Random Happenings...

Random #1 

Tim's work recently finished up their mustache growing contest.  I have to say that I enjoy these competitions because it forces Tim to shave off his beard!  Love it! 

Day 1 of the contest = Clean-shaven

Day 14 = 'stache

They had four winners, but unfortunately Tim wasn't one of them.  Thankfully, he didn't even come close to Most Prepubescent.  The winner of Most Creative basically shaved a lightening bolt into his goatee, the Creepiest 'Stache went to the head of the project and the Best Overall had a 'stache similar in style to Tim's, but accessorized it with a cowboy hat and aviators.  It's silly and there are no prizes, but for some reason, the guys do this on every project.  You might be wondering "What about the ladies?!" Well don't worry about them, they get to judge the contest.  

Random #2 

We went shopping today in town and we found some awesome things! First, I finally found an umbrella Tim and I both like...

My favorite part is the handle:

In case you haven't noticed from my pictures, umbrellas are super popular here.  We've seen entire stores dedicated to umbrellas and most department stores, like the one we bought our at, have large sections devoted to displaying and selling them.  I've wanted to get a "proper" umbrella the entire time we've been here, because while it might not be a Japanese designer, it is a totally Japanese thing to have.  

We also stopped by the local Gap store, where I found awesome socks...

THEY HAVE WATERMELONS!  Yessssss....add one more to the collection.

Random #3 

We successfully made pancakes! :-)  And they were delicious! 

Although, they would have been more delicious if this...

...wasn't molasses.  :-( 

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A visit from the Parents: Part 3

Day 7:

Finally Timmy got a weekend, so all four of us got on the train to Tokyo on for the final days of T&P's visit.

Our hotel was located in Urayasu, located almost halfway in-between the Disney Resort and Narita airport, our two big destinations that weekend.  After dropping off all of our bags, we headed to Akihabara (of course) and didn't take any pictures (did you expect more?).  This trip had a purpose though, T&P graciously packed our Wii, but we forgot that we switched our cable to HDMI.  Our current TV situation doesn't work with the HDMI cable, so we had to find a new, original cable.  That was a lot explanation, wasn't it?  Hmmm...sorry 'bout that.

After finding what we needed, we headed to Ueno to check out the park area and grab dinner.  We found a great market area and saw some early cherry blossoms.  It was awesome!  I had to take the next picture in honor of my Lion parents...you follow me everywhere! :-)

There were quite a few traditional-looking buildings, temples and shrines within the park.

And as we were heading towards the main street for dinner, we heard the familiar Japanese sirens and saw some emergency vehicles.  This picture is for my nephew, who I think of every time I see/hear an EMERGENCY...

Yes, the light bar is raised up off the roof.  That only happens when they're parked and I don't know why.  Weird. 

We ended the day with dinner at a Korean BBQ place.  It was DELICIOUS! Thankfully, they also had an English menu, so we didn't have to be worried about ordering cow heart or chicken livers.  Yessssss.

Day Eight:

After a breakfast at the hotel, we caught the bus and headed to DisneySea.  Unfortunately it was raining, but we hoped that this would shorten the lines a bit.  We. were. wrong.  What was our first warning???

This was taken at 10:00am.  In the event that you're not familiar with FastPass terminology, a FP gets you into a shorter line, therefore bypassing the standby line.  This sign shows us that at 10:00am, the next FastPasses available are for 9:30pm and the current standby line is 180 minutes! THAT'S 3 HOURS!  Yep, they were all like that.  :-(

Luckily, this park is a good one for wandering around, looking in shops, and just randomly exploring.  And even though Tim & I had been there before, it was all still pretty unfamiliar.  We did manage to get on all of the rides at least once.  One of these was the two-story carousel located on the "Arabian Coast." The theme is Aladdin!

And, unlike our last visit, we had time to watch the mid-day show. 

Do you see all of those umbrellas!?  They were driving Timmy crazy, because they were all at eye-level and he had to spend most of his time avoiding losing an eye.  

I think I mentioned all of the crazy popcorn last time, well we actually tried some this time around.  We ended up trying Strawberry, Chocolate, Black Pepper, and (finally) Caramel.  I had literally been hunting the park for the Caramel, but we didn't find it until about 15 minutes before they shut down! It was meant to be...

Our longest wait for a ride was 2.5 hours for Journey to the Center of the Earth.  The line felt like it never moved, we were all starving, and we were all soaked from the rain. Yes, the line was inside, but when you're wet and cold, it's really hard to stay positive.  Ya know what I mean!?  Once we finally got on the ride, Tim and Patti LOVED it!  I think it's still, easily, our favorite.  (I mean no disrespect to Tower of Terror, but the shoulder straps kind of kill it for me...plus I think it's shorter.)

We finally got dinner following this ride, and we were able to watch the evening water show from our booth inside the restaurant.  The rain had let up a little, so we headed outside to watch the firework show.  I won't lie.  It was a disappointment.  We had to back up enough to see over the main buildings and even then, it was difficult to see.  They obviously share the show with Disneyland, which means the real show is in Disneyland and you can just happen to catch it in DisneySea.  Boo. 

We pretty much closed down the park, but we managed to get a final picture in front of the signature globe.  

The next day we headed to the airport, walked around a bit and had lunch with the parents before catching the DOD bus back to base.  We spent the evening at a spaghetti dinner/game night with some of our friends/Tim's co-workers.  

All in all, we had a WONDERFUL week with our visitors and we're looking forward to hosting Tim's sister in a few weeks! :-)

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A visit from the Parents: Part 2

Day Five:

Today was supposed to be the only nice day, so I had already planned a trip to Landmark Tower in Yokohama.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures this day so I don't have any of those to post.  I will say that, for some reason, Mount Fuji refuses to show itself every single time we go to the Tower.  It's getting a bit frustrating.

Day Six:

Today was the last day that Tim had to work, so the rest of us decided to go to the end of the Miura peninsula (this is where we live) and explore the coastal area.  I had no idea what was out there or where we were going, but Tim and Patti were totally up to the challenge.

The plan was to ride the train to the very last stop, find a map at our ending local and either walk or ride the bus to the coast.  The maps we found were...less than helpful.  While one has all of the bus lines, the other has all the landmarks.  Plus, do you notice how they DON'T LOOK THE SAME?!

 

After being offered a ride to wherever we wanted by a nice Japanese man (and opting out), we got on the very next bus to pull into the station.  Luckily, this area is small, so the buses all take the same route into the city and then split off at another major station.  By this time, we'd figured out which bus we needed to get on.  On our ride, we got our first taste of the agriculture business of Japan.  We passed rice paddies and vegetable gardens.  

This area is famous for its Tuna fishing/processing, so there were boats everywhere!  99% of the boats were just pulled up on to the side like this one:

We were getting hungry, so we started walking around to find a restaurant.  Unfortunately for us, this was a small fishing village, whose restaurants believed in serving things real "fresh." I have a strong aversion to eating things that are staring at me...I thought I was going to starve.  Thankfully, at the last restaurant we looked at, this older gentleman popped his head out of the door and, in ENGLISH, told us they had a bigger menu inside! I was sold! Turns out this man had studied at the University of Michigan for 2 years and was forced to come home to take care of his mom.  He gave us a picture menu and told us to come to him if we had any questions.  Well, without knowing what all the meat was in the picture, Tim took him the menu and asked him to explain it.  His explanation: "tuna, tuna, tuna, prawns, tuna that tastes like pork, tuna with onions."  We got tuna.  It was amazing.   

After eating, he gave us a few maps, explained the area, gave us a bus schedule and sent us on our way! We ended up on a trail along the beach and then back through a bamboo-lined trail.  We got to see an old lighthouse and some sweet rock formations.  Enjoy:

Lots of uneven steps...watch yourself!

After getting back to the road, we found a bus stop and headed back to Yokosuka to meet Tim for dinner.  We ended the evening at an Italian buffet at the Officer's Club on base.  Yummy!

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A visit from the Parents: Part 1

Wow, so I kind of neglected the blog for a while...sorry.  :-)

This past week was a whirlwind of activity for us, because Tim's parents paid us a visit! Unfortunately Tim had to work for 4 days, but I was more than happy to show them around our area.  Our week included trips to the beach, a traditional Japanese garden, some shrines and temples, Tokyo and a visit to DisneySea.  We took hundreds of pictures, so I'm going to try and break this into a few posts.  Stay tuned...

Day 1:

The Wells finally arrived in Tokyo after a long delay.  Their plane was grounded, with everyone on board, for two hours while repairs were done.  What was broken???  A jump seat.  Yep.  Two Hours.  For a jump seat. ::sigh::  Thankfully, the flight was manageable and they made it through customs in record time.

Day Two:

We woke up to sirens wailing outside and the news that an earthquake had hit Chile.  We were in a Tsunami warning lockdown.  Thankfully, our warning was lifted a few hours later and the weather was cold, but not rainy.  Tim didn't have to work, so we showed them around Yokosuka and then took them to Kannonzaki Park.  They LOVED the roller slide!! We ended up each going 3 times before it got too dark and we had to head home.

Day Three: 

Tim was on day shift, so I took our guests to Kamakura for the day.  We had been anticipating rain all week, but the day was gorgeous!  I had a much more enjoyable time than our last visit. 

We decided to explore more of Kamakura, which is littered with shrines and temples.  Sometimes the easiest way to figure out an area is to take a picture of the maps in an area and just start walking.  We ended up walking over 5 miles!

All of the pictures are shrines and temples located in Kamakura.

We ended up finding the Zeniarai-Benten located in this mountainside.  We didn't realize what a hike it would be to get to it!  Luckily, it was gorgeous!  It featured a lot of waterfalls, caves, and it is a popular place for worshippers, because on certain days they can wash their money in the spring water and it is believed that it will eventually double.  

We ended our visit by visiting Komachi-Dori street, or the main shopping avenue by Kamakura station.  Patti ended up purchasing a beautiful "Kamakura-bori" wooden platter, an art form specific to the region.  

We ended our day by meeting Tim at the base and heading to my favorite restaurant, Pepper Lunch, for dinner.  They really liked it! In case I haven't explained this place before, you have to order from a vending machine at the entrance.  

Once you've given the waitress your ticket, you sit down at the bar and wait for a very hot plate of food to arrive in front of you, where you cook it yourself!  The rest of the group ended up with a plate of rice and beef, but I ALWAYS get the garlic steak!  YUMMY! :-)

Day Four:

Again, we were expecting rain, and again, nothing came! We were elated! Patti had requested some garden viewings, so we headed into Yokohama and the Sankeien Garden.  This is a traditional Japanese garden, which opened in 1906 to the public, was completely destroyed during WWII and reopened to the public in 1957.  It is also famous for the number of reconstructed/restored buildings on the property.  I could explain each one, but that would take up an entire page, so if you'd like to know more, email me! You can also visit the garden's website (www.sankeien.co.jp), but it is in Japanese, so you'll have to deal with a translation program.  

Here's a spattering of pictures:

The initial view from the main entrance

Buildings located in the Inner Garden, an area originally reserved for the Hara Family.

Kakushokaku - The former residence of the Hara family, who owned Sankeien until 1953.

By this point, we decided to stop at the Sankei Memorial, which also serves as a visitor's center.  We were walking through the building and stumbled on a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony.  Of course, we had to participate and the tea masters, dressed in traditional kimonos, were trying so hard to explain everything to us in english.  The ceremony started with some delicious sugar-coated, fig-type cookies made specifically for Sankeien garden.  It is required to eat both of the cookies before the tea is served.  This should have been our first warning.  We finished off our cookies and then we waited for our green tea.  It was presented to us and, as we followed all of the appropriate rules of decorum, we took our first sips.  I can't even put into words how bad this tea was.  Wanting to be respectful, we tried to finish it and Tim even managed to down it in one big gulp, but I couldn't do it.  I tried.  My body was physically rejecting this tea.  It didn't move in the cup and it was thick and frothy.  The tea masters were probably laughing for the rest of the day from the expressions on the three of our faces!  Thankfully, the tea master who spoke the most english let me leave the rest of the tea in the cup and we presented the bowls back to them and departed.  What came of this experience?  A new code word for "I can't do this" or "This is disgusting": Green Tea! 

We finished our tour of the gardens by climbing the hill to the Pagoda and exploring more of the outer garden, an area that has been open to the public since the garden was originally built.  

These are NOT evenly spaced steps...watch yourself!

The oldest pagoda in the Kanto Region, it was built in 1457.

We made it!

Loved this garden! 

Again, we were able to meet Tim after work and he even gave his parents a tour of the base following dinner.  It was a busy day!

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A Quick Update...

First -
CONGRATS to Katharine for winning the game!

She scored an amazing 21 points, out of a possible 30ish.  I'll have an AWESOME Japanese prize in the mail in the next week...look forward to sweets, bling, and more awesomeness!

I'll post a list of what each picture was in a few days.

Second-

The Chile earthquake and subsequent tsunami warnings didn't really affect us here in Yokosuka.  We did hear quite a few warnings, but they were called off after a few hours.

Third-

Tim's parents are here visiting us and one of these days I'll actually sit down and write a real post, but right now we're eating Mister Donut and watching Top Gear on DVD (they've just discovered both and LOVE all of it)!

Stay tuned for more in the days to come...

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