Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Have you missed us? Sorry, our blog site was broken for a while. Patrick got it fixed for me, so now I can talk to everyone again :)

Christmas in Tokyo is very interesting. Not being primarily Christian, they are just now starting to celebrate the holiday. They have Santa, decorate trees, play music and buy each other presents. They just don’t celebrate the religion behind it. It’s more like a celebration leading up to the New Year.

Patrick was TDY for a few weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a really hard trip… to Hawaii… we don’t feel sorry for him. By the time he got home, it was a few days before Christmas and I hadn’t had time to get out our tree. Last year we had a pre-lit 9ft tree in our large living room. This year, the though of getting out our old 6ft tree, which has seen it’s better day, didn’t really appeal to us. Instead, the day before Christmas we found a small 3ft tree that fits much better in our whopping 980sqft home.

Christmas was good and everything else is going well. Patrick is still training for the Tokyo Marathon, which is in 53 days. I’m on the injured/reserve list, unfortunately. I still intend to run, but we’ll see if my knee will let me. I’ve developed “runner’s knee” – the cure for which is simply not running…yeah right. Patrick is still doing great and I know he’s going to do really well in the marathon :)

That’s it for now, hope everyone has a great new year!!!

Mission: Grand-dog Retrieval

Hi Everyone! I’m on my way to Texas to get our cute ‘little puppy” dogs – when last we had the dogs, we dropped them off in Houston after our quick exit from Alaska. They have loved being at my in-laws house and we have reports that Mr. Man has lost 10 POUNDS – which we are chalking up to chasing squirrels, pacing the fence with the dogs next door, and a cooling hair cut :)

(The 'kids' helping with our last minute garage sale)

After all of the craziness involved in preparing to export dogs, I'm hoping that everything goes smooth from here. I’ll let you know how things fare on the trip home. I am routing through San Francisco with high hopes of getting to see the dogs on my layover. Wish us luck!

Happy Halloween!!!

Hope you all have a great Halloween! We spend this evening handing out candy with all of our neighbors. Next year, we are going to get a kids pool and fill it with candy – think of the look that will be on the kids faces!

Last week we had a Halloween party with my culture group. The ladies were so cute and ALL of them wore costumes. Check it out.

The "Zoo"

While out of town on a race last weekend, we had time to stop in to a mini-zoo. Overall, it was pretty sad… small cages, lots of really large, sad, animals. But that’s not the point. The crazy thing is what they consider “zoo animals”. This one made me grin!

We Got In!

Tokyo Marathon, here we come! Patrick and I both got into the marathon, which takes place on 18 Feb. We will be in good company. Many of our friends here are running, as well as the remaining 25000 people who were also accepted. Hard to believe with that many runners that they are turning tons of people away. Guess now we actually have to start training instead of just talking about it :) Wish us luck!

Miss us?

Have you missed us? Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written; things have been crazy/busy here! We’ve both been working a lot the past few weeks, plus we’ve participated in three races this past month, which turn into all day events!

Let see, what the latest news… I decided to push off school until next term, after not getting my books on time and having the Japan IP addresses blocked by Troy State. Little things… Work is really busy, as I am helping with programs outside of normal duty hours. I've also gotten involved in a bunko group, a culture group, and of course, the running club. Never in a million years did I think my lazy self would ever be in a running club!!!

I have a few new blogs that I’ll put up in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out! We miss you all! For those of you in Texas, I'll be visiting Houston in November. Give me a shout if you are going to be in the Houston or Austin vicinity in the Nov. 12th timeframe :)

ICE BAR TOKYO

Ice Bar Tokyo

Yes, I can appreciate the irony of moving from Alaska to Tokyo, just to end up at an ice bar… What can I say, we miss AK!

We went to the ICE BAR TOKYO with friends on Saturday. Everything in the place is made of ice, even the glasses. Of course, they only serve Absolute Vodka, so we were in heaven! Here are a few pics of our adventure. Kampai :)

(Left) My Yummy Drink! (Right) We dared him to do it…

(Below) Us, trying to look cute

Check out our new stuff under "fun facts" Scroll down to the bottom of the page. I tried to move the info to the top, but it made everything centered, so I have to work on that... Anyway, this way you guys know what time it is here, just in case you are wondering. I'm sure we're always on your minds... :P

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

I know, I know, we should have realized that getting an average of 7” of rain a month in the summertime would mean that it actually HAS to rain – but it still isn’t much fun… It’s been raining since Monday and it is so humid here that my car seats, which got dampened on the way home from the indoor pool on Monday, are STILL wet! It’s just craziness. Needless to say, our marathon training (or lack thereof) has taken a turn for the worse. Tomorrow, I’m determined to go running in the rain. There’s just something about going back to bed at 4:30am when it’s dreary and raining that’s just oh-so-good!

What the...!!!

It's a bird...


It's a plane...


It's -

Patrick eating sushi???

I wouldn’t have believed it either, except that I was the one taking the picture! We went to the AF Ball this weekend and Patrick actually tried sushi. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing the very first piece of sushi he’s eaten in his life. Will wonders never cease…

We had actually had a great time at the ball. Probably because they had better beverages and music than similar events we have attended in the past. Plus, we finished up the night with some friends and two bottles of sake. Here are a few pics :)

Sidetracked

Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve made a blog entry – sorry!!! It’s been a crazy week at our house. I started a new job on Monday. I am now the writer/editor for our marketing department. We put out a monthly publication as well provide marketing support for 60+ groups here. All of the people I work with seem to be great, so it should be a good time.

We also received all of our household goods this week. It would have been too convenient to be able to get our stuff before I went back to work. We also spent this past weekend in Tokyo. We went to an 8 course dinner, then out on the town. Today we went to a "Shrine Sale", which is like a flea market. I’ll write more on that later after I download the pictures to share. It should only be a day or two. :)

Friendship Festival

Hi all! We went to the Friendship Festival this weekend on base. It was FREAKIN' hot out! We were working a booth for the running club we just joined. They actually consider themselves a social club with a running problem - that works for me :) We were supposed to be selling t-shirt with some drinks, but all the money that came in was from Gatorade - it was the craziest thing. People were going nuts over it!

There were lots of different planes at the show. It made me think of our AK friends - miss you guys! Here was Patrick's favorite part of the event...

Oh The Insanity, Day 1

No, this is not a journal of how I’m losing my mind while on “unpaid sabbatical”; this is worse. After much deliberation (not really), we did it. We’ve signed up for the Tokyo Marathon. Many thanks to our running buddies from our first and only half-marathon who have given us the confidence, however misplaced it might be, to run such a distance.

We’ve registered for the event, but it will be on a lottery basis. Apparently the city can only handle 25,000 runners and already have too many registered. For those of you that know my luck with lotteries, here’s a great example. My friend Andrea and I were supposed to both run the Mount Marathon (a very strenuous 3 mile mountain race) this past spring, but she got in on the lottery and I did not. Patrick has already started contemplating the appropriate consolation prize required if he gets to run and I don’t!

We’ll keep you posted on the process. Today is day 1 of our training and we’ve survived. Only 183 days to go. Wish us luck!

Hiking Mt. Fuji with a few friends…

Our first weekend here and we hiked Mt. Fuji with some friends...

The Crew

And a few other people…

Yes, those are actually people. We were hiking from stations 5 – 10, an increase of about 5K ft (up to 12,387ft). The idea was to go on a night hike so we would reach the top of the peak in order to see the sunrise. We left station 5 at 8:30pm. It took us 4 hrs to get from station 5 to 8.5… and then we hit the wall… of people. It was like a Tokyo train station had migrated to the top of the 2nd highest single mountain on Earth. For FOUR HOURS, all we saw were the pants and shoes of the person in front of us!

We reached the peak just in time to see the sunrise at 4:30am. Spent a little bit of time up there, and then took about 3 hrs to get back to the bottom.

A few things we learned on our adventure:
1. Make sure that you don’t go on a Saturday…
2. Make sure that if you do go on a Saturday, that said Saturday is not a Holiday…
3. It really is about 50 deg colder at the top, and windy as all get out!
4. As the altitude gets you, you are more than willing to pay ~$2+ to get a stamp on your hiking stick… at every stop…
5. People actually hike Mt. Fuji in skirts, shorts, and flip-flops. These are the clinically insane…

We really did have fun, and recommend it to anyone that travels this way!

The Scenic Route...

Howdy from Tokyo! Those of you who know us, know that we never do anything the easy way. Hence the scenic route… the ongoing collection of our grand (and not so grand) misadventures that we seem to get ourselves into. That and just the crazy things that happen on a day to day basis! I hope you find entertainment in our entries, and feel free to leave comments!