My Characters in Caricatures

In the fall of 2008, we went to a festival in Tokyo (can't remember now which one) and there was a tiny, old Japanese woman sitting on the ground, under a tree, drawing caricatures.  I'd always wanted to get one done of the kids, but for some reason had just never managed to do it, so we settled down on her mat and got one done, Japanese style (she drew in the peace fingers):

(no that's not mini-Richard Nixon)

When we were in Florida this summer we spent a day at a local boardwalk, where there was a guy doing caricatures in a little, mobile studio, so we stepped inside and got one done, American style (Ethan sat for 15 mins, holding up his peace fingers):

I really love them both, and can't wait to get them properly framed and hung.  Now I'm kicking myself for not having done them earlier, and more often.  Gabi especially was such a fat, cute baby, she would have been adorable as a cartoon!

BFFs an Ocean Apart

This summer, Gabi experienced her first true heartbreak when her best friend moved back to America.  Gabi and Kelekah met the day we stepped off the plane in Japan, and were joined at the hip from that day forward.  They shared the same birthday, born literally within minutes of each other, and Kelekah lived in the exact same building that I lived in as a kid (just 3 buildings down from us).  And they both had little brothers 11 years younger than themselves.  Both are great students and runners, teammates on both the cross-country and track teams for 3 years.  

Fortunately K's family had arrived in Japan only a month before us, which meant the girls could count on at least 3 years together.  In the military, most families move every 3 - 4 years, so if you're unlucky enough to arrive at a base and become good friends with someone who's already been there 2 + years, chances are you won't be together long.  

G and K were completely inseparable at all times, so you can imagine their complete devastation when we learned K's family would be re-locating in July last year, especially considering we weren't planning on leaving Japan any time soon.

But there is a silver lining for the broken hearted BFFs:  Technology is a truly awesome thing!  G and K Skype regularly, at least 3 times a week.  They routinely hook up when one or the other is getting ready for school, and thanks to the portability of their laptops and handy-dandy webcams, they peruse each other's closets via internet "Wear that pink shirt, with those jeans!"  "What do you think of this scarf with that sweater?" and even take the laptop into the bathroom to experiment with hairstyles together!  

While we were still in the hotel, I found Gabi in the bathroom one Saturday night, pre-hair styling session (which explains the dead wombat on G's head), and found the girls playing a rousing game of UNO, together!  Thanks to technology, they can best friends forever, no matter how far apart they are!

We miss you Kelekah!

Happy Bloggiversary to me!!!!

Yikes!  I totally missed my own blog anniversary!  Exactly 3 years and two days ago, I started this blog.

Holy crap has my life ever changed in the last 36 months!!!  Absolutely nothing in my life today is how I imagined it would be just 3 short years ago.  In some ways it's kind of sad, but in other ways it's a really great thing.

I'm so, so happy I decided to start blogging, I have met some of the most amazing people over the last three years, all because of this blog.   To be honest, I now have more blogg-y friends reading my drivel than I do people who knew me before I started blogging!  I also really love that I have such a detailed account of the last three years, it's so neat to be able to read back and find out EXACTLY what we were doing at this exact point in our lives three years ago, and usually with pictures.  It's like a mini time machine!

When I started blogging, I was positive I'd run out of things to write about, I mean, my life isn't really all that exciting, but as it turns out, I have SO MUCH to blog about, that the only thing I run out of is the time to blog about it!

So - Happy Bloggiversary SakuraSlime!

(This is actually Lily, Masa and me toasting on the night I found out I'd made the applicant list for my job!  I was so happy that she was there to share that life-changing moment with me!  Yet another post I've never managed write!)

Post X-mas

So I've covered Xmas night, and now the day after, I'll get to Christmas day eventually!

The day after Christmas, the kids and I, plus G and Meg's BFFs, headed to Tokyo for some shopping and to take in the Constellation exhibit at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills.

Our first stop was Shakey's Pizza.  My fave of all faves restaurant.  We scoffed back way too much pizza (including some pudding, chocolate sauce and marshmallow pizza! Oishii!) and headed for the KiddieLand toy store.  The permanent store is 6 floors of toy awesomeness, but it's currently being renovated, so they've opened a temp store around the corner.

After less than 24 hours, Gabi's Xmas money was burning a hole in her pocket so we headed for H&M and Forever 21 in Omotesando.  She found quite a bit of stuff, cute and on sale.  Score!  She was quite pleased with herself, only to realize 6 blocks and 2 train stops away that she'd lost her shopping bag.  M, E, BFF and I were already in Roppongi headed to meet up with Gina and her kiddos for the exhibit.  G re-traced her steps but never found her bag :(  She left her name and number with the clerks at both stores, but to date, we haven't heard anything on the MIA loot.

We met up with Gina, James and Alexa and quickly decided that none of the kids (the teens more than the toddlers) were interested in the constellation exhibit, so we decided to head up to Tokyo City View in Mori Tower.  Not a single person, with the exception of me, was impressed with the expansive views of Tokyo sprawled out below us.  How is that even possible?  I NEVER get tired of that view!  I've lost count of the number of times I've taken in that view, and from so many vantage points:  Tokyo Tower, Mori Tower, the Docomo building, the TMG building.....I could literally sit for hours just taking it in.

The boys romped and played for awhile, Alexa slept, we snapped the obligatory pix, Gina and I chatted for not nearly long enough, and then it was time to go.  Gina and co had had a really jammed packed weekend and her kids were exhausted, mine were bored and hungry so we figured it was only a matter of time before we hit the melt-down zone.

The kids and I headed up the block to TGI Fridays for more yummy food, before finally heading home.

It was a nice day, it really helped with the ever-so-anti-climatic day after Christmas.

Meg and BFF

James and Ethan

I will never EVER get tired of this view!!

E studying his newest Lego book at dinner

E dancing to the music in his head, and the girls playing charades on the train.  

(Our stop on this line is the next to the last one, so we're always among the very last ones on the train and usually end up with a car to ourselves, cause nobody wants to be near with gaijin freaks!)

Xmas Preview

Had this pic on my phone.  The other Chrimmy pix are still on the PC.

We started a new tradition for Xmas dinner this year for Xmas:  Christmas Yakiniku!
The kids love yakiniku, Ethan especially loves cooking our own food at our table.  This restaurant is a favorite, it's a yakiniku viking (all you can eat) plus has DIY cotton candy and crepe machines!  Oishii! (Christmas is not a big deal in Japan, it's just another day, so everything is open)
In the pic is also Meg's BFF, Tasha.  She was at our house by 8:00a Christmas morning, just for a quick gift review, then came back after lunch and spent the rest of the day and night.

Once you go Mac....

Isn't she pretty?

I've made the switch, and so far I'm pretty happy.  Still figuring things out and trying to break my old PC habits, but I love my little, pink Mac!

I haven't blogged in a while because my PC went all wonky and wouldn't let me upload pix to Blogger, and I HATE blogging w/out pictures, so I just didn't.  Now I've just got to get all my pix and files transferred from the PC (Piece of Crap) and I'll be able to catch up!

All brats present and accounted for!

Gabi and Meg are home from Guam.  Pix coming soon!

Turkey Day Plans

I've never been a fan of Thanksgiving.  I love holidays, all the decorations and celebrations, but for some strange reason, I just really don't like Turkey Day.  No clue why.  Once I moved out of my parents house, I stopped celebrating it completely.  While I was married, I stepped up and did the whole cook-the-turkey thing, or we celebrated w/ in-laws, to make everyone else happy, but now that I'm single again...not gonna happen.  When the girls were younger (and I was single) our Thanksgiving tradition was to go to Waffle House for lunch, then go see whatever new animated movie was playing at the theater (T-Day week is always a popular time to release kids' movies in the US).

Now that I find myself single, again, on Thanksgiving, we'll be re-instituting our own Turkey Day traditions.  Of course, there's no Waffle House in Japan (sob, sob), so we've had to come up with other ideas.  The girls will be heading to Guam on Wednesday to spend the holiday with their dad and bonus mom (they moved to Guam last month!  So, so happy that M and G will get to see them on a fairly regular basis now!), they'll return Sunday night.  So that'll be their tradition for at least the next 3 Thanksgivings. This year Ethan and I are heading to Yokohama/Yokosuka Thur - Sat.  We'll check out Hakkejima Sea Paradise, which has a really cool aquarium, see the USS George Washington, which is in port right now at Yokosuka Navy base, and get in some Xmas shopping while we're there.

To all my US friends and fam - Happy Thanksgiving!  Gobble, gobble!

Just a really great day!

On Wednesday morning, I headed into Tokyo, going to the U.S. Embassy to give some training to a group of 12 people.  Nothing lifts my spirits like a trip to T-town.  I love everything about that place. I love driving through the crowded streets, I could sit in traffic for hours, just soaking up all the big city vibes.  I can, and have, wander aimlessly for hours, and never run out of things interesting things to see.

This was my first trip to the Embassy, and I got a really nice tour of the whole place before the class started.  The training went off without a hitch, I even used candy to keep everyone's attention.  I'd ask questions about the material I had covered, and the first correct answer got a piece of candy. There's nothing funnier than grown men, in suits and ties, competing for a mini Snickers bar!

After class, we all walked through Roppongi to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.  The weather was absolutely perfect, a beautiful, crisp, clear autumn day.  At HRC I had the greasiest, cheesiest, most delicious burger I've had in a long, long time.  We took the scenic route back to the Embassy, to walk off the burger brick now lodged in my belly.

After the Embassy, I headed for the New Sanno, my home away from home, for a mani/pedi.  The foot massage that came w/ the pedi was heavenly after all the walking we'd done!

When I finished in the salon, I popped into the little liquor store at the NS to stock up on my favorite wine coolers, Fuzzy Navel flavor, which I can no longer get here at home.  

Then is was time to head to Okachimachi to meet the ever lovely Cecelia.  I'd been to Okachimachi a few times, but it was great to see some of C's favorite stores.  We parked ourselves at Starbucks and chatted   the evening away over caramel fraps and hot tea.  It was so great to see Cecelia, I can talk to her about absolutely anything with no fear of judgement.  A visit with her never fails to soothe my frazzled emotions, calm my fears that I'm complete nut-job and encourage me to just keep on keepin' on.  I'm so lucky to have met her and to be able to count her as a friend (Thanks Lil!).

All too soon, it was time to head for home.  I hopped on the subway back to Hiro-o, got my car from the NS (free parking, in the middle of Tokyo!!!), and made excellent time back to the base, not a spot of traffic!  

When I got home, the girls had rustled up dinner for themselves and E (Gabi picks him up from daycare most days), and had him bathed, in his jammies, and settled in front of  an episode of Pink Panther, all with no prompting from me. (yes, I paid them handsomely).

I was in bed by 9:30p, even though the next day was a holiday!  It was the perfect end to a perfect day!  (And somehow, I slept until nearly 11:00a the next morning!  That never, EVER happens!)

BolleyBall

As Ethan calls it.  Meg is playing volleyball this season and had her first game this weekend.  I don't know anything about the sport, I don't think I've ever even actually seen a game before this weekend, but it was fun (and over quickly, I'm favorite kind of game!)  

At Meg's level, a full volleyball match is made up of three separate games, the winner is the team that wins the most games (at higher levels it's best out of 5) .  The first two games are to 25 points, the third game, if it's needed, is played to 15 points, BUT, the winning team must win by 2 points, so in our case, the last game went to 16 points.  I guess if both teams are really good, a match could go on for a long time, but fortunately for us, both teams were pretty stinky, so it was over fast.  And Meg's team won!  Hooray!

I have no idea where the girls get their athleticism from, I'm the most un-athletic, uncoordinated, non-joiner I've ever known, but they've both always loved sports and between them have tried just about every one for at least one season (and they typically excel at whatever they try).  I'm doing everything I can to encourage them to keep playing as they get older in the hopes it'll help them stay active and fit, and less likely to be battling the sloth-like tendencies and sheer hatred of exercise their mom has, when they hit middle age. 

Now that E is old enough to join and play his own sports, and I'm on my own, it's kind of tough trying to cover 3 different events for 3 different kids in 3 different places, all on the same day (every sport here plays on Saturdays) especially if someone has an away game, but like everything else, we're working it out!

 

 

The last point never made it on the board, but they won 16 - 14.