Thursday Ramblings....

I don't have any new pictures to share today, but I do have some fun stories, hence the "rambling."

Ichi - I went shopping yesterday with some other "Real Housewives of the DOD" at an outlet mall in Yokohama.  We were all pretty impressed, but the most amazing part was the Coach store.  This is a big brand in Japan, all of the women have Coach bags.  I figured that the prices must be amazing if so many people own their stuff.  Wrong.  So wrong.  A wallet, which goes for about $80 at an outlet store in the U.S., was over $200!  Most of the purses were in the 90,000-95,000yen range! We were blown away!  I now understand why there are always a million and a half Japanese tourists in the outlet store at Tulalip, it's so cheap compared to Japan!

Ni - We're spending the weekend in Tokyo!  The military hotel, The New Sanno, was completely booked for the holiday weekend, but I managed to find a hotel in the Ginza district (think Fifth Avenue in NYC) that wasn't astronomically priced.  Woot!  Tim has asked to spend some time in Akihabara, the electronics area, and I want to visit the Imperial gardens.  We both want to go to the Tokyo Tower, Japan's answer to the Eiffel Tower.  If you don't know about Tim's obsession with the Eiffel Tower, just know that he took about 100 pictures of it when we visited in 2007.  I promise to report back here with some good pictures from our whole trip and I'll try to restrain Tim from filling up our memory card with pictures of the Tokyo Tower.  (Somehow I don't think anything could stop him...)

San - If you haven't tried "Google Chrome" yet as your web browser, download it now, it's amazing.  My browser is currently decorated in a Cath Kidston theme, much cuter than the old blue Safari!

Yan - The Olympics start this weekend!  Woot!  Hopefully we'll be able to watch them, but I won't be surprised if we're spending most of the time watching the Japanese athletes.  It'll be a new experience for sure!

Go - In the spirit of athleticism...I woke up early on Monday to watch the Super Bowl (GEAUX SAINTS!) and I thought I would be good to geaux when I found Sports Center on the J-ESPN channel broadcasting from the game.  Well, as soon as that program was over, they switched to a Table Tennis tournament that is, seriously, still going on 3 days later.  That is what ESPN plays here, lots of ping pong.

 Roku -  I just taught you how to count to 6 in Japanese!  Here's a list with pronunciations so you can go show off to your friends and coworkers.  :-)

Ichi - (ee-chee)

Ni - (nee)

San - (sahn)

Yon - (yohn)

Go - (goh)

Roku - (roke - the end U is usually whispered)

Nana - (nah-nah)

Hachi - (hah-chee)

Kyuu - (Q)

Juu - (joo)

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Welcome to the Neighborhood

Since most of my faithful readers in the states won't get the chance to come visit, I thought a photo tour of our neighborhood would be a good idea.

Let's start things off when a picture of our building.

Lovely, isn't it...

Right next door to our building is a park, where all of the locals play/walk their dogs/hang out in the afternoon and evening.  

A small stretch of the large park

We've been told that this is a more affluent area of Yokosuka, and it's pretty evident by the surrounding housing and buildings.

We're across the street from a school - even in another country we're surrounded by schools! :-)

A few of the houses in our neighborhood, they're large by Japanese standards.   

I have to include a picture of our local grocery store and pharmacy. We've enjoyed quite a few delicacies from this place, I look forward to posting some more food adventures.

The other day I was walking to the train station when I realized how amazing it felt to confidently walk to the nearest train station.  This may seem a little crazy, but as someone who fears public transportation, I feel like I've pretty much mastered it here in Japan!  So far, every time I've gotten lost, I've managed to get "found" again pretty efficiently.  Anyway, here's some pictures from the route we take to the Kita-Kurihama station...

We have to descend a hill, this is from the top.

Then we cross the street and walk next to some neighborhoods. 

Walking along the road...

Eventually, we hang a right and walk a small, one-lane residential road through a fairly nice neighborhood.  

I think this house is amazing and totally Japanese.

Do you see the laundry out to dry?  A majority of residents do not have a dryer, so there are always clothes hanging out to dry.  I think it's kind of funny.  

This little guy is always out to greet us.  Weird, yet cute.  

We have to cross the train tracks to get to the station, but that's the train station!

  The train tracks on the left are going away from us and the tracks on the right are coming towards us...it's opposite of the U.S.

So there you have it!  That's our neighborhood in a nutshell.  We are enjoying it and the 20ish minute walk to the train station is good exercise.  Of course on those days when we are just not feeling the walk, we can catch a bus near the grocery store that takes us to the Keiku-Kurihama station, one stop down from Kita-Kurihama.  And then sometimes we take a taxi, but that's only when we're coming home and we're really tired or it's freezing/windy outside.  Really, that's the only time.  I swear.  :-)  

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SUMO SUNDAY!

A forewarning: there are quite a few videos in this post.  Take your time, I think they're pretty good!

We had the opportunity to attend a Sumo tournament today in Tokyo with some coworkers of Tim's, all arranged by the MWR on base.  To get to the tournament, we had to meet a bus on base and drive for about an hour and a half to central Tokyo.  The drive was gorgeous!  But, lucky for you, bus windows aren't the best things to take a picture through, so you get a picture of us! :-)

Once we got to the arena, the whole group decided to get lunch in the area around the stadium, instead of waiting in the food lines inside.  

 

The Sumo Arena

Our group walking through the crowd of spectators

On our way back to the stadium, we managed to get a shot of some of the Sumo wrestlers entering the arena through their private entrance.  This area was surrounded by camera crews and spectators, and many of the Sumos required security escorts.  

Do you see the Sumo?? Yes, they always dress in the traditional Kimono, it's tradition. 

Once we finally got into the arena, we found our seats, wandered around the perimeter, and waited for the tournament to begin.  

The dohyo, a 18 sq. foot clay platform, covered by a pseudo-Shinto shrine

A better view of the Dohyo and the arena

There was a drum performance to start off the tournament and then the lower, Juryo division performed their ceremonial entrance.  

This was almost exactly what the higher, Makuuchi division's ceremonial entrance looked like later on in the tournament. 

Here is a video of what a Sumo match looks like when the wrestlers are not even close to being the same size.  I was betting on the big guy...

That's pretty much how all of my bets ended until the last round, where my guy won the whole she-bang!  

Between the two division tournaments, there was a children's sumo demonstration and a comic sumo match.  The second video is about 4 minutes long, but pretty funny. 

We also got our picture taken with the Sumo mascot.  This guy had a line around the building waiting to take pictures before the tournament started, but we found him in-between the tournaments with absolutely no line! 

Then the Makuuchi wrestlers and the sole Yokozuna wrestler entered. 

The Yokozuna is the most elite wrestler in the sport, only 69 wrestlers have been promoted to this rank since official record keeping started in 1789.  Yeah, in 221 years, 69 wrestlers have qualified for this rank!! They are expected to always act with hinkaku, dignity and grace, and they have to be extremely good wrestlers.  This past week, the other Yokozuna decided to retire after it came to surface that he was involved in a drunken brawl outside a Tokyo nightclub.  I guess it was the "straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back" for Asashoryu and instead of being forced to retire, he stepped up and made the announcement himself.  You should google his name, there are quite a few controversies surrounding him.  

ANYWAY, this tournament was pretty intense and Hokuho, the Yokozuna, was kicking serious butt until he got to the "Final Four" where we was defeated by Goeido, a maegashira!  I should explain that in the main tournament, there are 5 different rankings of sumos.  At the top is the Yokozuna, followed by the Ozeki, the Sekiwake, the Komusubi, and the maegashira.  So the very elite was beaten by the very bottom.  It was intense.  Many of the spectators on the floor cushions threw their cushions onto the dohyo, a sign of congratulations for the underdog.  

So the final match came down to Goeido and Kotooshu, an Ozeki, who also happens to be from Romania.  And he's huge: 6'6" - 340ish lbs.  

You can see why it was an exciting match!  

After all the wrestling, Goeido was presented with the trophy and some other things in another ceremony.  We left after he got his trophy because we couldn't really understand anything that was going on.  

When we got on the bus to go back to Yokosuka, we saw Goeido leaving the arena through the special sumo entrance completely surrounded by cameras, spectators, and tv crews.  It was a madhouse! 

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves!  I thought it was a fascinating sport and I think I picked up on a lot of what was going on in the ring.  A great feat for not understanding a word or what was going on!

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A Rockin' Sunday

Tim finally had a day off this week, yesterday, so we were planning on meeting Adam for an early lunch before doing some shopping/exploring in downtown Yokosuka.

We had wanted to try a noodle place in town called...wait for it...RAMEN (super creative, I know). The guys tried their most popular noodle dish, which I don't remember the name of, but basically consisted of noodles in a milk/butter broth with some veggies and ham.  They enjoyed it quite a bit!

After lunch, we started our walk towards the Deiei Mall when I had a sudden urging to go on an adventure!  So I asked the guys if they were up for a little spontaneity, to which they both agreed, and we changed our direction towards the train station.  Where were we going you ask?  Yokohama and the Landmark Tower!

Adam hadn't yet gone to Yokohama, plus the weather was fairly nice, so a little jaunt into the city seemed like a good idea.  I got us there without a hitch, of course, but Tim was a little nervous because we didn't have any sort of train map and I couldn't quite remember what station we needed to get off at.  I wasn't worried.  :-) 

Landmark Tower is the tallest building in Japan and has an observatory on the 69th floor.  Obviously, this is the highest observatory in Japan.  Plus, they have the fastest elevator in the Japan.  It travels at 750 meters/second (approx. 2,460 feet/second) and the ride to the top takes about 40 seconds.  

Tim's head is 275 meters above ground.  :-)

We had a great time walking around the 360 degree viewing area.  Unfortunately, it was hazy/smoggy/foggy and we couldn't see Mt. Fuji, but we did enjoy viewing the Yokohama area and the bay.  

We had a good time watching this amusement park from the sky.

After coming back down in the elevator, we shopped around a bit in the mall inside the Tower.  

I enjoy comparing the American company shops to their Japanese counterparts.  Here is Build-a-Bear: Japan...

We stopped in a small store called "Octopus Army" because the name was intriguing and we managed to find some pretty amazing sunglasses. 

We were getting pretty hungry, so we headed to the Yokohama Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  (Add it to the list Mom and Dad, I've eaten there!)  

Without knowing any of my feelings about *NSYNC, Adam pointed out that one of Joey Fatone's (OMG! JOEY FATONE!) shirts was hanging over a table next to us!  I just about died and then I asked the patrons sitting at the table to move so I could take a picture. They totally laughed and then willingly obliged.  

We ended the night posing in front of the classic Hard Rock guitar and then caught the train back to Yokosuka.  

I hope everyone else had a great weekend, I can't wait to hear all about them! ::hint, hint::

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Tokyo DisneySea

Because I'm a NINJA now, I can travel back in time and tell you about our adventures in Tokyo DisneySea.

Our hotel was fabulous, but after a communication break-down the evening before with the waitress at their restaurant, we decided to head out for breakfast.  It was a Monday morning, 9:00am.  You would think there would be no problem getting breakfast near the park.  Alas, we were wrong.  The only food place open outside of the hotels was a Starbucks.  Gotta love the Starbucks!

After finding food, we headed to the entrance to the park to wait for the gates to open.  It was pretty crowded, but we got into the park and were greeted with this giant globe fountain.

The best comparison to this area would be like walking through Mainstreet USA in Disneyland.  I had been raving about the Tower of Terror the entire trip, so of course that was our first stop!

Remember how I said we couldn't understand what was being said on the rides in Disneyland.  Well, same goes here.  The story is completely different from the U.S. parks.  That story involves a the twilight zone, a bolt of lightning, and a curse based on jealousy.  This ride has nothing to do with the Twilight Zone, so instead of watching a show on a TV monitor before the ride, we walk into a library and watch the tale unfold on a "stained glass window."  The gist was that an explorer, who collected many artifacts, brought back a cursed statue.  The statue came to life and somehow cursed the old explorer down an elevator shaft.  Then the little statue comes to life in front of the riders (us) and curses us.  Honestly, we had no idea what was going on, but the ride was still fun!  **Note to the Wells: The ride has shoulder straps, there's no loose seatbelt here!**

We're in the back row on the right

After that ride, we decided to get fastpasses for later and started exploring the park.  Like the name implies, the majority of the park is water.  There are canals, lakes, a few ports, fishing villages, etc.

In the center of the park is Mysterious Island.  This is where 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth are located.  I think Journey... ended up being everyone's favorite from this park.  We went on it a 3 or 4 times as the wait diminished to nothing after noon.  That ended up being true for most of the park, it was nearly cleared out by the time we left.  Literally the only wait was for Tower of Terror and that was 40 minutes at most.  We picked a GOOD time to go!

Walking through the park was fun too, with all of the new areas to explore.  Here is a picture from the American Waterfront, a replica of New York Harbor circa early 1900s.  It's funny because they're all engineers.  :-)

 

We also made our way over to the Arabian Coast, where Tim and Matt tried Sesame Churros and I played a little ditty with Sinbad.

 

This park also has Mermaid Lagoon, the Mediterranean Harbor (this is "Mainstreet"), the Lost River Delta (Indiana Jones lives here, but alas, he was gone for the winter), and Port Discovery.

We had a fabulous time just exploring the park and if we had only one day to do the parks again, I would pick this one.

Of course, we had to get a final group picture in the park, but we couldn't decide where to do it with the sun setting and getting in the way.  We ended up with this:

After getting our stuff from the hotel, we headed to the train station for our other BIG adventure.  Riding Japanese trains during rush hour.  This is a video I found on YouTube that best describes the situation we found ourselves in:

Totally accurate.  Will try to never do that again.  Ever.  ::shudder::

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Kannonzaki Ninja Training

Many moons ago (1/24/10), three ninjas-in-training set out to find the sacred ninja training ground of Kannonzaki.

They ventured through many train stations and spoke to strangers in foreign tongues to find this ancient place.  Eventually, their dedication paid off and they were rewarded with a map.

But this map was no ordinary map.  The old and wise ninjas had coded this map, which made it almost unreadable.  Luckily, these three ninjas-in-training followed their instincts and headed deep into the forest.

The three ninjas-in-training quickly realized this was not for the faint of heart.  They would face many dangers on their path, including snakes, exhaustion, and for one of the ninjas-in-training, incessant teasing.

But these were small sacrifices for the ninjas-in-training.  They knew that they would be rewarded at the end of their long journey.  For at the end of the path, they would find the fastest roller slide in Japan!  And find it they did.  The ninjas-in-training reveled in their new discovery.

After three runs down the butt-burning decline, the ninjas-in-training were faced with a decision.  Should they climb the hill via the stairs? Or should they partake in the ninja training obstacles?  The decision was easy: they were destined to become Ninjas!

Their first task required balance and a focused mind.

Adam-san doubled the difficulty by carrying the rear-end protectors of the other ninjas-in-training.

Their next task focused on the ninjas-in-training's ability to traverse over land without the benefit of stable footholds.

Arianna-san showed the other ninjas-in-training how it was done.

The third task required extreme focus and quick feet.

Tim-san and Adam-san had the advantage with long legs, but Arianna-san was quick and nimble, and finished the obstacle with determination.

Their fourth task was the most entertaining for the ninjas-in-training.  They performed the task many times in hope of perfecting their technique.

The next-to-last task for the ninjas-in-training looked daunting.  Tim-san and Adam-san sent Arianna-san into the maze first to make sure it could be completed.

Eventually, all of the ninjas-in-training made it through the tunnel.  The trio made their way to the final obstacle.  If they could complete this, they would become NINJAS!

Their training had paid off, the ninjas-in-training became NINJAS.  The trio made their way back to the hustle of everyday life, but reveled in the knowledge that they had conquered the Kannonzaki Ninja Training Course.

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