Shipwreck Beach, Free Money, Saliva, and a Bazaar!!

Life at Misawa continues to move along since we last posted.  The end of September was kind of slow, but we did take a day trip to a local attraction called Shipwreck Beach.  This is a beach on Mutsu Bay about 1 hour north of Misawa.  We parked along a road and had to walk about 1/2 mile to the beach.  As we walked to the beach, we passed what can only be described as a mountain of seashells.  The pictures below don't do it justice, but this mound of shells is about 40 feet high, 100 yds long and 20 yds wide, and is made completely of shells.  On the beach are several old wooden shipwrecks, and the beach is known for being able to find lots of stuff that washes up on shore.  One of the things people look for are glass floats that fishermen use to keep their nets afloat.  When the weather gets rough, they break loose and wash up on shore.  We were there on a VERY windy day and the bay was quite rough, but we did not find any glass floats.  We did find lots of sea glass, shells, drift wood, and other junk...and we had fun looking through all the stuff that was washed up on the shore.  Several pictures below from our trip to the beach: 

Map from Misawa to Shipwreck beach...fortunately GoogleMaps works in Japan

Getting ready for a cold walk on the beach.

Seashell Mountain.

Trying to climb the shells.

Twin shipwrecks.

Walking on the beach with a windmill farm in the background.

Riley trying to stay dry...the water was coming right up to these rock walls

The start of October was great for the 35th Comm Squadron.  Many of the squadron's leaders were gone for most of September, but a couple of them returned to work on October 3rd.  Primarily Jeff's secretary Ruby who had been gone since the end of August completing reserve duty at Yokota Air Base near Tokyo.  A few different people filled in for her, but it just wasn't the same.

October 7th was 'Sports Day' for the 35th Fighter Wing, so all the squadrons competed against one another for the Commander's Cup.  The weather was chilly and windy all day, but it was a nice break from work.  The 'Comm Rockers' competed well and ended up 5th out of approximately 15 teams.  However, the highlight of the week was later that evening at the Intramural Softball All-star game.  The Comm Rockers had two players in the All-star game, and the Force Support Squadron held a contest for the squadron with the rowdiest fans. The Chief and I encouraged the Comm Rockers to show up and cheer loudly at the game (beer and soda bribes tend to increase attendance at these events), and we had by far the largest crowd.  We ended up winning $500 toward the squadron holiday party, which will be a nice addition to our booster club coffers.

Show me the money!!

On Saturday Megan volunteered at the annual Misawa Officer's Spouses Club Bazarr.  This a huge event where Japanese vendors from all over the country come in and set up booths and sell their goods to the Misawa AB community.  They have everything from furniture, to Kokechi dolls, and there are so many vendors that they fill up an entire hangar.  Since Megan volunteered, we got to 'pre-shop' a couple of hours before the bazaar actually opened.  We found several Christmas presents and even ended up buying one for ourselves.  We bought a VERY heavy wooden bar that can be folded up and used as decorative furniture or can be set up as a full bar.  It is kind of hard to describe, but there are a few pics below:

Our new bar.

The inside with it folded out.

The top has marble in the middle, then wood on both ends that fold out.

Somehow they already look quite at home behind the bar.

On Saturday night we had planned a commander's poker party, but changed our plans at the last minute.  The band Saliva was putting on a free concert at the club, and we decided to attend with a couple of the other commanders.  Even though neither of us had ever listened to the band it ended up being a lot of fun.  The venue only held about 500 people, so we were able to get right up next to the stage.  The band gave away a ton of free stuff to include iPods and iPads...we didn't win any of those, but we definitely enjoyed the free rock concert.  The band even stayed afterward and talked to everyone and signed autographs.

We finished the 3-day Columbus Day weekend by hanging around the house and getting the girls winter clothes out of storage.  Jeff did get a round of golf in this morning, but other than that it was a quiet day.

That is all until next time, hope to hear from everyone soon!

P.S. - Almost forgot to mention that Megan is now an elected official.  She attended her first PTO meeting this week and left as the Sollars Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization Secretary.  She won by an overwhelming majority...mostly due to the fact she was the only non-board member at the meeting and was therefore the only one nominated for the position...haha!