Week Go

This week we tried some new candy, doughnuts and ice cream, visited the temple, found a new park in Tokyo and survived a Typhoon

We tried some Japanese ice cream this week.  Not much different from American ice cream... except for the honeydew flavored sherbet in the green container.

 

 

The chocolate had a smiley face.

The vanilla had strawberry hearts.

Wednesday Typhoon Roke passed through. The base more or less shut down at lunch so that everyone could hunker down for the storm. We had just finished dinner when our neighbors, the Chans, came to tell us that a large tree just fell in the parking lot and that we might want to move our car.  Mike went out into the storm to move the car.  (The high winds are Mike's excuse for the blurry pictures.)   The typhoon knocked an old rotted tree over outside our building.  It fell two parking spots away from our car.

The view from our car.

Mike with a pine cone from the tree that fell.  We don't know what kind of pine tree this is but the pine cones are the size of hand grenades and as heavy as baseballs.  Charles, get the extra rental car insurance if your going to park under one of these trees.

The girls in front of the tree after the storm let up.

Sometimes there is not much to do in a high rise apartment building.

We went to a Japanese doughnut chain called "Mister Doughnut".  Brooke tried an old fashion cake doughnut, it was OK.  Annabelle had a cute doughnut shaped like a panda bear head, including chocolate eyes and mouth.  Mike, however, won the prize. He bit into what he thought was a coconut covered caramel doughnut.  It turned out to be CURRY filled!  After the initial shock he decided it was the best of three.

Saturday we went to downtown Tokyo to go to the LDS temple.  While Brooke went to the temple, Mike took the kids to a park across the street.

Mike found this sign in the park.  The caterpillar is definitely in charge here.

Annabelle in front of the sign for the LDS temple, waiting for Mom.

Eedie hanging out being bored, covered in flowers Annabelle picked from the temple grounds.  Oops!

In front of the temple.  Because of the tight spaces and busy streets we took the picture from this steep angle. (Sorry for the up-nose shot.)

After the temple, we went back to the park to play and eat lunch.

Playing on the rocking horse.

The park has a lot of natural features along with the play areas.  There was a large pond with a number of turtles as well as trails and bridges over many small streams.  This is a waterfall we found.

Many Japanese ride bikes.  This sidewalk was lined with bicycles for about a tenth of a mile.

Parking is limited here. Walking back to the train station near the temple we saw this two car garage.

Also on the trip back Mike saw this sign. Apparently people in this neighborhood smoke really big cigarettes (notice cigarette butt by Mike's shoe).

A few weeks ago I mentioned a store which had a whole wall of 10-30 yen candy.  Here are some treats that looked like they might be fun. =)  The little cheese puff looking things turned out to be curry flavored.

And we can't forget the drink of the week:  Milk Shake - not good, not good at all.  Mike thought it tasted like Ensure, I just thought it was gross!

Well that is it for this week... until next week...

Week Shi

We didn't do a ton this week.  We got the rest of our household goods Tuesday so we have been working mostly on getting everything put away.  But Monday, Eedie had her photo shoot with Combi Mini.  We left the house at 10am to catch an 11am train.  We got to the house where they were shooting about 30 minutes early. I just wanted to make sure we got there in time with it being our first time traveling on the train alone.  I thought I was lost at one point so I got off the train.  However, I think we were on the right one.  A Japanese woman who didn't speak much English, helped me figure everything out.  She looked at the train schedule on my iPhone and pointed at the right train.  We didn't get back until about 7:30. So it was almost a 10 hour day.  I don't know that I will want to do this THAT often.  I had left Annabelle with Mike.  With both kids it would have made for a crazy long day!

This was the intersection outside the Shibuya train station where we got off to go to the shoot.  When the lights stopped the traffic people began to cross the street from about 6 different directions at the same time.

Eedie and Mommy at the end of the day.  We were both pretty tired.  Almost as much work for Mommy as for baby. =) (One of the workers at the shoot took this picture)

This week the base had an exercise.  They do exercises about twice a year.  This is Mike in some of his gear.  Sometimes he had to get in all his MOPP gear which means getting on rubber boots, military overalls, and wearing his gas mask.  Wish I would have taken a picture of that.

They have a ton of storage space here. So we decided to let Annabelle sleep above the hall closet. 

Showing off her new kicks.  They are basically  generic Asics, so way cheaper!

We went to this "sweets shop" this weekend.  We thought it might have doughnuts and pastries, but ended up just cake and cookie type of sweets.  Mike ordered one piece of cake but changed his mind when she said it was black tea flavored.  

This is box the cake came in.  In case you can't read the English it says, "This cake savored at best within Todays". =)

Mike ordered the Chestnut Cake.  It was pretty good.  Not quite as sweet as the stuff back in the states.  Mike said it tasted similar to the cake in Chile where he served his mission.

We went to the "Happy Honda" again.  We were looking at the bikes.  It might be time to get Annabelle a bike.  She was having a blast on this trike!

Drink of the Week: I looked this up on Wikipedia so I don't know if the info is totally accurate, but it says that Grape Mountain Dew has just been introduced to the world and the only place you can find it right now is in a Japanese vending machine.  It tasted just like grape soda with a Mountain Dew aftertaste.  If you would like to try this at home buy a grape soda and mix it with Mountain Dew and enjoy.

This is Annabelle's new dresser.  We stopped by a Recycle shop which is basically a thrift store and found this sweet dresser for Annabelle's room.  Just perfect for little clothes.

So like I said, nothing too exciting this week.  Next week we are going to try and make it to the LDS Tokyo Temple.  We haven't been to the temple here yet, so we are excited to see it... until next week...

Week San (Three)... and the "Honeymoon" might be ending.

The week has been a crazy one... exciting, exhausting, and even a little stressful.  We are really starting to settle into our life here... and I believe the "Honeymoon" stage (referring to Japan not Mike) may be over.  Visitors are now very welcome at any time. =) 


Monday:  We went back to the Joyful Honda and got a few pictures there.  We picked up some stuff Mike needed for a trip to Sendai and we stopped by the pet store.  Annabelle really loves dogs.  She misses Jessie, our 5 year old beagle we left behind in the states. 

A super cool rain hat we found

A dog wearing a diaper... apparently in Japan, owning a dog means you have money.  Some of the dogs at this pet store were going for $1200-$4000!

A sweet ride we found in the parking lot

This was one of the public toilets at a mall we went to Monday.  You probably can't see what this says... but the buttons say: Stop, Spray, Bidet, and -my favorite- flushing sound (for those not so quiet moments).  The "flushing sound" also had a volume control.

Grape jello soda... you can't really tell the consistency from the picture... but it taste just like carbonated jello.  Not good... not good (Mike says he will try it again just in case).

Tuesday:  Our friend from church, Becky, invited us to go along to a modeling audition in Tokyo.  We headed out at 9 in the morning for the train.  This entails traveling to the other side of the base (about a 10-15 minute drive), walking about 15 minutes to the train station, then traveling on the train for almost an hour and a half.  When we finally got off the train near the site of the audition, we had about 25 minutes before they were to come get us.  So we popped into a little cafe to sit for a minute and got the kids cleaned up and fed.  Finally it was time to go to the audition.  I wish I could have taken more pictures... but believe me!  This day was too crazy, with two adults and four kids, ages three and younger, to pull out a camera.  I did manage to snap this one while we waited for the modeling people.

Anyway... so we got to the building and had to wait to get on the 4.5 ft by 2.5 ft elevator.  May not sound that bad... but with a double stroller, four kids, and three adults (the lady from the modeling agency was the 3rd) on this thing... it was crazy!  Then we got off the elevator only to find a hallway about 3 ft wide and full of strollers.  At the end hallway was 6 x 12 ft waiting room where 6 adults and 8-10 screaming kids waited there turn.  It had to be around 105 degrees. After about 5 min we were moved into another hallway where we waited another 5 min for the girls to have there feet and height measured. We were then ushered into the back of the audition room where we were issued LONG SLEEVED PJ's. I then dressed the girls and we waited for 20 min for our turn to audition. All that would not have been so bad had it not been for the crazy heat in this tiny space.  Annabelle was first.  She was scared.  Five people speaking half in Japanese, half in English with some crazy puppet thing they tried to use to to entertain her.  She was not having it.  But Eedie, who isn't scared of much, sat there and entertained them.  I think they liked her alright, because she got a job. =)  We are going back Monday to Tokyo for the shoot.  After they took the kids' pictures, we put them back into their own clothes and headed home.   We arrived about 3 in the afternoon.  Made for a pretty long day. 

A picture of the girls once we got back to the house... they were exhausted!

Wednesday:  Was mostly fine, until the evening when I went for a jog.  Mike was sitting at the computer trying to figure out how to World Cup Rugby when Annabelle ran in and said,"Daddy, water."  She pointed to the hallway and Mike told her to pick it up (thinking it was her sippy cup.) Annabelle stared at him and repeated "Water."  Mike looked in the hallway and saw water coming from the master bedroom. He determined the water was coming from the toilet in the master bathroom.  I was about halfway through my route when Mike called.  It was a mess!!!  By the time I got back from my jog and Mike had determined with the maintenance people that it was only the master bathroom toilet over-flowing into the hallway and not the hallway toilet overflowing into the master bedroom (the conversation was a little confusing with the language barrier), the maintenance guys were vacuuming up water.  After about an hour they left, but the floor was still soaked.  We borrowed fans from people close by and Becky gave us a dehumidifier and towels to soak up some of the water as well.  After almost 72 hours, it was about dry.  It is crazy humid here and takes FOREVER for things to dry.  We are a little worried about mold and thought about moving, but it is almost impossible to get the housing office to let you move.   




You can't tell... but at this point we had six different fans going.

Thursday night:  Eedie woke up in the middle of the night for her nighttime feeding.  I noticed she was pretty warm so I took her temperature.  She was at 101.5.  We took Annabelle's... 100.7.  Both kids have been sick since this night pretty much!  Annabelle has had some kind of croupy cough thing... Eedie just mostly a fever.  Anyway... a nice way to round out the week. =)


Saturday:  Mike left Friday night with a group from church to go up to Sendia, the central location where the earthquake hit.  They went up to volunteer to help clean up.  It is still a total mess up there.


While Mike was away working... the girls and I went with Becky off the base again.  We went to a thrift shop to look for bikes, a HUGE mall - four stories and I don't even know that I saw one end to the other, and to another 100 yen store.  As we were leaving the thrift shop, I totally almost pulled out in front of someone.  It is crazy when you drive... you have to check the opposite direction then you do in the states, since we drive on the left hand side of the road here.  I have forgotten to look the other direction a couple times on base... luckily no one has been on the other side.  But today... not so much.  But we made it alive to the mall.  Here are some pics from the mall.

They are crazy about Disney.  She wanted to ride in this but we already had the double stroller.  Maybe next time, Annabelle. =)

Japan is interesting: Super short skirts - ok; exposing the breast - not so much.  They have little booths in baby feeding areas at malls and public places where you can breastfeed.  This was one we used the other day.  I wanted to take a picture of the front but people were in there.  The dads can come into the front part of the feeding area to feed the baby a bottle... but there is an area with a curtain that reads: "Breastfeeding... no men past this point". 

In America we have games where a stuffed animal is the prize... in Japan... Dippin' Dots... and crackers and candy and a lot of other stuff are prizes.  Dippin' Dots was my favorite though.

Ok... I know this is kind of gross but seriously... when we lived in Kentucky we thought it was humid.  Then we moved to Illinois and thought it was humid there.  But just so you know... you don't know humid until you live in Japan in the summer time.  This was us at the end of our day, Saturday.  My back was completely soaked.  Apparently the winters are crazy dry though.

So... by far... the craziest week yet!  It is getting a little difficult.  I keep telling Mike, I HAVE to learn some Japanese.  I can't stand not knowing what people are saying and not having them be able to understand me!  I will be happy if I only learn to speak the language.  There are actually three types of written characters they use here:  two simpler forms as well as the Chinese characters.  No, thank you!  I will stick to the conversational Japanese (maybe).  


Anyway... hopefully next week goes a little better.  Until next time...  

Week Ni (Two)

This weekend some friends took us off the base.  Friday we went to a giant store named Joyful Honda which we actually like to call the "Happy" Honda since it sounds better. =)  It has a pet store, food court, arts & crafts shop, a Home Depot deal and a couple other areas all together in one building... not like a mall exactly... more like just one giant store with different shopping sections.  I actually forgot my camera that day, but we are going again tomorrow so I'll take pictures of that and post later.

These other pictures are from our first adventure to downtown Tokyo.  We are actually in the suburbs and only about 25 miles away from downtown.  Some friends went with us to show us how to use the train and it really wasn't that bad at all.  Downtown actually reminded me a little of New York!  Anyway... here are a few pictures from our day.

An area in Tokyo just off the train

There were a lot of people getting on the train here... but definitely not like the video I posted on Facebook!

We went to the Ueno Zoo.

This is a giant changing table for babies!

A super cute group of school kids at the zoo... a lot of times groups of school kids will have some kind of matching attire.  Some wear the same hats, or have the similar backpacks.  These kids had the matching vest.

Japanese pagoda in the park

This Thomas the Train ride has to be the slowest ride ever created!  She was looking a little bored here. (Ride only slightly faster then picture)

Police Box... not a main police station but they have a few police here.

Downtown Tokyo

This was one of the market streets that reminded me of New York.

We had kebabs for lunch.  Pretty good.

Back on the train... Just hangin' out.

This was in a 100 yen store.  A 100 yen store is basically like a Dollar Tree.  Right now though, 100 yen is more like $1.30.  The yen rate is at about 78 which means that only 78 yen equals one dollar.  So not that great for us right now.  Makes things a little more expensive when we go off base.  But anyway... this was the candy section!!!  But later, I found a store with an even better candy section that had a whole wall of candy starting at 10 yen!  I will be going back and trying most of the candy.  I'll post a picture when I do.

So far, my new favorite candy is Cherry Coke flavored candy.  The top candy is a Cherry Coke flavored Laffy Taffy type candy.  The other is Cherry Coke flavored Mentos.  De-lish!

This morning Mike found a Japanese Green June bug.  He made me hold it while he took the picture.  It felt so creepy and finally it pooped some brown stuff out which stung a little.  We think maybe they poop out some kind of acid when they get scared!

This is one of our new cars.  This is a little Suzuki , 3 door car!  What?  Who makes a 3 door car!?  The trunk actually opens too so maybe you can call it a 4 door.  Anyway... it was really cheap and we thought it looked really cool.  I wanted to drive it, but I think it will just be a pain getting the kids in and out of it, so it will be Mike's car.  The other car we got was FREE!!!  There was someone at church who needed to get rid of a car.  So we got it, and it is taking a few hundred to fix a couple repairs.  I'll post pictures of it later.  We are picking it up tomorrow.  Don't worry... it's not that nice... but FREE!!!  People on the base mostly drive around old beater cars since they usually only stay 2-3 years here.  There is a surplus of old cars as there are tax/financial incentives to buy new cars, which makes the auto industry very happy.     



This was one of the candies we bought at the 100 yen store.  I don't know if you can see the English, but it says... Pickled Plum.  You might think, just some weird fruity candy?  We did... but it is actually, really, definitely a pickled plum.  One of THE grossest things EVER! 



We can actually paint here in our house.  So when we went to the "Happy Honda" I bought some purple paint for Annabelle's room.  This is darker than I want, so I am going to mix it with some white paint.  We can get white paint on base for free.  They give it free so you can paint back to the original color when you move out.  Anyway... this is only 1 liter of paint and it cost almost 2000 yen!  That is $25!!!  Did you know 3.8 liters make a gallon, making paint in Japan about $100 per gallon!  Paint in the US... about $20 a gallon.  And that is why I am only painting one wall in her room. =)



So yeah... that was basically our weekend.  We weren't able to do too much since there was a typhoon that blew through.  It just ended up being pretty rainy and a little windy.  But Mike has tomorrow off for Labor Day so we will try to see a couple more things just here around the base.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!