Moving Day

Good-bye to our first family home!

 

hello, goodbye.

2011 was quite a year. It's strange how quickly a year moves when you are documenting a little person's every first something in their life. Looking back through pictures Brandon & I can see that we had a very successful year. We taught a little person how to crawl, sit, walk, dance, eat, wave bye-bye and blow kisses. We took a baby on two international flights. We taught a little person how to brush their teeth. I got a promotion too. It was a good year. Sorry, but I couldn't pic just one - here is this year in photos! xoxo

A new city for living, Yokosuka, Japan. A new city for discovering, Tokyo, Japan.

Jiji & Grandma visit for the 3rd time. Aunt Stephanie visits from Okinawa. We visit Aunt Stephanie in Okinawa. 2011 Cherry Blossom's. Meeting new friends.
Shie & Nate at their pop-up shop in Tokyo. Ella and Cypress play on a hot summer day. Seeing old friends: Kent a friend from high school tours through with his band, Letting Up.

Laura visits Tokyo for business.

A trip back home to Texas

Brandon with great, best friends Ty & Sean and Sean's rehearsal dinner.
Ella meets her Nana Elaine for the first time. Tear.

Marine Day, Zushi Beach.

Ella begins Japanese Day School in May and by her birthday, fits in great!

Ella's first birthday Party!

Yokohama Octoberfest & Jiji & Grandma Willett visit for the 4th time!

Sumo Championships.

Out first time to Mt. Fuji.

And we should never forget the over 15,000 people who lost their lives on March 11, 2011 to the great Japan earth quake and tsunami. And we should never forget the thousands of people who selflessly came to their aide.

Good bye 2011. Hello 2012.

March 11

On March 11 Japan experienced a 9.0 earthquake 130 kilometers (about 80 miles) off the coast of northeastern Japan. The earthquake triggered a tsunami warning and 40 minutes later an extremely destructive wave reaching 10 meters (about 31 ft.) high, destroyed coastal cities including Sendai, Miyagi. Although most destruction occurred in this general area the earthquake reached south including Yokosuka. In the days that proceeded the aftermath spread to include damage at several nuclear plants, most effected of those being the plant in Fukushima, roughly 285 kilometers from Yokosuka (135 miles).

(image via msnbc)

In the past week we have become students of nuclear science. We follow several websites and several people on Twitter. All of these sources are news & governmental organizations along with a few trusted expats.

• USGS
  
• Surviving in Japan (Without much Japanese)
  
• Stars & Stripes

If you follow any happenings on Twitter these folks keep us well informed with legit info (and a big thank you to their fingers who haven't stopped since 2:46PM on March 11):

• @TimeOutTokyo


• @survivingnjapan


• @breakingnews
  
• @TokyoReporter


• @1Rick


• @matt_alt


• @norishikata


• @ambassadorroos

On Wednesday night Brandon I made the decision to fly out to Okinawa and stay with one of our best friends Stephanie. You may remember her from our last trip to Tokyo? The basis of this decision was to remove ourselves and the baby away from the stress and uncertainty of the situation and return home Monday after a few days of R&R. Upon arrival in Okinawa we started receiving messages and phone calls informing us that the base where we work had begun voluntary evacuations. It is important to know that radiation levels in Yokosuka are still very normal but base officials wanted to be very sure they were offering their employees every possible way to feel safe. With the situation in Fukushima making minimal progress the only way to get this peace of mind was to authorize this voluntary evacuation.

Thankfully we had departed 12 hours before and although Haneda Airport was very crowded we sailed through with out any major delays.

So, what now? We will stay in Okinawa until further notice. Being the planner I am this is very hard. It's a real test in patience to not know what your next move will be. This is different than spontaneity. You can go on vacation and be spontaneous, because you know the day you leave. However, now we are living on edge in a different way. While we are safe and over 1,000 miles away from Fukushima we don't know when our time here will end. A week? Two weeks? God forbid, a month? Did I ever mention we left produce in our fridge?

There are many things on our mind but we are so thankful as we watch survival stories on the news. This is nothing compared to the events that are still unfolding in the areas most effected by the quake.

Thank you to all of our family and friends for your concern and constant communication. Thank you to technologies such as Twitter, Skype & Facebook for allowing us to keep that constant communication. Thank you to our employer's for providing us the resources to leave Yokosuka in the fast manner that we did.

minnie and jaco

RIP Minnie and Jaco; watching from the window, their favorite spot.

There have been a few times during the last two years that living abroad has felt unbearable. There was the loneliness we felt during our first holiday season, the passing of Grandma Reixinger, the weddings of three amazing friends Adam, Lindsey & Nikki, and the birth of our best friends Adam & Lindsey's daughter Penny. Luckily most of the moments missed have been great ones, but recently that is not the case. Our love goes out to Momma & Papa Willett - and Jason - and Erica, because we know the sadness you must be feeling, as we feel it too.

good bye faces

What brought us to Japan? It's been a while since we started this blog so some of our sweet reader's might not know why. Work! About 18 months ago Brandon finished culinary school and had quite a bit of management experience racked up from his post-college days. I was in-between jobs (waiting tables at the best restaurant in the world p.s.) so we decided it was the perfect time to do something spectacular with our lives. We were one year into marriage and it was just the two of us with one month left on our lease when Brandon responded to a job listing for a company, in Japan. Who knew that all of those years of working in a corporate restaurant would land us smack in the middle of Japan, working for a family run company?

Fast forward. So, here we are about to leave Sasebo, Japan (where we both work on a Navy base) Brandon serving some of America's finest their burgers and beer, but more importantly meeting some of the most kind, hard-working people in the world. This would all be a story best told by Brandon but I don't think it's hard to know his feelings about his staff, neh the family, that he came to love like brothers and sisters. So rather than putting words in his mouth I will let him write an entry, eventually, about what his experience was like. I will however, tell you that watching Brandon evolve into a General Manager over the last 16 months has been a heart warming experience. It seems he has experienced every emotion one would in a good relationship(happiness, confusion, surprise, disappointment, rage, love - and pride, to name a few) and come out with a sparkling, cohesive,
self-sufficient example of a well-run, profitable store.

For a professional standpoint it's no surprise that he was offered this new opportunity. Sure, I am bias and think my husband deserves a billion promotions in a year but I think that most people would agree he plain rocks at his job. So, congratulations hubby! You deserve this and we (Ella & I) are behind you 100%. Like I told you in the car (driving! ah, how I barely remember those days) on the highway in San Antonio, I will follow you anywhere in the world. I must admit, I am happy this move takes us to a big city. Maybe we'll get some counter top space? Eh?

In the meantime-here are some good-bye faces from the Sasebo staff!

Brandon with his kitchen crew!

THANKSgiving

Thanksgiving #2 in Japan has now come and gone. It goes with out saying that this holiday season will be tough with out family. Now that we have Ella, it seems like we are back at the same feelings as last year when we celebrated for the first time in Japan. An exciting new adventure. Missing family.

We always talk about how crazy it is that all of these things are happening again. We can recognize which festivals are approaching by the decorations around town and which Japanese holiday it is by what stores close. We know winter is around the corner because all of the flower vendors have switched their stock and all of the bakeries are featuring their strawberry shortcake. All kinds of things are happening that we are used too, which is just another sign that you have become a citizen of your surroundings. All be it, we move in a month and everything will be new and ripe for discovery. . .again.

This year's Thanksgiving was very different from [last year]. You may recall how we spent the day last year, drinking and cooking all day long. Ending in a fantastic pot roast cooked on top of our washing machine. Remember that?

Well, this year we changed it up a bit. Ella spent her first Thanksgiving helping mommy at work and dad came along to volunteer. We spent the day serving the troops at our annual USO Thanksgiving Feast. It was a great turn out and Ella was a hit with all of the sailor's in her turkey bib. It was great to have her there bringing smiles too all of their faces. We know that Thanksgiving is about tradition, but how do you really keep tradition when you move around all of the time? So our tradition is spending time as a family. What better way than the three of us serving some fine, hard working people who are so far from their own families? We may not have a big turkey, shitake mushroom gravy, asparagus casserole OR the Cowboys game, but we have each other. That is more than enough to celebrate!

Pie Eating Contest!

With the volunteer crew, still happy after clean up.

When service was over we spent some extra time packing up the left-overs to be delivered around base to those who were on duty, to our USO Center, and various single sailor areas. Just to spread the love a little more. We also grabbed some left-overs for ourselves and headed home to pull together a small meal of our own. Brandon made a great sauce for the turkey (gotta love his culinary genius sometimes) and we served it up "family style". We spent the rest of the night enjoying drinks with Manami and reminiscing about the last year and how so much has changed. We often realize this when we are sitting around holding our beautiful little baby, she is a constant reminder of where we have been, but more importantly, where we will go.

Happy Thanksgiving.

moving notice

Big news friends and family: We are moving!

In January we're taking this 3 person show on the road and relocating to Yokosuka, Japan. Just a stones throw away from Tokyo! Why you ask? Brandon is being relocated to another restaurant -big move for his career! It's no doubt that we will miss so much about Sasebo, we have really come to love it's charm and the friends we have made here, but there is something exciting about experiencing a whole new area of Japan that makes this news bitter-sweet.

We hope you're ready for all new adventures as the Willett's take on a new city and all it has to offer. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, here is a shot of our first family outing. . .how cute is Ella's head poking out of her blanket there. Ramen shop, of course.

isn't she lovely

First things first. It has been way too long! It's hard to explain why, but it's a mixture of things like the fact that our lives went from zero to "woah we are having a baby", and, "Jewell is working 60 hours a week while pregnant", in one hot minute. It's no secret that I miss my days of wandering the streets of our city and stopping to people watch while drinking a latte but it's also no secret that I have two new things that I love. I couldn't be happier with my job but more importantly, our baby arrived!

Her name is Ella Elaine and we are totally in love with her. She was born Tuesday, October 12th at 6:32 PM, 8 days late and weighing 8lbs 2oz. Her hair is light brown, her eyes are a beautiful slate-grey/blue, her cheeks are super chubby, and her legs are long and strong. She and Brandon are already the best of friends and sometimes when she cries all he has to do is touch her and she will stop. She is so lucky!

Ella. One day old.

The last thing we thought we would become master's of while living abroad was giving birth. Sushi, sure. Exchange rates(which really stink right now), sure. Trains, definitely. But having to go through the most intense and important experience of our lives while only understanding about half of what we were being told, definitely not part of the plan. Through all of the confusion and differences(giving birth in Japan is a much different experience than the USA) Ella still came out perfectly healthy, in the hands of a very capable Doctor, in a very peaceful environment. In the end, that's really all any parent could hope for.

Leaving the birthing center: 5 days old.

Here is a bonus shot of one of my meals at the Birth Center. So, basically I got 3 full meals a day plus a snack and a dessert. All gourmet and all served on fine china. Take that USA.

current happenings

Here is some life.

The new camera rocks.