Weekend Recap

Hello Friends!

I hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was BUSY but lots of fun and we are still recovering this morning.  Friday night our squadron had dinner with some of the lovely ladies in another squadron here on base.  We took the train to Yokohama and had dinner at Bashamichi Taproom.  American BBQ?  Yes, please!

Saturday, Mrs. A., Mrs. D., Mrs. K13 and I took an MWR tour to the Yunessun Hot Springs in Hakone.  It was a long day and pretty crowded, but we had a good time relaxing in their different hot springs.  They have several different types of springs to soak in - we tried the charcoal bath, the red wine bath, the coffee bath and the traditional Japanese bath.  Mrs. D. and I also tried the "Doctor Fish" spa - you sit with your feet in a pool and small fish eat the dead skin off your feet.  It's very popular in Japan and we'd been told to try it.  I think that is probably the only time I will try it!  It was so weird and tickled.  I don't think the fish were able to eat any of my dead skin because every time one touched me, I instinctively kicked my foot.  Whoops.  

Saturday night, Fooz cooked for us at our XO's house.  She really knows how to cook and each meal she makes is such a masterpiece.  She started with mini caprese salad bites - she took half a cherry tomato and topped that with half a ball of fresh mozzarella, a small basil leaf, and a drizzle of balsamic.  YUM.  We also had roasted eggplant and french bread.  Our first course was rigatoni with homemade spicy tomato sauce and mini meatballs.  She makes her tomato sauce completely from scratch - as in, she started with a couple of tomatoes and ended up with tomato sauce!  I've made tomato sauce from scratch using canned tomatoes, but never started with fresh tomatoes.  I am inspired to try now!  She also boiled the rigatoni in the same pan that she started the sauce in and did not rinse it out.  It gives the rigatoni a bit of a tomato flavor.  Delicious.  The second course was farfalle with a creamy mushroom sauce.  I sadly did not watch her make this course, so no comments on how it was made!  But I think it was even more delicious than the first course.  We finished off our evening with green tea mochi.  Only in Japan would you top off a delicious Italian meal with Japanese ice cream :)

Sunday, I started my long list of chores in the morning but had to take a break in the afternoon to help one of the kids in our squadron celebrate his 9th birthday!  He had his birthday at the bowling alley on base and we had a pretty good showing!  I even bowled for the first time in YEARS with three of the ladies from my squadron.  And please, just look at the sweet bowling shoes that I was given:

I cannot believe I am posting this picture on the internet, but just check those shoes out.  Anyone up for a trip to the skate park after bowling?

I came home and did more chores, before heading over to Fooz's house for another delicious home cooked meal.  We had some delicious fajitas, guacamole and margaritas.  It was the perfect way to end our weekend!