Life Lately

I haven’t been updating very frequently lately. But nothing has been happening that prompts pictures or detailed blog posts, so I’ve mostly just gone about my business and called it a day.
Then I got a birthday card from my wonderful aunt who reminded me that some people can’t regularly check my Facebook and look to my blog for life updates (If you’re reading this Aunt Alice – thanks! I meant to send a thank-you card, but you know how that goes.) And even I’m not going to go digging through my Facebook page to try to remember what happened a few weeks ago, much less any longer. I was trying to remember the exact date we landed in Japan, and looking on my blog was way easier and faster than trying to use my Facebook. Better.

So.

I’ve started a new job. I bumped up to a salary job and I’ve bumped down my age group – I’m still working with kids but now they’ll be toddler sized. I haven’t been given a specific age group yet, so it’s anywhere between 6 weeks and 5 years. I’m bouncing back and forth between school age and child development for a few more weeks, and the contrast is refreshing. It’s hard not to love your work when you spend your mornings playing dress up with toddlers (I was a cop, firefighter, and construction worker this morning) and spend your afternoons making Christmas cards with school age kids and talking about anything from where we’ve lived (some of these kids have been all over the place!)  to what we love to do on the weekends. Of course the getting puked on (babies) getting hit or bit (toddlers) or getting screamed at (school age) puts a damper in things, but not for long. Regardless, I’m very excited about my new job.

Jeff and I haven’t been exploring too much lately. Snow has hit Misawa already, so the roads are going to get tricky fast. Japanese don’t really plow, so snow piles on ice on top of snow on top of ice on narrow, winding roads. It’s fun. On base the roads are fine, at least. We’ve also just been really lazy lately and have been choosing to spend our weekends at home relaxing rather than adventuring. We’re hibernating?
We’ve ventured out a few times.

We visited some caves and an amber museum a few weeks ago (I just realized I never blogged about this, I should do that soon!)

Last week, we had Jeff’s command Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, I could probably do a quick blog post about that at some point too…
Next weekend we have my command Christmas party. The week after that is Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, we’ve been shipping boxes all week. We had bought most of our gifts for family back home well before Thanksgiving with the intention of mailing them all out before the big turkey day. The best laid plans, right? We got them out this week, which happened to be before the priority mail deadline, which was today according to my radio. We splurged on some special gifts for our nephews, and then bit the bullet and paid the price for the hassle of shipping something that didn’t fit in a flat rate box. Ouch! Not happening again! I can’t wait until everyone gets to open their gifts and see what we’ve picked. I’ve loved shopping for unique gifts to give from our end of the world.
I even took pictures of mostly everything I bought before I wrapped and packaged.
Health wise I’m chugging along at pretty much the same place I was at weeks ago. I’ve cut back drastically on soda. I’m now down to very little each week. We usually eat out once a week, and I usually end up having one or two more sodas throughout the week. But that’s miles better than the one to four sodas I’d been drinking daily. Workouts are relatively nonexistant, but I’m working on it. Diet is still mediocre at best, but oh well. You can’t do everything perfectly, right?

Hmm, what else to update on? It’s hard to think of what people will actually be interested in reading. Life in Japan lately has mostly consisted of working and sleeping, which really isn’t very different from life in the states, except for which side of the car I drive in and what timezone I’m sleeping with.
It’s hitting me that we’ve been here for almost a year. It’s hard to believe on one hand. How have I lived overseas for a whole year?! On the other hand, it feels like home. Our apartment is good enough for now, we’re both working full-time, we’ve made friends and we’re involved in the community. We know enough of our town to maneuver the streets and enough Japanese words to at least decipher gestures and broken English. I’ve fallen in love with sushi and the scenery. If you asked me exactly a year ago if Japan would ever feel like home, I’d have looked at you with wild eyes and said “no!”. How things change, eh? (You can bet when one year hits, you’ll get a long blog post about how much change a year can bring!)

Let's Go Out For Sushi!

Let's start by explaining that before tonight, I've had sushi once in my entire life. I grew up avoiding seafood. My mom is allergic to seafood, so my dad only gets it when he's at a restaurant or at a party. Since I was no where near adventurous with food growing up, I tried fish a handful of times. At the most. And sushi was nowhere on my radar growing up in the Midwest where fish isn't always so fresh.

My brother, who also didn't try much seafood when we were growing up, has tried and grown to love a lot of seafood since he's moved to Arizona. He is a sushi fanatic. So when I went to visit him one spring, I tried it too. I honestly didn't know what to think. The taste, texture, smell, everything was so different than what I was accustomed to. Everyone I was with said that was normal - it takes a few tries to learn to love sushi.

I found out we were moving to Japan, and decided to just wait to try it again until we got here. I figured the freshness of fish here vs. the desert of CA was incomparable, and I may as well wait for the real stuff. I don't know why it's taken us so long to get out and try some, but we did tonight.

We went out for sushi at this place that may be called 105. We're not really sure, but it has turtles and the numbers 105 on the sign, so that's what we're calling it. Jeff had gone to this place repeatedly down in Southern Japan, so he knew what to expect.



We sat down at a table, and in the middle of the tables is a conveyor belt. This place puts all the food on the conveyor belt, and you grab what you want. So if you want a specific food, you grab it, and the plate color or design indicates the price you'll pay. I didn't see anything over 215 yen, which is roughly $2. Most things were about $1, and contained 2 pieces of sushi or similar foods. I was a little overwhelmed because I couldn't tell what anything was and am totally ignorant to the seafood world, but my husband tried to point out mild fish that he could recognize. We finally noticed the touch screen order screen had an English option, so we were able to guestimate what was what.



This was the second type of fish I tried. We both forgot what the first kind I tried was, and couldn't guestimate by pictures after the fact. I really liked the first, although the very edge was a little metallic and intimidating! This was the second kind I tried. Again, no idea what kind of fish. I'm no help. Jeff recommended it because he really likes it, and I did too. It has such a mild flavor it doesn't taste "fishy" at all, which is what I'm always afraid of. I also got a cucumber sushi I've tried and loved before, which is just seaweed, rice, and cucumber. Jeff tried swordfish and a tuna and green onion roll.



Even though I've only been to one sushi place in America, I could see a difference in the sushi offered in each country. Or each restaurant I tried would be a better guess, probably. I remember a lot of combinations and extras in Phoenix, like cream cheese and veggies and all sorts of extras. Here, it was basically just rice and fish. Sometimes there was a seaweed wrap but not usually. Sometimes there were little additions like green onions, but not generally. The vast majority was a little bit of rice and a small slice of what I would assume is very fresh fish. Maybe the more fanciful combinations are offered at more expensive restaurants, but I didn't mind their absence.

This 105 place (or whatever its actual name may be) is kind of like Japanese fast food. It's cheap and fast. We got 4 or 5 plates of sushi, a plate of soy beans, and 2 plates of New York Cheesecake, and paid maybe $15 American dollars. It was fantastic. We ate enough to be full without that annoying overstuffed feeling, we didn't have a huge pile of leftovers because we picked little plates until we were full, and it was fresh and mainly healthy (minus the cheesecake) choices. I think we'll definitely be going back there on a pretty regular basis.

Although it'll still be a while before I feel comfortable going anywhere without Jeff! When we walked in, the hostess started talking to us and apparently asking questions, but obviously neither of us can really catch what she's saying. Jeff knows enough to kind of gesture and guess his way through, but I get intimidated and freeze up. The same thing when we were paying. The hostess was very nicely counting up our plates for the total and reading off what each plate apparently was, but it was gibberish to me. At least the cash register tells you the total yen in digital numbers, I at least know how to pay!

So that was my "First Sushi in Japan" experience! Not all that exciting, but that's because it was low-key and tasty. I'm hoping I can continue to be adventurous and try different kinds of seafood here. We're also planning to attempt cooking fish at home...eventually. There's a large fish market in Hachinohe, which is about a 30-minute drive. We went there on a cultural tour (which I just realized I never blogged about, woops!) and it has every kind of fish, clam, seafood, etc. that you could ever want. If you can figure out what everything is, which we couldn't. So all we have to do is learn how to identify types of fish, then buy some and try to figure out how to cook it. It should be a fun experience I'll have to share when we try it!



Hachinohe was more severely damaged than Misawa during the earthquake, although I honestly don't know the extent of its damage. I know a lot of airmen and sailors went down to Hachinohe to help repair the docks. I honestly don't know the extent of damage in most places near us. We haven't ventured far in the past month since things have been on the mend. I decided to stay during the voluntary departure, but that didn't mean I wanted to be out exploring. We may not have been far this past month, but this summer we'll explore the Aomori prefecture at the very least.