stuff

Nothing huge going on here lately so I thought I'd update on some of the day to day things we've been up to.

We've attended quite a few flag football games, supporting Jason's unit.  It's finally feeling a bit more like fall around here. 

Jason's super awesome co-op and friend, Hama, sent us a bag of rice from his parents field.  This has by far been the coolest gift we've received while in Japan.  I hope I can convince him to send us a bag every year.  It would be so nice to have fresh, Japanese rice even once we move back to the US.

Last week Jason and I attended our 1st military ball together {unless you count the ROTC ball we went to a couple of years ago}.  It wasn't our branch and we only knew a few people there but we still had a great time.  We {he} decided at lunch the day of the event that we were going to attend so I must give a huge shout out to my best friend here who loaned me a dress and let me borrow hairspray {yeah, I'm so ungirly that I don't own real hairspray}, Kristin, you're a life savor!

I'm so beyond thrilled to have a "formal" photo of Jason and I thanks to the AMAZING Rob of Back From Leave who came out and took some shots at the event.   

I won a super awesome prize at the ball and I'm slowly working my way through these guys

I have spent a significant amount of time at the gym this week.  My body is incredibly sore but I'll be grateful when I'm laying on the beach in Bali in 2.5 weeks.

 I had a meeting the morning of Halloween so I took clothes and showered at the gym but forgot shoes...oops!  Not the look I was going for.

My Mt Fuji pumpkin.  It's not perfect but I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I invited some of my students/friends onto base with their children to trick-or-treat.  I love sharing some of my American traditions with them

 We've spent a lot of time with this little dude and his brother recently.   His parents {my friend Kristin I mentioned above is their mom} had asked us to be babysitting plan B or C but Jason insisted on being their 1st option and I'm so glad he did.  We had breakfast for dinner, went bowling and watched hours of Sponge Bob one day and took them to Burger King and a football game another night while their parents attended work functions.  These boys are great and we always have fun with them.

This weekend we headed into Tokyo for a ramen show and I saw this on our way there.  I know there are many nights in college I would have paid top dollar for some McD's delivery!

Jason is a master ramen slurper

I could probably eat ramen 3 meals a day, especially in the winter.  I love this stuff!

On our way back to the train station we walked past an open arena of sorts and stopped in to watch some type of karate demonstration/competition.  It's the unexpected cultural experience we love most here. 

I leave in a few days for Ishinomaki.   A small group from our chapel is going to spend the long Veterans Day weekend working with the same missionaries we worked with over the summer.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they have for us this time.  About a week after I return from Ishi, Jason and I are taking off for Bali.  Bali has been high on my priority list since we moved to Japan and we're finally making it happen over Thanksgiving Day weekend.  This will be my first time traveling over a major holiday and I was kind of bummed about missing my favorite holiday until our awesome friends decided we should just celebrate a few days early.

I hope everyone is having a great November!