Tokyo

My first trip to Tokyo and it was a blast!!! This is Tokyo Tower...look familiar? It was inspired by the Eiffel Tower - I think it's neat that I've been to both! At 333 meters (1,091 ft), it is the tallest self-supporting steel structure in the world and the tallest artificial structure in Japan.


We decided to save the observation deck for another day, but still had fun at the tower. Andy and Tiffany played a pinball style baseball game and gathered a crowd!

Then we had a waffle with ice cream from the Pink Dot. They had several different flavors, one with beans on it, I chose mango - yum! It was a really hot day, so ice cream hit the spot!

Okay, so this is the random group of pictures. First - that's not an elevator...it's a bathroom! (It seems that almost every post I've got something to say about a bathroom - and if I don't write it, I've probably just chosen to leave it out!) Next we have the Tokyo Tower mascot. I'm not sure what it is, but it's not the first unusual/unidentifiable mascot I've seen here...it was just too bizarre to leave out! Last but not least, it's a green wall...yes those are plants. (I told you these pictures were random!)

I had always imagined Tokyo as this extremely busy, populated city. The area around the Tokyo Tower wasn't what I expected at all - very quiet, not a lot of people around, just a normal place. Then we took the subway to a different area in Tokyo - Shibuya. The picture above is a famous intersection in the heart of Tokyo where thousands of people cross every few minutes. It's known as the Times Square of Tokyo and it did NOT disappoint. It was exactly what I imagined...people everywhere, loud, tons of restaurants and businesses. It was fun taking the picture (which doesn't do justice to the number of people) but it's not a place to just hang out...way too crowded!!!


We ducked off a side street from the crazy intersection and found this restaurant. It was an interesting eclectic meets traditional Japanese style...

...and I had my first Chu-hi! Pronounced chew-hi - it's an alcoholic drink that originated in Japan and seems to be a favorite among the Navy (it's the only drink here I've heard rumors about long before tasting it!!!) The Chu-hi stands around base are known for having no taste of alcohol but packing a serious punch! You can get Chu-hi in a variety of flavors - we chose lemon and grapefruit - at this place we actually squeezed the juice ourselves and poured it into what tasted like carbonated water and alcohol. It was very tasty and refreshing!

Oh, and the little bowl...I have no idea what it is...they brought it out as soon as we sat down and it tasted about as good as it looks. Fortunately the rest of the food was good!

Things that make me smile

Mango flavored kit kats! A bento box with chicken, rice, macoroni salad, and something I don't know the name of but it was very good. The triangle is onigiri - rice wrapped in seaweed with some type of treat in the middle - this one was tuna! (Don't worry Pam, I promise I won't make you try it when you come visit!!)

A very yummy noodle bowl called UFO!

Clearly I know what the S and P shakers stand for, but what about the A? I have no idea! The Loctite was it's own little adventure...I needed superglue...not the easiest thing to decipher without reading the package. A friend went on the same adventure and ended up with modeling puddy instead of superglue! Oh, and the strawberry donut on the right is a tape dispenser!

This was by far the most complicated noodle bowl I've ever seen! Well worth the effort though because it tasted great!

Picola is made by nabisco but it's new to me! The drink tastes exactly like peaches. The fujiya home pie is like a crust with honey on it...many of you know I love crusts, so this is clearly a new favorite!

A Japanese cantelope - tastes like a cantelope! I bought veggies from the japanese grocery store for a salad last week...notice the Great Value bags!!!

I saved the best for last...I got this in the mail from Pizza Hut...be sure to click on the picture to see the detail of the pizzas...not exactly what we're used to!!!

I also wanted everyone to know that you don't need an account to post comments anymore!!! I'd love to hear from all of you so if you tried in the past and it wouldn't work go for it again!!!

Happy Ocean Day!

As I was driving to base today, I noticed that traffic was unusually heavy. (Normally, traffic is heavy on weekends and light during the week because many people take the bus to work, but drive to go shopping, visit friends, etc...on the weekends.) This evening, I heard fireworks which was a first. I did a little research and learned that the third Monday of July is Ocean Day (umi no hi)! It is a recently introduced national holiday to celebrate the ocean. The day marks the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Hokkaido in 1876.

Happy Ocean Day everyone!!

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cable damage

So many stories, so little time! The cable guy broke the molding as he was going into our attic last week...15 minutes later there were SEVEN Japanese men in our house taking pictures and writing up a report! The best part is I didn't have to point out that they broke it, no arguing about it being their responsibility to fix it, I didn't say a word (mostly because they couldn't understand me anyway) and they scheduled a repairman to fix the molding and wallpaper!

Let's talk trash!

Garbage - how much can you say about it, right?! Well, explaining the intricacies of the Japanese trash system could take hours. They take recycling to an entirely new level. Since Japan is such a small country they don't have large areas for landfills which makes recycling a necessity and it's mandatory if you live in town. Trash is picked up 5 days a week here and rather than coming to each person's house, there are community trash cages. Ours is only 3 houses down which is nice since you take out trash every day. The major categories are burnable (food, paper, etc...), plastic, nonburnable, and PET containers (cans, bottles, metal lids).

Which is why we have FOUR trash cans in our kitchen! Not to mention there is "group recycling" for items like wrapping paper, newspapers, cardboard, books, milk cartons, toilet paper tubes, and several other items that I've forgotten. Not fully clear on this, but community groups recycle these particular items. The major categories are required to be in clear trash bags, while toilet paper tubes and wrapping paper must be in paper bags with handles. Newspapers, cardboard, milk cartons can NOT be in bags, but instead must be tied with string. So, everything you see in the picture above is necessary just for our trash!

Now, only one category is picked up each day, so the calendar on the left shows what will be collected on any given day. The brochure on the right is a 10 page guide to ensure you put your trash in the appropriate category...for example, where would a chip bag go? (plastics), how about individual pizza boxes with the silver lining? (burnable), and a water bottle? (bottles, but the plastic lid goes in plastics). There are so many rules and exceptions to the rule that I could never list them all...but don't forget that in all categories except burnable items must be clean before throwing them away! (I think this is my absolute FAVORITE part...washing my trash!)

The kicker to all of this is that if you put something in the wrong category they won't take your trash -which I'm assuming is why you have to put everything in clear bags. They leave a yellow flier on the bag telling you what you did wrong, only it's in Japanese. Most people say their neighbors will bring it to them and tell them what they did wrong, but as far as I know none of my neighbors speak English so this could get interesting! So far they've taken them all, WHEW!

Our home

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote! We moved into our house, Shane left to meet the ship, and I'm trying to get us settled in. We moved in on July 1st and Shane had to leave on the 3rd so it was a very hectic few days. I miss him terribly and wish he could come home, but under the circumstances I'm dealing pretty well. This is our home!!! We decided to live in town rather than on base to get the full experience here and I'm soooo happy with our decision! It certainly comes with some, um learning curves that don't exist in housing, but it's all part of the experience. For example, renters insurance, cable, internet, gas, etc...just imagine what it's like setting everything up when you move...then imagine if the people setting it up don't speak english! Oh, and the manuals (and bills) for everything are also in Japanese...some of the companies have english manuals, the cable company for example has a 5 page english guide. Funny though, the Japanese version is 50 pages, think there's anything lost in translation?! The only thing recognizable on bills is your name and (possibly) the amount you owe in Yen. We got our first bill in the mail last week, it was addressed to "Shame Price"!

As you can see, houses are very close together here. We love that we're at the end of the street and back up to a wooded-hill area so we have some privacy.

You may have heard that the Japanese take their shoes off at the door. I didn't realize just how serious they are about this until we signed our rental contract and had to agree that we would not wear shoes in the house! It's actually in the contract! Conveniently there's a huge shoe closet by the door. The owner even left slippers for us to wear in the house!

There's something about this picture that I simply love. Maybe it's the site of our stuff that we haven't seen in over 4 months (every time you move with the Navy your belongings are packed into these wooden crates and you pray they show up on the other side.) Maybe it's the view of Japan from the front of our house. My absolute favorite part though is the expression on Shane's face - a funny combination of exasperation and amusement that I'm taking a picture rather than focusing on the movers.

This is the least amount of cabinet space I've ever had in a kitchen! You're seeing all of it in this one picture!

Which of course meant I had to make a trip to Homes (it's similar to Home Depot) where I sucessfully purchased and assembled the metal shelving you see here! Simple right? Well, as I'm quickly learning here everything is an adventure. First I had to convert from cm to inches so I knew what size I needed (I also took a tape measure to be sure). Then I had to ask someone for help because the size I needed wasn't there - lots of pointing and hand motions were involved. While the lady was searching in the back a manager walked by and thought I needed help even though I was trying to have a I'm-completely-content face. Since he didn't speak English he brought two other ladies over to help, but I couldn't get across to them that I was already being helped. Fortunately she came back with my shelf and they understood what I was trying to tell them. Luckily assembly was easy and tada - I've more than doubled our kitchen storage!

As you can see, we are clearly moved in but NOT unpacked! I'm making progress though, just need to keep up the motivation!

One of our toilets...yes, that's a sink on top for washing your hands. Anyone else a little grossed out by this? It also has a seat warmer and two water features that are unrelated to the sink...I'll just live it at that.

Our shower/bathtub room...the shower is for cleaning, bathtub is for soaking only. I haven't tried the tub yet, but it has some kind of circulation system that keeps the water hot as long as you want. Due to this system no soap, shampoo, bubble bath, etc... in the tub. I'm not really clear how it works though...the faucet is in the shower area and there's no visible spout in the tub...I've also been told that if you turn on the heater/circulator when it isn't filled with water it will break it...there's a digital pad on the wall that works the tub but I'm afraid to start pressing buttons so I guess I'm going to fill the tub using the shower sprayer and then start experimenting!

Last but not least, the tatami room!!! The straw mats on the floor are called tatami mats. The window/door have the traditional paper covering. I think this room is beautiful!