No room on the train!

I am sick....you know, that kind of sick where you lay in bed feeling too yucky to go to the Doctor.  I had a slight cold and I pushed it a little hard.  I did have a friend here mention that I have been going non stop since I got here.  As I look back on all the pictures I have and the blogs I have yet to write I think she may have a point.!!  I am on my way back to good health, and so happy about that since my in-laws are on their way here in three days!  Their tickets were $800 EACH (yes, round trip!)  That is an exceptional price but keep a look out and plan your trip to see us!

One of the reasons I pushed the limits on my cold was to attend the Farewell dinner of two of the new friends I have made.  We went to Gonpachi for dinner. This restaurant was featured in the movie Kill Bill and was the back drop for a big fight scene.  It also has an amazing atmosphere and incredible food.  A great evening and in spite of my wagyu beef, perfect sashimi, and the sparkling saki, the train ride home will be most memorable for me. 

Since we moved here I have heard about the trains being so packed that people are pressed up against each other and they even have employees called "shovers" whose job it is to stand on the platform and shove people into the train so the doors can close.  I have told Gary that if I had to get on a train like that I would just stay on the platform and wait for the trains to get less crowded.  I never thought about being on the train and having more and more people board at each and every stop.

 Fortunately for me I was traveling with cough drops a friend had just purchased for me.  As I realized I would be about three inches away from about four different people's faces, I popped a cough drop in my mouth and passed them out to the friends around me.  One of the ladies in our group, Cindy, is a Cross Fit instructor and she was right next to me.  I told her I may flip out and try to claw my way out and that she should be aware of how much I hated what we were going through.  She made me laugh and after 30 minutes we finally began losing passengers instead of gaining.  If I could make you understand for one minute that my entire back, rear end, thighs, and calves were pressed up against a stranger, while the front of me is half-pressed on Cindy and the other half is pressed along a Japanese man who was playing a small portable video game with earplugs in his ears.  The train is very quiet with the exception of us giggling, and Cindy making perfect comments.  It was awful.  It was 10 pm and most of the people were still in work clothes just returning home.  Count your blessings next time your are stuck in traffic....it is better than touching strangers...or touching friends! (On the same trip, I was in a full body press against a friend and that was just as awkward as being shoved into the Japanese stranger!!)

I need to head to bed even though I haven't even mentioned my day spent at a Japanese High School, our tour of the Sensoji Temple, or my trip to get my hair done!  My hairdresser is a big surfer.....he always has great stories......

Our home and life on base

This post is going to focus on our life on base Naval Air Facility Atsugi.  We live on the base and Gary has about a 5 minute walk to work.  It seems crazy that he would ever drive to work, but just like when I worked at Brandon Middle down the street from our house in Virginia, sometimes it is raining or you have to run errands at lunch.  The short walk is convenient since we still have only one car.  The area we live in is also a short walk to the Officer's Club (now known as the Conference Center) and the golf course - both with good food.  This makes it really nice to be able to go out to dinner and take a short walk home.  The weather is perfect (read Fall!) now so we are trying to make the most of it.  There are only about 15 families who live in the area we live in. It is very safe and the teenagers can play in the street, just like the younger kids (see Casey and her friends working the hula hoops).

We have a big house (1,950 sq feet) and yard compared to most of the other American families on base and certainly compared to most Japanese families.  We have used it to host a few parties already with over 40 people in attendance so no space is wasted!!  Here is a view of our main living room/family room - enough room for the guitar, so we are doing fine.

It is a ranch style with 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms.  The best part is the sign out in front!  Gary will never get lost.....Funny little details would be our metal doors to each bedroom and the cement walls.  Most of our pictures are hung by putting sticky velcro on the back of the picture frame.

The church on base is the place we have been going on Sundays.  It was a Dojo that General MacArthur  decided would be the new base church.  Outside it looks very different then most churches but the inside is very familiar.

The gym is so close and all the classes and equipment are free!  I go more often then I did in the states but can still manage to make a few excuses as to why I just can't make it!!  I have been busy with functions in support of the families living here.  We also do quite a few events with the wives of the Japanese service men.  Just this Friday I began teaching English to a group of Japanese women most of whom are in their 60's.  They think I am so young and that is refreshing since just about once a week on base someone tells me that I remind them of their Mom.....
There are about 8 women who have been getting together, leaning English for over 10 years.  It is a great gig because they pay me for chatting, learning and having fun.  I think it is so neat that they continue to make this effort and work hard to improve. None of them have any ties to people in America.  Only about half the class has ever been to the states or Canada.  I have invited them all to stay with me when we get back home.  They have three years to get the airfare together!  Tamako's husband is the head priest in the Buddhist temple in the town of Ebina.  Tomoko is another one of the women in the group and she is very shy and thinks her English is not good.  If my Japanese gets as good as her English I will be thrilled! Tomoe is better at English then many people I know and I think spends her free time reading college text books!  How I am going to keep those three names straight is beyond me.  I know I am going to learn so much from them.  I have another student I will see every 6 weeks or so to go to the movies and then talk about them.  My plan is to hold at that point for awhile to try to make sure I keep life a little balanced.  The social events for the month of December are piling up already!!

I will close with this view of the field down the road from our house.  You can see Mt Fuji in the background already covered in snow. Everything is quite a departure from anywhere we have lived before, but we are really beginning to feel at home.

A trip to northern Japan via the bullet train!

One Navy Ball was not enough! We attended ours in Atsugi on Thursday night and then headed north for the event in Misawa the next day.  Admiral Carter was the guest speaker at this second event so he and his wife Julie flew up with Gary, and I volunteered to bring Casey and their kids up on the train.  It seemed like a great idea.  It would be cooler in Misawa and maybe we could see some fall leaves.  I love these kids and knew they would be no problem but I underestimated the challenge of figuring out train connections.  We were all over the place in Tokyo trying to make our train and ended up missing the final train by 3 minutes.  Due to the amazing kindness of the ticket agent I happened to turn to crying, we were able to rebook on a train that left an hour later. The difference between a train and a plane (besides the obvious goes in the air part) is that someone looks at your ticket on an airplane and confirms that you are in the right place.  Train travel means you are more than welcome to get on a train going the wrong direction and pay more to get yourself where you need to be! Well, we made it and the kids rolled with it all just fine.  On the train I had a fun meal; it was a beef and rice bowl.  You pull a sring and it begins to heat up.  The box steams and you can see from the picture the price tag actually turned brown!  The tray table also got very warm so I don't think there is a market for these products in America.  Someone would sue.

The train goes so fast but you can't really feel how fast it is going.  I was able to download an app that is a speedometer.  This is a screen shot of how many miles per hour we were going!

When we got to Misawa we were not disappointed.  It was green and beautiful.  We spent one day driving to Lake Towada and enjoyed the journey every minute of the way. It was a winding road with the beginning of fall leaves and waterfalls every mile or two.   

We stopped at a local fruit stand where we could buy mushrooms still on a log, garlic, pears, apples and plums.  We tried a mochi on a stick treat that was ok but so cool to see being made.  Later we stopped at Nicco Cakes to bring a treat to our friends the Wrights, who live in Misawa and had us all over their house for dinner. As we were driving that day we saw small wheat looking tee pees in fields. LuAnn Wright told us over dinner, she had just gone on a field trip with her son and we found out that is how they harvest the rice! Each child was given a sharp scythe and was able to participate in the harvesting of rice. (Both of her sons are under 10....a sharp tool seems dangerous but all survived.)

The next day, after a fantastic brunch, we headed to Shipwreck Beach.  It is called that because there are many old wrecks up on the sand.  We were on a bay that opens up to the Sea of Japan. I really wanted to go here because I have heard you can find glass fishing balls that were used as floats by Japanese fisherman before they used plastic.  We found none but had a blast exploring the beach and finding cool rocks. Casey and her friend Mary took about 12 million pictures and they can be found on Instagram if you are followers!

It was a great first trip and one I hope to do again before too long!  Near that area they have hot springs and wild monkeys that sometimes sit in them!  That is worth a trip right there.  Monkeys in a hot spring!

Cars in Japan - funny names and customs

Sorry for the absence from the bloggosphere, but we received our household goods! Great news, but it means more time spent unpacking and less time exploring.  I promise my next blog will include something about our house on base!  It is finally starting to look like a home.

In the meantime, here's something interesting and unique to Japan. 
Most of the car names we have seen are verbs:
A Spike, a Scrum, and a March ...

We have seen a Note, a Dunk, and a Move

How about a Logo, a Vitz (which means joke in German) , and a Joy?

But none of these can compare to THE CHODE! 

Now if anyone has a clue what that means, please let me know!  And why do you think the Japanese want English words (odd English words) to describe their cars?  The car I am wanting is called a Moco and it is so cute!  It looks kind of like a square shaped bug.  Our current car, a Honda CRV, is great and runs well but as it gets colder and the rainy season begins, I think we need two cars.  

Interesting things to note are that the Japanese people all back into parking spots.  They are good at it and parking is fast for them.  The cars have a button that retracts the side mirrors and cars are usually parked all tucked in. I also love the unique way they have found to park with limited space.  They have parking  that is like a car elevator.  A car goes on and rises up and another car parks underneath. 

Finally, I saw this guy in a parking garage and had to take a picture.  Why a person would want it to look like they were in the drivers seat I don't know.  They don't have car pool lanes but this image would fool many in the states!

Stay tuned for another update soon.  On my next blog I will give you a tour of our home and a glimpse of what is now our normal life in Atsugi. 

Random info about Japan you may not find anywhere else!!

I have been experiencing so many new things and have so much to tell you all that this post has to be an ADD edition!  I have to jump onto many different topics so hold on tight, here we go!

Manhole covers

Japanese put human effort into making their environment beautiful and this includes their manhole covers.  Each one seems to be different and some are even painted.  I take a picture every time I can (without getting run over)!  I would love to make some prints and frame them as a group.  When you walk past one that is exceptional it is like you just received a special gift available only to those who take the time to really look.

Critters

We have a lot of critters.  We have a constant hum/buzz//vibration of cicadas.  They are really loud.  My Dad has tinnitus and I think I have a new found idea of what it must be like when his ears are really ringing.  When I first heard it I thought it was an equipment sound and it really took a few days for me to believe it was derived from nature!  They are shedding right now and we found 6 perfectly empty exoskeletons that look like they made a small slit in the back and slipped out.  They are not my favorite.

We also have big nasty black crows that are mean and aggressive.  People with small children are briefed not to allow their children to eat a sandwich outside.  Crows will fly down, take the food, and scare a kids half to death.  I think Alfred Hitchcock made a trip to Japan before he filmed The Birds. My mother-in-law has never been a crow fan.  They will be moving further down her list after their visit in November!

My favorite has to be the crickets that are in my house and chirp only at night.  I haven't let it bother me too much since I think that they are said to bring good luck.  The highlight was a few nights ago when a cricket was chirping away in my bedroom, Gary had a light snore going and his Blackberry makes a gong sound whenever he gets an e mail.  I was laying there trying to ignore the chirps and Gary's phone just starts going off.  I felt like I was in a bad old Asian movie of some kind. I put up with it all for about 15 minutes when I excused myself, wrapped up in a few beach towels, put in ear plugs and hit the rack in our guest room!!  We will have blankets in a week when our things come Friday so if you are thinking of visiting you will not have to suffer the same fate.

The grand finale is this fabulous centipede-like catterpillar .  It was crawling along and has a little antennae on its back that bobs from side to side!  It looked just like the dragons the Chinese are always parading under for Chinese New Year!  Some of the centipedes are poisonous and can bite.  I never want to see one in my house but I enjoyed this beauty outside!

Costco

I love this store.  I just love it.  I love the items they sell, I think they have great customer service and sometimes I just have to get a hot dog!  I don't have to live without it here!!  I am so excited!  It is like walking into something so familiar and yet there are some real differences.   For example, when you get a sample of their fresh salmon, they just slice a sashimi sized slice and put that little morsel in a cup!  Oishii! (That means delicious!) Also along with cheese pizza and pepperoni there is seafood pizza.  Same price as the other two but loaded with shrimp, scallops and fresh veggies. 

The Japanese have fallen in love with bread and as I looked around their store with a bread section three times the size of ours, the days are numbered for their skinny little bodies! They also had a wall of bacon.  It was bacon cured many different ways, cut in many different thicknesses and in general as much bacon as I have ever seen.  The cart escalator was a new experience and they trays of sushi we got for lunch were amazing.  I will be there often.

Pets

For reasons I am still unclear on, puppies and kittens are VERY expensive here.  Many of the larger chains have pets for sale and the prices are astounding.  The Golden pictured here is 128,000 yen.  That is about $1,500.  For.a.puppy.  I bought my car here for the same price.  Keep in mind this puppy still poops, sheds and tears things up!  The dog food we used in the states sells out in town for $120 a bag.  Needless to say, our babies are doing fine on their new food available on base.  I keep debating the bag of dried whole fish as dog treats....their breath is so bad now I just can not imagine what that would do.

Church

We have found a really cool Japanese/English church that reminds us a lot of our home church, Vineyard Community Church in Va Beach.  Here is their web site www.newhope-yokahama.org.  It was started from a church in Hawaii and we actually say Aloha at the beginning of the service like we are at a luau!  It is wonderful but it does require a few trains to get there and we are not sure yet if we have landed there.  We also like being a part of the base community church and that is of course a 5 minute drive.  Time will tell but check out the web site!  It is so cool to sing familiar songs in half English, half Japanese!

I have so many more stories to tell!  The next update has to be about cars.  They have the funniest names and driving here is really a trip.  I had a couple of sad days last week.  I would have loved to sit with a friend and just be......the newness of everything can be exhausting.  This too shall pass and it wont be long until this adventure will come to a close and we'll be back home.  In the mean time, stay tuned!!

Fish markets and high fashion

We have been in Japan for two weeks and three days, not that we are counting!  It is hard to believe that we are here at all. On one hand it seems like we have been gone for so long from all that is familiar and on the other hand we have settled in so well that it is hard to believe that we just got here.

Today is Monday of Labor Day weekend.  We decided it was the perfect time to get away since the Japanese do not share this holiday and we expected the trains to be empty.  Our closest train station is a solid 30 minute walk from our house.  Casey has done this walk and she still talks about it...We have a way to cheat this a little by parking at Gary's work and walking 2 minutes to a bus and for about $3.00 per person you can get to the train.  This is what we did today.  

Figuring out the train schedule is made easier with technology and they are easier to navigate than you would think they would be! We made it to the biggest fish market in the world,Tsukiji, about an hour too late.  We were able to walk around and grasp the magnitude of the place but missed seeing the big fish that makes them so famous.  Smelled them though!  Plus, we got a great view of the thousands of Styrofoam containers that held the fish earlier in the day.

Gary and I made an attempt to see this spectacular sight in 1992, and it was closed that day.  Two strikes...
During our travels, we had to descend about three levels down into the subway system.  I am not much for deep, cavernous, holes in the ground....and tubes to travel in.  After two steep levels, I was telling Casey that we were very close to hell...she does not think I am funny, still.  Luckily I am also cheap and I was able to get over it as soon as we made a price comparison!  The subway was not crowded and the waiting areas were roomy so I have nothing to complain about.  We had decided to head to Harajuku.  This is a high fashion district and it did not disappoint!  We saw girls dressed like Anime characters, crazy eye make-up and amazing clothes. None of this is an option for Casey since she would look silly dressed in anime, the eye makeup is a no go and the clothes were NOT affordable!

We came home and we are getting ready for the normal part of our lives, school, work and for me orientation classes to familiarize myself with the base and all the great programs they have to offer!  

We miss home.....we keep meeting people who remind us of people we have left in VA.....It is not easy.  Casey and I know we have connected with people we will have a hard time leaving behind when the time comes.  This is the blessing of a military life!  Sad good byes means making new friends, that lead to another sad good bye!!  For right now, it is all Hellos and we are loving it!