Progress on Day Zero Project

Long time, no talk. I've been busy trying to survive the heat sans air conditioning and starting a new job.

I'm chugging along very slowly on my Day Zero Project. Here are some of the things I've accomplished or started.

23.   Go to five Japanese festivals (2/5)

Summer is full of festivals in Japan. And while Jeff and I are usually lazy on the weekends and don't feel like driving, there were some festivals in Misawa. We both worked American Day in June, which is a festival for the Japanese put on by Misawa Air Base. I blogged about it here - American Day .

We just went to the Misawa Tanabata Festival last night. I'll probably blog about it sometime soon, but here's a short description of the festival, and here's a description of the Tanabata legend (I don't know the accuracy of this story). We waited until evening to go because it's been so hot and humid, but even then we could only stand the crowds and heat for a little bit. It was interesting to see though.



14.   Go to Tokyo
24.   Take five ITT Tours 
29.   See a sumo wrestling match


I'm knocking three out in one by signing up for an ITT (Information, Tickets, and Travel) tour to Tokyo to see a sumo wrestling match in September. I cannot wait! It's a short trip, which will give us a quick taste of Tokyo and give us a better idea of what we want to see when we return for a longer trip.


67.   Cook seafood at home five times (1/5) 

I attempted a tilapia recipe last week. It was okay, very bland. I think I overcooked it because the fish was very dry. I've since gotten some suggestions and I'll probably try another seafood dinner soon. I also want to try salmon. So far, salmon sushi is one of my favorites.


94.   Watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy

Jeff's been bugging me to watch the trilogy ever since I made this list. I finally gave in and we're watching the first movie. Since it's too hot to do much and I'm fighting a headache, hanging out on the couch in front of a fan with a long movie sounds like a good Sunday afternoon.



Happy weekend! Can you believe it's almost August? I can't.

Travel Dreams

I never really thought I'd travel outside of the USA. Growing up, I imagined moving to a different suburb and settling down closer to home. Little did I know, huh?

Now I'm living in Japan. Life's funny that way.

While we've seen lots of amazing things in northern Japan, we're both a little frustrated with our travel limitations here. It's SO expensive to get anywhere from this remote location. Just traveling to Tokyo is expensive, much less taking a plane anywhere else. Not to mention, most of our traveling dreams lie on different continents. Mainly Europe. I'm dying to go to Ireland, Scotland, and England. Jeff lived in Italy for 2 years and traveled to Germany a few times, and I'm dying to go back and sightsee. But, it'll cost us a small fortune to get there from here. So for now I can dream. We've never done a big honeymoon. We stayed in a fancy hotel for a couple nights after our wedding and saved our money for moving to CA and starting our life. We planned a honeymoon for January 2011, but it got postponed when we found out we were moving here. We're still talking about a big honeymoon/trip sometime in the future.

Globus 15 Day Guided Trip through England, Ireland, and Scotland 

Globus - Highlights of Britain and Ireland

I'm pretty sure I need to set aside an "Ireland fund" for this trip. It offers highlights of the three countries I'd most like to see, with advantages like minimal line waiting and hotels included, sometimes even food. It's a blend of guided travel that would take a lot of the stress out for an over-planner like me. Maybe for a big anniversary trip sometime in the not-too-distant future?? Please.

I'd also love to just travel through Europe by train or whatever. Start in one country and wander around, eating and drinking and sightseeing. Maybe one day when we're rich!

We've always talked about doing a cruise with Carnival or Royal Caribbean. We actually had one planned and ready to be booked before we found out we were moving here. We were going to celebrate our anniversary in Mexico drinking and snorkeling after a deployment and instead we moved here to snowy Japan. Oh well, maybe next time. This one is only an option before Jeff gets on a boat. I highly doubt being on a cruiseship will be relaxing after spending so much time on a carrier. Even if it's with booze and his lovely wife ;) I've also looked at Sandals all-inclusive resorts. More expensive than a cruise, less travel, more booze. Haha. Either one might be a definite option if our next base is say, FL or CA. I know flights were pretty cheap when we were looking at flying from Lemoore to LA, where the port was for the Carnival trip through Mexico.

We've also talked about doing Hawaii or something fun in between PCSing from here to wherever we go next, especially since it'll be the dead of winter and we'll have snow up to our ears here.

In the meantime, I can continue tucking money away into savings for future fun and dreaming of all the places we can go. There's a couple tours coming up I'm trying to convince Jeff to go on - mainly a sumo wrestling match down in Tokyo. It's pricey and we'd both have to take leave, but it's one of my "must-do" things before we leave Japan. No time like the present? Jeff needs some more convincing, lol.

I'm going to go research hotels and ideas for a small weekend trip sometime in the next couple of months, maybe to Aomori, the capital of our prefecture and closest big city. And I'm trying to think of something fun to do in October - turning 25 sounds like a perfect excuse to do something fun!