karaoke

Karaoke in Japan with the GWOSC (George Washington Officer Spouse Club)!!! Very similar to Austin Karaoke in Jacksonville...individual rooms and pay by the hour, two big differences though - price includes all you can drink AND most importantly the rooms are sound proof!



Lisa, Angela, and I before the beer and Chu-hi's were flowing!


It was sooo much fun and they even had make your own cotton candy as we were leaving! Yum!

MLB and AAR

A few weeks ago, I went with Andy and Tiffany to watch my first Japanese MLB game!

It was pretty similar to games in the states, with a few exceptions. There was plenty of cheering and noise making, but when the opposing team was at bat there was respectful silence.

This is one of a group of guys throughout the stadium who organized cheers, chants, and applause. We couldn't understand what they were saying, but joined the clapping.

Rather than vendors walking the aisles with hotdogs and peanuts, they sold box lunches er, dinners. I went for chicken and it was pretty tasty. The brown ball is some sort of meat ball type thing - I don't like meatballs and this was no exception. Everything else was really good though. Pair it with a Chuhi or beer and you're set!

I've posted before about the unusual mascots here in Japan so I wasn't surprised to see one at the game...but EIGHT mascots?! I understood the baseball (though I'm not sure what the antenna looking thing is sticking off it's head, or why it has such an unusually large tongue!) Couldn't say what the black thing is though...

And these guys? any guesses? It doesn't end here....

The two yellow ones are stars - the hometeam is the Yokohama Baystars, so I understand them. What about the alien bird and the mouse looking thing in dark blue?! I find them very amusing!!

Completely unrelated, but also amusing - the All American Rejects gave a free concert at Yokosuka! I have to say it was pretty fun and I knew a lot more of their songs than I expected. I think they were going thru a type of culture shock on stage that had nothing to do with being in Japan though. I would guess that at least 30% of the audience was children under 12...not exactly their usual crowd! It was a pretty good turn out considering a lot of the ships were gone, but when they had to stop the concert because of a lost little kid at the stage, I couldn't stop laughing! (Not at the kid, but at the lead singer's reaction). I'm curious to see what it will be like when Flo Rida comes in a few weeks since the concerts are suppose to be "family friendly"...

local news

My list of weather experiences continues to grow...Typhoon Krovanh is making an appearance in Japan as I'm writing this! Not sure why, but in this area hurricanes are called typhoons. Fortunately, I put a few hurricanes/tropical storms under my belt in Florida so I know #1 not to panic, #2 to be prepared just in case, and #3 that this one doesn't seem to bad! It took some research though because the scales used to rate hurricanes are different than the scales used by the Japanese Meteorological Society. With a few calculations I learned the typhoon was comparable to a category 1 hurricane and now it's been downgraded to a tropical storm. The Japanese don't seem to get worked up about it like we do in the states, there wasn't even an announcement on the intercom system. (There are speakers set up throughout Japan for important announcements and I can hear it from inside my house - it was used a few weeks back for a flood warning). It just goes to show that media in the states really create unnecessary panic when it comes to weather!

The other big news in Japan is the national elections that were held yesterday. The Democratic Party of Japan won over 300 seats in the 480 seat Lower House. This means the Liberal Democratic Party will lose control for the first time in almost 50 years and a new Prime Minster will take control in September. I have to admit I'm not big on politics, but the change of power is a historic event and I'm curious to see how it will effect the country and the economy.

visitors

Earlier this week I had two Japanese visitors ring my doorbell! I enjoyed talking to them - I even got to say "My name is Pepper" in Japanese, then we switched to English! Even familiar situations have their Japanese twists here...It was a guy and GIRL and neither were wearing the traditional black pants, white shirt, and black tie so I didn't immediately know who they were as I would have in the states. I was actually completely clueless until they gave me a pamphlet as they were leaving that they were Jehovah's Witnesses!

A few days later the girl came back with another girl. We talked about a wide variety of things - including what is important in a successful marriage (they seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say about this since they are both single). I also found it interesting that they feel intimidated by American sailors...from my perspective it's completely the opposite, we feel intimidated by the Japanese! Of course we also talked about God and religion and they really put me on the spot several times (without meaning to...I think). Their questions were much more direct than I'm accustomed to in the states and they even asked for a specific scripture at one point. While my beliefs don't necessarily align with theirs, I really appreciated the honestly and sincerity that these girls showed and will add this to the list of unusual experiences here in Japan!

My birthday week

Since we arrived in Japan, I had been preparing myself for an uneventful birthday since I knew Shane was going to be gone on the GW. Boy was I mistaken!!! The ship's schedule worked out so I was able to fly to Singapore and meet up with Shane for a great birthday week/vacation! I spent my actual birthday packing and getting excited about flying out...it was my first time traveling to a foreign country by myself AND my first time flying from Narita Airport in Tokyo. It takes 2-3 hours to get from Yokosuka to the airport, so getting there is an experience in itself. There is a shuttle bus from base to the airport, but it wasn't running early enough (5am) so I had to take the train. For a Saturday morning at 5am the train was suprisingly crowded!

In case you're wondering, Singapore is an island city-country at the tip of the Malay Penninsula in Southeast Asia. It is very close to Malaysia and a bridge connects the two countries. I've included a map of Asia - I'm terrible with geography - and actually thought Malaysia and Singapore were connected until a few minutes ago(don't ask how I did on the 50 states quiz...it wasn't pretty.) So, for those of you who are geographically challenged like I am, you can dazzle your friends with your vast Singaporean knowledge! :)

Singapore has four national languages - English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil - it is quite a melting pot of cultures. Fortunately, English is spoken by pretty much everyone which made directions and communication really easy. We had a really amazing trip but the highlight was definately getting to hang out with my husband!!!!

I should probably give a warning about the slideshow...there are a LOT of pictures! If you click on a picture it will allow you to go thru the slides faster or slower...I hope you enjoy them!!

If you're having trouble viewing the slideshow or you'd like it to start from the beginning, click here: http://www.slide.com/r/rl_WIB6C6z85kmJpT9tmn5pkjR6FYoYH?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

My Sunday Evening Entertainment

Oh my GOODNESS!!! I'm completely okay, but I just felt an earthquake!!! They say earthquakes happen here all the time but this is the first time I've ever felt one in my entire life!!! At first I thought there was something wrong with the a/c, then I realized the noise I was hearing was actually the entire house shaking. It lasted about 20-30 seconds - just long enough for me to jump in a doorway, listen to the dishes rattle, watch the tv shake, feel a little motion sick and wonder what I'm really suppose to do in an earthquake!!! Fortunately it stopped and nothing was damaged, but it definately got my heart racing!

Ooooh, and I just found stats about it online! It was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake roughly 200 miles SSW of Tokyo.

By the way - pictures from my trip to Singapore are coming soon!!!