November is shaping up to be just as over scheduled as October, so I am going to jump right in. Since the Homecoming festivities were essentially rained out, the powder puff game was moved to the first week without rain. Lucy and Ben disappointed us with their apathy ... despite scoring the wining field goal for her team last year, Lucy elected to not play and Ben passed on both coaching and cheerleading duties. Lilly didn't let us down though! The seniors ultimately didn't win, but at least she played well at RB and had several carries with lots of yardage.
Another thing that got postponed was football pictures! So even though the season is over, Ben got to put his uniform on one more time. We can't believe how "grown" he is!
Winter sports started about 3 days after Fall sports ended, and thankfully all three of our kids are taking a breather. I hate to see them miss the winter season, but it's their last winter in Japan and they will want to spend as much of it as possible skiing/snowboarding, which would be hard if they were participating in sports.
Speaking of Fall sports, the girls closed out the volleyball season with their banquet. Lucy lettered and Lilly was received the Leadership Award. We think it was the perfect ending of their high school volleyball careers. Of course Lucy still has a chance to play next fall, but depending on where we end up, it might conflict with girls soccer and I feel confident that she will choose soccer if that's the case.
I haven't mentioned scouts in awhile, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been activity in that category. Jim and Ben joined the troop for the annual fishing trip to a nearby stocked lake for a day of catch and release. The weather couldn't have been nicer and Jim said the fall foliage would make any leaf-peeper swoon.
I mentioned earlier that the kids were excited about the upcoming ski/snowboard season. When I brought home the December edition of base Outdoor Recreation schedule of trips, Ben immediately pulled out all his gear and tried everything on to see what needed to be replaced. I walked into the living room to find this:
The next few events all came pretty fast and furious. So bear with me. Ben and Jim both participated in Veteran's Day events and somehow were able to be in the same place and the same time to get a picture. Jim was the host for the USMC birthday cake cutting ceremony and Ben was part of the honor guard for the base ceremony. They both look good in uniform!
We were in Iwakuni for all of about 19 hours. Time enough for me to get stranded at the Kintai Bridge. The bridge has been the symbol of Iwakuni for hundreds of years. It is a five arched wooden bridge that crosses the Nishiki River. It has been destroyed a few times since its completion in 1673, with the latest precise reconstruction coming in 1953 after a typhoon destroyed the preceding one in 1950. I decided that I could run down to check it out. The bridge is only about 3 miles from base and I made it down there without any problems. However, it wasn't until I arrived at the bridge that I realized my phone was at 3% 😳 and I had only my ID on me (no cash or card for a taxi). I had just enough battery to send out two texts. One to Jim, who was in one secure meeting after another, and one to his aide Theresa. I figured eventually one of them would realize that I wasn't where I was supposed to be and check their phones. Thankfully Theresa checked her phone, cause let's be honest I knew Jim wasn't going to, and she figured out a way to come pick me up!
The next morning Jim and I went BACK down to the bridge and snapped a few pictures before hopping back on the plane to head home.
Ben has been working super hard in his JROTC class and this month he had his pinning ceremony. Jim was fortunate enough to be able to attend and Ben gave him the honors of doing the actual pinning. Note Ben's "serious" face. Rarely seen around these parts.
Next up was ANOTHER day off from school - it isn't called No School November for nothing people. The kids (minus Lilly) decided they wanted to check out a nearby amusement park called Fuji Q. No way they wanted to do it with just me, so we made plans with a few other families and off we went. We dropped off the kids and the Moms went to do more fun adult things.
But first we decided we would be totally remiss if we didn't have a Mt Fuji shaped cream puff. I mean, we didn't really have a choice - look at it!!
So while the kids stood in lines to ride names like Fujiyama, Takashiba, Eejanaika and Tondemina the "adults" went in search of some fall colors with spectacular background sights.
The kids will say they had a better time than us, but that is debatable.
No sooner had we turned around, it is Lilly's 18th birthday!!! Every year we marvel at how quickly November 12th arrives. It seems like just a few months ago we were bringing her home from the hospital in Yuma and now we are celebrating her 18th birthday! We only have a few more months with her at home with us. Here is hoping we can make the most of the time remaining! She decided she didn't want to make a big deal of her day (and made her own delicious "Oreo" inspired cake), but in the end several of her friends came over for a bonfire and a low key celebration.
Ben's football career here at Yokota High School may have been short-lived, but his achievements might be long-lasting. He was awarded the JV Player of the Year and received a Varsity letter for all his hard work on the field. We are super proud of him and look forward to seeing what he can do for his next team!
Now that we are in our final year of living here at Yokota, we have started recording our "lasts". We can now add our last Big O to that list. This year the run was actually an "O" in that we were allowed to run around the base. In the two previous years the route was modified due to construction on the far side of the base. Only Jim, Lilly and I ran it this year. Ben had done it the first two years and took a pass this year. Lucy, most likely the smartest of all of us, passed for the third year in a row 😄.
Jim snapped a few pictures as Lilly and I crossed the finish line. Sadly since he was first he didn't get the same treatment.
The next night we drove downtown to attend the US Embassy/USFJ combined USMC Ball. The kids came with us (plus the girl's friend Annie) and while we attended the ball they explored the surrounding area. The ball was a great time and it almost felt like pre-Covid times.
The next morning, Jim and I attended the Japan Self-Defense (USDF) Marching Festival which is an annual event held each November at the Nippon Budokan (a world famous venue that was originally created for the 1964 judo competition for the 1964 Summer Olympics). The Festival features guest bands from across the Asia-Pacific regions as well as the US and Japan Self-Defense Forces. This year's bands included ones from Pakistan and Papua New Guinea as well as bands from the US and Japanese military branches. The show culminated with a spectacular Taiko drum performance. It was INCREDIBLE!
That evening we had reservations at one of our favorite places for dinner. Andy's is an izakaya style restaurant tucked under the train tracks near Yurakucho station. We were also joined by another of the kid's friends and we were able to feed everyone before the boys broke off and headed back to Yokota. The girls on the other hand were going to spend a second night with us downtown.
The main reason they wanted to stay was to hit up Shirohige's Cream Puff Factory which is the only bakery in the world that can make cream puffs in the shape of "my neighbor" Totoro. If you don't know who Totoro is, well, all I can say is that Totoro is the mascot of Studio Ghibli, an anime studio based in Tokyo and has a worldwide following. The kids are OBSESSED with pretty much everything Ghibli. Jim, however, was only obsessed with these creme puffs. They were almost too cute to eat - almost.
At this point I should be wrapping up the recap of the month, but I have one more fairly large event - our Thanksgiving trip to Hanoi, Vietnam.
We decided to drive down to Narita the evening before our flight and check into a capsule hotel. Don't know if anyone has ever stayed in one of these, but it was quite a bit different than I thought it would be. Louder than I wanted it to be if I am being completely honest. But all in all the experience wasn't horrible and we would do it again.
We arrived in Hanoi early enough in the day to walk around the neighborhood and get a feel for all the different items we can buy in the markets.
Thanksgiving day, we got up early and went on a day trip to Ha Long Bay. It is about 2-3 hours away from Hanoi and is a popular side trip. We wanted to do an overnight tour, but we couldn't spare the time . The bay features thousands of limestone islands and large rocks in varying shapes and sizes.
Our tour consisted of lunch (Thanksgiving dinner, technically!), a kayak ride, and a tour of a massive limestone cave.
The next day we scheduled a walking food tour that started out at the original "egg coffee" cafe. Egg coffee is a Vietnamese drink prepared with egg yolks, sugar, strong coffee and condensed milk and is DELICIOUS! It originated in Hanoi at the Giang Cafe and the owner of this cafe is daughter of Mr. Giang. Our guide told us this was where the drink was created, but the internet disagrees. Regardless, the vibe was fun and the coffee was awesome.
After coffee, we had salad at a little cafe on the street and then fruit and chicken. We basically ate our way around the old section of Hanoi and got a history/cultural lesson to boot as well as several tasty mini meals.
After our food tour, we hightailed it over to the Hỏa Lò Prison (Hanoi Hilton) for a tour. Originally the building was used by the French colonist for political prisoners and later by North Vietnam for US POWs, including the late Senator John McCain and VADM James Stockdale, both heroes of Jim's. The name Hỏa Lò is commonly translated as "firey furnace" or "stove" and comes from the name of the street it resides on because that street had a concentration of stores selling wood stoves in pre-colonial times. Most of the prison was demolished in the 1990's, but the gatehouse remains as a museum. It was very moving and prompted lots of discussion with the kids about the Vietnam war.
The next day we did a tour of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum which is situated in the center of Ba Dinh Square where Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence and created the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945. Ho Chi Minh's body is preserved inside the building and is protected by military honor guard. The children, despite being told to expect to see Ho Chi Minh were SHOCKED when they filed past his corpse. He looked pretty good considering how long he had been there.
Afterwards we decided to head over to Train street to see if we could catch sight of the train that essentially goes through a narrow street several times a day on it's route through the city. The girls had seen some instagram posts that looked extremely cool so we decided to check it out.
Sadly we had not gotten to the more commercial area of "Train Street" before the train rumbled by. Our original plan was to get seated at one of the MANY coffee shops adjacent to the tracks and enjoy our egg coffee while being less than an arm's length away from a moving train. That didn't happen, but we decided (another) egg coffee was still in order so we pressed on.
After dinner, we made one last drive-by to the night markets to pick up the last of the "must have" items. Jim decided to forgo the majority of the craziness and parked himself at beer corner (literally a meeting point of several roads in the Old Quarter where people sit in the street on low plastic chairs) and enjoyed the local offerings while the rest of us did some shopping and eating
Well not all the kids made it to school on the 28th. Lilly had her wisdom teeth removed. We wanted to get them out before we move this summer and since she only had two teeth, we thought we would roll the dice and try to get them removed before spring sports. Not quite the most fun way to get out of an additional day or two of school but it works!
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