Christmas. Ankle. Mochi. Hair.

Whelp... We have left Japan! We moved from Japan back to the states back in May 2013, and are still heartbroken about it. We had the time of our lives living there, and am so thankful for the time we had there, the friendships we made, and the memories that won't be forgotten. But I'm still sad. Sad enough, that I've spent the past few days pouring over the pictures from our last few months in Japan-land, and I don't want to forget anything that happened! 

So here's a recap of our last few months in Japan. I got sick of carrying around our heavy camera so unfortunately I don't have pictures of everything that happened, and if I do, they were usually taken on my old 3G iPhone. 

I've been in a Culture Club (whoop, whoop- Group D!) coordinated through the Officers' Spouses' Club, and it's been one of the most rewarding experiences during my time in Japan! I've learned so much from these beautiful women while I was there, and I love them ALL! It was always a hoot when we all got together, they became like my Japanese mothers and grandmothers. This is a group shot taken during our Christmas party! 

We've spent every Christmas in Japan up in Hakuba, at the Lady Diana Resort. It's a magical place filled with ski hills, friends, and F-U-N! We take an (unofficial) squadron ski trip, with well over 30 people (not sure of this past year's headcount). We stay in traditional style rooms, and this year our friends the Erickson's, Huffman's, and Chapman's (well minus T.W., but he was in our hearts while he was stuck in a sandy Christmas-land... booo!) all stayed in a room together. Oh what fun we had! Ladies slept in the loft upstairs, and the guys slept downstairs. Really, it's the best way to have a vacation! They feed us, we ski, we party, and my favorite part--the onsens! We had a blast at our White Elephant Christmas gift exchange. It's always ridiculous to see what is brought, and the different things the married couples bring, to what the single guys bring. Hi-larious. This year George and I, and our friend Kate went in on a TREASURE we found at the base thrift shop... that's right folks, we brought a life size cut out of Justin Bieber. The best. 

I seriously do not have any pictures of this event that are not incriminating to one friend or another. Except for this one of me skiing with my Panda hat. You want to spread the Christmas spirit? Ski down a mountain with this on. It'll get you LOTS of smiles. 

Oh. And this other picture of our wall at the end of the trip. 

We rang in the New Year with friends in what was supposed to be an evening out in Tokyo. The base had recently implemented a curfew policy (a'int military life grand???) so we would have to be back on base by 1am (special extension for NYE, usually it was 11pm) but we were going to make the best of it while we could! So off we went on the trains, and only one stop from home, we changed trains, and George, who thought he had enough time to run into a convenience store in between stops (he didn't) fell down the stairs and sprained his ankle. We took a cab back to base, and to the emergency room. 1 sprained ankle later, we rang in 2013 at the Yokota Officer's Club instead! So silly, that husband of mine. 

Our culture club also got together to do a little "Mochi Pounding!" Mochi is a special dish, usually served as a dessert, and it's made by cooking rice, and then literally pounding it with a giant mallet in a tree stump, until it's one big doughy 'substance', and then rolling it into balls, and stuffing it with various items, usually red bean paste (made from kidney beans and sugar... I think) and rolled in flour. It is QUITE the process. (They can also be various other flavors, my least favorite involving anything fishy or flaky.) My most favorite, filled with strawberries!

In January I also cut my hair! Normally a hair cut would not be an exciting thing to add to my blog, but this was a very special hair cut for me, and thought I'd throw it in there since I have pictures of it. Many of you know that my dear cousin John passed away last March from a brain tumor. It was a big deal for him, even as a guy, to lose his hair due to all of his treatments. I still don't fully grasp what that would be like, but I know for myself, as a woman, I love my hair. It's part of who I am. And in honor of John, I wanted to donate my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. My new friend Jo took me to her salon down in Tokyo, Hiroo to be exact and the wonderful lady at A Cut Above  chopped my hair off! I still miss my long hair, but am thankful mine will easily grow back. It'll be long enough to donate again in no time! 

Hanoi

Once we arrived back in Hanoi (a 3-4 hour van ride), I insisted we get dinner, Cha Ca Va Long (I don't know how I remembered that) at a restaurant recommended in the 1000 Places to See Before You Die book. It's never steered us wrong before, so we just had to find THE restaurant. We did! That book is currently packed up in a box somewhere in Texas, but when I find it, and if someone asks, I'll give you the name of the restaurant! The dish was delicious! Fish, leaks, noodles, beer... what more could you ask for?

 Oh yes. And then we went and got dessert. Cause that's how we roll while on vacation.

The following morning was our last day in Vietnam (whirlwind trip, remember?) 

So we had to do the main thing George wanted to do, which was take a little visit to the "Hanoi Hilton." This is the umm... establishment(?) where many of the high profile U.S. prisoners of the Vietnam War were harbored, including John McCain. It's still filled with lots of propaganda, to show you how 'well' the prisoners were treated. It's very eerie to walk through, but definitely something all American's should see. It was particularly special to walk through with George as he could explain "passive resistance" to me. For example... while kept there the prisoners were forced to participate in staged photos showing how much fun they were having, and how they were receiving such nice treatment ::rolls eyes:: but used "passive resistance" to tip off American's that something wasn't quite right, such as looking at upside down pictures of their children, or crossing their arms during a church service. I don't know how to explain this place, but it was really interesting to see, and put us both in a somber mood for our plane ride back to Singapore. 

 The border of the roof was lined with broken class.

As you entered, the music was very scary like you were walking through a haunted house (which we probably were)... and as you went through the history of the music, the lights were brighter, and the music was cheerier, until you reached the room where the American paraphernalia was. Then it was playing music that made you want to be at summer camp. Funny, huh?

John McCain's flight suit.

 You can see here how these photos were staged. Something American's would likely catch, but not the Vietnamese. Ever seen everyone cross their arms at a Christmas Eve church service? Me neither.

Vietnam: Halong Bay

Our fourth and final stop on our Crazian Vacation was Vietnam! If you'll remember we were on a whirlwind trip! We landed in Hanoi in the evening, and the following morning were picked up by a van from Dragon King Cruises. They picked up about 12 other passengers, and we were on our way to Halong Bay! Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site, and is beautiful. Unfortunately the weather was pretty crappy while we were there, but it was still completely beautiful, mystical, dreamy and every thing I'd hoped for. Except for the boat, and the pollution.

Our cruise ship Junk (no really, that's what they're called) had about 18 people on board, plus a staff full of service people, and a tour guide. Man, was he cheesy! I LOVE cheesy tour guides. I crack up at all the jokes.

I think the best way to describe this excursion of the weekend is to copy the itinerary straight from the website and elaborate for you. My comments will be in italics.

Day 1 Hanoi – Halong Bay (L – D)

7.45- 8.30 Pick you up at your hotel by shuttle bus of Dragon King Cruise. 
10.30 Take a rest at Humanity center and enjoy local specialties. You've gotta love communism. This is a tourist shop that reminded us of the government run shops in China. We had to walk through them. We beelined it through and sat in the parking lot to wait to be allowed back in the van. Sorry Vietnamese Government, we're not giving our money directly to you.

12.00 The captain and tender welcome you to get Dragon King Cruise. Savor the delicious lunch as Dragon King Cruise pass through thousands of islands and islets with different shapes. This was complete chaos. CHAOS. There were probably 200 boats returning, leaving, unloading, loading passenger. I was sure we were going to die getting on the boat. I've never put a life jacket on so quickly! We got on a teeny tug boat and it pulled us out to where our Junk was, a nice and large, old white boat. Rumor has it each boat used to be unique and different but the gov't issued a law that says all boats have to be painted white. Bor-ing.

 The tug-boat we took to our Junk.

On the top deck of our Junk.

15.30 Explore the biggest and the most amazing cave in Halong Bay – Surprise Cave. Ok, this WAS COOL. I hate to give away what the 'surprise' is, but I'm going to give you a hint and say it's quite a few phallic rocks. I can say no more. The caves were absolutely breathtaking. HUGE and filled with natural beauty. All of Halong Bay really is breathtaking.

17.00 Kayaking for an hour around the fishing village and discover the life of community there. Then back to Dragon King Cruise for Sunset Party, get to calm, clean water place for swimming. George and I tried to canoe, once upon a time. It ended with me in tears, our boat upside down, and us both vowing not to do that again. But we did it again (granted, kayaking and canoeing are different) and this went much better! No fighting at all! Ha! It was just such a travesty to see how very dirty the water was. Seriously, trash everywhere you looked. The water was saturated with oil. It was heartbreaking. Stupid tourists. Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site, and I would say GO! NOW! Before it is completely ruined by humans. So the part of the itinerary that said to swim in the calm and clean water? Not even a little bit existent. ::sigh::

19.30 Enjoy delicious and romantic dinner. (This itinerary has been updated since we did it. When we were there, we were offered a cooking class! We made spring rolls. It was fun, and they were pretty good!) 

21.00 Free time for entertainment with the funny plays such as squid fishing, karaoke program, stars watching on sundeck… Spend a romantic night on board. So here we are in the middle of Halong Bay, with, I don't know-- 50+ other boats surrounding us, and you can hear them singing karaoke, laughing, and carrying on. Not our crowd! Our small crowd mostly spread out and went to bed so there was no "funny plays" going on. There was squid fishing, which we decided to partake in. It was going well, except no one caught a squid. Then, the guy from Japan (so funny to meet him!) caught a squid! We all got closer to look, and the squid flung himself, and he inked. ON. ME. And not just on me... like all over me. I just started screaming at George, "give me the key, give me the key!" Because I wanted to get back to our room and get cleaned off as soon as possible. My shirt was ruined. I did have enough sense to look in the mirror, and take a picture of myself. You're welcome.

Day 2 Ha Long Bay – Hanoi (B – L)

06.30 Start your new day on Halong bay with doing morning exercises, Taichi or hunting photos. Have breakfast with coffee or tea … (Our morning was super foggy!)
08.30 Relax and enjoy the breath-taking beauty of the rocky islands rising from the crystal-clear water of the Bay. (This part was good)
10.00 Visit Ba Hang Fishing Village by tender to experience the lifestyle of local people. (Ok, this itinerary is outdated from when we went last November(could be seasonal too), but they took us to an island (on the tug-boat again) where we were able to walk up a cliff to see the amazing views, or spend time swimming on the beach. Well, the fog was really thick, so the view from the top wasn't spectacular, but still very dreamy. And the water was disgusting. No possible way was I getting in there! 

10.30 Back to Dragon King Cruise’s restaurant to join cooking class and enjoy lunch. (Nah, our cooking class was the night before, but when we got back on the boat it poured down rain so we were all stuck in the eating hall as we rode back to the shore.) 
12.00 Disembark and transfer back to Hanoi.
16.00 Arrive in Hanoi.End of the tour
Overall, it was not a horrible tour, and Halong Bay is really, truly, something to see! We just didn't have the best experience of all time. I would still recommend going. Do not walk. Do not run. FLY there (it's dangerous to swim) and check it out for yourself! 

Cambodia: Four-Wheelin' and Traditional Dance

The next day in Cambodia we did the number one rated thing on Tripadvisor.com, (because we're tourists) and took a "Quad Bike Adventure Ride"! "What is that?" you may ask. Well, I will tell you. It's ATVing, or 4-Wheelin', as we call it in Georgia. This ride was truly a look into what Cambodia looks like outside of the temples, fancy hotels, and touristy markets. What a way to truly see Cambodia. It's people, houses, animals, all very fascinating. This was Thanksgiving Day in America, and trust me. It made me VERY thankful for all we have. I don't have a ton of pictures of this day as our hotel room was too cold from the air conditioning and when we brought our camera out into the hot Cambodian air, it fogged up and stayed like that for the remainder of the morning. #firstworldproblems, but here's a few pictures of what we saw. Also, we saw a TON of farm animals in the dirt roads. Herds of them. It was my favorite part, next to meeting and giving candy to the sweet children who ran out to greet us, the tourists.

That evening a local youth group came to our hotel to give us a demonstration of Aspara Dancing and Khmer culture. It was cute to see them, and we learned something too. It's always nice to support local causes of the places we visit, and the Soria Moria Boutique Hotel stopped at nothing to preach responsible tourism. Check out their site for more information if you plan to travel there. http://thesoriamoria.com/responsible-tourism/

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Angkor Wat

What if I pretended like I never had an 8 month lapse in the upkeep of this blog? Let's all pretend, shall we??? Ok. Good. Moving on...

Living in Japan has afforded us the incredible opportunity to see lots (and I mean lots) of temples and shrines. Each is beautiful and so cool to see but I will go ahead and admit that I am quickly losing interest in visiting each one. Perhaps it would be different if they pertained to my religion or my own country's history, but the fascination is sadly being lost. I must say though, I really am embarrassed to admit that. (I'm also embarrassed to admit I never spell embarrassed correctly the first time. ::1 M, 2 R's,2 S's:: good grief!) I know how wonderful and truly enticing visiting old ruins can and should be, but the facts and old rocks all start blurring after a few hours of touring.

When we got our taxi from the airport to our hotel our driver tried SO hard to rent himself out to us to be our tour guide for the temples. "No thanks", we said. "We already have a driver through our hotel", we said. The whole 10 minute drive he tried to convince us, but his accent was so thick we had a really hard time understanding him so we turned him down. We wanted to learn about the temples... turns out the guy given to us through the hotel had the same problem, oh well! Sokha was quite the character though! He had a wealth of knowledge to share about the temples. Oh I'm sorry. Did I forget to tell you about the Temples? Yes? My b. We went to Angkor Wat. ANGKOR WAT. This incredible piece of history was hidden, lost, and rediscovered just a few hundred years ago after hundreds of years of it sitting in the jungle.

When we booked our tour through the temples we knew that in general, we were 'templed-out'. The hotel concierge was so surprised when we said we had 3 more days in Siem Reap and were only going to do the one day tour, and the short circuit. I KNOW that each and every temple there in Siem Reap would be incredible to see and learn about but overall we knew we'd be pleased with spending just one day. FYI you can buy up to two week long passes... you could really spend that much time seeing them, but we were content with one day.

Sokha and the driver picked us up in a tuk-tuk and took us to buy our day passes which had to show them to get into each temple.

The main attraction in Siem Reap is Angkor Wat. It's huge and is a world heritage site. Because we learned so much about it and can't possibly remember all of the facts We also visited Angkor Thom (where Tomb Raider was filmed... just call me Angelina) and many other temples. I'll save you the details (as hey, it's been almost a year since we went, and I've forgotten the facts) and let you google the info. Instead, I'll show you pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Right? Here's 12,000.

Disclaimer: I am 100% completely aware that my outfit is not cute. Women must cover your shoulders and knees to enter the temple sites, and out of respect, I came up with this dress. Which is a maternity dress from the BX. No. I am not pregnant. The tennis shoes are because of the walking. Oh my, there was walking. The hat was because of the sun. I could have worked harder to create a cute outfit, but I didn't. Oh well!