Bar

It dawned on me today that although I put these pictures on Facebook, I did not include them in the blog as I meant to.

In May, A.J. and I bought our first piece of Japanese "furniture"; a bar. We had no intention of buying anything this early on in our time here, and our original plan for the bar was to shop, and then have one custom made before we left. However, we found this one at a bazaar, fell in love with it, and decided to buy it.

When you open up the whole piece, this is what both sides look like.



As you can see, the inside is equipped for wine glasses, liquor bottles and wine bottles. It holds a lot! I even discovered that the bottle racks in the middle are slightly slanted in the back so the bottle tips up; preventing them from leaking. Very clever!


The top is in-laid with green marble and then lacquered over for protection.

Each panel represents a different season in Japan.





We love it!

Happy 25th!

I recently celebrated my 25th birthday! And although I was without my family, my friends here made it a wonderful day. I even had a few students from my summer class remember and bring me some cards! A.J. had given me my gifts before he left, but I got a phone call from him to wish me a happy day. Here are a few pics from dinner and one of the very nice birthday present my husband gave me...






Beautiful!! I also got to customize a pair of Nike sneakers!

Happy 25th to me!

Dine Like the Royals

Well, seeing as the road outside my house is currently completely torn up and I cannot leave, it seems like a good day to catch up on blogging!





On July 9th, 13 of us girls traveled up to the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo. (The New Sanno is a DOD hotel located in the city. It has become a wonderful escape for us with and without the guys, as there are numerous restaurants, a NEX and lovely rooms available to stay in.) On this particular weekend, we went up for one of the dinners that the hotel was hosting; "Dine Like the Royals."



Dinner was based off of the menu that was served at the Royal Wedding of William and Kate. We had a 9 course dinner complete with 5 different wines. Every course that came out was delicious and we all enjoyed ourselves quite a bit!




Our table for dinner. (We were split between two tables.)


The appetizer was a Crab Timbale. Crab meat wrapped in smoke salmon.


The soup course was Chicken Consomme


Roasted Salmon Package for the Seafood Course


Pan Seared Breast of Duck for the Game Course


This was the best part of the dinner! Champagne Sorbet. Delicious!


Our Entree was a Medallion Duet. We had both beef and lamb with two different sauces.


The Summer Melon Salad


We finished with a dessert trio. Chocolate Biscuit Wedding Cake, Strawberry Ice Cream and English Trifle.

Overall, it was a wonderful evening filled with great food and even better friends.

Long time, no chitchat...

To say that it has been forever since I posted here would be an understatement! But, such is life sometimes! Things have been very busy around the Clay household and blogging has just not been on the list. So here's what you've missed since the last time:

I came back to Japan at the beginning of May and immediately returned to school (and by immediately, I mean the day after I landed at Narita Airport). I finished out the school year last week with 10 of my original 16 kids. This week I began training and planning for the summer enrichment program. Just a little extra money and something else to keep me busy! After much debate, I am officially returning to 2nd grade next school year as well!

A.J. got back about 3 days before myself and was back to flying in no time. He did come to San Diego while I was "evacuated" and I got to spend 5 days with him out there! He recently left for his second deployment and will be gone for quite a few of the coming months.

There ya' have it! Makes a little more sense why I haven't blogged in awhile, doesn't it?? ;-) I do have some fun things planned for this summer, and I will make sure to share them with all of you. Forgive me for the long break, I promise I will get back on track with this site soon! I hope that you all are having a great summer so far and we'll chitchat again soon!

P.S.- Here are some pictures of the hydrangea that are blooming in Japan right now. Absolutely beautiful!!

Waiting

I have been trying to update our blog since I arrived back in the states. I just didn't really know what to write...

I came home 2 weeks ago under the Military Assisted Departure from Japan on a commercial flight out of Narita airport in Tokyo. As I was confirming the seat for my flight, an earthquake hit; just the last little push I needed to ease my mind and remind me that the decision to leave was the right one for me!

When I came home it had been less than 2 weeks since the earthquake had hit. But it felt like it had been an eternity! The fear of the unknown can really take a toll on you; something that I learned during this experience. I slept for 14 hours the first night I was here and when I woke up, it dawned on me how stressed I had been and how much sleep I really hadn't been getting!

So, here we are... 2 weeks later and I don't any more than I did when I left. We were given 30 days by the government when we left Japan. 30 days to stay in the U.S. and wait for an extension or to be given the go ahead to go back. That's what I have been doing...waiting. Everyday I hear a different rumor, some from the military side, some from the education side. None of us have any idea how long we may be here, so we wait!

There have been some bright spots in all the chaos though! Next week I am headed to Va. Beach to spend some time with my best friend and her adorable son! Aunt Lauren hasn't seen him enough! And if we get the extension, I will be spending a few days in San Diego with A.J. He has been scheduled to come to the states for some schooling since the beginning of the year and the military has decided to stick with that plan. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it works out! If I don't get to go out there, I have no idea when I will see him again. Really just more of the unknown, but that has become a way of life now. We just roll with the punches!

That's pretty much where we're at. A.J. is in Guam with his squadron. He continues to fly but is in the same boat as myself...just waiting to hear when we can go back and what his schedule might be in the coming months. I guess we'll see what happens!

Keep an eye out for some more posts, I will keep everyone updated here as we move forward in the unknown!

One Week Later

::Deep breath in....Deep breath out:: Those are the words that I have been repeating to myself numerous times a day for the past week. It has been one week since the 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan; I imagine I will never have another week like this in my life, or at least I hope that I don't. It has been a week of stress, tension, and emotions of all kinds...and we are definitely not the worst off in this whole fiasco!

Last weekend and Monday were fairly normal days. We talked about the earthquake in school, where my kids were when it happened, why and how earthquake and tsunami's happen, etc. Then, Tuesday came. We were told mid-morning to keep the kids inside for recess because there were small amounts of radiation in the air. I had 5 kids picked up by the end of the day and on Wednesday, I only had 9 of my 16 kids in school. The radiation levels here were so small that we really had nothing to worry about.

We also had another 5.0 magnitude earthquake here on Tuesday night. AJ was here for this one, so now he understands! ;-)

By Thursday, it seemed that we were back on track, no earthquakes and the radiation levels had dropped even lower. That is, until I got a phone call from AJ during lunch telling me to go home and pack a bag for at least 4 days. By Thursday evening, they had announced on base that there was going to be a voluntary evacuation of all military dependents. AJ's squadron had already flown there jets to Guam and we knew that AJ would be joining them this weekend.

Friday, there was no school and we had to go to a meeting to "sign up" for our trip home. I am in category 4, which is military dependents with children over the age of 13 and dependents with no children. Basically, we are the last group to leave.

To say that I am scared is an understatement. The levels of radiation here are still very low and they are of no threat to us at the moment. But, we are being evacuated to the states in the near future. I had to pack a bag weighing no more than 50 lbs. and I packed 3 boxes to go home of stuff that I cannot replace if something happens. As I am typing this, AJ is planning on leaving for Guam this afternoon, which leaves me here with a few other wives to just sit around and wait. We were told yesterday that we would be put into groups, given a time to arrive and then go from there. The "list" of groups was suppose to be done yesterday afternoon, then it was 10:00 last night, and now here I sit at 8:45 am on Saturday morning and I still have no idea what group I am in let alone when I will leave, what city I will land in when I get to the west coast and how I will get home once I get there. All of the unknown, lack of sleep, and sadness are making this harder than I expected.

I hope to have more answers as the day goes on, but for now, please keep all of us and the Japanese in your thoughts and prayers. Our stress is difficult, but it is nothing compared to what is going on in the northern part of the country.

Earthquake!!!!

So by now I am sure that you have all heard about the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan yesterday. If you haven't...well, go turn on the TV, pick any news channel and stare! It's everywhere!

We felt it down here too! We live about 200 miles from the where the epicenter was, which caused us to have a 5.0 magnitude earthquake here. IT....WAS....SCARY! A.J. was actually flying home from a 3 week detachment when it happened while I was still at school. Thank goodness that my students were already gone! We did have to evacuate the building and we shook for about 5 minutes. It is something that I hope I never have to experience again...and we were nowhere near the worst of it. Immediately after the quake hit, our cell phone service went down. We had internet connections, but no calls or texts were going through. As frustrated as I was that I could not get a hold of anyone, I was momentarily happy that I knew A.J. was in the air. That meant that he was safe and since I was too, there was no need to get in touch with him right then and there.

Before I left base for the day, I had to evacuate our mini-mart as well when one of the aftershocks hit. They continued late into last night, as we felt one when we got in bed at 12:30 AM. Luckily, through the earthquake and the aftershocks, we had no damage to our house or any of our stuff in it. We are at no risk for tsunami's seeing as we are too far inland. Thank goodness!

Well, now that you know how our days went, lets talk about the facts!

1. The earthquake was an 8.9 magnitude at the epicenter.

2. Immediately after it hit, tsunami warnings hit the entire east coast of the main island of Japan and some small portions of the west coast. The warnings later spread to Guam, Hawaii, California and many other countries.

3. As you have also seen on the news... a 23 foot tsunami hit Sendai City shortly after the earthquake struck. It took out cars, boats, buildings, power lines and just about everything else that was in its way! One of the saddest but most amazing things that I have ever watched in my life. The earth is a powerful force and although this has brought unspeakable amounts of devastation to this country, it is incredible that our earth has the ability to do something like this.

4. Sendai City airport is now completely under water.

5. After the earthquake, the Japanese train system and major highways shut down. This is completely unheard of here. The trains don't stop for anything!

6. The tsunami traveled 6 miles inland at some points and has already claimed hundreds of lives with over 1,000 people still missing.

7. This is the largest earthquake to hit in recorded history.

8. There were over 160 aftershocks recorded, 141 of them measured at a 5.0 magnitude or higher.

9. HS- 14 (a helicopter squadron stationed at NAF Atsugi) was the first U.S. DoD unit to respond with aid in Sendai City. They delivered over 2,000 pounds of food to a hospital outside of the city. Atsugi has also started collecting clothes, non-perishable items and pet food to be delivered to Sendai in the coming week.

10. Narita Airport (the largest in Japan) has been shut down since after the quake and their airliners have been diverted to Yokota Air Force Base, about 20 miles from where we live.

11. An large oil refinery caught on fire and burned for awhile.

12. On our base, we had a pipe burst in front of one of the gyms, part of the foundation crack in our Navy Exchange, and the mini-mart and commissary lost $1,000's in products that fell off of the shelves.

13. Numerous nuclear plants have had many different issues. The closest of these is 170 miles away from us.

14. Now the truly amazing.... the main island of Japan shifted 8 feet after the earthquake!!!!! Can you believe it???

15. The earth's axis tilted 4 inches after the quake. Also insane!!!! I was astonished when I read this.

I think that is all I know right now. Pretty incredible! Thank you to all of you who have checked in with us on Facebook or with our parents. We appreciate all the concerns, thoughts and prayers! We are both safe and sound at home, together. We will continue to keep everyone posted. In the mean time, if you have Facebook, check out the video that I posted there (I cannot save it to my computer to put it on here). It was recorded at Camp Zama, which is the Army base that we live 5 minutes away from. I feel it gives an accurate idea of how much we were shakin' over here!