The Girls Play While the Guys are Away!

The ship has been gone since January 8, and the best way to prevent the blues is to stay busy! I have taken this sentiment to heart and have tried my best to fill my time without Bryan the best I can!

January was a packed month! January 20th I planned a last-minute trip to Okinawa to see Bryan during their first port call, January 28th I enjoyed an overnight trip with Meg to experience the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, and then the first weekend in February was filled with ice sculptures and lots of snow in Sapporo for their annual Snow Festival!

By February, the pups were forgetting who I was and believing our amazing dogsitter, Lili, to be their new mom. February slowed down some, so here are some of my day trip adventures:

February 11: Umagame Sake Brewery & Galentines

Meg and I have been messaging with Alli, a new Wardroom Spouse, during her PCS to Sasebo. Once she arrived, we were quick to plan a day trip to Umegae Sake Brewery for their annual festival. You may remember I visited this festival last year with Kaiti, Jaime, and Julia; but this festival has expanded greatly since last year's smaller COVID festival. The brewery was packed with shoppers!

It was a great opportunity to meet Alli and her husband James (aka "Fonix") and Zach (aka "NODS")- two new helo pilots who are joining the ship soon! After our great outing, I was quick to email Bryan the group photo we took so he could be on the lookout for Fonix and NODS- it's not often the spouse gets to meet the newbies first!

me, Meg, Nods, Alli, Fonix

After an afternoon of Sake tasting, the girls headed to Jenna's house for a Galentine's party with the Wardroom Spouses!

February 13 & 14: Americable Troubles

Of course, we would have all kinds of internet issues while Bryan was at sea. After a month of back-and-forth with Americable, the only internet option for base housing, I got fed up and submitted an ICE complaint. These official complaints are sent to the departments and are recorded and reported to base command. Little did I know that my complaint would go all the way back to the states, where Netcom staff in Virginia would hear about the hot mess of base internet in Sasebo.

Lucky for me, the VP of Netcom was visiting Sasebo the week after I submitted my complaint, so I went from one measly tech guy in my house doing repairs to FOUR people in suits from both Americable and Nexcom to see what it's "really like."

While being polite, I made sure to explain that the internet service provided is horrible compared to the high prices we pay. They were very understanding, and after over 5 hours of work over a two-day span in my house, I finally had working internet. Oh, the loveliness of living in base housing, where one internet provider has a monopoly over the services provided. What fun.

Reynolds' face shows how we both felt about this month-long nightmare of crappy internet service!

February 18: Arita Pottery Sales

Another weekend, Meg and I talked Alli into joining us for another pottery shopping day in Arita! After a delicious lunch at Maru Tatsuまる龍, we took off for Kouraku Gama. We had heard of Kouraku Gama 幸楽窯, a warehouse that sells pottery by the basket full. We weren't very successful there, but I did find a few small things at the local Arita shops!

Shhh...one of the small luxuries of Bryan being gone is he doesn't have to know of my pottery trips. He can find out later! Plus, it's on sale!

February 26: Pottery Carving Day at ITT

Looking for things to do, I stumbled upon ITT's event for pottery carving! Last summer, our wardroom spouse went on our own and did this exact pottery event outside of the base- and with Tomo's help we were successful in creating amazing lanterns!

This time around, I paid a little extra and just booked the day trip with ITT, who provided a translator and the transportation to Shidayaki Village Museum! Kerri, Alli and Meg volunteered to get creative with me! This time around, I came prepared with my own stencil of a world map. After 4 hours of carving, I think my masterpiece turned out pretty good! Now to wait a few weeks for the shop to fire them and deliver to the base! I can't wait to see the final product!

Here's a little video of my finished piece! I made sure to include Japan and Hawaii- all of my world travels can be spotted on this lamp!

About a month later, I got an email from ITT saying that our lamps had been delivered to main base! I was so happy with how it turned out, I had to share a quick video of my finished lamp!

March 11: Girl's Game Day

Feeling a little down during my walk to work one morning, I put together a group text with some of my closest girlfriends offering a Saturday Girl's Game Day at my house. Surprisingly, everyone was able to come and we spent the day laughing and snacking as we played several card games around my coffee table! Hugo and Reynolds were especially enamored with Sofia, Jenna's daughter, who gave them unlimited cuddles and love during her visit!

I don't think of myself as a party host, but it was so fun to plan a last-minute get-together with these ladies! While deployments are hard, being surrounded by strong women who support each other makes it bearable!

March 12: Beach Day

Speaking of bearable- I thought I would embrace the chilly weather for a nice beach day. After feeling the deployment blues, I thought I could cheer myself up with some vitamin C, but Sasebo had another thing in mind! With a morning weather report of afternoon storms, I woke up and quickly packed my car for a morning at Oogama Beach.

As you can tell from the few pictures I took, it was overcast and quite chilly, but I was determined to get a few hours of "sunshine" while wrapped in a towel and trying to keep my teeth from chattering! I lasted til noon..but the trip was worth it! Check out all the sea glass I found while pacing the beach! And the coolest find yet- a piece of Japanese "sea pottery!"

With just a few weeks left of this deployment, I am looking forward to the next port call in Manila, Philippines! Then Bryan will be back home for a few months!

Til next time,

--Katie