Surf and Turf

Konnichiwa!

In Japan there seems to be a festival just about every weekend for various things. Could be flowers blooming like the Cherry Blossoms, a Japanese Holiday, or just because it's so darn cold and they make some cool things out of ice for the annual ice festival. Dennis and I have been to two festivals so far while living in Japan and both have been amazing in their ways.

Beef and Garlic Festival. 

The first festival we went to was the Beef and Garlic Festival in Takko Japan. Takko is the largest distributor of Garlic in the country. The town is actually sister cities with Gilbert, California and another city in Italy which are two other garlic capitols of their regions. I think beef and garlic are two of my favorite things to eat so I could not wait to go. We went with a huge group from Den's squadron which made the day even better. We caravaned out there and knew we had arrived when we saw garlic shaped light bulbs. When we parked at the festival their were also garlic headed scare crows. Duh! We had to take a picture with those little guys. At the festival you pick out your beef from several different cuts and buy this amazing garlic sauce to cook it in. Once you have gotten all your goodies you take it to one of the many grills outside and cook up some of the scrumptious garlic flavored beef. The whole grilling outside made me feel like I was at an SEC football game tailgating with a bunch of my new Japanese friends. We even were allowed to bring our own cooler with some adult beverages and let's just say we had an amazing time with all our friends.

My Salmon Catch

He was a big one 

The second festival that we attended was the Salmon Festival in Oirase. This is another food festival but the interesting part of this one is you had to catch your own food. At this festival there were the standard food booths with beer and meat on a stick. They even had a local Indian food vendor selling curry and nan....yum!  But the main event was the salmon catching. The salmon which were caught earlier in the week are all in a small pool about mid calf deep. When the announcers say to go everyone gets into the water and try's to catch a salmon with their bare hands. There is a time limit and you don't want to be caught empty handed so you are determined to catch a salmon. It is harder than you think especially when you're wearing super cool kitchen gloves and the salmon slip right through your hands.  Once you have caught your fish the Japanese men in the pool hand you a bag and you exit the pool to get in line to have your fish fileted. While I was watching my fish's head get cut off I made a puppy lip sad face and all the Japanese men just laughed at me. I felt bad for that poor little bugger. But at least we know that his death was not in disgrace. We grilled and baked up Salmon for the next week or so.

Den's Catch! 

Both festivals were great and really got you out in the Japanese culture. We are looking forward to attending more in the years to come. On a side note, I am a working woman now! (Dennis is so happy) I had my first subbing gig at the elementary school on base. It was fun to be working with the kiddos again....definitely makes me miss teaching music full time.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! For those of you coming to Maui at the end of December I can't wait to see you there. It's getting a little too chilly in Misawa and I will need to escape the never ending snow :)

The Housewives of Misawa

Konnichiwa! 

There are a group of pilot's wives here on base who have the luxury of getting to stay home with their kiddos or who have a flexible job like volunteering or subbing. I am currently in the process of applying to substitute at the schools on base. The whole applying to be a sub is a long process here, not like the states, and I am patiently waiting for all the background checks and paperwork to go through. Though I cannot start subbing just yet, I do get to enjoy the perks of being a Misawa housewife. This has given me the luxury of going to the spouses' luncheons on Tuesday afternoons and also visiting the local sites of Northern Japan during the week with other wives. It will also give me the ability to travel with my husband when he goes TDY. Hopefully, I will be visiting Guam, Singapore, and Alaska in my future. But the biggest bonus of having a flexible job is getting to visit family and friends at home at the drop of a hat. 

I think all these horses do is eat. 

These past couple weeks me and the wives have been planning one day out of the week to go visit local sites in and around Misawa, Japan. We actually even have a travel book, made by a fellow wife, that gives us a map and written out directions to places 3 hours or less from our current location. One of these sights we visited in the past couple weeks is called the Wild Horses. We drove two hours away to the most northern point on the main island of Japan to visit these horses. The horses live right next to the beach where there is a beautiful lighthouse at the point and heavily wooded areas next to the sandy beaches.  Though there were no black beauties in this bunch it was amazing to go up close and be able to pet the momma horses and their baby calves. 

We also were able to go visit a site called Shipwreck beach. It was a place, where I think mostly Americans visit, to go see a skeleton of a ship which has washed up on shore. Another fun little tid bit of this beach is that people go to collect sea glass. Growing up near a beach my whole life I can say that I have never seen so much sea glass before. I collected a good amount to use for some decor in my home. We also tried to make a second stop on this trip to a local donut shop near by but unfortunately it was a monday and lots of Japanese businesses are closed on Mondays. It's kind of like our Sundays back home. Instead of the donut shop we just stopped at a local convenient store and picked up some frozen treats instead. 

As you may know, Dennis and I are big crossfit people and attend the classes on base here in Misawa. This past weekend we took part in a team Crossfit competition. Though we did not place we did have a ton of fun. We both set some PR's (personal records) for ourselves in Deadlift and Shoulders to Overhead which was very exciting. We had a great time and were happy to help raise some money for our crossfit gym on base.

I am about to head to the new Starbucks with a bunch of the wives. Should be another fun little adventure that I am sure I will blog about. Enjoy your week!

Soredewa mata,
Breanna

The Fighter Pilot's Wife

Konnichiwa!

I hope you all have had a great weekend. I know my smile is a little bigger here in Japan because the Gators seized a victory over the Kentucky Wildcats! Go Gators!! I'm sure the rest of the season might be a little bit rockier but as of right now it feels good to be undefeated. Now if only the Armed Forces TV Network (AFN) would of showed the games over here in Japan. I will have to write them a strong worded letter.

Two weekends ago we had a big event for the wives of the squadron. It is called a Head Count and it is suppose to somewhat mirror what the pilots of the squadron call a Roll Call. It's a party where all the wives of the squadron dress up in one of their husbands old flight suits, drink, and give some of the ladies "call signs".  When you are a spouse in the fighter squadron not only does your husband get named but you do as well. If you are confused about the naming thing think of Top Gun (maverick, goose, ice) but our fighter pilots don't end up with names that cool. They are usually something a little more embarrassing than macho.

Kendall wanted to come to the naming too. 

At this event we dress up in our husbands flight suits but we usually alter them to make them more "girly". I had mine made into a dress with custom patches that had my name with the 13th panther logo. The whole outfit turned out really quite adorable and I topped it off with some red toms since our squadron color is red. I do have to say though....I do not envy Dennis having to work in a flight suit everyday. It is so stinking hot even with the legs cut off and it being made into a skirt.  I can't go into all the details of the night but I can say that there are a lot of crazy stories told and a good amount of alcohol involved. It is a fun little tradition of the 13th spouses and I can't wait until I get to be named at a future head count.

Custom patches for my flight suit dress. I even have my name written in Japanese :) 

After the head count most of the ladies headed to the Officer's club to play a game called crud. Crud is played on a pool table with two balls and you use your hands instead of pool sticks. It's a little complicated to explain but the overall gist is that you want to get the colored ball in the pocket before the other team. But there are many rules in order to do this and you cannot let the ball stop moving on your turn. You have three lives and once your lives are up you are out of the game. The last team with a remaining member wins. I played for the first time this last weekend and had a blast. It was definitely a little intimidating at first and I broke a couple of rules but it's a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. I know that by the end of this year I will be pro. :)

I hope everyone has been enjoying their weekend. We are sadly starting to see the end of summer over here. We just hit our first couple days in a row in the low seventies. And we all know it will get even colder soon...until then I am going to enjoy these 70 degree days : )

Survival Japanese and Air Show

Konnichiwa! Hajimemashite. Breanna desu.

Air Show time! 

I thought since I will be living in Japan for the next three years it might be a smart idea to learn a little Japanese. So last week I started Survival Japanese classes on base. These free classes are every Wednesday morning and will run for a month long. If I wanted to extend my knowledge even further there is also Beyond Survival Japanese class and you can always pay for lessons off base. I know for right now I will take all the free lessons they will give me and then see how I feel about getting more intense with my studies after that. As you can see above I am already putting some of what I learned into good use. This phrase above means "Good Afternoon. Nice to meet you. My name is Breanna".

The Japanese language is very difficult to learn since there are three different written symbols; Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana have fifty symbols each which all are assigned a certain phonetic syllable. Not too bad, right? But then there is the Kanji. Kanji has over 2,000 characters and each character has it's own meaning. So with Kanji the only way to really learn it is to memorize all 2,000 plus symbols. With this class I am really just learning some basic phrases and little nuances about the Japanese language and people. One little thing that I found interesting is that the Japanese like to shorten everything. Our instructor told us that most of the time people will not use the subject at the beginning of the sentence. They also have some words that are very similar to each other and sometimes Americans confuse them. For example kawaii (pronounced like Hawaii with a k) means cute but if you pronounce it kowaii it means scary. So it wouldn't be good to go around and accidentally tell a Japanese child that he is kowaii instead of kawaii. That would actually be pretty funny.  I will keep you all updated with my lessons and maybe if you skype me I will speak a little in Japanese to you : )

F-22. This is what the real fighter pilots fly, right Dennis?!? LOL!  

Japanese F2. Their version of the F-16

This past weekend we had the Misawa Air Show on base. This event is put on by the American and Japanese Air Forces and is visited by thousands of Japanese nationals. I heard they mostly come for the cheap American pizza...haha! There are planes displayed everywhere and air demonstrations going on along with booths selling food and goods.  Dennis and I got to visit the show and work at his Squadron's booth to help make money for the 13th Fighter Squadron. I have never seen people so excited to meet and buy things from the pilots. They want to take pictures with all the guys, buy patches from their flight suits, and get their autographs on anything they buy. And I am not talking about the little kids this was mostly done by grown men. The pilots of the squadrons are celebrities for the day. People were coming up to the booth with pictures that they had taken from last years air show to get them signed and actually some of them with flight suits on. It was so nice to see such enthusiasm and appreciation for what our service men and women do day in and day out.

The Japanese also have some the biggest camera lenses that I have seen owned by amateur photographers. I think some of the lenses were almost 2 feet long. Here is a picture of a couple of the lenses I got a shot of and this isn't even the longest ones that I saw that day.

Taking Photos of the F-16

Huge Camera Lenses!! 

Well that's all I got this week. I am happy to announce that after many prayers my wonderful Grammy is feeling much better. Grammy, I love you so much and I can't wait until we have another skype date soon.  As for everyone else, I hope everyone has a great week!

I will leave you with some more Japanese. Soredewa mata which means See you later.

Quakes and Lanterns

Konichiwa! 

Konichiwa! I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend! We have been trying to enjoy the summer months in here in Japan as much as possible and this week was no different. Let's get you up to date on what we have been up to : )

Here in Japan earthquakes are common occurrences. From what I have heard there are a can be a couple earthquakes a month. Since we have arrived in Japan we actually have had two earthquakes. One big one and a smaller one that you didn't really even notice. I would say that I experienced my first earthquake but that is not entirely true. The bigger one measured a 7.3 magnitude and was in the Southern Sea of Ohotsk . Dennis was at work, and felt it, but I was mowing the lawn and didn't feel a thing. I think with the bumpiness of pushing a mower along I could not tell the ground was shaking....haha!  I'm not going to worry too much because I am sure I will feel plenty in the future. Hopefully, not any scary ones.

Big Buddha

This past Thursday I was invited by the wives of the squadron to go to a Seiryu-ji Buddhist Temple to commerate the beginning of the Obon festival. This is a three day festival in Japan which honors their ancestors. During this time, many Japanese return to their home towns and visit ancestors graves. At the end of the three day festival paper lanterns are lit and floated down the river symbolically showing the spirits returning to the land of the dead. The temple we visited had hundreds of lanterns around the grounds in honor of the festival. All I know is I would not want to be the person that had to go around and light each one of these candles. The temple looked beautiful with all the lanterns and the Big Buddha lit up. There was also a special ceremony by the monks and were praying in a Georgian chant like manner. It was neat to get to participate in such an important holiday in the Japanese culture. 

Monks performing special ceremony for Obon Festival 

Big Buddha all lit up! 

I hope everyone has a great Monday! And to all my teacher friends in Florida....enjoy your first day of school!

Until next time....
Breanna

Hachinohe Beach

Konichiwa!

The past two weeks have mostly been filled with unpacking, meetings, picking up things for the house, working out, and catching up on sleep. So this week we were lucky enough to meet some really nice people at the Crossfit classes we attend on base and they invited us to go to the local beach with them on Saturday. We were told to take advantage of this warmer weather while we can since most of the year it's cold and snowy here in Northern Japan. So we packed up some chairs, Kendall, and got in the car and headed toward the beach. We went to a town called Hachinohe which is just south of Misawa and about an hour car drive. The beach was very different from the ones I grew up with in South Florida. The sand was a darker hue, with lots of shells, and it was surrounded by tall boulders and rocks. It was really a beautiful view from the grassy area where we made camp and it would be amazing to go in the morning to watch a sunrise.

When we arrived we were in awe of how huge the waves were and rough the sea was. They are always showing commercials on our TV network warning you about swimming in the ocean in Misawa so we knew it had to be pretty bad. The waves were about 15 feet tall and the water was ice cold. There were some brave souls from our group that went swimming and even tried to kayak, though most attempts were unsuccessful. Dennis and I were satisfied about going in just ankle deep.

It was Kendall first time at the beach and he had a great time. He was a little frightened of the waves and would run away at the approaching surf, but overall, I think he was happy to be out with us. It was great going to see some of the local sites of Japan and hanging out with some new people. We are thinking when we have visitors from the states we will need to take them to this beautiful beach.

Kendall and Dennis 

I hope everyone had a great weekend and is enjoying the last weeks of summer. To all my teacher friends, have fun getting ready for a new school year : )

Arigato,
Breanna

Konnichiwa!

We have finally arrived in Japan! After about 5 months of moving from Phoenix to Alabama and visiting lots of Family in between we are back in the far east. This time we were allowed to bring a very special member of our family Kendall Jackson. He was a trooper after two straight days of flying underneath the plane as cargo but he is so happy now to be with us in Japan.

When we arrived in Japan we were greeted by the 13th Fighter Squadron with a very nice warm welcome from husbands and wives. We then preceded to drop Kendall off at the kennel and arrived to our lovely 90 degree hotel room. It is rare to find air conditioning on base and we will be living without it in our home for the next 3 years. The key to success is box fans and that most of the year it's cold enough to where you don't need A/C. There is a rumor that they are going to get air conditioning base wide but not sure when that will be done. Until then, I will be sitting in front of fans and hanging out at places on base where they do have air conditioning. 

One of the things that is the hardest to get used to at first is driving on the other side of the road. It goes against everything you have learned in the states. Not only do you have to drive on the other side of the road but the steering wheel is on the other side of the car. I still catch myself going to the wrong side of the car when getting in and I just try to play it cool. I guess as long as I am not driving on the incorrect side of the road I will be good. We did purchase one car already. It's a cute Japanese Toyota Raum and it's perfect for me. And don't worry....I already ordered a Gator sticker online for the back of it. The Gator Nation is everywhere! 

On Friday we were able to move into our new home. It's a two bedroom, one bath and it's perfect for our little family. We have a backyard for Kendall to run around in and actually live right next store to another Golden Retriever named Wally. We are still unpacking boxes and waiting on my household goods from Florida to arrive but it's nice to have a place where we will be staying put for a while. The house is stark white right now so I am thinking about painting while Den is at work. He, like most men, think it's fine all white but I'm thinking we need some color to make the place feel more homey. I will post some pictures once it's a little less messy of the place.

I'm sure some of you are thinking...."Breanna, are you going to work while you're in Misawa?" The answer to that is yes. Instead of being a full time teacher I have decided to substitute teach. The reason for this is so I have flexibility. Dennis will be gone a lot while I am over here and a lot of the times he will be going to some really cool places. (Gaum, Alaska, Singapore) I want to be able to hop on a cargo plane or tanker for free and visit that place as well. That way we can have some more fun adventures together. 

I think that's all I got for now everyone. I hope you all are enjoying your summers. Shout out to my amazing sister who competed in her first Crossfit competition and placed 2nd! You amaze me with your athleticism. Love and miss you all! Please, keep in touch ; )

xoxo,

Breanna 

PS-If you want our new mailing address just shoot me an e-mail at BreannaLHayes@gmail.com and I can send it to you : )