Beaches 浜

Exploring Japan is one of our family's favorite weekend activities. The last several weekends we have taken the opportunity to visit three of this area's most popular beaches. If you click on the map, you'll see the areas I'm talking about. One day we went to the Aomori Aquarium, then drove northeast along the coast to Oshima island. Another day we went to Kabushima island and the Tanesashi coast. And another day we went to Shipwreck beach, northwest of Misawa along the coast of Mutsu Bay.

Day 1: Aomori Aquarium and nearby coast

The aquarium was small but busy. We saw everything from enormous sea turtles and gigantic manta rays to the tiniest jellyfish and crabs. There were sea otters, seals, penguins, and of course our favorite, the dophin show. You can tell the kids had a great time.

Just north of the Aquarium we drove along the coast all the way to the tip of the tiny peninsula nearby (see map) where we had a picnic with some crows then walked across a footbridge to Oshima island where we searched for sea glass and shells

Here we are along Oshima island (in background) searching intently for anything cool to keep.

Day 2: Kabushima island and Tanesashi Coast

Just southeast of Hachinohe is Kabushima island. Like most tiny islands off the coast of Japan, it's essentially a gigantic rock covered in grass and trees. This particular island (now actually connected to the mainland with a big parking lot) is unique for two reasons: 1) there's a neat little Shinto shrine built on top of it and 2) it's a seagull nesting ground. Here we are at the top. Behind us is the shipping port of Hachinohe (best squid harvesting in Japan).

Sweetie, why are you holding an umbrella? Are you expecting rain?

Here come the birds!! Duck!! Actually, they're seagulls.

Mark loved talking to the birds. And I think they really enjoyed it too.

You probably figured out why we had umbrellas. Look to the left side of the picture and you'll see a little stand with a umbrellas borrowing.

Just up the road from the seagull place is Tanesashi coast. It's one of the more popular destinations for visitors here because of the majestic rocky coastline interrupted by a mile-long stretch of sandy beach.

This is Lyana's favorite kind of tree: the sculptured kind.

Looking straight out into the Pacific ocean.

Don't worry, it's not as dangerous as it looks. But it's definitely as fun as it looks. Alex, put the sandwich down before you go climbing.

Waving to the camera.

This one was a little precarious. Of course the kids thought it was the best thing in the world.

Quick picnic. Yummy applesauce.

Down where the rocks meet the sandy beach.

I don't think you fit between those rocks, little buddy.

Must write names in the sand so everyone knows we were here.

Day 3: Shipwreck Island

One of our friends organized an enormous beach clean-up at Shipwreck island, so despite the cold weather, Alex, Katya and I went up to help. Even though it was hard work, the kids seemed to really enjoy, and hopefully someday they will remember that day and appreciate what it takes to keep the beautiful parts of earth beautiful.

Or, at least remember how cool it was to wear rainboots and walk in the mud.

A whole lot of trash washes up on these shores. Most of it's due to the fishing industry -- nets, ropes, buoys.

After a long, hard day of cleaning up trash and eating lukewarm hotdogs (BBQ ran out of propane) I rewarded my good helpers with trip to the park because all they wanted to do was get out of the car and run around like loco-crazy people. We found this place on the way home.

Japan continues to amaze me and everyday I find a new reason to love it here.

Hope you enjoyed the beaches. Robert

Japan Day

That is what I look like when I don't get enough sleep.

One of the traditional Japanese masks.

On April 3rd, we had a wonderful opportunity to learn more about our host nation, Japan. Every year, Misawa Air Force base organizes a way for Japanese to show off their culture and traditions by bringing a whole bunch of native people to the base and setting up exhibits and craft booths. Add some extraordinary Taiko drums performances and Judo demonstration and you've got a fantastic look into the Japanese world. These people amaze me, seriously.

This year's event was held at the Collocated Club and not the high school as in previous years. The guy who was in charge of organizing it all told us a couple days ago that Japanese were very worried about this change, especially because their craft booths wouldn't be as private and quite as they would have been at the high school (since they would be held in the classrooms, not merely in the area separated with dividers). In fact, they were expecting a much worse turn out than in previous years. Boy, were they wrong. The event was scheduled to start at 10 am, but when we showed up at 9:50, there were also a whole bunch of people watching one of the performances. Right away, I went over to the area where Japanese women could demonstrate how to put on a kimono. Liz (my friend with three little girls) and I were the first ones in line, and we got to be dressed into kimonos right at 10!

I look sort of pregnant on this picture, but for real, they put, what seemed to be, a whole pillow or towel in my tummy area and tied it really tight:) It's a very complicated thing to put on a kimono, but these ladies knew what they were doing. I had about twelve different ropes tied onto me, several layers padding and so on.

Here Liz and I are getting dressed why the girls are waiting their turn. Notice the long sleeves on my kimono. One of the ladies explained that unmarried women have long sleeves because that's a way for them to say "yes" or "no" to a guy that's trying to "date" them. A woman sort of waves back and forward with those sleeves to let them know what she thinks. I guess, a married woman doesn't need to have long sleeves like that so she wears a kimono with sleeves like Liz.

Of course, after seeing how the girls are getting all dressed up, Alex started asking everyone if they had a boy kimono:) It has been his thing since we got here--he is determined to get a boy kimono while we are in Japan. So funny. Finally, one of the ladies found one for a boy! Oh my goodness, he was so excited!!!! It didn't take nearly as long to put his on.

Katya loved hers as well. She probably wanted pink, but I think her black one is beautiful too. She stood still the whole ten minutes that it took that lady to put her kimono on and tie all the little ribbons.

My beautiful Ukrainian girl in a kimono:)

And finally, the AFTER picture:)
That was a lot of fun!

After the kimono Robert and kids headed over to the kite making booth. They made very cool Aomori kites with their names on them. Making kites is one of the traditional crafts here.

In the meantime, Mark and I decided to explore the "Writing in Japanese" boothes. First we went over this lady, who wrote my name and Mark's name in Hiragana. It was more difficult for her to figure out how to write my name in their letters, and they couldn't even pronounce letter "L" properly. Kind of strange. I explained that I was from "Ukraina"--that's how they say "Ukraine" in Japanese.

Then, I asked this Japanese lady what her name was. And I wrote it in my Ukrainian language for her (I don't remember what it was:). She was so impressed, she took that piece of paper and put it away to make sure she wouldn't lose it!

We also stopped by a calligraphy booth where I asked the girl to write "Family", "Watson", "Lyana" and "Klymyuk" in Kanji:) In case you didn't know, there are three different ways to write all of those words in Japanese since they have three alphabets. Anyway, that was really cool to see as well.

Other booths included making of Nebuta lanterns, Genohe kites, paper planes, bookmarks, Washi dolls (someday I'll get one of those), flower arrangements, pottery making, display of more kimonos, Kogen embroidery, Chinese pottery, pressed flower craft, sand art, brush art, demonstration of Koto music, Zazen and yoga. We spent only two hours there, but I wish I could try all of them out. There is always next year.

Now we'll be looking forward to the American Day here in Misawa that's coming up in July. Should be fun to see what we have to show to our Japanese friends.

Girls' night out

Katya and I had a girls' night out. We just love being the only girls in our family:) Katya is the girliest girl I know. She loves fashion and dress-up and decorating. At the same time, she is not afraid to get tough and dirty outside. She has incredible strength in her upper body, which makes her simply fantastic at monkey bars and climbing up ropes, which in turn makes her a great MAVPA--yes, she is a Mavpa, a.k.a. monkey.

Anyway, now you know.

So on Saturday, we started our "date" by going first to the BX (military mall) to get my eyebrows waxed. Katya did a great job patiently waiting for me to be done. She was watching all the ladies getting pedicures and haircuts. But still that did not convince her to get her hair cut. She is determined to keep growing it out.

This is Katya at the BX parking lot.

Then we decided to go to a different kind of restaurant. Katya's choice was Burger King (seriously?). But I had something else in mind, trying to choose a bit of a healthier place. We went to Phada's, a great Thai restaurant. Food there is great. Katya had some Pad Thai with chicken. She is also getting really good with chop sticks, definitely better than me. We enjoyed listening to some Thai music and looking at all the restaurant's ethnic decor.

We decided to conclude our evening by going to the Baskin Robbins. Yes! We have it here, and not only on base, but even at the Shimoda mall. Katya loves chocolate chip mint ice cream--she is definitely half American. I do not like the flavor at all.

(Did you know that Baskin Robbins is the place where Robert used to work when he first got back from his mission?)

It was so nice to have a chance to go out to dinner and chat with my little girl, without interruptions. She is growing up so fast. I can actually have meaningful conversations with her now about family, school, and just life. We need to do that more often.

Lyana

Babushka is coming!

Yay! We cannot wait! April 27th is when Babushka is flying in all the way from Kyyiv. She will go from Ukraine to Finland, from Finland to Tokyo, hopefully will meet up with Robert (coming back from the US) and fly together to Misawa. Phew...what a journey! She is our true world traveller.

Kids have been asking me for three months now about when exactly she is coming. At the end of March I let Alex make a chain to count down the days. He is SOOOO excited. Katya made her own chain, a girly kind of course. So there are only 23 days left now!!!!

P.S. Yes, I know my living room is messy in this picture.

What I forgot to tell you about

Oh, life is starting to get busy again. Too many events planned for every weekend. If we want to go anywhere for a day trip, it seems, we have to plan months in advance when we should do it. For some reason, we have never been this busy when we lived in the states.

So what have we been up to?

*It is still very cold outside. I mean, it is APRIL and it is still in the 40s, sometimes 30s during the day?? (around 5-10 C) That doesn't feel like spring. When I ask people around here about when the weather actually gets nicer, they say, "In September". What?

*Kids have been playing outside quite a bit. Alex just got his first scooter--and it is GREEN! (He's been riding on Katya's pink Barbie one-hehehe). Mark loves to be outside now. He is walking very well now that he doesn't wear snow boots. He doesn't have to flop on his tummy and crawl over the entrance door step any more--it was very funny for a while.

*Our street is getting new people s l o w l y. Three new families have moved in since February. But we still don't have next door neighbours, hoping it will stay that way as long as possible. Remember? Our house is one of the units on the end, and there are four units, two-story townhomes, connected to each other.

*All kids had the stomach flu a couple of weeks ago. I am just glad that Katya is old enough now to know when she is going to throw up and knows to do into a bowl:) Poor little girl was waking up every 20 minutes, so we finally just let her sleep on the floor in our room. She felt so special!:)

It was Mark's first experience, and he did not enjoy it at all, but endured it well. Alex didn't throw up at all, didn't feel sick at all, but he still had to spend lots of time in the bathroom. Sorry for TMI.

*As you know from the previous post, Robert went for five days to Tokyo. We had lots of fun with the kids and with my good friend B. and her kids (her husband was with Robert). It's great to have good friends who call you every day and whom you see almost every day. Together we had Family Home Evening, pizza/movie night, and lots playdates. Our time without husbands went rather quickly (not that we didn't miss Robert or anything).

*Robert is leaving to MN in two weeks. He has a very cool conference to go to. I am super excited for him, and not just because he gets to learn new stuff, but also because he gets to see some of our close friends from our dental school days. I would love to come with him. Maybe next time. He will have a long list of things to get while he is in the states and lots of returns to take back to the stores (that were way too expensive to send back). He will go to Target!!! Oh, what could be better than that???

As I am writing this, kids are in bed, exhausted and drained from a day full of fun and sugar. Today is Easter Sunday! Great spiritual meeting at church (although trying to entertain Mark for three hours doesn't seem very spiritual) followed by a very tasty dinner with friends. Lots of ham, potatoes and dessert! I am overstuffed and need to go to bed.

Happy Easter and Hrystos Voskres!!!

Tokyo Dental Conference

Don't let the name fool you.  I really did go to a 4-day dental conference in Tokyo last week.  Only problem is (if you consider it a problem) I didn't take any pictures of the conference.  Who really wants to see a photo of a bunch of guys in uniforms sitting at a table staring at another guy in a uniform lecturing on the best way to do some sort of dental treatment?  Not anyone that reads this blog, I'm sure.  So what do I have for you today?  More pictures of Tokyo (and none of the conference).  This time I went to Tokyo just me and another dentist I work with (poor grammar, but who's checking?).  With no kids in tow, the possibilities really opened up for what we could see and do.  And of course we took this unique opportunity in the evenings to visit some of the more popular areas of the city.  

We started out on Monday hoping to catch Space-A (space available) on the military flight to Tokyo.  As luck would have it, an O-6 (Colonel) dentist from DC was visiting Misawa and headed down to the conference as well, so we basically said "we're with him" and I'd like to think that that got us a guaranteed seat on the plane (since otherwise we were at the bottom of the priority list).  That started a chain of events that eventually landed us meeting up with another O-6 in Tokyo who arranged for his wife to give the two of us a ride to the train station so we could get to the hotel.  So far the trip was going extremely well. 

We were exhausted from traveling all morning, so by the time we got to the hotel we were both looking forward to nice comfortable (separate) beds for a quick power nap.  Alas, that was not to be, for we arrived prior to checkin time and had to wait for the room to be ready.  "Is our room ready?"  "Sorry, not yet.  20 minutes come back."  (30 minutes and one microwaved cheeseburger later)  "Is our room ready?"  Sorry, not yet.  20 minutes come back."  (30 minutes and one power nap in hotel lobby chair later)  "Is our room ready?"  "Sorry, not yet. 20 minutes come back."  (One hour, I've been through the gift store twice, I just look at the guy and he says it's ready later)   We have a room.  So we expect a standard double room.  Standard double.  That means 2 beds right?  Nope.  One bed and one couch sleeper that an elephant slept on last night.  Nothing a little plywood can't fix (and we did).  That was the worst of it though.  Despite the hiccup with the beds, the week actually turned out great for many reasons (besides the point that my table clinic took first place). 

Anyway, that night we went to Roppongi district where just about any popular restaurant in America can be found.  Tom and I had a hankering for Aussie steak, so we made a beeline for Outback Steakhouse:  Bloomin' onion, babyback ribs, sirloin steak.  Sooooooooo goooooooooood.  I will personally escort anyone from the states who comes to visit us to Outback Steakhouse in Tokyo just so you can experience heaven for your tongue.  After dinner, we walked around the area looking for some cool places.  Soon, we found ourselves bombarded by this African dude in a suit trying to interest us "two fine gentlemen" in visiting a certain "noble" establishment (read strip club).  Immediately after politely turning him down, a second African man stops us and introduces himself.  I say, are you trying to get us to visit your strip club?  "No, of course not," he says, "I want you to visit this gentlemen's club."  Again, shook him off politely.  Literally half a second later another African guy in a suit approches us, only he's got a business card.  We just ignore him a walk away.  As we go down the street one more guy comes after us.  I wasn't very nice to him.  I didn't let him say much.  You must always watch out for bad Gaijin (rhymes with bad hygiene) in Tokyo. 

The next evening we played it low key and went to the LDS temple (literally 10 minute walk from the hotel) and ate dinner in the cafeteria there:  rice and curry.  Buy the ticket from the vending machine then give the ticket to the cook.  Easy as rice curry.  Met up with another guy there, a navy dentist from Okinawa, who was here for the conference.  We ended  up hanging out with him for the rest of the week. 

This is a shot of my new favorite (secular) building in Tokyo.  We saw it while walking around Ginza district Wednesday night and decided we had to go inside.  You'll see it says Yamaha at the very top.  the entire building is devoted to music.  The first several floors house instrument shops and a CD store.  Several middle floors are home to a huge concert hall.  And the top severl floors have dozens of music instruction rooms for those who can afford it.  The enitre facad (except the top few floors) are glass, so we went up as high as we could just to see the sight.

And here's the view from Yamaha.

There was one floor where they sold wind and string instruments.  There were probably 6 or 7 display cases like this one, filled with different instruments from saxophones to tubas.  It was like walking into a museum, but of course all them were for sale.  This case was of course my favorite one.  If only I had 35,000 yen ($3500) I could have at least bought one of the cheaper trumpets.

While walking around another building I found this tiny dental office.  Here's the waiting room.  No, this is not a corner of the waiting room, this is the entire waiting room.  At least it's cozy.

When I found this track in the toy store (yes, we visited a toy store) I couldn't resist.  200 yen for five minutes of driving.  You just pick a car and up to 8 people can race at a time. 

The best part of course was this guy (the one with hair).  "Whoa!  Slow down on curve!!  Too fast!  Too fast!  Oh no! You crash!"

The next night we went to Shibuya district.  The difference between Ginza and Shibuya is that Ginza is more high-end shopping (Prada, Tiffany's, etc) where Shibuya is not.  At least they have Krispy Kreme and Cold Stone.  Here you see one of the most famous intersections in Tokyo.  As soon as the light changes, a flood of a hundred or more people cross the street in all directions.

This is a street-level shot of the same intersection.  Not as dramatic, but it was neat to see the ocean of umbrellas moving along the streets.  Watch out though, being taller than most people, I was constantly trying to avoid getting my eyes poked.

This, to me, is the quintessential view of Tokyo nightlife. 

Fried squid.  Tastes like crunchy french fries with a really chewy center.

One last night picture.  While walking in Shibuya we noticed there was a restaurant at the top of a building so we decided to check it out.  We didn't eat there (but I will next time with Lyana), and even though it was only the 15th floor, it afforded a nice view of the city.  Plus, who can resist taking a ride in a glass elevator overlooking the largest city in the world?

After spending the evening in Shibuya, Tom and I (the other guy had to go somewhere) headed to Ninnikuya or "garlic restaurant" where everything is made with garlic.  And you know it as soon as you walk in the restaurant.  Everyone here who has been to Tokyo has been there or at least heard of it.  Whenever someone visits Tokyo for the first time from here, the first question asked when they return is "did you go to the garlic restaurant?"  Now I can say, "yes I have."  And the garlic pasta was oishii.