Spring is springing

I think Spring is on it's way! Our temps have gotten to the high 50s/low 60s every day for nearly a week. I can't wait for the cherry blossoms to start blooming; the Japanese news says they should start around 3.26. My culture group is going cherry blossom viewing on 4.3.

Stay Tuned!!

Tomorrow we're heading off for what will be, I'm sad to say, our first real trip to Tokyo. Yes, it's pathetic that we've been here for 7 months (has it really been that long already?) and this will be our first trip to Tokyo. Otis and I went to Ginza for a few hours once, and I did my quick trip to the YOSC conference a few weeks ago, but that was just one day and I didn't make it very far from the hotel. So this will be our first real trip; the first of many, I promise!!

We are staying 2 nights at Hardy Barracks, a tiny Army (or maybe Navy?) post right in the heart of Tokyo, Roppongi to be exact. We've decided to drive so we'd have a bit more flexibility with our schedule. Not sure if that's going to turn out to be a very good idea or not; it's supposed to be a very simple drive, a straight shot down the expressway, but it's not unusual for the 30 mile drive to Tokyo to take 3 + hours! The plan is to go to Akihabara, Tokyo Tower and Odaiba, we'll see how well we stick to the plan. I just have to keep telling myself that I have years to see everything, on most of our outings I'm usually running around in a panic trying to cram in every possible site and activity as if we're leaving next week. I just so don't want to waste a single minute of our time here!!

Looks like Singapore is on the back burner for now. Otis is really swamped at work and they're really short-staffed so he can't get enough time off for an extended trip, we're moving to Plan B with lots of short 2 - 3 day trips instead, easier on the wallet for sure.

10,000 Steps to a Healthier Me. Not.

I REALLY, REALLY need to get active, not just to lose weight (though lord knows I definitely need to do that), but more for getting healthy. Let's face it, I'm not going to be 25 forever! So I decided to start with what I thought would be an easy excercise routine: walking 10,000 steps a day.

I walk ALOT already, both for excercise (at a minimum I drag my butt around the block after putting Ethan on the bus) and I walk on errands too, parking at a central location on base and hoofing it to the post office, bank, library, etc. So I was sure that 10,000 steps wouldn't be a big deal. WRONG! Even with extra effort I'm barely making 6,000 steps! One day this week I made it to 9,868, but that included walking in place while I was folding laundry and pacing back and forth on the sidewalk for 10 minutes while waiting for E's bus. 10,000 steps equals about 5 miles, which I thought I could easily do. I'm going to stick with it though, it will just require a bit more effort (which I was really hoping to avoid) than I thought.

YEES Alumni

Megan is attending Yokota East Elementary School, the same school I went to as a kid. It's gotten bigger with the addition of two classroom buildings, two huge playgrounds and a lunchroom (when I was a kid there was no cafeteria, everyone walked home for lunch every day) but the rest is still exactly the same. Although now their mascot is a panda; when I was a kid our mascot was our principal's little weiner dog, East, who came to school every day and followed our prinicpal, Mr. Lenz everywhere he went. On a side note, for some reason I vividly remember learning to spell the word PRINCIPAL while in the 2nd grade at YEES. I missed it on a spelling test and my teacher made me stay after school until I figured out how to spell it. In a moment of pure genius I asked to go to the office to call my mom and tell her I'd be late getting home; when I got her on the phone she told me how to spell PRINCIPAL and I raced back to class to correct my test. That memory just popped into my head! I literally hadn't thought about it in 30 years! Anyway, at Christmas every student got their picture taken with East, the weennie dog, to put in the Xmas cards we made for our parents. I still have mine :)


Now, every Friday at YEES (now renamed Mendel Elementary School, in honor of Joan Mendel, a teacher at the school for over 30 years, who recently passed away) is Spirit Day and the kids wear their school T-shirts; today Megan wore MY 30 year old YEES school T-shirt. It was pretty cool. I'm so thankful that my kids are getting the same great opportunity that I had to grow up here!

Oishii! Or maybe not so much.

Lunch served at school today:

Shrimp burger
Radish & fish paste soup
Fried spinach and corn
Fruits Jerry

Lunch served to Ethan today:

PB&J sandwich
strawberries

I guess the lunch ladies finally took pity on the hungry little American boy.

Ode to big Daiso and Choco Bites

I had a really great day today. I took the train to Machida by myself, something I really want to do more of (taking the train places during the week, by myself). Machida has the mega 100 Yen store and TGI Friday's (see my 2 Feb entry). There's a really neat upper level sidewalk that runs about 5-6 blocks down the street outside the train station.

I had a great time browsing through all 6 floors of the Daiso (I spent less than 2000Y!!!!) in peace and at my own pace and had a yummy 1/2 rack of babyback ribs at Friday's. I topped it off with a Choco Pie (found out it's PIE, not BITE) at McD's. The McD's at the Machida train station is on the 2nd floor with little booths lining huge windows overlooking the hustle and bustle of Machida, it was so nice sitting there people watching, revelling in just being in Japan. I still can't believe I actually LIVE here! Somebody visit me, I have so much to show you!!!!

Itadakimasu!

Ethan brings home a weekly lunch menu every Tuesday. This was last week's menu, it doesn't vary too much from week to week.

Monday - fish croquette w/ curry, spinach saute, fruits jerry (no idea what this is)

Tuesday - egg & shrimp spaghetti, green bean salad (green beans, tomatoes, mayonnaise), onion and seaweed soup, apple

Wednesday - rice, teriyaki chicken, fish paste & onion soup, yakult (kind of like yogurt)

Thursday - parsley spaghetti, vinegar carrots, fish paste & potatoe soup, banana

Friday - rice, steamed fish dumplings, cabbage saute, tomatoe shrimp chowder, strawberries


I probably don't need to tell you that Ethan does not eat lunch at school! I just make sure he eats a big breakfast, he usually does okay with snack and he eats as soon as he gets off the bus at 4:00p. I've tried not feeding him b'fast in the hopes that he'd be so hungry he would eat at lunch...not a chance. They give him buttered bread, which he does eat. I thought about letting him take a lunch, but he'd be the only one eating something different and I don't know how much havoc that would wreak at lunchtime. For now he seems to be doing okay with what he gets.

Happy Hinamatsuri!

Today we went to a Hinamatsuri party in Kodaira City, about 10 min away by train. The party was at a local elementary school with about 15 Japanese girls and 15 American girls + parents.

Hinamatsuri means "Doll Festival" and is celebrated as Girls' Day in Japan (kind of Mother's Day but for girls). There was an exhibition by a guy with tops (the spinning toy) and we learned a traditional Japanese dance, the girls got to put on kimonos and have their pix made with the doll display and we did a small gift exchange. It was a lot of fun and a great chance to experience some real Japanese culture.

I got some great pictures, click here to see the rest. It's hard to really tell in the pictures, but there are 6 different sashes around the girls' waists; it took 2 women 20 minutes to completely dress 1 girl.

Hinamatsuri Videos

This is the Top Man from the party today. In this first video he is spinning a top on the EDGE of a sword! Really cool!

In this clip he's spinning a top on the edge of a fan. It doesn't look like the top is spinning, but it is.

We got to learn a traditional Japanese dance about Hinamatsuri, you can't tell in this video, but both girls picked it up really quickly (in case you can't tell, Gabi and Megan are right behind the dancer)

Coocoo for CoCo's

Tonight we had dinner at CoCoIchibanya, better known as Coco's, a really popular Japanese curry restaurant. The one we ate at is directly across the street from a McDonald's which has seating and a playplace on the 2nd floor. The kids ate at McD's, the seating and play area are right in front of a huge window and we could see them from our table at Coco's; this is a great way to eat dinner out on our own but with the kids at the same time :)

This Coco's is tiny, only 3 small booths and maybe 7-8 seats at the counter. At Coco's you choose what type of curry you want, they have several different plates with things like chicken, pork, beef, crab cakes, eggplant, fried quail eggs...then you choose your toppings, everything from garlic chips and cheese to fried oysters and natto (fermented soy beans)...then you choose your level of spicyness from 1 - 10. Each level had it's own description/warning, level 1 says something like: For those who enjoy spicy food but also enjoy tasting the flavor of their curry. The menu tells you that only people who have eaten a full plate of 5 spicy are allowed to order 10 spicy! I got level 2, it was spicier than I like but not too bad, O had level 3. It was good, everyone talks about Coco's all the time so I really wanted to try it.

Curry really isn't my thing, but it was good and I'm glad we went. The very best part was topping off the meal with a Choco Bite from McD's!!! So f****** yummy!!