The view from our front door

Today, Saturday October 17th (ignore the date on the pictures, the camera is still set to Florida time), the view from our front door was pretty special in two ways. 

First of all, check out the kiddos on their wheels!  While Katya has been proficient at the two-wheelers for some time now, Alex just began.  In fact, we took his training wheels off only yesterday!

One good thing about North Base (the part of base where we live) is that it is so deserted right now, on account of the homes only recently being remodeled, that there is ample space for the kids to ride their bikes.

 

I really enjoy watching them riding around and having a good time.  And I'm happy that my kids really enjoy playing outside.  No video games needed. 

Now for the other view from our front door.

 

The Thunderbirds (US Air Force) are in town for an air show tomorrow (Sunday).  The base is expecting at least 250,000 attendees (yes, a quarter million) from all over Japan!  It's going to be the biggest event they've ever held.

The Japanese air show team Blue Impulse are also here, and they were practicing right over our heads.

And one more . . .

Because the event is so huge, I have to actually work all day tomorrow on standby with the emergency response team.  I'll be right down there in middle of it.

This is also the biggest fundraiser of the year.  And the most popular sale item is boxed cakes.  Yes, Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker are having a heyday.  Lyana and I made only 16 cakes (each box makes two 8" rounds) and each cake sells for $5.  Others signed up to make 32 or even 100 cakes!  No frosting, just plain cake.   Gotta love it.

till next time, Sayonnara

Robert

Rice harvest

Happy Columbus day!!  Today, we were invited to go hiking in the mountains near Towada and Oriase Gorge.  To tell the truth, I don't know exactly where we went; I just followed the van in front of me.  All I know is that it took about an hour to get there and the scenery along the way was outstanding.  Northern Japan is in the middle of its rice harvest right now, and I was able to get a couple of shots out the driver's side window along the way.  The first one here is one of my favorites.  That's a real live (not so live, I guess, unless we're talking Wizard of Oz, but we're not) scarecrow.  You can tell he's doing a good job.  Do you see any crows?  Me neither.  He's just hanging out in the middle of a rice field waiting for some company.  This field is basically in the middle of Misawa.  There's not much separation between city and country in Northern Japan.

 

On the way back from our hike, I was lucky enough to get these photos.  Remember, I took these while driving 60 kph (36 mph) on the wrong side of the road.  I like how they display differences in harvesting.

Here you can see (if you look closely) the women harvesting rice by hand.

And in this next picture a group of workers is taking advantage of new technology.  That funky looking machine to the right of center is a rice-harvester.

Finally, I should probably show a little bit of what the acutal hike was like.  It was a two-mile loop along the side of one of the mountains.  Lush greenery everywhere. 

Here's Alex and Katya near a pond shortly after we started the hike.  Note the happy expressions.

And here's a shot of them back at the village shortly after finishing the hike.  Again, note the expressions.

That's all for now.

Robert

Let's play a game!

Ready everyone?  Let's play a short game.  I've got three pictures here and I want you to look at each one carefully and tell me (or rather yourself, because I won't be able to hear you) what's going on.  Got it?  Good.  The answers will be listed at the bottom of this post.  Good luck.  Or as they say in Japan . . . actually, I don't know yet how they say it in Japan, but I'm sure it would extremely motivating if I did.

1) Who are these two creatures and what happened to my children!!

2) What are they looking at?

Where in the world are we for this picture?

Give up yet?  All right, as promised here are the answers.

1)  One of the neighbor girls named Lizzie (there's two, but she's the 'older Lizzie') apparently knows how to facepaint.  She mentioned her talent to Katya one day and ever since then Katya has been begging us to let her have Lizzie paint her face.  I wasn't home when this happened, but a trusted source informed me of the following events.  After they had their faces painted, Lyana took this photo BEFORE Alex had a chance to look in the mirror.  As soon as he did so, he promptly requested to have his face washed.

2)  In Japan, General Conference is not broadcasted live.  Rather, the church members schedule it for one week later to watch a recording of it at the church building.  Of course, most people have the internet, so last Sunday, we watched it as a family at home.  We each wore our Sunday best.  Alex's Sunday best was a policeman costume.  And Alex is not asleep.

3) Location: Miss Veedol Beach.  Not so good for swimming, but neat place for beachcombing and checking out the Pacific Ocean.  A bit windy too.  Lot's of washed-up jellyfish blobs as well.  They really do look like jelly.

That's all for this post.

Robert

Going out for Chinese (in Japan)

Yes, Chinese restaurants exist in almost every country on earth (although I wonder if they are quite as popular in China as anywhere else).  A week or so ago, we decided to check out the local fare.  Carinba's (I don't know what that means) was recommended to us by a few people I work with, so we figured it must be fairly decent.  Before leaving the house, we counted all our Yen and discovered we had only 3600 yen (about $38)--cutting it pretty close.  So we planned to stop by the ATM before leaving base.  After arriving at the restaurant, we realized that we had forgotten to go to the ATM, and the prices on the menu were a tad higher than we expected, especially because rice is extra (For example, if you order stir fry, you have to order a side of rice to go with it.  It's not part of the dish otherwise) .  We decided to see if we could make it with the cash on hand instead of me running around town trying to find some more cash.  With any luck, the locals would take pity on this bald-ING, mournful-looking American boy and hand me a few hundred yen just to send me on my way.  Anyway, after 10 minutes or so studying the menu, while adding everythinng up in our heads, we figured out what we wanted and the total came to 3400 yen.  Perfect.   

As you know, chopsticks are the norm in Japan.  Even more so if you're eating Chinese food while in Japan.  We try to use them as much as possible, and the kids are slowly getting the hang of it.  Here's a couple pics just to show you how well Alex and Katya are progressing with their chopsticks.

Mark doesn't even bother with the chopsticks anymore.

and of course who needs chopsticks when you can wrap up your food in an overgrown leaf.

Anyway, delicious food.  Anyone who ventures out here to visit us will be treated to at least one dining experience comparable to this one.

Konbanwa,  Robert

My first haircut in Japan

Whenever you move to a new place, one of the main questions I ask around is, "Do you have a good hairstylist?". I love to get my hair cut and highlighted. It makes me feel fresh and makes my hair looks healthier and much easier to manage. So when I got to Misawa, I right away started asking about places to get haircuts. Some people prefer to go on base at the BX where Japanese ladies cut hair but it's done in a more American setting. Others like to go off-base but then sometimes they face a strong language barrier since most of the hairstylists have very limited English. Others choose to find someone an American who used to cut hair in the states because they do not like the way Japanese cut hair--it seems to have a more jagged way, hard to explain.

So......I risked it. One woman I met at the Misawa Inn hotel when her family was leaving Japan, recommended salon Prizm, and she gave me a coupon for 10,500 yen off (that's roughly $11). I like discounts, so I made an appointment with Yamamoto (he turned out to be a guy in his 40s, the owner of the salon--totally straight and married:)).

I came into the salon, right away they offered to take my purse and jacket and sat me down on the couch in the middle of the salon room. Then Yamamoto came and introduced himself and started asking me about what I would like to do with my hair. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I brought him a picture, to explain color and haircut. His English was pretty good, actually.

Now, here is where things started to be really different. Another woman (she is an assistant, I found out later) took me to the special room to wet my hair. I was asked to take off my earrings for the remainder of me getting my hair done. Then they put a washcloth over my eyes so that my makeup doesn't get messed up--how thoughtful! And then they brushed my hair right there. Before coming out to the main part of the salon--so I don't look like a dirty mop when everyone else sees me (I hate that part of getting my hair cut and other people staring at me).

Yamamoto cut my hair. He rolled up to me sitting in his stool with his cart that had everything he needed and more. I thought to myself, "Do Japanese cut people's hair sitting down?" (I know, kind of silly). Well, he did some of it! For the final look, he had his assistant hold up a huge mirror to show me the back of my head.

The strangest thing was getting highlights. For those who have had them done before know it's a pretty lengthy process. Not in Japan! Can you imagine two people at the same time doing foils on you? Crazy! Teamwork is their credo:) They were done in half an hour, seriously. Assistant did most of the work, with Yamamoto doing the hair in the front and the top--the most important pieces. And then TWO assistants were taking off the foils! Again--TEAMWORK.

Just when I got excited about getting done early, they sent me to get my hair washed before styling. Wow! I didn't know you could clean and scrub my head as long as they did. Must have been really dirty or something. That assistant's hands became brushes, it felt, nothing like a relaxing rubbing and massaging you get in the states-haha.

Finally, Yamamoto's assistant was the one who styled my hair. Straightening (I don't use straightener at home actually, but she did) each tiny section at a time. Looked great at the end but I couldn't believe and feel sorry for people who have to spend that much time making their hair straight.

Will I go back there again? Sure. I think Yamamoto did a great job. And for everything they did today, I paid around $70 tip included (it's not customary to tip in Japan).

Bye-bye for now. Pictures will come soon.