Working, Toyko, Camp Fuji and Robot Coffee

Hi guys! Its Jonas, reporting nearly live from Japan. This week at work I got the opportunity to go to two of our remote weather stations. The first was in downtown Tokyo and I have no pictures because it was raining and cold. We got off to a late start and Namba-san warned us traffic would be bad due to construction. I wanted to go anyway. Its 53 Km and we left at 0530, we got to the site at about 0845. Interesting note, the roads here are small, so traffic is bad but really only because they are one or two lane roads. But, I got to go through the tolls on the way down and we talked alot. The traffic wasn't any worse that San Francisco so I was right at home. Our driver and lead technician is a Japanese National who works in our shop side by side with us. Namba-san is from western Japan and served in the Japanese National Self Defense Forces. He's a family man and an avid runner. He does a rucksack race around the base of Mt Fuji every year. Its like 60Km or something crazy like that. I learned to say crazy pretty early on just for him. Namba-san says Key-Chi-guy means "a kind of lite crazy." I haven't learn the word for serious crazy, but he is kichigui for running. We made it downtown where we have a weather system on top of a building. Like I said it was cold and wet so we did what we needed to do and hustled down as quick as we could. I learned alot of Japanese on the way down and back. It was a good time. Day two of this weeks remote sites was another thing entirely. We left early again, only today is beautiful! So-go-ke-i-he means it is a beautiful/good day, and it was! We got out of town and on the highway toward camp Fuji. Just like the name implies it rests at the base of Mount Fuji so we were all excited. It was a misty morning and wisps of clouds hung on, around, and between the small hills.

My coworker and I were amazed at how beautiful it was and Namba-san smiled at us taking dozens of pictures of all the hills and trees and wisps of clouds. He said, pointing out at the beautiful, striking landscape before us, "You know, all of Japan is like this?" His fatherly tone hinting we should save our cameras for what was coming up. I couldnt help but think how lucky he was to be so used to such an amazing landscape. I took some pictures of the signs and exits so I could use them to find my way when we drive this on our own.

Namba said the Kanji for exit is made up of two parts, the double trident looking Kangi means "out", and the square Kangi literally means "mouth, or opening." Its also helpful it says exit right under the Kanji, in english. Thanks Japanese DOT!
We also passed the experimental Mag rail prototype bridge. This train systems hovers over the rail using magnets so there is no friction. They are building it a section at a time and this is the test area. They have had to redesign the trains shape a few times because Namba says that when the train came out of the tunnel the sonic wave would blow out house windows in the surrounding areas. Crazy fast trains.

So we are just chatting along and then waiting around a bend in the highway stood Mt. Fuji. My coworker and I both staring oohing and ahhing like kids. We didnt see it coming.

We drove along and on the way he told us about some of his races. The one he does each year is a backpacking race around Mt. Fuji that is an overnight 16 hour race. No support teams, or tables of water. A pack, a headlamp, shoes, and the experience that Japanese special forces training gives you. One of the other Japanese guys in the shop said its over 60Km. I learned So-goy means amazing. So-goy indeed. He also told us that this amusment park has one of the fastest coasters in the whole world. And its right at the base of Fuji! I cant wait to take Morgan here.

So we were nearly there and I got to meet a few of the Japanese that we work with there. So friendly and helpful it was wonderful. As we were working the mountain produced clouds around it that began to envelope it. It was less than 40 minutes between this picture above and the ones below.

It was a beautiful day to have my job. Much better than working in the wet and cold like yesterday. Namba told us that this was the most beautiful day he could remember working here. That one guy worked here for three years before he was lucky enough to even see Mt. Fuji from Camp Fuji. We were blessed. On the way home we stopped at a large truck stop. It had a food court area with a dozen small resturants. You go to a electronic kiosk on the wall across from the shops, there were plastic models of the food in a case. The assortment was amazingly varied for a "truck stop." there was a full Starbucks inside and a huge assortment of Mt Fuji cakes and cookies and such. I had a fried pork dish topped with egg and a bowl of rice in a savory soy and onion sauce, complete with miso soup and these pickled pink radish slices. All yummy. Oh-ee-she means delicious, but I learned that young men, children, and older men (if at home) often use oo-my which is the japanese version of yummy. The food was oo-my! Then the delight of the trip was the coffee machine outside. I should have gotten a picture and I will try to shoot some video. Put in your money, select one of the 40 buttons on the front, all various versions of coffee. Then you watch the screen. The machine has a live video camera showing the internal workings. The cup drops, moves along the conveyer belt, the coffee is ground live, is brewed, then all the milk, sugars and flavorings are added live on camera as your coffee moves along. The lid is screwed on by a robotic arm and the screen goes dark. A light whirring sounds announces the opening door, presenting your fresh brewed delight. I then had Namba-san teach me how to say "I love this country." Kono-kune-ga-suki-des. And I do.
We spent the ride home sipping our robot coffee and enjoying the view.

 

We Be Chillin'

So let's just say we hit it a little hard when we first got here...we are trying to slow down a bit, realizing we don't actually have to see the whole of Japan within the first month. We have done so much already, it's hard to believe we've only been here 18 days today. As I said before, I am itching to go "bashing 'round" Tokyo, but we're gonna put that off for a bit still. Pleasure delayers.

Yesterday we hit up an awesome Japanese thrift store just a short drive (yes, we DROVE OFF BASE AND LIVED) out the gate near our house. Jonas got a gently used kimono (very cool, all black) and I actually found 2 shirts that fit me! We found a bunch of cute & cheap glasses, but our big find was a great (pretty much brand new lookin) coffee table. We are thrilled to now have a living room big enough to have a coffee table, so we had to celebrate accordingly. J says: Thrift store coffee mugs in the states are junk. All old blood drive mugs and such, but here in Japan they are in Japanese. They might still be junk but it looks cool to me. Had to get one. And got some little juice glasses with cartoon Monkey and Raccoon. Japanese lesson for the blog-Ka wa ee = Cute. "Hey look at that kawaee Monkey glass." :)

Afterward, we made our way to downtown Fussa to the 100 Yen Store! Oh, dear readers. Words can't really describe how much fun we had. It was 3 whole stories of cheap product bliss. They had quite a few items that were good quality (mixed with the usual dollar store junk), but the real treasure was the bottom floor that housed the food. A whole wall of candy as you first walk in...then isles and isles of crackers, cookies, squid; you know, the usual. It was good, good (cheap) times.

Otherwise we haven't been doing much. Just getting into somewhat of a routine w/J's work and me trying to stay busy so I don't go all soft in the head. No word yet on when our household stuff will be delivered...Lord knows that will be keeping me busy for a while whenever it gets here.

Enjoy the pics below of the random bugs that have popped up...these 2 guys were (somewhat) welcome.

Kamakura...and bugs

Hey all! It's Monday morning here and we had a pretty busy weekend. Check out Facebook for our pics of our trip to Kamakura; it was amazing! It was very relaxing taking the bus from base and not having to worry about maps, schedules, traffic, etc. We will most definitely be taking another base-sponsored tour! Very reasonably priced as well, considering the admission & all the tolls are included.

So, not to make this a gripe-fest but I have definitely figured out my #1 con to living here...big, huge, scary cockroach-looking water bugs. Ummm EWW. We have only seen them a couple of times since we moved in, but I can already tell its going to be a long 4 years of checking the drain everytime I walk into the bathroom. The lil bastards like to crawl up the drains, so we keep the drains plugged 24/7 HOWEVER they can still crawl in through the overflow thingy on the tub and in the sink. See below!

As you can see, they are very big and scary (to me) and the cat just batted it around. Not much of a bug hunter (except moths). So, thankfully Jonas stepped in and killed it for me (sorry sis but EWWW). I am definitely considering showering with my glasses on just in case of a sneak attack.

Last Thursday we went to McDonald's in Fussa near the train station! We just HAD to see how it compared to our usual McD's experience and it was actually pretty similar. I got a quarter pounder, which I swear actually tasted BETTER than it does in the states, however the bun was freakishly small...as in, the meat pretty much hung off on all sides. Odd. Jonas got the teriyaki burger (how awesome is THAT?) and the bite I had was pretty yummy. The fries were def the low point, not very salty at all and overly greasy (yes, even for McD's fries). It was fun though and we'll have to go back to try the other odd menu items such as the McPork and the baked potato pie (that looks exactly like an Apple pie, only its filled w/potato).

The latest chapter in our "7-11 Ice Cream Adventure" proved to be a bit disastrous. We always pick two items and share them, so for "my" treat I picked the cheesecake-looking-log-thing. It had a picture on the outside and it looked like a little, well cheesecake log. It was, in fact, frozen soft cheese...imagine the cheese inside the little gas station cheese & cracker packs made into ice cream and a little graham cracker tasting cracker on the bottom. We were both in agreeance that we will NOT be getting the cheese log again.

All for now, as I need to be getting ready for my Japanese Culture & Customs class (offered for free on base). Hope you are all having a splendid weekend...and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the Moms reading this!

Enjoy the pics below: the 1st was a little gem I found in one of our local travel guides, the 2nd is my snack from the other day (2 types of Japanese rice crackers, they look savory but turned out to be slightly sweet and very yummy), and the 3rd is a pic of the items that I now carry with me everywhere! The chop sticks are just because I thought they were adorable and I enjoy the smaller size (they are kids' of course). The towel is for my hands because it is very rare to find a public restroom that has paper towels for drying off hands...they do this so as to eliminate the waste from the paper, which is a pretty tree-huggingly awesome idea. And the fan is because I am one hot-blooded chica and it just looks cool. :)

PS. We walked around Kamakura singing "Karma Chameleon" all day . Oh and pretty much every time I walk around anywhere in Japan I am at least humming "Japanese Boy." Thank you, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, for introducing me to that gem of an 80's song.

Random Ramblings & House Pics!

I am a little weirded out by how normal I feel here (aside from the couple of days of feeling BLEH from travel or jet lag or whatever the crap it was)...we walk down the street in Fussa and it just feels normal. I know we have the base and there are many concessions here that are like home, but there are also tons of things that are completely different. Perhaps I am just well-suited to international living? Seems at odds with my high level of patriotism. However, it could be argued that what J does is about as patriotic as it gets...still I hope no one thinks less of me or calls me a commie because I love living here so much (hehe...that's a joke, I think). Anyway, I am feeling much better after resting for a couple days (or trying to). We are still getting settled into our house, so lots to do there as far as re-buying things we had to leave behind (trashcan, broom, mop, etc). The pets are absolutely loving the new place, which is so cute. Pepe ran around all hyper when we first brought him in, he was acting like a puppy! We are using the loaner furniture because our shipment still isn't here...but it is much better than living out of a hotel and them living in cages! Hopefully our stuff will be here soon.

Forgot to tell everyone about visiting Japanese Wal Mart the other day! It's called Seiyu, and it actually is owned by Wal Mart (of course...what isn't?) We just CANNOT escape Wal Mart, apparently. Anyway, it's a 5 story shopping experience that was actually quite awesome...or at least will be when we go back once we aren't completely exhausted. The top floor is what the kids are gonna go nuts about because it's just food and video games. Like, imagine an entire row of slot machines in Vegas winning the jackpot at the same time...that is probably half the noise of this area. So, like I said, the kids can have at it cause I'll be downstairs checking out awesome Engrish on items that I recognize from home. More on this to come, as I have recently sent a late birthday present to my sis back home and I don't want to ruin any items that she hasn't seen yet. Oh, and while there are food bargains to be had, the fresh fruit is NOT one of them so far as we can tell...we bought an apple and paid I think $1.77. Apparently it costs a ton to eat well in any country. On the plus side it was a damn good apple (as it well should have been).

I am still in awe of the amout of English signs there are in this country. When is the last time YOU saw a sign in the US written in English AND Japanese?! It is quite a testament to what is means to speak English. We are fortunate as foreigners that the Japanese are more accomodating in that respect, otherwise we would be so lost. Luckily for me J is very "boy-scoutish" and is awesome with direction, but if I ever venture out on my own, I am VERY glad I will have English signs to help me!

One more thing...last night we went back to our new favorite Chinese place for dinner and when the waiter brought our food I said "ohayo gozaimasu" instead of "domo arigato"....which means I said "Good Morning" instead of "Thank you." Juuuuuust when I think I'm getting the hang of it. **slaps hand to forehead** Oh well, the food was OISHII (delicious) and so was the getting CRUNKY on our way home (see below). We have a tradition (can doing something 3 times make it technically a tradition? discuss!) of getting new kinds of ice cream at the 7-11 before heading back to base. So far my fav has been this little latte flavored icee thing...like a frapuccino! Amazing!! And the portions in this country are fabulous, I hardly have to feel guilty about something that is literally like 4 sips.

Gotta get going and get ready to take the pets to the vet (poor lil babies)...gotta check up on their quarantine status. Honestly I have no idea why we have to take them, but since they said we gotta then I guess we do. **spoiler alert** Saturday we are heading to the Great Kamakura Budda Shrine on our first ITT tour (the touring company on base)! I hope it doesn't rain!! More to come soon. :)

PS. Sorry if these pics are repeats of ones we put on FB. When things are settled, I plan on taking "blog-only" pics, but for now you can just scroll past them. :)

Week 1

If you are reading this, you know who we are and you know why we're in Japan. We want to get a small disclaimer out of the way...we want this blog to be about our adventures, not necessarily about what we are "doing" here. You should all understand what we mean. For security reasons, we will not discuss details of J's mission on this forum...if you want to know about any of that stuff, email us directly and we'll be happy to share it in a more private manner. We also ask that if you comment (and please do!!) that it not be at all related to J's career. Thank you!!

Ok, now for the fun stuff!

Day 1
We arrived on May 2nd at about 2pm...it was rainy, so my coveted "plane views" were very obscured and I was a tad bummed about that, but it is the tail end of the rainy season here. The pilot could have told us that because I was looking backward (because of our seats) pretty much the entire descent, straining my neck trying to get my first glimpse of the new landscape. We were both completely exhausted, J having slept about 2 hours total during the 10 hour flight, myself having slept about 30 minutes. I felt like a little kid, unable to sleep the night before a field trip...which is, incidently, much easier to recover from when you are actually a little kid. We went through the customs area and I received the very first stamp on my passport! We met all of J's co-workers in the terminal area and they were kind enough to drive us around the base all afternoon so we could get our pets settled in at the boarding place and also get housing rolling ASAP. It was an extremely long day, but we were offered a house within minutes of arriving at the Housing office...which, after talking to many people, is a true miracle and we are SO blessed. Many thanks for everyone's prayers! We got settled into the hotel and I believe I passed out at about 530pm and J just about an hour later.

Day 2
We arrived in time for Day 2 of a newcomer's orientation, so we attended this pretty much all day. We learned a bit about what the base has to offer; the base seems super active and we have tons of classes (fitness and non) to choose from to stay busy and have fun. We also received the driving instruction for our base driver's license, which seemed incredibly overwhelming at first but hasn't been too hard to adjust to. The biggest thing to remember after getting used to "thinking left" is that in Japan there are a TON of pedestrians to watch out for. So, just being alert is half the battle.

*Culture Note*: We learned that one of the basic concepts of Japanese society is to maintain a harmonious society by respecting how others would feel. Quite an amazing concept if you really stop and think about it. It's what we as Americans are taught as children...to "do unto others," however it's rarely the mindset we have as adults. For instance, a Japanese person will postpone what he or she is doing in order to help someone who is asking for it. We have experienced this already! We were on our way to the pet boarding facility and we got completely turned around. We saw a Japanese man crossing the street right near the bus stop, so we asked if he spoke English. He replied "chotto matte kudasai" which J knew meant "just a minute please" and he literally RAN back toward his building to get a better English-speaking person to help us out. Before that, when J was doing some paperwork in his building, it was very stuffy and I was fanning myself with some of his random papers...the next thing I knew, the Japanese gentleman that was helping us was pulling out his personal fan and he began to fan me. In America, I don't think a random stranger would fan you unless you were paying him. And the only payment this man received was my humble and sincere thanks.

Day 3-4
These days were full of running errands around base. Pretty boring, but necessary. The fun stuff was venturing out just a tiny bit off base and enjoying our first meal in Japan! We had heard rave reviews about a Chinese restaurant very close by and we had an amazing meal. J ordered garlic pork and I got the sweet & sour chicken (yes, I know but I wanted to know if it was the same as in the states)...and honestly, it was AWESOME. The breading on the chicken was very light and extremely crispy. It made us both incredibly excited for the rest of our culinary adventure! The waiter spoke English well and the menu had English also (no pictures) so no real mishaps at all. J enjoyed his tiny glass bottle Coke (no diet! gasp!!)...which was 300Yen or $3.74!

*Culture Note*: We were told that the Japanese do not show any form of PDA, so this was a challenge for us to not hold hands while off-base. We saw a couple of Americans totally disregarding this, however I refuse to be "those people." If they took the time to ASK US not to do this, I am going to try my best to respect the country that is hosting us, even if it is annoying to me and to us as a couple. So far, the Japanese people we have observed both close to base and in Ome do not even touch each other. During the orientation on day 2, the Japanese woman that was teaching us told us that she had never seen her parents kiss in her entire life. Just to give you an idea.  

Day 5
We were told about the Azalea Festival in Ome, a city only a short train-ride away from us so we decided that sounded like fun. I am chomping at the bit to get to Tokyo, but we decided we do have time to get there and we should perhaps start slow. Before that, we had to finalize the deal on our car & pay for the insurance...so we now own a 97 Toyota Estima van! It is pretty cute & in great shape, so we are thrilled. We are only going to be driving it on base for now because driving IN Japan looks tricky for our level of experience. We had to pay for what amounts to liability insurance in the states, for the whole year for both of us it was about 33,000Yen or $411. We also have to save up for what is known as Japanese Compulsary Insurance, which is usually paid every 2 years and the van's is due Jan 2013. We are told it should be about $400. The only other thing to worry about will be the Road Tax that we'll have to pay next April. The Japanese roadways are all privately owned, therefore the "toll" you pay is to that private owner. This sounds kind of insane, however the flip side is that the roads are very well maintained; almost all Americans can attest to how awesome that would be. The road tax is based on the size of your vehicle, so for us it should be about $200.

Enough boring car stuff! ;) We headed out to the Fussa Station to catch the train at around 2pm. We had some fun at the ticket machine, trying to figure out how to get the displays in English. We fumbled a bit actually going through the ticket gates because we hadn't read all the way through our little Japanese Customs & Courtesies guide we were given on day 2. We tried about 4 times to go through and then the oldest looking Japanese gentleman perhaps in the world (or at least all of Japan) simply walked over, took my ticket and put it in the correct way. He never smiled, never made eye contact, and didn't respond when I said thank you in Japanese. Part of that Japanese duty to help others I guess (lucky for us). As you can guess, we laughed our butts off at being dumb Americans. The train was pretty much like a very clean version of the Metro in San Fran, except of course the peppering of AWESOME Japanese advertising. And, for you claustrophobic readers (like myself), it was not crowded at all because it wasn't rush hour...so I was greatly relieved. Once we arrived in Ome, we got some further directions from an English-speaking Japanese woman who was handing out flyers for the Azalea Festival. We walked about 4 miles from the station to the Temple, but it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed soaking in the culture along the way. The temple was gorgeous (see pics below) and we took a zillion pictures. As I'm sure we will do countless times in the months ahead.

On our way home we stopped and had sushi at the place that said "sushi bar" on the map...I have no idea it's name, but sushi bar is apt. There was seating for probably 12 people around the bar, so it was very tiny. The waitress spoke English well and gave us a picture menu. We ordered scallops, Inari (bean curd & rice that was yummmmo), tekkamaki (tuna), yellowtail (it was like BUTTAH), fatty tuna (to.die.for.) and something else I cannot recall because it's all a blur of fabulousity. If you are a sushi fan, it is everything you'd imagine it being...fresh, vibrant, and amazing. If you are not a sushi fan, you are missing out. And if you are not eating sushi in Japan then you are definitely missing out. ;) Oh, and WAY freaking cheaper than in the states...our whole meal cost us about $14!

*Culture Note*: This was the most uncomfortable experience I have had so far in this country. There were 7 other Japanese speakers in the bar, and 2 people making sushi/serving...and NO KIDDING, they were almost constantly ALL talking at once. It was insane. They were smiling, laughing, joking (I guess?!), etc but it was non-stop noise and it was a bit overwhelming for me. I don't know if it was my inability to stop wondering if they were talking about us or if it was just sensory overload...but at one point I actually felt nauseated. I think also it could have been that we had walked about 10 miles and literally had not sat down in hours. But I will still continue to push my comfort zone because I don't want to miss one minute here.

Well, by now you are thoroughly bored and probably need to get on with your day (as do I). We just want to use this blog as a way to share our thoughts and experiences while we're here. I hope it can help us stay connected with everyone. We are blessed to have so many awesome people who miss us (and we miss you guys already!!) and want us to stay in touch, so we thought this would be an easy way to do it. J and I will be switching off the writing, so stay tuned. Sayonara for now!