#traveling

The month of January has literally been flying by. Excuse the terrible pun BUT it's just true. Our rhythm this month has been travel/home/travel/home/travel...you get the idea. As awesome as our traveling adventures have been {visiting family, work conference, wedding} it is just so nice to settle back into a less hectic routine. Less pressure to get laundry done too, ha!

The last 2 nights, Adam and I have actually gotten to spend time together and unwind after our work days which has been a rare event so far in 2015. What has been fun though is realizing how much we have grown together through all of this month. I feel that we have been extra helpful towards each other and more thoughtful in general to accommodate our combined busy schedules. This included the adventure of taking our massive 12 foot Christmas tree down. 

We were home between our work conference trip and leaving for a wedding, that particular week we both happened to have a lot of night meetings or activities at work, the way everything worked out the only night we had nothing was a Wednesday and that was when the tree was going to have to come down - otherwise it would have to wait until we got back from the wedding. YIKES. I should add that this was all my own announcement to Adam of this timeline that I had figured out. SO. We spent several hours taking our tree down (it was easily 10pm by the time we were both home from work and started on this project). Adam would have rather gone to bed, I would have rather watched a movie or really anything besides cleaning up Christmas decorations. The reality however was that our tree was completely dead and dried out so it had to come down. By midnight the tree was dropped off our deck and out to the curb. The GIANT mess of needles just sat in our living room until the morning as a courtesy to our neighbors, who we Adam figured wouldn't be thrilled with a shop-vac being used at midnight. Give or take some moments of tension, looking back, that whole adventure had such high potential to be a disaster or result in two highly cranky people. What I love, is that we made it work, we were patient and kind - or at least tried to be which means now I can look back and remember "the time we took the Christmas tree down at midnight" and it's just a silly memory of something we might not ever choose to do again :) 

Our living room actually felt twice as big once the tree was down and Christmas was cleaned up. New year makeover and all we did was put our own stuff back in the room, win! Lots of other adventures and stories from this month to be told, but those will be other posts on other days. So for today, here is to a month of many adventures, late nights, early mornings, love, compromise, and thoughtfulness. Oh yeah, and a few days in warm, sunny Florida :)

Welcome to Okinawa!

4.5 hour drive to Chicago + 22 hours of flying to Okinawa = US FINALLY BEING IN JAPAN!!!!!!!

We had a very smooth trip from when we left the Rodriguez's house in Indiana, all the way through to getting off of the plane in Okinawa. A few little bumps along the way - had some trouble printing boarding passes during our plane/airline switch in Los Angeles and after our very last flight Adam left his phone on the plane (whoops!) - however we eventually got our boarding passes and Adam his phone, which meant most importantly we finally got to see John & Allison!

Not too much exciting to share about our flights. Watched movies, had some snacks, tried to sleep (some of us more successful than others), ate airline food, read, tried to sleep, stretch, watch more movies....you get the idea :) Our arrival in Tokyo from LA was when we had to go through immigration and customs. The country of Japan has some awesome mug shots of all of us on file now. As part of the process of entering the country they scan your fingerprints. After they scan your finger prints you are told to look at a little mirror & screen, then without warning they have taken an awesome picture and sent you on your way to collect your bag and clear customs. The flight from Tokyo to Okinawa, was some of the better sleep we all managed during our flying portions of the trip - probably because we were so exhausted and ready to just be done traveling for a little while. The airports here in Japan were fairly easy to navigate, and the Japanese people were incredibly helpful at giving direction despite the language barrier. 

All of our flying adventures. The pictures at the top are at the start of each flight (from L to R)

By the time we got to Allison & John's, it was around 10:30-11:00pm Japan time. (Here is a useful online time converter to check out the time here vs. the US). #1. Love their apartment, they have done an awesome job of decorating and making into a home, it was really fun to get to see in real life what we have all been seeing over Skype these last 7 months. #2. One of our first Japanese adventures involved taking shots of Habu sake - which is a kind of alcohol with snake venom in it, very interesting and not as terrible as it might sound! #3. It was bed time. We were all so thankful to have arrived safely, happy to see the Snyders, and very ready to lay down and go to sleep!

Full Day #1 - Friday May 31st

8:00am: Allison has really enjoyed becoming part of a community of wives here on their base that all enjoy running and working out together, so this morning we joined her and her friends in a CrossFit workout. Basically this involved a lot of sweating as well as laughter and water drinking. 

Mid-morning: Came back, ate breakfast, showered, skyped my family, got ready to leave for the beach

Afternoon: Got a tour of some more of the area - visited the 100yen store (which is similar to the American Dollar Store as far as everything is around $1, however the 100yen store is way bigger and cooler), visited the local grocery store - so interesting to walk through a grocery store and NOT recognize most of what was available for sale and eating, and then went to the beach and had a picnic lunch. The weather today was fairly rainy, so we did not do too much else at the beach other than eat and watch the rain. After lunch, we went to American Village - which is pretty much what it sounds like. The Japanese have created a shopping/restaurant area that they feel replicates things we American like/wear/do...etc. Finally, we headed over to another military base in the area and met up with John so he and Allison could purchase wet suits they had been looking to buy since they have become scuba certified since moving out here. 

"American" 

Late afternoon: NAP.

Evening: We headed out for dinner. Ate at a restaurant called Gen - which had a little bit of everything available to eat from sushi to different kinds of soba (a type of noodles), meat, and rice. Everyone enjoyed what they ordered even though it took us a little while to eat anything due to the fact we all got a crash course in using chop sticks tonight!!!!! 

Our dinner experience tonight :)

Things we learned today about Japan/their culture...etc:

1. Yellow license plates = the car has an engine similar to what you would find in a golf cart, so don't expect them to be able to drive fast. While license plates = the car has a normal engine. A "Y" on a license plate = stands for "Yankee" and means the car belongs to an American

2. They drive on the left side of the road here - making for an interesting experience as passengers used to driving on the right side.

3. Trying to say a few words/understand some which is super challenging! 

Arigatou gozaimasu or just Arigatou = thank you. 

Hi = yes. 

Irashaimase = Welcome. (When some one says welcome to you, typically when we entered stores or restaurants it is not necessary or expected to say anything back, most polite option to say nothing)

4. There is only 1 American music radio station so they try to accommodate all interests of music. Hence we experience Country hour earlier today, and later on heard soul music and even later rap. 

Sorry for the long post - very exciting to be here and try and take everything in!!!

Tomorrow our main adventure will be going to a local brewery and winery - can't wait to share about it!

Oyasuminasai all! (good night)