Friendship Festival

So, when I said every weekend up until Will deploys is full…I meant it. After all the festivities of Badman week we had one more big event before the boat pulls out. 

Friendship Festival is a day where Atsugi base opens up to the Japanese public. It is a huge deal because it only happens 1 day a year and is always extremely crowded. There were over 40,000 guest and the line to get in the front gate was over 2 hours long. 

Most every squadron will set up tents where we sell merchandise we designed ourselves, so we can make money to use for other events throughout the year. Will and I were assigned to work the tents on the flight line all day. The flight line is by far the busiest area because there are jets parked all the way down where guest can take pictures and look at them. I have never seen such chaos, excitement and CAMERAS! Will made his japanese modeling debut as well…

 

Will on the Left and Jimmy on the right

This year was not only our first festival but also my first time being the merchandise coordinator for the Diamondback wives! I took this job at my first wives meeting back in January when we first arrived. My job was to design the merchandise we would sell at the festival in hopes we would make a good amount of money. 

Talk about pressure…

I did my research on the Japanese culture on the items that would be most popular. With input from some other wives, I came up with these pieces:

1. Umbrella 

 2. Sweat Towel 

3. Keychains

4. Hand Towels 
(used to dry hands after public bathrooms because they do not have paper towels)

5. Re-usable grocery bags
6. Canvas bags signed by the guys of the squadron


For the most part the items sold very well! The guys sold almost everything and watching people flock to them was so entertaining. 

Overall it was a fun day and interesting experience! The weather was beautiful and any excuse to hang out with the whole squadron is worth it. Crazy to think we still have 2 more of these festivals to go through! 

On a side note, Will and I went deployment shopping today and our guest room is now a boat packing zone. Seeing it has made me a bit anxious, but we are taking it day by day and enjoying every second we get until he leaves! Tomorrow we are going to do a ropes/zip line course with some friends so at least we have that to look forward to!

Love you guys and Happy Mothers day to all you incredible moms out there! 

xoxo,
Caroline and Will