wanted to let ya'll know that I made it over "here" OK. Where is "here"? Well I can't exactly say, but it's not difficult to figure out. I've been staying busy: flying, masters classes, military education classes, skyping Chelsea, etc. I'm already sick of the sand and am ready to get back to Japan. Mainly because I heard our "child" has been acting out. I'm sure Chelsea can fill you in further. Chelsea has been the greatest (as usual) writing me almost every day. She's the best. If you feel the need to write me, ask Chelsea and she can get you my address (baked goods are appreciated by everyone on our crew! Yeah, shameless plug, I know.) I hope all is well with all of you. Take care and I hope to see ya'll soon.

George

Here's a picture of George and our good friends Dereck and Kevin in their new flight suits, and their "Boonie Hats".

Where's George?

Hello,
George traveled to Bangladesh in September. He made it on a PacAf (Pacific Air Force) video. Here's a link to it:

http://www.pacaf.af.mil/shared/widgets/popup.asp?url=http://www.pacaf.af.mil/shared/xml/rssVideo.asp?mrsstype=3&contentid=123222879&contenttypeid=1&type=video&pos=1


It's video of him putting on his helmet... he doesn't say anything, but I am proud of him and will give him the 3 seconds of fame. :) See if you can find him!

Chelsea