Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today, May 23rd, is Dereck and my 1 year wedding anniversary. It hard to believe that its already been a year since we walked down the aisle and said "I Do". Have I really been a wife for a year? Where did all the time go? It seems like last week when I was doing all the planning, seating charts, DJ play lists, flower arranging, and everything that went along with the wedding. People who don't have big weddings sometimes wonder "is all the trouble worth it when its over in one day?" and my answer is YES. Its been a full year and I remember it like yesterday and wouldn't change a thing!

Even though the year seemed like it went really fast, we really did do quite a lot! Right after the wedding I quit my job and moved from Texas to Little Rock, to where Dereck was in training, met a bunch of new friends, and lived together for the first time. We were so excited to move to Japan in November that we really took advantage of going home to Minnesota a few times during the summer. Then in the fall we got word that the November move date changed to January, and we moved to Corpus Christi with only a car-load full of possessions to spend a little over a month there. Dereck was finally done with all his flight training and eager as can be to start flying in Japan. In early December we found out that January would now be February so we booked tickets home to Minnesota for Christmas. It was a nice surprise to be able to come for two weeks! Then we had to move from one apartment to another in Corpus since our lease ran out, and the move date changed again, this time to March. Finally we got to move to Japan. So that's 4 moves in 1 year!

In addition to all the moving, we were able to spend time on a few weekend trips (outside of our trips to Minnesota). We went to Memphis, TN and Hot Springs, AR. We spent time with some family down in South Padre Island, TX. We've explored a few areas of Tokyo as well as Seattle on our way to Japan.

To keep going with all the changes we even added another dog to our pack by adopting Lana from the base shelter a few weeks ago. Dereck finally got to start flying C-130s and even got to do his first mission, which was to Thailand. I actually met my goal of finding a job  (which made my unemployment under 1 year...) and now have a new "career" here in Japan.

Its been one heck of a year, and we wouldn't have it any other way! We look forward to the next year here in Japan. It will be filled with must less moving (none!) but hopefully just as much excitement. With a little anniversary trip to Tama Hills this weekend (blog about that coming soon!) and "honeymoon" trip finally planned for July, its already going to start out pretty great!

She works hard for the money....

I have started settling into my jobs here in Japan and figured I would write a blog to let you all know how they've been going. Back in April I got hired on as an English teacher at Maple English School- a private school in Hamura City, about 10 minutes from base. I have been subbing a few different types of classes in the evenings about once or twice a week. I have done an elementary level group class, a few middle school level group classes, and adult group class, and some private lessons with middle school girls and one adult (who is in the group class). For the children's class we go through flash cards showing words with different categories (school subjects/supplies, house things, throwing/catching etc). For the adults we do more conversational things out of a workbook. I really enjoy the private lessons and the adult class. I will be teaching the adult class 3 more times in June and then hopefully I will be able to take it over permanently. They want me to commit to taking the class now, but I just want to make sure that my weekly routine is where I want it to be before I commit to moving from a substitute role to a weekly role. But I think having my own class would be fun because I would get to see the students grow and improve as class goes on. I look forward to getting settled a little more at Maple.

The other job I am working is as the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) at Hamura City Jr High School No. 1. (they have 3 jr. high schools...). I come into each class once a month and go through whatever the teacher wants me to. There are 4 teachers there who teach students between 6th and 8th grade. All the teachers are very nice and I enjoy working with them. They all have their own way that they run their class so its fun to experience the different classes. I have a total of 18 classes (6 classes in each grade). I worked all last week and it seems like usually my days there will be lumped into one week if possible. A week or two before I attend the class I have a meeting with the teachers to go over their lesson plan. This first week, since it was my first time in each class, I mainly did a self introduction in each class, then the teachers asked the students questions about what I said to see how much they understood. Then the 6th grade classes got to have question time with me for the rest of the period. That was my favorite. They asked such funny questions...  some of my favorites were: What is your favorite birthday? (WHEN is your birthday?, I corrected them). Do you like Bruce Willis? Do you like Die Hard? Were you sad when Michael Jackson died? If you had 1 million dollars what would you do with it? Is your husband full of muscles? (this one was hilarious) Do you think you are beautiful, because we all think you are very beautiful. How tall are you? (175 cm! WOOOOOAHHH!!! they were amazed...) Do you have good eyesight? ... and I'm sure there were more that I can't remember! The 6th grade classes were so fun. After my introduction, the 7th grade classes had a dialogue speech to do with a partner that they wanted me to grade. This was nice only because I got to sit for it (standing that long is hard, I don't know how the teachers do it!). The 8th grade classes practiced their interviewing questions after my introduction. They are traveling on a school trip to Kyoto in June and have an assignment to interview a foreigner, so I helped them on their pronunciation of some of the more difficult words.  Overall it was a very good week and I really enjoyed the job. I think I will like it there very much.

Now, even though this "job" isn't paid, I have also taken on directing a play at the Yokota High School. They had some issues with their drama department and their play got canceled. The administration called in our community theater group (which I am on the board of) to see if we could help. We stepped up and decided to put on the show. We are doing Annie Jr (just a shorter version of the full musical, Annie). Its been a lot of fun and a good show to start my directing career. I would have preferred to pick the show I directed, but they already had a set of scripts for Annie Jr, which meant we could start practice right away! I am working with some awesome ladies, who are helping with the music, sets, costumes, and everything else other than actually directing the show, so I am definitely not alone in this! We have most of the major roles filled with high school kids, then have some middle school kids playing orphans and servants. Its been pretty fun and I'm excited to see it come together! We perform June 11th and 12th, so until then I will be very busy.

So that's the lowdown on my new working woman life! busy busy busy but I'm loving it!

Yokohama Trip

So this is coming a bit late, but about 3 weeks ago Dereck and I went on an ITT trip to Yokohama. (warning, this a long blog, but it's mostly pictures!) Yokohama is a district of Tokyo right on the Tokyo bay. Our schedule was to go to Chinatown first, then a cruise around Tokyo bay, and then go to the Yokohama Landmark Tower Observatory. The traffic on the way there was very light and we ended up arriving to the area about 45 minutes early. Since the parking reservation for the bus didn't start until 11am we stopped at an area called Diakoko Pier. There was not much on the pier area but it was fun to walk around. We got some yummy pastries at a little shop and just enjoyed the sunshine. There seemed to be a car club meeting of some sort going on there so there were a bunch of fancy and expensive looking cars there, parked and on display.

After about 20 minutes on the pier we got back on the bus and headed over to Chinatown. It was pretty exciting to see this huge Chinatown in the middle of a very modern looking Yokohama. There were these giant and elaborately decorated "Gates" to walk in.

It was also very very crowded. I'm sure its crowded all the time, but since it was Sunday we knew it was extra crowded. A lot of Japanese work on Saturdays so Sundays are a big day for going out for them. The streets were fun to walk through though, since there were so many shops and restaurants everywhere.

We also were able to see a few shrines that were also very beautiful. They were so ornate, we felt like we couldn't even notice all the details. There were a lot of people actually worshiping at the shrines as well, lighting incense and clapping and doing whatever their religion does. It was interesting to see.

We ate lunch in Chinatown and it was good, but surprisingly NOT as good as we were expecting. We also were frustrated that the chopsticks were so smooth and slippery we could barely grasp any food! haha. This was also about the worst day of my 2 week-long cold so I was feeling pretty sluggish at this point. We walked around Chinatown a little bit more and then went back to the park where the boat was boarding for the cruise.

The cruise was fun and just what I needed... time to sit and relax (and take some meds!) We got to see the big industrial area around Tokyo bay, which we both thought was very interesting. The beautiful weather didn't hurt either! Since it was Sunday nothing was getting loaded/unloaded onto any of the ships but we saw where all of that would take place. We also got to see the skyline of Yokohama from the boat. It was awesome- very modern and impressive. Here are some pictures from the cruise. There are more on my shutterfly.com site too!

 Cruise Boat

Yokohama Skyline (Landmark Tower is the biggest building)

 Going under Tokyo Bay Bridge

 Bridge and Skyline

The Giraffes that help load containers onto ships

 Cars & Trucks awaiting export on Diakoko Pier (yes those are highway on/off ramps circling around on the pier)

After the cruise we got back on the bus again and headed to Yokohama Landmark Tower. The Tower was very impressive. Its observatory is on the 69th floor and will bring you up in only 40 seconds. Its the 2nd fastest elevator in the world! The tower also had a very large shopping area at the base of it, and an amusement park on the other side. We hope to go back one day and spend time at the amusement park as well (it also has one of the world's largest Ferris wheels!) We decided to go up in the observatory around dusk so we could see the view in both sunshine and in darkness. It was a great decision! The pictures do not give the view any justice. It was amazing to see city extend to the horizon on one side, mountains on another, and the bay and more city on the other sides. It was just remarkable. 

Daytime View

Nighttime View

Daytime View

 Nighttime View

After we came down from the observatory we did a little bit of shopping. They had a GAP and an H&M which made me very happy. I was even able to find some things that fit and get some great deals too! I definitely want to go back and do more shopping as well! By the end of the day we were just exhausted and ready for that bus trip back home. It was worth the trip though and all and all a great day (if I forgot about my running nose, stuffed head, and cough that sounded like it would launch me off the island...) 

So far I consider Yokohama my favorite place I've been to! 

Sayonara,

Jane

Lana-dog!

We have officially added a new member to our family. Marty now has a sister-dog named Lana. This all started a few weeks ago when I was perusing the website that is kinda like the Yokota "craigslist". I noticed an add for a dog that needed a home and saw that the picture looked a lot like Marty! I kinda put it in the back of my mind, since we had no interest in getting another dog, and just went about my week. The next week Marty had an appointment at pet services to get his nails trimmed and Dereck and I decided that if she was still available that we'd take a look at her and go from there. As it turned out, she was still available, and that meant she'd been in the pet services kennel for about 6 weeks now! A family had moved away from Japan and left her and another dog here. The other dog got adopted a few weeks before so Lana was now all alone. She was super cute and did look a lot like Marty! We decided to take her home for a one week trial to see how her and Marty got along.

Marty seemed pretty indifferent about her being here. He wasn't too excited but he also wasn't jealous or mean to her. If he would have acted one way or another then the decision would have been easier, but at the end of the week we had to decide what to do. Dereck and I both agreed that we really liked her and since she is calm and well behaved, we decided to adopt her. Her and Marty are both 7 years old and so similar looking that we think they make a good brother/sister pair. Lana is very sweet and timid. She likes to play with other dogs but takes a little while to come out of her shell with them. She likes to run and play chase, which isn't much of Marty's play style (he likes to wrestle and jump!), but she likes playing with the neighbor dog. She is house trained and is well behaved in the house- she won't even hop up on the furniture without being asked first!

We hope that her and Marty become good friends eventually, but for now they act more like college roommates who are forced to share a space and just keep out of each others way. But hopefully in time that grows into a great friendship, because we love her already!

Hamura City Tulip Festival

So in Japan they have a festival for just about everything it seems. Plum blossoms, cherry blossoms, and now tulips. They like their festivals and they like their flowers! Hamura city is just west of base and a few friends and I decided to make a trip to see their tulip fields. When the tulips are gone, then the field becomes a rice field, but we were able to catch them right before they tulips started to wilt. There were a few stalls of food and drinks, but that was about it. It was nice and quiet for the most part, so it was fun to walk through the fields and enjoy a very sunny and beautiful day! Lately it had been raining so much we were just hoping to stay dry, so having it be in the 70s and sunny was a huge surprise! I went on a day Dereck had to work so sadly he wasn't able to enjoy the fields with me. Three other spouses from base were there, along with their little ones. I was the only one with a baby but it was still fun to be around the little tykes for a while. Kim had little Mallory, Shalece with baby Alon, and Karen with Nathan. All the Japanese people stopped and smiled, waved, etc at the babies all day long. They just loved them! You didn't need to speak the same language to know that they were being adored.
Here are the babes, all comfy in their strollers in front of the tulips:

The fields themselves were just beautiful. They were in a low spot between some hills and next to the Tama river. There were rows of different colors and they were all so straight and well kept. I really wanted to just take a bouquet home with me but surprisingly there were no tulips for sale! Just for looking at I guess :-)

After we enjoyed walking around the fields and letting the kids play in the dirt for a while we got some lunch and had a picnic near the river in the shade of a tree. The babies enjoyed having some dinner and getting out of the sun, and the mommy's enjoyed the rest too I'm sure. After lunch we went back to base, all exhausted from being in the sun all day- it really wore us out, we were not prepared! I'll try to let the pictures speak for themselves, but they really don't do the beauty of the tulips justice.

blogging backlog!

Hi friends and family,
Sorry its been so long without a post! I blame it on Dereck taking the computer with him on his trip last week... but I'm glad he did since he was able to call me through Skype while he was gone! But I promise this week I will get all caught up. I will have a bunch of new photos up on  our Shutterfly site soon as well. I'll post all about the tulip festival, our daytrip to Yokohama, our new dog (!), and a little about Dereck's first mission trip to Thailand. Lots of pictures to sort through and upload, but I'm excited to share these great experiences with you.  Life has been busy but its been going pretty great :-)
Check back again soon!

Jane & Dereck