Tea Ceremony

I got the opportunity to see a real Japanese Tea Ceremony. It was so fun! It's the largest Tea House in Yamato and the owner teaches students nearly every day. We got to watch a few of the students practice, which was a great experience because it gave the teachers (there were about 8) time and opportunity to explain the steps and what the student was doing. People train for YEARS to perform the ceremonies; they're incredibly intricate and require a lot of study!

They wear these red silk squares in their obis (the sashes around their waists) and they get intricately folded to clean and wipe all of the utensils they use. She taught us to fold them! It was really complicated.

We all had to enter the room on our hands and knees and slide over the doorway; they're MUCH better at it than I was. Fun fact: Tatami floor burns hurt really bad! (They have this trick of using their fists and lifting themselves up on them to slide. We hadn't quite figured that out.) Worse than carpet burns!

There were VERY specific ways to drink the tea; things to say to the people next to you, how to move the cup, what to say to who served you, etc. It was AMAZING tea! The best I've had!

Baby Castillo Update

Let me start with this gem. I thought this was SO funny, and so so so true.

I've been feeling movement off and on since about 16 weeks or so. It's definitely gotten stronger and more defined though in the last few weeks! So much so that Alex was able to feel the baby kick twice!

We went to Yokosuka on May 8th to have our Anatomy Scan (basically a high powered ultrasound to see much more in depth: bones, blood flow, chambers of the heart, kidneys, organs, etc.) It was a really amazing appointment. We got to hear each of the 4 chambers beating, we got to see her open and close both of her hands, kick her feet, and turn over and over and over. Another very exciting moment, we got to see that she is, in fact, a SHE! 

A few weeks prior I'd sent out confetti poppers to close family and a few friends; one wrapped in green and one in yellow, one filled with pink and one with blue. That way, when we found out we could tell them to pop their x popper and find out, without waiting! After our appointment, we hurried out to the car and Facetimed with everyone! Here are a few of the pictures of everyone finding out! 

The first: Alex's sister Katie. (No one but her answered their phones!)

Jon had set up his camera with his bluetooth shutter thing, so he could get everyone in the pictures! That's us on my mom's phone :)

 screenshots from my phone watching them find out.

 Alex's parents:

 And I had to include this amazing shot of them popping champagne.

Joey & Angela, the Godparents

 and Megan!

 (her dog tried to eat all the confetti!)

Here are two shots from the ultrasound, both profiles. 

 

Obviously we'd already found out, but we had a popper for ourselves we wanted to pop to announce it elsewhere. 

SO excited for this baby girl of ours!

Deployment Round 2

We said "see you soon!" to Alex (and the rest of the G Dub). Ignore the crappy pictures; it's hard to smile for a picture when you're really not very happy!

Taylor Swift

Earlier this month, Taylor Swift kicked off her 1989 World Tour in Tokyo! The Japanese LOVE LOVE LOVE T Swift. Apparently, they are such a huge proponent of her sales and her success, that she insisted she start the tour in Tokyo with 2 shows. I went with a few girlfriends from here; it was AWESOME! I haven't been to a concert in such a long time and it was really fun!
We got these bracelets (taped to each chair, 55,000 of them!) that lit up in sync with the show, which was just about the coolest thing ever. Now, it lights up when you shake it!

 TOKYO!

That's the Tokyo Dome, where the concert was.

 Those lights in the crowd are the armbands!

 Such cool bracelets!

BadMan

In April, the entire Air Wing got together for Bad Man! It's basically like Greek Games in college, just less scantily glad sorority girls and the fact that half the participants are over 26. It was fun (though mostly mandatory fun, which isn't quite as much fun) but it took up a TON of time. There were sporting tournaments all week (swimming, volleyball, football, dodgeball, golf, etc) between the squadrons; Wednesday was a cocktail party (themed, of course. This years was "Superheroes"); and Saturday night was Bad Man Ball, where you get all dressed up, decorate a table (everyone else went with the superhero theme...somehow we missed that memo, WHOOPS!) and the winners are announced.
Usually, the jets take the win. Last year, HSM-77 won; the FIRST year a non-jet squadron took first, EVER. This year, 1st, 2nd and 3rd were all taken by helo squadrons! (We took 3rd!)

HSM-77 went as "Super Fans" as their superheros; there are Japanese nationals who LOVE the squadrons and go all out in their squadron gear, taking photos, just generally excited about all things related to that Squadron. The wives went as the pilots, or their husbands equivalent. 

I failed and didn't take any pictures during the week at the sporting events, even though we were at every single one!

The Ward Room.

So photogenic