AOSA Spring Luncheon

One of the best things about living overseas is the opportunity to learn about another culture.  The different organizations on our base do a great job of organizing events so we can meet the Japanese women that live in our community and spend time communicating and sharing our cultures.  The first of these events that I attended was the AOSA Spring Luncheon.  They hosted the event for AOSA members and members of the Japanese American Friendship Committee.  The Japanese don't celebrate Easter, so it was our way of sharing our Easter traditions with them. 

Our table

After a few opening remarks, we headed to the back of the room to do some spring crafts.  First, we made flower pens.  I've seen these so many times over the past couple of years, but never knew how easy they were to make.  You need a fake flower, a ball point pen and some green floral tape.  You put the flower against the pen and wrap the two together with the floral tape.  It was so easy.  And the organizers had provided us with little pots full of dried beans to keep the flowers in.  They also provided ribbon to tie around the flower pot if you wanted.

My finished product!

 We also dyed Easter eggs.  Most of the Japanese women that attended the luncheon had never dyed eggs before.  It had been a while since I dyed eggs myself, so it was a lot of fun.  We dipped the eggs in different colors and put little stickers on the eggs to make patterns (you can kind of see it in the teal egg with white polka dots in the background of the bottom picture).

Our finished eggs!

I didn't take anymore pictures because I didn't want to be rude, but we had a lovely lunch.  They arranged the seating so that every table had half AOSA members and half Japanese women.  It was great to meet new people!  I am looking forward to the next event.

Group photo

Online Shopping + Hello Kitty

One of the downsides to living overseas is the lack of shopping options.  I'm a big and tall in Japan (for real) and things just don't look right on me, so I don't shop out in town.  This has been great for curbing my impulse shopping purchases, but it has been terrible for my online shopping habit :)  I have noticed that most of my favorite stores do ship to APO/FPO boxes which is awesome and we don't pay tax over here!  I am loving that - I look at it as an automatic 10% savings!  

Anyways, I did a lot some online shopping last week and I wanted to share my finds.

This is hands down, my favorite purchase:

Old Navy

What could be better?  School pride + Japan pride for a mere $10.00.  I cannot wait until she shows up in my mailbox :)  I also ordered a couple new bathing suits and a $4.00 tank top.  You just can't go wrong with Old Navy sale prices.

From the Gap, I ordered this super cute sweater + tank combo:

Sweater + tank

And two pairs of shorts:

Canvas shorts

purchased in black + white

And these shoes from Nordstrom:

Steve Madden Bethanyy

I *really* want these shoes in the coral color, but the only place I can find them is on Endless.com and they're $20.00 more.  I just can't justify it.  Fingers crossed they go on sale soon!

Have you found any great shopping deals lately?

  

Weekend Recap

Happy Memorial Day!

I'd love to report that we had a lovely holiday weekend, but alas we live in Japan where there are (a) no lakes that I know of, (b) no runnings of the Indianapolis 500 and (c) J. left on his latest deployment which made it hard to do much.  

I've known for months now (like since before we moved here) that J. would be deploying again in May, but it somehow has a way of sneaking up on you.  I mean, how is it May already?  Didn't he just return home from deployment?  Geez.  Anyways, we were lucky because the deployment was delayed by about a week which we found out about in March or April and then it was delayed again just last week by a few days.  But alas, the time has come and not only is the boat gone, but the jets have all flown out to meet it as well.  And I only find it *slightly* ironic, that my sailor is going out to sea on Memorial Day Weekend.

Good-bye J.

Anyways, we made the most of our last few days together!  On Friday night, J. surprised me with an early birthday celebration because he won't be here to celebrate with me on my actual birthday.  I was *very* impressed that he thought this out so far in advance :)

My early birthday present and the cupcakes J. made

Close up ... they were as good as they looked!

And ... J. surprised me with the new iPad!  I've been coveting an iPad since they came out in 2010 ... so apparently good things DO come to those who wait!  Haha.  I haven't done much with it yet, but I did discover that I downloaded three books on my Kindle that I completely forgot about!  Whoops.  Looking forward to reading those and taking my iPad with me next time I travel :)

Saturday night, we went out to dinner at Yakitori Cocco with our neighbors.  It was such a fun experience!  It was all you can eat, all you can drink for 4,000 yen/person, which is a really great deal (at least around these parts).  We were there for around three hours and Omasu prepared a feast for us.  We sat at the bar, so we were able to watch him manning the grill.

Osamu

Meatballs served with an egg yolk

We ate well.  I can't remember everything we had, and I didn't take many pictures because I left my phone at home, but we did not go home hungry!  I am happy to report that I tried everything that Osamu served and I think I liked everything.  I can't wait to go back and introduce my 141 ladies to Osamu and Yakitori Cocco!

**A note for those in Japan - Yakitori Cocco was located about a block away from the north exit of the Yamato train station.  I have Osamu's card and can give you directions if you're interested in going.  Osamu spoke very good English and we were able to make reservations.  The restaurant is small, so reservations are recommended.**

Sunday was spent saying good-bye and tackling my very long to-do list.  Sundays are my day to clean, do laundry and get organized for the coming week!

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

The Pioneer Woman's Cornmeal Pancakes with Blackberry Syrup

To. Die. For. 

I was a bit skeptical about making pancakes with cornmeal, but I do love cornbread and I do love pancakes so I figured I would love combining them.  Good logic, right?

I followed Ree's recipes and I am happy to report that I did love the end result.  I do think my pancake batter seemed to be a little bit thinner than hers, but after the first batch, my pancakes turned out perfectly.  I used PAM instead of butter in the cast iron skillet, adding a fresh coat after each batch, and had no problems with sticking pancakes.  I also used frozen blackberries instead of fresh - it would be really easy to change the blackberry syrup to another type of fruit if you would prefer something else.

Beautifully golden brown.

Delicious.

These would be perfect for breakfast this weekend!  

Thank you, Ree, for another delicious recipe!

USS George Washington Tour

When we were stationed at NAS Whidbey, J. and his squadron, VAQ-141, were part of Carrier Air Wing 8, based out of Oceana, Virginia and attached to the USS George Bush.  So when he deployed last year, he was on the USS George Buch.  Now that we are at NAF Atsugi, they are part of Carrier Air Wing 5 which is attached to the USS George Washington.  This air wing is unique because all of the squadrons in the air wing are based here at NAF Atsugi.  

J. joined VAQ-141 while they were already deployed last year, so he was flown out to meet the boat midway through the deployment.  So this our first deployment where we have been around to see what goes into preparing for deployment and also my first chance to take a tour of the boat.

The boat was actually pretty gross, so I took a lot of photos to share with you!  I know that I knew absolutely nothing about the Navy or aircraft carriers before I met J., so I thought I would share some pictures with you guys!  This is mostly for my non-Navy friends :)

J. takes his stuff to the boat in seabags (the green bags in the picture below).  He also has a dark blue squadron bag and a suitcase.  He had to pack the usual things like all of his uniforms, work out clothes, civilian clothes for when they pull into port, toiletries, etc.  But he also has to pack things like a mattress pad for his bed, sheets, sleeping bag, towels, pillows, a fan, a reading light, his work computer, office supplies, cleaning supplies, hangers, his flying gear and MY TELEVISION (which better come home, unbroken).  He will be sharing his room with three of his friends, and they are bringing an Xbox and Apple TV for entertainment.

Blah, I don't like seeing these all packed and ready to go ...

USS George Washington

Looking into J.'s room on the boat

It was kind of a weird shape, you go in the door and turn left immediately and this is your view

The beds.  J. will be sharing his room with 3 of his friends.

Their sink and one of the "closets"

This is what Mr. S.'s bed looked like when we showed up.  Those are USED linens.  Not quite cruise ship quality here.

Their door with their squadron poster

One of the hallways on the boat ... again not quite cruise ship quality.

Looking the other way down the hall.  All of the doors are like the one pictured above, you have to pick up your feet to walk through them or you will trip.  Apparently, they sometimes have to do drills on the boat where they run down the hallways.  I'd probably fall.

The smallest door I saw on the boat, leading up to the flight deck.

J. in the small door.  It was seriously hard to crawl through.

Looking out over the bay from the flight deck.

The island (tower) and a crane.

The island and the flight deck.  It would have been cool if there were some jets up there, but they all fly onto the carrier once it gets underway.

One of the kitchens on the boat - they are called Ward Rooms.

They have Coke products!

Tables in the Ward Room.

J.'s squadron is replacing VAQ-136, which flys the Prowler.  They took over their spaces on the boat and this sign is leftover from when 136 was on the boat.  If you look closely, you can see that someone put masking tap over the "P" to change it to "G" and over "36" to change it to "41."  I love it.

Tower from the ground level.

All lit up at night.

So this is where J. will be spending a lot of time over the next few months.  Certainly does not make me wish I was along for the ride :)

I am certainly not an expert on aircraft carriers, deployments, or the Navy but if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will try to get the answer for you!

AOSA Cooking Club

One of the best things about living in a foreign country, is the opportunity to learn about a new culture.  The Atsugi Officers' Spouses Association (AOSA) hosts a cooking club the third Thursday of every month.  It is a great opportunity to meet some of the Japanese women from the community around the base and also to learn how to make traditional Japanese food.  One month, the Japanese women teach the American women how to cook traditional Japanese dishes (and give us recipes!) and the next month the American women teach the Japanese women how to make some of our favorite recipes.  

I attended my first cooking club in April.  The American women were teaching the Japanese ladies how to make traditional Italian food.  We made meatballs, marinara sauce, garlic bread, bruschetta, panzanella salad, a fruit platter with fruit dip and lemon ricotta cookies.  It was quite the feast.  

Getting the table ready for lunch

My food ... YUM.

Lemon Ricotta Cookies

The lemon ricotta cookies were to die for, I've linked to the recipe that we used so you can make them at home!  Just looking at those pictures makes my mouth water.  I need to re-create some of these recipes at home.  

This month, the Japanese ladies taught us how to make gyoza, fried rice, Thai salad and tapioca.  I took more pictures this month!

Mrs. Tofu Fox kneading the dough for the gyoza wrappers.  Side note:  Mrs. Tofu Fox writes a great blog about life in Japan, check it out here.  She has lived here for several years and is my inspiration to start having daily adventures.

The filling for the gyoza

One of the ladies fixing our gyoza :)  We couldn't make ours quite as pretty as they could.

Setting the table for lunch

Fried rice, gyoza, pickled cucumbers, more gyoza

Thai salad

 We usually attend cooking club at the Zama Community Center, but next month, we are hosting a BBQ for the Japanese ladies on base.  It should be lots of fun!

Suri's Burn Book

Last weekend, J. was in Iwo Jima on a training mission and I was laying in bed having a little pity party for myself.

And then, I stumbled upon Suri's Burn Book thanks to one of my lovely Facebook friends.  

If you need to have a good laugh, visit this site.  I was literally laughing out loud I loved it so much.  I especially love the posts where she makes fun of Tom and Katie, the Smith family and the Affleck family.  I don't know who is behind the site, but they brightened my Saturday morning.