Enoshima Island

Today I ventured off alone to Enoshima Island. It is not far from where we live and I love going places alone. People talk to me when I am alone and it just makes it more interesting. I met a family who was heading to the airport after spending time with their son who is stationed here. I also talked on the train to a man who was curious about me and surprised I was alone, he was a little old guy who spoke poor English but it was hella better than my Japanese.

First there are pigeons big enough to eat in Kinugasa. Seriously, I d not think these bad boys could fly, they just live on the train platform.

From Enoshima 12-27-08

Then, I was off. The day was perfect and beautiful and I could see Fuji very well which was the point. :)

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

Some of the vistas from the island were also great

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

So I missed the entrance to the observatory on my first lap around the island so I paid to take the escalator straight to it. I was inundated by ads the whole way, now for some reason I really want a coke and some Meiji dairy products.

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

The observatory was worth the 500yen

From Enoshima 12-27-08

And I must add the kickass cat rockin the scarf

From Enoshima 12-27-08

and the cool dachsunds in their dresses

From Enoshima 12-27-08

From Enoshima 12-27-08

Christmas 2008

Another Christmas in Japan. We spent Christmas eve in Tokyo looking at the lights 'cos we all know I love lights. We found the luminaries at the Imperial Palace which was totally cool. Unfortunately we were late and they had already put ut a number of them. Check out the pics.

Smashmouth

I went and saw Smashmouth for free on base tonight, the show was over an hour and lots of fun. I had a great time and was right in front of the stage for most of the show. No pics cos I took the crap camera but hopefully I can get some of the great pics my friend took. The Steve Harwell, lead singer, is much hotter than he was when I was in college. Much to the hubbs joy I did not get to relive the glory days and one of my few claims to fame and get another kiss from Harwell. We hoped the kiddies would clear out and we could talk to them, a friend I was with said it has happened in the past, but no such luck. ok off to bed I am tired, those damn kids made me feel old and they didnt even know the music

What do you mean no one want to volunteer

I saw this story and could not stop laughing. A couple of weeks ago a polar bear fell into his moat and he is rather happy down there. The part that makes me laugh is not that they are waiting for him to climb out but that they are doing everything they can before they sedate him. The reason? Someone would have to go into the moat to make sure he is really sedate and they don't have any volunteers. What you don't want to jump in the moat with a possibly asleep polar bear? Why not? CHICKEN?

http://www.wisn.com/cnn-news/17787134/detail.html

Hakone take 2

Yesterday I went back to Hakone and Lake Ashi. It is just an absolutely beautiful place. Yesterday I went with the Good Time Trekker club. It is a group of Japanese men and women who conduct tours with a group from the base in English. They are fun and I have been out with them before, it is just a wonderful experience to have them tell us about things. Yesterday we were doubly blessed by beautiful weather. Please check out my Picasa Gallery because I got many beautiful pictures of Fuji and other things but mostly Fuji.

From Hakone and Fuji

Adventures in Billpaying

We have many options on how to pay our bills here in Japan. In the States we basically had 2 sometimes 3 and now with web bill pay 4. So in the States it generally was auto-deduct from an account or send a check. In California, I could pay at some liquor stores but not many and it was never clear. Then with Web Bill pay I could pay through the bank but it was still similar to writing a check.

Here in Japan I have a variety of choices and then more as an American with base access. Ok so most Americans use a company with GI in the name that I distrust for that reason alone. They get your bills and send the money from your account and it is entirely hands off which is why most Americans do not know what they pay. I can also pay some utilities and rent in the base exchange but it is in dollars with a generally poor exchange rate.

Now the Japanese options. We have your typical auto-debit, which again I am not comfortable with especially since I can't dispute without a translator, The bank, but I do not have an account and my favorite, the Konbini. I pay my bills at 7-11 or any of a number of other stores. It is great I walk in get a soda and pay $200 worth of bills. Considering there is one so close to my house it is just great and I never have to worry.

There is another option which is where my adventures happen, the Post Office. I have to pay one bill at the Post Office, there is no other option for me. It is not a big deal except the machine only lets you pay in Japanese, it is also an ATM and that works in english. So in the 9 months I have been paying the bill, I have succeeded doing it 3 times without help. My agent has paid it for me twice on seperate occasions because the machine rejected my documents or I could not figure it out. The postal worker has helped me twice, once it took him 20 minutes because we were doing it right, it just didnt like the form. The best time was this month when they didn't send the form and I tried filling one out. The post guy managed to communicate that I needed a bank to use the form. So I went to see my friend who helps me and she was too busy which led me to the translators at housing. Well they tried and got confused so they called and the company is mailing me the form they always do. I got the impression that even the Japanese don't pay their own bills or at least not at the post office. oh yeah and I do know how to use the machine, in fact I walked the hubbs through it once over the phone when I was not feeling well.
So yeah I have tons of ways to pay my bills and i still cannot pay the gas bill on time.

Well it finally happened

i was sitting in a meeting and I finally felt a Japanese Earthquake. It was very gentle and rolling, quite different from the ones in California. It was also not nearly as noisy as I am used to. Now I know why none of the other ones so much as woke me up. It was only a 4.6 but it lasted for a long time, seriously. I was in a meeting and it resumed and a few of us were looking around going, we're still moving and we were on the ground floor.

Things have been crazy. School started, 1/3 of our staff is new and almost an entirely new admin staff and well life has been hella crazy since August. Work and sleep that is all I have had time for. I did take a trip up to Yokohama one night and dropped some serious change on a Pentax K20D at Yodobashi. If it isn't at Yodobashi it probably doesn't exist. So I took it to Hakone with my buddy nitch one Saturday and Kamakura on another Saturday. Those pics are in my Picasa album at

Hakone

for Hakone. Or Kamakura

Kamakura 09-13-2008

But the Good Stuff was a couple weeks ago in Kyoto and Osaka. The hubbs was in the area so I took some time off work, hopped on the bullet train and I was off. Osaka was fun, tons of food, lots of places to go and a city under the city. We walked until our feet hurt. We spent Saturday in Kyoto. Where we looked at Temples and Shrines, some traditional art and just wandered and got lost. It was loads of fun, we saw some Maiko on their way to work and had some good food. We also went to the aquarium in Osaka and the Castle.

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Coming Soon

 

Yes I took this picture and there are many more. I will write soon, this is just a tease

Job update

I totally forgot cos as you can see I have been very busy. The company that pays me (I am a contractor contracted to the govt, no ones actual employee) lost the contract for my job. One of the largest American contracting firms won it, CSC. It looks like it will be a VERY good thing. If picked up, and it is looking good, I will be an employee and all that entails to a worldwide firm. I have no details but things are looking good yay!!

Are we there yet? Oh hell no we are not to the present yet. We get back from Fuji and again I am young I do not need a break. Which is good because it is finals week for my first term of grad school and I have a ton of work to do at work. Somehow I get it all done and now hubbs wants to go to Yokohama. We went up to Chinatown in Yokohama and wanted around. We had a dim sum lunch and found out they love the pandas. Everything was Pandas so we shopped and took some pics and you can check those out.


Now we are up to the present which is good because it is late and I get up early. I hope to God I just get to do nothing and relax this weekend, maybe clean the house it needs it. I just want to sleep.

Fuji-san

Well we are getting closer and closer to the present but we are not there just yet. So the day after Disney I am back at work upgrading the network with a guy sent in from HQ. It was cool I finally have a solid knowledge of how the crazy place is setup. Then if that wasn't enough or you know I am young no recuperation needed here. Saturday hubbs wanted to climb Fuji. ok well it was the last weekend we KNEW he would be home and available possibly the last weekend he would be available during climbing season ever, so away we went. And hey I got my new overnight pack from REI on monday so lets break it in by climbing a vertical mile. WOOHOO!!!

Ok the saying is "a wise man climbs Fuji once in their life, only a fool does it twice." Oh hell no! It was Hell!! The joy we get is to say not only did we do it but we made it to the summit. We left at 2am to drive 3+ hours. At a little before 6am we were dropped off at the 5th station at below 7841 elevation and reached the peak 7+ hours later at 12388 elevation. To say it was hell is an understatement. The only reason we made it is because i am so damn stubborn (I was in agony and barely able to move by the 8th station) and I did not want to be the reason we did not make it. We had to be at the top by 1:30pm or turn around no matter where you are and at 12:30pm we were sooooooo close. Well we made it with 15 whole minutes to spare. Bought some crap, cos that is what you do in japan and then we headed back down. At 5:30pm we hit the 5th station and stumbled onto the bus, nasty dirty sweaty, covered in ash and my big toe covered in one giant blister. Like I said it was hell. I wanted to do the overnight hike but now I am like hell no, it is too dangerous to climb in the dark, besides there was still snow which means it still gets very cold at night.

So after the fact I find out how dangerous it is. The area is known for suicides, people go there to die. Compasses do not work there because of other magnetism. Hypothermia is a common cause of death. An oh yeah the thing we saw as we left that really hit home was the rescue teams gearing up and the guy counting every person who came up to the 6th station. I also found out that most people's reactions are like mine, now why the hell they do not tell people I do not know. So here is my public service announcement - Climbing Mt Fuji is sheer HELL!!!

Of course the whole way up and down you have scantily clad Japanese men and women literally running up or down the mountain. Was I impressed? Hell yeah! BUT do I really care? uh no congrats you can run up a mountain, I'll just trudge along, i still made it to the summit.

Here are the pics :D

Fuji 2008

You have to go to the site and click through the big pics to really feel the enormity

What do you want for your birthday?

I WANNA GO TO DISNEYLAND!!! And so we did. Hubbs was out the day before but had leave for my day through a few more and after bringing me konbini cake (gotta love 7-11) and flowers (that still looked great after being out of water for 3 days) we headed to the Tokyo Disney Resort for 3 days. We took the train up there and like Disney in CA having their own freeway exit, well Disney Tokyo has its own train station. Once there we went to Bon Voyage (the giant Disney store outside the park)went downstairs and gave them our bags. For 500Y (yes roughly $5) they took our bags and delivered them to the hotel. And off we went for a fun filled day at Disney Sea. It was awesome. I cannot describe how cool the place was. Between the two parks we took roughly 500 pics and 90% of them are keepers. The park is water based and each land has an aquatic theme. The rides ROCKED!!! Especially 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the center of the Earth. It was just a tone of fun and we were constantly moving. it was hotter than Hades but for the most part the park is planned for that, it is on the water so yeah 85 degree and 100% humidity WOOHOOO!!! We saw people walking around in Yukatas and jenpai and we thought they actually looked like they were dealing with the heat better. And the ones wearing geta on their feet and not limping by the end of the day got major respect from me. I spent most of the day just in awe and having the best time. It was so comfortable to be at a Disney park and although we did not understand much of what was said we knew the drill. We did decide though that it is not for a Disney novice who does not speak Japanese, that would have made the experience nerve-wracking I think. Of course from time to time we would meet someone who would drop into perfect English and even confuse us by having better English than some Americans we know.

So we were there from open to close then we went looking for the bus to the hotel. we found it. We get to the hotel and check in and show them our luggage ticket. Not only was our bag there (score!) but it was already delivered to our room and we were checked in, no worries and it was 11pm (DOUBLE SCORE!!). The Japanese have travelling down, seriously. So the luggage is delivered, the hotel has toothbrushes, combs, slippers, pajamas and all the stuff you expect, so you could show up with the clothes on your back and a change and be good to go. Of course considering you pay per person you should get something. Our room slept 4 and we only paid for 2.

Next day bright and early and off to Disneyland. It is very similar to Disneyland, CA but Thunder Railroad kicks CA Thunder's ass. It was just AWESOME!!! We went to the Mickey Mouse Revue which is the only one in the world. It opened at the opening of Disney World and then instead of being recreated in Japan it was shipped here in pieces and was here for the grand opening 25 years ago of Disneyland Tokyo. it was funny they tried to turn us away because it was all in Japanese. It is times like that i really wish we knew how to say something like "of course it is and it would be very rude for us to think otherwise" in Japanese. In truth the history of Mickey in Japanese is still obviously the history of Mickey and while the words are different the tunes to all the songs they sang are the same, no translation needed. It was just an awesome day and to top it off they had an Electrical Parade, that made me uber happy as the hubbs and I were at the last Main Street Electrical Parade in CA. Oh I loved it and we got a seat right in front of the ropes just like when I was a kid.

Ok the quick things, I had wanted to write this sooner before I forgot things but I have been sooooooooo busy as you will see from my posts.

A lot of people speak English very well, but not everywhere.
There are maps and schedules in English
The food and drinks are reasonably priced. 200Y for a bottle of water that is 150Y from a vending machine is good for me. And one of our counter lunches was 2500Y ($25) for the 2 of us. The buffet we hit was that each but it was all you can eat and hella good
All the art is in English, not Japanese (weird)
They only have 50-60% of the voice acting translated on the rides
All signs have 2 - 3 languages on them. Always English which is also usually bigger, clearer and listed first
Lines everywhere not just for what you expect but for the perfect picture spot too or to get a pic with a character.
The people are very polite, most of our character pics don't have us in them BUT we could have done it, every one took a turn.
Finding food that is not totally weird to us Americans was hard but doable (the English map helped ALOT), I just do not do corn or seafood on pizza.
A lot of the souvenirs were reasonably priced, yeah my 25th anniversary mickey in a yukata was 4000Y but the tin of cookies for people at work was only 1000Y and lots of other little things for 1000Y or less.
Ok my hands hurt from typing and I have fuji stuff too, oh yes there is more.

There are 4 galleries. DisneySea, Disneyland, Ikspiari (the mall area at the resort) and fun stuff like every flavor of popcorn we saw.

Disneyland Tokyo July 2008

DisneySea July 2008

Disney Ikspiari July 2008

Disney Fun Stuff June 2008

Tanabata

Going back in time to the weekend of July 7th. I took a friend and her kids to the Tanabata festival in Shonan-Hiratsuka in the same prefecture we live in. Tanabata is a Chinese story of a Orihime, the princess who wove cloth for the gods, and Hikoboshi, the simple human farmer who loved her. Of course there was strife and they were seperated and the seventh day of the seventh month is the one day a year they can be together. Look it up it is a sweet story. Here are pictures:

Tanabata 2008

My friend Katie also has some great pics on her blog (

I am late but I have been very busy. I enrolled in Grad school and between classes, school wrapping up at work and hubbs being home I have been quite busy. I had midterms last week and turned in a 20 page term paper yesterday. I got As on the midterms W007!! I was really nervous about it.

Ok so last month the hubbs and I went to Nanadaru on the Izu Peninsula. It was beautiful, I honestly do not know what to compare it to. It is one of the wonderments of God and I posted a ton of pictures in my Picassa album because I cannot choose which ones to post. It was about a 3 hour drive but we took a tour, so it was a cozy bas ride. We went to Joren Falls first. Then on down to Nanadaru, which is seven waterfalls. It was breathtaking. Afterwards we relaxed in a hotspring.






Tons more pictures

Nanadaru June 7-2008

More updates to come:
Yesterday I went to a Tanabata festival with a friend.
For my birthday we are going to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea
Then the next weekend we climb Fuji-san.

Then we sleep. We are cramming a lot in because the man is about to head out again and we start the craziness over, it has been nice having him around.

Lots of pictures and catching up

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Yesterday I watched the Kitty Hawk leave for what should be the last time. She is the oldest ship in the US Navy (besides the USS Constitution) and the last diesel fueled carrier. She will be replaced this Summer by the George Washington


Some pictures from around Yokosuka



The local rose garden for mom at Verny Park



Kamukura during Sakura viewing



Sakura in Yokosuka


So that is my catch up post I hope you enjoy the pictures

Some fun pix

It was a beautiful day and a nice night so I went out tonight. I found a new obnoxious brimmed hat that i can actually pull off, I cannot believe I miss that cowboy hat I bought as a joke a few years ago. I am sure pics of the new one will appear at some point it is cool but not as cool as the $5 walmart special.

tonight a girlfriend and I shopped and had ice cream corn and ice cream actually

We also have killer kiwis at the grocery store (unfortunately or is it fortunately ) a sign blocked us from the full frontal assault of the killer kiwi

It is not water but it comes from water and looks water like so do not be confused

Here are some billboards from one of the Tokyo train stations I frequent, it is the connection for everywhere i want to be and the beer is fine too



This one is just immature but I have friends who will like it, if you don't get it good, but it has to do with the kind of brakes it says it has. At 6am I thought it was funny.
Also immature but who cares, not how I would describe a CD case

I read media corrections, it is fun and interesting and sometimes funny. I get them as a news feed so I just scan them and read the ones that seem interesting. This one however is downright funny.
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/05/corrections-virginianpilot-0

The headline read: Norfolk-based sub heads west toward Gulf

Well I hope those are some strong submariners or else they found the Northwest Passage and are keeping it a secret

Ok since I have been a slacker here is the run down, actually I have not been slacking just very busy.

So in March, I went to Tokyo for a conference. Met my counterparts from all over Asia, my "boss" and the people from the company I contract with. I had a great time and learned a lot. I definitely got the feeling that any minute they are all going to find out I am a fraud. Well I got along really well with one of the guys I met and he was there for the 2nd week (yeah all of IT in DODDS pacific did not pack up for a week they split us in half). I had a bad week the next week, the hubbs left for a longer time than usual, got extended, work was rough, there was rumors of lockdown because that idiot killing a cabdriver, and because of that my husbands trip was changed from a few weeks to indefinite. So yeah BAD week had to go out so the guy from work invited me up to hang out in Tokyo and meet the other half of my cohorts. I did and had a great time and went back again on Saturday to hang out with a few people. So the week got better, had fun and made some friends.

In April, I went the the Kanamara Matsuri. Which is the Festival of the Steel Phallus. I took one of the guys I know and met up with a friend from college. It was a lot of fun and just funny. Marco took us too the best sushi place EVER and it was cheap. At some point that month I was told that I had to earn my Altiris Certified Engineer (ACE) with 2 or 3 months. It was a pretty tall order considering, I am still learning my job, school is winding down and they suggest you use the software for 6 months before testing. Tog et the ACE you have to pass at least 2 tests, one on a product I use everyday and one I have never seen. Well I crammed and cracked down and had it within 30 days. I totally blew away my company, one person even called me "scary." It was in the way of other things I want to do like learn some programming languages and Japanese.

Now it is halfway through May. The hubbs is back for the summer which is cool. I enrolled in Grad School, University of Maryland University College. It is online but fully accredited and i will be getting a Masters of Science in Information Technology with an emphasis in Information Assurance. I am learning VBScript and wrote a pretty cool program for work that I hope others can use, it will seriously help with some things we do. I also started going to the gym, I hate the traffic after work so I wake up and try to go before work. It is nice and makes the whole day feel better. Next weekend we are going sea-kayaking and meeting some friends in Tokyo. We will also be going to an open air hot spring in a few weeks.

Ok so that is my update. See I have been busy and that is my excuse

Damn it has been over a month since I have updated? I will try to soon. In the last 2 months Hubbs and I celebrated our 4th anniversary, I have been to Tokyo multiple times, met my work counterparts at a conference, been to kamakura, went to a Fertitlity Festival with a friend from college, applied to Grad School, passed the cert for my Altiris Certified Professional and I am sure there is more. I will try to update this weekend while I study for my next cert, which will make me an Altiris Certified Engineer.

Kawagoe

We spent Saturday in Kawagoe. I was pretty miserable with a cold but the trip was great. It is about 2 hours from here by train and called Little Edo. There are many shrines, a castle and lots of historical buildings. Kawagoe really works for the tourism dollars. Right now it the YOKOSO! Japan campaign and as a part of that the 500Y bus pass is 300Y for the day. There is a tourism desk at the exit to the Kawagoe train station where an English speaking agent gave us an English guidebook, map and directed us to the bus stand. We hopped on the bus and got off on the first stop. It was Kitain Temple. Kitain Temple was built in 830 but burned in 1638, only the gate survived. When it was rebuilt parts of the original Edo castle were brought in and are the only remaining pieces.


At the temple we saw the Gohyaku-Raken which are 538 stone statues of Buddhas disciples and each one is different. They say if you walk through at night and touch each one you will find one warm one, if you come back during the day, that will be the one that most resembles you. I thought that on a day like that, your hand would go numb and they would all start feeling warm.





The temple was interesting, the views of the garden were gorgeous, sorry no pictures were allowed. There were many neat things in there but living in a world where we can barely speak the language and cannot read it makes museums interesting and dull at the same time.

After that we wandered on. We found Kawagoe castle it was built in 1457 and did allow pictures so here are some of the ones we took. Actually it is Honmru Goten which is the home of the Lord of the castle and all that remains of the castle and was built in 1848.




Then it was on to Kurazukuri, which is a street lined with fireproof storehouses that are now shops. They are beautiful and black, lining both sides of the street.


In an alley just past this store we found a little Udon restaurant. It was very good and they gave us a bottle of Soy Sauce, or it may be soup base I have not tasted it yet. This was one of the places we saw that was not geared toward Western tourists, there were pictures on the menu but even the numbers for the prices were in Kanji. I had to ask the waitress how much something was and she got this confused look, I think she was thinking that if I could not read it how could I know it if she said it. But she said it slowly so I counted it out and made sure we weren't ordering a $20 bowl of Udon. It was very good.



We also saw a museum of their major festival and I want to go back for that it looks like fun. Besides who wouldn't want to go to a Festival where 2 story tall floats pulled by huge ropes have dance off competitions



See all the photos at my Picasa album

Kawagoe

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SNACKIES!!!

First things first how the hell did I get moved to a place where it rarely snows yet I had a snow all weekend, a snow day monday, snow while walking the dogs and a prediction of snow ALL WEEKEND!!! WTF?!!!

Ok now for my own lil Konbini Life. Konbini is Japanese for Convienence Store. And I live right by one of the millions of 7-11s.
We find interesting things there so I took the lead from one of my favorite blogs, Konbini Life, and took a huge variety of food, fixins for Udon, bento boxes of tempura or sushi, sweets, whatever you desire the Konbini has it.
This is my first Konbini goody. I bought it 'cos I wanted Chocolate AND I LOVE the name. There are also Crunky ice cream bars. It is a lot like a Crunch bar but different.
Kit Kat is something special here. Lots of flavors. Too bad I can't seem to find the pic of the one from Super Bowl Monday. This one was Green Tea flavored and it was yummy. It is a normal Kit Kat with Green Tea in the filling.
This is a Choco bun as I call them. The Choco is right and I do not know the name for it. They sell all sorts of these but in the evening you can get Choco in all its gooey yumminess. It is a steamed bun, served hot and damn good. I think the outside is more of a rice than a bread but I really do not know. I also had one the morning we moved in because we had no heat and I was waiting for the rental agent. It was hot and steamy and I think had pork in it, like a giant dumpling. Choco is much better though :D

When there are no Konbini or you just want something to drink, there is always a vending machine about. This is a mecca for vending machines. We saw this group of them in an alley, the glow was angelic and I swear I heard angels.
Here's to a hopefully snow-less weekend