Hello everyone!
I’m so sorry that it’s been so long since my last post and I promise now
that things are settling down a bit I’ll get a lot better! There’s so much to catch you up on that
I don’t even know where to start so I think I’ll just stick to the basics.
Since my last post we moved into our new place and a couple
of weeks after that all of our things arrived from the states. I had heard horror stories of personal
property shipments where entire crates fell to the bottom of the ocean or
dining room tables showed up broken into a million pieces so I was a little
worried but luckily not a single one of our things was lost or ruined so that
was a relief! Now I’m slowly just
trying to get things put together.
Japanese houses are kind of funny when it comes to storage space – we
have plenty just not where I would like it – so I’ve had to get creative. So far though I’m pretty pleased with
how things are turning out.
Ridge and I hiked Mt. Fuji! It’s the highest mountain in Japan at 12,389 ft. The climbing season is only July and
August and since that’s Ridge’s busiest time of year there was no guarantee
that he’d get another chance to do it.
My friend Brittany Brown was in town – she stopped in on her way home
from Cambodia for about 10 days – so she was with us along with Jake, a friend
of Ridge’s from the Fitz. Let me
tell you, it was quite the experience.
Most people either begin the hike early in the afternoon to get there
for sunset; hike later in the afternoon, sleep in one of the huts at the top of
the mountain and then wake up for sunrise ; or hike throughout the night and
get to the top just in time for sunrise.
We chose door number three since Japan is the “Land of the Rising Sun”
and we didn’t want to spend $60 each to sleep in the crowded and smelly huts. We started the hike at around 11pm, got
to the top of the mountain at maybe 4-4:30 ish, enjoyed the sunrise, some hot
chocolate and the view for a bit, and then started the grueling decent.
The saying goes, "A wise man climbs Fuji once, a fool twice." Climbing up was difficult mainly because come 1am all of your joints were frozen but it wasn’t anything too nasty. On the way down, however, you have to use a different trail. It’s a switchback that they use to bring supplies up and down the mountain and it’s all really loose gravel so your feet sink every step you take. By the time we finally got to the bottom at around 9:30 or so we all felt like we had the knees of a 90 year old. It was totally worth it though! The view was beautiful and it was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Traditionally you get a walking stick at the bottom when you start and then at every station they burn a stamp into it, the prized stamp obviously being the one at the top. We were all VERY proud of our walking sticks!
The saying goes, "A wise man climbs Fuji once, a fool twice." Climbing up was difficult mainly because come 1am all of your joints were frozen but it wasn’t anything too nasty. On the way down, however, you have to use a different trail. It’s a switchback that they use to bring supplies up and down the mountain and it’s all really loose gravel so your feet sink every step you take. By the time we finally got to the bottom at around 9:30 or so we all felt like we had the knees of a 90 year old. It was totally worth it though! The view was beautiful and it was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Traditionally you get a walking stick at the bottom when you start and then at every station they burn a stamp into it, the prized stamp obviously being the one at the top. We were all VERY proud of our walking sticks!
Ridge and I at the top of Mt. Fuji
Just about a week after that on Monday, August 20th,
Ridge was supposed to leave. My
friend Brittany was still going to be here until the 22nd so I was
excited to have someone to keep my mind off of him being gone for a bit but, as
always with the Navy, things changed.
I dropped him off, did the big sad goodbye, and then got a phone call
shortly after stating that he would be returning later that evening due to some
technical difficulties. Then, on
Wednesday, I said bye to both of them; Ridge in the morning and Brittany in the
evening. Needless to say I was a
little traumatized. At about 9pm,
however, I got an email from Ridge stating that he’d most likely be back the
next morning. At 10pm I got a
frantic skype call from Brittany saying that she read the military time wrong
on her ticket, missed her flight, was trying to get it sorted out with the
airline when her only credit card stopped working so the call dropped, before
the call dropped they told her the earliest flight she could get would be in 5
days, she had no cash, and that the airport was shutting down and kicking her
out. I thought to myself, “the
universe doesn’t want me to be alone!” (Un)fortunately things got worked out
for Brittany and she was able to leave the next day. The Fitz on the other hand remained broken and Ridge came
home! Every day for the next four
days I dropped Ridge off thinking that I wouldn’t see him for months and every
night he showed up back home. It
was partly comical and partly cruel.
On Monday the 27th he left for good.
Since then I’ve just been working on getting our lives
settled and all figured out. I
learn more and more about the Navy, the base and how to get things done here
every day. I’m meeting people,
getting involved, taking classes and trying to find a job so I manage to keep
pretty busy.
Ridge works his butt off. For the couple of weeks before deployment he was at work at
6am and home at 8pm. Now that he’s
on the ship, standing watch from 10pm-3am, working a full day, and then
standing watch again from 12-5am is a normal thing and weekends are unheard
of. I have no idea how they do
it. He’s doing really well
though. When you’re an Ensign you
have to be constantly working on getting your SWO pin on top of all of your
normal work duties. There’s not an
exact length of time that it takes to accomplish this but it’s generally about
a 2-year process and it’s not easy.
I think there are five other Ensigns that came on the ship with Ridge
and he’s ahead of all of them in this process. You can say it’s not a race but when you’re constantly being
graded against others it really is, so I’m proud of him.
Anyway, that’s a good basic update for now and like I said I
promise that I’ll get better at blogging!
Oh, one more thing, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up because I think the most valuable
lesson I’ve learned so far is that NOTHING is ever set in stone, but Ridge and
I might be in the states for all of February and March! But like I said, don’t get your hopes
up. My friend Jamie told me some
of her horror stories the other day where husbands were on their way home and
so close to port that they were even able to call their wives and tell them
they were on their way. The wives
rushed to the base to greet them just in time to watch the ship turn around and
leave on a secret mission for another three weeks! They didn’t get phone calls or even emails to tell them what
was going on. Their husbands just left
and showed up at the door three weeks later.
Alright, I’m really done this time :) Ridge and I were supposed to have a facebook chat date at
9pm but it’s been an hour and I don’t think that he’s showing so I’m going to
head to bed :( Oh the joys of being a Navy wife!
Ridge's ship, the Fitzgerald, cruising along with the Bonhomme Richard. Ridge's is the "small" one.
