Fall Fun!

Hello Loved Ones,

It seems fall has hit Japan, the days have become cooler and the trees on base are turning beautiful colors of red, yellow and orange. It also seems that I have an entire month of events to cover so read on!

A few days after my last blog was Halloween; we spent time carving pumpkins and dressing in our best 80's clothes and hanging out with friends. On the night of Halloween Mark handed out candy (over 700 pieces) while I escorted Japanese children trick or treating.

Jem and my biggest fan!!!

Also this month I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a Spouse Flight! Mark's squadron put on a Spouse Celebration Day and gave us all flights on the airplanes. We could fly on the C-12 (Mark's plane), the C-130 (a larger cargo plane) or the Helicopter. I chose to ride in the helicopter. Mark said he wasn't upset with me, he would have chosen the helicopter, too. We flew to Tokyo, towards the coast and up the coastline, then back to base.

Mark and I in front of the C-12

In the Huey

A View of Tokyo

Can You See Mt Fuji??

Also this month Mark took a trip to Iwoto (Japanese name for Iwo Jima), which is unique because the island is not open to visitors. If you do not know the history of Iwo Jima; think of a picture of a Marine placing a flag at the top of a mountain at the end of WWII.

Mark and I have been spending a lot of time out and about. We have taken our chance at geocaching. Apparently using an Iphone as a GPS unit  does not work so well when trying to find a cache. But it got us out hiking, mountain biking and wandering around shrines, staring at our iPhones and the ground attempting to find a "cache." We are 0 for 3 at the moment.... hope to find one soon! All 3 that we looked for have been in shrines, there are shrines EVERYWHERE in Japan. I am not kidding, the 3 we went to were within a mile of each other.

Hamura Shrine

Biking

Hiking

Another Shrine, this one was a "mobile shrine" until the late 1800's.

In other news I am teaching English to a few Japanese locals. It is a lot of fun, and the small amount of income makes for good spending money. Also, I get paid in yen so we don't lose out on the exchange rates or fees.

We spent Thanksgiving at a friend's house. Mark made miso tako, 5 layer jello, and I made pumpkin pies and bread rolls. Although on the first set of pies I put in 1tsp salt instead of 1/4tsp salt. I had to junk then entire batch.... I have now learned the lesson of double checking the recipe. Thanksgiving night was a lot of fun, but Mark and I sure missed all of you!

The day after Thanksgiving Mark and I traveled to Ushiku to see the Diabutsu (Buddha Statue). It is the third tallest statue in the world at over 394 feet tall - the statue's ear alone is almost 33 feet long! Inside the statue is a museum that we had the joy of exploring. There was also a petting zoo on the grounds! See how cute Mark is when he feeds bunnies? We drove ourselves to Ushiku and after one wrong turn on a toll road we made it after a little over 2 hours. In reality it was just under 70 miles, but that is how long it takes to get from place to place here in Japan...the way back too us almost 3 hours!

A cast of Buddha's Toe

Bunnies!

We also stopped at the Kasumigaura Lake on our way home.

Well that is all the news from Japan, we hope to hear from you all soon.


With Love,
Jess, Mark and Ruby

Home Sweet … 3 Bedroom Concrete Walled Townhome

Hello all,

It has been busy month. Mark and I were finally blessed with a house! We now live in a 3 bedroom townhouse. We have a house filled to the brink with our worldly possessions, one big dog and a lot of LOVE! As soon as everything is put away I am sure it will be heaven.

I have been waiting to post until we moved, but who knew it would take so long? We moved most of our household goods ourselves; we put everything into a large van that we rented on base. We then paid the on base movers to move our larger furniture. There was no way Mark and I could have moved furniture down the stairway of death in our old house and then up the curvy stairway of our new house.

The Stairway of Death

The new house is now getting into order, we even received our name plate:

It should read M. Enriques

The Asian Bazaar was this past weekend,  we purchased 2 beautiful pieces of furniture; a bar and a matching stair chest. The stair chest, also called a tansu chest is a very common Japanese piece. I fell in love with the chest as soon I saw it.

Ruby and Bar

Tansu Chest

A few weeks ago Mark and I hiked Mount Takao, it was a beautiful hike and I have posted pictures below. There were many temples along the hike as well as stautes of goblins. The goblins, also known as Tengu are said to inhabit the mountain and play tricks on visitors.

I do not know why they have knitted caps on...

View from the top!

Takaosan Yaku-ou-in Temple, Built 744 AD

And I almost forgot about Dog Days! Really, I totally forgot until I was uploading pics for the blog... anyways.... Dog Days is an event where the public pool on base allows dogs to come swim. We all know swimming is Ruby's favorite sport, closely followed up by napping and ball fetching. It was a big success until Ruby decided it was potty time right there by the pool, but it is okay, she wasn't the only one.

Mark and Ruby racing for the ball.

About to get slobbered.

Ruby always looking sad.

Right before we moved on base, Mark went on a short trip to Guam and brought me back chocolates! What a good husband.

Softball season is over, flag football season to begin! Mark is very excited, Ruby and I are excited for the cool evenings, warm jackets and thermoses filled with tea, hot cocoa or coffee to keep us warm while we get to cheer him on!

Some of you heard about our bat fighting incident. We had a bat fly into our bedroom, and Mark dressed in full gear attacked the bat and threw him out the window! Not really, he gently whooshed the curtains until the bat flew out the window. But the pictures of him in full gear with his flight helmet on are really great. My hero, the bat whoosher.

The Bat in question

In other news, I have been looking for a job teaching English, or more so waiting for one to fall into my lap (had an opportunity today!) I was voted in as the Outreach Chair and Retreat Chair on a board at church. I was a little intimidated at first, but now I think this is the right place for me.

Lastly, Mark and I became very ill last week.  We both went to the urgent care clinic, a week apart!  Mark wanted to blog this because got his first I.V. ever and was very proud of it. It was only normal saline, he was a little dehydrated from the stomach flu. But we are all better now. Mark and I both recovered from the flu by eating a recipe Mark learned from Auntie Di. It was a garlic, ginger and ground pork soup. Simple, but very good for sick days.

Here is the recipe I used:

1 Garlic Clove Chopped

2 Inches Ginger Root Chopped

12 Cups Water (or Chicken Broth)

0.5lb to 1lb Ground Pork, Ground Turkey or Cook Shredded Chicken

Cook meat with garlic cloves, drain. Boil water or broth, add ginger and meat. Simmer for 20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

The recipe is very simple, the ingredients (the garlic and ginger) have been known for centuries to help the immune system fight illness.

Mark and his I.V.

And finally one really cute picture of Ruby "holding" sushi:

Well that is all from our side of the world,

Much love and hugs,

Mark, Jessica and Ruby

One month down, a lifetime to go!

Hello All,

Here is the update from Japan!

On the 20^th Mark and I celebrated our 1 month anniversary of being married and Ruby’s 9^th birthday! I made Rice Krispie treats for Mark and Ruby got frozen doggie ice cream - Frosty Paws!

Ruby Eating her Birthday Treat!

Mark's Rice Krispie Treats, too bad it couldn't have been cupcakes :(

 

We are still awaiting an on base house, I thought that we would have a house last Friday, but alas it was simply more run around from the local housing office. On Tuesday Mark and I went into the office again without avail. Luckily our dog sitters have been very patient with us, but we (Ruby, Mark and I) are ready to live together as a family.

On the bright side Mark and I have learned how to fit both cars at our Japanese house…  if I put my car all the way to the fence and then he makes his bumper kiss my bumper we barely fit! 

We have not been up to much; softball games, bike riding, playing with Ruby, Sunday church service and Bible Studies. We also attended the Air Force Ball on the 17th, it was a lot of fun!

We would like to do some traveling, but it seems to rain every weekend we have free. If it is clear on Saturday we are going to Mount Takao to do some hiking and hopefully see the monkeys!

We take Ruby running next to the bikes, the middle pic is Ruby drinking from the Camelbak

I have been trying to stay busy; I joined a few clubs and next week I start a Japanese Language course; this way I can finally understand what everyone is saying to me! I have kept my eye out for jobs, but good employment is hard to come by. There are currently no nursing jobs available on base, so teaching English may be my back-up plan. I also plan to stop by the education office and see if I can finish a BA while I am over here.

Typhoon Roke came through on Wednesday and many trees were taken down in her path. Mark and I hunkered down at a friend’s house with Ruby. No damage to our house or cars, but the next day Mark helped with the cleanup on base.

A fallen tree by the baseball field on base

Look how BIG the storm was compared to Japan

Alright loved ones, that is the update from Japan. We are doing well here, we are all adjusting as best we can.  Taking adventures and having fun. We miss you all very much!


With Love,
J,M&R

Engagement Pictures are Up

Our engagement pictures are up, we actually took these 3 days before the wedding. Should have the wedding pictures soon :)

http://www.robertcristiephotography.com/?p=1041

For the entire shoot you can go to: http://robertcristie.nextproof.com/galleries/Mark-Jessica
Password: Enriques

I will post more about our life in Japan soon!

Love you all!

Adventures in blogging and in Japan

Hello All,

I have blogged once or twice before, but having an ongoing blog is going to be a new adventure! Please bear with me as I learn how to blog.

Mark, Ruby and I have been a real family here together for over a week now, it is utter bliss.

Upon arriving in Japan, Ruby and I found one another near the luggage conveyer belt, she was wiggling around in her kennel and panting ferociously.  After an hour of fishing my luggage from the belt and filling out pet quarantine forms, we were on our way. I was pulling one large cart with Ruby’s kennel on it, and pushing another full of luggage… doing my best to avoid a gigantic crowd of giddy teenage girls all in pink. A Japanese security guard felt bad for me and grabbed one of the carts. After two customs checkpoints we finally saw Mark! In all of the excitement I lost my passport. Luckily it was turned in and is currently sitting with the Japanese Police in Tokyo, after some paperwork it will be mailed to me and all will be right in the world.

I have received many questions about Ruby, she is living on base with some good friends. This is not the ideal situation but Ruby has to remain on base per her quarantine and we currently live off base in a little (or considered large in Japan) house.  Ruby is happy and healthy, she has 2 cats to stalk all day and is walked multiple times a day, but she still gives us shameful sad eyes when we leave her.

Over the past week I have earned my Japanese driver’s license and started to drive my new vehicle which I have named Zip. Zip is not a fast accelerating vehicle, but upon pushing the gas petal an automatic “c’mon Zip” seems to come out of my mouth. Adapting to the left side of the road is not as hard as I imagined. I was really intimidated but Mark made me jump right in, now I am zipping around town like nobody’s business.

As far as living here I love the food and culture, but living off base is hard. We have no oven, I do not know how to work the washer (Mark told me not to try), we cannot both park our cars at our house, we can only throw away certain trash items on certain days of the month which means nothing gets thrown away, but we are both thankful to at least have a house at the moment.

Mark and I have been staying busy getting everyday life squared away. We made a big shopping trip last week and Mark decided to purchase an octopus, also known as tako. Not a live Octopus, but the kind you eat! Then he made tako poke, a Hawaiian dish. Mark LOVES tako poke, least to say I prefer real tacos. Taco Tuesday was instituted once again this week.

Our refrigerator went out last week, right after we went grocery shopping. Mark banged and kicked the fridge, I made phone calls and we got a new refrigerator…  2 young men, apparently from the base fire station delivered the new refrigerator. After wrestling it into the house we found that unfortunately this large American refrigerator does not fit into our small Japanese kitchen, so it now resides in the entry way proclaiming itself “FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY.” No one has contacted us about a new refrigerator, so I am not sure if we will get it switched before we move on base.

Here is one small observation to leave you with; the gates to the base are guarded by Japanese Security. They scan your ID card every time you come on base. When Mark is driving they say “konnichiwa” and “arigato” when I am driving they say “hello” and “thank you.” This makes me giggle every time.

That is all from the other side of the earth,

Much Love,

Jessica, Mark and Ruby

PS: Skype phone is up you can call us directly, text is working (only texts, no picture texts), email works best for us. If you don’t have any of these numbers please email me.