Heading to Tokyo

I am taking a 4-day weekend this week, and Ant and I are heading to Tokyo's Roppongi district to see what we can see. We head down on Saturday morning, bright and early, on the Xinkansen (bullet train for you non-nihongo speaking peeps). I've never been on it in the day time and heard it is a trip. We hope to go to the zoo that day after checking into our hotel. We are also planning to visit the Tokyo Tower on Sunday. One night we plan on visiting the Tokyo Absolute Ice Bar, which is this bar where everything is made of ice, from the tables to the walls, to the art. We'll be back Monday afternoon. I plan to take lots of pictures so I'll post them on here.

Holy CRAP!

OK, so two weeks ago, Ant and I were woken up by a 5.7 at 0430 located in the ocean on the other side of Japan from us. Today, I am standing in an office at work, and I had just leaned on the fridge in that office when some one shouted, WOAH! I look up and the walls are swaying back and forth, rather noticeably. It went on for at least 30 seconds! Things were rattling on the walls and on the shelves. I look up on the USGS site, 5.8, about 65 miles east of us; 40 miles deep.

Check out the link...

Anniversary and the Trip Back

Well, Saturday was my husband's and my 8th wedding anniversary. As with many of our anniversaries, we spent it apart. I was enjoying my last night in Hawaii, the place we got married, with friends out to dinner. I guess that isn't a bad way to spend an anniversary if you can't be with your significant other.
Sunday I started my trip back to Misawa. Everything went smoothly, for the most part, until we took off, that is. I made it to the gate in a half hour (not bad for checking the bags, getting my boarding pass, getting through security, etc.) and finished reading my book (good thing I brought two along with me). We boarded slightly late, but no worries, AND I think I was the only non-Japanese person on board. The entire last quarter of the plane was empty. I had the ENTIRE row to myself, and I don't mean the couple of seats around me, I mean the ENTIRE row.
However, as soon as we took off, I knew it was going to be a bumpy flight. We had the WORST turbulence. I about got air sick it was so bad. One of the flight attendants almost hit her head on the ceiling before the captain finally turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. AND people kept getting up, even with the fasten seatbelt sign on. They tried to "hurry" to the bathroom. Of course, the captain tended to wait until the turbulence was just about over to put on the seatbelt sign. Details.
When I made it to Japan, I about kissed the ground. Immigration was a turn, too. For once there were fewer foreigners coming in to Japan than Japanese. There were even some Buddist nuns from Tibet in the line with us!
I Black Catted my bags to Misawa and caught the train to Tokyo Central. Ran the 6 flights of stairs and escalators to the XinKanSen (bullet train) in 9 minutes (took of 30 seconds after I sat down). Then caught the 13 minute ride to Misawa from Hachinohe. I was even home 90 minutes early!
It feels good to be home. A little weird. Of course it is going to fell even more weird when I start back up work tomorrow.

So you want to be an Ice Road Trucker?

My brother is a trucker. He recently told me he would like to be an Ice Road trucker. Travel up to Canada to Yellow Knife and drive on the great ice road delivering goods to the Canadian diamond mines. Thing is, I've been driving on an ice road the last week. That is right! We had a blizzard last Thursday, and it has snowed about every day since. Here in Japan, they don't plow, they don't salt the roads. They just let the cars pack the snow down where it melts slightly during the day, then freezes back up at night. I've been driving around on roads that have SIX inches of ice on them. That is, I am driving on a surface that is six inches above the paved road. It is insane. It is even more insane to walk around in and around snow that is up past your knees, too. We've had 83 inches of snow since Thanksgiving. We only had 50 inches all winter last year. They are running out of places to pile the snow when they plow on base and the parking lots off base. They've started to truck the snow out to the fields. And on base the snow piles are about two stories tall.

What the Japanese will do for American Pizza

Last Sunday was the Misawa Air Base Air Show. Over 150,000 people were expected to descend upon the base. That is tripling the city of Misawa! Here is a video showing why these people really showed up! The Japanese pizza is small, weird and expensive. This is their one chance per year to get cheap, delicious American pizza.

All the Japanese people waiting for American Pizza

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More of Fitow

Typhoon Fitow Tracks for Misawa

We entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness (TCCOR) 1, a full 12 hours earlier than anticipated. Meaning, high winds imminent. Right now, Fitow, the name of our friendly neighborhood tropical storm, is tracking to hit us directly, at 9pm local time, tonight.

Here is some video taken earlier...



And some graphics from the tracking site... We are located at the 9pm spot.



Where it was at 9AM this morning...

Misawa Braces for Fitow...

Around midnight this morning, we entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness (TCCOR) 4. What this means is we are expecting some nasty weather within the next 72 hours... As you can see from the graphic below, it is going to get bad, and pass right over Misawa.



I, for one, am hoping it does get that bad for a number of reasons... I have to work this weekend, for one. It has seemed that everytime I get time off, it rains. I mean, AS SOON AS I LEAVE the building, clouds roll in, and as soon as it is time for me to work, beautiful weather, again. Well, now, the other half of the workforce can understand our plight. ENJOY the misery losers!

the sound of election season... Japanese style!

For the last few weeks, Anthony and I have been wondering about announcements that seem to go on every day. At first it seemed like the same time every day, 1200 or 1500... then it seemed that it would happen intermittently. Lately it seems like it is all the time. Ohiyogozaimas.... dit dit dit gozaimas... dot dot dot gozaimas... konichiwagozaimas.... every other word gozaimas. We thought it was one of the car dealerships we live near. Finally, driving to work, I had the "fortune" to witness just what was making all the racket. A van outfitted with many megaphones and a lady in white gloves sitting in back with the windows open and a microphone in one hand. And plastered on the side, pictures of what must be a candidate for office. AH.... here it comes again... must be winding down, only been 10 minutes since they drove past last...

You know you are living in a foreign country when...

you make sure you have enough money in two sets of currency in your pocket at all times.... We go out, and we automatically ask, do we have enough Yen/Dollars? Never know what you are going to be up against. Even on base, certain places take Yen, others Dollars. When we pay our car fees, for instance, we pay on base, but have to make sure we have Yen. Go figure. It is a strange experience.

And you know what is annoying? Yennies. the Japanese version of Pennies. They are light, almost like they are monopoly money and made of plastic. There is absolutely no reason for them, except to take up space. My hubby uses him in his gaming night as extra pieces when he runs out.

The Cherry Blossoms Come to Misawa!!!

OK, it is spring in Japan. And although this time a year comes around about a month later than Tokyo, 400 miles to our south, it does visit, nonetheless. And with spring in Japan comes the beauty of Cherry Blossoms! Here are some pictures, though they do not capture the full effect, they do give you an idea.




Across the street in front of the City Hall.

Right out the base.

The park. They put up these pink lanterns which reflect the pink from the cherry blossoms and vice-versa.

Wasaaaaabi!

After seeing Spiderman 3, Anthony and I went the the Universe Store (sort of like a Super Walmart) to buy dinner. We like going there. You can get Sushi, various teryakied meats-on-a-stick, some interesting deserts. I decided I wanted some Wasabi. I figured, Wasabi, a sort of condiment, right? Must be in the condiment aisle. I'll just find that aisle and wander down it until I see something that looks like Wasabi. Wait, what does Wasabi look like? I've never bought it in the U.S., so how can I pick it out in a foreign country?
I found the condiment aisle and began walking up and down the aisle. Now, I have been teaching myself how to read Hiragana, one of the three Japanese alphabets. So I tried to pick out some characters (is that what you call a Japanese letter?). Finally, I found something that could have been Wasabi. YES, the character for "bi" and I see the "wa." Wait, that isn't "sa." I look next to that, AH! "wa" "sa" "bi"!!! Now the real test... I get it home, start to eat my sushi, put the condiment on my sushi, put it in my mouth. YES!!! The familiar sinus-opening sensation of Wasabi! I found it! I actually feel like all my time the past week or so trying to teach myself how to read Japanese has been fruitful. I am quite pleased with myself!

Japanese Cinema

We decided to take advantage of the fact that Spiderman 3 was being released in Japan 4 days earlier than in the States. We decided that since I had the day off, we would go to Shimoda Mall and finally experience a Japanese movie theater. $17/ticket later, we are shown a mock-up of the theater. "Which seat?" the cashier asked. "Huh?" We had ASSIGNED seats. The movie was in English, with Japanese sub-titles. It was a little long, it didn't get good until the last 20 minutes or so.

Japanese Post Office

OK, living near a nuclear power plant, as we do, we recently received a 9000Yen check. I saw the damn thing and wondered, how the heck do we cash a Japanese check? Well, that is easy, you go to a Japanese Post Office. Now the Japanese Post Office is the epitome of Japanese efficiency. There were a total of 7 windows. The last three were for insurance/money orders/check cashing/etc. The bright, cartoonish and colorful signs and posters were muted while standing in comparison to the drab, professional and colorless Post Office furniture/people. In an American Post Office, you might have 2 people standing behind the desk, one of which MAY be taking customers. Here, ALL SEVEN windows were operating and there were several people in the background also with a job to do. The first 4 windows were for the usual postal services. The last three windows (5-7), you had to take a number, which wasn't the numbered tickets as we are used to in the states. No, this was a receipt-type printer hooked up to a pixelated board, which, when the next number was called, the Post Office Clerk would press the button, and Voila, the computerized voice would yell out the number and ask you to step up to the clerk. You would initiate the transaction, then reseat yourself until the clerk called you back to finish your transaction.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll!

I've been through a couple of earthquakes before. Usually, though, I wasn't quite sure it was an earthquake until the news or the USGS confirmed it. Last night (or this morning, actually, 0007 to be exact), Ant had just crawled into bed. We heard the windows squeak, then the bed lurched. I thought, at first, that it was Ant moving in Bed, but then the bed continued to shake for a good 30 seconds. This was the first earthquake that I've experienced that I KNEW was an earthquake, right from the start.

This is where the earthquake's epicenter occurred. It was 5.5 on the R/S, right across the bay from where we live in Misawa, Aomori prefecture.

Trying very hard to stay positive....

So, why am I so upset lately? I've always wanted to live abroad. I am living abroad. Stationed in Japan, a very cool country. One thing about visiting the States, my old command made me realize, is I miss the States...
But I am homesick. I miss Hawaii, 'cause I hate the cold and because I knew where everything was. I miss my house. I miss my doxies having tan bellies. I miss American food, hearing English wherever I go. I don't necessarily miss my old command, I don't think I would be happy being stationed there again. Too many changes.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I hate what I do. I am not doing my job. I am not a linguist! I am babysitting. I am mad that TPTB won't send linguists to Analyst school because they MAY not use their language, but have no problem sending us to a place where they KNOW we won't use our language.
Therefore, to deal with my ennui, my borderline depression, I have decided to do a few things for myself. First, I will work out everyday, without fail. Second, I will continue where I left off 6 months ago in learning Japanese. Third, I will refresh myself with Mandarin. Fourth, I will take better care of my Sailors, I will be a better Navy Chief. Fifth, and most important, I will remember that I have a hubby and a family who love me.