A Visitor from Home

Those of you that have navigated our Links section likely came across a blog maintained by some family friends back in San Diego, called Gingers Mom. Gingers Mom's material is generally focused around the life of her three children, her husband (Dan), and herself; and the mischief that they encounter or instigate in their daily lives. It's a humorous read and well worth a visit if you haven't been around their blog yet.

Recently, Gingers Mom announced that Dan would be heading to Japan, compliments of the US Navy. With that information in hand, we figured it would be a great opportunity to kidnap Dan during his spare time so that we could show him around. As it turns out, Dan ended up in Nagano on a ski slope for his first couple of days in country, so he wasn't available until Monday evening, after finishing up his work-related duties.

As soon as we got the call from him, I headed over to Atsugi to pick him up and bring him back towards Yokosuka. That night, we took it easy, chatted away the night, and made plans for Tuesday. Early Tuesday morning, I got thumbs up from my boss to take the day off, so we headed up to Yokohama. Our first stop was Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. We hopped on board the second fastest elevator in the world to the 69th floor observatory. There, we walked around and marveled at our view, which was clear enough to see the outline (but not all) of Mt. Fuji. After grabbing a round of drinks at the 69th floor restaurant/bar, we headed back down and hopped a train to Chinatown.

In Chinatown, we walked the streets and stopped at various vendors to create a piecemeal lunch. We did some shopping and Dan picked up a few presents around town for his kidlets, then we headed through Motomachi district (the Rodeo Drive of Yokohama) back to the train station. Then we worked our way back to Yokosuka.

For dinner, we decided to take Dan to one of our favorite Thai restaurants... I can't tell you the name because I've never heard it and I can't read it. But it's in the heart of downtown Yokosuka and I've never had a bad bite of food there. We chowed down and left just enough room for dessert... yakitori from a 60 yen street vendor in an alley next to the restaurant. As it turns out the 60 yen per stick of yakitori set us back another 1000 yen, and we learned that Josh has a passion for teriyaki chicken on a stick. But I have to concur... that yakitori was delicious. We polished off 17 sticks of meat between the 4 of us. Afterwards, Dan wanted to wet his whistle, so we asked Nicki if she'd be alright heading back home without us so that we could hit a few bars. Knowing I had to work today, we took it easy, but I was able to show Dan four different drinking establishments in the "Honch" area across from the Yokosuka base's main gate. Because it was a Tuesday, the streets and bars were fairly uncrowded, so it was a relaxing chance for us to just sit back, sip frosty cold beverages, and talk about old times.

This morning, I got up bright and early, tired and unmotivated to go to work, but I made it there anyway. Nicki and Josh took Dan around town to do a bit more shopping and to see some local sights, then they met me for lunch at our favorite ramen shop near base. Between the three of us, we demolished two large bowls of spicy miso ramen, a large plate of chahan (fried rice), and some gyoza (pot stickers). Meanwhile, Josh ate plain white sticky rice happily.

Afterwards, I bid Dan farewell and Nicki drove him to the Fleet and Family Service Center to catch the shuttle bus to Narita. He hopped a 7:00pm flight and should be mid-air as I type this. Thanks for the good times, Danno!

Costco Vacation

I can just imagine, if I were back in the States, telling my boss, "Hey, I need the day off on Thursday. I'm going to Costco with the family." Well, that's just what I did earlier this week and today the family went to Costco. We booked the trip through base, so we were able to snag a 1-day temporary membership, good enough to allow me to make my first Japanese Costco visit and allow Nicki to show me the ropes, since she had been once before.

We actually walked out of there having spent less than $100 (at today's yen exchange rate). Not too shabby considering we ended up with a shirt for me, a bottle of wine, several Japanese sauces and marinades, an interactive toddler computer game for Josh, amongst other things.

In unrelated news, I've posted pictures from our trip to Nagano. I attached two more to our previous post and there's a lot more in the Gallery, dated 01/15/2007.

Monkeying around in Nagano

It's said that when Americans come to Japan to live for several years, there are several stages of feelings that we all go through. The first is an extreme sense of excitement and a yearning to do everything! Newbies may scoff at old timers, those who have been here a while, who suggest keeping your name on the list for on-base housing and maybe roll their eyes at folks who don't know the language or haven't yet found the time to take a class. The first couple of months are usually a blur of day trips and sightseeing. The second stage is a bit of homesickness. Not everything feels new and exciting anymore and you may miss the comforts of "home". Also, maybe the little quirks of Japan that were cute at first start to become really annoying. The third, being the last stage, is a sense of normalcy. You begin knowing enough about the culture, driving rules, food, etc. to get just about anywhere you need to go and get anything you need or want within reason. And the things you can't get, well, you learn quickly how to adapt without any, or maybe just a few, gripes. I think the last stage is where we finally are.

This holiday weekend, we decided to push the envelope a little bit and take a 5 hour drive up to Nagano, home of the 1998 Winter Olympics. Thanks to the advice of some friends and the friendly folks at the on-base tourist office, we found a good place to stay. With information in hand, we booked two nights at Villa Alpen (4th hotel from the right in the picture). Our accommodations were a bit rustic, and although we were hoping to sleep on futons (we still haven't had an opportunity to do that!), the fantastic hospitality made up for any minimal disappointments. Besides, we didn't travel over 5 hours to the snow-covered paradise of Nagano just to hang out in a hotel room.

Although we didn't do any skiing or snowboarding, the hotel is located literally about 50 yards from the ski lifts, right in the heart of all the past Olympic action. The hotel offered free sleds; so Josh, Mike and I had a grand old time sledding. The first day (Friday) was a bit short. We arrived at Villa Alpen around 4:00PM, so we had just a little time to get some sledding in before dinner. It was Josh's first time to really experience the snow and he had a blast. 5:00 rolled around quickly so with rosy cheeks, we all climbed up the stairs to our room to change for dinner and drink some hot tea. Like many Japanese hotels, meals are included with the price of the room. For dinner we had a western-friendly Japanese meal. Tonkatsu, rice, cooked fish, and miso soup. Afterwards, it was down to the Chu-hi & Beer vending machine to grab a drink before hitting the onsen. Our room did not have a private shower, but the hotel did have an onsen (group bath) downstairs. Although we were more than happy with this arrangement, we ran into several of the other American guests who were very bashful about stripping down in front of other people. No worries, as I ended up having the women's side all to myself. After drinking our beverages and soaking in a hot bath, we pretty much all slept like rocks.

We woke up (or rather Josh woke us all up) bright and early on Sunday morning to enjoy breakfast and to go see the famous snow monkeys at Jigokudani Yaen-koen. Mike took the snowy hike to our car to hook snow chains on our tires and then we took the treacherous icy drive down the mountain to the Monkey Park, or should I rather say, Monkey Spa. That's right. When the temperatures drop, these monkeys lounge around in the natural mineral hot springs in the area. This area is one of the only places that visitors can take a 1 mile hike to observe these monkeys up close and personal in their natural habitat. To Mike, the experience was a photographer's dream. To Josh and me, it was pretty darn amazing. Josh really had a great time, despite being surrounded by furry creatures as big as him. Near the monkey spas, there are also clusters of mineral baths/onsens that human visitors can enjoy.

After spending some quality time with our fur-covered ancestors, we hiked back to the car, then slipped and slided back up the mountain to our hotel. Back at the hotel, we took a nap, woke up again and did some more sledding. Before dinner, we spent time at the hotel bar and attempted to join in the conversation with a group of Americans from a neighboring base. Unfortunately, they were stuck in their own world (or maybe up their own... butts?) and after being cold-shouldered a few times (our only negative experience throughout the trip), we found ourselves closed off to the back corner of the bar... nothing a little sake couldn't fix! For dinner, we enjoyed another western-friendly Japanese meal of cooked sliced beef, wheat noodles, rice, pickled veggies and miso soup. Then again, off to the hotel onsen and bed.

On our last vacation day (Monday), we checked out of Villa Alpen and decided to take a last-minute detour on the way home to visit Matsumoto Castle. We've had the opportunity to visit several reconstructed castles throughout Japan, but what makes Matsumoto-jo so impressive is that it is one of the few original remaining castles in Japan. It was definitely one of our favorite castle visits to date. Much of the information had been translated to English and the explanations about the castle history, construction, and era were all described in an interesting manner. Also, the castle and grounds still had enough snow lying around to make for a beautiful view.

After spending about two hours in and around Matsumoto Castle, we hopped back into the car and headed back to Yokosuka. On a side note, we stopped at several of the many "rest areas" along the Japanese highways heading back home. Japanese rest areas are not like those on the interstates in the States. Instead, Japanese rest areas are like shopping centers, with brand name restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, and souvenir shops of all kinds. We stopped for a late lunch at one of these places and, after eating a tasty MOS Burger, took a few minutes to shop for some road snacks. One of the tasty snacks that we found was Kit Kat's Apple flavor. Nagano Prefecture seems to be a proud apple producing region, based on all of the signs and sights we saw during our drive through the region, so being able to try a new flavor of Kit Kat from the region really added to the experience. Long story short, we bought two cases of these things... and they are "oishi" (delicious).

All in all, we had a great adventure this weekend. There were a lot of firsts on this trip: I drove in snow for the first time ever, Mike got to put snow chains on tires for the first time, Josh enjoyed playing in the snow for the first time, and this has been our longest road trip in Japan to date (over 800 km round trip). And we can't say enough about the hospitality at the Villa Alpen. The staff made us feel right at home and the location couldn't be beat.

Josh was a fantastic traveller and kept himself occupied with his trains and books throughout the long ride. He took a few catnaps and pointed out all kinds of things outside as we past them by. I don't think we heard one gripe out of him the whole time. Even on the way home, he chatted away about the hotel, the snow, and the monkeys. I bet he's already planning our next vacation!

All of our pictures from the trip are now in the Gallery, dated 01/15/2007. Enjoy!

They Had Him in Stitches

CAUTION: the details of this post are not for the squeamish.

Tonight was an adventurous night in the lives of the Japan Years men. Nicki and Josh picked me up from work so that we could turn around and drop Nicki off at the gym. Then our plan was to head home and make dinner for the guys while mommy worked out. That didn't turn out so well. Instead, daddy drove home in the pouring rain, helped Josh out of his car seat, and then we walked towards our front door. Unfortunately, as I began to turn the knob on the front door of the house, I heard Josh cry out in the type of voice that every parent immediately recognizes but hopes to never hear... the sound of intense pain.

As I turned around, Josh was hunched over on the front steps with his head tucked into his arm, half-hugging himself tightly. He cried out, "I hit my head". Apparently, he must have slipped and head-butted the corner of the top step leading to our front door. As I ran over and told him that he'd be okay, I noticed a steady stream of blood flowing - not dripping, but actually flowing - from his forehead, almost directly between his eyebrows. The flow of blood was so intense that in the two seconds or less that it took me to get over to him, blood was already dripping around his nose, below his eyes, and into his mouth. The wound looked pretty deep, so I carried him inside and laid him down on the floor with his head tilted back to keep the blood from his eyes. Then I ran to the linen closet, grabbed a hand towel, and began applying direct pressure to stop the bleeding. After a couple minutes, I realized that the wound wouldn't close on its own. Time for Plan B, the trip to the emergency room.

Knowing good and well that Josh wouldn't keep pressure on the wound all the way to the hospital, I thought quickly about what I could do to help keep it from bleeding along the way. A band-aid wouldn't be strong enough of a squeeze to do the trick. So I went straight for the scotch tape. Uncomfortable... probably. But under the circumstances... necessary.

On the way to the hospital, I talked to Josh to make sure that he was alert, asked him questions, etc. He did great and I knew that his mind was still active and functioning as normal. When we got to the ER, one of our doctor friends, Rich, was leaving for the night. He took a quick look and reassured me that head wounds tend to bleed like that and that "the bark was probably far worse than the bite". He also let me know that another doctor friend of ours was on duty tonight, in case we wanted a friend there to do the work. (It's nice to have friends within the doctor community, let me tell you!)

As it turns out, when we finally worked through the paperwork and got Josh to an examination table, the on-the-scene doctor told us that we'd likely need stitches, because the wound looked too deep for the skin glue that is sometimes used on shallower lacerations. I held Josh's hand through the entire process, though the poor little guy doesn't realize that his daddy is squeamish about such things and was struggling to watch any bit of the action on the table. I also noticed that the doctor's scrubs had a UNC logo, so I asked if he was a Tarheel and he replied in the affirmative. Despite better judgement, I told him that I went to NC State; he told me that was okay as long as I wasn't from Duke. Now, back to the action...

First, they cleaned the wound with a high-pressured saline water mix. During the intense wash down, Josh calmly but urgently said, "I'm all done. I feel better now." That right there is brave-three-year-old talk for "Ouch! Stop it! I'm done with you people!". After the wash down, they had to numb him. First, they used a topical solution on the outside of his skin to numb the surface. That didn't bother Josh at all. After 15 minutes or so, they removed that and then told me that they had to secure Josh's arms and legs so that he wouldn't move during the procedure. So they burrito-wrapped him onto a toddler sized plastic mattress and wrapped him with thick belts of Velcro. Surprisingly, he didn't even seem bothered by his new found lack of mobility. The nurse even commented that most kids go nuts when they are tied up like that.

When the doctor brought the overhead lights closer, Josh got a bit nervous. He closed his eyes as tight as he could and repeated, "I'm all done. I feel better now." The doctor reassured him that he had nothing to worry about. "C'mon, doc." I thought... "You've got a loaded needle in your hand". (Just a reminder that you can't trust a Tarheel). Moments later, the doctor injected the Novocaine into Josh's forehead. Twice. One on each side of the wound. After that, Josh was surprisingly calm as the doctor gave him four stitches in his head, then topped off the new threads with two glue-sealed bandages.


During the stitching, Josh and I negotiated over a post-ER "Chicken, Fries, and a Coke" at McDonald's. So after all was completed, we went over to the gym to pick mommy up and then headed over to Mickey D's. But not before two nurses offered Josh two stickers for being such a good patient. In fact, several people in the ER acknowledged that he acted much older and that most three year olds would have gone ballistic.

It didn't take Nicki long at all to notice her baby's new melon bling and by the time she got into the car I was already halfway into recalling the evening's adventure to her. Both mommy and daddy's nerves were shot. All the while, Josh sat there... a brave and courageous little man, ready for his "Chicken, Fries, and a Coke".

George Michael and his shoes

Japan Fun Fact: I think that Japan is the only place where you can walk into a grocery store and hear I want your Sex by George Michael, or Nine Inch Nails singing, "I want to *uck you like an animal", and yes folks it's uncensored!

Another fun fact: Discluding school children, I don't believe I've seen anyone wearing the same shoes in public... ever! The shoes that retailers carry here are pretty awesome though. Many of the New Balance, Converse and Vans are way different from the ones you can find in the States and a lot of times they are a lot more fun! The only catch is that they are way more expensive!

Mike had the car today, so I went shopping for new shoes for Josh. I was just going to buy online but after finding a Japanese brand that I liked on Zappos.com (awesome place to buy shoes online if you haven't heard of them) I thought I would email the actual company and find out where I could buy them here in JP. The brand was Tsukihoshi. Funny side note, I had to email the California sales rep to find out where I could buy them! The sales rep informed me that, in fact, they only sell Tsukihoshi shoes at Genki Kids in Yokohama. Apparently it's the only place they sell them...weird. Especially since they have been around since 1873. Actually the parent company, Moonstar, has been around for that long. Which made me wonder if I was experiencing a Toyota/Lexus scenario?? Anyway, the sales person gave me the address of the place I could find them. Although it's on my list of adventures (I saved the address), I needed shoes immediately for my growing little booger (I mean that in the most affectionate way possible!).

Living in Japan poses a new dilemma when shopping for kids shoes. I need to find supportive shoes that don't have laces. Mainly because they have to be easy for him to get on and off when we are out playing tourist, or going to Japanese homes, or even going into a fitting room at the mall. On the military base they have some very cute shoes, it's just they all have laces, plus selection in his size is hard to come by... ARG! Lucky for me, most places were having After New Years sales. I stopped by the local department store downtown and bought some Miki House shoes for 30% off. Miki house is a pretty pricey brand (no affliliation with Disney). The shoes I got him were about 5565 yen full price. I got them on sale for about 3885 yen about $38.85 or more exact depending on the exchange rate: $32.92. I went to a few places and this was the only place that had green shoes. They are just little Vans style slip-ons. He specifically wanted green shoes like Mommy! Oh my gosh, he actually wants to be like me and not his Daddy! Wonders never cease!

On my way out I also stopped at Gap where they had some more things on sale WOOHOO! I bought him a little fleece hoodie for 900 yen and some pull up pants (just the elastic band with no buttons or zippers) for 1400 yen (about $9.00 and $14.00) I believe the yen exchange here is about 118 yen per dollar so, maybe to be exact: $7.62 and $11.86 :) I really appreciate toddler/children's pants here just because the waste is built for skinny kids like Josh! So, his pants aren't always falling down on him.

If anyone reading this is living in Japan and has children, or is familiar with children's name brands here, please let me in on some secrets on where to find them! I'm always looking for good quality reasonably priced clothing for my American child that I can buy here and not have to order online. It's also nice to be able to go back to the States and say, "yeah, we bought these for Josh in Japan" :) So, if anyone knows of a good place in the Kanagawa prefecture to buy children's clothes, fill me in! All the places that I buy from are so close to base that I wonder if I'm really getting a good price? Although Japan for Kids is a good resource if living in Tokyo, it leaves much to be desired for the surrounding prefectures.

In regards to future shopping excursions, I will be taking Mike to Costco for the first time on the 18th, so we'll have to fill you in on that! We also recently went to the new IKEA in Yokohama where we finally got a new dresser for me as the one I had was on it's last leg. We also enjoyed some meatballs and Glogg YUM. Although it was Swedish, it definitely reminded us of home.

Mochi-tsuki and Christmas

Happy New Year, everyone! It's been a little while since we've posted anything new and we have been very busy these past few weeks preparing for and celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years. Actually, we didn't do much to celebrate the transition from 2006 to 2007. All of us were asleep before midnight and we woke early, compliments of Josh, on January 1. But we were able to participate in a very old Japanese tradition, called mochi-tsuki, to help prepare for the New Year.

Our friends, the Kakimoto family, invited us along with them on December 24 (Christmas Eve) to a Mochi-tsuki at the home of their friends in Hayama, on the other side of the Miura Peninsula. Mochi-tsuki involves the pounding of a special type of Japanese sticky rice to make mochi (a rice treat). Mochi is the traditional New Years treat here in Japan, and the mochi-tsuki is usually performed during the week before New Years to prepare the wonderful treat for the New Years celebration.

To make mochi, the sticky rice is steamed and placed into a large wooden usu (large wooden bowl), where it is pounded repetitively with a kine (large and heavy wooden hammer) until it becomes a big ball of dough-like paste. Then, the mochi is separated into smaller portions and rolled into balls. Finally, flavoring is added, using soy, natto, amongst other things. You can read more about mochi-tsuki by clicking this link.

We had a lot of fun at the mochi-tsuki. I was offered and accepted the opportunity to take a whack at the mochi with the kine hammer. After watching some of the other guys hit it, I figured it would be pretty easy. But as it turns out, it was more difficult than I thought. Also, I think I was paranoid about missing the usu bowl and possibly accidentally hitting the woman who was next to it keeping the mochi wet to keep it from sticking. So out of the 5-6 hits, I only really let loose and put my full weight into one of them. Nicki helped some of the other women shape the mochi balls once the pounding was done. We even took a walk over to the terraced rice paddy where the rice had recently been harvested. Taking advantage of the empty wet fields, the kids went a bit wild making mud mochi. By the end of the walk, they were all pretty much covered from head to foot in mud.

When we returned home from the mochi-tsuki, we began preparing for Santa. We hung up our stockings and put out some homemade cookies for Santa. Then we all went to sleep, while visions of sugarplums danced in our heads. When we woke up on Christmas morning, we found that Santa had indeed stopped by, so we graciously opened up his offerings and had a wondeful Christmas morning. That afternoon, we invited some friends over to share in the festivities and a Christmas dinner. Nicki prepared prime rib, Mike deep fried a turkey, and our friends all contributed with other treats from their typical Christmas traditional stash. All in all, it was a great Christmas celebration in this Buddhist land that we call home.

Our stash of pictures are up in our Gallery, dated 01/02/2007. Enjoy!