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.