March Madness!

Sorry blog-readers... but March has been insane. It started really at the end of February with my midterms, which went "okay" considering I haven't been in school in almost 5 years, plus I was taking two classes without relinquishing any of my previous responsibilities. Needless to say, the phase out starts NOW with my last day of classes for at the Japanese school I've been working at being tomorrow. Two years spent at one of the local junior high school's around town has been a great experience and one I am grateful for and will never forget, but I'm ready to be done and able to focus on my own school right now! That just leaves my afternoon math tutor sessions and the occasional private English class with my two families. Much more manageable while being a full time Masters student!

The 2nd thing to make this month CrAzY was our vacation! From March 3rd-11th we were in Vietnam and Cambodia. I will try to write a blog (with photos) to that trip but in brief, it was fantastic. We went to Hanoi, Halong Bay, Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon), and ended in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We ate food, drank beer, saw natural and man-made wonders, and enjoyed some new culture. It was a great trip but we were non-stop the whole time and came back needing a vacation from vacation! It took a while to get back into a routine but we are starting to get there.

Dereck has a big week with some yearly tests that pilots need to do, on top of his marathon training. Less than a month to go til his debut at the Nagano Marathon on April 15th! How exciting! Somehow he'll have to fit in those training runs while his family is here...

Yup! We have visitors! From March 28th-April 11th we will be hosting Dereck's Mom and Dad, as well as his sister who is coming down from the mountains of Gunma prefecture to spend time with us. We are so excited to show our home and new country to Mom and Dad. We hope they love Japan like we do, and that the Cherry Blossoms bloom for them!

So, just another MANIC MARCH :-) I'll try to blog about vacation soon and get back to my Words of the Week as well.

~Jane

Word of the Week 3: Assiduous

	assiduous  adjective   Definition: hard-working Try as I might, I only managed 3 blog posts in January... but hey, it's better than nothing. So now here was are into the 8th day (so I guess, 2nd week!) of February and I thesaurusized  (<-can that be a word?) the word busy. I liked the sound of "assiduous" and though it leans more towards being hard working than just busy, it still applies.  Last week my grad classes really picked up speed and I had two assignments (one for each class) due the same day. Then, I had one due just one week after, so since Jan 31st its been school, school, school. Why Jan 31st? Well, because I took 4 days off to go to Kyoto and Hiroshima with Dereck at the end of January! That was a blast, but doesn't fall under the adjective of assiduous, so I'll save that for another post.  So far the classes are going well (vehicle dynamics is going much better than my composite mechanics class, but I'm surviving). Midterms are the last week of Feb/1st week of March so the semester is really going fast so far! In addition to school, I also have been working with my community theater group on base on our dinner theater production. We are performing on Friday and Saturday to a sold out audience. Its very exciting but not only am I acting in the production, but I'm also running the private organization which means constant emails, contracts, coordinating, and just seems nonstop. Not only are we doing the show in 2 DAYS! (gasp!) but we also are starting pre-production on our BIGGEST show ever planned for the fall, doing a new teenage cast show this spring, and the improv group got a contract to perform at a festival on base in April- our first gig! As soon as the show ends on Saturday night, there is no break. Its time for pre-production meetings, helping to plan and organize the teen show logistics with the director, and get our improv group ready to perform. Did I mention Midterms in less than a month already? Man! I better be assiduous about this! Luckily, both my midterms are take home exams are are due March 2nd. I leave March 3rd for a week long vacation during spring break, so I am so excited for that break! This past week my good friend Jenn and I have started a daily workout session together. She was motivated to make some healthy life changes and I wanted to help, plus thought I'd be much more likely to stick to a workout with a motivated friend. It's been great! You'd think that adding a daily workout to an already jam packed schedule would be insane, but it's been really nice. I feel like I have a bit to just think of nothing but working out and even getting some social time as I do it. I feel good and energized when I'm done, and I need that for the day!  I'm not the only one who's been assiduous lately. Much of my motivation comes from Dereck. He's been working long hours, doing his masters homework, and training for a marathon. I don't know how he does it sometimes, but just like with my crazy love of theater, there is something about running that makes Dereck happy and energized, even though it takes up so much time. Honestly, I feel really happy. I'm busy, I'm tired, but I'm doing things that I love. Theater and performing is so much fun... there is a strange addiction that many thespians share and you know you suffer from this addiction when you plan another show before your current one is done! And I currently have two pending shows and an improv performance! I'm insane, but luckily it's not a one-woman group and I have a great group of people who share my passion and are a huge help. I've met some wonderful friends who I never would have known here if not for my theater group, and I'm so thankful for that! As for starting my masters, I feel like "me" again, which might sound kinda strange but for the last 2+ years I've felt a lot like "Dereck's wife" and "a spouse" and "a dependent", which are not bad things... but sometimes I felt like I was missing the part of me I've worked so hard for. Having a goal and getting back into the world of engineering, where I feel I belong, feels really invigorating. I'm excited for the future! So, while it was nice to write this all out and update my friends and family on the craziness... its after my "no computer" time and I must go decompress and get to sleep! Lets see if I can find the time to post more this month, but if not, I'll have a few good excuses!

Word of the Week 2: Anisotropic (Material)

This WotW isn't an adjective to describe my week but it is an adjective that I have learned and used a lot this week. It was my second full week of graduate classes and I am starting to get into the "meat" (or should I use veggies hehe) of the classes and out of the introductions and general lectures. I'm taking two classes and anisotropic and isotropic are used in my Mechanics of Composite Materials course. When referring to a material, anisotropic means that the material properties at any point vary with the direction or depend on the orientation of reference axes. This is the opposite of isotropic materials which means that the properties are the same in all directions or are independent of the orientation of the axes.

Hmmmm... confused? I kinda was too. I mean, I understood isotropic previously as being basically "the same" when used in things like chemistry. This seems to hold true for a material as well- basically it acts "the same" no matter what direction load are applied. This is why I chose anisotropic as my WotW, since I have never used it before.

Composites are extremely dependent on the direction of the material for their material properties. I will explain this using the simplest natural composite material I know: wood. Imagine say, a 2 x 4. We can crack this 2 x 4 and look into it and see that the wood fibers are long and go from one end to another.This material has different strength properties depending on how I load up that 2 x 4 beam (across the long fibers or directly on the ends of the fibers). This is an anisotropic material. Now take a piece of metal, say aluminum. Its doesn't matter what way I load that aluminum, it will deform the same. Aluminum would be considered isotropic. Since most composite structures are designed to take a load in one direction over another (thus optimizing the design to cut weight when it isn't needed to carry a load), most are anisotropic which is why its important that I learned that word!

See, aren't you glad you visited my blog today?

Other fun things this week: more rehearsals for our dinner theater show, Hubby won some cool awards at work for being an awesome pilot, and on Saturday we got to go to a Sumo match in Tokyo. I wrote a huge post on that last year so go check it out if you want to learn more about Sumo!

Word of the Week 1: Tarry

Definition of TARRY verb \ˈter-ē, ˈta-rē\

1        a : to delay or be tardy in acting or doing

b : to linger in expectation : wait

The word I chose this week was “Tarry”, which I chose for definition b. I was lingering in expectation for a few things. First, my husband was sent off to Seattle for a routine training on January 2^nd, which means I was tarrying for his return that weekend. This in and of itself isn’t that exciting or even anything varying from our routine lifestyle. However, it came right after the holidays where we were able to spend so much time together, so I feel like I really as just waiting for his return this time. I also felt slightly more down during his absence because I felt like it was setting a presence for the rest of the year. Dereck was gone 175 of 365 days in 2011, and so far in 2012 he’s been gone 6 out of 10. I felt like him taking off so soon in the year really was an eye opener – the alarm clock waking us up after the happy snooze button doze we were enjoying during Christmas and New Years. 

Also, the first week of the year is full of some Japanese holidays as well, so my work schedule was very light, and I was tarrying for the next week’s busy schedule (or for the rest of the month as it looks!). I have two or three more months of classes at the Japanese school before their school year ends in March. I will then be passing on my students to a friend of mine to take over, since I will be focusing on school. I am eager to get to the point where I can focus more on school and less on work, but I also am sad to be leaving my students and the Japanese teachers I’ve work with for the last two years behind. 

Lastly, I was tarrying for my graduate classes to start. Today I watched my first lecture and tomorrow my 2^nd class should have its first lecture posted as well. I am excited to finally be starting since I feel like it’s been such a long process to get to this point! I am taking two courses in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department: Mechanics of Composite Materials and Advanced Vehicle Dynamics.  Both are a bit of review since I’ve had a vehicle dynamics course before and am familiar with the basics of composites. I hope this will be a good semester to ease me back into the academic world.

So that was my week, and my word: Tarry!

One fun thing I did to break up the waiting... snowboarding! I'll end with the Picture of the Week: 

View from the Mountain at Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort in Nagano, Japan

a CONVIVIAL new years eve

So its been a long and crazy year, and I realized that my sporadic blogs jumping from topic to topic with a few long winded life recaps in between probably isn't very interesting... and also doesn't really give me the writing outlet that I'd like to have, nor allows my family and friends around the globe to get a very good feel of normal life for me. So my 2012 "digital age" resolution is to do a bit less on Facebook, and a bit more on my blog. I'd been trying to think about a weekly topic or idea to focus my attention on and I've come up a Word of the Week. My hopes is that with each Word of the Week post, I can grow my vocabulary a bit (something I feel I lack and are sometimes self conscious of), and then also explain the happenings of the week that prompted that word to have been chosen. Unlike the Word of the Week/Day desktop calendars that urge you to USE the word throughout that week/day, this will be a retroactive approach. Since it is only January 2nd, I do not have a full week to think back upon but I will try a mini-post and focus solely on my New Years Eve celebration, therefor being called my Word of the Night instead :-)

W.o.t.N.

con·viv·ial  adj \kən-ˈviv-yəl, -ˈvi-vē-əl\

Definition of CONVIVIAL

: relating to, occupied with, or fond of feasting, drinking, and good company

convivial host> convivial gathering>

My New Years Eve was indeed convivial, so much so that I think the definition should be changed to as follows

Convival :relating to, occupied with, or fond of having a kick-ass time in Tokyo on New Years Eve with a bunch of friends while partaking in many memorable activities around the city that could never be replicated in its entirety even if you died trying.

 

I was happily convinced by my husband that a NYE (as New Years Eve will now be called throughout the rest of this post) in downtown Tokyo would be worth adjusting our sleep schedule in order to stay out all night and eating microwavable ramen until our next paycheck, since as our life seems to be as a military family, we never know where we may be or what we will be doing next year. My wonderful “live in the now” husband is good for me in that way … anyways, we decided to get a group of friends together and make a night of it! 

We had 13 people head down to Tokyo Station where I managed to make reservations for us all to eat at a Mexican restaurant in Marunouchi. It was called Mucho! and was a festive place, perfect for a NYE dinner- complete with bright lights, festive drinks, a band with a trilingual singer (Japanese, English, and Spanish!), and Arabian belly dancing… yup. Leave it to Japan to get it just about right then ad their own random international flair to it. Needless to say, dinner was fantastic and everybody left full and much less sober than when we arrived. 

Us at Zojoji Temple

From there it was less than a 10 minute cab ride (where we “dragged raced” in our own cabbie version of Tokyo Drift our friend’s cab… we lost… boohoo) to Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower. This is the “Times Square” of Japanese NYE events. In fact, the Japanese Tradition for the new year is to visit a temple at midnight to give prayers for the new year and to watch the first sunrise. We at least got the temple part right as we joined the huge crowd holding balloons with their wishes for the new year tied to the string. Tokyo Tower was lit up in the background and TV cameras were all around, mainly focused on the announcers and the giant bell that will be rang at midnight. We remember watching it last year from a friend’s house party so it was really fun to be there in person! Japan doesn’t have open container laws outside so people there were enjoying their drinks and mingling until the countdown.

View of Tokyo Tower from below!

After the cheers, the NYE kisses, the releasing of the balloons, and drunken Americans singing their terrible rendition of Aude Lang Syne…  we decided to head past Tokyo tower into the party district of Roppongi.   

Our group at the Temple! Complete with Champagne :-)

Our group ended up splitting as one half decided to wait in line at a club and our half chose to find our favorite shot bar. Sadly, it was closed for the holiday (another boohoo) so we ended up at a different club. After some initial anxiety and annoyance at the overly crowded, loud, dark and smokey venue, we made it to the top floor where we got to stand in the open air and enjoy a much less crowded bar. The club experience is not one that I have often, nor do I particularly crave, but it was actually a really fun time.  We also ran into a few friends there which in a city of millions of people is always a random experience. It was after 4am when we left the club, but we had about an hour until our train was running back to our suburb, so what else can you do but enjoy the 24hr McDonalds.  Finally we took the first train of the morning back to our city, but sadly the rapid trains don’t run that early and it took forever. Despite thinking I lost my husband in Shinjuku station without his cell phone, we all boarded a train and headed home. Luckily it was pretty empty and we got to have a seat the whole time. It was from the train where I watched the first sunrise of 2012. 

We finally arrived home at 7:30am, a full 12 hours from when we departed… our wallets were lighter, as were our heads, but we had smiles on our faces and were happy. And THAT, dear friends, is why my NYE was CONVIVIAL!

Happy 2012 Everybody!

Ho Ho Ho! Happy Holidays from Japan!

So its a bit late, but lets be real... I'm a terrible blogger, did you really expect a Holiday post before the holidays?! That'd just be silly!

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Tokyo. One highlight was having Dereck's sister spend 4 days with us, which is amazing since I had come to terms with not having Christmas with family until we move to the United States one day. But thanks to Melissa moving to Gunma to teach English, we had her join in on our mini family Christmas! She even brought along a friend who had nowhere to go for the holidays, and it was a grand American time. The girls are so easy to please- a couch?! English on TV?! not sleeping on the floor?! HEAT?! I think they would have been happy without any presents at all.

My parents celebrated Christmas on the 23rd to accommodate my brother and his wife's schedule.  We got to Skype with them on Christmas eve day, which was so much fun. We all opened our presents together and it really felt like we were all there together. We got a great haul (woohoo Table Top Catapult!) and are blessed with such thoughtful family members who know what we like, and stick to the Xmas list for the most part haha!

Thanks to the girls visiting, I had plenty of help to prepare for our Christmas eve party. We had over 30 people plus about 8 or 10 children all crammed into our tiny house to enjoy Uff-da Tacos (Dereck's grandmother's tradition). Seeing the skepticism of eating taco fixings on fry bread turn to surprise and delight after taking a bite will never get old. Dereck did a great job in the kitchen and everybody was well stuffed (and well hydrated... we still have so many leftover drinks we'll have to throw a 2nd party!).

Christmas day brought even more food and presents and by 3pm we were stuffed and the wrapping paper had all been thrown out. Our friends invited us over for Christmas day dinner and we had to go enjoy even more food and good company. The girls had to catch a train that evening to head back north so we rounded out our Christmas with some hugs and see ya laters.

It was one of the best Holidays I can remember. We are so blessed to have so many amazing friends here in Japan that really feel like family. I never imagined being able to feel so much love over the holidays while being an ocean away from most of our family, but life has a way of surprising you. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are able to ring in the new year joyfully!

Now, for some silly Holiday photos and dogs in costumes...

The Last Frontier

(I had this post written for a while, but lost the memory card with the pictures! I finally found it, so here you go!)

So I went on vacation. Yes, another vacation. It’s kind of a hobby of mine.  In fact, while traveling on this vacation I did vacation planning for another vacation. What a life. Anybody want to fund my vacation hobby? It gets expensive…

This time we didn’t go anywhere exotic or even anywhere in Asia. For the first time in 20 months, Dereck and I made a trip to see our family in Minnesota together (see previous blog post!).  I went once back in the fall of 2010 but Dereck couldn’t come with, so we were very excited to travel together. The reason was for his best friend’s wedding where he would be the Best Man.  So a trip to our “homeland” and going to a wedding- easy as pie, right?

Well not really, because August is the most expensive month of the year to fly in/out of Japan. Japanese children are on their summer school break and it seems to just raise ticket prices about double the normal cost… and when the normal cost of a round trip from Narita to Minneapolis is between $1200-1500, well the raise is significant. So just buying tickets and flying home wasn’t an option for us, after all, I’m not working full time and my husband isn’t an investment banker or something! Luckily we had a solution.

The Military has a program called Space-Available travel, or just Space-A for short. In a nutshell this is a “standby” style flying program where passengers are put on military aircraft that have room in addition to whatever other cargo they are carrying. The trouble is, the flights usually have about 24 hours of notice, and it feels like trying to win in Vegas to get a seat, so pre planning is just about impossible. IF you know me well, you can imagine just how terrible this is to me!  Dereck went on leave on a Wednesday and we finally were able to get a flight out of Japan on a Sunday. That’s 5 days of “stay-cation” around our house here hoping for a flight to leave. But it ended up working out because we were able to attend a few fun events on base (including a 80s themed birthday party and a birthday party at a mountaintop beergarden! Check it out!).

View of Tokyo from Mt Takao

80s Style!

Our flight was on a C-17 and brought us to Anchorage Alaska. We were excited for this because Dereck really likes Alaska and I had never been. Plus being that it’s a possibility for a future duty base, I’d like to check it out. We even have family (Dereck’s mother’s cousin) in the area so we had a place to stay while waiting for a domestic flight to Minnesota.  We booked a flight for 3 days later, when the price was cheaper, and so that allowed us a few days to site see in Alaska! 

The flight was fun and a new experience for me. Not the most comfortable seats but we had tons of leg room and I even got to stretch out on the floor of the plane and take a nap (we were up EARLY for this flight). The seats are positioned around the outside walls facing in, and then in the middle facing out. It basically creates a big circle around the inner seats which all the kids found and decided to run laps halfway through the flight. It was pretty entertaining and the plane was so loud that it didn’t even bother me. I’m just thankful for the earplugs they gave us! 

View of the passengers relaxing on the flight

We landed in Alaska after about a 7 hour flight. The jet lag was pretty bad, we landed at 2:30am but we felt like it was 7:30pm, but we survived. The weather in Alaska was rainy and cold, but the beauty of the place still showed its face once the sun came up. We decided to find a 24hr diner to eat at since we were starving and then get a hold of Dereck’s family in the morning. The diner we went to was called Leroy’s Family Restaurant and we loved it. They let us sit there for hours, order a GIANT American style breakfast, and relax and watch their TV until morning. Then Dereck’s cousin Dede came to get us and we went to her house to meet her husband and two boys, Elliot and Gus. 

After quick nap, Dereck decided to show me downtown Anchorage. We went to a cute market that sold handmade gifts and food, then did some other window shopping. We ate dinner at a great place that overlooked the water and had its own beer brewed on site. It was really good, and I’m sad I don’t remember the name of it. I was surprised by the city because there are no skyscrapers, no loud trains, and no traffic.

Me and my bear friend in Anchorage

Pretty much the opposite of Tokyo! We made it an early night since we were so tired but were looking forward to the next day. We planned to go walk along a lake near their mountainside home, then take a boat tour to see a glacier.  

Sadly, the next day brought rain, rain, and more rain. Our lake walk was canceled in the morning, so instead we made a yummy breakfast and just relaxed around the house. Around lunchtime we went to the best pizza place in the world, called Moose’s Tooth, with Dede, the boys, and Dede’s mother. I was able to order a cheeseless pizza and it was soooooooo good. (Darn you lactose intolerance!) After lunch we made the drive down to the glacier. It was the most beautiful drive and I was staring out the windows the whole time. Sadly, it wasn’t time for the whales to be seen but I could only imagine how awesome it would be to see them.  By the time we got to Portage Glacier the rain had stopped. I was still freezing in the 50 degree weather, since I stupidly didn’t pack for Alaska at all and only had a sweatshirt and a small summer jacket with me, but the cool air matched the scenery.  The boat ride was on the lake the glacier had carved out over the past 100 years and then we got to see the glacier. It was awesome and something I had never thought I would see.

Portage Glacier

Us on the boat ride

That night we went to a kid-free dinner with Dede and her husband Richard at their favorite steakhouse downtown. It was delicious and a lot of fun to joke around and meet new family.  Though it was a short visit, I feel like I know them well and really enjoyed my time with them. Thanks Dede and Richard!

The next morning we got on a flight to Minnesota to start the rest of our vacation. I wish we had more time in Alaska but I’m sure we’ll go back again someday, or even get a chance to live there (hopefully!)

Minnesota Schedule...

This August, after a few days in Alaska (post to come... I just am still looking for the memory card with the pictures on it!), we boarded plane to Minnesota to see our family and finally make it to Dereck's best friend's wedding! We did SO much in the two weeks we were there, I can't begin to write about it all. So I decided to let a schedule, some small descriptions, and pictures do my storytelling.

Day 1: Arrived in MN, picked up by my brother and sister in law, ate too many chips at the Mexican restaurant, saw the bro's new house, and finally had some cocktails and told stories til it was too late and we went to bed!

Day 2: Picked up at my brother's by the moms! Dereck's mom and mine made the 2 hr drive together to bring us back to our hometown. I am so grateful our moms get along so well! We enjoyed a lunch at the in-laws (hormone free, grass fed, locally raised beef hamburgers!), then later a dinner with the families complete with Alaska halibut.

Day 3: Picked up my friend Maria and went to the city to go shopping! Dereck headed up to Fargo for the bachelor party with some friends, so I had the day to shop (horray for USA stores!!). Came back home, saw Maria's husband and kids (and my Godson!), then back to my house for dinner with my parents.

Day 4: Got a haircut by my favorite stylist, lunch with my mom, then drove 2.5 hours up to Fargo for the rehearsal dinner. Caught up with old friends and met new members of the wedding party. After the rehearsal we went to the largest Scheels sporting goods store (complete with ferris wheel!). Decided to look for flights back to Japan one last time, in a hopeless attempt to not have to Space-A all the way home, and found great deals! We booked our tickets and got 2 more days in Minnesota :-)

Day 5:  Morning workout and coffee with a high school friend, then WEDDING!!!!!!!!! (beautiful Bride, beautiful weather, and beautiful Wedding!)

Day 6: Slept in, attended gift opening, then drove 5 hours across the state to my Parent's cabin in North Eastern MN. Enjoyed a bbq with some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Day 7: Enjoyed a morning at the cabin going for a nature walk and having some mother/daughter and father in law/son in law time. Saw my aunt and her grandkids (cousin's kids!), then went fishing (caught fish!). Then we went to my uncle's lake house and went on a boatride and talked with more cousins! Finished the night by "camping" in the pop-up during a beautiful night.

Day 8: Ate fish for breakfast (hubby went out early that morning and caught more! yay!), then packed up and drove back to our hometown....

The next few days all kinda mash together but they include more family dinners, visiting with friends, shopping!, visiting with Dereck's extended family, meeting new babies, having a Friday night out at the local bar (and a 2 am meal at the Perkins!) and just having a non-stop awesome hometown time with people we love. One highlight was a Family BBQ planned by Dereck's parents that had all of his Mother's side of the family in attendance. We felt pretty special! Through all that, we even had some time to reflect on our beautiful surroundings... well, we at least had time to see the Dam!

Day 12: Drove down to the twin cities with my parents and met my brother and sister in law and aunt/uncle for lunch! It was so much fun. Then my brother drove us to my friend Gen's house where I got to see my 2nd Godson.

Then we met up with some more friends and saw a Twins Game at Target field. We played the Yankees (boo!) but won! (yay!). A few hours downtown to celebrate then back to Gen's for 4 hours of sleep before our flight...

Day 13: Gen brought us to the airport bright and early (or DARK and early... it was really early) and we flew to California. We spent some time in the LAX USO before Dereck's friends came to pick us up for lunch. The same friends that just got married a week earlier! It was fun to see them one last time before leaving. Finally, we boarded our flight to Japan and arrived here on Day 14.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it... which is nothing compared to actually living it!!! It was fantastic and perfect and just completely wonderful. I love my country, my state, my family, my friends, and just everything about being back! I am so extremely blessed!

We are Family!

I am so so so so happy. Why? Well because I finally have family in the same timezone. Actually, in the same country. I can't go as far to say the same prefecture, but I guess I'll have to deal with that! Dereck's wonderful, awesome, and super fun sister Melissa moved to Japan the last week in July. She will be teaching English in a small mountain town about 3 hours away from us through the JET (Japanese Exchange Teacher) program. It was so amazing to see her in my country, in my Tokyo, and to know that saying goodbye didn't mean not seeing her for another year or more.

Melissa is a recent college grad who lived her whole junior and half her senior year in China. Dereck visited her last December but I hadn't seen her in... well.. just about forever. During her orientation for work she was in Tokyo for a few days and we got to have dinner and she even had time to see our house and a bit of the base. We hope to see each other once a month or so at least until the snow flies and travel might be more difficult in her mountain town. Upside to that is that she's near some a-maz-ing snowboarding and I hope to be there a few times this season too!

So that's my happiness. It might seem small, especially if you have always lived near your family, but for living the last 1.5 years thousands of miles from my loved ones, this is such a blessing. I'm already looking forward to Christmas... :-)

A Night at the Ballet

I've always been a fan of ballet. My parents put me in ballet as a child, but I was also in figure skating which as a young girl, I found MUCH more fun (I could skate fast, be less disciplined, and wear more sequins!) but after 12 years of skating, I eventually made the transition to ballet during high school. I danced for a few years with my local ballet school and really loved it. I knew that my skill wasn't enough to get me anywhere professionally, so I did the smart thing and went to college and got a degree in aerospace engineering. Sadly, my school was small and specialized so they didn't offer an elective dance courses to take between my Thermodynamics or Aircraft Structures courses. I let dance out of my life for 4 whole years. Theater held me over for a bit, but after graduation I eventually found a studio to dance in again, now that I had extra money and time (both of which I had little of during college!) I enjoyed it a lot and even managed to find a new studio after moving from FL to TX about a year later. I even performed The Nutcracker that year as an adult party guest, the Rat King, and the funny lady with the big dress with all the little kids underneath (she's called different things!) It was so much fun, but after getting married and moving around a few times, eventually overseas, I thought I was done. The base rec center didn't offer adult classes so I gave up. About 10 months after moving to Japan I finally did a search and found a studio near me. The instructor speaks enough English for us to communicate and this February I started dancing again! I'm the only non-Japanese student but all the other ladies are so nice, the language barrier isn't an issue. Ballet terms are in French so I understand those! (side note: I also started teaching English to the children of some of the ladies!) I love it the classes, but they are tough. It'd been 2 years since that Nutcracker in Texas and I was feeling it. Its been 6 months now since I've been going and I'm seeing myself improve, and I'm just as much in love with the art form as ever.

I also realized that for the first time in my life I live in a huge metropolis that has a lot of appreciation for the arts. A few weeks ago my husband and I went to see the Tokyo National Ballet perform Romeo & Juliet. With the live orchestra (Tokyo Philharmonic) and professional dancers, it was one of the best show's I've seen. It blew all of the amateur shows I've seen and been in right out of the water. I was officially hooked to seeing these talented artists/athletes live. After the show I started looking through this big packet of advertisements they gave us at the venue. All was in Japanese but some logos are in English and things like Dates are pretty easy to understand. Flipping thru ad aver ad, I saw it.... American Ballet Theater Tokyo Tour. July, 2011. OMG! OMG! I had to go!

My husband would be gone for work so I put out the call to my girlfriends. Three enthusiastically replied and we dished out our Yen and bought tickets to the opening night Gala performance. I was going to see 7 separate dances performed by the principles and soloists of one of the best ballet companies in the world. Two of my favorites since I was young (mainly from seeing them perform in the movie Center Stage) were coming and I was going to see them! Sascha Radetsky and Julie Kent. Live. In Tokyo. Wow.

The night was everything I thought it would be! We all got dressed up and took the train into Ueno. The theater was really cool and though we were in the "cheap seats" (if you call $125/ticket cheap!) but could see the stage and dancers so well. The acoustics were amazing. The musicians were flawless. The ballerinas were beautiful. The danseurs (male "ballerinas") were athletic and handsome. The choreography was magnificent.  It was all just magical.  I couldn't take my eyes off the stage for a moment during each dance.. from a group performance, a trio, a romantic pas de deux... dance after dance I was amazed. It truly was a dream come true. The Tokyo National Ballet performance was good, amazing even... but this was something more. This was the best of the best, showcased especially for one night in Tokyo. Its like the All-Star game of ballet! The other ladies I brought loved it too. They are all hooked and want to be my dates again in the future. I doubt I'll ever have a chance to see ABT perform like that ever again, but I am making it a point to see as many shows as I can while I live in this city. 

A Mostly English poster of ABT's Don Quixote

ABT poster for Romeo & Juliet in Japanese

A signed shirt by Julie Kent displayed in the lobby. I think its being auctioned for Tsunami Relief