It's Getting Hot!!!

Hey everyone! Well, not too much has been going on with us. I've been continuing to work (and I love my job) and Chris has been very busy flying.
I guess many people have been asking if I like Japan... well, I do love it here. The people and culture are amazing, as well as the beaches, the food, etc. However, I've discovered a few things that I don't care for here. #1). the heat and humidity. Everyone says I "haven't seen nothing yet" but it already seems incredibly hot here to me. #2). the larger-than-life creepy things that reside here. For starters, their spiders here are HUGE!! I saw one the other day on the road while I was driving that was a little bit bigger than a softball... yeah, I know! I was freaked out the whole way home and I've already prayed that God would never let me encounter one up-close. They also have HUGE snails here after it rains. I saw one on the sidewalk that was about as big as my fist and then looked into the grass to realize that they were everywhere! And last, they have HUGE bats here that fly around at night. Their wing span is probably about 2 feet. Which wouldn't bother me so much if they just left us alone... but no! I was walking Koshi with some friends the other night and they fly out of the trees right next to us, coming very close to our heads...(we did a lot of screaming!) I'll try to get some pics, so you will realize that I'm NOT exaggerating!!

Ok, I'm not sure that anyone even cares, but I went to Cocok's again this past week and here are a picture of my pretty toenails! =) I got kind of a lace and sequins design...

Also, I've been keeping busy by redecorating our office as a surprise for Chris (so hopefully he doesn't get on here and look at this yet!) Here are a few pics of it. When I started, it was just our desk, a bookshelf, and lots of cardboard boxes!

And here's good-ol Koshi, who is just now turning 4-months old, which I believe in dog years translates to the "terrible twos." Unfortunately her favorite chew toy is me and I have scratches and bite-marks all over my body to prove it. Don't believe the innocent little face in this picture for a second!!

When we first got her, both of her ears flopped over and it was so cute! But now, for some reason, only one flops over and the other one stands straight up... it looks kinda goofy. And she frequently has her tongue hanging out of her mouth just a little bit, which I think is adorable. A lot of times, when it's just hanging out a little bit, it looks like she's pouting... so cute!

That's it for now... miss you all lots!!

So Much To See!!

Hooray! Chris and I have finally started to remember to take our camera with us everywhere we go! We haven't been doing anything too exciting, but we thought you might like to see some unusual things they do in Japan...

They have these amazing stores over here called 100 yen shops (and there are quite a few of them). Since 100 yen averages out to be about $1, they're pretty comprable to dollar stores in the US... at least in price. But they're really nothing like the US, where all you can really get in a dollar store is junk... because the 100 yen stores have everything - all kinds of kitchen items, gardening, pet stuff, containers of every shape and size, dishes, etc, etc, etc. They're amazing... I hit them up all the time!!

This is the inside of a relatively small 100 yen shop, but there are several stores that are much bigger than this one... stuff every which way you look!

Chris and I also hit up a Japanese grocery for the first time (we usually go to the one on base, which has all American brand foods and everything is in English). They were actually pretty neat... very authentic Japanese food and ingredients. However, the one thing they had that we didn't expect to see what raw fish and crab that you just pull out of a barrel of water... gross! Here's a pic of Chris with his tuna friend:

Since we've been here, we've gotten involved with a great church... Calvary Chapel. It's pretty small, but the people are so friendly. And it's half Japanese, half American, so everything gets translated during the services. Here's a pic of our worship service...

Ok, I've also said that I would start posting weird/different things about Japan. So, here's #2:

They LOVE mopeds over here and they're EVERYWHERE!! However, they don't really drive them very safely. Most of the time, if there are two lanes of traffic going the same direction, the mopeds with just drive on the dotted line between the cars... it makes switching lanes a little scary! Also, if you're stopped at a stoplight, the mopeds will "cut in line" and drive up the center to the front of the stoplight. Then, they'll jump the light (as soon as the light the other way turns red, they start to go)... also scary, considering the fact that people don't actually stop at stoplights until it's been red for at least 5 seconds. Anyways, that's what the guy in this picture was doing...

We have this bakery right down the street a little ways that I've been dying to go into... it's decorated so cute and Chris and I finally got the chance to this past weekend. It's called Couple (I have no idea why...) and it serves all kinds of pastries, candy, etc. They have lots of these little kinds of places around.
Of course we had to buy some, cause they looked delicious! However, we were a little disappointed when we ate them. Desserts here aren't nearly as sweet as the US! They make them with kind of fluffy cake and sweet cream, as opposed to the rich, chocolatey stuff I'm used to... but they were so pretty, that it kind of made up for the taste!

Here's another pic of the bakery...

Last weekend Chris and I went to this place called Maeda Point with some friends... It was absolutely gorgeous there, although you can see that Koshi wasn't enjoying it too much. The place was packed with snorkelers and scuba divers, which is next on our list to do! As you can see, the water is so clear and the area where we were walking was covered in coral, so we had to wear our snorkeling booties...

That's about it...

Love you all!

Pics of Our Place!

But first, here's a couple more cute pics of our dog... I know, we have way too many!

She got into the huge pot of dirt that we had for our palm tree outside... I picked her up, started playing with her, and then realized that her face and paws were covered in dirt! (this pic doesn't do it justice...)

And I realize this next pic looks really bad... but I promise she wasn't choking on the bag... she just got caught in it and was running around! Chris and I love this pic!

Alright... here are a few pics of our new house! We have most of it cleaned up (especially since we had our Bible study group over this week), but the office still needs some work (notice that there are no pics of it in here!) Anyways, this is our living room/dining room area.

And from another angle...

This is another pic of our bedroom with our black rug down...

This is the hallway... not much to see, but I put up my great grandmother's framed doilie in the hall...

And this is a pic of our kitchen... we added the shelving on both sides of the stove because there was definitely not enough space for all my things! I'll be honest... the only thing that I really hate about the apartment is the kitchen countertops - no matter how many times you wipe them down, they never look clean!!

I've still been job hunting (no word back yet from the interview I had on Friday) and Chris has just been busy with work. We didn't do too much this past weekend, although we went to a FANTASTIC Hawaiian restaurant on Friday night... AND our meals together were only like $12. We'll definitely take anyone who comes to visit there (hint, hint)!!!