To My Long Lost Friends

Hello! I've been back online for a while now, so I apologize for my absence! Some good updates! We are very much settled into our house! It's lovely, but we still need some more furniture to fill it! It's bigger than we expected to have, so we left most of our furniture in storage in the US. I've been trying to fit into our little Japanese community, I hang my laundry out to dry, and I sweep my front porch, and I pull weeds. Just like the neighbors! (Although, I think they know we're not Japanese...).

We have some fun things coming up, and we've been out and about as much as we can. We took the train down to Nagasaki a few weekends ago. We saw the Atomic Bomb Museum and the Peace Park Memorial. It was a very interesting experience. I think I expected it to be very somber, like the Holocaust Museums that I've been to. Instead, it seemed that the Japanese people who were there were snapping pictures and chatting it up during the tour. It seemed odd, but I can at least be grateful that there are no hard feelings. They were still very kind and we even had one man try out his English skills by explaining to us all about the Peace Park (there is a marker-monument on the spot where the bomb exploded above, he said, we think). This weekend coming up we're going to the Navy Ball. We're going to get all dressed up and go! I'm excited, I'll be sure to put up pictures!

Also, I recently got hired at the Navy Federal Credit Union! I'm very excited to start working again. It will be part time, so we still get to spend lots of time together, but it will help me fill my days with something more productive and get me into a routine. I'm excited to start later this month, so I will keep everyone posted on how it works out!

We don't have an oven here in Japan, so I've been asking friends and family, if you have any crockpot recipies, please email them to me! I need all kinds, breakfast to dinner to dessert and sides! Anything is welcome!

Hope everyone is well, fall is proving to be quite lovely here, if anyone is thinking of making a visit, this is certainly a good time of year to do it. We're hoping to do some hikes soon too, so I will have more fun things to write about!