MiyaJima Oyster Festival

So last weekend we went with our friends to the MiyaJima Oyster Festival. It was really fun and we got to try oysters with different sauces.

We didn't take too many pictures because our camera was about to die. There was some kind of perfomance where these guys dressed up and drums were playing.

Cheese!

A behind shot of me (in the pink) and our friends

Grilling an oyster on the grill

Our friends.

So we took a picture of this dog because the owner had him in a stroller and he is wearing a Milo and Stitch jacket AND pants!

Got a picture of him sniffing our his spot to mark.

There isn't much going on right now. The begining of April we are going to Beijing, China!!! I'm so excited! It's during spring break and we're going there with the ITT group. We will have a local English speaking guide to take us to see The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and many other sites in Beijing. We also signed up to go so a Kung Fu show, Chinese Acrobatic show, and shopping at a local market. I can't wait and it was such a great price! More to come after we go!

Nagano

Nagano is where the 1998 Winter Olympics were held. This was our first trip with ITT (Information, Tourism & Travel), a place here on base that has trips going every weekend. It was a 14hr bus ride up there. It's North East of Tokyo, and we're WAY down south.

Here is the hotel that we stayed at. We didn't take any pictures of our room but it was a weird set up. There were 4 twin size beds in the room and the bathroom seemed like it supposed to be in a trailer.

A picture of us at an Indian restaurant. We wanted to get our left overs to go. So we waived a guy down and he sneaked us some boxes, he said he had to hide it because he could get fired over it!

My ski's (that I rented from the gear issue here on base for free) and Ryans snowboard.

A picture from one the of the main lifts right outside the hotel.

Same location, just a different angle. The first day there it snowed when we were skiing but you could actually still see. I got goggles this time. Much better I might saw. The next day it was sunny, which was nice but the snow seemed harder.

Us on a lift

Me skiing. That's how I usually go down, so I keep myself from going too fast.

I like to ski much more that snowboarding because I let myself go faster and I move around much more. Plus it's easy to move around when not skiing and when you fall, it's less energy you have to use to pull yourself up.

Ryan on his board.

Snapping in

This was the second day. We were at the top of one of the peaks. It was really pretty. The park is HUGE. It's enormous!

Ryan on his board. This was a great run.

Another picture from one of the viewpoints.

Peace! The classic Japanese pose.

We had a really great time. Unfortunately Ryan was still sick and we only did half day passes because he thought he might be coming on with another pneumonia. We went up with our friends Leah and Brad and we always have fun with them. I would say the only thing I didn't like about Nagano was the food. The hotel had classic Japanese food, FISH! Yuck! for breakfast. Oh ya, and we tried to go see the snow monkeys but Ryan started to feel really bad on our bus ride out there, so we turned around.

Mizuho

The weekend before MLK day we went to Mizuho Highlands, a ski resort near here. We went with our friends and brought one of Ryan's marine, Ryan, because he needed cheering up. He tried going home but had a layover in China and he didn't have a passport, so they wouldn't let him go.

A picture of Ryan and Ryan

Me skiing for the first time. Brad, my friend Leahs husband, skiis and he tought me how. I'm glad I tried it before I went to Nagano.


It was snowing like crazy and it was so windy! I didn't have goggles, just sun glasses so they kept fogging up and couldn't see, but if I took them off I couldn't see either.

Ryan and Ryan on the gondola up.



Ryan and me. My face always gets really red and blochey. I looked like I had a face disease.

Snow!

We had a little now here late January. Just a little bit though and it all melted by the afternoon.







I took this picture of Mozart today. She looks like she thinks she's going to be eating at the table.


I was looking for her earlier this year and found her sleeping under the table on our place settings. She's always there, on the chair or on the floor under it.

Today she jumped up on the couch and laid with me for a minute until she thought she heard Ryan at the door. He doesn't like her ever since she puked on his pants and the bed. So now he hisses at her all the time.


And a picture of us.

MiyaJima

In January we went to MiyaJima again with some guys Ryan works with since they hadn't been there. I know I've posted pictures from there before, but here are more.

The sign for this said "bagel, cheese & bacon", yet it tasted really fishy and was disgusting.

Some palace that never got finished. There are paintings from old empirers in there.

A cool 5-story pagoda that is right next to it.

The famous floating Torii

The shrine that loooks out to it.

Christmas

I know that Christmas was two months ago, and that I haven't blogged for two months. I love to look at everyone elses blogs but don't ever feel like updating mine. So since Ryan is on duty tonight, I thought I would.

Here is our Christmas tree. We only gave each other a few gifts and we had Ryan's marines over on Christmas Eve, and then over for Christmas breakfast.








The stocking that I made all the guys.





Ryan making breakfast.






Some of the spread that we had.

This was taken at my work Christmas party.

Top: Megan (teller), Clem (teller), Karen (teller coordinator), Annie (teller), Tabtha (teller), Yolonda (manager)

Bottom: Heather (personal banker) and Me (asst manager).

It was a great Christmas and I'm looking forward to it again!