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.