From Tokyo with Love

My birthday was great! It started off with me opening the card my grammy sent with me. So sweet! I miss seeing her on the weekends for family dinners! At work, my kiddos, with the help of my coworker Miss Angel, made me a card. Most of them wrote their names by themselves! At the end of the day all my coworkers sang happy birthday to me and my boss gave me a little gold crown! Shannon, Lycell, and Jose took me to get dessert at an Alice and Wonderland themed restaurant. It was pretty neat! Our dessert plate was so cute! Then when we got home I was surprised to find a bouquet of white and red roses! My sister messaged Shannon and asked her to buy them for me! It was a joint gift between the two of them. Then Shannon also surprised me with a little Duffy the Disney bear and Duffy cookies that she managed to get at Disney without me seeing! Great day!

The 4th of July was very different than any I've ever had! First of all, I had to work! If it weren't for the cute kiddos, I probably would have been upset about that! After that we tried to decide what to do. Japan, of course, does not celebrate the 4th so there were no fireworks or anything. So, we decided to eat at an American restaurant, McDonalds, and then go back to the hotel and hang out. Shannon and I enjoyed some Americone ice cream for dessert!

This weekend we went to Yokota Air Force Base to see where Shannon and Lycell used to live and where Shannon used to work. We then went to Kamakura to see the big Buddha. The town of Kamakura had lots of little street shops and food places along the route to the big Buddha. Such a neat town! The big Buddha is just that, big. Huge in fact! We ate so much the whole day! All you can eat bread at Saint Marcs, green tea ice cream, sweet bean and ice cream pancakes, and all you can eat yakiniku!

My eye started bothering me last night and pink eye has been going around camp, so when I woke up with a pink scratchy eye that I had trouble opening I freaked out! After many calls to people, a skype call to my dad, and Visine drops, it turns out that it hopefully is just really bad allergies! So, I went about my day as planned which included church with my friend Uhura and her family and lunch with my friend Yancey who I haven't seen in years. Yancey and his wife are stationed here in Yokota. Then I rode the train and subway back to the hotel by myself! Shannon and I enjoyed some pizza and cheesecake for dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow I start a no sugar and bread week so that I will Mt. Fuji this next weekend! Stay tuned for more on the climb in my next post!

From Tokyo, With Love,

Rachael