Ready for the picture summary of the last year?
Happy birthday to me! On October 29, 2010, we went out to celebrate my birthday. I was cramming months of work into a few last weeks of school, Jeff was drowning in paperwork for our upcoming move. We weren’t stressed, nope not at all.
I almost miss this quiet country road. I drove it to and from school every day for two years while we lived in California and I finished my degree. The commute was an hour each way, and it would’ve been a killer if it hadn’t been such an easy drive. Traffic was nonexistent and my company was usually more in the species of cow, sheep, or chicken than human. That said, my 10 minute commute to work here is much more likable!
Time to pack! We found out about our upcoming move to Japan in August, and were packed and ready to go in November. We spent Thanksgiving in an empty house with an air mattress and two laptops. Our cats couldn’t decide if they liked or hated the changes. They were amazingly nonchalant about the empty house; the car drives were much much more vocally opposed.
Speaking of empty houses — here she is, all empty and ready for inspection on my last morning in Lemoore, CA. It was a bittersweet day. Neither of us liked living in Lemoore and couldn’t wait to start our adventure in Japan, but this was our first home together. We brought both cats home to this place, we made our lives together in this home. And when I drove off base for the last time, I did so knowing we probably wouldn’t return. Ever. That’s a weird feeling.
Before we could get to Japan, Jeff had some training to do in San Diego. So we headed down there for two weeks, which was just enough time for me to finish my degree. I finished a few weeks early because of our move; my professors were amazing and SO supportive of my unique situation. I thought a big state school would be harder to navigate than my small private university in IL, and while the larger offices like financial aid and tuition were, the English department has some amazing people running it. (This diploma frame is a gift from my brother, my parents are hanging onto my actual diploma since it was mailed in April when we had already moved to Japan)
While we were in San Diego, we took the opportunity to check out a carrier! Despite six years in the Navy, Jeff has yet to be stationed on a carrier. And obviously as a spouse I wouldn’t see much of them. So we were eager to check out the USS Midway Museum docked in San Diego. It was so much fun to walk through the whole ship, seeing parts Jeff would never see on an actual carrier and imagining living in a big metal box like that (not a fan!). It was also a lovely little break from the stress of moving.
With training completed, we were eager to get home. We drove home partly to drop the car off at my parents for them to keep safe and mainly because Jeff had some extra leave and we wanted to soak up some family time before we moved so far away. The drive with the cats was…interesting, but they held up pretty well. Just in case you’re worried, this picture was taken when we were parked and eating lunch. The cats were safely in the backseat for the highways
Have you ever visited Chicago? Want to know the best attraction? FOOD. Oh my god, did we eat. Both of our families treated us to more food than we should have ever eaten and it.was.delicious. Aurelio’s Pizza is a family favorite and my brother and I, who was also visiting from Phoenix, enjoyed it so much. We spent tons of time laughing and creating memories with family and friends, but we also ATE way too much to be healthy. Chicago food is dangerous!
One wonderful part of traveling when we did was the opportunity to spend Christmas with our families. Moving during the holiday season was generally a pain in the ass. Our move out of Lemoore got all kinds of screwy because we had to be in San Diego on Thanksgiving weekend. Our drive home was semi-dangerous with the possibility of snow (we had no problems, luckily). Our flights were battling the weather Gods. We ourselves were freezing to death in Illinois after spending two winters in balmy California. But. It was wonderful to get to see all our extended family at Christmas. I don’t think we would have seen nearly as many people if we hadn’t have been able to come home when we did, and for that I’m so grateful. This little guy is my youngest nephew, Phil. He’s a cutie, and as obsessed with Star Wars are his big brother Jacob and his Uncle Jeff. Care to take a guess who these toys are from? (Hint, I’m married to the guy…)
Unfortunately our two sweet cats couldn’t make the trip to Japan with us. It was too cold in Chicago for the flight to allow pets, and their microchips were the wrong frequency for Japanese scanners. We talked long and hard about it, and decided the best thing for all of us was to leave our cats safely at my parents’ house until we returned from Japan. It was hard leaving them. But they’ve happily taken over my parents’ house and even made friends with my parents’ rambunctious dog.
In case you’re getting lost in all our travels, or just need a visual, here’s our journey from Lemoore to Misawa. It had some detours. We drove from Lemoore to San Diego (5.5hour drive), then drove from San Diego to Chicago (~26 hour drive). We flew from Chicago to Seattle (~4 hour flight), then sat waiting through 48 hours of delays until we could board our flight from Seattle to Misawa (~10 hour flight, I believe. I was a little exhausted, so my memory’s vague!) All in all, it took over a month. We moved out of Lemoore on November 30th, and landed in Japan on January 11th. Whew, we were wiped.
I’ve only traveled overseas once before, to visit Jeff in Italy in 2006. It was a 12 hour trip I believe, and I barely remember what happened after the airline went on strike, I got thrown on a plane to Amsterdam, then Rome, then Naples, and lost my luggage back in Rome. That travel story was a whopper… so was this one though.
We left Chicago without much ado. We said goodbye to family, packed our bags until they were bursting at the seams and left boxes for my parents to mail to us (we did a little shopping while we were home). We got to Seattle in the evening, and checked out the USO in the airport. While it was nice and comfortable and more than we expected, it was CROWDED. There were delayed AMC flights like mad that week, so there were a lot of people just waiting to get to Asia. We tried sleeping on the only open couch for a while, but neither of us could sleep so at about 1am we decided to splurge on a hotel room and some good rest. We called a cab and trudged with all our luggage outta there. We were back bright and early for our flight. Except. It was delayed. Some problem. We sat and waited…and waited. That night, they said we couldn’t board and gave us all vouchers for hotel rooms. We got to the hotels probably around 1 or 2 in the morning and needed to be back early in the morning. The next day, we actually took off.
Woo, we were on our way!
Well, after a three hour delay where they had to fix paperwork because we had more weight than allowed, then drain excess fuel because the plane was too heavy.
Okay, late but we were still moving!
Except, there was an error in the cockpit. Something about a hole in the windshield that was making the noise unbearable. We were hovering somewhere near Alaska at this point. The decision was made to turn around and fly back to Seattle. Ouch. We were in a plane full of soldiers on their way to Korea, and their rudeness and anger was unbelievable. They were blatantly rude to the poor flight attendants who had nothing to do with the errors or the decision. It was bad. We got back to Seattle late and got another hotel voucher, and were told to be back at 4am or some ridiculous time to board again. We did board, thankfully, and made it to Misawa with little excitement, thankfully.
That’s a really long story to explain why landing in Misawa was an experience. I was more tired than I’d ever been, especially since we landed in the morning and I had no clue what my name even was anymore much less what day it was or what time it was. Jeff had the bulk of the work when we landed and checked in, but I did struggle pretty badly with figuring out what was going on. Jetlag is a bitch. That first week was rough, but we got a lot accomplished – Jeff checked into his workcenter, we picked an apartment, we got new cellphones, we scheduled phone and internet. We ate way too much fast food and Stouffer’s meals.
I think it was about a week until we moved into our apartment. It was a beautiful newly renovated apartment building. Our apartment is on the 8th floor and I fell in love with the view. Our choices were limited to this building, we had our pick of three floors. The pickin’s were slim, and finding a decent pet-friendly place wasn’t happening. (We were thinking of trying to get our cats over here at some point, but have since decided it’s better all around if they stay with my parents for the full three years and we pick them up when we PCS next). So we moved into our second place.
And I filled it with our stuff! Our movers both in CA and here in Misawa were pretty great. We got through our move with only minor scratches and dents to show for the trip across the ocean. Not too shabby.
And here’s my favorite part of the apartment. The view. We get a view of the nearby lake and some mountains behind it. It’s gorgeous and really amazing to see outside my window every day all year.
We started venturing out into Japan to explore. Our adventures stayed pretty close to home as we figured out driving (Jeff has driven in Japan before and adjusted quickly, it took me much longer) and tried to navigate the roads without understandable road signs. Directions available on base count stop lights to give directions, so getting turned around is almost a given. We also learned more about the culture and religions of Japan. We both love digging into cultural history, so we loved that part of everything.
I saw some of the freshest fish of my life too. I grew up in the Midwest, so fish isn’t exactly fresh once it gets to the stores. But the fish markets here are no joke. Some things are still living and breathing, like crabs, and some things are probably fished the day before. We even had a crab make a great escape right in front of us. He scrambled out of the cooler he was hanging out in and tried to run away before Jeff could gesture to the vendor to catch his escapee.
We got to know the people Jeff worked with. This is Superbowl Monday. Since it aired live at about 7am here, the base threw a party. As you can tell, the Navy guys thoroughly enjoyed their party. And I made lots of new friends by very loudly trashing the Packers
I tried sushi! I had tried it once in Phoenix with my brother and didn’t know what to think. It was such a different food than anything I had experienced in the past. I tried it again here with probably the freshest fish you can find. I still don’t know what fish I like and don’t, but I’ve got a couple favorites now. I figured out I like tuna, so that’s something from a girl who would never eat seafood growing up.
I fell in love with northern Japan. It’s gorgeous and just my kind of weather. I also experienced cherry blossoms blooming all over the place, which is just about the prettiest bloom on the planet.
If you’ve been alive for the past year, you know what happened here in March. I blogged briefly about my experience, and the news talked about it nonstop. I don’t have any pictures of the earthquake or its aftermath, but the memories will always be there. My experience was thankfully unexciting compared to the devastation and terror in other parts of the country. We spent days without power, unaware that the earthquake and its resulting tsunami had wrecked such havoc on the rest of the country. That was probably the saddest and weirdest day of my life, when I was listening to the radio in the car and heard the number of deaths and the facts of what happened in Sendai, only hours from where I was sitting.
As life returned to a more normal existence, we got back to traveling and exploring. And eating. So far, I’ve found that I love Japanese food. Sushi, yakisoba, and beef bowls are my favorites at the moment. The picture is a beef bowl, filled with rice, beef, and onions. Simple, but oh my goodness is it delicious. I might make Jeff go out for some with me soon, since it looks so tasty!
Moving every few years is challenging, but it gives you an opportunity to meet all sorts of people and make new friends. These girls are pretty great, as are the rest of the friends we’ve made since we moved here. There’s nothing more fun than sitting with a group of people who have been in the military for years and sharing all your stories of places you’ve been and things you’ve done. Or just getting out for a girls’ night as the wives and trying the local drinks and bars
This past year has been a whirlwind of change, and the biggest part of that force was moving to Japan. It’s been such an incredible experience, even though we haven’t done as much as we’ve wanted to yet. For my first time living overseas, it’s been a pretty happy experience. For Jeff, I don’t think anything will beat Naples at 18 with nothing but free time and overseas pay, but he’s pretty happy here in northern Japan too. A lot of people don’t like this base because it’s so remote and big cities and their activities are quite far away, but I don’t mind. I love the weather, it’s such a huge improvement over Lemoore’s dusty, dry, heat. The rain and snow makes the ground SO green. The nature all around is gorgeous and I point out the beauty of the world every single time we drive, probably driving Jeff crazy. Maybe I haven’t been here long enough to miss the attractions of larger cities, or maybe I’ve just grown used to being in a remote place after two years in Lemoore, but I think this base is situated in a beautiful part of Japan. The base itself is like any base – some things are good and some are bad. Its remoteness make some things challenging, and the balance of being on an Air Force base but being a Navy spouse is an interesting experience.
With two years and some change left here (how have we already been in Japan this long?!), I’m hoping to soak up as much as I can. It’s not likely we’ll be back in Japan after we leave, so it’s one of those use-it-or-lose-it opportunities. And I don’t intend to lose it.
No comments:
Post a Comment