Getting into the Christmas Spirit!

Monsy was posing in front of our Christmas tree! We didn't bring along any ornaments to Japan, so we made our own from seashells that we have found on the beaches. We had a hot glue gun session to make them all! We also used our pieces of rope from the tug-of-war we went to as our tinsel!

Since Nathan and I first started dating we have had the annual tradition of a day filled with making a gingerbread house, decorating our place, watching Christmas Vacation, and drinking cider. This year was no different, but we were not able to find an actual gingerbread house... so we made a gingerbread tree this year!

Our finished product!

Merry Christmas from Japan!!!

Navy Fleet Gift Shop Volunteer Christmas Party!

Last week we had our Navy Fleet Gift Shop Volunteer Christmas Party! It was held at Kelly Varner's home. We had lots of yummy food and an ornament exchange... we are holding our ornaments in the pic! We love our volunteers and couldn't run the store without them!

Gion District: Thanksgiving in Kyoto

We spent our Thanksgiving weekend in Kyoto with John and Angela. We had an amazing time! In the pictures below we are in the Gion District of Kyoto. This is one of the areas where the Geiko (Geisha) culture is still practiced. We went "Geisha Hunting" two nights and I have put a couple of the pictures below. Angela was a great geisha paparazzi! In the picture below, Nate and I are outside of the place were we saw the most maikos/geikos (geisha are called that in Kyoto) coming out of... heading to the tea houses where they would be entertaining.

Okinawa City Festival & Tug of War

One of two ropes that they use for the tug of war. They connect them and then everyone at the festival joins in on the tug of war! This is not near as big as the tug of war in Naha (biggest in the world), but I was in the Philippines during that one. Hopefully we will make it next year!

Here is how they connect the two ropes. Then the mayor of the town said something as well as a representative from Kadena. The festival was really great. They had all sorts of food for sale up and down Gate 2 street.

These people are displaying their skills.... I am not sure what type of skills, but it was really cool. There were also groups doing different Eisa dances, which are traditional Okinawan dances.

That is me pulling the rope during the tug of war. My side lost.

There is Nate during his round. His side lost too.

There were three rounds of pulling. The first one was for kids and it was so cute... I am not sure if the rope moved or not.

Scooter Practice!

This past Sunday we headed out to the "Motorcycle Course" on Kadena for some practicing! I thought people would get a kick out of our pictures. I am officially a licensed motor scooter driver! I completed my two-day safety class yesterday. Nathan will take his class next Monday and Tuesday. We could not take the class together because we both have to have our own bikes to ride! I did miss 5 points on my driving skills test for not going fast enough on one of the courses! I didn't trust myself to go any faster and still make it through the cones... better safe than sorry! I will post how Nate does next week!