My English class came on base again ! We had lunch at the mokuteki but then I had a surprise for them! The weasel's den had free video games for the month, I thought it was a great picnic spot!!
My baby had a violin concert.... She is amazing!!
We had a squadron Christmas party.... I borrowed these torturous beauties from my ksf to wear with my new holiday dress. They didn't even last an hour!!
But we had fun!
I had a Christmas party with my English class! We played that multi-layer unwrapping game,,. But you had to wear a coat and gloves in order to start unwrapping!!!
MDG Christmas party!! (Flashback?)
My baby won an iPad mini from the commissary literally the day before Christmas! She was so excited!
The rest of Christmas Day paled in comparison!
That night we had a Christmas potluck with friends.
Commissary savings?!?
We made lasagnas in my English class. Like 12 of them! We put them together like an assembly line.....
I've started painting!
It started like this....
and turned into this! I still have to paint the snow and add the signature stamp in the upper left corner, but I'll do that later!
I also painted over a scary japanese picture....
And turned it into a cute cow!!
My mamasans taught me to make a nabe... A japanese stew.
I went to Hach with a friend and added to my famil. I love my new family members!!
I attended the New Years luncheon again this year! During the karaoke, I entertained some friends!!
But we all entertained with our rendition of 'let it go!'
I took a mixers and masterpieces painting class....
I love painting now!!
Oasis tarted planning the retreat for pwoc. I found a great location here in Japan. It turned out beautiful and it was lots of fun!! (More pics later)
I won the prize for the lowest bowling score for MOSC...
Look! A japanese Hearse!
Family pics on the flightline.... We were missing someone...
Mustache March.....
I cannot get away from tink. Maybe she heard me opening a wrapper...
I found Nitori in Hach... A home decor store. Kinda like ikea, kinda like michaels. A good mix of the 2. But they have this vending machine lounge in te center of the store! This is where you're supposed to drop off your husband while you shop!!!
Here's a pic from the retreat! It was perfect!
A couple days later our lunc h bunch went to a really cool tempura restaurant!
A few days later I participated in a new lunch bunch... With my mamasans!
I played his awesome April fools prank on my neighbor..... It took her a while to find it!
Spouses' dining in...
A friend brought me this awesome cheesecake that I purchased at an auction.... I shared it with lots of friends so I didn't eat it all!!!
I went to a japanese cooking class. We learned to make mochi.... (They were making bean paste!). We also made croquettes.
April 1st I had my English class.... Taught them all about April fool's day!! We started with a jelly bean taste test! They loved the mango and lime, but hated the blue mint and buttered popcorn!!
We also made diamond rings! Er... Dime and rings!! They thought it was funny!!
At the end of the week we took off for our big trip. We flew to Hiroshima.
Started at the peace memorial part and museum. It was sobering...
This is te eternal flame.
That afternoon we took off for miyajima.... The floating Tori gate! Isn't it pretty?
We also saw the biggest rice paddle...
Or is this one the biggest??
We went back to the Tori gate, ride was low so we walked out to it!
Our hotel provided dinner for us.... We tried to find something we could eat!!! Uh, this was a beautiful sushi platter... We all left craving burgers!!
Back to the Tori gate! It was high tide! And beautiful!!
We traveled to osaka and visited the aquarium. It was fun!
We finished the aquarium but had to wait 2 hours for our ferry... So we went to coco'a for dinner. She got 2 pizzas... You'd think she was happy! Guess not...
Anyway, next day we went to universal studios. My beloveds really wanted to go to see Harry Potter! I enjoyed the butterneer and I even got a wand!!
And in the middle of universal studios Japan, we found a US postal box!!
The Hogwarts express!!
That was fun! We headed to Kyoto the next day. We found this open air market! It was fun... And it was all food!!
But we hurried to Hafuu for our dinner reservations. (This was the one part of the trip o got to pick!!).
Real wagyu beef! We had this amazing dinner!
The next day was packed full. We traveled to one side of town to Inari....
It's the shrine for commerce.... Businesses sponsor these Tori gates and perform general upkeep.
Then we traversed to the opposite side of the city to the bamboo forest! It was amazing!!
We also traipsed to the imperial palace on our way back to the hotel.
The cherry blossoms are gorgeous!!
So... Back to tokyo. This is where we stayed! Just kidding! Our hotel was right next door!
On the way to the subway there was this Honolulu coffee cafe... They made fresh malasadas!! We went there many times in the 2 days we were there!!!
Then we went to studio ghibli! She was SO excited!!!
Laputa!
We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the museum.... But I'm sure there are some online....
On the other side of the Aston Martin dealer next to our hotel there was another film studio. We got to see Felix every time we went 'home!'
After trains and the shinkansen and more trains home, we got to sleep in our OWN beds last night! This morning I went to my beach to run! These flags (for children's day) are flying high!
Tink and Toby... They survived the run!!
And my favorite scones shop has this tree growing in the yard. I've never seen one of these before!!!
