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.