Pirate Ship Park

Right outside one of the side gates of the base there is this amazing park that is in the shape of a pirate ship. Allie's friend Joe invited us to his Pirate Birthday Party. What a perfect setting for this shin-dig. Unlike in Coronado, you can't count on beautiful weather, but the day turned out perfect...starting to feel like fall here.

Change of Charge

Chad's Change of Charge was on September 29th. There was a pre-reception in his office and then the ceremony began. It was very nice. Chad did a great job on his speech. After the ceremony we went to Skymasters for a reception to celebrate. I was very proud watching him on stage.

Hail and Bail at Mikes

We had a Hail and Bail to welcome Chad and I and say goodbye to the Nicholsons. We took the train to a pretty good (although not compared to SD) Mexican Restaurant for dinner and drinks. The "Cadillac Margaritas" were excellent. We have a fun bunch of guys here in the Det. They took Chad to a typical Japanese "karaoke" place where I hear they sang many, many songs. I need to stay out next time.

Ayase Town Hills Mall

Our new buddies Jennie (mom) and Riley (daughter) took us to the Ayase Town Hills Mall. We shopped, looked in the pet store, and played in the play area. Here are the girls riding the mini carousel

The had a neat ball pit that Allie loved playing in.

Sometimes the meaning is "lost in translation". We are not sure what they were trying to tell us here.

Farewell to Joey

Joey is the wife of the current OIC (Officer in Charge) of which we are replacing. Amy and I took her to brunch at the club. We had a wonderful time eating lots of yummy food. I think Amy and I made three trips to the dessert table. They had a play area set up so after the girls got done eating they went down there and played while us gals chatted. We will miss you Joey! Thanks for making this move so much easier for us. Enjoy your next orders to VA.

Amy Lupo, Joey Nicholson, and Me!

Yokohama's Chinatown

Today we went to Yokohama. They have the largest Chinatown in the Country, although only 2,500 Chinese people live in this area. We took the train there (about a 30 minute drive) to have lunch. Here is one of the gates to enter Chinatown.


We picked a restaurant to eat at. This is girls in front of some of the artwork. I had to take the server out to point to the dishes we wanted b/c the menu was only in kangi. Many of the restaurants have plastic replicas of the actual dishes on "display" out in front of the restaurant. The meal turned out to be delicious.



There was a shop that only sold Panda "stuff". Lauren got a ring and Allie got a Panda fan.

Here I am in front of one of the temples.

Kamakura

We spent Saturday afternoon in Kamakura. This is an ancient traditional Japanese city. It is famous for this "Big Buddha" (shown below). Kamakura is an hour away by train.

Before going to see the Buddha we cleansed ourselves by washing our hands. We saw some people putting the water into their mouths and drinking it, supposedly cleansing their mouths as well.

The story goes that this guy used to be enclosed in a large house, but a Tsunami washed it away. They rebuilt the house, but another Tsunami came and washed it away too. They then decided that Buddha did not want to be in a house so he was left out from then on.

Here Chad is going in to see him from the inside.


Along the street there are lots of shops. We found one that sold braided bracelets/anklets.

Next we went to check out a temple called Hase-Temple. There were the most beautiful gardens. This temple was so pretty. It was up on a hill and overlooked the ocean. I didn't realize how much I missed the ocean until I saw the view.


There were a ton of little bitty buddha babies. Not sure what the official name or meaning of these are. I need to research that. At the top of the temple we ate at a noodle restaurant that had this amazing view (see below).


Before returning home we stopped at a gelato place. We were looking for vanilla and picked a white flavor called annin daufu, which we learned later that night after I googled it that it was "almond tofu". The girls thought it was delicious.

Soccer Season Starts

Soccer just started up right after we got here. The girls have practice two days a week and games on Friday. They have practice on opposite days so that means we have soccer Mon-Friday. It actually isn't bad and gives them a chance to run and burn off some energy. Allie has made fast friends with Riley (pictured above) who is on her soccer team, in her preschool, and also in dance class with her. The team is called the "Dolphins".

Lauren's team is the "Black Dragons". She is one of the quickest runners on her team. She didn't score a goal, but she did a great job getting in there and played great defense. The best part is she really enjoyed herself.

Here Allie and team are getting a pep talk from the coach. She was really tentative at the beginning of the game and seemed nervous out on the field. She turned it up in the second half and scored two goals for her team. Just picture me jumping up and down yelling "Go Allie...Go!" as she took the ball down the field and scored. I was SO proud.

This is a friend Lauren has made, Jacob. He has amazing parents (his Dad is a helo pilot here). They invited us over today to raid the playroom for toys to bring back to the Navy Lodge. All we have are the toys that we packed for the plane ride. Kristina, his mom and I had a great time chatting and she filled me in on the ins and outs of Japan.

Tokyo Disneyland

Today is labor day and although it is an American holiday, it isn't a Japanese holiday it is their first day of school for the second semester. We have heard that Disneyland can be incredibly crowded (like most places) and lines can be super long. We were hoping to be smart and go on a not so crowded day. It turned out to be a great day to be there. There was an 80% chance of rain, but the showers held off. We took the train there and it drops you off almost at the front gate. The park itself is smaller than Disneyland in CA but has most of the same rides. It was actually very similar. One of the biggest differences was the Pooh ride which was much cooler. It is the only "trackless" ride and you seem to float above the floor. It was awesome. The food was also very different.

Here we are right after we got in the park. Disneyland Tokyo is celebrating their 25th anniversary.

This is us posing in front of Cinderella's castle. Nice stroller that we rented huh?

Chad and the girls were going by far the fastest of anyone else on the ride. I would have been sure to get sick on that one.

One of the girl's favorite rides is the Go-Coaster in Toontown.


Right after we got off the Go-Coaster the Big Bad Wolf and the Pigs were out. Allie really like them and wanted a picture with them.

The Jubilation parade was fantastic. We got great seats and I loved watching how fascinated the Japanese people are with Mickey and Minnie and all the characters. They go crazy for them.

Next time we will check out Disney Sea which is the sister park right beside Disneyland.

Costco

Can you believe they have Costco in Japan? And then would you believe that it is just like the Costcos in the US? What I am so excited about is the selection of meat, cheese, produce, etc that they offer. The commissary on base is really lacking in selection so this is going to be awesome. Especially if you ignore the fact that it took us about 1 1/2 hours to drive 14 miles to get to the Costco. No one has experienced traffic until they have experienced traffic in Japan. It is like nothing I have seen.

One "cool" thing about the shopping experience is the inclined moving sidewalks that your bring your cart up. Parking is at a premium so the Costco has a parking garage under it. You grab your shopping cart and then take it up the "escalator". The girls found that really cool.