An Island Visitor!

I'm so excited to have my friend Kara here in Iwakuni! I got to see her when I went to Okinawa and told that story in this post. She made it here on a military flight the day of Joe's wet down celebration and we put her to work helping us prepare. ;) A "wet down" is a promotion party in the military where you celebrate your promotion with people of the same rank. It's customary to spend your first month's pay raise on booze to get the party going. This meant we had a healthy chunk of change to spend!

Joe is a beer fanatic and wanted to have his favorite microbrews available. Luckily, our Marine Exchange recently partnered with the comparatively luxe Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) to get exciting beers like Blue Moon, Fat Tire, Rogue and more for the past few weeks. Between the exchange and Joe's work adventures taking him to Hawaii, Guam, Australia, and Fukuoka, we had acquired 31 different beers! We had a great time and Eddie even joined the festivities. I think every Marine liked hanging out with the tiny little dog. 

Through some stroke of bad luck, Joe had a flight the morning after his party. I groggily drove him the the Shinkansen (bullet train) station so he could get to the airport on time. Kara and I were left to our own devices to find ways to preserve the leftover beer. This is what we came up with: 

There was beer fully stocked in the fridge too! We poured ice on top of our bathtub beer, put the handy Japanese bath cover over it, and now we're calling it our cooler. Thank goodness for Kara's ingenuity!

We hung out at the Kintai Bridge, explored the town of Yanai, and had lunch at the Chicken Shack for the first time. Iwakuni is a tiny little town, but we're heading to Hiroshima tomorrow to get a feel for the big city. It's so fun to share my new home with an old friend!