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!!