new year's eve

we started off the night with eating udon and japanese cotton candy before we headed down to the festivities.
there was a thing by the base with fireworks and a rock band to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of yokosuka. it was a fun night, minus the fact that i was given false information and we spent 45 minutes roaming the seedy area by the base before i found where we needed to be.


then, in sticking with tradition, we stopped by the temple on the way home for the first visit to the temple of the new year. i actually hadn't been to the temple by my house yet so i was so happy to finally see it b/c it is gorgeous.

the west tokyo tour

for lindsey's first day, i took her to my favorite place in western tokyo. we went to harajuku and ate crepes and then to meiji shrine. we also went to shibuya and ran around, and to shinjuku to check out the buildings and stopped to check out the view at the park hyatt.



butt-biting bug!!

lindsey came to yokosuka

for lindsey's first day here, we decided to stay in yokosuka and not do any major travel so she could recover from the long trip over here. so, we went to our giant mall, the daiei, and spent the day shopping and eating okonomiyaki. people always call okonomiyaki japanese pancakes, i don't know why. i have never eaten pancakes with meat, cabbage, and ginger in them, topped with mayo.




it was so nice to be able to spend the day with a friend and not have to walk around in silence by myself. after we shopped we went to my favorite japanese pretend italian restaurant and planned the rest of her mammoth trip.

the best present

was having a family christmas via internet. it may sound ridiculous, but it made me really happy. we even took group photos and opened presents!

goodbye christmas

in some ways i am really happy to have christmas done with. it was harder than i thought to miss the holiday season. i am just happy for the little things that i did have here that made me feel better and amazing friends and family who sent me things in the mail and made it that much easier to handle.

the following pictures are from a kindergarten in the city i live in that is famous for it's lights. my coworker invited me to christmas dinner with his family and then we went and looked at lights. it was really nice and so kind of him to think to invite me.






and i celebrated christmas japanese style this year. it is pretty funny how the celebrate christmas here, commercially, but most people here don't know much about how christmas is celebrated in places like the states. here it is a really big date night and people get christmas cake (below) and a dinner of kfc...although i guess some americans probably do that too.
and andrea and joe came out and stayed with me on christmas eve since they had to be at the airport outside of tokyo to go make a flight the next morning. so we spent the evening celebrating all things american in this silly base town by going to tgi friday's. it is kinda expensive and really weird b/c the menus are all in english and everyone who works there speaks english. and there it is full of foreigners or girls who want to meet foreigners. so even though the atmosphere was weird, and, had i been home, i would have been getting home from church and hanging out with my family, it was nice to be able to eat the same food that i would have eaten if i was at home, and it was a good christmas eve spent with friends and a belly way too full of food.

merry christmas from japan!

rachel and tige sent me a wonderful christmas package, in it was the baby tree to go to with the mommy tree that i inherited with my apartment. i love my sad little decorations! and my wonderful friends.
and my cell phone company gave me a present too. i was happily surprised when i opened my phone in december and i had this new screen saver, compliments of kddi. merry christmas!

my very late welcome party

the school was having a farewell party for the australian teachers who were here for 4 weeks and since they never got around to giving me my welcome party (which i won't comment on...) they threw me in too. but it ended up being a fun night anyway. oh, and i ate cow tongue for the first time...which wasn't very good.