2% Milk

Oh how I wish I could drink a nice glass of 2% milk! Ever since we've got here we haven't really drank any milk and we're big milk fans! The reason why you ask? Because here (atleast on base) they only sell ULTRA pasturized milk. When we first bought milk the expiration date said that it was good for like 2months, we were thinking it was a mistake or their crazy over here. Come to find out it's just ultra pasturized and it's good for 2months. But if you open it, it's bad in like a week. Which is probably why they don't sell it by the gallon, cause it's not that great tasting so you only use it to cook with. So if Santa could give me a nice regular 2% gallon of milk for Christmas I'd be the happiest girl in Japan.

Ichiban!

There is a restaurant in downtown Iwakuni called Ichiban, it's a great little place to go eat. They have some of the best gyoza (pot stickers just fried), they have good ramen noodles and chicken too. On a side note, if you notice that yellow line with bumps in it, they have this everywhere, it's for the blind people so I hear. The bumps even change when you get to a cross walk or are turning. Pretty cool huh?

Pretty much when I was done eating I realized I should have taken a picture of the food. There is just one gyoza on the right, then some fried rice, then I always get these chicken chunks, there pretty much like chicken nuggets. The food is oh so good and really cheap. The gyoza is $2, fried rice$2-3 depending on your size and my chicken is $4, so it's always about $12 for Ryan and me to eat there.

New Job!

Last week I interviewed for the Banking Center Service Manager (pretty much an Assistant Manager) at Community Bank, (which Bank of America operates) and I just heard back from the Manager and I GOT THE JOB!!! So it will be like a transfer. I'm starting September 2nd and on Sept. 9th-10-th I go up to Yokota, which is near Tokyo and go to Teller school because I have to fill in whenever needed and then I'll probably just stay up there and shadow a Service Manager and learn that part of the job. I'm really excited to be working again and that I get to go somewhere for training. I'm only nervous about going to school this firt term and just starting work as well.

5 Years!

So this last Saturday, the 16th was Ryan and my anniversary! We got hour massages in the morning, those always feel so good. And then we went to one of Ryan's work functions ( a BBQ) and then we went to a really nice restaurant close to Miyajima. It was really nice and the food was great, some of the best garlic bread I've ever had and the steak was so delicious. It was thinly sliced and they had it nicely cut already for me and it was perfectly cooked! I would have taken pictures inside but it was a small place and it was too nice to be whipping out the camera.

Here is a picture of the restaurant. It was great because they played American music and the menu was in English. And one of the waitresses spoke really good English. It's amazing how fast our service was. We waited about 10min for a table and after we ordered we had our food maybe less than 10min later.




Us outside, the sky was really pretty, the sun was almost set.



My cute dress I got at the exchange. I felt like a school teacher.




Outside the restaurant.



After dinner on the balcony. The waitress was trying to get the lights of little Iwakuni in the background but the camera didn't pick it up. It was funny because she was saying " Say cheese!" ( said with little Japanese accent)

Thunder and Lightening!

I don't have any pictures or videos for this post but I had to share it. So this morning I wake up about 2:30am because there is so much thunder and lightening going on. In Washington you never really get a whole lot of it. Then about 5am I wake up and I HAVE to look outside because it literally sounded like a bomb just when off! It was a huge boom and then rumblings so it sound like something got it and it was tumbling apart! So crazy, and it was raining cows and horses(it was crazier than cats and dogs!). And right after that noise the power went out as well! Luckily they have a flashlight next to the bed plugged in all the time. I never thought I'd have to use it. Now I'm really curious to see what a typhoon is like!

Kintai Bridge Fireworks!

So this Saturday night since Ryan is on a 24Hr duty I went with my friend Amy and her son Chris to the Kintai Fireworks. I don't know what kind on festival it was, but a lot of people we coming in their summer kimonos, which are the same as kimonos they are just a light layer of fabric. So we got there about 6:30pm and the fireworks were at 8pm.

Here is just a picture of the people, we sat just right behind the bridge, so the view was pretty good, but just a little cut off at the top.


Amy's son Chris, but I also wanted to point out the summer kimono right behind him, they are really pretty.

My camera doesn't take the best night pictures, but here are some boats hanging out to watch fireworks but also there are cormorant fishing going on. This is where they tie a leash to a cormorant fish and a rubber band around his neck, and they fish for the fish and because of the rubber band they can't swallow the fish.

Here is Amy and Chris, he is almost 2yrs old and he was really good with the fireworks. He's never been around them and at first the loud booms scared him, he got used to them.

They kept lighting these polls that have something written on them and then fireworks going up the sides and the colors would keep changing.

Here is a good video of the fireworks. Later on they were like bombs going off. Seriously, if you had combat trauma, you'd think you were back in the war. The fireworks went on for an hour and a half, but they would start and then stop again, almost like they had to keep setting them up. But it seemed like they had like 5 finales, and the fireworks were right on top of you, some of them really did look like bombs. They also had some really good food there too. They like to put in on a stick. Their fastfood is really different than ours, it's still actual food like chicken, pork, beef, fish or something on a stick, not burgers and fries and all the stuff.