Underway Again

First day underway today and I'm pretty excited about this one. Well... I'm not really "excited" but the things I plan on accomplishing this underway are exciting. I will be getting back into my underway work out routing so that's good. I always come out of underway in the best shape of my life. Which isn't really saying much ha. Also, while in Australia I plan on trying skydiving, swimming the great barrier reef, and just being a beach bum on the days that I can. Thirdly, my brother got stationed in Korea this year so when we head over there, I am going to see if I can get some time off of work to kick it with him for a weekend. That would be so awesome. I haven't seen him in years and it would be so great to hang out with my brother some more. We'll be gone for a couple months and I feel like I have a lot to accomplish but when I think about it, the most difficult part of it all will be to just chill out and not spend a ton of money. Internet shopping is the devil. haha. Actually...I take that back. The most difficult part of all of this is missing Amanda back home in the states.

Some people don't know still, but when I was on leave about a month ago, I asked my girlfriend Amanda to marry me. She of course said yes and every second with her was spent well appreciated but, since I've been gone back over here it has been such a strange feeling. The level of how much I miss her is through the roof, in the clouds, higher than I have ever missed anyone. Unlike before though, there is a secure feeling that I didn't have last time. There is no more questioning the future, she said yes and she wears my ring as a reminding symbol of the love we have for each other. Knowing that we have reached this point is very reassuring. I have no doubts about our future together and though there are still many questions, I don't even for a second waiver from feeling that she is the girl I want to be with for the rest of my life. It's pretty fucking intense haha.

Well, lots ahead, and more posts to come. (haven't found myself saying that one before) ha. I hope to not make this thing look too much like journal posts. We'll see how it goes.

Almost "Home"

With a little over a year here and Japan and my two year mark in the navy soon approaching, home seems like a distant memory. The memories I have seem like they were from a time period of my life that is long gone. I understand that this is true but it leaves a very interesting thought to my head as to what things will be like when I visit home. I return to Bremerton in less then two months if my leave gets approved. Before I joined I spent less than a year living there after I graduated from Olympic, so I hardly know what it is like to live there and not be a high school student. It will be a really different feeling being there this time. Time can only tell whether or not it will still feel like home.

I was watching Garden State just now, and the scene where Andrew and Samantha are in the pool and he is talking about the day when the house you grew up in no longer feels like home to you had me thinking. I definitely can understand where he's coming from. That feeling has been foreign to me for over a year and a half. Basically ever since I got here. Hopefully, Bremerton still feels like home to me and it doesn't feel like some place that is changed. The memories that I have take place in a city that still geographically exists, but the feelings that make up the idea of my Bremerton hopefully still remain. I guess we'll see.

Taco Night

On Sunday, the day before Memorial Day, we had our third "Taco Night". In the kitchen of course was myself along with Stinger and let me tell you what, for a couple of gringos we can make some mean tacos. He's from Texas, I have a Mexican descendant background with my mother's side of the family and my grandfather and we know what's what when it comes to Tex Mex cooking.

We get our recipe for the tortillas off of a website using the tortilla flour my mom sent me and some goodies from the commissary. You haven't had tortillas until you've had them home made. those store bought ones will get you by but it is such a different flavor when they're hand made it's a completely different taco. In all, the tortilla is without a doubt the hardest part.

Making the meat is so easy, just get some veggies like tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, garlic, tomatoes, and whatever else you think has a good flavor. Chop it up, put it in a bag with the meat and some powder flavor things in those little red packets. Make sure and pour a little beer in there for flavor and a good time. Also, I feel like there's another step but I can't think of it right now.

Anyway, it's great, we make the food, drink up, and everyone else just eats and hangs out. I really enjoy it. Another little surprise we had that night was that we picked up a piñata and filled it with candy of course. It was so great. Here's some videos from that night.

I'm going to add some videos later. They're taking a long time to upload and I have to go cut my hair right now.

later

-JSENA

It's Been So Long

So umm.....I feel like I've got some explaining to do. haha I haven't posted anything in so long as you probably already know. I've just been so lazy that when I even think about working on this I get discouraged and usually just go to sleep. haha. So since I last posted something here's a quick run down of what I've done:

visited: S. Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Russia, Indonesia (kinda), and Fukuoka (in Japan). The new ones being HK, Thailand and Russia. Indonesia was a kinda because we weren't allowed to leave the pier because of the "high amounts of terrorist activity there". I don't make the rules I just follow them haha.

I have some badass pics on my Picassa account from Thailand and Russia. There are still more Russia and Thaland pics of me on various friend's cameras that I'm trying to hunt down. The plan is that I'm going to make a CD of all the pictures and send it to whoever wants it.

In an attempt to not get extremely caught up in story after story, I'm not going to try to catch up on the numerous ports we went to since I last updated. The hope is that I will now start being a little more into this that I have my accounts all set up and everything. In the meantime here are some awesome videos and pictures.

Here's the link to my Pictures: ch-ch-check it out!

save it, bookmark it, do whatever.

Here's all my latest videos:

Don't call it a comeback!!

Remember when I was excited about this new decade beginning and all kinds of exciting life happening? Well, the first three months of it ABSOLUTELY SUCKED! I hated it. Since January 16th I have been doing what is called "cranking". There are a few kinds of cranking that people can do. There's mess cranking, which is working down in the scullery washing dishes. There's the CPO galley, where you serve the chiefs. Then there's what I did. Billeting. I find it funny that people put these fancy names on these jobs to make them sound professional. Basically, for the last 3 months I've been cleaning bathrooms, cleaning officer's rooms, making their beds, sweeping the same passageways like 3 to 4 times a day, scrubbing walls... For lack of better words, I've been the officer's cleaning bitch.

I hated it. Everyday I would wake up, get pissed as I remembered that I worked in billeting still, get dressed and go to muster where I had to listen to 5 people tell me the same exact information as the person before them. It usually went like this.


CS1 Jones: Okay guys, line up! your boots aren't shiny enough. Hey remember we got flight
quarters at 1100 and GQ at 1300. And don't forget to clean in the corners and get
haircuts!
(Then CS1 Vista comes down)
CS1 Vista: Okay guys, remember, umm... we got flight quarters today at 1100. Who does dat?
Are you in that? Hey you need a haircut. Okay and we've got GQ at 1300! Okay,
remember, we need to clean the corners really well!

(Then the Chief walks down)
CSC Belmonte: Hey fellas, ready for another day? huh? Remember we got flight quarters today.
1100!! Don't forget! who is in that? oh yeah. OH and also GQ at 1300, so before
they call that make sure we clean deep. Especially in the corners!!
(Then the DIVO WALKS DOWN!!)
Ensign Arnold: Hey guys, I just wanna say, you're doing a good job cleaning in all the corners and
stuff. Today we got GQ and Flight quarters so make sure you know what time
you've got those at. Who is in that again? Okay yeah.


It's nuts man! I'm just like, can't you guys all walk down at one time to give us the plan of the day. Enough ranting though. I'm starting to lose it towards the end here. I've got five more days then I'll be done working with the cooks and I'll be back with the IT's.

So the idea i'm trying to give with all that is that work wise, the last three months have been the worst job i've ever had. I did it though, it's over, and now it's the next guys turn.


Outside of work though I have been doing some really cool stuff.
I went to Edo Wonderland, where I got to dress up like a Samurai and walk around this theme park all day. Here are some pics.


I stayed in a traditional Japanese hotel, where they dressed me up and fed me traditional (A.K.A. gross) Japanese food. We of course had to beer it up.





Then we headed off to Edo Wonderland. they have a really cool website too to check out if you're bored. I dressed up like a good noble Samurai, and Stinger dressed up like an evil ninja. booo! they were hating on him the whole time there. It was funny.


dangit! okay bad news, the ship's internet is messing up right now but the pics are great. If you wanna see my pics just go to this link:

Justin's Pics


but yeah, sorry about that. Nothing I can or really want to do about it right now. haha. I hope all is good with everybody back home. Sure can't wait to see you all.

Later!

New Decade

December was so fast I can't believe that it's already over. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting aboard the ship. It's 1234 AM, or in navy talk, it's 0034. It's January 1st, 2010. Happy New Year to all you guys, except for me, it's not so happy because I'm stuck on the ship for duty. Hey, somebody's gotta do it though. Guess it might as well be the new guy. alright let's get this thing going. I got a lot of catching up to do with everyone as to what I've been up to though.

This month has been fun. Being old enough to go bar hopping and roam around the Honch district of Yokosuka has been a blast. I made some friends, my first Japanese friends, Megumi and Hiroko. They are the bartenders at my favorite bar. It's called Perry's. It's always our starting point and our ending point. I walk in, they say, Hi Justin! and it's just a good time, but I think it's about time that I start to spread my wings a little farthur. Being that it was the holiday season and all my money was going into gifts and sending them, I was limited on traveling far and spending large amounts of money at one time. Now that that is all over I can't wait to see the rest of Japan!

Christmas was very interesting. It was my first time being away from home for Christmas and I was a little worried that I would end up doing nothing. That I would be spending my Christmas like I did my Thanksgiving, Taco Bell, beer, and a movie at a buddy's barrack room. At first it appeared that that was going to be the reality, but my friend Ross Carrigan told me to follow him to one of his friends house for Christmas Eve dinner. It was excellent! We had a Japanese dinner. It was called Nabe and I probably had about four bowls. Being that it was Japanese servings though, that's really not saying much. The house was this guy on our ship and his Japanese girlfriend's. It was a blast. They exchanged presents, we watched a Christmas movie, had some cake, and I saw my friend Hiroko there with her boyfriend. It was a great time. Excellent Christmas eve.

The following day I went over to my buddy Swiderski's. When I showed up around noon they already had the feast cooked and halfway eaten. I couldn't believe it. They had vegetable stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, green beans, stuffing. It was great. I stuffed my face again. This time with American servings! I definitely gained about 10 pounds that whole trip. I'll post those pictures when I get my hands on them.

Overall I'm having a good time kickin it with good friends:


And figuring out Japan a little bit more every day:




***Good news*** I am buying a new camera tomorrow!

Also tomorrow I'm headed over to Ninja Land in Edo. It is going to be so much fun. They dress you up in Ninja Suits, give you swords, theres mazes, shows to watch, and all kinds of fun ninja/samurai stuff. It's supposed to be a whole Feudal age of Japan park. I can't wait. I'll have my new camera along with me for a new adventure.

Looking ahead, I'm very excited about the decade to come. This is a huge decade for me. My life will be taking some very drastic turns over the course of the 2010's. I may get married, I may have kids, I will go to college, visit dozens of countries, see lots of cool things around the world, see lots of pretty girls around the world, (haha i had to throw that one in there). This is a big decade of my life. My 20's. I got to thinking earlier, I wonder which years are more life-changing, the 20's or the 30's. I guess one day I will be able to answer that to myself. But until then, in my current situation... Fair winds and smooth sailing baby.

oh and.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I took this picture in Kamakura, can't wait to see more stuff like it.

We All Have Similar Stories

So far, in every new home the navy has made for me, which is really only 3, I find friends that all seem to have similar backgrounds, thought processes, goals, and self concepts as me. Some force surrounds me with people that are the type of people that I would generally like to be with. Birds of a feather often flock together as the saying goes.

Me and all the people I've met in the navy came from the similar crews. The one that doesn't really do too many illegal things, but it's pretty clear isn't about to do anything great either. The one that everybody knows the guys and loves them but they don't always get the best grades and aren't going to go to any major universities for sports. They may be smart guys and great athletes but something about the system just doesn't quite fit their skill sets. Then they start to fall behind after graduation, dropping out of community college or getting in trouble with the law.

That's where the people that I've met come in. We were the ones who didn't let that happen to us. We could have easily stayed home and done those things but we were the ones who knew that we were something special and that we were going to do something great and we needed a first step to do it. We all have different goals in mind but we all share the knowledge that we want our lives to be honored for great things.

My dad once told me that the friends you meet in the navy will be different from any other friends you may ever have. Maybe not better, but different in that there is some sort of understanding and respect that will never diminish. He told me that they will be the type of friends that even if you haven't talked to them in 20 years you can look them up if you're in town and they will open their doors and let you spend the night and have dinner with their family. It's really pretty amazing. I honestly feel that way about everyone that I've met and called my friend in the navy.

(From Boot Camp)Scott Griffhorst, Andy Sims, (From A-School)Timothy Cahoe, Jordan King, John Hagan,(From here in Yoko) Yonnas Alemayehu, Shane, McCall, Jason Jones, Dung Pham, and William Swiderski are all people that I call friends and I would do the same for them with the bond that we served together and knowing that we would go down fighting together, even though I'm an IT and probably will never see that happen. haha but you know what I mean. Two people though mostly stand out to me would have to be Stinger and my main homie Renish. It's crazy how well I get along with these dudes. It's that desire to want to be great.

Stinger, wanted to serve his country do something would make his family, his country and himself proud, he wanted to be a Seal, he didn't make it his first time around, and after working out with him a few times, I know there is no way in hell I would ever even want to make it, those workouts are WAAAAY too intense to be doing EVERY SINGLE DAY! I hung in there for awhile, but it was only the beginning and shit was getting harder every week. That guy is going to make it, he has to. It means too much to him.

And Renish is like, seriously, he's equivilent to the best friends I've had my entire life. We got similar game plans for our lives too. We're gonna try to get out go to the same college, basically do something that has to do with music and the culture of our generation and that makes an impact and spreads the desire for people to stop being so fuckin stupid and open their eyes. To start wanting to be knowledgeable again. And something that makes us filthy rich.. DUH!. It's tough to explain but he will always be one of my best friends for sure.

Point of the blog is: Like my Dad said, I spent barely any time with these guys but they somehow are some of the best friends I'll ever have known. It's pretty awesome and I can't wait to see them all again one day.

left to right: King, Ashley Darlington (The girls can be cool too), Renish


Cahoe crazy Redhead from Kentucky


Hagan


Stinger


Oh and congratulations to Stinger and Cahoe for making IT3 so soon.