Hakuba

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to take a "girl's trip" to Hakuba. Hakuba is a little town right outside of Nagano, Japan. (Some of you may recognize that as the home of the 1998 Winter Olympics). It is about 4 hours north of Atsugi, and we stayed at a small B&B, the Blue Dragon, that is owned by a wonderful Australian couple. They met some Diamondback folks a few years ago, and the Blue Dragon has become a favorite weekend spot for the DBacks ever since. We had the entire B&B to ourselves and we had a great time. We could not have asked for better weather! The mountains there are like nothing I have ever seen, just absolutely gorgeous!! I am excited to go back with AJ (hopefully this winter) and see everything when it is covered in snow! All of the weekend's photos are on my Facebook page, but here are a few to enjoy...






We saw this Japanese lady painting the land scape here. Beautiful!



This was taken in front of the Nagano ski jump. We were able to go to the top, take pictures, and watch the skiers practice. Very high! But very cool to see!



We had a Yukata Party the last night that we were there. Yukata's are the Japanese robes that we have on. Just a fun jumping picture that we took!



This was the last picture we took before leaving to head home. The 5 of us girls in front of the Blue Dragon.

Legal to drive on both sides of the road!

I have accomplished the task of getting my driver's license. I am now legal to drive on both sides of the road, from both sides of the car! I finalized the purchase of car last week and we are now the proud owners of a Nissan Cube.














It has even been "zapped"....just so everyone knows who we represent!

I made it!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this posted. I did arrive safely in Japan (as most of you know by now). I am staying in the Navy Lodge on base until I find a house for A.J. and I. I have to take a week long class this upcoming week, so it will be a little bit until I get started on the house hunting project! So far, so good over here. I am all checked in, and outside of not having a lot to do, it hasn't been so bad. Everyone is nice and the (very!) small part of the country that I have seen so far is beautiful! I am looking forward to getting out and exploring once the "obligation" stuff is done! Here are a couple of pictures I snapped while I was landing at the Air Force base here in Japan. Many more photos to come!