Our newest addition...

Meet the newest member to our family......

Fennigan Blues Clues

He's an 11 month old Boxer, we got him from a family on base that is returning to the states unexpectedly and couldn't take him.

He can look pretty ferocious, but he's the biggest, cuddliest teddy bear. He very sweet and thinks he's a chiuaua, constantly trying to sit in your lap! At his last vet check in December he was 50 lbs!!

The kids adore him and he really loves them too. The girls have been sleeping downstairs with him until he "gets settled in".

I really wanted a Japanese name for him, but just couldn't come up with something that fit. On the base we have a television network called AFN - Armed Forces Network, which broadcasts all our American programs. When I lived here as a kid it was called FEN - Far East Network. From that I came up with Fennigan, but we call him Fen. Ethan insists he's our very own "Blues Clues".

It's Cherry Blossom Time

Sakura sakura

Yayoi no sora wa

Miwatasu kagiri

Kasumi ka kumo ka

Nioi zo izuruIzaya izaya

Mini yu kan

This is "Cherry Blossom Street", otherwise known as the street that runs behind my house. It's lined with close to 100 cherry blossom trees. This picture most definitely does not do justice to how beautiful they really are.

This is the cherry blossom tree in front of our building.

Today the Japanese side of my culture group took us to a park not far from the base, along the Tama River, to see the cherry blosoms.

Cherry Blossom season is a huge deal in Japan. There are big festivals and everyone plans for hanami, "flower viewing". Every where there are cherry blossoms blooming you'll find people on blankets picnicing under the trees. Oddly, a lot of Japanese people like to come on the base to see the trees blooming and all week there have been people picnicing on "Cherry Blossom Street". Here are all of the pictures I've taken this week.

Easter at Tama

We took Ethan and Megan to the Easter Eggstravaganza put on by our base's Services Squadron at Tama Hills today. They had a huge egg hunt, a petting zoo, some bouncy castles and pony rides. They also had a big Easter buffet, but it was booked up months ago, next year we're planning to book one of the cabins for Easter eve so we can spend the night and have all of Easter Sunday to spend up there. Megan won two huge baskets filled with candy and toys. Ethan couldn't have been less interested. Gabi went to church and had Easter lunch with Kelekah.


Megan was terrified of this baby chick. She refused to bring it any closer to her face, afraid it would peck her eyes out. What a chicken! LOL

Gabi's 1st Track Meet

Today was Gabi's first track meet. She really loves to run and seems to have a pretty decent talent for it; her father was a big time runner and ran track in Jr. high and high school so maybe that's where she gets it from, 'cause it sure didn't come from my side of the family! She ran in 4 events, she was only supposed to do 2, but 2 girls didn't show up so Gabi ran in their place; we won't have the results until Tues/Wed but I think she did pretty well. Her best friend Kelekah's mom is the sprinting coach and she's done a great job with Gabi. The meets are sooooooo long! Today was 9:30a - 3:00p!! And of course Gabi was in the 2nd and the last events so we stayed ALL DAY.

Here's a shot of her strong finish! She was totally exhausted and fell asleep in her floor at 7:00p, right in the middle of playing a game with Meg.

Ethan-chan's new school

I've finally gotten off my butt and found a fully Japanese preschool for Ethan. It's called Kodomo Gakuen; click here to check out their website, it's got lots of great info and pictures.

For those who don't know, Ethan has been attending Kunitachi Kids International School. KK is a Japanese preschool off base, but it's an Enlish immersion school for Japanese kids, which means only English is spoken. We really like it and Ethan was happy there, but I'm determined that he (and the rest of us as well) will become fluent in Japanese while we're here! One of my biggest regrets is that I grew up in Japan, but never learned to speak Japanese!

The Japanese school year runs April - March, with about a 2 week break in between, so school got out this week, including Kunitachi. Ethan will start at Kodomo at the beginning of the new school year, April 7. Like KK, Kodomo has a bus that picks up from our gate at 8:30am, they get home around 3:00p. I think there are 4 other American kids enrolled. One awesome thing that I couldn't believe is that Kodomo offers an extended day program, with bus service! If I need Ethan to stay later, they'll keep him until 5:30, then bring him home on the bus!

There are 3 English speaking teachers on staff, so they'll help with his transition, but both of his teachers are Japanese, and with only 4 American kids out of 240, he'll get plenty of Japanese practice! I'm so excited!! I can't wait to hear him sprechen some Nihongo!!

Kampai!!!

Finally, after 20 years......I mean, after 15 years of alcohol consumption, I can finally have a beer with my best friend Robin. Until now all beer tasted like pure horse piss to me. Just plain nasty! And believe me, I've really tried to like it. But now, thanks to Suntory, I can kick back with Rob on her couch and knock back a few cold ones of my own:

It's PINEAPPLE BEER!!!! And man, is it good!!!

A few months ago I went to a karaoke restuarant with a culture class I was in and they had the yummiest pineapple wine, which I had never tasted before. I've been searching every where for it with no luck. I was in a Happy Foods grocery store today looking for a juicebox for Ethan and stumbled across this bit o' liquid gold! It didn't occur to me at the time (not being a beer drinker and all) to see if they sold it by the case, so I'll definitely need to go back and check. The store isn't very close to the base, so I'll have to check the ones around here to see if they stock it. It's only 7:30 Friday morning in Hotlanta, but I'll drink a couple for you Piece-a-pear-head.

Chestnut Mojo

Tonight Otis and I went to Member Apprecitation Night at the Officer's Club with our friends Frank and Candy (Frank is an OR nurse too, he just came back last week from 4 months in Afghanistan). The club has a member's night every month with free dinner, games and prizes.

My name got picked for musical chairs, I lost. But to my credit I got down to 4 people out of 10 after I had already had 3 margaritas and was walking round and round a small circle in high heels. My consolaton prize was $5 in "Club Bucks" which will get me 2 margaritas, and my name went back in the pot. Towards the end of the night they pulled Otis' name for a digital camera, called another name for an umbrella, then pulled my name for a micro stereo system!! Woo hoo! I've been begging Otis to go to member's night ever since we got here but it's always in the middle of the week and he hates going out on a school night, but now he's ready to go back again :)

Did I mention that I LOVE TOKYO?!?!?! Day Two

We slept in Saturday morning then headed for Tokyo Tower on foot. It took us about 30 minutes, but we were just ambling along taking in the sights, I probably could have made it in 20 on my own. Click here to see the rest of the pictures. Along the way was this woman and her performing monkey. It was really just creepy. The monkey obviously wanted no part of the show and he kept shrieking and showing his huge fangs. Of course we had no idea what the woman was saying but she just kept laughing...really creepy.

Ethan taking in the view of Tokyo.

I'll let you take a guess at what this thing is supposed to be. No, it's not a giant penis in overalls, which is the obvious first guess. I have absolutely no idea what the band aid is for.

We had a good time, we took the elevator up to the first observatory, but the girls took the stairs back down (about 600 steps). Afterwards we had lunch at Wendy's (the first one we've seen in Japan) and wandered through Roppongi and Roppongi Hills. After a nap and some TV Otis and I drove over to the New Sanno hotel, about 10 minutes away, to get some dinner and check out the hotel (Otis had never been there). We headed home on Sunday around 12:00 because we were sure we'd hit a 3 hour traffic snarl, but it only took 45 minutes! Again we couldn't believe how lucky we got! It's exactly 46 km (28.5 mi) from our house to Hardy Barracks.

Here's Ethan amidst a gaggle of adoring fans. Everytime we stop we get a swarm of women and girls, he's just so kawaii...even when we pull up next to a Japanese woman or girl at a stop light they're smiling and waving at him. Sometimes he hams it up and waves and blows kisses, which sends them into hysterics, but a lot of the time he's his usual stinky self and turns his head away, refusing to acknowledge them at all.

Did I mention that I LOVE TOKYO ?!?!? Day One

Damn good thing we brought a map!!

It was actually a very easy, though expensive drive, straight down the Chuo/Shuto expressway: $13.00 for tolls each way. It only took us an hour to get there!! We couldn't believe it! We only made one wrong turn and just stopped at a convinience store for directions.

We didn't know before, but Hardy Barracks is the headquarters for the Pacific Stars & Stripes, the military newspaper for all of the Pacific area. HB consists of just 2 buildings: the hotel, pictured above, and the S&S building. Our room was great: no frills but it had a queen size bed in the bdrm and a sleeper sofa in the living room with a full bathroom (complete with cadillac potty) in between. We had a fridge, microwave and dvd players, dvd's are available to check out for free in the office. Not too shabby for only $50/night ($35 for the 1st person, $5 for each additional person over 3 years old). The only down side is that there's no food nearby. They offer a free continental b'fast and there's a small convinience store on-site, other than it's a good 20-minute walk to the nearest grub.

Just cause he's so cute! This is Ethan waiting for the subway. We arrived in plenty of time to head for Roppongi for dinner.

It started raining as soon as we got to HB, but I was not about to spend our first night in the hotel! So we grabbed our umbrellas and headed to TGI Friday's. The food was delicious, but not something we'll be doing again any time soon!!! :( The girls both had appetizers as their meals: Gabi had a 3-piece chicken tender plate (just chicken, no fries or anything) and Meg had an order of chili-cheese fries. Otis and I both had bacon cheeseburgers with fries (Ethan just ate off our plates). Add in 3 sodas and 1 pina colada for a grand total of.......$81.00!!!!!!! I knew it'd be pricey, but DAMN!!! When I say we won't be doing it again anytime soon, of course I mean "us" as a family, it won't be nearly as expensive when I go by myself!!! LOL!

Cellies

In Japan you can do just about anything with your cell phone, except talk on it. You can pay for nearly everything with your cell phone: train fare, groceries, drinks (or cigarettes, beer, porn magazines, eggs) from a vending machine. I've even seen cell phones with a built in pedometer! A Japanese university recently starting having complete classes via cell phone using text messaging!! And there are Japanese authors publishing entire novels completely via cell phone texting.

But Japanese people NEVER talk on their cells in public, it's considered extremely rude; if it's absolutely necessary to take a call you'll see the person remove themselves as far as possible from other people, turn their back and speak quietly into the phone while shielding their mouth with their hand. On the trains and buses there are signs and frequent announcements reminding everyone to put their phones on vibrate.