New Chapter in a Wild Adventure

Hey everyone! It’s been too long since I’ve posted. I’ve been trying to post a video of what it’s like to drive through Japan (it’s a common drive for Dan and I) but I’m not being successful at getting posted anywhere… so just know, I’m working on it. 🙂 Anyway, I don’t have a lot to share with you, but I have a lot to share- so just bare with me a bit through this post. Life has been boring, yet exciting- so I have a few things to catch you up on. However, we haven’t been out exploring very much since Dan is working a lot, and has started class again. Basically everything new and exciting is happening my way- so since Dan is the same, I’ll catch you up with me, ok? 🙂

The last time we talked, I had recently started a new job working at a nearby base as a customer service representative. I have really enjoyed my job- more than I expected, and the guys I work with are simply wonderful. However, about a week into the job, I got a call- it was Community Bank here on my base wanting to interview me! When I went for my interview, I was really nervous but by the end of it, I felt really good. The interview lasted 2 hours! Mary, (my interviewer and would be boss) said she’s never laughed so much during an interview. It was an immediate click. On Tuesday, I got a call from Sue (Mary’s boss) who wanted to meet me since she couldn’t be there for our interview like she intended, and since my job was on the base that Sue is at, I told her I’d stop by after work. Within 15 minutes she verbally offered me the job!! Within 3 hours, I got an official phone call with a job offer and salary!

So the next day, I walked into my office super nervous. When I finally told my boss, he was understanding and took it really well. He even said that since headquarters didn’t want to flex on the weekend schedule, that it would be good for both parties. I finished my shift, and that was the end of my job. I miss working there already, but I know that the job the Lord had waiting for me is coming around the corner. So why don’t I tell you what I know about it? Dan and I are really excited for this opportunity.

The job is 30 hours a week, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm (5pm on Fridays). I will be a Customer Service Representative and will have my own office (insert girly sheik of joy here). The office is all women- all upbeat, happy, bubbly women (could you think of a better fit??). Once I get my start date (they’re still bonding me, doing background checks, ect), I will work in the office, shadowing for a week or two before going to another base (about an hour away) for two weeks for training; during which time I will be in a hotel and have meals paid for (big girl job anyone?!). I’m both excited and nervous about this because of timing (deployment will be here before I know it) but I am super excited because the base they are sending me to has two very exciting things (ok, maybe three) 1. BIG exchange (just trust me, it’s exciting). 2. Chili’s and 3. Pizza Hut! I would be lying if I said I wasn’t most excited about that last one… American pizza *begins daydreaming*. Anyway, I will have two vacation weeks a year, and after being there for six months, they have a school repayment program which means.. I CAN GET MY MASTERS!! (IF I can figure out what I want to get my Masters in…..) Not to mention, two weeks of sick leave and a couple of personal days. My boss also made it clear to me that while I have these things, that if something comes up that is out of my control, to talk to her- she will work with me. This is my job, not my life- those were her words. Needless to say, I think I’m really going to like this new adventure.

Anyway, on a different note- I have also begun a sign language choir here on base. It’s small, but good. Currently we are working on signing “Words” by Hawk Nelson. I truly have been loving this group. They’re such an encouragement and I can see that they love learning ASL. It’s been a true joy- and I’m getting to know some of these children, teens, and adults better that I could have otherwise. So for those of you who have been praying for us while we’re over here, please pray that this ministry continues to grow and that I can have the creativity needed to make this a fun experience for all. I have loved watching others enjoy worshipping the way that I love to experience worship. 🙂

Let’s see, what else has happened?? Oh, I had a girls night recently with a couple of women I’ve met here. We really enjoyed the evening of laughing and simply sharing life together. I’ve come to realize recently that while I am overseas and while my life is drastically different from what I ever imagined that I am not alone and I have made some true friends here- ones that will stand with me when Dan is gone. It feels good to know that others are in the same boat and some have had experience and are willing to help guide me through. It’s nice to finally feel like I’m settling in and setting down some roots. 🙂

The other day, Mrs. Esther- our chaplain’s wife took me out again to do some exploring around base. They’ve lived here before and know the area better than I do by a long shot. She’s offered to take me out during the week and help me get better acquainted with the surrounding area so that I can actually enjoy living here, instead of not knowing what’s around me. 🙂 Yesterday, we went to a really awesome buffet restaurant- everything was fresh and it was vegetables and all organic! Needles to say, I REALLY enjoyed it- when you go to a buffet here, you get a certain time frame to sit and enjoy (for us it was 2 hours- and NO we didn’t stay that long) but the food on the buffet changes periodically. It is a truly unique cultural difference in buffets, and just for the record, their dessert bar is super small compared to the US and contains a lot of fruit. Once we finished lunch, we went to a nearby mall (which I didn’t know was so close to base…) and there I was able to pet a puppy-which was just the stress relief I needed. Before long we were back on base and had finished our little adventure for the day. I truly enjoy our time together, it’s a real blessing and it helps me feel better about our area.

Anyway, recently I’ve just been learning that life is like one long story, if you’re paying attention it’s actually a really interesting read. For me, it seems as though life isn’t going exactly as I planned, but I’m enjoying the plot twists that have been coming my way. For those of you who have been praying for Dan and I, thank you more than words. Recently there’s been a lot of awareness of how unsafe the military is, and Dan and I are doing what we can to keep ourselves safe. Those of you who know us super personally, please do your part to help keep us both safe and sound while we serve overseas. 🙂

Finally, please continue to pray for us while we’re over here. I have been dealing with a lot of side effects from my disease which has made me feel horrible lately and it’s been a challenge. I’m also asking that you pray for my new position and that I will enjoy this job. Also, please continue to pray for Dan as he is still in classes and is still putting together packets for some programs that he would REALLY love to be apart of- and would change our lives in a very positive way. Lastly, please, please pray for Dan and I as we continue to prepare for deployment. I cannot say when it will be, how long it will be, or any details about it (trying to keep our service men and women safe) however, it will be a challenge for us in several ways. We have some time, but we know that it is inevitable- so we’re trying to prepare the best we can (this includes documents and hard discussions) so you’re prayers while we’re here and dealing with a lot of time apart are truly coveted. We love you all and we miss home very much. Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers and I’ll do my best to keep you updated. 🙂

Off to Wonderland I go….

Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been a while since I posted any updates. The truth is Dan and I have been really busy with him starting classes (and only having one computer) so life has been busy but uneventful. We haven’t been able to do much exploring recently, and with Dan’s schedule changing from mid day/ night to nights and now back to days- we’ve been really tired and even confused what day it is. However, after about 2 weeks, I finally have interesting things to share! (Yay!)

For starters, I finally got a haircut (ok, so I know that’s not super exciting- but just hang in there, the story gets better I promise). I’m really excited about it because it’s easy to take care of, adorable, easy to take care of, and the woman who cut it is simply amazing! I’m pretty sure we made instant friends. Ya’ll- SHE KNOWS SIGN LANGUAGE! Can we just take a moment to appreciate this fact? Like, I was signing to her in the salon, I’m pretty sure people thought we were crazy- but who cares?! SHE KNOWS SIGN LANGUAGE! So we are planning to get together soon and doing lunch and some signing. 🙂 The interpreter inside of me is simply over the moon.

Now on to the really good part. The title says “Off to Wonderland I go…” and I’m not lying. I’m part of a spouse group here on base and every month they go on a mystery event. This particular event was for members only (the ones who signed up- it’s complicated to explain, but they pay for it and it’s a lot of fun) so Dan didn’t get to go- but he had homework anyway, so it didn’t matter. Anyway, we got to the parking lot to meet up and we found out that we were going to an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant! The Tokyo area is known for some pretty crazy themed restaurants, and this is something I have been wanting to experience for a while now. The portions were small- but it was a 7 course meal! Our “tea party” (as the restaurant calls them) was a lot of fun and lasted about 2 hours. Everything is themed- even down to the food and drinks. So below is all the photos I took while I was in “Wonderland”. 🙂

The first thing you see walking down the steps into the restaurant…

Melissa and I in front of the crazy clock!

This is taken from my seat. That whole wall is part of the story- all actually written out. (In English- NOT Japanese!)

This was the wall behind us. If you look closely you see the Queen of Hearts… the detail was amazing.

This is the menu. Almost Everything is themed and there is a different picture from Alice in Wonderland on every page!

My drink… I think it was called the “Talking Flower”- it was really good.

First course. Toast and cheese with a little note on the plate that said “Eat Me”.

Salad- and that middle flower looking thing is actually radish- it was pretty good.

The seafood pasta dish that’s maid to look like the Chester cat…

So one more thing- this restaurant was close to the busiest intersection in the world. It’s in a ton of movies and I had never been. So of course the girls I rode with took me there once we finished up at the restaurant. It wasn’t even the busiest it can be (think work day with everyone trying to cross) but I did get two photos to give you an idea of how crazy it is.

So that was my journey into Wonderland. This coming week Dan has more homework, but hopefully we’ll get to take some time and go out and do something. 🙂 Also, be praying for me and I begin looking into teaching some ASL classes here on base. A LOT of people have mentioned it to me and today (Monday) the lady who runs the Library here asked me if I would be willing to teach some classes- so hopefully it takes off and goes somewhere. I’ll be sure to keep you posted as things progress. We love you all and think of you everyday. Thank you for all your love and support and for keeping up with Dan and I as we are on this crazy adventure of life. Sending all our love.

Aquatic Explorations

Hey everyone! This past weekend Dan and I decided to take an afternoon trip to an aquarium! It was a lot of fun and we had quite the experience. Before we could get to the aquarium though, we had to take the train. Now, I’ve told you all about the train system here before, but let me just give you a better idea of how this particular exploration worked. We had to get off one train, LEAVE the station and cross over through a random bike parking area to go up some steps, walk across a bridge, and find the next train we needed.

Since we’ve never been there before, we had no idea what we were doing. We left the train station and were completely confused. Then Dun…dun..dun…DUNNNNN… I saw Deaf people (did I mention they’re my favorite?!). I started signing to ask for help. The fun part of these two though is that it took a bit more work to effectively communicate. You see, I am strong in American Sign Language and they were strong in Japanese Sign Language and while there are similarities between the two, they are definitely NOT the same language. However, we managed to make it work and they were super excited to meet us and sign with me. They even showed me the sign for where we are living now- it was a really fun experience. They walked us to where we needed to go and sent us on our way.

Once we made it to the train and found our stop (thanks to the Deaf people!), we walked off to find ourselves in a gorgeous park. However it wasn’t exactly where we wanted to be-so thus began our next challenge. We were at the right spot, but how to do we get to where we wanted to be? We decided to take a few photos of the area and use our phones to find the aquarium. It was a colder day and we were right at the water, so the breeze made me really cold- but we still had a lot of fun.

Told you it was beautiful!

Anyway, before long we stumbled upon “Pleasure Island” (I’m not making this up people- that’s the name of this children’s amusement park). We walked around a bit, there were different buildings and stands everywhere but everything was really spread out. We found the food court and decided to get some food- which was interesting to say the least. We tried a cheeseburger, french fries, and a ginger ale…. which tasted odd… all of it (minus the french fries). Then we got some ice cream from a vending machine (yes it happened, yes it was amazing!). Then we were off to get our tickets for the aquarium.

Once we got into the first exhibit of the aquarium we knew something was a bit different. We had a lot of fun looking at the different tanks and wild life- they even had a penguin and polar bear exhibit (don’t worry they weren’t in the same one). Before long we were going up an escalator and were surrounded by the fish and sharks- it was really awesome. As we continued through we had fun seeing all sorts of different fish that we had never seen before- including something that looks like a giant blob with fins on the top and bottom (sun fish).

We took our time going through the different exhibits and walking around the beautiful complex. Before long we headed to the very last exhibit where we were able to pet a dolphin and a penguin (I’ve done both before but it was Dan’s first time). We had a blast at the aquarium and attempting to speak some Japanese (we’re doing a little better). We had a lovely afternoon and enjoyed seeing the different exhibits and the aquarium. We love you all and we’ll be sure to keep you posted. Lots of love from Japan!

Unexpected Changes Lead to Unexpected Adventures

Hey everyone! So… Dan and I finally got some time to actually go sight seeing- but it turned into a grand adventure. It all started when we woke up this morning and decided we wanted to see a castle. So we looked up all the train stops we would need and any bus routes and decided to go. Before we left base, we had lunch with our friend Vu from our introduction to Japan class and he decided to come with us to sightsee. Shortly thereafter, we left base and embarked on our journey to Obawara (don’t ask us to pronounce this) to try and see the castle there (note the word: try.. but we’re getting to that).

After about 45 minuets we arrived at the Obawara train station. We excitedly took off to find the castle. It wasn’t long before we saw it in the distance- the big question was, how do we get there? So we began walking in that direction. A few minuets into our walk I noticed signing. Being the ASL interpreter that I am, and not having any idea as to were I was- I waved and signed “excuse me”. That was all it took! Ya’ll- I MET DEAF PEOPLE!!!!!! Take a moment and let that sink in for a minuet ok? I MET DEAF PEOPLE!!! And for the first time since we’ve arrived, I could communicate fluently without any issues! Although their sign language was a little different (they were Japanese after all) we could communicate! It was simply beautiful! And the best 2 minuets of my day. Ok, now that we’ve gotten over SOME of the joy I’ve experienced through my brief interaction with probably my favorite language,they asked me a few questions (if I was Deaf, where I was from in the US, ect) and briefly talked to me, they told me to hurry up to get to the castle because it would be closing soon and that we weren’t far from the entrance.

We hurried to try to beat the closing time, while still taking in some of the sights around us. We even saw the castle from a distance through the trees (see above). However, when we arrived at the gate, we were 15 minuets too late. The entrance closes at 4:30, the museum, at 5. Disappointed, we decided to go explore a bit. We walked around to simply see what we could see. This part of Japan isn’t as busy as where we are outside the base, but there was still a lot to absorb. While we were walking in this beautiful, “quieter” city, We stumbled upon what may have been a shrine or something (we’re not really sure) but it was SO peaceful! A drunk man showed us the ritual before entering (clapping twice and bowing twice) and as he somewhat staggered away, we walked in to take photos and try to figure out what this beautiful place was.

Once we finished getting our photos at this peaceful place (maybe a shrine? I have NO idea), we were hungry so we decided to go find food. We had seen this really beautiful (what we thought) restaurant where you sit on the floor and eat (but not really). We walked in and the lady working welcomed us. It wasn’t a restaurant but instead some sort of tea room. The woman asked us if we wanted hot or cold tea (remember, it was difficult to communicate) and we took off our shoes before stepping onto the bamboo/grass flooring. They did allow us to take photos (see below) and the two other people in the place with us were super sweet in taking the photos- they didn’t mind at all. When we went to pay, the woman said “no” and wouldn’t let us! That’s right, we got a completely amazing Japanese experience without charge. It was truly the best green tea I’ve had to date.

Finally, we were on our way to find food (the boys were really hungry). So we went for a walk and did something that you would NEVER be able to do in the US. We walked through a tunnel! it was a really crazy experience. As a child I always wondered what it would be like… well folks, it was LOUD.. really really loud. However, it wasn’t long after I took this photo that we found a restaurant. It was nothing like what we expected, but it was good. It was very traditional- but it was all seafood, which I despise. So I had soup (see photo below), which was surprisingly good. It was green lavender miso soup and then there was complimentary tea and I had a coke (really a pepsi) and all of our drinks (the guys had orange juice) came from glass bottles and we had to pour them into small glasses to drink! It was really really good.

My meal!

Finally, we decided to head back to base. It was fun to simply go explore and get lost in a new city. We’re hoping to go back to see the castle next weekend, but at least we know now to go earlier in the day and really take our time. However, I must add that it will be a bonus to know which trains to take next time too- we’re really getting the system down! 🙂 Anyway, that was our little adventure today. Hopefully there will be more to come soon. We love you all and we’ll continue to keep you posted!

Us leaving the city.