Ladies' Weekend to Tokyo

Some new friends from the Maborikaigon playgroup invited me to join them for a "Girls' Weekend" in Tokyo. It was my first time in there and we had such a blast! I love Tokyo and the New Sanno (the hotel we stayed at for service members and their families). The day we arrived it was raining but we were able to walk (with our umbrellas) to a French bakery just down the street from our hotel. Then that night we ate a beautiful 5 course meal at "Wellingtons". We had a great conversation and I learned a lot about other people's faith. We were laughing that the four of us (Catholic, Mormon, Jewish and Pageon) could find things in common and get along so well. :) We stayed in the hotel that night because of the weather and watched a movie. Then the next day we ventured out onto the bustling streets and subways. First to Bagel & Bagel (my first bagel in months and it was delicious) then took the metro to Ginza. The area is like Rodeo Drive when it comes to shopping. I found a fun hat shop and splurged on 2 cute ones. Then we went to Harajuku (the district that Gwen Stefani sings about) and took pictures of the "Harajuku Girls" in their Sunday best (costumes). The area is also known for their hip boutiques so we strolled down a famous side street and met up with our friend Corrie. After that we got some little souveniers for our kids and ate these yummy strawberry crepes. It was getting late, so we headed back but on our way we found a 4 story Gap! I had to buy some good ol' American jeans and then we went back to the hotel and drove home from there.

Japanese/American Class for Toddlers

Kelea and Liana just started going off base every other Friday to play and learn from other little Japanese toddlers in a play/class setting. This month they sang Japanese nursery rhymes and did some Halloween matching games. It was fun to meet other moms who (even though we may not speak the same language, are going through the same toddler phases).

Our Golden Book Girl

Baseball & Family Picnic with Japanese Hospital

The local Japanese hosptial invited the Naval hospital to play them in a game of baseball and a family picnic afterward. It was fun seeing my new friends from the Oakleaf Club there that I had met last month at the pool party when we first arrived. Also, my friend Melissa (from church) was there with her cute son. We had fun and the kids loved playing in the sand with the other Japanese children. There are some cute photos of Kelea playing catch with Daddy and Marissa jumping rope with a Japanese family that adopted her for the day.

Marissa's First Day of School

Our little girl is growing up! Here are some photos from her first day of kindergarten! I love the fact that Sean can walk Marissa to school on his non-surgery days and how much she loves going! You can tell from some of the photos how excited she was that this day was finally here. She has a wonderful teacher who plays the xylaphone for them as they enter the classroom and sings with them to teach them (like Zoophonics). She's like a grandma and has 20 years of experience teaching kindergarten, so we are very lucky to have her teaching our little Marissa.

Marissa's Japanese Dance Class & Karate

Here are some pictures from Marissa's Japanese dance class and karate class. Because we live on-base we wanted to sign up our girls for culturally diverse activities to get that "off-base experience" and hopefully gain a greater appreciation for the people of Japan. I love both of her instructors and she is having fun learning something new.

Kamakura (Our 1st Japanese Train Ride)

During our newcomer orientation, they explain the train system and how to navigate around town. Then they give us some options of which tourist area we'd like to visit by train and we go on a little "field trip". So Sean and I chose to go to Kamakura because it had so many beautiful shrines, temples and of course, "The Big Buddha". We got up there a little later than we wanted to because Sean had to take care of some paperwork at the hospital so we were on a time crunch (since our girls were in the child care on base until 5pm). So we got there (with no problems) and walked around looking at the various shrines, but not finding the Big Buddha. So we took some photos and got something to eat (which was delicious). Then I got an ice cream cone and forgot it's a little rude to "eat on the go" so I hid it behind my back most of the time until I could find corners to eat it in where no one was looking. :) It started melting down my hand, so I quickly devoured it with one last stop. By that time it was close to 4:15 so we had to head back to base and pick up our girls. I look forward to going back to that ancient city and finding our big friend "Buddha".

"Beyond the Gates" - Japanese Food & Fun

After being cooped up in the Navy Lodge for a few days getting over the jet-lag and a some sickness, we decided to venture off-base with our girls. We went to a Japanese mall right outside of the base gates called, "Daiei". It has a food court where we ate traditional Japanese food. Sean fed the girls "octopus balls" which aren't as bad as they sound. It actually tastes like calamari (fried dough balls fried octopus inside). We also let the girls have some yummy gelato (ice cream) afterward. Then we went to an indoor playplace that has a "balloon cage" where fans blow balloons around inside a padded area. There are also fun spinning toys, tunnels, slides and ball pits. The girls loved it and didn't want to leave. It's good to know about fun places like this that I can take the kids later when we get more settled.

Yokosuka Naval Base - Our New Home

Before we moved here we thought we wanted to live off-base in a traditional Japanese home. That way we could really experience the culture and get to know our Japanese neighbors. But when we were going through the orientation training and talked with people who were living here, we realized that most people who were living off-base were trying to get back on base because of the conveniences of living so close to all the activities. Also, those who moved off base with 2 or 3 children said they didn't realize how the little things like doing laundry in a very small washer and inefficient dryer would take up so much of their time. It's also nice to not having to pay a rent or utilities bill living on-base. But we still want our girls to gain an appreciation for the culture here so we're going to enroll them in classes at the community center (across the street). Sean wants to take Taiko drumming, Marissa will take Japanese dance lessons, and Kelea will join a Japanese / American playgroup. I'm going to take Japanese language classes so I don't always have to rely on Sean to speak for us off-base. Another reason we decided to move on base is because most of the homes off-base have less square footage than what we could have on-base. The housing office gave us our choice of either moving into a 3 bedroom 9th floor apartment right away or waiting 2 months at the Navy Lodge for a townhome. We looked at both and after I saw the view (see photo to the left) from the top floor (of the ocean and a green lush mountain) I fell in love with the "penthouse suite". Most people thought we were crazy to not wait for a townhome but the 3 bedroom apartments actually have more square footage than the 4 bedroom townhomes. It has a larger open living room, an open kitchen with a bar/island, and a larger master bedroom with its own balcony. We also liked the location (near the hourly CDC, Community Center, Commisary, & an easy walk to Marissa's school.) Another advantage of living on the 9th floor is that we don't have to worry about any kinds of bugs. (Some friends of ours who live in townhomes have roaches, spiders, etc.) You can see the picture of our girls playing in a wading pool on our balcony without worrying about mosquitoes (they don't come up this high). It's nice to only have to put on bug repellant when we go to the park. The perimeter around the base really is beautiful because it's surrounded by the ocean. They also have lots of beautiful and exotic trees/plants dispersed throughout the base. It still has a lot of cement and government type buildings but we feel good about our choice to live on-base.