Busy But Fun Weekend

Jogashima is an island along the southwestern tip of Miura Peninsula, about a half-hour drive from our home. I heard about the place from a few of the guys at work and was convinced that we should check it out, so we made plans on Saturday to go. We got there around 9am and spent nearly two hours just walking around a park there. It was a great little spot with lots of room for Josh to run around and play. Actually, Nicki had control of the camera for much of the journey and she took quite a few really great shots of Josh and me.

After leaving Jogashima, getting some lunch at one of the local 7-11 stores, and doing several loads of laundry, we packed up the car and took a trip up to Negishi. Negishi is one of the Navy housing complexes here - it's actually in Yokohama, but it's considered part of the Yokosuka base system. Anyway, Nicki's made friends with several great people up in Negishi, including a couple named Aime and John. They were having a cookout on Saturday night and were kind enough to invite us, so we decided to try out the freeways of Japan and drive up there. After spending about 45 minutes and nearly 2000 Yen driving up, we arrived in Negishi just in time to find out that most people had already eaten. That didn't stop us from pigging out on all of the great food. I was the self-nominated designated driver for the night, so Nicki drank a few shots of I-don't-know-what and had her fill of Chu-hi drinks (kinda like carbonated Kool-Aid with alcohol). I, in the meantime, took as many pictures as I could while still taking time to enjoy the wonderful conversation going on around me. We ended up staying there until after 8pm and Josh did great, considering it was well past his bedtime. As it turns out, he didn't fall asleep that night until after 9pm, but he was a trooper the whole time.

On Sunday, we were invited to pick strawberries with one of my friends from work, Hide-san, and his family. We met Hide-san at the Keikyu Nagasawa train station and continued together to the strawberry patch. Hide-san's son, Ikumi, is conveniently right around Josh's age, so they will probably become very good friends during the next few years. The strawberry farm wasn't much like ones I'm used to from the States. Here, you buy a ticket that's worth about 30 minutes of all-you-can-pick-and-eat strawberries, though the 30 minute time limit is actually really flexible, so we just continued to eat until we were about full. The great thing about Japanese strawberries, or at least the ones at this farm, is that they have been genetically engineered. Basically, the Japanese have found a way to merge the old fashioned typical strawberry with as much sugar as could possibly fit into a genetically engineered berry. The things are delicious. They are plump, juicy, and full of sweet strawberry taste. It was very kind of Hide-san and Nagisa-san to invite us to join the family and we were honored to meet Hide-san's mother and grandmother too.

Our pictures from the weekend are up in the Gallery, dated 03/08/2006. Enjoy!