Since we've had an uncharacteristically long wait to get into our apartment, I knew to keep my sanity I needed to find something to do to keep busy. I saw in one of the base advertisements that they offer a monthly "washi paper craft" class at the Family Readiness office. I asked my friend, Charla if she'd like to do the class with me and she seemed thrilled to try something new as well. The class was free so we really didn't expect much and had no idea what we would be making but were both pleasantly surprised when we found we were making something useful. The first month we made cell phone holders. We were basically covering cardboard with washi paper but when you put all the pieces together it makes a very sturdy, useful item. We both liked it so much that we signed up for several more months of washi paper classes. The teacher is Okinawan and she had a translator in the room for any questions that she didn't understand. The second class we made pencil holders and I think next month (March) we are supposed to make washi paper covered eggs. Washi paper is a unique paper. Very sturdy with a sort of fiber like texture. It comes in large sheets with very ornate designs on them. If you'd like to know more about washi paper click here to read about how it's made. It's not like your average paper for sure.
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| Cell Phone Holder |
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| Pencil Holder |
Next, we attended a "Grocery shopping in Japan" class to learn how to read some of the labels and signs so we know what we're purchasing. Living in Japan has it's own challenges when you don't know how to read kanji and/or katakana. We definitely do a lot of guessing.The instructor gave us a handy little booklet with many key phrases like low-fat, no-fat, per item or per unit as well as how to ask for certain items in Japanese. It was nice to be able to ask questions about items we were unsure of. I found it interesting that there is an ice machine at the registers that is free to use to put around your frozen items or meats to keep them cold until you get home with them. I regularly saw the Okinawans using this but didn't realize it was free and what it was there for. I know that will be useful in the summertime when the temps and humidity are both high. It was also interesting to note that there are some canned drinks that look like a can of fruit juice but are actually alcoholic beverages. She showed us the symbol to look for to know if it has alcohol in the contents. I noted the locations of several of the items I regularly used in Iwakuni for my Japanese recipes. Another informative and useful class. After working up an appetite with all these classes, Charla and I always allowed time to go to lunch and try out a new restaurant. In these pictures we randomly picked a restaurant near my apartment and ordered by the pictures. It was actually very yummy and we were pleased with our selections. Sometimes you can never really tell what you're getting. Neither of us like fish so we order cautiously most of the time.
One day while reading one of the base magazines I noticed that the Arts and Crafts Center was offering an Advanced Photography Class so I signed up for that. It was two Sunday afternoons with a week separating them. For the price of the class I was a little disappointed because it was definitely not advanced and there was very little content to the class.. Most that came to the class didn't know how to use their cameras so it felt more like a beginner class. The instructor was a Canon user and she wasn't familiar with how to change settings in the Nikons. It turned out that the majority of the class were Nikon girls so we basically spent a lot of money to be told to look in our manuals to figure it out. I helped her out by showing the Nikon girls where things were on their cameras to help the class move along. I guess I don't think of "what is shutter speed and what is aperture" as items to be taught in an advanced class. I was hoping for someone to show us how to do photography tricks like the best settings for a sunset or how to capture lightning or fireworks. Needless to say I was quite disappointed in that one. Seemed like the other girls liked it though so it may have been just me.
Russ has been trying to learn how to play the guitar better during his evening hours. He put my guitar and a few music books in the quick shipment so he'd have something musical to tinker around with while waiting for his piano to get here. I'm glad he did because I think he'd be going into withdrawals by now waiting for our shipment to be delivered all these months. I really miss his piano playing in the evenings and that is something I'm totally looking forward to when we move to our apartment this month. Since he can't run, he also tries to either walk or go to the gym several nights each week and on the weekends walks at the nearby athletic park. He's read quite a few books this winter too.
The weather in January here has been super rainy and cooler. Fifty degrees here feels quite cold with the winds off of the ocean on both sides of us. I've been content to stay in more these months working on scrapbook projects, writing letters, doing jigsaw puzzles or writing. In January I spent several days at the library or USO with my computer using their wireless internet. We finally got our internet hooked up at the temporary apartment on February 3rd so most of this month has been spent catching up on all the computer updates that needed to be done and watching some Netflix or Hulu shows we've missed. I found a few series sets on DVD at the thrift store and we've spent our evenings working our way through some of those or we pull out the games we got for Christmas. On the nice days I take a walk with my camera and find things to photograph. Sometimes it's flowers, and sometimes it's signs or buildings that I find interesting. I'm trying to learn my camera and I've found the best way to get familiar with what settings I like in certain circumstances is to just play until I achieve the look I'm wanting to see.
On one of my camera walks I met a charming Okinawan lady who invited me in for tea. She saw me taking pictures of one of her flowers and walked over to tell me the name of the plant. We stood at her fence for awhile and tried to communicate with our choppy Japanese and English. (she knew about as much English as I knew Japanese). Then she asked if I'd like to come in for tea. I thoroughly enjoyed myself that afternoon. She fixed a fruity flavored tea and put out some chocolates for me. I used google translate to help with some of our conversation but I'm not sure how well it translated things. She didn't seem offended by anything so I guess it did okay with its translations. I was going back into my memory banks of 25 years to remember Japanese words I learned in Iwakuni. We managed to communicate fairly well. I showed her pictures of my grand kids and kids and she showed me pictures of hers. She gave me some peppermint sprigs from her garden to take home. She had a nice green house in her middle room as well as beautiful plants in her yard so it was obvious she loved gardening. I would love to find her again and spend more time with her.
We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now. Our apartment inspection date was moved to February 16th and the contracts have been approved by housing so hopefully we'll get the movers set up to deliver our HHG (household goods) next week sometime. This girl is quite excited about that.
