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...