Playing Catch-up

This has been one of the drier rainy seasons in recent memory for most people here in Yokosuka. Mother Nature has been kind enough to keep most of the weekends fairly dry, which has aided Nicki, Josh and I in getting outdoors from sunrise to sunset during the weekends. We spent much of this weekend jogging on the boardwalk, hiking in nearby Kannonzaki Park, and doing all kinds of fun things along the way. We are getting the occasional storm, however, and even tonight we're in the midst of what I like to call a San Diego rainstorm, which is really much more like a fine mist that lingers like a thick blanket over the Kanto Plain. Folks in the South, where I grew up, would probably just equate it to "Summertime Humidity".

I'm still playing catch-up with the pictures that we took while my folks were in town last month, so you'll have to bear with us for a bit longer until we can get to our more recent pictures. I've just finished updating some shots that Nicki took of Josh and my folks at Tokyo Disney on May 22; and also some pics that I took while acting as a tour guide for my folks while touring the Hase section of Kamakura. Those shots are of the Great Buddha and Hase-dera and its beautiful gardens. Feel free to check out all the shots in our Gallery, dated 06/26/2006.

In unrelated news, with the World Cup 2006 underway in Germany, it looks like the USA and Japan bought some early tickets home. Without my two home countries to cheer for, it looks like I'm going to focus most of my attention on Ghana, who surprised everyone in Group E (including the Czechs and the US) by landing a spot in the Round of 16. They face a tough road ahead, though, having to compete against Brazil in their next match. Go Black Stars!

Also, congrats to our occasional blog reader and commentor, Wembly, who resides in England. His English team just defeated Ecuador in a 1-0 match that came down to a penalty shot on goal. It's been fun watching the limited opportunities that I've had to see the World Cup. The games are all televised here, but because of the time difference I have found myself staying up until 01:00am watching games on a work night.

It's been fun...

P.S. (Nicki): A little plug for my recipe site. Check out my most recent post....Summer Shrimp Salad. This recipe has a creative combination that I never would have thought of on my own. A big hit with Mike and super easy. (No cooking required!)

Kannonzaki

Well, not much has been going on in the world of SAHM (Stay-at-home-mom). I suppose I've just been keeping to my regular routine and popping in for visits at my husbands office way too many times!

I have been trying to pick up running. My short term goal is to make it all the way to the base (about 4K from our house). However, with the excessive amount of humidity in the air it's proven difficult. I decided to take a break yesterday because I was super sore and because one of my girlfriends, Patrice, suggested going to Kannonzaki park near our house, so some of us moms drove over to Kannonzaki and let the kids run wild.

The gorgeous hydrangeas were in full bloom and despite the bugs flying around, it was a great place to take the toddler boys & 2 adorable baby twins! There is a huge roller slide there. Now, when I say huge I mean this thing winds all the way down a cliff and it takes about 50 steps to walk back up and do it again. It looks as though Japan is the only country I've been to that has these slides and they are a real hit with kids. This was the only slide that I've seen that supplies mats while you slide down. This causes you to go screaming down the side of this cliff at mach speeds. I suppose I could equate it with maybe using one of those plastic saucers to go sledding. It leaves you only the soles of your shoes to use as breaks. I held Amy's son, Chris, down the slide. Amy held her daughter, Courtney, & Patrice held her baby son, Jack. Since Josh had to keep up with his friend Timmy, he decided to go down all by himself like a big boy. Amy had brought her dog Buddy. Buddy is a herding dog by nature. As we were walking through the park he made sure to stay in the middle of the group and if someone lagged behind, Buddy would stay with the straggler until they caught up. As we went down the slide the first time, Buddy barked in desperation as he watched us all slide down the hill. After we all made it down we looked up to see Buddy braving the slide to make sure that we were all together. The second time around Josh bit the dust and slid down the hill with a bloody nose. He cried for about 2 minutes (I was more upset then he was) then exclaimed, "I go again!" and ran up the stairs to catch up with Timmy. After the boys went about 5 times, we moms were ready to go home and hit the showers! Everyone was caked with sweat and dirt. What a fun-filled morning. It's something we've got to do again! Just a day in the life of a Mom. Never boring.

Before heading off to Kannonzaki that morning I was checking my email when I started hear a loud meowing coming from outside. I glance out the window from upstairs trying to spot the culprit but saw nothing. This went on for about 10-20 minutes. I looked out the window again to see a brown and grey cat planted right outside our porch. Thinking that it was a cat in heat, I ran downstairs and grabbed my broom to get it away. After all, the last thing I wanted was a verral cat screaming at my door all day. I opened the door only to see a small kitten running off into the bushes. My heart sank. After trying to coax it back with no success, I closed the door, secretly hoping to hear that meow again. Sure enough, I did and this time I came out with milk. Still no success. Unfortunately for me, time was up. I still had to run some errands before meeting the moms at Kannonzaki. I loaded Josh and myself into the car with crazy visions of taking in a stray cat and hoping against all hope that it would come back to stay. I came back from errands only to find no sign of the cute kitten and again, no sign today. I don't think I'll forget those little blue eyes for a while though.

CBS News, the Masters of Geography

It seems as though the folks that run the CBS News website didn't work their way up the corporate ladder by taking extra geography lessons. Here's a recent story from the CBS world news webpage. Notice anything wrong with the picture, as it relates to the headline?


The actual story from CBS has been updated with a more representative picture and a note at the bottom indicating that they apologize for the blunder.

Sanja Matsuri 2006

The Sanja Matsuri takes place during the third weekend in May every year, just so you have an idea about how far behind I am on posting pictures to the blog. This year, the event occurred right at the end of our big trip down to Hiroshima and Kyoto, which is why we headed back on a Friday instead of staying in Kyoto throughout the weekend.

The Sanja Matsuri dates back to the Edo Period (1603 - 1867) and is held at one of Tokyo's most famous shrines, Asakusa Jinja, and at Asakusa Temple which is immediately next-door. This year, the matsuri (or "festival") , fell on May 20-22. Knowing that over 1,000,000 people have been known to attend during the three day festival, we decided that it would be best to leave Josh at home. So on Saturday, May 21, my dad and I braved the crowds on our own while Nicki and my mom did their own thing with Josh.

Things got underway around 11:00 am or so, which was conveniently right around the time that we made it up to Tokyo. Multiple portable shrines, called "mikoshi", were being carried by the festival participants for distances exceeding one kilometer. The mikoshi are attached to long wooden poles that the participants carry on their shoulders, which looks like it could be extremely painful after going a great distance. One of the mikoshi was actually a solid wood structure set up like a carriage, which six people inside beating on large drums, not exactly something I would be excited about carrying. However, the Japanese have come up with a wonderful tradition for a smooth procession - they down as much sake as possible before they get started to help numb the pain.

One of the fascinating things about traditional Japanese festivals such as this one is the sheer number of people in traditional costume, including men with nearly full-body tattoos wearing little more than a thong. I've been told that full-body tattoos are one sign of the yakuza, or Japanese mafia, and that many yakuza members like to get involved in these events to carry on the Japanese tradition. But there were also a lot of men and women wearing a robe-type outfit that typically covered down to just above the knee. But for the most part, many of them didn't seem to be wearing much in the way of pants, which also made for some interesting shapshots.

Finally, the highlight of the experience was all of the different food vendors that set up stations throughout the matsuri pathway. I'd say there were over 100 different vendors there, selling everything from octopus balls to Asahi beer to fish sticks (which definitely aren't just like mom used to make, picture on left).

The event was capped off with a children's matsuri through the streets of Asakusa. The children's matsuri is a miniature version of the real thing, when neighborhood children dressed up in traditional Japanese attire carry an extra-small sized shrine through the streets - don't worry, the streets have been closed to vehicle traffic. The mini-matsuri was just as entertaining as the full-sized event, but much less crowded.

Needless to say, my dad and I had a great time throughout the day and we got some great pictures, which I've added to the Gallery, dated 06/18/2006, to match up with the date of this post.

As a side note, today also happens to be Father's Day. I'd like to say a special "Happy Father's Day" to all the dads out there, but especially to my Dad. This post, about our father/son trip up to Asakusa, is my reminder of the many cool adventures that we've had together. Thanks, Dad, and Happy Father's Day!

Behold the Kyoto Photos, Finally

After over three weeks following our return from Kyoto and Hiroshima, I can finally say that our time there has been fully logged on The Japan Years blog. I mentioned a few posts ago that our pics from Children's Day and from the Hiroshima leg of our tour were posted in our Gallery, dated 05/22/2006 (the date of our original post about the trip). I've now added a new set of pictures, titled "05/22/2006, Kyoto and Nara" that includes all of our good pics from the time we left Hiroshima until the time we stepped aboard the Shinkansen to head back home.

Kyoto was an experience unlike any I've ever encountered, so I thought I would share some of the pics here too, and try to share some of the things that we saw and did along the way. By the way, a few of these were also shot in Nara, which is within an hour's train ride from Kyoto. Nara is like a mini-Kyoto and the people there were fantastic. Very friendly to us gaijin.

We arrived in Kyoto on May 15 and after checking into our hotel, we headed straight for Gion. Gion is the area of Kyoto that's known for its geisha and meiko (geisha-in-training). The long sleeves on this outfit indicate that she's a meiko, but she could be a fake because sometimes decoys are sent out when the real geisha and meiko need to get somewhere without having the interruptions from onlookers. But I like the kimono, so it's a good picture and memory for me.

This is Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion. This shot was from up above, looking down at the pavilion and the gardens in the foreground. Very old and very beautiful.

This is a famous covered bridge in an even more famous garden at Heian Jingu Shrine. For you parents and former Sesame Street fans, it's also one of the scenes from "Big Bird in Japan", a good movie for the youngsters. Josh has it and we all love it.

This shot is also from Heian Jingu, in the garden. I caught this mother/daughter pair feeding fish and couldn't pass up the opportunity to share their moment together.

This pretty purple flower (don't know the name) is also from Heian garden. I just like the colors in the pic, so I thought I'd share.

Kinkakuji, or "Golden Pavilion". I posted a similar picture a few posts back, but thought I'd share this view with the purple flowers again.

This poor woman was kind enough to feed some of the deer at the major park in Nara. After a few minutes, she almost got trampled by the herd. As a side note, these deer are everywhere in Nara Park and are considered to be messengers of the gods.

This shot is from Todaiji Temple. The incense is directly in front of the Daibutsuden, which holds the largest bronze Buddha in Japan.

School children were everywhere in Nara and Kyoto. I snuck this picture as they were posing for a class picture for a real photographer. Sneaky me.

Here's Nara's Great Buddha, bigger than the one in Kamakura, but indoors so taking a good clear picture was a challenge.

This shot was from Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. The shrine has a trail with over 10,000 torii gates lined up one by one. It's awe-inspiring. This shot is a close-up that I took because I was running out of daytime and most of my other pictures were too dark.

This was shot at Kasuga Taisha. I liked the pattern of lanterns and the lines on the paper walls in the background.

This shot, from Fushimi Inari, shows several of the torii gates as two school girls ran through. The sunlight was fading, so my camera's shutter couldn't keep up with the speed of the girls. Worked out well. Lucky me.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Now check out the Gallery for the rest of them. As I mentioned before, they are titled "05/22/2006, Kyoto and Nara" to reflect our original post day, but they are all newly added. Enjoy!

This is a short one

I hope that you all enjoyed the most recent pics that Mike has posted. He has been busy pulling late nights trying to get more on the blog, so stay tuned! Most recently, we are in the market for a good babysitter. I've put up some flyers on base and stopped by the Red Cross. Maybe, if anyone local has a high school age child who needs some extra $$$? Anyway, after having Mike's parents here, we realized how much we need some more alone time together.

Also, I finally posted an entry on my Kitchen blog, so check it out if you have the chance. I am slowly but surely incorporating more Japanese style cooking into our daily dinners & meals. I've finally learned how to make simple sushi rolls , rice balls, dashi & miso. Along with several other simple Japanese recipes. This most recent recipe reflects that.

"Mike, I Think he Just Peed his Pants!"

Before I get to the main subject, I just want to send out a gigantic Domo Arigatou (Thank You) to Mike's parents for a fantastic 3 weeks of adventures. We really did have a fun time with y'all! We were able to see so many new things and experience some great family time.

OK, now on to my story. Since, we had the grandparents here for 3 weeks, we had built in babysitters! We decided to take advantage of some quality time for just Mike and me. We finally got to see Tokyo at night, which was pretty amazing. We stopped at the Ginza district and even though it was around 8-9:00PM, we witnessed "private shoppers", shopping at some of the more exclusive retail establishments. Mercedes and other luxury cars were parked outside with chauffeurs standing at attention, while jewelry and clothing stores opened up to their more special $$ clientel for a private shopping experience. We decided to eat at the Boheme Italian restaurant; a great restaurant located at basement level. We ordered a bottle of red wine, devoured two teriffic pasta dishes, and shared an amazing chocolate cake for dessert. After a filling meal and a good bottle of wine, we were feeling pretty good and ready to make a quick stop in Roppongi before taking the 2 hour train trip home. We had an opportunity to stop at a quant little pub for a beer. It felt like a little taste of home! It was in the style of a British or Irish pub with dark wooden booths and gold accents. Soccer was playing on Satellite TV and dark beer was on tap! The night went by quickly and before we knew it, it was time to get back home. (Because the trains shut down by about 1:00AM, we had to make sure we were on board no later than 11:00PM)

As we boarded the Express train back to Yokosuka, I noticed a man standing near the door sweating profusely. Seeing that there were empty seats, I thought...."weird, I'm so not standing close to him." Needless to say, however, he caught my attention and I kept cautiously stealing peaks at him until I noticed a huge wet spot in between the legs of his pants. At first, I reasoned that it was sweat. But the spot just kept on spreading and spreading until finally, I turned to Mike and wispered, "Mike, I think he just peed his pants!" Mike looked behind, grew wide eyed and red with a huge grin spread across his face. Trying to hold our laughter, some very proper Japanese women looked up at us in confusion. After a period of seconds, they figured out what the gaijin thought was so amusing. One of the ladies fanned herself to hold in her silent giggles. They both immediatly tried to talk about something to get them off the subject. However, every minute or so, one woman would get a wave of the giggles and have to fan herself again. As we rode along, the wet spot slowly spread down his pants and trickled down onto the floor, which would be funny enough except he kept shuffling his feet causing a "squeek" sound whenever his sneakers moved. At one point, pee boy decided he had enough of standing (or squeeking), and he decided to sit down at one of the open seats on the train. As he approached the open seat, the guy sitting next to the seat took notice of pee boy's situation. As pee boy began to sit, the neighboring man popped out of his seat like his pants were wet! (or on fire) which caused Mike and me to both blow out steam. The man glanced over at Mike and put his finger to his nose pantamiming him to "SHHH!". In typical Japanese fashion, no one wanted to outwardly acknowledge the big white/wet elephant in the room. This continued for the duration of the ride. When the group of men got off at Yokosuka-Chuo, they exploded in fits of laughter.

Some poor school girl, obviously exausted, decided to sit in the seat beside pee boy. We all felt sorry for her because she didn't notice the drenched pants next to her. By now pee boy was passed out. As we got off at our stop, Mike was about to tell the school girl about pee boy but just when he was about to tap on her shoulder, pee boy stirred and we ran off the train. Fearful. As soon as the doors shut and the train departed from our station, we too exploded in fits of laughter.

Our lesson of the night: We will never sit in the seat closest to the driver on a train EVER again. We'll never know which train/seat was the pee boy train/seat!