Half a Day in a Life of Lyana

You know that feeling when you wish you had a camera to capture something interesting? I get that feeling often and I almost never have a camera with me.  Finally, I remembered to borrow Katya’s camera (it’s smaller than ours) and take some quick pictures of what it’s like to be driving around Misawa.

These were taken more than two weeks ago, before another big snow storm, but you can see we have a ton of snow on the ground. Today it was in the 40s, so it’s slowly melting, but it will take a while.

So, I couldn’t really take pictures coming from the North Area to Main base because I was driving so fast—6o kmh is how fast I can go, so I wasn’t wasting any time. When we get to main base, we have to go 20-40 kmh..easy for picture taking.

This is me stuck behind a slow dump truck full with snow. If you get stuck behind one of those and they don’t have any flashing lights—too bad, cannot pass them.

That’s our library buried in the snow. I love that place. Kids love that place! I wish I just had more time to read!

A couple of residential towers—they have nine floors—quite fun when there is an earthquake. That smaller building on my left is the place where Alex plays basketball—Youth Center.

An example of a Japanese stop sign.

Robert’s dental clinic.

This is what they display when they catch someone driving under the influence. They keep track of who it was (without a name but telling us their unit) and when it happened. Since then we had one more happened, sadly.

So, I forgot to mention, the reason I was coming down to main base was to go grocery shopping.  Forgot to take a picture of the building, but here are some of our prices inside. I spend each week $20 on bell peppers because both Alex and Mark eat those like apples. Those are prices per pound! But it’s cool to see they are from New Zealand…

This is why we don’t eat many potatoes—4 lbs of potatoes for almost $6 ON SALE!

All right, so I didn’t buy apples at the commissary because they were around $1.60 or more EACH. I try to buy produce that is in season, but apples won’t be in season until at least late summer…my kids love apples. So I decided to try the Apple Lady, although she doesn’t sell them by boxes any more this late in the year. They end up being around $1.50 each but they are much fresher and tastier.

This is where on the 9th, 19th, and 29th of the month, “The Ninth Market” is held-haha. A whole bunch of vendors come with fresh produce, fish, flowers and just random second-hand items.

Snowy! But because it probably had been over a week since the last snow storm, the roads are clear. They are pretty bad and uneven right when it snows. Not like the base ones—those are pristine (I think I mentioned it before).

This is an example of another sign. Easy to navigate when you have Roman letters too.

On the way to the Apple Lady’s shop, I have to go through a pretty narrow road that is frequently used by pedestrians. There is no sidewalk, but they still walk up and down this street! Many a time, I had to actually stop to avoid hiting a person walking on the side of the road or the vehicle coming towards me.

And kids walk down that street ALL THE TIME! On their own.

Phew…I got to the shop without hitting anyone.

Yumiko was busy with other customers who were flabbergasted that I spoke my five Japanese words-haha. Again, they wear those masks sometimes when they are sick.

I found some fresh carrots and spinach for Alex (fantastic taste!) and of course, some apples. I only bought five, so they will last..umm…maybe two days.

There is my road again (trying to take crooked pictures for you).

Old people walk up and down that street all the time too! I still don’t understand that part. AND nobody ever hunks the horn! They just patiently wait for pedestrians and then pass them when they can.

Another snowy view of Misawa.

The Apple Lady didn’t have any strawberries…so I had to go to Max Value—another food store (it’s part of a chain) that carries strawberries most of the time.

Mark loves that store because he can use one those fun carts. He barely fits into the “car” cart now though. I am just amazed how orderly these carts remain and I NEVER see anyone leaving their cart in the parking lot and driving away (like they do in the states sometimes).

On the way back home, I drove through a busy street, right at the time when kids were coming back home from school. Kids walk from school all the time—rain, snow or shine.

Some stop and talk to strangers…wearing….duck or fish costume….or something-hahaha. Actually, I think that’s a policeman, but I am not sure what he is doing.

And here are two girls walking home with their very expensive school bags—no joke! Those are supposed to last them for many years.

Okay, that night, Alex also had his last piano lesson. I discovered Katya’s camera in my purse and took some pictures. This room on the left is where Alex had his lessons.

Alex really liked his teacher, Mr. Masayuki, but practicing was a lot of whining and crying. So we are taking a bit of a break from piano until he turns seven and we find a new teacher in the UK.

And just so you know that I am not making up things when I say military life is without any frills—this is the waiting room for parents to wait for their kids doing piano lessons. 

Wow….what an afternoon-hahaha. Actually, my mornings are usually much crazier than afternoons, except on Thursdays. Thursday is when we have our swimming and piano lessons.

I hope you enjoyed looking through my pictures from our everyday life. Let me know what you think.

Lyana (on her own tonight as Robert is flying to Tokyo to meet his mom, brother and nephew! YAY!!!!)….(I am not saying “YAY” because he is gone, I am just excited for our visitors—I wanted to make that clear-hahaha).