Bursts

As we are still trying to catch up on the blog, it's easier to summarize with bursts of "this is what we've been up to!" So, here is a burst!

MARINE CORPS BALL

We were able to experience our first Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Okinawa! There are three evenings of balls in Iwakuni, but an entire MONTH of them here since there are SO MANY MORE people! We walked down the street from our house to the sea wall for a couple of quick pictures before we hit the road.

We were honored to be able to attend with our friends Jose and Drucie!

It's a tradition for the oldest and youngest Marines present to be the first to cut the cake. 

When we were having our picture taken at the ball, the photographer asked us if we were good friends to see if we were comfortable squeezing in closer together. We looked at one another and said "We are going to be!" and that statement has turned out to be SO TRUE! We are immensely grateful for you two!

FRENCH CUISINE

We have foodie friends who are going to help us expand our delicatessen experiences! Our first time out: White House!

Scrumptious homemade bread (one of them had black sesame seeds - divine!) with a hot pitcher of fresh lemongrass tea.

Appetizer of smoked salmon over purple cous cous and salmon roe!

Fish Course - it originally had prosciutto on top, but I removed it, being the good Pescatarian that I am :)

Meat course - Wagyu beef. Joel couldn't resist and dug right in eating mine too!

Delightful cheese course! We haven't had Brie ONCE since we moved to Japan! It's far too expensive and you only get a tiny little bit at the nicer grocery stores.

We were so full, but our set menu came with a chocolate dessert. It wasn't too sweet in typical Japanese form and was a perfect finish!

Y'all have already met Drucie and Jose, but now you will start to see a lot more of Mandy and her family in the blog too! Such fun, adventurous friends!!

BEACH CAMPING

We spontaneously decided to go camping the weekend before Thanksgiving and read someone's blog post about finding a secluded beach on a nearby island. So we set out to find it with our friends, Courtney and Stephen, who brought along our new pals Hoban and Christine! After about an hour drive and some circling of the tiny island, we found an obscure path to the beach, We parked our cars on the curb in the middle of Japanese farm land and carried all of our gear down to the beach, which we had TO OURSELVES!!!

Setting up camp - Hoban started a PERFECT bonfire and Stephen made us the best fish for dinner!

Check it out - we were able to trust Bruce OFF LEASH! He had a good example to follow in his buddy, Swagger. These two pups were on the same flight from Tokyo to Okinawa and bonded in trauma, I think. Joel met Swagger's parents, Stephen and Courtney, at the airport, then I met them at the vet a couple of days later! We were obviously meant to be friends and our "children" are great pals!

Adorable, right?!?! 

So stunning and peaceful. The weather was perfect and we had the best time. Freakiness later that night, though! The tide went out REALLY far after it got dark and we are all sitting around the campfire, when out of the tree line, this line of people with headlamps on their heads beelines if for the water. They went out really deep since the tide was out, and began crabbing. All we could see were lights bouncing around in the distance. Because it's Japan, we weren't scared, but it could have been the beginning of a horror movie the way it suddenly just happened on a secluded beach on an almost secluded island to unsuspecting foreigners. 

And the sun came up and the tide came in!

By day two, Bruce had had enough of the sand, I think...

He licked and licked and licked and eventually just started sucking on his foot.

Unfortunately, we didn't take a single group picture!!! Ugh! But, these folks are wonderful friends and will definitely make appearances in the blog many more times... just wait for our Ugly Christmas Sweater Party pics!