Harry Potter and Fuzzy Slippers

Hello, all!!

It's been kind of busy around here recently. We had a good Christmas. Some friends came over and I cooked a delicious meal. We're still eating leftovers. Jared makes the best fried ham sandwiches. Santa brought me a pair of slippers, a new hand mixer, a spice rack, and 2 video games. Jared got slippers, too. And if he's not in uniform, he's wearing them.

I got kind of used to seeing my living room full of furniture with ours + the government furniture, but they came and picked it all up yesterday and now we just have one measly couch. We're looking into getting something more though. I think a sectional would work nicely in here. Jared wanted a recliner but the only place to put it would be against a wall, which is lame. We'll figure something out. The puppy is still wild, but getting bigger. We were hoping he'd be a big dog, but the internet says generally, dogs are about half of their final size at 14 weeks. He's 15 weeks now and still scrawny. But we love him anyway.

I know I'm a little late to the game, but I've decided to read all of the Harry Potters. I'd seen the first two movies, and bits and pieces of the others, abut only read the last part of the last book when I was working at the book store. Just to tell lazy customers what happens in the end. SO, I've finished the first three and watched the movies. I have a feeling I would have liked the third one better if I hadn't read the book. I was very disappointed in it. Not as disappointed as I am now though, that I've read the first chapter of the Goblet of Fire and now my e-reader won't work!! I've been online all morning trying to figure out what's wrong with it. :(

This is a long post, for not having much to say. But I'll wrap this up. I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

XOXO

Liz

SO MUCH STUFF!

Hello, dear readers!!

This is going to be a short post I just wanted to update you.

We finally got all of our household goods! I never realized how much stuff we actually have. Especially because we've gone without it for so long. What sucks, though, is that they aren't coming to pick up our government furniture until the 27th, so as of now we have 2 couches, two dining tables, 12 dining chairs, etc. It's a little cramped, but I'm most excited to have my kitchen back!! We finally get to take a trip to the commissary. I even invited a bunch of people over for Christmas dinner. However, we decided not to put our tree up this year because Christmas is in 3 days and we don't have room for it with the two sets of furniture. That won't stop me from making delicious food, though!! I'm a little overwhelmed at the amount of stuff here. I don't really know where to start unpacking...

I better get back to it. This house has to be fully functional in three days!

Love from Japan,

Liz

XOXO

Why do I have to title these posts? I can never think of anything clever.

Hey, readers!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I figured one good post every once in a while is better than a lame 2 line post every other day. So, to update you all on my life:: Last Tuesday, we finally got in our house. As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, it's ugly. It is, however, free and clean. It's full of uncomfortable ugly government furniture, but we found out today that all of our stuff is on island! (The phrase "in town" doesn't exist here. It's "on island.")We just have to schedule a delivery date and time and all that. I'm very happy about this. I'm hoping this place will feel more like home once it's full of our things.

On Saturday Jared and I went to a very dangerous place for the two of us........the animal shelter.

We got a puppy...go figure. All of his paperwork says he's a girl, but I'm fairly certain he has boy parts. His name is Yogi, and he's a 12 week old mutt. They didn't even have a guess as to what kind of dog he is. It will probably be more apparent when he's a little older.

Also, look at my hair in this picture! You see those little curls opposite my bangs?? WHEN DID THOSE HAPPEN? Jared makes fun of them constantly.

Anyway, that's all I really have to update you on for now. I'll post pictures of the house when our things are in it and tit doesn't look like a storage unit.

XOXO

Liz

Thanksgiving

Well, tomorrow is my second favorite holiday, and once again I'm not spending it with my family. :( When we lived in Texas I was the hostess. All of the single soldiers who couldn't afford to make it home, came to my house. I go ALL OUT too. My garlic lemon sage turkey, real cranberry sauce, the best mashed potatoes in the world, my own recipe for pumpkin cheesecake, butt rolls (that's a little hard to explain, for those of you who don't already know), etc. and I love it.

But as of now, all of my kitchen things are on a ship somewhere on the pacific and we're living in a hotel (more about that later). So, I've reluctantly accepted the fact that I can't be the hostess this year. We've received about half a dozen invitations, none of which I want to accept. I'd rather just wallow in the home-sickness I've come to associate with this time of year, or at least go find something just Jared and I can do. But we have to make some polite appearances, so I'll be plastering on a smile and suffering through whatever dry, tasteless meal is placed in front of me.

But I'm not going to be too down about it. Because in another month, we'll be doing it all over again. I apologize for the bummed out tones of this post and I really do hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I love you and miss you!!!

XOXO

Liz

Weekend Update

We had a really fun, exhausting weekend. I have a lot of fun pictures to share.

Friday we went to a 100

Yen store for fun random stuff. This is what we found::

I adore hilariously broken English. Or, as we affectionately call it, "Engrish".

I'm not even sure what this is supposed to be. If anyone has a good guess, let me know!

Here's another good example of Engrish. I was laughing my butt off in the store reading this.

After we spent too much money in the 100 Yen store, we wandered around the city bar-hopping. I say "bar-hopping" but really we had one drink in three different bars, then went back to the bar on post and played pool. It was nothing special.

Saturday, we went to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. It was AWESOME. It's on the northern

tip of the island, about an hour and a half drive, but so worth it!

This is me poking a starfish. You'd think they would be kind of squishy and floppy, but when I picked it up it was all bony and stiff. Not at all what I expected, and it freaked me out. And those furry black wormy things were cool. There was a kid near us who got yelled at for picking one up out of the water and hitting his little sister with it.

This was by far the coolest part of the aquarium. Their largest tank called the Kuroshio Sea had 3 whale sharks, half a dozen giant manta rays and a bunch of other less notable sea life. There was a huge almost auditorium looking room, where this was taken. I love this picture because you can see how massive that whale shark is compared to all the people.

I had a lot more pictures, but those are the best. We will definitely be going back there.

Yesterday we went to American Village and it took a lot of convincing, but I was able to get Jared to go on the ginormous Ferris Wheel.

I'm sorry, I don't know how to re-size that picture! But that's part of American Village and the East China Sea. It's a beautiful place! I'll cool it with the pictures for now. Today is our last night in this hotel. The government furniture will be in our house and we get to move our stuff in tomorrow. We don't really have that much, just a few bags of clothes and my computer. But that's all we have going on here. Time for me to get to the gym and find other things to do so I don't feel like a bump on a log.

XOXO

Liz

HABU SAKE!

Jared and I came across this in a store yesterday. It's Habu Sake. So named the pit viper, or Habu snake, whose venom is used to make it. This is definitely on my list of things to try while in Japan. The bottle in the picture is 18,055.55 yen, or about $234. I'll post more pictures when I've worked up the courage to try this, and more importantly the courage to spend that much money on a bottle of snake juice.

XOXO

Liz

LOVING IT HERE!

I'm finally here!!! I got in around 10pm on Friday. We're staying in a hotel on base, until our house is ready. Saturday, we went to American Village, which is sort of like a Chinatown, but American. The stores are full of nonsense t-shirts and Bob Marley things. We also went to a HUGE arcade called Club Sega. I probably used the word "awesome" 4 dozen times in that place. We sank a lot of yen into that arcade, but we'll be back. I think part of what made it so fun was that we couldn't figure out how to play any games. Sunday was kind of boring, but with all I've been doing, I needed a boring day. We walked to the BX and Jared showed me all the cool little Japanese kiosks there.

Yesterday was busy. For the Army it was a training holiday, but the Marines, Air Force, and Navy were all working. So, all the offices we had to visit were open, but not busy. We got a terribly ugly house. We asked them if there was anything else we could look at, but they don't have enough open houses to go around, so it was that or nothing. It's linoleum all the way through, has a tiled ceiling, and has nothing but fluorescent lights. It does have a nice back yard and patio, and I'll do my best to make the rest of it homey. We also bought a car and I LOOOOVVE IT! We pick it up on Wednesday, so pictures will come soon enough. Here's a teaser for you:: We've named him The Great Pumpkin. :D But by far the best part of my day was lunch. We ate at McDonalds. I had a teriyaki burger. I'm pretty sure it was chicken, and it was delicious. Next on my list of food adventures is the Mexican restaurant we passed by, or one of the half-dozen KFC's that are all within a 3 mile radius from our base.

When I first got here I fought off jet-lag like a ninja, but I'm pretty sure it's subtly wearing me down. For example, It's 7am and I've been up for an hour and a half. Oh well, I'll get it down eventually.

That's all for now,,

XOXO

Liz

Chilling in Seattle

Hello all!!!

Right now I'm hanging out in the Seattle airport. It's about 2300 Pacific time and I can't check in until 0150, so I'll be camping right in front of the AMC counter for the next four hours, then who knows. I have the first season of Community and a few seasons of The Office on my computer, so I won't be too terribly bored.

I'm a little apprehensive about my 13 hour flight. I don't really like plane rides as it is, and until today, I hadn't been on one for more than 3 hours. My flight here from Charlotte was about 6 hours and of course I was behind the guy who brought Indian food and had terrible gas the whole flight. But I'm chilling now. It sucks I'm here doing this by myself, but i'm managing. I'll post again from JAPAN!!!

XOXO

Liz

Getting stuff done!

Well, this has been one of the busiest weeks in Elizabeth Matthews history. I have a to-do list two pages long. It didn't start that long, but every time I crossed something off I remembered two things I needed to add. However, with this being my second to last night in my ugly house, I am happy to say I have two little things left. I've argued with the Army over stupid things, found homes for the dogs, found a buyer for my car, organized and packed most of my house, and stayed busy with all of this ALL WEEK . It's been so long since I've actually done anything substantial. Without a job, I've felt useless for the past few months, but getting all this stuff done has been overwhelming and very rewarding. Few things in my life can compare to the feeling of accomplishment and excitement I'm experiencing right now. By far, the thing I'm most excited about is seeing Jared after months without him.

For anyone who would maybe want to send us things, our address is

PSC 80 Box 16691

APO AP 96367

For anyone interested, I'm flying to my sister, Tracy's on Friday morning. Then, on November 9th I'll fly from Norfolk, VA to Seattle. I get to hang out at the USO in Seattle for 11 HOURS before my flight from there to Tokyo. Tokyo to somewhere, somewhere to KADENA AIR BASE! I'll get in at 19:25 on November 11th. I am not looking forward to the flight from Seattle to Tokyo. Longest plane ride I've ever been on. And, obviously, the majority of the flight will be over nothing but ocean. I"ll probably do another post from Seattle, further expressing my anxiety about that flight. But I'll wrap this up for now. See you soon!!

XOXO

Liz

FIRST POST!!

So this is my new blog, intended for those of you interested in my life and my adventures in Japan. As you can see, it is still a work in progress. It will get prettier in time. As of right now, nothing exciting is happening. The army is coming to pack up our house next week, then I'll be going to my sister Tracy's for a while, then I finally head to Japan.

So be on the lookout for new exciting posts!!

XOXO

Liz