Well, in my case... When in Japan... do as the Japanese do. I've tried the best I can to embrace our life in Japan, considering I have an 8 month old to tote around with me. Since June is the rainiest month of the year (it rains as often as it does in Washington), I invested in a good pair of rain boots... for Noah & myself. Now we won't be house bound during this rainy month! We can get out and stomp around in the rain... and go see things! Next week has rain in the forecast ALL week. Come on rain, baby and I are ready for you!
Besides the purchase of our rain boots, one of my favorite purchases was bought from the Atsugi Officers' Spouses' Association's (AOSA) Ichiban Collectibles shop when we first moved into our house here. I use it as my vanity in our bedroom. It's the one thing in the house that is just for me and I love it. It is my bit of Japanese flair in our home. This adorable, slender little table of bright blueness is my favorite piece of furniture in this house (considering the rest is from Ikea & is cheap). Adam wasn't crazy about this purchase because he didn't think it was important for me to have a space to put on my makeup or get ready, but I insisted and I'm glad I did! I love, love, LOVE this little blue table of mine.
Today, I also purchased baby a new/used high chair. He may or may not have had an explosive diaper in the last high chair. The poor high chair never stood a chance. Thankfully there are a few good thrift shops outside of NAF Atsugi. I went to Smile Company and found this wonderful little high chair that is supposed to grow with baby. Even a grown adult can perch on this thing... so it says. I've seen similar high chairs to this one in the states... this one is from Japan though... It came with Japanese instructions and all. I tried to find the exact one online, but I can't find the EXACT ONE. But I'm fairly confident that I got a good one for a good deal, $50. Noah seems to really enjoy his new/used big boy high chair.
Baby also rode in his first shopping cart today at the Commissary. I finally got him a shopping cart/public high chair cover (not so fond of germs). He loved looking around at all of the things and people. I learned quickly not to leave the cart too close to the shelves... His little arms would grab at anything and everything he could... Little booger!
On a different note... Tonight was an interesting evening with good friends at our home.
I've never really gotten to know the other wives in Adam's previous training squadrons. But in light of coming to Japan, I've made an honest effort to get to know the other wives. Thankfully, they've made it very easy! They are such wonderful women and are there for us at the drop of a pin. When Noah had to go to the ER the wives were all quick to offer their emotional and physical support. It made me feel so much better to know that they were all there for us in our time of need.
Anyways, I was able to have most of the wives over tonight and it was interesting. There were 7 wives that were able to come and 3 kids (not including Noah and myself). One of the little boys is about 3 years old... and knew how to climb OVER the baby gates that I'd put up to keep Noah off the stairs. Now 7 women and 3 kids doesn't sound like a whole lot... but if you saw the size of my kitchen and knew how many chairs we have here... you'd know that's a lot of people. My poor little kitchen also has no air conditioning in it... and with all of those warm bodies in such a small space and the stove going... it became a little oven in there. I did my best to cool off the kitchen and living room by turning on the fan and opening windows. As the wives and I sat at the table eating dinner (we had a potluck), I looked out the back sliding glass door and realized we had an audience. A group of 4 young (8-13 year old) boys were standing outside our back fence WATCHING us eat and converse. At first we all had a little laugh and tried to carry on. But then I realized that they weren't going away. They were just standing there... watching us. Well, then one of the wives... out of the kindness of her Southern heart, decided to give them a little treat, homemade caramel popcorn. I saw this going very badly. Not only were they watching us, they now had popcorn to go along with their show. Haha. The watching of the wives went on for a bit. Well then we saw one of the boys hold out the bowl that had contained the delicious caramel popcorn. He wanted more. That's when one of the other wives decided enough was enough. She opened up my sliding glass door and asked them to please go away and then we shut the curtains to the sliding glass door. We thought that was the end of that... Until I stood up a few minutes later to go throw something away and realized that they were on the other side of our house now... where the street is. They were on the street crouched down so that they could peek through my open window on my door. RIDICULOUS! As I went to close my window, the last source of air flow in our kitchen, I told them to go away. Yes, I shooed them away. I'm not sure where they went after that. But they weren't creepily watching us anymore... at least not that I knew of. I'm not sure if this is common for Japanese kids to watch American's in their home... but this was the first time this has happened to us. I think they saw the white Americans coming into our home and became curious. I wonder if they know that it's impolite to look into people's windows?!? I hope that they don't do this again. It became very creepy very quickly.
So far so good. I've kept myself fairly busy since husband has left. Next weekend I have a tour to the Hakone Hot Spa. I'm quite excited about it! Noah and I will go with a few of the other wives. I can't wait to tell you all about it!
Well, sweet baby is already snoozing away... Time for me to do the same.
Until next time,
Happy Toes & French Fry Kisses
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