Happy New Year!

We haven't had any major events going on, so here are a few happenings in January for the Franklin's...

We started the year off with a quick visit down the road to one of the shrines. New Years Day is the most celebrated holiday for the Japanese. On the first day of the year they visit their local shrine, and pray for blessings for the new year. We're not into the whole "praying at a shrine" thing, so we just strolled around and took in the sights. The Japanese purchase fortunes and if they don't like it, they tie it to a fence. Guess there were a lot of crummy ones out there!

Of course as with any Japanese celebration, there is food everywhere. I have to admit, I really went so I could get a bag of cotton candy!

We had the opportunity to celebrate our good friend Paul's promotion to Captain. In the Marine Corps, once you get promoted, it is customary to have a "Wet down" or basically a promotion party.

Congratulations Paul and Caralee!

The weekend before John left (again), we drove down south to Okinawa World.

Of course it is a tourist trap, but we heard great things about the huge natural cave you can tour. It is a little over 3 miles long and I really do not want to know how far underground we were! There is a nice pathway all the way through that is well lit, and it took almost 30 minutes to go through the cave.

I have never seen stalagmites and stalactites in real life and it was fascinating to see how they grow.

Outside of the cafe they have sort of a craft mall. in one area we were able to watch glass blowing.

After John headed off to his final deployment here in Oki (woo hoo!!!!) I thought it would be great to have some girl time. A lot of our husbands are gone, so what better way to relax than get an amazing pedicure! I do not think a pedicure in the States could ever compare to these! It was fun to chat with my best girlfriends while getting pampered. Here is the final product!

Seriously, they have books at least 2 inches thick with pages of different designs to choose from! I will miss this place!
January is almost over, so we are one month closer to moving back to the US!