AOB...LAST DAY!!!

Friday, February 14th

Praise the Lord it's over!  Today the Commander (or chief or something that's like...right below Admiral I think....no idea) of the whole naval base came and did his closing brief.  It was really interesting.  He talked about how some people might totally immerse themselves in the Japanese culture and even respond to questions in Japanese.  They might even decorate their place in traditional Japanese decor.  He said there will be other people that will completely shut out everything Japanese.  They will get agitated at the thought of even leaving base and they will get angry at the people who are immersed in it.  He said there was nothing wrong with that, but he hoped that we would at least try to experience a new culture.  He said that we can miss our families and still have a great time.  They are two totally different feelings.  He also talked about how we subconsciously try to fit in.  By the end of the week, all of the civilians in the class were wearing gray or blue to match the blue navy uniforms.  It was CRAZY!  We all had a reason we chose our outfits, but he said our subconscious wanted us to "fit in".  Interesting.

I don't have any pictures from today, so just look at this pretty Sakura drink that actually tasted really gross.

Next up was all of the driving information.  Man!  They really want to scare you!  The guy basically said that if anyone dies in an accident that you are in, you will go to jail for years and years...even if it wasn't your fault.  The Japanese's thought on this is that there wouldn't have been an accident if you hadn't been on the road.  He told a story about a 17 year old boy who did EVERYTHING right.  He was going the correct speed, he stopped at the stop sign and then out of nowhere, an old lady on a bike ran into the BACK passenger door and died.  The boy's family had to pay $170,000 to keep him out of jail and then after his 1 year suspension, they still deported him back to America.  HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!!!  TERRIFYING!!!  I am no longer excited to drive here!!

We took our written test and about 2 questions into it, we found out that the base was shutting down due to a snowstorm.  So, we finished up the questions and got our kids as fast as we could.  We are SO GLAD to be done with this really difficult week.