June 2013 Monthly Recap

I feel like I've been getting busier and busier, which makes me really glad I started this monthly recap.  Although it doesn't cover everything we've done, it's a good little summary if I haven't gotten a lot of posts in throughout the month.  Aaron has stayed busy with work, and we've gotten a lot done around the house.  We've I gotten a lot more plants, which is a chore in itself to maintain all of them, but they make me happy.  We've also been doing a bunch of wood working projects which I'll share at some point.  We made our own end-grain checker pattern cutting board, our own 6 foot long floating shelf, and a console table behind our couch.  It's finally starting to feel cozy here.  Below are some other things that have been keeping us busy.

One of the bases here held a flightline fair with lots of planes on display for sofa status folks and locals to climb in, take pictures, and ask questions about the planes that are stationed here.  I finally got an up close and personal tour of Aarons tanker.  In typical Kacey style, I climbed all over everything had to get a picture of me in the pilot seat pretending to fly and then laying in the boom pod.  While he worked the fair, I climbed in and out of every osprey, helo, and cargo I could.  More pictures in a future post.  It was pretty neat to see all the locals wanting to learn about everything and how grateful they were that we are here.  

This next picture blows my mind every time I think about it. I've known Aaron nearly 16 years or so, and never EVER once have I seen him eat a pancake like this before now.  Hell, I've never seen anyone eat a pancake like this.  He hollowed it out and poured syrup completely in it.  By the way, these were the best pancakes ever....brown butter is the secret!!!

People ask us a lot of there are weird bugs or rodents here.  From my experience, I'd say not really.  We experienced tons of bugs in Florida, and here I would just say that there are A LOT more of them.  EVERYWHERE.  There's definitely a larger variety of spiders.  And then there's this guy who's been hanging out on our recycle bin for a while.

I dropped a friend off at the airport a few weeks ago and decided to take advantage of my trip south.  I got lost and found some new neighborhoods, and then headed to the Itoman Farmers Market which is now my favorite market to go to here, but a trek from our house. There is one huge building of fruit and produce, one building of fish, one building of restaurants and gift things, a garden center, and a handful of food stands.  I bought myself a couple of the largest oysters I've ever seen, they were shucked and wrapped up in ice for me to go.  I drove down to the southern most cape of the island and ate my oysters on the cliffs with this view.  How is this even my life?!?!?! Seriously...it's just a normal Wednesday.

While I personally didn't care to see the headliner American pop band that played here last weekend, I was curious about the turnout and how the base put on this type of all day music festival.  It was pretty freaking professional, I was impressed. And I couldn't believe how many people there there. It was insane to see that many people on base, never mind that many Americans in one place in Japan.  I couldn't get enough of the sunset, and left shortly after it set.

I've been trying to get some volunteer hours under my belt, and am still in the process of applying through different places.  I'm officially a volunteer with the USO - which just reminded me that I need to pick up my volunteer appreciation certificate!!! Earlier this month I volunteered at 6am to set up a tent and grills and whip up hundreds of pancakes for the runners of a 5k.  It was a lot of fun and everyone was super nice, so I've already signed up for future events.

I was really excited that I got to dog-sit for 2 labs for a few days. It made me miss Bosco a whole bunch, but it felt good to be appreciated by a Labrador for a while.  Those of you with labs know exactly what I mean.

We spent a hot day up north and hiked Hiji Falls.  Bring lots of water, there are 5 million stairs.

Spelling gone wrong.  Cantion = caution and an undocumented wraning = warning.

We've got bullfighting here in Okinawa, and it's a little different that what you probably think.  This time, there are bulls fighting each other.  The first one to chicken out and turn to run away loses.  Trainers are there to encourage the bulls to stay mad and against one another.  It was really awesome to go to a local event like this.  I'd like to do a post on it soon.

Oh! Here's a picture of me going wood shopping.  This is for our console table.  Do you have any idea how awkward it is to put a 10 ft board in a itsy-bitsy car (that is NOT 10ft long) all by yourself in the tiniest parking space ever while chasing down your lumber cart as the wind whips it around the parking lot?  It's awkward.  I'm surprised no one stopped me with it sticking out the window.

One of the most exciting this I did this month happened just this past Sunday.  We went deep sea fishing with  some friends about 3 hours off the coast of Okinawa.  Our boat of 10 people caught about 70 fish, mostly Yellowfin Tuna and Skipjack Tuna.  This is one of the smaller tunas, on average they were 2-2.5 feet long.  Someone on the boat caught a 70lb tuna on a drift line and a 3.5ft wahoo while trolling.  It was a crazy long day, being on the boat for about 11 hours, but it was so much fun and I'm such a happy girl seeing all of the fish in my freezer.  Oh man, the amount of raw tuna we've consumed the past few days is probably criminal.  So amazing.

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Cultural Awareness Activities

Living overseas with the military definitely has it's benefits, especially when you don't speak the local language.  I often feel like I'm 'cheating' over here because of it, especially that we live on base (*sigh*).  I basically do everything I can off base, but I do also take advantage of what we have going on in our little American world inside this fence.

It actually blows my mind how many people I meet here who do NOT go off base unless it is absolutely necessary.  Honestly, I'm not sure if I feel bad for them or just want to call them stupid.  Maybe a little of both.  Asides from taking advantage of everything Japan and Okinawa have to offer (how often do you get to move and live in another country for FREE!?!?!?), that's gotta make for a really fucking boring few years.  A lot of people WILL NOT drive off base.  What the hell people?  Seriously.  Sheesh.  Yeah, it might be a little scary the first time, but just do what everyone else does, close their eyes and step on the gas.

Kidding.  I'm just kidding.

There is no excuse not to do stuff here.  When I get bored, I drive to a part of town I haven't been, park it, and wander.  I'll look up online of a store/restaurant/site I haven't been to, and I'll check it and it's surroundings out.  It's the same exact thing I do in the states when I move to a new area.  So you can't read anything? Big deal!  Just be polite, use common sense, and get out there...you'll figure it out.

Okay, enough on that tangent, I'm sure it'll be brought up again.  Back to my original meaning for the post.  Most of the bases here offer tons of stuff to do.  I guess, even if you didn't leave the base, you'd be plenty entertained if you involved yourself.  One department here (on almost every AF base) is the Airman and Family Readiness Center (A&FRC), which is kind of your one-stop-shop if you (military members & dependents) need practically anything.  They cover a million topics from career services (jobs/volunteer/resumes/education), relocation, transition (going in or out of the military), personal finances, emergency assistance, deployment readiness & transition, etc.  The offer classes almost everyday, and they are all FREE.  I've utilized this quite a bit in the past, and I'm sure I'll be using them again in the future.  I've taken new-to-the-military classes, finance classes (there are lots of different pays/taxes/investment options to watch out for in the military), relocation (military moves are crazy different), federal resumes (that'll make your head spin!), Space-A travel, and others.  I often go to these classes and come home with tons of notes and handouts and go over everything with Aaron.  A lot of information and benefits are out there for us, and you wouldn't know it if you don't go looking for it.

Well, another thing the A&FRC offers here is Cultural Awareness classes.  A woman from Okinawa works there and teaches a variety of things from a Japanese for Busy People class (which I took when I first got here), Japanese craft classes (like the one I'm going to show you now), a Kimono wearing class (ditto), and she even will go to a Japanese grocery store with a group to show you how it works and what's available (I've already got that covered thanks!).

I signed up for the Washi Craft class, where we made a Japanese candy dish.  I expected this 'class' to be a little different, more of the history and culture of washi, and maybe something a little more custom I guess.  It was still fun, and I met some new people, and it only took an hour.

We sat down at our stations and were basically just there to put it together step by step.  Okay, that's fine.  But I started to ask questions, because that's why I was there. Washi is a type of paper created in Japan.  Different types are made from different barks of trees, and traditionally, it's made by hand.  It's very unique feeling, much thicker than regular paper, and it has a wonderful texture to it.  It's also much more stretchy than regular paper, and has been made into clothes.  There's a new washi product called washi tape that you're probably more familiar with, it's getting really popular in the states, where it's freaking expensive.  I can get it for crazy cheap over here if anyone needs some!

I also learned that washi craft isn't really something that Okinawans do regularly, it's more of a mainland Japan thing.  It's something adult women will get together and do.  As far as the things you would 'washi', I would compare it to the modpodge craze, whatever you could and would modpodge, you'd washi!

Here's my finished candy box.  I sprayed it with acrylic and will probably put it in my bathroom once I get shelves in there.

Later that week I went to a kimono wearing class.  Here we did learn a lot about the culture and history of the kimono in addition to learning to wear them.  After learning about them and actually trying to get into one, I would actually consider buying one while we are here.  They are very comfortable.

We learned a whole bunch about them, and I'm sure you could wiki it, but I thought I'd share with you some interesting facts I learned.  A kimono is made from a entire single bolt of fabric, and each one is approximately 14 inches wide and about 38 feet long, and it's hand sewn.  If you were to want to clean it, you would bring it to a professional kimono cleaner and they would take all the stitching out, clean each piece  and then sew it back together.  There are also something like 10 different types of kimonos for women, each varying in material and pattern based on formality.  It was interesting to learn what an average Japanese person would wear these to today, mostly weddings and festivals, but there are still some people in certain areas of Japan that wear them daily.

It's also crazy complicated to put on.  There is a whole system, and I guess there would have to be if it's a one sized fits all outfit and should look the same on everyone.  Here our instructor is helping me into mine.  We put ours on over our cloths, but typically a kimono outfit would have an undergarment, which is like a thin lightweight kimono (think a slip!) to go underneath, obi (the large 'belt' looking piece), socks, sandals and other accessories.  To properly wear and adjust a kimono takes around 30-45 minutes and a very formal wedding kimono could take nearly 2 hours with multiple people helping.

I didn't do a very good job with my figure in the kimono.  The point is to have very straight lines, no chest, hip, or butt curves.  For those that have curvy hips, you're supposed to wrap a folded towel around your waist under the kimono to create a straight line.  I failed on all parts of this.  Here's a picture of me & my friend KayCee with our group.  Thanks for the photos KayCee!!!

When it's all finished (well, as well as it was going to get in this class), the kimono is very comfortable to wear.  It's snug without being too tight, and it makes you sit and stand up a lot straighter.  This helps when sitting because you aren't allowed to lean back into a chair while wearing a kimono.  The shoes were another story!  It was pretty funny to watch all of us with our giant American feet wear these tiny wooden shoes.  They have a little platform on them and are made to wear on either foot.  All my toes were hanging off and gripping on to these things for dear life!

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Cars and Driving in Japan

Driving in Japan. Is. Interesting.

I was actually shocked it only took me a couple times driving off base to feel comfortable.  Now, driving on the other side of the road like a lunatic seems completely normal.  Maybe I'm good at crazy driving, who knows.  The drivers don't seem so crazy anymore.  Deep down, I know they still are though.

Having a car here is pretty important.  There's really no way to get around it, even if you plan on staying on base forever (Ew).  Unlike our last few bases, this one is so large that there's no way you'd be able to walk every place you need to go.  Some people might be able to get around with a bike...but it rains and rains HARD here, so you at least need a car for back up.

We sold our cars back home before we left, and once arriving in Japan, we had to bum rides EVERYWHERE for almost a week.  It's something everyone has to do here, and lots of people offer you rides, but it was seriously taking a toll on me.  I hadn't needed to ask for a ride since before I had my license, and I hated having to rely on other people to bring us to required in processing appointments.  It all worked out, and many many "thank yous" were said (and meant) over and over again.

Coming in as a military member and dependent, we had a little process of acquiring our own wheels.  First, we had to take a drivers license test at the newcomers orientation the Wednesday after we arrived (Day 6 of no car).  The test was easy peasy...they showed us some videos to scare us into driving conservatively and went over Japanese rules and laws, and taught us what the signs meant (remember - no English on the road signs!).  Everything on the test was something they went over.

Some interesting highlights include:

• There is an unofficial "3 car rule" that locals partake in.  Once a light turns red, it's very common for 3 or so cars to continue driving through the intersection.  If you have the green light, and drive through the intersection, and someone hits you because THEY ran the red light...you are still partially at fault because you should have made sure the intersection was clear.
• SOFA¹ status members are considered professional drivers by Japan.  That means you have more responsibility on the road (i.e. steeper fines, and more severe penalties).
• No left turns on red.
• The roads are made of corral and are very slippery.  It is common to slide/skid even when the roads are not wet.

After we obtain our drivers license (immediately after you take the test), you are legally allowed to purchase a car.  Most people here buy used cars off of someone who is leaving the island. You just need something that is going to get you around the island, pass inspection, and last 3 years or however long you are stationed here until you sell it to someone moving in.  

There are a few places to find cars.  Online (Okinawa Yard Sales), at a dealership, and 'lemon lots' on base where cars are left with contact information for the owner.  We checked out a bunch at the lot, and ended up finding the silver 2004 Mazda Verisa (pictured above) on there for $4,200.  It was in really great shape and reliable, and the owner took great care of it. It's sort of funny because it's very similar looking to the Mazda we just sold in the states.  We were able to buy it within a week of us getting here, and it was a huge stress relief to finally have our own car.

A few weeks later a friend gave us the heads up on a car for sale advertised on Facebook.  A pink Toyota Vitz asking $500 obo (not a typo).  We called about it, met the girl right away and decided it was the steal of the year.  She was leaving the island just a few days later, so we made arrangements to buy it for $450, let her drive it the rest of the week, and then met for the paperwork/insurance/registration exchange.  The old owner and new owner have to be together to complete the transfer paperwork.  

We've gotten Pinky checked out with no major issues, and I really couldn' t be happier with my little car.  I say mine because I've been driving it more than Aaron has lately, but he has no problem driving it being pink and all.  I bring that up because I think it's funny how many people here are surprised to find out Aaron doesn't mind driving a pink car.  Dude. It was a $450 car. I don't car if it had pink unicorns painted all over it.  It drives great and was cheaper than my cell phone.

Both are 4 door hatchbacks with lots of room and working air conditioning, and it still surprises me every day that I don't have to get out and crank start it or something.  They don't have a lot of power, but not many cars here do.  You really just need enough power to jet in and our of traffic, which ours do fine with...and for 2 cars under $5,000...you really can't complain.  There are a couple of souped-up cars here, and it really just makes you wonder....Why?!?  After all, most roads are only 50kph (31mph) and only the expressway is 80kpm (50mph).

Asides from a fancy car being completely unnecessary here, there are a few reasons why you might NOT want to get something you care deeply about...

1. The roads here are really narrow and tight.  People park IN the slow lane.  There is a reason the cars here have buttons to fold in your mirrors.  Lots of cars get too close. Smash.
2. People drive crazy.  When we arrived, people told us, it's not a matter of if you get into an accident, but when.
3. The salt will eat away at your car.  If you don't wash & wax it on a regular basis, people have had layers of paint strip off within a year.
4. If the roads are tight, parking is tighter.
5. Did I mention that the roads were tight?  Those were the main roads I was talking about. Side roads, HA! A steep as hell windy road that barely fits your car is really 2 way road.  It's interesting when a truck comes barreling down.  Standoffs happen.  Backing down roads happens.  It's where a tiny car like Pinky comes in handy.

I was a little nervous driving off base the first time by myself.  It's not so much the driving that is complicated (it's not), but if you don't know where you're going, it can get interesting, especially when crazy drivers are around and motorcyclists are driving in between cars to get ahead.  They don't have street signs here (unless it's a major road).  Not in English, not in Japanese.  So directions are landmarks, which makes it hard to focus on driving and keeping track of where you are going when nothing looks familiar.

Like I said, over the past few weeks, driving off base hasn't been weird or scary.  It's actually become normal.  And just when I think that...I come across a crazy ass intersection and just bust through it hoping I come out on the other end. (Just kidding mom!  Well...kinda...)

¹SOFA  (Status of Forces Agreement

An agreement between a host country and a foreign nation stationing military forces in that country that clarify the terms under which the military is allowed to operate.

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Japan: The First Days, Part 2

Back to our first weekend on the island.  We had to start things off right by trying out these way too cute eggs from Japan.  Slightly smaller, sold in packs of 10, and delicious!!! 

The yolks are so much brighter than US eggs.

The Okinawa marathon was being held on base, so we walked around cheering runners on, and exploring a little of the base by foot.

We were so excited to be able to go to a sushi-go-round within the first few days of being here.  Our sponsors wife took us out one night to one of her favorite go-to spots.

If you're not familiar with sushi go rounds, it works like this.  You sit at a table or booth that has a little conveyor belt going past it.  The sushi chefs work in the middle preparing awesome stuff, and they put it right on the conveyor belt.  The dishes are color coded based on price.  I think here the prices ran from 100 yen to 580 yen, or something like that.  What else was cool about this place was you could also order off the menu if you don't see something coming around that you want.  Here they provide you with a menu and a little slip of paper and pencil.  You have to write down what you want in Kanji and the waitress will take your slip and place your order.

*GULP*

At least I only had to copy it from the menu.  There were a few very complicated Kanji combinations that I didn't try writing, but I would really like to try those dishes, so we'll have to go back.  That won't be a problem for us. We loved this place.

Another cook thing was they had a hot water faucet at each booth.  See that little black round thing on the 'wall' of the booth?  You pressed your mug against that and steaming hot water came out.  They had a container of green tea powder there for you also.

One of my favorite! Hotate aka scallop. I had to really resist not just ordering a ton of these and nothing else.

Here were our stack of plates for 3 people.  I think it cost around $50 for all of us.  We were stuffed, but it would have been so easy to do a lot more damage.  Each plate has a 'chip' in it, and when you are done, the waitress will come over to the table and scan the stack of plates and the computer automatically calculates it!

We walked around town, checking out a little mall, our first 100 yen store (basically a dollar store on crack), and headed down to Comprehensive park where we fed the carp!  Those bastards are aggressive!!!  By the time we did that, it was dark, so I don't have any pictures, but we liked it there so I'm sure we'll be going back soon.

Here's a little shot of the arcades.  They have a shit ton of arcades and pachinko parlors!  We've been to the arcades and peeked into a pachinko parlor, but maybe one day we'll get brave enough to go partake.

And the required kitty update.  Sammy was able to stay with us the first few nights because we had a pet friendly room, but we had to kennel her after day 4 since we had to switch rooms.  She was still doing great, just tired of moving and traveling.  Here's her cuddled up with Aarons sweatshirt.  And I don't know why she looks cross eyed sometimes...it's just how she is.  But only sometimes.

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Japan: The First Days, Part I

Our first few days on the island were HECTIC!!! We decided to start things off right by waking up early that first morning and going with our friend KayCee to watch her coach youth softball.  It was nice to get outside and relax. 

We walked around a bit during the game and found our first humorous sign...Turkey Leg Dog!!!  Poor guy, first he's born with a turkey leg, and then he's not even allowed to hobble on the track! Sheesh!

We watched the game for a little longer, and headed off with Jake (KayCee's husband) to go get us cell phones.  Conveniently 2 of our best options had a kiosk/store in the Exchange1 mall, so we got to check that out, and compare plans (both companies had the same exact plan), phones, and service quality.

 We easily made up our minds when I questioned one of the sales people about their service having dead zones on base.  She shrugged and agreed that yes, there are dead zones.  Dead zones aren't cool, and if your sales person agrees with the complaints...it's time to move on, so we did just that, and moved on to the original company.  We had heard people complaining about the prices, but for 2 smart phones and comparable plans that we were use to, it wasn't much more a month than we were use to.  Having the convenience of maps, email, and apps to communicate back home with, it was definitely worth it to us.

KayCee met back up with all of us, and we all headed out to lunch.  By now we were starved.  So we all went off base to Taj Okinawa, a place none of us had been to yet!

I think we all ended up getting a lunch special, but with a different type of curry each.  This giant feast you see below cost 900yen which was about $9.89 that day.  It also came with a brothy soup with pasta and veggies in it, and a drink of your choice.  I chose lassi, which is a yogurt type beverage. It went really well with the spice level of curry I chose.  Check out that nan! It was HUGE!!!

We headed back to base where we picked up our cell phones and met some more folks from the squadron at a BBQ/kids birthday party.  We may have done some other things, but KayCee knew I'd love to check out one of the produce markets off base, so we went there next.  I loved it, and it turns out to be even more awesome because it is only a few minutes right outside the gate we live near.  I've already been shopping here a few times.

Still being my first real day in Japan, I couldn't resist buying one of my favorite Asian snacks.  Steamed buns!!!  Right in front of the market are a handful of vendors making food right there and selling it.  I got a spicy pork steamed bun.  I LOVE THESE THINGS!  I think this cost me 100 yen ($1.09) and was worth every penny/yen.

Before I show you what else I got, thought you might be interested in a receipt.  Or not.  It's the little things here that I notice and enjoy.

Another favorite snack/side is seaweed salad.  There are tons of different variations of this, and I don't know what this was called, but it was seaweed with a soy sauce based dressing and sesame seeds.  I planned on mixing it with some other veggies, like cucumbers and peppers, but we ended up just eating it like it was in our hotel room.  This was from an additional stand at the market, and I think it cost somewhere around $3-$4.

Okay, I don't know what's up with their carrots here, but they are HUGE.  That is a normal sized DINNER fork right next to it.  You could seriously damage someone with this.  I also thing you'd have to alter recipes that call for 'one carrot'.

Another favorite Japanese snack is onigiri.  I could eat this for every meal.  I'd love to blog about onigiri over at Kacey's Kitchen, but they are basically a snack made of rice and seasonings, sometimes fillings. The rice is mixed with herbs or veggies and rolled into typically a triangle shape by a salted hand.  I've never had one I didn't like, and I particularly like the salmon filled ones.

Later that evening we had dinner at KayCee & Jakes.  It was nice to help KayCee in the kitchen again (we'd often have each other over for meals while we were in Oklahoma together), and we had some time to catch up while the boys entertained the baby (their baby - not that you needed me to clarify) and catch up themselves.  The night was awesome, they had another couple over for dinner, which was awesome to be able to meet and hang out in a low-key setting.  We met so many people in 24 hours I barely remembered where we went, never mind names and faces!

Don't worry, I don't plan on writing our entire 3 years in such detail, I just really want to share our first few experiences on the island, and then I'll be more selective on what I bore you all with!

'til next time!!!

¹Exchange
I describe this as the military department store.  It's THE place to buy stuff you need.  Depending on the size of your Exchange, you can get cloths, furniture, household supplies, gifts, tvs, etc.  I think ours here is one of the largest Exchanges in the world. Don't quote me on that though.

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Getting to Japan

The big day was finally here.  FINALLY.  FINALLY!

Unfortunately we had to leave our fancy-pants suite waaaay too early in the morning, with our alarms going off at 2am.  I started to get nervous belly at this point.  Not because we were moving to Japan, but I was terrified that I forgot something.  Like I forgot our passports (nope, I checked for those consistently), I forgot to reserve space for the cat (nope, that was done and verified.  Wait! Did I verify it?), what if I'm missing paperwork for the cat (THAT was my main concern).  I have spent MONTHS and MONTHS preparing for this and making sure all our documents were in order.  The thing was, I did some of it so long ago, that I started thinking....did I do it? Or did I THINK I did it?  Too late now, I guess we'll find out.

There was so much fucking paperwork and running around for last minute vet visits for the cat (we had to make a 4 hour round trip to a military vet a few days before we left for Seattle to get one of her required visits done), I was terrified something was overlooked and I'd show up at the airport and they'd say, sorry she can't board the plane and I would be in the terminal balling my eyes out not knowing what to do with the cat who can't get on the plane that I am boarding.

Nevermind all that though, the paperwork was fine (of course), and she boarded the plane.  They even made an announcement when we were on the plane that all the pets had been loaded up! Yay!

Since we were flying a military contracted flight, our check-ins and procedures were just a little different than normal.  Our flight was scheduled to depart around 7:30am, and we had to check in as early as 1am but absolutely no later than 4am.  Since we were already guaranteed a seat, as long as we were there before 4am, we were going to be fine.  The folks flying Space-A (Space Available) need to be there ASAP because those seats are handed out on a first come first serve basis.  Little did we know that since we had the cat, we'd be bumped to the front of the line.  Sweet!  Well...sort of.  You'll see why at the end.

We grabbed 2 luggage carts.  Again...we brought way too much luggage, but in my defense, we were living out of these bags for 3 months while our stuff was already shipped to Japan.  I thought I had narrowed down our belongings, but I guess all those little things spread out over the apartment really added up.  Now I know better.  Next time, I am only allowing 1 bag each, plus Aaron's uniform/equipment bag.  Plus the cat.  Next time...

We lined the pets up, and started their check-ins, which consisted of handing over lots of paperwork, answering some questions, and paying $112 for her.  Look at her...she looks so tiny next to those dogs!  She was definitely the most calm out of the animals that we saw, she just sort of sat there and looked around, I'm sure wondering why those dogs were making so much noise.  

 

If you're curious how we handled her eating/drinking/bathroom situations, I'll briefly go over it.  Vets will tell you to freeze water in their bowls, so it'll defrost over the length of the flight.  That wasn't going to work for us. She was put into the kennel a 2:45ish am, and wasn't even going to be put on the plane until 7am.  Our total travel time from hotel to hotel was going to be around 26 hours.  A small ice bowl wasn't going to cut it, and I thought she would be worse off if she was soaking wet for the whole trip.  Some folks suggested using a hamster/rabbit style water bottle, which was a great idea, but we tried getting her to use it the weekend before we left, and she wasn't having it.  I didn't want her dehydrated BEFORE our flights, so I let her eat and drink up to the night before.  When I went to bed, I took her food away and when we woke up before the flights, we took her water away.  We also make her use the litter box by picking her up and putting her in it over and over and over again until she gets the idea.  This works every time (if she has to go) and takes anywhere from 1-15 minutes.  But it works.  We lined her travel kennel with animal training pads, and put her bed and her favorite toys in with her.  We were able to see her during both stops in Japan, so we gave her a little food soaked with water, although it didn't surprise us that she didn't eat it until after we picked her up at our destination.

It's a hard call what to do with animals being transported that long, because other people have very strong opinions on what you should be doing.  I believe (and I'm obviously no expert here) that if you talk to your vet, and your pet is healthy, you'll know what the best situation is for him/her.  I've traveled a lot with Sammy, and I've used these procedures every time, and she's been fine every time.  I knew she would be okay without food and water for 1 day, and if for some reason we got 'stuck' somewhere, there was food taped to the top of her kennel and she had food and water bowls attached.  She did amazing.  She held her bladder the entire time, and when we got to the hotel room in Japan, she ran out of her kennel and right up to her litter box.  Yay Sammy!

Okay...back to our flight.  After dropping off the kitty, we headed up to the USO for someplace comfy to sit.  It was crowded, but not too bad, and we were able to grab some juice and relax for a few.  Around the time they were going to take Sammy to the plane, we headed down to check on her one last time, then headed through security and to our gate.  We boarded around 6:45am.

I was actually surprised that the plane wasn't nicer with more modern amenities, but then I remembered I didn't have to pay for it and it's a contracted flight to shuttle people back and forth across the world as efficiently as possible.  But just because the actual plane wasn't all spiffed up, doesn't mean the service wasn't awesome.  The flight attendants were super awesome and friendly for the entire trip.

Hot towels before every meal and snack? Yes please.  Hot towels before meals are very common here in Japan and I LOVE IT.  It's so hot that at first you feel like your skin is going to melt off, but then you just realize it's just the germs melting off.  I've also been to a restaurant here that has a sink & soap in the entry way.  How nice!

After a couple of hours in the air, we were served a hot breakfast.  By now I think most of us were starving so whatever they wanted to give us was fine.  I think we had the option of an omelet or pancakes.  Both came with a ton of food though...Sausage, hashbrown, bagel, fruit cup, and yogurt (which I noticed was non-dairy.....can someone explain how that works?).

After breakfast, everyone started to wind down and get comfy.  They played movies and tv shows throughout the entire flight.  It was our goal NOT to sleep through the flight.  We agreed that taking a small nap here or there would be okay, especially since we had been awake so early, but the more we stayed awake, the easier we would be able to deal with the time difference.  This was especially difficult for me since I just pass out whenever I sit in a plane.  Maybe it's habit to make the time go faster, I don't know, but I can sleep on a plane like no ones business.  My head might feel like it's going to snap off and I might drool all over the person next to me, but I'm asleep!

It was probably around this time that I realized we were sitting within a few rows of THE EXORCIST CHILD.  Aaron's probably not going to appreciate me talking about this here because THE EXORCISTS parents might stumble upon my blog one day...but seriously....your kid was a fucking nightmare and you know it.  Let's be honest here.  Most of you know I feel about kids.  But I REALLY hate kids in confined spaces.  When I board a plane and watch a child come in I am filled with emotion.  Hatred is one of them, but so is disappointment,  panic, and sorrow.  I'm that person on the plane that sits down and watches you struggle with your 10 carry-on bags (because you feel like it's your right to ignore the rules since you have proven to the world you are capable of reproducing).  I don't offer to help, not because you have kids, I don't help because you brought 10 bags and your husband is right next to you and not helping because he already told you not to bring 10 bags.  You don't need 10 bags to entertain a 1 year old.  You need 10 bags to piss everyone else off.  I'm the person on the plane that hated you and your family before you've even boarded.  I don't think it's cute when you let your kid run up and down the aisle tripping people and then screaming when the beverage cart runs her over.  I don't think it's cute or funny that you are brilliant at ignoring your child as he/she screams for 7 out of 9 hours of the.first.leg of an international flight. 

Back to the EXORCIST. I hate when your EXORCIST child pukes all over the fucking place and I hate it when I overhear you telling EVERYONE that she's has gotten motion sick since she was born, and no, you didn't bring a change of cloths on board.  Because that wouldn't make any sense, would it.

I should say that there were a TON of kids and babies on our flight, and not ALL of them were bad.  There were actually a few that I had no idea were sitting right around us.  Awesome!  And thank you to those parents who actually acknowledged they had a kid with them and took care of them!!!  But...for those evil children, most of the time it wasn't the kids fault.  Even I will acknowledge that.  The parents let them run wild and didn't do a thing to calm them or comfort them. Nothing.  And trust me...I watched you all with an evil eye. I really felt like the mentality of a lot of these families was, "I'm military and it's oh-so-gosh-darn hard to move across the world with a child, we are exempt from acting like civilized human beings."

That gets a big thumbs down from me.  And a bitching rant on my blog.

Also...while we have a 2 hour layover somewhere...please please PLEASE wake your kid up and make them run around like crazy, so when we board the plane again you can just strap them down and let them sleep.  Because 35,000 feet is not where I want your kid bouncing off walls.

I'm sure I have no more readers with children at this point, they've either stopped reading, unsubscribed, or probably have some mean and nasty things to say to me.  That's fine.  It's not going to make me like your evil child any more.

Not all was bad.  MAJOR props to my friend Jenni who provided us with earplugs before our flight.  Yes, I had all those strong feelings above while wearing earplugs the entire time.  I don't know how people handled it without them...although I did see a few guys who were close to breaking down.  The earplugs saved our sanity, incredibly.  Thank you Jenni!

Okay. Phew. I got that outta my system.  AND I've had 2 weeks to chill out about it.  It's a good thing I held off writing this post.

Moving on....

The ice was really pretty. I had never flown north enough before to see the ocean frozen over...

A few movies later (I lost all sense of time during this flight), we received a hot lunch.  I chose the chicken.

Aaron chose the Pot Roast.  Both were edible and appreciated.  Enough said.

I'm not really sure what I did the whole flight to entertain myself.  I read almost an entire book, watched some movies, and stared out the window whenever we had a view.  Once we got into the Japan area, there were some great views of the outlying islands.  It sort of reminded me of Hawaii.

This was us coming into our first stop, Yokota AB (outside of Tokyo).  I'm not sure if they refueled here, but we needed to drop some folks off and pick others up.  We all got off the plane and corralled into a room to wait, and those of us with pets got to go outside on the runway and check on them and walk them.  We took Sammy out of her cage and just carried her around, just to give her a different view.  There was one couple who took there cat out and just let him walk around. It was really amazing.  This cat just followed his owners around as they walked, not going anywhere else.  After the second stop, we learned that the cat was blind!  The lesson I learned from that was in order to have a loyal cat, you must blind it.

So they re-boarded everyone onto the same plane and headed off to our next stop of Iwakuni AB, about 1.5 hours away on the main island of Japan.  The same procedures took place, de-board, check on Sammy cat, re-board, and another 1.5ish hour flight to Kadena AB on Okinawa!!! Yay!!!

The sun had set and it started to rain by the time we were able to see Okinawa, but we were able to check out the coastline and the city lights!  It seemed like FOREVER before we landed.

We flew right into base, where they have a small terminal for baggage and customs.  We got off our plane and took a bus to the terminal and waited in line for someone to check our passports and orders, then went downstairs to gather our bags.

This is where it did NOT pay off to be the first ones in Seattle.  First bags on, last ones off.  We were able to get Sammy right away, but waited probably close to 45 minutes for all of our bags.  After all of our traveling, and seeing our friends beyond the exit doors waiting to welcome us....it seemed like HOURS.  The Kadena USO was there handing out water and pet treats!!!  How awesome is that!  While waiting, we were also greeted by someone from the Vets office to hand us a packet of paperwork and tell us what procedures we needed to follow with the cat in the next 72 hours.

We finally got our bags, went through customs, and some guy with a microphone asked if anyone was here to great us.  Being that we were one of only a handful of travelers left in the building, it was easy to find our welcoming group.  Plus, there were about 10 of them standing right at the door waiting for us with a big 'Welcome Aaron & Kacey' sign.  That was pretty awesome considering we only knew 2 people (and a baby) here, and didn't think our sponsor would be there.  There were a bunch of folks from the squadron including the commander of the squadron.  I thought that was pretty cool, because I'm sure the last thing the commander of the squadron wants to do after a week of commanding the squadron is stand around at the on-base terminal waiting around to say 'hi' for 2 minutes to a couple who just spent 26 hours traveling and isn't going to remember a thing about the introduction.

So we shook hands with everyone, their names went straight through my brain, we were handed some welcoming gifts of beer and wine, and everyone help load our bags into our sponsors wifes car, who then brought us to our lodging (on base).  She was awesome enough to have filled our room an fridge with food, so we wouldn't have to worry about the essentials right off.

There were a few Japanese treats thrown into the mix! Yay!

Oh! And our friends KayCee and Jake here gave us the best welcome gift ever.  Nice shampoos, soaps, lotions, and poofs.  I definitely have to remember this when we become sponsors. It was so nice to be able to shower that first night without having to dig through our bags for our stuff.  And this stuff was WAAAY better than the hotel soap.

And more food and Japanese snacks.  Very much appreciated!!!

We postponed going out to eat with our sponsor since we were so freaking tired.  That's what you get for not sleeping the whole flight! It worked out well, because by the time we actually got our bags into the room, it was probably around 9:30/10.  Sammy was relieved (in more than one way) to be let out of her kennel, and finally got to stretch her little legs, and then we crashed and we crashed hard, but we woke up at a decent hour to start our first day on the island.

Next up I'll actually share with you guys what you've actually been waiting to see.  Photos of Japan!!!! Yay!!!  Now that we've been in our house for a week, I've had some time to do cooking, so I plan on updating Kacey's Kitchen here soon also!  I apologize for not updating sooner, it's been really hard to sit in front of the computer when I just want to be out exploring and setting up our house!

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