I changed the top image to better reflect my current location and state of mind - complete with a broken tree to symbolize all the wreckage around here.

I’ve now been back in OK for a full week and I’m starting to get back into the swing of things. No, I don’t have a job and I’m not signed up for college classes just yet, but I thought that after 5 years of someone else telling me what to do I deserved a little off time. So far I’ve visited relatives in Dallas and Missouri, hung out with my family a lot, and reconnected with a few friends at one of my brother’s shows. All in all, not too bad.

Kana and I are still saying in close contact. Skype makes takes the sting off the long distance by letting me actually see her every few days. Of course I miss her terribly, but I think it’s important for me to establish myself here, in the civilian world, before she comes here for good. For those of you counting, it’s only 3 weeks until she’s here in Oklahoma. After seeing her world for 4 years now, I can’t wait to give her a taste of Oklahoma.

I’ve added a few pictures to my flickr site for your viewing pleasure. Just some random shots from around the lake house. I bought another lens and an off-camera flash because I’m planning to try my hand at amateur event photography. If you’re in need of a photographer, please shoot me an email.

I arrived back in the U-S of A this morning at 9:30 a.m. - meaning that I got here the morning before I left (?)  The whole time travel thing is still a mystery to me.  I’m not out processing at Bangor Sub Base near Seattle and I’ll be here for about a week.  Shoot me an email or get ahold of me on Facebook.  I’m planning on going Seattle sightseeing tomorrow, so expect pictures of the first Starbucks and Space Needle!

Back in OK soon!  No worries!

After a little over two years, I’m finally making my way back stateside today. My bags are packed, my house and car are gone and now I’m just chilling in Starbucks waiting for my bus to show up.

From here I’ll spend 7-10 days in Seattle out-processing and then it’s off to Tulsa. I’ll post here and on facebook more specifics.

On a bit of the random - I’ve been listening to Amy Winehouse lately. She’s got a very unique sound. Also, I become obsessed with a little percussion instrument the Japanese call the Asarato. Anyone have an idea what they’re called elsewhere? I bought four of them so me and my bro can unlock their secrets.

The movers came today and packed up my little life here in Japan. In typical Japanese fashion, there two guys and they had my house packed and on a truck in two hours flat. It feels a bit odd to be in a completely empty house, which is why I’m at Starbucks writing this post, just like my first year in Yokosuka.

This was really one of the first concrete indicators to me that my life as I know it is about to change — and this time I think it’s almost completely for the better. From here on out I’m responsible for my success or failure; the Navy doesn’t have any say. I’m really excited about that. Even more exciting is starting my new life with Kanako. I just have such a good feeling about everything and I can’t wait to see how it all pans out.

Once again, I’ll be home on or around the 22nd of January, so if you’d like to meet up, drop me a line. Also, Kanako’s dates are set in stone as well. She’s be in OK from the 19th of February until the 15th of March. Drop me a line - lane.randy@gmail.com - or find me on facebook.

I know I should be writing about new years, but this happened first and it was TOO funny. Kanako and I took a trip to the island of Jogashima, a little known island at the tip of the Miura peninsula (the peninsula Yokosuka Naval Base is on). This island is already known for being super windy and we went on an exceptionally windy day. As Kanako was getting out of the car a violent wind pulled the door almost off its hinges. After trying to no avail to force the door back in to place Kanako bravely held on to the car door as we drove to the nearest gas station where some nice attendants kindly duct-taped it into place. Kana snapped a picture of the tape on the door before we got it fixed the following day. It’s still not fixed, we just added a piece of metal to the latch to compensate for it being a few inches out of place. Welp, I guess it’s good that I’m giving the car away for free!

I’ve had a lot of people wondering about how I proposed to my amazing girlfriend Kanako, so I thought I’d write a post and share it with everyone all at once.

I proposed on Christmas Eve at her favorite sushi restaurant about two blocks from Yokosuka-chuo train station. We had a nice romantic Christmas Even meal, and as it came to a close I asked for crab salad, which was the signal that one of sushi chefs was to put the ring I’d previously given him on the conveyer belt going around the restaurant. If you haven’t been to a conveyer belt sushi joint, the chef makes a selection of sushi and puts it on a conveyer belt that goes in front of every table so customers can choose what they want. Of course I had him put it close enough to us that no one else could grab it

Before it got to our table I said, “I think I’m done ordering off the menu, but if something I like comes on the belt I think I’ll grab it.” Just then the ring came by on a plate by itself. I asked her, “Do you think you can get that for me?” She was in shock and didn’t know what to think. Eventually she grabbed the plate with the ring on it, I took the ring, got down on one knee and proposed to her. All the lights in the restaurant went dark except for the light right above our table. She kept asking, “Really? This isn’t a joke?” and finally she said yes. The people at the tables around ours (I didn’t know this until later) were staged friend of the sushi chef and they were all armed with party poppers. As soon as she said yes and started hugging me they all cracked their poppers, clapped, and started shouting “Omedetou gozaimasu!” which means “Congratulations!” A waiter brought out a strawberry cake with candles on top and we blew them out to another round of clapping and congratulatory shouts.

Needless to say, she was completely blown away. She kept giving me her big surprised expression, so I think my mission of catching her off guard was accomplished.

Anyway, I’m really happy that now I can spend my life with such an amazing girl. Those of you who live here in Japan know how great she is, and for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Kanako, she’ll be coming for a visit in late February - early March. As for now, our plans are to get legally married this summer, and start her immigration paperwork. Once she’s cleared to live in the states with me (takes between 3 to 6 months), we’ll have a wedding sometime around this time next year. Thanks for all of your kind words and support in this very big step in my life!

Here’s a video of Kanako’s reaction

Last week I washed my trusty ipod shuffle and the poor thing didn’t feel like turning on again.  Without a workout ipod I was slowly but surely going the way of lethargic.  I decided to check out the Nike + website, after hearing about it on a commercial.  I already bought compatible shoes without meaning to, so I went the rest of the way and bought an ipod nano and the little sensor that goes in your shoe.

Now I’m not trying to sell anyone anything, I’m just very impressed at how well this little thing worked.  I just got back from my first run with the device, and let me tell you how nice it was.  Not only could I listen to my own high-energy music, but a soothing female voice politely turned down the music and gave me updates on my progress every five minutes.  Getting closer to my goal of 45 minutes, of course the updates get a little more frequent.  One of my biggest problems here is there’s no set courses near where I live and I don’t always remember when I’m half-way done so I can turn back around.  Of course with this nifty gizmo I got a very friendly reminder that I was halfway there.

I think one of the nicest things is it also interfaces with a personalized website so you can track your progress, see where you tend to tire out, that sort of thing.  If you want to take a peek at my first attempt click here.

—-

‘Tis the season for fun themed Christmas parties!  So far I’ve been to a “Cereal Party” and a “Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.”  The cereal party was my friend Gus’ attempt to get rid of cereal he had bought in bulk by inviting a bunch of friends over.  I’m not going to lie, I went through a box of KIX all by myself.  The second party was the brainchild of my friend Stefen and my lovely girlfriend Kanako.  Only 4 people participated, but it was good fun anyway.  Note to the wise: if you’re looking for an ugly Christmas sweater, don’t waste your time in the men’s department.  You can see photos of both shindigs by clicking the flickr link on the right side of the page.

My dad wrote me an email the other day informing me that Nan (short for “Nanny,” my awesome grandmother!) wanted to see some updates, so here’s a little bit of what’s going on in my life.

One of the biggest changes is my relationship rollercoaster. You may remember me posting about Sara and I calling it quits shortly after I pulled back in from summer cruise. About three weeks later, in true “I wasn’t looking for love” fashion, I started dating my long-time friend Kanako. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and I was really searching for a way to poetically word this so it would seem less impulsive and heartless to those not privy to all the details, but I really felt like Kana was put in my life by God, and that we should pursue a relationship despite the obvious difficulties. Of course I’m extremely aware of how this all seems, and I feel extremely bad for how hurtful this must be for Sara, but after examining everything in my heart, my head and in prayer I know that this is exactly what I should be doing. Still, if you need more clarification, shoot me an email and I’ll see if I can’t enlighten you.
For here on out I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about Kanako and the amazing effect she’s had on my life, but for now I just thought I’d better spell things for those who hadn’t heard.

So, with that out of the way, the rest of my life pretty much consists of packing up and getting all the paperwork arranged for transition to civilian life. I spent last week week in Transition Assistance class learning how to write resumes and make the most of my G.I. Bill, and this week I’ve been scheduling appointments for my pack-out and housing inspection. Of course, being me, I also swung by Outdoor Recreation and signed up for three snowboarding trips. As for official dates - I’ll be back on American soil (for the first time in two years!) on January 12th. I’ll have to go through some out processing in Washington and then I’ll be a free man on the 22nd. I don’t have much planned after that so if you’d like to hang out, offer me a job, give me cash, anything really, I’ll be completely open to suggestion.

Thanks to all the loyal readers (mostly people related to me) that have stuck with this site through all the down time.  I’m finally coming down the home stretch in my Navy career - and it seemed like just yesterday I began this fantastic journey.

I returned from my final deployment aboard USS Kitty Hawk Tuesday and now I’m in the process of out-processing and transitioning to a civilian life.  After living in Japan for four years, I’ll also be making the transition back to being an American again.  I’m sure there’ll be lots of stories of pain and misery before I get there, so stay tuned and I’ll try to keep the updates coming.  At least being stuck on a hunk of metal out to sea won’t be my excuse for not updating anymore.

So a little update on the past month - We pulled out Oct 21st for our winter cruise.  We hit the port of Muroran, Japan almost a week later.  It was a very tiny place, but I had a good time nonetheless at a little hot spring resort nearby called Noboribetsu.  We pulled out of there four days later for 3 weeks at sea, an exercise with Japan Maritime Self Defense Force and what we thought would be another port visit in Hong Kong.  In case you hadn’t heard (it’s been all over the news) the Chinese government blocked our arrival so we decided to come home early instead.  Give the choice I’d have rather come back to Yokosuka early.

Look for more updates later.  I didn’t take many pictures, but I’ll upload them as soon as I can.

I know I haven’t delievered on my promise to update more frequently, but it’s mainly because I’m sorting though a few things in my life right now that I’d rather work through in private before making them known publicly.

The inport period has gone by extremely quick, and now I find myself getting ready for another, albeit quick, deployment.  The upside is that it’s my last ride and about a quarter the duration of the summer cruise.  I’m hoping that I can grow closer to God and learn His plan for my upcoming transtion to civlian life.  I’m learning every day, especially lately, that He makes the seemingly impossible possible.  How awesome.   

Still, I’m a little anxious about all the exact details of my upcoming transition, so if you could pray for me, it’d be much appreciated.  Although I’m grateful for the freedoms I’m about enjoy as a civlian, I’m a little anxious to leave the comfort the Navy affords.  I’m not looking forward to thinking about insurance, healthcare, job security, GPA’s and part-time jobs.