Catholic Church in Sasebo

A few weeks ago I wandered around Sasebo and came across Miura-cho Catholic Church. It is right off a main road and stands high up on a hill above all the stores. Once you make it up all of the steps you get some great views of "downtown" Sasebo. The church was a lot smaller inside then I am used to but it was super quaint and even better there was a little nun setting up the flowers; I love nuns! (They are so cute!!)

Could you imagine walking into Church on a Sunday and taking off your shoes

and leaving them at the door?!?!?

The First Good Bye - Sasebo!

Tuesday, September 21st was my last day of work at the Naval base in Sasebo. Sasebo also holds the honor of being the first and last place I did my briefings. I was actually talking to one of my sailors yesterday and I commented how he sat in on my first briefing and he said "O really, I couldn't tell." O yeah, he has sat through a bunch of these briefings. I will miss Sasebo and these are the things I will miss.

• Command PT in cadence - yes, in a weird twisted way I will miss being woken up before my alarm by sailors running and chanting that they are better then the Air Force.


• Mongolian BBQ - O it took me basically half the summer to finally go to Mongolian BBQ on base and boy am I sorry it took me forever, I <3>
  
• Outside the Gates - Sasebo is different then Iwakuni because once you walk outside the gates of the base you can walk into town and go to the stores, restaurants, and Starbucks. It is nice because you can just go off base and walk around, there isn't much to do outside the gates of Iwakuni.


• Starbucks - O come on, are you surprised! My last day there my barristta knew my order, good sign or bad sign you decide! However, I loved Starbucks because it was something to do off base and a great place to people watch. I didn't have an exciting nite life here so it was a great way to kill some times and experience the culture. I loved watching the young Japanese girls and the sailors together, o the laughs ahha.

• Bishnus - O Fantastic Indian!!! A weird but cool thing about Indian in Japan is they love Nan Bread and you can get it like 12 different ways, and it is huge and everyone order there own. There is regular nan, sesame nan, cheese nan, garlic nan (you get the point).

• The people -my coworkers were great. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the military wives I worked with, as well, as Phil who is a retired chief and is in charge of those sailors who are deployed without their units (he is also in charge of the intermural sport leagues for the sailors), Eriko, and Kaori. I loved learning about them and hearing their stories. Everyone had a different life story and it was interesting to see all of these people brought together.

• Billy - he was in charge of TAP for Sasebo and honestly, he rocks. He was in the military for 24 years and has been working as a civilian for over 5 years on base. He has 2 older children who live in the US and then three younger kids (who are Japanese American). His son used to come into work and is a funny but sweet kid; he just transferred to the American school. Billy is a workaholic who cannot say no to people and is so full of life. He cares so much about his sailors and helping people that sometimes he sacrifices himself; I had to remind him to grab lunch and physically dragged him out of the office once to get it. I am truly impressed by Billy; he is scattered brained and I know how that is but also has a heart of gold. Billy also has cannabalistic fish; I do not have a picture of them because I am truly scared of them. One looks like an aligator and Billy put it in a tank with a beta fish; the fighting fish was no match for this thing and was killed. So what did Billy do he bought more fish; a total of 4 aligator fish, 3 of these black and blue fish that swim sideways and all different versions, and a few others. By the time I left those aligator fish killed 14 fish and 2 snails!! One time they had one of the black fish in its mouth - O I screamed and freaked out like a little girl. Kaori rescued a few of them and put them in her tank.
  
  
  

I will NOT miss the weather; ugh it rains all the time there and more than once I walked into work looking like a drowned rat! This week I had to be taken home because you could wring out my skirt.

Good Bye Sasebo and thank you for the memories and an enjoyable 4 1/2 months!

PUG LOVE!!!!!!!!!!

So did you seriously think I would go 5 months, okay a little bit more than 4 months, without a (second) pug posting. This is just not any pug, this is a NY pug!!! My coworker Kaori in Sasebo, she is Japanese and the receptionist, went to college in NJ and bought this adorable pug 6 years ago from a pet shop in Brooklyn from some Hacidic Jews. Micah is trilingual, well he doesn't really understand english but he does understand Japanese and some Russian (Kaori's husband is Russian). After my last day of work Kaori and I took Micah for a walk and had a great time.

I am THAT Crazy Lady!

You know those crazy people who walk down the street and are smiling or laughing to themselves, well my friends that is me. I can't help myself but when I see something that makes me laugh hysterically I just go with it. In Japan it is common to see workers (restaurant workers, maintenance people) having a pre-work meeting and stretches out in public, they do not hide this. So the other day I was walking on base to my class and there was a small circle of maybe 4 or 5 Japanese construction workers doing stretches (windmills, arm circles, touching their toes etc). I seriously started to laugh out loud just imagining walking by a construction group in the states and seeing big burly men doing stretches before they begin work. Side note, did you know that in Japan if there are any Japanese workers or any building/construction on base it is all paid for by Japan. This morning as I was walking to work I watched the Japanese Fire Department start their morning with some arm and body circles as they chanted in unison. So when you need a good laugh or a smile just think of a bunch of workers standing around in a circle doing stretches as though they are in first grade gym class.

Thank god for Private Rooms!

When my friends came down to visit me in Sasebo we decided to partake in a Japanese tradition, Karaoke! Thankfully, karaoke in Japan means that you get your own private room for just you and your friends! I am an awful singer so thank god we had our own room otherwise there might have been an international incident. I decided I couldn't hold out on you guys so here are some pictures from the nite. I included the 2nd picture that was from dinner at Chili's because everyone thought it was hysterical since I looked like I was 12.

Bird's Eye View of Sasebo!

A few weeks ago I did two briefings on the ships, I only hit my head once!! In between the briefings Dave took me on a tour of Sasebo and brought me to top of this mountain so you can see all of Sasebo, including base. Up at the top is a hotel and a Chinese restuarant, with some amazing views! It was pretty cool because when you are on base this mountain is in the background and is usually covered in clouds; with all of our dreary weather the clouds get so low and you think they are just going to come down to meet you.

Sunset Cruise

One of the big attractions in Sasebo is the 99 Islands, also known as Kujuku Islands. There are actually 209 islands and the density of the islands is number one in Japan. The islands were designated as Japan's westernmost national park on the sea in 1955. The most popular way to see the 99 Islands is to do a tour on a pirate ship but because of the awful rain it took me forever to do it. In addition to great weather I actually had friends (I have like 4 in Japan) that came down from Iwakuni to Sasebo so it was a great timing. It makes me laugh but it is popular for people to come down from the Marine base down to Sasebo in order to hit up the exchange, go to Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and the Chilli's on base, there is no American sit down chain restaurant on the Marine base. So that is what they did, they spent the day at the NEX. Whatever the reason for their trip it was fantastic to have friends in town!

My Own Circle..............

A few weeks ago I did a MWR trip, Morale Welfare and Recreation, through the Navy base to Iki Island. After this horrid rainy season, seriously I would be here for one of the worst ones in years, I needed a beach vacation. The trip was basically all families and then me and a counselor from my office (who just happened to be on it). Iki Island is an island lying between the island of Kyūshū and the Tsushima islands in the Tsushima Strait, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait. It is currently part of Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. To get to Iki Island we took a bus from main base to Hario, which is the family base about 20 or so minutes away, then we took the bus to the ferry and then a ferry across to the island; it was a long day but so worth it.

It was a fantastic trip! We spent the day at the beach and then had free time at nite then the next day we went to the monkey rock formation and back to the beach. The first day we were there we grabbed all of the umbrellas, I mean parasols because when I said umbrella they looked at me like I had 5 heads and said parasol?!!? There were only about 6 umbrellas and so the next day when we got there the Japanese snatched them all up so there were no more. Since I couldn't sit in the sun all day, according to Bridget my skin is afraid of the sun, I ended up sitting under a hut and then renting a kayak for 20 minutes. I have only been kayaking at the lake and wow what a difference. Also, this water was sooooooooooo blue but it was also so salty. I got some salt in my mouth when I went under and wow that was the saltiest water I have ever experienced; if you have ever gargled with salt water it tasted just like that.

The counselor who went from my office is extremely nice but a little odd; it was hot and about 90 degrees and she was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a sweater. We went out to dinner together and we decided to go to Yakiniku, BBQ. I love it because I always know I can get some good grilled veggies. When we walked in I tried to ask if they had a veggie option since I didn't eat meat and the lady didn't understand. So the counselor then proceeded to say NO and then make pig sounds (with making her nose into a snout), cow sounds, and chicken sounds and then pretended to eat the leaves of the plant. Now, if you know me (well of course you do who else is reading this) you would know that as far as vegetarians go I am not picky and I don't like to make a big deal about it but O.........M..........G............I was mortified and did not hold back the expression with huge eyes and shock on my face. She still quite didn't understand. I was MORTIFIED! Other than that, well that included because now I have a story, it was a fantastic trip and my freckles started to merge together!


Our Boat to Iki Island, our bus went underneath the boat. The Japanese just laid down on the mats throughout the boat and slept.

My umbrella, aka parasol. Seriously, I don't know how they expected this to sit in the sand without a base. Well, it basically didn't and spent half the day falling over.

The kids were finding all different sea creatures in the water!

Look at that water!

Out in town after the beach:

I can't get away from the drums! This group was made up of all young girls, they were amazing.

That's our bus!!!

A little girl from our tour, we have something in common with our names.....her first name is Ivory (her mom is above with the umbrella and her name is Ebony)

Monkey Rock Formation: