Lesson Learned

Well, I learned a new leson tonight. My hair was getting too long and Brandon suggested I go get it cut. The BX actualy has a beauty shop inside so we took their next available appointment wich was today at 4pm. I should have known I was in trouble when I walked in and there were no American workers, only Japanese. I have a problem, I speak no Japanese other than to say "Domo". They spoke not near enough english to understand what I was wanting. My hair was about an inch shy of being clear to my waist. I wanted it about 1/2 an inch above my shoulder bladdes. I pointed to where I wanted and she seemed to understand. After she cut about half of my hair, she showed me the length and asked if it was okay. It wasn't quite as short as I had wanted it so I asked if she could take off a little more. She quickly went to work but not cutting the length any, she was taking chuncks here and there and just cutting but keeping the bottom layer the same length. I tried to explane again what it was I wanted and she said she understood. She didn't. Now my hair is anything but I guess I can live with it. My hair seems to grow fast. So what was the lesson learned? I learned that next time I go to get my hair cut here in Japan, I need to take someone with me that can speak and understand Japanese.

A Little Under The Weather

Its cold and snowing outside today and I'm not feeling all that great. Think I can just stay in bed all day? Don't think Joey will go for that. Things are going pretty well here in Misawa. We had a wounderful Thanksgiving dinner with the guys Brandon works with and Joey has had a blast with his new sled and the hill just outside our building. He seems to find it just as much fun to fill the sled with snow than just using it to go down the hill. Whatever makes him happy, right? We have issues getting things here. The most recent was a Christmas tree. You would not think finding a tree would be all that hard. The fake ones at the BX just cost way too much and out in town they are all about 3 to 4 feet tall. So, Joey and Daddy picked out one they liked and I guess it will work. I'll try and add a picture later. We also can't seem to get a hand can opener here. Odd. Not much is really going on here. We sure do miss everyone back in the states and wish we could see you all for Christmas!

Another Day In Misawa

Today I have spent most of my day getting house work done and making sure I have the things I need for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow. Its still snowing and its very cold. They gave us the official snow fall for the last snow as 7.8 inches. Thats a lot of snow. I think they said we have three more days of snow ahead of us. Fun. We have a little grill now. People here put their bulk trash out on Mondays and everyone, well everyone we know, drives around to see if anything "good" was put out. They do have a thrift store here were you can take things you no longer want but they only take things during odd hours and you have to take it to them. Most people just end up putting it on the curb knowing that someone will more than likely pick it up. Well, we found a little grill. When I say little I mean like maybe 2 feet tall. Tonight we are going to grill on the patio, well, Brandon is going to grill. I think its too cold! Tomorrow morning Brandon is going to go play football and then in the afternoon we have a Thanksgiving meal with the guys from his shop. One bad thing about Misawa is there is no WalMart. That means there is no day after Thanksgiving sale for me to go to! No fair! Shopping here is frustraiting. The Exchange gets a very limited amount of things in and once they are gone, who knows when they might have it again, if ever. One thing we needed was ink for the printer. We have a HP printer that take a common black ink cartridge. We went to the exchange and they were out. We asked when they were going to get more and they said they had been out for some time and had no clue as to when more was coming. Great. Tuesday morning is when they put the new shipments out so I was getting to the exchange as soon as they opened on Tuesdays to see if they came in. Finaly this week they did. I was watching them put the cartridges out and saw they only put up 3 of the one that I needed. I asked if they only put out a few at a time or something. No this was all they got and they don't exspect another shipment for another 6 to 8 weeks. I asked if this was an unusualy small order or something and they told me that no, they usually only get 3 at a time! Its similar with other things and it causes a huge fight sometimes. One thing they have issues with is the Ninetendo Wii. They get only one or 2 ever few months. The problem is the past two shipments, all of them went to people working at the BX and were sold before the doors opened. Thats not fair! Oh well. We spent yesterday and the day before getting our medical stuff in order here. The military doctor's don't much like when you bring them civilian medical records. Well, guess I should get done with doing the laundry. The new washer is nice and so quiet. The poor housing people here probably think I have issues with things making any kind of noise. Of all my service calls, and there have been a few, all but one were because something was making lots of noise. Fans and the washer mainly but lots of noise. Now my dryer seems so loud compaired to my washer and it doesn't match. Oh well. Oh, and JoAnn, the washer is a top loading one. Its a bit odd. You know how your washer has the aggitater thing in the middle, this one does not have one!

Washer From Space

When we first moved in, the washer and dryer that we had simply did not work. They brought us a new washer and dryer the day after we moved in. The worker warned us that the washer makes a "small" noise and then packed up and left. The first time I used it, everything was going just fine until a loud screetch noise sounding like metal rubbing against metal made us all jump when the spin cycle ended. This was no small noise. We called the housing office again and asked if someone could be sent to look at it. The workers came the following day. One problem with housing here is the management and workers are all local. They speak little of my language and I speak none of theirs. I was able to get them to understand by turning on the washer (empty) and motioning for them to wait for the spin cycle to end. They both jumped when the noise happened. Another problem here on base right now is the local workers are doing weekly strikes because the government of Japan is trying to reduce their pay by 10%. So, for 4 hours of their shift, once a week, the are on strike. The day they came, was the day it was all starting. The workers asked if they could please come back today and "fix" the washer. Not a problem at all. This morning they knock on the door and when I answer I find 3 workers with a brand new washer, still in the box. Neat! It turns out it is a Whirlpool Cabrio Automatic Washer with 6th Sense Technology. Not sure what all that means but it sure looks neat. After about an hour, they had the old washer out and the new washer in. The worker then opened the door above the washer, where I keep my washing powder, pointed and said "No use." I didn't understand what he meant. He kept pointing to the washer and then the powder and saying "no use". I thought maybe he meant I could not use powder but only liquid in the washer. No problem. I have a bottle of liquid in the closet. So I pulled it out and pointed to it and asked "Okay?". He shook his head at me and the three of them began talking fast and not in english. One of the men went diving into the box and pulled out the instructions, pointed to it then the liquid detergent in my hand and said "no use" and then they all packed up and left with me standing there completly lost. It turns out the new washer is a HE washer and using normal soap will cause lots of foam and could cause damage to the unit. My problem is just last night I opened a new, big box of Tide powder and I have this half used bottle of liquid detergent that I can't use now! Oh well. This afternoon, Joey and I both have doctor appointments so after I will try and go by the store and get the right kind of laundry soap. I think I might drop the soap I have now off with one of the guys Brandon works with. Not too sure I want to drive in the snow today but I guess I am going to have to at some point and I am not sure how Joey's tractor will work in the snow.

First Snow

Today we had our first real snow here in Misawa! Boy was it cold. We had gone to the "Blue Bunny" store and bought Joey the winter stuff he needed but we forgot to go looking for ourselves. After we got him all dressed up we took him down next to the apartment tower and he and Brandon worked on making a snow man. It was fun to watch him get so excited over snow. He would just drop down and make snow angels when ever he felt like it. Our poor snow man fell down when we went inside to get gloves. I think our snow man was the first for our tower. It was fun but cold. We also have a little plastic sheet thing that I guess is a sled type thing for Joey. He took it down the little hill right infront of the tower (its maybe 3 feet high). He was not too happy when we told him it was time to come back inside. We kept telling him that the snow would still be here tomorow but he seems to think it is all going to melt away. Now we need to figure out just how we get my van into 4 wheel drive. We got snow tires just on Friday. One problem we seem to have is that my van has sensors on it to warn me if I am about to hit something. We cleared off the van and even where the sensors were but by the time we got moving, the snow had covered them again and the dumb thing would not stop beeping! We had bought the snow brush for the cars last week out in town thinking that once there was first snow here on base, they would sell out of them here quick. Guess we were right. The exchange seems to be out of them and people were being rather creative in how the got the snow off their car, if they tried at all.

Japan seems to be so very far away from our friends and family back in the states. There have been so many little things that have happened that I wanted to share with you all but with the time diffrence and all, its a little hard to call every time.

Its getting very cold here in Misawa. And boy is it windy! Today we had our first bit of snow flurries. I'm not ready for snow! Do you think if I close my eyes and invision a bright blue sky and comfortable 75* weather, it will happen? I doubt it. We are going to venture out into town this weekend to the "Blue Bunny Store" and get Joey some clothes that fit better with the weather here. Its a local clothing store that has very good prices! We have to measure him to see how many centermeters tall he is. They do children's sizes by their height in cm. We are not sure exactly what the actual name of the store is. It has a sign our front with a Blue Bunny and all the American's simply call it the Blue Bunny Store.

There is some sort of Navy Family Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow that we are supposed to go to. Brandon's boss is also having a Thanksgiving dinner for the shop on Thanksgiving. I will be taking June Bug's Sweet Potato thing. Yummy! I will probably go ahead and make a second batch so I have some at home. Leftovers are good!

I will try and add the pictures from the Salmon Catch and of my clean house (someone doesn't seem to trust me when I say the house is clean) tomorrow. Hope you are all doing well!