Snow!!!

We had our first snow here. No wind and relatively warm temperatures, so it was actually very enjoyable.

Rob Rogers

We received news of a recent tragedy in Italy (http://www.aviano.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123075514). Three guys I knew well, Kenny Hauprich, Mark Spence, and Rob Rogers, died in a helicopter crash. Kenny was full of youthful energy and always smiling. When he wasn't annoying everyone with his awful harmonica playing, he would always be trying to cheer people up when they were down. Mark was a comical cynic. He would spend an hour lecturing you on why there was no value to reading books or why you simply can't trust a man without sideburns. He was kind of like a walking Seinfeld episode. Rob was always laughing. Always prone to the worst of luck, he simply laughed most things off. Rob was one of the best friends I ever had and we did everything together in Italy. I couldn't find any pictures of Mark or Kenny, but I've posted several of Rob.

Viking Restaurant

You may see by our posts that we really enjoy eating in Japan. We recently went to a different restaurant called The Viking. At the Viking, you basically...
load up on uncooked meats and vegetables...

cook them on a little grill in the middle of your table...

and eat! It was really delicious.

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween here at Misawa. Helen had a nice party at school where she dressed up as a princess. We then had trick-or-treating on base. I dressed up a little myself and handed out candy. It was pretty funny because about 500 Japanese children typically come on base for Halloween. They would approach the porch thinking I was a manniquin. Then I would move the candy bowl and they would freak out a little bit. The Japanese Halloween tradition here at Misawa does help highlight how accepting the Japanese are of us and our cultures. Prior to Halloween, the local Japanese communities also put on various activities such as a small children's parade and costume competitions.