The streak is over...

As most of you know I have not eaten meat/fish in about 21 years... well, that's done! Damian and I went out on Sunday night for sushi at a cute little sushi-go-round place and they didn't have much to offer for vegetarians except the standard cucumber roll and tofu/rice wrap (inari). When in Rome (or Japan)... I first had a small bite of Damian's tuna... I couldn't taste it that much and decided it wasn't that bad. Next I had a piece of a tuna roll which was pretty good. I had to stop there as I didn't want to get sick from eating meat for the first time. Maybe next time I will try something different and a little more.... we'll see. We had a great dinner, there was definitely a higher ratio of Japanese in this restaurant so I know that made Damian happy!

We had a nice walk home that night and stopped at many little shops/convenience stores along the way to get some snacks. One of the MANY snacks/drinks we got was this manju (and yes I totally took a picture of the wrapper). It was so oishii (remember, this means "delicious")!!! It was sweet, fresh, and the whipped cream in the middle was so yummy! Damian and I shared it when we got home from dinner. We also picked up a bunch of other snacks at the store. The 7-11 actually has some really yummy food, wrapped and fresh! Damian got some of those triangle rice wraps for lunch on Monday and we also picked up some canned Chuhai for Damian... not me!!!

Damian: 2 Chuhai: 0... Damian has had 2 of these canned Chuhai now in the past few days and says he has felt fine... BUT he also hasn't been out drinking all night when having it! The canned stuff is really sweet... probably didn't help that he got the grapefruit flavor though! Maybe I will try one of these again someday but I am still recovering and cannot see myslef having another hangover like that anytime soon! The scary thing about these drinks is that they look just like a fruity soda (as you can see in the picture) and are sold right in the same cooler as regular soft drinks...

Today is Tuesday evening here and Damian and I have both had a busy couple of days! I started "Command Orientation" for the U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka so I can be a Red Cross Volunteer there... there is a lot of hoops to jump through to get in as a volunteer and my security clearance alone could take weeks (maybe months) to get done. Not only do I need all my college transcripts, copies of my diplomas, verification of my nursing licenses, fingerprints, references from every state I have ever lived/worked in, and a thorough background check, but I have to attend almost 3 full weeks of orientation classes... I'm on day 2 now... There are still no jobs here as the government is apparently out of money and doesn't want to pay civilian hires to work here (even though they are severely short-staffed!)

Damian had a long day of work yesterday as they have been busy with inspections of the medical department on the ship and today he had firefighter training where he has learned a new appreciation of what firefighters go through everyday. He had to put all the gear on (and let me just say it was brutally HOT today) and got to actually put out fires. He came home and was soaked in sweat and had already changed his clothes twice!!!!

Tonight we are headed off base to try a Thai restaurant in town that we heard good things about!

Japanese word of the day:
Kampai: Cheers