Strawberry Picking and Wine Tasting

This is another trip we took when we were here before! We went strawberry picking and to a winery. There was a lot of activity going on at the winery. Enjoy!


In front of the winery.

Watching a play. There was a little festival going on.

Music and dancing needs no translation.

:)

Beautiful costumes

Wine tasting! Yummy.

Inside the winery.

Strawberry picking!

We thought it looked like Jay Leno! haha!


Rows and rows of strawberries!

Delicious!

They have some weird stuff.

And of course this guy had to make an appearance!

Bowling League

Mark this up as one of those things I never thought I would do. My neighbor (Japan BFF) totally talked me into joining the women's bowling league on base. I thought I was really horrible but turns out I'm not too bad. Our team, Splits Happen, has been in first place the past 3 weeks. We fell down to third this past week...by straight default...but we won't talk about that! The league consists of six 3 person teams and there are usually 6 games in a session. There can be as many sessions a year as people are willing to play. So Amanda, Sarah and I have been kicking serious booty so far but Sarah hurt her toe and is on the sidelines probably for the rest of this session...so I think first place is out of the question now. That's alright though. I've been having a good time on Wednesday nights! Bowling...never saw that coming.


The Strike Zone...where I spend my Wednesdays.

In case you have never been inside a bowling ally! haha!

The team! Me, Sarah and Amanda. Don't mind the tiara. It was Sarah's birthday!

Sarah's gimp toe. :( Poor Sarah! Get well!! We need you!

Possibly my best score! See that Turkey??? Even my team mates didn't think I could do it. Proved them wrong!! haha! Turkey= 3 strikes in a row!

:)

Fall!!!!

It was such a beautiful day today!!! The weather was cooling...and i noticed the leaves were turning! Heck yes! Opened the windows and doors and got motivated to open some boxes! Hello fall!

My Husband Rocks!

I got this idea from my friend Tara. She has a super cute and interesting blog. Every Friday she writes a "My Husband Rocks". I probably won't do it every week. Not because he doesn't do something awesome on a daily basis... but we'll just see. Anyways... I'm in major need of a pedi/mani and Peter knows it. My feet are janky. I'd put up a picture but I want ya'll to return to my blog! ;) He kept telling me to schedule an appointment at the salon and he'd watch Cora. Well, for some reason I just wouldn't make myself do it. Probably the mom/wife in me not wanting to spend money or inconvenience anyone. Who knows. Anywho...Peter knew I wouldn't ever do it so he called today. They were all booked with the nail tech but he set me up for a shampoo, deep conditioning treatment and a blow dry! Hot dang. I got a little pampering. I'll get the needed pedicure soon...soonish!

So!! My husband rocks because he let me have some much needed me time! Thanks honey! I LOVE YOU!!

Night on the Town

Saturday night we got a babysitter and went on a double date with our neighbors Shane and Amanda. We started off at Kuraya, an all you can eat and drink Yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku originated in Korea but is very popular here in Japan. It's referred to as Korean or Japanese Barbecue. You grill bite sized pieces of meat on a grill built into your table. Sooo delicious. And all you can eat? Can't beat that!! We had the cutest little waitress too. At the end of the meal as we were leaving she was trying to express her feelings towards us in English. She was very excited and I think the message she was trying to give us was that she was very happy to have served us! Adorable. Anyways, we stuffed our faces, maybe had a few too many drinks and then headed to a little Karaoke bar down the road called Hachi Hachi. That is 88 in English translation! The goal is to score a 88 while singing and if you do the bar gives you a free bottle of liquor. Pretty neat. We always went to Miss Siagon's Karaoke when we were here before but Shane and Amanda are big fans of this place. The lady that owns Hachi Hachi is called Momma and is just the sweetest little Japanese lady. She recognized our neighbors right as soon as they walked in and just made us feel right at home! We met several neat folks Saturday night and got to try out two new places. Success.


Kuraya

The spread...snap peas, salad, pork, beef, chicken, veggies, garlic bread...yum..

Shane and Amanda...looking super stoked to have me taking their picture! They love us, promise!

<3

Our cute waitress!

"I'm soo...um....ish...um....uh....excited!!!!!"

Walking downtown to Hachi Hachi.

Peter giving us his best George Strait.

Karaoke baby!!!

Momma!

The bar and some of the folks that had to listen to us sing. I'm sorry everyone!

Football

It's football season here in Iwakuni (and every where else) so Peter joined up with his unit's team and off he went. My boy likes to play his sports. Football has just begun and he's already excited about basketball season. After his first practice he was a little disappointed when he found out that it's just flag football. He was all ready for full gear tackle football. You know! The good stuff! If bones can't get broken and concussions are not lurking around every corner...what is the fun in that? But he's still been enjoying his practices and having something to do outside 3 times a week. Every September there is a big football game between two of the major units here on base. Well tonight was the big game! The 19th Annual Fall Classic had arrived. Peter's team didn't win but everyone had a good time. Cora and I cheered daddy on from the stands!


Shaking her football shaker! Go daddy Go!!!

Chewing on her shaker...yummy!!!

The men in action.

Huddle up!

Hut! Hut!

#36, reminds me of high school! ;)
More action!
Waiting on the sidelines to play offense.
Congrats to the other team!
Awards ceremony
Final score...Maybe next year guys!
Peter with his 2nd place trophy!

Daddy and Cora!

Unpacking!

I'm giving thanks today that all our household items showed up a whole month early! Yay!! We had our junk packed up in North Carolina at the beginning of June hoping that it would get here to Japan just a couple weeks after we did. Come to find out, our shipment order had gotten lost and our things were still in North Carolina. We were told our stuff would get here by October 6th. We managed a couple of months without it, we could have gone another but I'm super glad we don't have to. Now we are on a hunt to find the screws and bolts to put everything together. Hmm...hopefully they aren't in the one box that didn't make it to us!


Our crew of Japanese guys that unloaded our boxes (creepily taken from my bedroom window). SO glad it was them going up and down those stairs and not me! I'd have buns of steel for sure. So not worth it though! ;) If I'm MIA for a few days...I'm sorry. I'm unpacking!

Kanji and Grocery Stores

Today I volunteered to make my neighbors dinner. We are having game night and we usually have snacks. So I told them we are trying to eat healthy and asked if they had any requests. Lemon chicken on a bed of seasoned rice with broccoli, carrots and a butter sauce is what they decided on. Well... fancy. haha... They only sell frozen chicken at the commissary (on base) which is fine...but I'm not a big fan. So I ventured out to a local grocery store. Found the chicken section and then pondered. I mean it doesn't take a genius to look at chicken parts and have an idea about what they are (legs, breasts, wings...) but there was this one package. It looked like sliced chicken breasts. And chicken breasts were what i came for. There were also individually packaged chicken breast. I needed four I didn't want to buy them individually so that's why i was looking at this other package. It had more meat in it...for less than one breast... but I was scared...kanji is tricky. I don't know what it says...therefore I could not risk feeding my friends neck parts or intestine parts...or who knows what. So I went the safe route...bought the nearly $3 a piece chicken breast. Anywho. Just a quick little story about living in a foreign country!

Laundry Day

Helping mommy with all the laundry!

Her smile makes everything better.

A Quick Trip to Hiroshima

We had a super long weekend due to the Labor Day holiday. Yay! I love long weekends! We were trying to decide what we wanted to do with all this free time. Well, we jacked around and it was the last day of the long weekend and we had rarely left our house. Except for game night at our next door neighbors. Walking 5 feet away from you home is basically like being home. Anyways, we decided we had to do something! Luckily we have a neat place like Hiroshima just an hour down the road! Now this trip was almost an epic failure. We had intentions of only spending a few hours there. We had lunch in mind and visiting a few fabric shops (I'm learning to sew) and maybe some shopping. Well, I got a few ridiculous "find these land mark" directions and thought we'd be okay. Well turns out that's not very smart. I keep forgetting we aren't in America where I could just stop and ask directions. After driving around for a while and almost deciding to just go home we found a landmark!! Parco Mall!!! So we parked, did a little looking around at the shops, found a cute little restaurant, sprinted to Starbucks, and then happened upon a small fabric shop I heard about. Then headed home. At least we did SOMETHING!! Starbucks was worth the hour drive! ;) But seriously, Hiroshima is an awesome city. Lots of hustle and bustle. Lots of interesting people to look at. The younger folks are really into dressing unique. Lots of shopping. You could spend weeks shopping! There's lots of history. Just all around great place. I'm sure I'll go there more times than I can count but for this trip...just a few quick hours.


On the road headed to Hiroshima
The cute little place we ate. New York New York. We were so adventurous! haha... found an American restaurant; ate pizza and a hamburger... silly us.
Lunch, Dinner, Cafe, Bar, PARTY. haha

Parco Mall, one of the land marks we needed to find!
Starbucks...when they aren't on every corner they are so beautiful to come across!
A little glimpse into the shopping district

Fabric shop.

Fabric shop. I'm super stoked to start sewing!! They didn't have much fabric but I bought a few things to make it worth the trip!

Headed out of Hiroshima. You can see lots of housing in the background.