Chinese New Year

(Friday, January 23)

It was a relatively relaxing evening planned with just dinner. I met up with Trevor, Kevin, and Karen to go have dinner at a secret place. Karen took us to a small restaurant that is nearby the main gate of the naval base that she was not supposed to take us to. The place was so small that Karen's friend was worried about letting too many people know about it and having it get too crowded. It was a small place with enough recessed seats for 10 people and one cook/waiter/cashier.

We took off our shoes at the door and then had to step into our seats at a bar type table. The menu consisted of 8 wood boards with kanji letters up on the wall. The cook specialized in katsu which is the breaded meat that is fried. I ordered curry chicken. The cook takes out the chicken and every elses meats and then starts preparing all of them at the same time in front of us. It reminded me of In-and-Out Burger with the preparation line that you can watch them prepare your food for you. Denise thought my comparison was silly. Anyways, the food took a little while to come out, but it was so good going down. I can't wait to take Denise there soon after she gets here.

(Saturday, January 24)

We headed to Enoshima Island which is northwest of Yokosuka. It is located just across the water and is connected to the land by a car bridge and pedestrian bridge. The way used to open up during low tide when people could walk across to the island. We took two separate trains to Enoshima with the second train going right next to the water with lots of beaches and surfers. That is right, there were a ton of surfers out there. It was quite crowded and reminded me of the good surf spots at Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. The waves were San Diego sized in spots.

Enoshima is a mythical island that has been part of the Japanese culture for a long time. Dragons are a big theme with the island, so there are dragons everywhere. There are a couple big shrines, flowers, performers, shopping, observation tower, and caves on the backside. The weather was nice while we were there, but the sunny skies hid the cold air and super wind that tried to knock us off the observation tower. Once I put on my third layer, I was good to go.

We experienced some Shinto rituals with this knot circle that we had to go through three times; twice counter-clockwise and once clockwise. Then there was the water bins all over where you fill a ladle with water and use it to wash one hand, drink out of that hand, then wash the other hand. There was also a spring that you can wash your coins with holes in them (5 and 50 yen) to bring you great riches. You can also throw your coins into a metal bin with bars. It reminded me of a fair game after my coin bounced out after a great shot.

We got to the top of the island and went up the observation tower. From the observation tower you can see the entire island and the surrounding area. It was quite a few, but the wind was howling. You could see Miami Beach. Not the Miami Beach you are thinking of, but the Japanese version. I could not see the resemblance. There was also a garden near the observation tower with daffodils of different colors. It reminded me of Denise and I taking our engagement pictures.

After cresting the island we headed back down to the other side where there was a cave to explore. The views from this side of the island were amazing with the sun hiding behind the clouds and the rock formations. It was quite peaceful just looking out over the water. The cave was formed by years of the waves eating away at the side of the island building the cave. The cave was cool, but not as rustic as I would like. There was electric lights lining the sides and grating above to protect any rocks from falling on you. There was one part that was fun where they give you a candle on a ladle and you walk along a darker part of the cave. There were some relics along the sides of the wall.

Afterwards we headed back towards Yokosuka, but we took a suspended monorail northeast from Enoshima to Ofuna. It was a lot of fun especially with the corners where the car moved up and towards the outside of the corner. It was like a cheap roller coaster ride cruising above the local streets. From Ofuna we took the train south back to Yokosuka. We headed to Patrick's rental house for a little get together. We cooked up some burgers and hot dogs to have a good old American barbecue. Once the sun went down it got super cold, but we did have the barbecue indoors.

(Sunday, January 25)

Two weeks until Denise will be arriving from Seattle. I can not wait until she gets here. These next couple of weeks are going to be tough waiting for her since I miss her so much and I am excited that she is coming soon.

We headed to Yokohama in the morning. Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan and is a short 30 minute train ride north of Yokosuka. We planned on visiting the Kirin Brewery and checking out Chinatown. Kirin is the number one beer in Japan and can be related to Budweiser in the states. I think the beer is very tasty and it is about the only beer I have been drinking in Japan. The brewery was located in the suburbs, so it took another 30 minutes to get there from the Yokohama train station.

We went on the brewery tour that lasted about one hour. Everything was in Japanese, but they did give us an English guide to help us through the tour. The guide was very basic, but gave you a good idea on what the different parts of the tour entailed. It was a guided tour that did not allow much stopping to check things out. They did have screens that had animations or video of the brewery operations. Being a Sunday, the brewery was not in operation so no conveyor belts were moving and no beer bottles were being filled up. At the end of the tour we had two drink coupons to use on three different types of Kirin beer.

After we were done with the brewery we jumped back on the train to head back towards Yokohama station. From the main station we took the local subway line to get within walking distance of Chinatown. Yes, Japan has a Chinatown and Yokohama has the largest Chinatown in Japan. We wanted to go to Chinatown today because it was Chinese New Year's Eve. I was thinking that we have huge New Year's Eve celebrations in the states, but not in Chinatown. It was jam packed with people, but there was nothing special happening inside. Today, I found out that the celebration starts today and lasts for two weeks. I might go back once Denise gets here or just forget about it. The Chinatown in San Francisco was much cooler.

We left early and headed back to Yokosuka. I was okay with that since I wanted to get back in time for Lost. Lost is on the Armed Forces Network on Sunday nights here in Japan. I am happy enough to actually be able to watch my favorite TV show. I tried to watch it online at abc.com, but I could not view it since I live outside the USA. I think they block it because the commercials only apply to an American audience and they are probably worried about pirating. I watched 3 hours of Lost to finish off the weekend.

Minakami

(Friday, January 16)

My next great adventure in Japan was to go snowboarding. There was Patrick, Ruben, Mike, Josh, Brian, Jo, Rylynn, and myself. We started the night by meeting up at the lounge at the Hotel New Yokosuka for some drinks prior to heading out for some grub for dinner. We headed to the Pepper Steak restaurant for dinner which is just off Blue Street on the way to Yokosuka-Chuo station. I had heard of the Pepper Steak restaurant, but I thought it was the nickname for the place like the Green Leaf restaurant that I went to. But, it was actually called Pepper Steak and they served different kinds of meat.

It was neat because you ordered your meal from a vending machine with pictures and prices for the meals. You put money into the vending machine and pick the meal you want. The machine then gives you a ticket and you take that to the counter with the waitress who asks what size of rice you want and what you want to drink besides the beer you can order from the machine. The meat and veggies comes to you in a hot black skillet still raw, but cooking. You turn the meat over and allow it to cook for 5-10 minutes on the skillet until it is ready. It was very good and you could definitely taste the pepper flavoring in the steak I got.

We left the restaurant and headed to the train station to head north towards Tokyo. We took the Keiku train from Yokosuka-Chuo to Shanagawa which is the loop line on the outskirts of Tokyo. From there we took the JR Tokaido line from Shangawa to Tokyo Station. From Tokyo station we caught the bullet train (shinkansen) to Jomokogen station which is near Minakami. Patrick bought the bullet train tickets for us, so that we could sit together but it did not work. We were all spread out within two cars of the train. The bullet train ride was interesting, but it was nothing special. It was a quick trip (1 hr 20 min) to our destination and since we were traveling at night you could not see much.

We arrived at Jomokogen station and got on a shuttle bus with a bunch of Irish guys. The shuttle bus took us 20 minutes from the station to the Canyons Lodge were we were staying. We stopped at the rental shop to pick up our snowboards, skis, and boots. We were prepared and had already provided the shop with our information, but we had to wait an hour for the Irish guys to get their gear. The Irish guys worked in Tokyo and spoke good Japanese, but were not the best of skiers. We finally got to the lodge around 11:30 pm. We paid 13,000 yen ($130) for three nights stay and three breakfast tickets.

The rooms were dorm style with three bunk beds. The beds had a very thin layer of padding that made up the mattress, a comforter, a sheet, and a thin blanket. The beds were very uncomfortable and I slept very little the first night. We realized after the first night that we were staying in a glorified hostel.

(Saturday, January 17)

We got up relatively early around 8 am to have breakfast at the lodge. I had a delicious french toast breakfast and some tea. We signed up for the shuttle bus to Tanagawa ski resort at 9:40 am in the morning. The lodge provided shuttle service to three different ski resorts. We headed to the mountain in a nice snow storm. It snowed all day long, which is funny since the lodge worker the night before told us that it was going to be a sunny day. The resort had a tram that went up the mountain and then three lifts that went up from there. The middle lift was a short lift compared to the other two, but the runs were short unless you went all the way to the bottom of the gondola.

It was a great first half of snowboarding at the resort. The snow was awesome, there was so much untouched powder to play in. Our tracks were being filled in by the snow that continued to come down. We were having a lot of fun and it was tough to stop for lunch. On our way to lunch we found an unfortunate event that occurred. One of our peeps, Josh, had twisted his knee severely enough to be carted off the mountain and taken to the hospital. That put a damper on the rest of the ski day.

That night while Josh was on his way back to Yokosuka, we partied down at the lodge. There were people setup to meet Josh along the way to get him back, so we were only worried about the long term consequences of the injury affecting his work. Back at the lodge, they had an Irish band that was playing that night. The Irish band had one Irish guy on guitar, an American on fiddle and vocals, and a Japanese girl on drums. They rocked the house. I ended up eating some Shephard's Pie from the dinner menu and it was tasty. The lodge and bar was made up of 2/3 English speakers and the rest were Japanese. I performed an Irish jig to the delights of the crowd.

(Sunday, January 18)

We woke up Sunday morning with slight hangovers, but we still attacked the morning breakfast. We headed back to Tanagawa again since we had so much fun the day before and there was probably still some good powder. It was not snowing today and the weather was quite a bit warmer on the slopes. We snowboarded pretty hard most of the day, but we did find some time to goof off at the top of the mountain where there was shrine gates. We also hiked up to a picnic table on top of the hill nearby where we were able to get a couple turns in some fresh powder. The tree skiing was quite a bit different here since the trees are deciduous and not evergreen like in most places I had skied before in the West.

We stayed at the resort until 4 pm or so and then headed back to the lodge. We were in dire need of some cash since we had spent most of it the night before. The closest ATM was at the 7-11 which was all the way across town. We could afford to take the bus from the lodge to the Minakami train station, but we did not think we could afford to make it to the ATM. We started walking towards the ATM and walked for about 30 minutes before we pasted an onsen that we wanted to check out. We combined our money to pay 500 yen ($5) a piece to enter the onsen.

An onsen is a Japanese bath house that has a hot tub with piped in hot spring water. There are three bath houses in an onsen including one for men, one for women, and one for a family. We split up into boys and girls to head to respective onsen. You go through a door into a bathroom/locker area where you undress completely. From there you head to the next room where the Japanese showers and the hot tub are located. A Japanese shower involves sitting on a stool and using a low hung shower nozzle to completely clean yourself with soap and water. After you are clean you can step into the recessed hot tub with is super hot.

We stayed in the water for as long as it took for our fingers to look like prunes before we got out. After leaving the onsen well relaxed, we headed towards 7-11 and money to pay for dinner. We got to 7-11 about 15 minutes later to load up on money and snacks. After that we headed to a cow-meat restaurant for dinner. I got tonkatsu which was breaded pork with an A-1 type barbecue sauce. After filling up on food we caught taxis back to the lodge for 1000 yen ($10) each.

Back at the lodge we started playing cards (up/down) and drank saki until it was very late at night.

(Monday, January 19)

We got up at the regular time to find out that the lodge did not serve breakfast on Mondays. We walked to a liquor/convenience store to buy snacks and drinks to have for breakfast. We then caught a shuttle to the Minakami train station. From the Minakami train station we took a bus to the Jomokogen train station for 600 yen ($6). We purchased our bullet train tickets for 5200 yen ($52). We got non-reserved seat tickets, but we only saved about 500 yen ($5) from getting the reserved tickets.

Upon out arrival at the Tokyo station, I departed from the group to try and get back quicker so that I could talk with Denise before it got too late. They stayed around to have lunch and hang out in Tokyo. This was the first time that I have taken the trains all by myself. I made it back to Yokosuka with only small issues finding the right train track in Shinagawa. I got back to my apartment about 3:30 pm, so that I could talk with the love of my life!

The only energy I had left in me was used up in talking with Denise. I was wasted tired after the weekend, so I watched The Dark Knight and went to sleep shortly after.

(Tuesday, January 20)

I finally purchased some new jeans today at the exchange. I have been in dire straits with my old pair of Eddie Bauer jeans since they had a nice hole developing in the crotch area. I can now put those pants in the burnable trash bin. They were great pants for the amount of time they lasted, so hopefully my new Calvin Kleins can hold up to the challenge.

(Wednesday, January 21)

I love short weeks because it gets me closer to the time when my lovely wife flies out. I can't wait to see her, hold her, and kiss her when she gets here. I did find out that she purchased her airline tickets to come out here on February 7. I am super excited now and she is super worried with everything she needs to do before coming out here. Tonight, I talked to Denise on her cell phone via Skype which works very well and does not costs too much.

After talking with Denise I headed to the lounge to have a drink prior to heading out for dinner. I met up with Patrick, Kevin, Mike, Trevor, Bill, Norris, John, and some other dude who I forgot his name. We headed to a Thai restaurant across from TGI Fridays on a side street of Blue Street. I got a fried rice dish with green chile paste and chicken. It was tasty and a little toasty with the spices. I can't wait to bring Denise there once she gets here since we both love Thai food so much. The best part was dessert which was a raspberry jello dish with ice and frog eggs which was surprisingly good. It is an authentic Thai dessert.

That is all for tonight. Hope you have enjoyed this long winded story session I have provided this evening. An hour of typing is plenty enough for me.

Sushi

(Wednesday, January 13)

The last few days I have had some serious difficulty getting up in the morning. I have gotten past that point in the time change war where I was waking up a lot in the morning before my alarm goes off. I have been dreading when my alarm goes off in the morning because I am tired and don't want to get up. I also think the initial excitement of Japan has worn off. I have realized that I am here to work and I really miss Denise. Please, let these next few weeks go by fast so I can see the woman of my dreams in person.

Bond...James Bond. Do I have to say anything else? Patrick and I went and saw James Bond Quantum Solace on base for $1. Patrick got a hot dog, coke, and popcorn for $5. I love Tuesday $1 movie night. The movie was a lot of fun. Sorry, I watched it without you Scott. I suggest that anyone who sees it should watch Casino Royale first since this movie was more of a sequel.

(Thursday, January 14)

Last night we headed to southern Yokosuka to get out the 100 yen sushi shop. I was extremely apprehensive to go, but then again you only live once. I told my friend Kevin that I would need his Japanese expertise to get me through the night without eating any seafood. I told Denise about my planned trip and she was adamant that I bring my epi-pen. I was locked and loaded with my Japanese understanding friend, epi-pen, no seafood card in Japanese, and the luck of the Irish. This was my first time to have real sushi. Karl, Mike, Trevor, Kevin, and myself set off for the Yokosuka-Chuo train station to head south a few stops.

We arrived at the sushi place and they set us in a table in the back of the restaurant. This was a fun sushi place because they had the sushi going around on a carousel. You just grab whatever appetizing sushi off the carousel and eat it. You can even special order sushi on a touch screen menu at the end of the table. You know your special order is coming when the touch screen starts beeping at you and a sushi tray comes on top of a red bowl. I ended up eating a fried egg sushi roll, hamburger sushi roll, corn and mayo sushi roll, caramelized potatoes, and a delicious slice of pineapple. They were all pretty good, but the corn and mayo sushi roll was the best.

After we were done with the sushi we got to have a lot of fun getting rid of the plates. There is an automatic counter opening that you put your empty sushi plates at the end of the table. After each 5 plates you drop you play a game like slots on the touch screen. If you win a prize drops from the chute above the sushi conveyor. Check out the picture closer. We found out when we were paying that each plate costs 105 yen because of the 5% sales tax on everything. Don't let those 100 yen sushi places fool you.

After the sushi place we stopped at a arcade game arcade that was very loud and smokey. Kevin and I played a Rambo shooting game with the toy guns. Most of the arcade games were fighting games like Street Fighter of old. They also had slot machines, animal pickup games, coin pushing games, and horse racing games. It was interesting, but it was definitely loud. We left there and headed back to the train station to get back.

I am heading to the mountains tomorrow night to go snowboarding for a few days. I am heading near Nagano where they had the Winter Olympics a few years ago. We are going to take a bullet train up there. I will fill everyone in on it after I get back.

Tokyo - Part 1

I say Tokyo - Part 1 in the title because I expect myself to visit Tokyo again on my overseas adventure. It will probably be with my Denise when my lovely wife comes to Japan.

(Sunday, January 11)

I got up early on Sunday so I could Skype my lovely wife Denise. We talked for a long time and it was quite enjoyable. I feel bad because she missed going to church on Sunday partially due to me. I gave her the inside scoop on Mount Nokogiri before any of you read about it. Sorry, she does get special treatement since she is my wife and because she is so darn cute. After talking with Denise I head down to meet everyone at 9:30 am for our trip to Tokyo.

Our trip to Tokyo consisted of Karen, Rick, Karl, our host Bob, and myself. Bob had stayed in Yokosuka and worked here for three months starting in June, so is well traveled in the area. We went to the Yokosuka-Chuo station and took the train north along the Keiku line to Shinagawa which is on the outskirts of Tokyo. The train station was very busy once we got of the train with the 16 tracks of trains and lots and lots of people to navigate through.

We caught a train that goes around the circumference of Tokyo to get to the famed Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station is a huge brick building that has been around for a long time and is the central train station for Tokyo with lots of connecting trains. We left the station to walk to the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Palace is an ancient area where the Emporer still recides. There are a bunch of buildings that are surrounded by moats and/or gates with guards. You could walk around the outside of the Palace, but you could not get inside. It reminded some of us of Central Park since the area around the moats and the Palace was wide open with well trimmed trees and grass you could not stand or walk on.

After the Imperial Palace tour we walked back to Tokyo Station to catch another train to the Tokyo Dome. The Tokyo Dome reminds me a lot of Seattle since it has the Tokyo Dome, which is similar to the King Dome, and it has baseball during the season and concerts, Power Rangers, and other stuff outside of the baseball season. Around the dome we ended up eating lunch at Burgers Tokyo which was very tasty. I got a teriyaki burger that had the patty created from red peppers and other spices that made it very tasty. The fries in Japan are quite good even without ketchup. I wonder what they use to fry them in?

After eating a few of the group went on the roller coaster ride called Dolphin Encounter or something that included a short roller coaster ride that had a steep decline, entry into a building, a loop-to-loop, and just mass amounts of speed. It was fun watching people going on the ride. It reminded me of the setup they have at the New York, New York in Las Vegas, Nevada. I did not go on the ride due to my motion sickness issues. Instead I went and walked around the mall area that was part of the Tokyo Dome that included an Eddie Bauer and other fun places.

After checking out the Tokyo Dome, we left and headed to the Shinjuku area of Tokyo to check out the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. The building is way tall, but provides free access to the 45th floor for a panoramic view of Tokyo. Mount Fuji was not visible due to clouds, but everything else was remarkable to see. There are two towers to the building, but we took the north end. From the top I spotted the Shinjuki Central Park which had some Shinto Shrines.

We traveled back down the elevator and went over to the Park to check out the shrine. The shrine was just okay, but the park included a homeless tent camp, skateboarders, roller bladers, BMX bikers, and two random kimono dressed ladies. The kimono dressed ladies were doing some crazy stretching exercises, but I was not sure of their purpose besides the photographer that was taking pictures of the two. It was quite interesting watching the situation, but I also felt very lost.

After the park visit, we briefly stopped at Starbucks to get some warm drinks to warm us up from the very cold temperatures of Tokyo we had felt up to that point. After leaving Starbucks it was dark, so we headed to the Kabukicho area which is the major entertainment town in Shinjuku with restaurants, movie theaters, game arcades, bowling, etc. It was amazing how crowded the streets were on a Sunday night with so many people going by you. It was quite overwelming with number of people and the neon signs.

After we were done at Kabukicho, we headed back to the Yokosuka-Chuo train station by taking another train and transferring. After we arrived back in Yokosuka, we headed the the mall neaby the train station for dinner. I ended up eating a #32 which was chicken and artichoke hearts over a spicy red sauce with spaghetti noodles. It was very traditional withe shoes off at the entrance. The food was excellent, but the service was not that great.

The night was finished.

(Monday, January 12)

The greatest part of this day was that it is 1/11/09 which is the third month anniversary of Denise and myself. I enjoyed talking with her this morning for a few minutes using Skype. We have the next few days planned on when and where to meet up. I can't wait until she comes out her permanently since we both miss each other.

Tonight we headed to a Korean BBQ with Kevin, Brian, Tim, John, Larry, and myself. It was a great concept, you paid about 3000 yen for 1.5 hours of unlimited eating and drinking. The drinking was from automated machines that could pour a beer for you or mix Shuhi for you in different flavors. The eating consisted of different sauces and spices and cooking red meat, chicken, and pork over a tiny gas grill that is at each table. We did great and got through about 4 plates of meat before the three of us were done. I also consumed a good portion of Japanese beer that treats me right.

After leaving the Korean BBQ, we headed to a couple of jazz bars. One had a cover charge of 1000 yen ($10) even though there was no one else there. The aother jazz bar we went to did not have a band or cover charge, but we purchased a few beers and the shuhi for Kevin. The place was empty besides us, but they had some nice jazz music playing in the background. I ordered and drank a Murphy's Irish Stout from tap which was tasty. The bar had a ton of American beers to choose from.

That concludes this nights festivities. I am almost falling asleep right now, so I bid everyone good night.

Rain to Shine

(Friday, January 9)

What a cold, wet, Washington-day Friday was. It was raining all day long, it was windy, and it was cold. It was one of those days you just want to curl up with your wife and drink some special hot cocoa. After work I took one of the base buses that circles around the base. It took forever to get from nearby the pier where the ship is to the commisary, but with the nasty weather it was nice. I ended up buying more groceries and checking out the exchange for some new pants since one of my pairs has a hole in the crotch area. Luckily, I have been wearing blue colored boxers with those pants, so no one has noticed. I tried on a couple pairs and they did not fit right, so I took off since I was meeting a group for dinner.

I met up with Don, his wife Joyce, Kevin, Mike, and Karl at the Hotel New Yokosuka lobby to make our way to dinner. Karl had sent out an e-mail earlier in the day suggesting a tempura place. I was up for anything even though I was pretty sure that most tempura is made with seafood. Tempura is a batter that they use to fry the food. I arrived at the lobby soaked from walking from base, but I grabbed my umbrella for the walk to dinner at the tempura restaurant. The tempera restaurant was near the Yokosuka-Chuo train station on "blue street" and was a seven block walk from the hotel. I got a vegetable (yasai) tempura that had egg plant, pumpkin, green beans, and some other vegetables that I did not recognize over rice. The pumpkin was awesome.

It is nice going to places with Kevin since his wife is Japanese and he has studied abroad in Japan. His Japanese is very good and he can read a lot of the kanji characters on the menus. I don't pull out my translation card that states "I am allergic to seafood" when I am with Kevin because I know I don't need it.

The Washington weather bummed us all out, so we called it an early night after eating dinner.

(Saturday, January 10)

This was a super fun day and it all started with a call to my wife and my mother. I had not talked to my mother since I have been in Japan and she was shocked that I even called. I think I made her day:) It also helps that I woke up to partly sunny weather and no rain.

Today was the day we had all heard about since Tuesday. Dwayne sent out an e-mail inviting us all on a trip to Mount Nokogiri. Dwayne is on permanent change of station (PCS) in Yokosuka for the next 3 years (5 years) total. I bought my old Ford Explorer and cabin near Stevens Pass from him before he left for Japan. I have known Dwayne for a long time and he is a great guy, so I knew this would be a great trip.

A few of us met up in the morning for breakfast and then headed to the train station at Yokosuka-Chuo. There were about 8 of us on the initial walk to the train station. We caught the train southbound and got off at Horinouchi train station around 8:45 am to meet Dwayne. At this train station another group showed up soon after us and then another couple groups showed up. By the time Dwayne showed up with his two daughters there were 25 of us. We had this large group of 28 of us and most of us did not know each other or had just met each other the week before.

We took the next train southbound for the Kurihama station. From the Kurihama station we talked towards the port. We stopped by a Shinto shrine along the way to take some snapshots. Shinto means "way of the gods" and is an animalistic religion built around the idea that all living beings have spirits. Shinto and Buddhism are the major religions that are followed in Japan. The Shinto shrine that we visited in Kurihama had a bull out front.

Along the way to the port we stopped at two different 7-Elevens so people could get their lunches and snacks. There are 7-Elevens everywhere in Japan and only a few Starbucks, what gives? Just kidding, since I don't drink coffee. I ended up getting a rice ball with some meat and mayo inside rice which was wrapped inside seaweed. I also got a soy bar with strawberries and a little cooked dough ball with curry, potatoes, and pork inside. The rice ball was not that good since I could not get past the taste of the seaweed. The soy bar was okay, but the dough ball was awesome.

We finally got to the ferry and took a ferry across Tokyo Bay to the Chiba Peninsula. The ferry ride costs about 1200 yen ($12) and took 45 minutes to cross the water. The ferry ride was very bumpy and I was worried about getting seasick. We crossed the shipping lanes that go towards Tokyo at the end of the bay. The ferry was very nice with comfortable cushioned seats and a snack bar. The ferries take passengers, vehicles, and golf clubs. There were a lot of people going over to the Peninsula to golf since it is less expensive than on our side of the water. We got a view of Mount Fuji from the back of the ferry boat and a view of Mount Nokogiri from the front of the ferry boat.

We offloaded the ferry and walked towards the cable car that was going to take us to the top of Mount Nokogiri. The cable car is similar to a ski area gondola, but we were packed in like sardines. The cable car cost about 810 yen ($8.10) with our group discount (25 or more). The top of of Mount Nokogiri has great views of the Tokyo Bay area which includes Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, etc. The top of the mountain is about 324 meters high which is about 100 feet high. It also had a good view of Mount Fuji, but Mount Fuji blended in with the clouds since it was so far away. Mount Nokogiri was a granite quarry, so the sides of the mountain were cut up which leads to the beauty of the area and the budhas that we hiked to.

At the top of the cable car there are hiking trails that go along the ridge of the mountain with all the great views and then to the backside of the mountain where the buddhist did their magic with the budhas, temples, and everything in between. It costs 600 yen ($6) to get into the area, but it was well worth it. The first budha we went to was etched out of the mountain side and was about 60 feet tall. It was located in a valley that was formed from the granite quarry. After that we headed down the trail towards the big stone budha daibutsu and passed some of the 1,500 stone figures of Tokai Arhats. The stone figures were 2-3 feet tall and each looked different. There were 27 artisians working on them for 19 years. After walking down a huge number of steps we finally got to the big stone budha.

The big stone budha was about 30 meters tall or almost 100 feet tall. The big stone budha had 6 smaller budhas engraved in stone around it on the side of the mountain. This statue was massive. There were also red hawks or something that were flying around and they were massive too. I felt like a small person there. After seeing the budha we hiked by some temples and then made the big climb back to the top of the mountain and our cable car ride back down. We headed back to the ferry and took the ferry back across the Bay to Kurihama. It was starting to get dark by now. We checked out a few market streets in Kurihama on our way back to the train station and then took the train station home.

Once I got back to my hotel I had the task of going through all Denise and my honeymoon, wedding, and other pictures and getting them organized and backed up on CD. I had to do this, so that I could finally delete all the honeymoon pictures from the my camera, so that I could take plenty of pictures in Tokyo today. Look forward to the next blog that talks about my long day in Tokyo today. I need to get to sleep.

Shochu

I have to first apologize because I have had a lot of liquor intake tonight, so if I misspell words or make no sense you know why.

(Wednesday, January 6)

Last night I took the JR train from Yokosuka to Taura to have dinnner and hang out with my coworkers Kevin and Don. Taura is one train stop north of Yoksosuka. They both live in the same apartment complex that is within a block of the train station. We got off the train in Taura and it was a whole world apart since it was a quiet neighborhood with only street traffic from HWY 16 making noise. I ate yakisoba that Don's wife, Joyce made for us. It was a delicious meal of beef, cabbage, carrots, and noodles with the yakisoba sauce. The yakisoba sauce is what makes the meal taste so good. Joyce had to ask at the local grocery store what container had the yakisoba sauce in it, since everything was in kanji.

After we finished the yakisoba, Kevin, Don, and I watched the Letters of Iwo Jima which is based on WWII using the Japanese perspective on the invasion of the island of Iwo Jima. It was a great film with most of the language in Japanese with English subtitles until they had scenes with the Americans. The counter movie is called Flags of Our Fathers which is from the American perspective. Both movies were directed by Clint Eastwood and are highly recommended. Kevin brought down a couple beers from his apartment below to get us through the movie. It was a great Japanese treat all along.

At the end of the night I took the #31 bus from their apartment in Taura back to Yokosuka. Kevin had already taken the bus before and told me that it would be 5 tunnels that I go through until I get to Yokosuka. I was able to pay for the bus using the PASMO card that I got to use for the trains. After getting off the bus in Yokoska, I had only a short walk back to my apartment. There is not a lot of money leftover on my card. I will have to refresh it with more yen before I use it again.

(Thursday, January 7)

Work was very busy today, but we were able to go the SRF building to get our mail boxes setup. I can now receive mail in Japan using an APO mailbox. Mail will still take about 1.5 weeks or less to arrive, but I can now receive all the Care Packages that everyone has been meaning to send me. Just kidding, but if you want to send me something I can provide you with my APO address.

I rushed home after work to see and talk to my beautiful wife on Skype. I was so excited to see her that I told one of my superiors that I could not make a meeting, so that I could talk to my wife. My boss was understanding. I would tell you what we talked about, but it was a private conversation. A great part of the conversation was finding out that Denise got her passport in, so she is closer to gettting her. I talked with Denise for about 35 minutes before my good old friend Patrick started calling me on the work cell phone. Patrick arrived in Japan on Tuesday evening and was ready to hang out with his fellow New Mexican.

After work, Patrick came over to the aparments. The apartments are locked, so Patrick buzzed in and I figured out how to talk to him. The problem came about when I tried to let him in. There is a red buttom with two Japanese kanji symbols on it that I pressed and it started making a siren noise. I decided that was not it, so I pressed the button again to turn it off. The other button had fice black kanji symbols and after pressing that Patrick was able to enter the apartment.

Shortly after Patrick's arrival a Japanese policeman/security guard/or whoever rang my doorbell to make sure that I was okay. I told him my folly and he left shortly after. After leaving my apartment we headed to the Hotel New Yokosuka to use some fo the drink coupons I have been getting. We both got beers with the two coupons I brought. After we finished those beers more people that we knew started showing up around our table adding to the drink tab. A contractor who used to work at the shipyard joined us and bought us a round of drinks. He knew Patrick pretty well and liked me enough to buy the beers.

After the lobby we headed to a garlic restuarant that Patrick had been to near the train station that I used to get to Yokohama. We ordered a bunch of different dishes including two different chickens, two different mini pizzas, a salad, baked garlic, and a few other items to go along with beer. This was an interesting restaurant that was in an aile way and the waitress and Patrick talked mainly Japanese to each other. The other waiter we had used more English in his conversation. The food was very delicious, but I am glad there is no one around to smell my breath right now.

After leaving the restaurant we headed to a hole in the wall bar where Patrick and I got Guinness beer. A little early for St. Patrick's Day celebration, but oh well. It was quite tasty beer. Upon leaving this hole in the wall we headed to another hole in the wall called CasaBlanca or "Charlies". Charlies comes from the owner whose name is Charlie. He was a sweet old Japanese man with lots of white hair. We were the only three people in the bar and that is where I drank a shochu.

Shochu is a Japanese vodka that is very light and made from potatoes and rice. John considered it a "moonshine" drink, but he was drinking them all night long. The shochu is added to lemon lime and other flavors to make it taste good. It definitely tasted good, but it was quite strong. We did karaoke at Charlie's bar with the three of us. I sang "Better Man" by Pearl Jam and "Better Together" by Jack Johnson. If you were not at the wedding, Denise and myselfs first dance was to "Better Together". It is much harder to sing to when you have had some liquor in you.

I had a blast hanging out with Patrick tonight. We have not hung out together in a long time. He a is a great friend that was a roommate when I lived in Silverdale, WA. It also helps that he is from Albuquerque, NM and went to NMSU, so we can relate together. I hope all is well back in the states and I hope everyone in Washington is good at rowing a boat since they are getting dumped on with rain. Have a good night.

Ramen

(Tuesday, January 6)

I took some sleeping pills last night to help me get to sleep and stay asleep. It worked pretty darn good. I woke up at 3:30 am and another time, but I was able to go right back to sleep until the alarm went off at 5:30 am. I am debating on if I should take another sleeping pill tonight or not.

Work is work, so I will not talk about that. I got off work around 3:30 pm and rushed back to my apartment to call Denise over the internet using Skype. It was the first time I have seen my beautiful wife since we departed at the airport in Seattle. She looked as cute as ever. We had a great conversation until almost 5 pm Japan time which was midnight Seattle time. I look forward to seeing her again via Skype in a few days.

After talking with Denise I headed over to a Ramen restaurant to have dinner with Don, his wife Joyce, and Kevin. Don and Kevin work with me. The Ramen place was right near the main gate to the base. I ordered a Miso-Ramen and slurped it down. It was quite tasty. The best part was that there was no seafood with it, so I can live another day.

Restaurants are very interesting in Japan because they all have the menu items shown as samples in the window with the price of the item and a description of the item usually in kanji, so I can't understand it. From the picture you can usually get a good idea on what you are about to eat. If you can't say what you want, you can always show the item to the restuarant worker from the display window.

After eating we headed over to the Daiei shopping mall right nearby. It is a five story shopping mall with department stores, restaurants, shoe stores, video game stores, cars on display, grocery store, etc.

One of the interesting parts at the grocery store was a display for tofu. There was a ton of different tofu products and they had a small TV playing a catchy tofu's great type of music video with tofu characters rocking out. It was funny. I ended up buying two beers and some green tea ice cream. One of the beers is just regular Kirin beer which is the most popular beer in Japan. The other is a Kirin stout beer, which I wanted to compare to Guiness.

After the grocery store I checked out one of the department stores that had board games, video games, 100 yen store, etc. What brought me into the store was a Lego display which got me excited. Upon checking out the rest of the store I found no special Lego sets except the bulk piece box that I saw in the display window. They did have Japanese versions of Operation and the Game of Life and a Super Mario Brothers board game. The department store reminded me of a Target, but with a wider selection.

I checked out a few other stores in the mall, but I did not purchase anything else. I found some really cool chop sticks that I might get at a later date, but it is too early in my Japanese adventure to purchase chop sticks already. I have been using chop sticks to eat breakfast and dinner. I have not found a way to pick up french toast with the chop sticks so I use my natural chop sticks (aka fingers) to eat them.

Since I have been back in the apartment, I have finished off the ice cream and one beer. The first bite of the green tea ice cream disgusted me and I thought, "what a bad idea". Then I had another bite and could not stop myself from finishing the rest of the small container since it tasted so good. I drank a can of the best beer in Japan and I enjoyed it. I look forward to drinking other beers while I am here in Japan. I will save the stout beer for tomorrow.

Lost in Translation - Part 1

(Friday, January 2 and Saturday, January 3)

I am writing this on my third day in Japan. I left Seattle on Friday, January 2 and arrived in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday, January 3. Tokyo is 17 hours ahead of Seattle, but I like to think of it as Seattle is 7 hours ahead of Tokyo but a day behind. Upon arriving in Tokyo after the 10-1/2 hour flight, I boarded a PSNS chartered bus to travel to my final desination of Yokosuka. It was supposed to be a 1-1/2 hour bus ride, but there were accidents so it took us closer to 2 hours. There were a few shipyard workers that opted to take the train from the airport to Yokosuka, but then you have to drag your luggage around and it takes longer. Almost all of the signs in the airport and on the roads have both Japanese kanji symbols and roman characters (English).

I arrived at the Hotel New Yokosuka at around 8 pm local time or 3 am Seattle time. I checked in and found out that I was staying in the Tower Apartments which are right around the corner from the hotel. The apartments just opened last July, so they are very nice. The room is quite large by Japanese standards and includes a Queen size bed, flat screen TV, desk, kitchenette with 2 burner stovetop, microwave, small refrigerator, combo washer/dryer, and a good sized bathroom with a crazy cool toilet. The toilet has a seat heater, odor remover, and a couple spray options with different warm water pressure settings. The apartment is about 2 blocks from the main gate of the Naval Base.

I spent most of the first evening just unpacking and trying to stay awake. I called my lovely wife Denise at 4 in the morning and she was still awake waiting for my call. I love her so much and I will be missing her greatly until she arrives in early February. On my way between the hotel and the apartment I got propositioned by some local Japanese ladies for a "massage". I politely told them no, but it shows that I am in the Navy part of town.

(Sunday, January 4)

The next morning required getting up early to go to work for orientation, some training, and tours. The hotel offers a free breakfast in the morning which includes different fish, eggs, rice, veggies, french toast, fries, orange juice, cereal, fruit, and other goodies. I ate my breakfast using just chop sticks even though regular flatware is available. I could not eat the french toast with chop sticks, so I just had to pick it up with my fingers.

The Naval Base is good sized, so there was a lot of walking involved in checking out everything. It is similar to any regular base with the Navy Exchange (NEX), Commisary, Theater, Bowling Alley, Food Courts, Recreation Centers, etc. We stopped at one of the Navy Exchanges to check out the local souviners you can buy for a lot cheaper than in town. They have a lot of the regular American food joints with McDonalds, Starbucks, A&W, Subway, Popeyes, etc. We got a slice of pizza on base since we were hungry.

After leaving base we walked along Blue Street in Yokosuka which is a shopping district with electronic stores, department stores, clothing stores, and other shopping places. I need to spend more time exploring this area. We walked up Blue Street to the Yokosuka Chuo Train Station where we caught a train to Yokohama. There are three different trains that left this station. The black trains stopped at every train stop, the red trains stopped at 1/2 of the train stops and the green trains stopped at 1/3 of the train stops. We bought PASSMO cards that we could swipe to get in and out of the train station. It costs about 350 yen to get to Yokohama from Yokosuka.

For those that don't know, 350 Japanese yen can be approximately equated to $3.50. Right now, the exhange rate is not that good, but the conversion is still pretty close. Japanese society is a very cash driven society where credit cards are not used. Credit cards and American dollars are accepted on base, but Japanese yen is not.

It took us about 25 minutes to get to Yokohama after stopping at two other stops. Yokohama is a large metropolis south of Tokyo. It reminds of the Seattle-Tacoma Puget Sound corrider, but on a much larger scale. You could also relate it to the Los Angeles area, but again on a larger scale. We stopped at the Yokohama Train Station which had a half dozen other trains that stopped there. There were a lot of people at the train station even though it was a Sunday. Just outside of the train station was a mall that we checked out.

The mall was called the Diamond Mall and it was large. It was a huge sprawling mall that was setup in a grid pattern so you go down the main hallway and then there are branches left and right that connect to other hallways that go up and down. If I was not following someone around I would have been lost and they even got lost a few times. There was every type of store you could think of including shoe stores, grocery stores, and lots of restaurants that don't have any roman characters on their menus, so you just rely on the pictures or see if they understand some English.

We stayed in Yokohama for just about an hour before we got back on the train and headed back to Yokosuka. While waiting at the train station in Yokosuka we noticed some younger boys wearing what looked like a blue army outfit with a hat. I found out the outfits are actually school uniforms. Upon our arrival in Yokosuka we went back down Blue Street to go eat at a place called the Green Leaf.

Who knows what the real name of the Green Leaf is, but that is what our guide called it since the restaurant sign had a green neon leaf sign. The restaurant had menu options shown in the window to pick from. Most of us went outside to show the restaurant worker which one we wanted since we could not read the kanji symbols. I had to request a meal without seafood or shifudo in Japanese. I got a noodle dish with veggies (mainly different mushrooms) and some chicken. It was tasty and I did not have a reaction, so there must not have been any seafood in it. The meal costs me 830 yen including the green tea I got.

After eating and socializing we all went back to our rooms. I was exhausted and it was only 5 pm. I ended up falling asleep while watching TV and ended up going to sleep at 7:30 pm. I woke up a ton during the night starting at 12:30 am and about every 30 - 45 minutes after that.

(Monday, January 5)

I had set my alarm for 5 am in the morning, so I could keep up with the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens football playoff game. I watched a play by play of the game on cbssports.com. They ended up losing the game by the time I went to breakfast at 6 am. The game started at 3 am Japan time. I did not find a place on base that I could watch the game at.

I worked a full day today, but I starting dragging after lunch and I still have not recovered. After work I went to the commisary and bought groceries and some sleeping pills so I can try and get a good night's rest tonight. I bought some local Japanese food items at the commisary including some Lemonade Tea in a can, Japansese tea, and some green cheetos looking snacks. The Lemonade Tea was good for a green tea mixture. I drank it with my non-Japanese meal of Subway tonight on base. I hope to be a little more adventurous tomorrow night, but I am just too tired right now.

The other worry I have is my allergy to seafood which is difficult with the local Japanese food choices that include a lot of seafood. I made a little notecard that states that I am allergic to seafood in English and Japanese (kanji symbols and katakana letters) and it includes a picture of a fish being crossed out. I forgot to bring it with me yesterday, but I will carry it with me from now on. I am starting to drag majorly, so I am going to cut this short. I hope to add better pictures with the next post.