September 19th, It's ALMOST October!

Well, good news! Ben comes home in a couple weeks, which means my adventure on this island really starts. A lot of has happened since my last post...

Basil got neutered! Finally! I really hoped that the whole process would calm him down a lot, but that definitely didn't happen. He's still the crazy happy puppy he's always been! He had to wear the "cone-of-shame" and at first I found it entertaining and hilarious, but that quickly died as I realized how miserable he was in that cone. He would try to sniff the ground and get the cone suctioned down, try to sniff around and get (gross) stuff stuck to it and have to walk around smelling the grossness until I got home to clean it. I was also just starting work at Chili's at the time, which couldn't have been worse timing. The whole time at work I was worrying about my Basil. He also had some post-surgery complications like diarrhea and vomiting. I contacted the vet right away, but of course being a military operated place it took a long time for a answer, which wasn't even that helpful. But oh well, he's better now!

Chelsea and I ventured to Naha, which is like the Tokyo of Okinawa in a sense, and went to this indoor vender's place. It was pretty cheap and even had real designer's purses which I drooled over for a good amount of time. There was a LOT of clothes, shoes, and old video games and systems. Very cool place I must admit. I'm always looking for things for my husband, but he's just so picky and hard to shop for. Plus, this place wasn't selling American brands like American Eagle, Hollister, Abercrombie... so that made it difficult! My friend did however, show me this store on Foster in the "market place" that sells those brands and more! For extremely cheap! I bought two sweatshirts, one from Victoria's Secret and one from Abercrombie, for only $40! Once you're over here for awhile and live without these brands it makes finally finding them the most exciting thing ever. They even have guy's clothes! Christmas shopping just got a little easier for this girl.

The girl down the hallway has a french bulldog that Basil just LOVES playing with. We try to get them together once a day or even for just ten minutes to play. When it's nice we go on walks with them to ensure they'll sleep through the night. I can honestly say my dog has a best friend... He even runs to their door when I let him into the hallway. Even though Basil is a bit more enthusiastic and excited about almost everything, Castle, the other dog, definitely is learning to put up a fight! Hehe, it's adorable.

The weather is still hot, well into the 80's on most given days. Some days it'll be really nice, but the humidity will make you sweat like a pig (I'm not sure pigs sweat, but I believe I've heard that metaphor before). I'm so ready for this "winter" weather which is in the 60's and 70's like it was when I first got here. As much as I complain about this place, it's only when I'm homesick for the beautiful Iowan atmosphere I grew up in. I love the palm trees, the ocean views, the smell of the ocean, and the respectfulness of this place... But it's not Iowa haha. It's more of a vacation place. It's like, if you lived in Miami you eventually seem to lose excitement for the beach and all the wonderfulness there. That's how it is living here... I mean hell, I haven't even gone to the beach and laid out for a couple months! Now that I got my car back from the auto shop I've been trying to get out more and look around, but driving here still scares me a little. I'm ok on the main highway, but the small alley-like roads and the weird intersections intimidate me. I'm just ready for Ben to be home so he can do the crazy driving and I can enjoy the scenery and all that is Okinawa! If anyone ever gets the chance to come here the one thing I recommend is to try all the food you can. Okinawan food is so amazing, I can't compare it to mainland food yet, but it definitely beats the Chinese and Japanese food places in the states!

I'm also starting to get into the fashion here a little more. Being in Iowa... You are truly sheltered from what fashion really is around the world. I mean, if you live closer to the east or west coasts you definitely see diversity in clothes, but being in the Midwest really limits it all for you. All the Japanese girls here dress the par every day. They don't just wear a brand name sweatshirt and some jeans, and rarely ever just wear a simple t-shirt. It's all about huge tops and belting them. Leggings, hose, and skinny jeans... and AMAZING heels. Hats and a lot of really good hair accessories. Once I get my job squared away I'll definitely be getting even more into this.

All and all this place is treating me well, Basil and I are going great and will be even better once Ben gets home safe and sound. Lots of pictures and many more memories on the way!

Finally! My birthday!

Well, it finally happened! My birthday! I can now drive off-base and buy adult things, ha. I didn't want to be alone on my birthday so I stayed at Chelsea's house for the night and just watched movies and ate amazing cheesecake and lasagna to celebrate! Only thing that could have made it better was having Ben there, but there's always the rest of my life to celebrate these things with him. Even though it was a simple birthday, I'm just thankful that I have friends that make sure I'm not lonely.

We went out to different little cafe's and stuff on Saturday and I got this appetizer called, "Mixed Tempura", verry good, I just didn't like the eggplant they gave me. Everyone else got sushi which also looked delicious. I'm really loving all this Japanese food here that I get to try. I had never had sushi before coming here and I'm glad I didn't because I've heard the sushi in the states isn't even close to as good as it is here!

All and all, I had a wonderful birthday! Special thank you to my parents, grandparents, and my mother and father in law for the birthday card and money!

To the boy who is getting me through this deployment!

Basil Bruno Johnson. :). Deployment has been rough, especially being a newly wed and on this island. This dog though, he's my rock. He gets me through the bad nights when all I want to do is cry, and the boring days by making tons of messes for me to clean up.


I never feel completely lonesome, because I know that he's always down to play fetch and go on walks with me. He is absolutely crazy, especially with other people around, but it's ok. He's a 6 month old beagle, what do you expect?!

We didn't really think we'd get another puppy after our first one here passed away from a virus, but when I got a call saying he was ready to get a home... I just couldn't say no. And now I don't know what I'd do without him. He's annoying, messy, mischievous, and all around too hyper... But he's also part of our little family And I'd never give him up now.

Harry Potter, Japan Style!

Soooo, I finally saw Harry Potter Part II and I love it! Now that it's all over I'm kind of sad. It's like... I started reading the books and watching the movies when I was really young, and now it's all over. Kind of like how my youth is all over too. Irony I tell ya...


But anyways, the theater we went to is in "American Village", kind of a huge mall. It's got a lot of clothing stores and food places. And this HUGE ferris wheel that lights up at night.


The tickets were 1,100Y, soo about $15 or so... But so worth it. Thankfully the refreshments were cheap so I got caramel popcorn and melon soda. This is so opposite from the theaters on-base. The tickets on-base are so cheat and the food and drinks are so expensive.


Since it was off-base there were Japanese sub-titles at the bottom of the screen the whole time. Which kinda made me take my focus off the actual movie and on the symbols, ha.


I've decided that I like the off-base theaters more than the ones on base. It feels more like a theater than the military theaters do for some reason. I must go again! I don't think I'll ever get over these amazing movies and pieces of literature, which I feel is really symbolic of my childhood. Nothing wrong with a little magic though!

Last three pictures were taken from Marion, the wonderful friend that picked me up on Foster so I could experience the magical and magnificent HP!   http://classymassie87.blogspot.com/

Let's do a little bit of catching up!

I got here in March, and of course I've already done some things.

Ben and I went to the aquarium the first couple weeks I got here. I've been to some pretty amazing aquariums but this one was HUGE. It took us a total of like 3 hours just to go through the inside, outside there is dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and string-rays. It was pretty cold when we went so we didn't stay outside for too long.

The next we went to Pineapple World with some friends. It is exactly how it sounds... a Pineapple World. We got into these little pineapple looking golf-carts and rode around in this cart through the "park". The lady was on a speaker explaining the history and everything, but it was all in Japanese. I learned that pineapples can grow out of the ground, and that pineapple wine is the nastiest thing ever! At the end we got to try all the wines, candies, and different food they had for sale. It was a cute little adventure.

Some of you may be saying, "Why are you putting a pizza on your blog?"... Well this is not an ordinary pizza; This is the best pizza I've ever had. [Mount Pleasant people, this pizza was 10000x better than Breadoux!] It's at a place called "Pizza in the Sky". If someone asked me how to get there, they would be out of luck because I have no idea how we got there. Alli, who had been there before tried to give Ben directions and we got so lost. The countryside here is just as boring looking as Iowa's. But... the difference here is that you can still find random juice machines in the countryside here! This pizza consisted of all the normal pizza stuff plus: CORN! Absolutely amazing. I'd go back anyday, if only it wasn't so expensive and hard to find haha.


OH! Zip-lining! This is during the time period when all I did was sit at home and be miserable because Ben had just left for deployment. It was the scariest thing I've ever done, but one of the best! This was the "Tarzan Jump", and I almost didn't do it... Until I saw a 10 year old girl do it. It was SO hot when we went and Chelsea and I decided it'd be smart to wear jeans. Our choice of wardrobe was WAY wrong. Other than me totally biffing a landing and hurting my already messed up ankle more, it was worth the drive, money, and heat! 


Wow, another evening we went to one of Ben's supervisor's BBQ's and I thought it would be everyone sitting around and visiting. Nope, my husband decided it'd be more fun to play around with the hostesses kid's toys. He may be older than me, but he's young at heart! :). Oh by the way, He'll be home in 78 days!  


Of course there are many of things I've done that I haven't wrote about, but these were my favorite so far.