What's Berto doing now?

Berto is deeply involved in creating a "futuristic" city on 3D Max. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:２丁目,Misawa,Japan

Gilberto's Gundam

My hubby is a happy camper!! He finally picked out a Gundam figurine. He's putting the 300 pieces together right now.

We gave Gundams to our nephews in IL for Christmas. Berto was so excited just picking them out!



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Location:２丁目,Misawa,Japan

Mom and Larry's visit!!

 This draft was from the end of June!  Oooops, sorry.  :(


My mom and Larry came to visit us!  Gilberto was able to take leave and had the whole week off!  Woo-hoo!! 


They ended up getting to us a day late due to delays in Chicago.  They had to spend the night near the airport.  LarrBear rented a phone so it was easy to be updated.  They got to us on June 20th, my b-day and Father's Day.  They arrived at the train station in Misawa around noon.  It had just started to rain.  Then torrential downfall!!  It was the most rain and in such a short amount of time that we had seen so far!!  Berto and I were soo surprised.


June 20th, Sunday-  Arrival.  We went directly to the house to settle in.  Nobody had eaten so I made some yakisoba.  (Noodles, pork, cabbage, veggies.  All with a sauce)  Rain did not let up, so we watched a movie.  Then we needed an indoor activity.  Went to the Shimoda Mall.  Funny tidbit:  Japanese lady wanted to rub Larry's belly!  Kept saying something that Larry recognized as Fat, fat or double fat.  It was pretty funny.  We then went to our grocery, Universe to pick up some dinner.  More yakisoba, shrimp tempura, some "Foochie" fish for Larry, and chicken.  Then it was happy hour.   Most hilarious part of the night:  Larry was telling us a long and descriptive joke, complete with funny voices.  My mom was translating in Spanish.  It was hilarious, they need to take it on the road!  :)


Monday-(Another rainy day)  We had a late start.  Nobody was feeling very well, except me, I felt great!  We went to "Cheese Roll" to get some spicy ramen.  It was wonderful!  They serve it piping hot and a huge portion.  Thankfully Rosie was able to get a fork!    She says she can't use chopsticks, hmph.   Close to this restaurant we noticed a gallery.  Just me and my mom went in.  Small place, that opens up to be a bar.  We were confused and said "Gallery?" to the old lady.  She gestured to the wall.  There were many traditional masks.  Most were dark and ominous looking.  (I've seen these at a local museum)  I pointed to my favorite and asked how much.  She said "very expensive".  I pointed to another, the same response.  Then she showed us some very small ones, and said "cheap".  We left, kinda offended.  Maybe she thought we couldn't afford?  Who knows.  We did some looking around on base at the korean woodworks and local stalls of kokeishi. 



 (MONTHS later)

 So, I forgot to finish this blog entry.  I'm sorry!    Better late than NEVER??  If you look at my pictures, they tell a better story than my words can.  I'm not a very good blogger/writer.  


Those who want to yell out for Berto to also write on this blog please COMMENT!!  (I will tell him!!)  I have no idea if anyone even reads this.  (Most friends/family can see my Facebook posts and pictures, it's easier over there!)  


Our familia and friends--we miss you guys a lot.  Don't give up on us because we suck at blogging, ha!  


Kristina & Gilberto  :)

Japanese class

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Konbanwa--Good evening!

Gilberto and I started a Japanese class at the Misawa International center. Tonight was our second class. There's about 20 people in class. Military and spouses, free child care provided.

I find it pretty helpful to have a Japanese person as a teacher. I have books that I try to learn from, but hearing and repeating is great.

For some reason half of class today was spent making origami tulips. I would have preferred more language, but oh well.

On the way home we stopped by our local conbini, or convenience store. I wanted a Japanese kit kat, got a salt and caramel flavor. Thought that was pretty funny because my sister Lisa is crazy for this flavor these days.

Gilberto volunteered to help tomorrow for the Air Show this weekend. (Performances by the Japan Air Self Defense Force's "Blue Impulse"). I think it's more like gopher work. You know, go for this, go for that. :). We tried to go to the air show last year, but the traffic was to crazy. It was backed up all the way at our house!! And the base is a few miles away. We'll see if we make it there this year.

Jaa mata, Oyasuminasai. (See you, good night)

P.S. I added a lot of pictures to my Flickr photostream. It's way easier to add there for me.

Location:２丁目,Misawa,Japan

What's Zeus & Zorro doing now?

Ok, this pic was taken a couple hours ago. Gilberto fell asleep and the fur babies follow. Although, I am MAD at them!! Lately, there has been accidents. Now everyday the past few days. We don't know why this is happening. We adopted them over 5 years ago. They never had accidents until the last few weeks. :(.

Hopefully this weekend will be better!!!


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Location:１丁目,Misawa City,Japan

What's Kiki & Berto doing now??

We went for a long walk in our neighborhood. This is not very easy to do. The streets are narrow and don't have sidewalks. There are many different looking houses. None look the same at all. There were some very traditional looking Japanese style homes. We found another area that had many military family homes. We really are appreciative of our house on our private street!! We found a small park literally soo close to us that we have never seen before!! I was amazed!!


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Location:１丁目,Misawa City,Japan

What's Kiki doing now??

Just went to Pony Plaza to find Jim a Bday present.

Now home and gonna start food prep to start grilling. Even though it's been raining all day! Will have to put the grill near the garage. On the menu is sweet garlicky chicken, jalapeño poppers, bacon wrapped mushrooms. :). Yum!!



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What's Kiki doing now?

I have to update this blog!! I will soon add some posts from my mom and Larry's trip to visit us. It was a lot of fun, and so happy to see them.

My sister has a blog about my nephew. She often posts "What's James doing now?". So, I'll borrow that idea to post quick blogs. :).

After dinner, Berto and I went to do some odds and ends shopping. We went to some shops we haven't been to before. Score, I found what I was looking for!! Also, we tried a delicious drink from a vending machine. It was a small can for 120 Yen. It says "nata de coco yogurt flavor". It had such a light, sweet coconut taste with tiny chunks of fruit. It's my favorite vending machine drink so far!

We went into a new grocery store. It was very similar to our local one "Universe". Though it wasn't quite as big. We decided to get a ice cream cone. They are individually packaged and cost about a dollar. So, eating an ice cream cone is what Kiki and Berto are doing now. :)



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5 Year Wedding Anniversary!! :)

I've been trying to edit this.  I can't make it regular text.  :(  I'll try tomorrow. 

Schwinn Airdyne

New excercise bike!! Yea. :) I have been dropping lots of hints that I wanted one. Then lately not so subtle. But my wonderful hubby came through with it. It was from the BX, and was the only one. The challenge was getting it home. He got the help of a friend with a truck. I got on it within 30 minutes of getting. Now, the main concern is getting used to the seat. Because it was hurting my bum right away. The wheel is a fan, so it is cooling as I pedal. Funny, last night Berto was watching Ultimate fighting, they showed the same bike in their gym!! Ha-ha.

I have been on it off and on so far today. I'm first going to go by minutes, without stopping. I have been able to add more minutes each time. After that I will focus on the miles. I have gone about 15 miles so far today. The arm bars do move and helps to work out your upper body. I did feel some soreness when I woke up this morning.

Happy early 5 year anniversary to me!! I'm hoping Berto will use it as well.





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Location:Oirase Town,Japan

Misawa info

Pdf Misawa and general Japan info

Wow, I think this  click-able link actually works!!  Thanks Lils, I learned something today.  :)

Noren curtain

We found this Noren curtain in Tokyo.  They are usually used at store or restaurant entrances to indicate that they are open for business.  They typically are shorter and say welcome in Japanese.  We fell in love with this one and it is hanging on door to Berto's "men's den".  We really want to try to find another to hang on spare room door, a geisha would be perfect.  It looks nice at night when the light is turned on, the warrior looks like he is glowing. 

I also have a cute collection of the kokeshi dolls, I love them!!  Those 2 are the lastest ones.  We actually got those on base at the BX.  They have vendors there all the time selling their goods.  The lady saw me eying the girl, and handed me the male because they matched!!  Good salesmanship!  

Sorry to have missed a couple of calls lately!!  For some reason, we kept getting strange calls and spam messages.  I need to check and see why this is happening.  So, we need to call M-O-M and Berto's mami.  

Our house--Facebook pics

 Most of us are on Facebook these days.  This is an album of our home in Japan.  Random pics.

Still learning how to add a link on here.  Sorry it's not clickable!  You need to copy/paste.  Again, I don't like this blog site, I'm trying at least.  

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38983&id=1188877806&l=fd72187f2c

our house

EDITED.  Thanks Lils, for the help on links.  But I think  now the link itself is wrong.  ;)

April 26th-- GRILL, BABY!!

Wow, just able to log in to blog from computer.  I have had a horrible time, it always shows the site in Japanese, and makes me want to leave. it. alone.  !!


This past weekend my wonderful hubby put our grill together!!  Woooo!!  We have never had a full size grill before.  We had a small tail-gater, George Foreman grill in Virginia.  I'm pretty excited to see what we come up with!!  I'm thinking lots of kabobs, steak, SHRIMP, fish and chicken.  Mmmmm  :)  The possibilities are endless...

We have a new batch of fun stuff to do, mostly the ITT tours we go on.  There is a baseball game in Sendai, a cherry blossom festival next week,  Kabuki theater, and  Cirque de Soleil!!  :)

Check out my Flickr!!

I upgraded my Flickr account to pro. I was always finding that I reached the limit too quickly, now I can upload unlimited pics and video. I added almost 300 pics to Flickr. I am still adding descriptions though. But for now if you go to bottom of this page, you can view my Flickr photostream. :)

Beautiful flowers Berto gave me from Tokyo. Glad they survived and bloomed after that long bus ride!!



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Let's see if this works

I'm sorry that I have not kept up with the blog. I found out that I am just not a blogger!! But I will try to post for our families.

My sister Lisa is a phenomenal blogger and I keep up with her blog, and am very grateful for it!! She also told me about an app that may make it easier for me to post from my phone.

We just got back from a mini vacay to Tokyo, I will start there.
But first, to see if this works!! :)




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Location:Oirase Town,Japan