Late Thanksgiving... FALL!

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

All the Fall leaves and colors here have been very pretty. The humidity has lightened which means that Mt. Fugi-san is visible and breathtaking. I worked on Thanksgiving, which I actually preferred :).  It was a day filled with food (and some patients) at the Yokota Urgent Care, and among other things, I made a pecan pie… which I will totally be making again.

Trips to the Japanese grocery store require more than just a mental meal plan and a shopping list… Now, I always have to make sure I have enough yen (money) because not everywhere will accept US debit cards; I mentally run through my short list of Japanese phrases as a refresher so that I (hopefully) do not mess up and offend anyone later; and get myself ready for a few hours away from home. It is a 15-minute walk to the Seiyu… and a bit further for any of the farmers markets. I do go with a brief list of what I want while I am there but I do like to roam down the aisles and see what I see. I have found some very interesting things there. Like a carton of what looked like little blue speckled robin’s eggs. Did you know that there is no equivalent to Bisquik? Also, it is not only college students that like the quick cups of ramen. Here they are actually good, and not as sodium filled and bad for you. Here there are entire isles filled of all different flavors of them. Flavors that I would have never even thought of (smoked salmon)… and some I can’t even read. I challenge myself to always get one new thing to try. Sometimes it works out, others, not so much :)

Things I have tried:

I call these Yummy Triangles… it is sticky rice wrapped in seaweed and in the middle is some sort of pickled fish product. There are all different kinds. This one has roe in it (which is fish eggs) but I have had some with a bit of pickled fish meat in them as well. I think they are delicious and they are one of my favorite treats. The seaweed and rice combo here tastes like popcorn. It doesn’t have the stale fishy taste that I remember of packaged seaweed… This is fresh and therefore better.

I finally found a flavored milk tea! It was a caramel one it looked like (and tasted like).  It was good for a treat, but honestly, you just cannot beat the simple pleasure of a regular milk tea! Haha

I tried this dough dumpling thing that had meat of some sort inside. I had seen some people eating them and they looked happy, so I thought I would try one… seemed legit. The concept of it reminded me of a Runza… the taste, not so much. There was meat in it… but I couldn’t quit thinking that I was eating sheep brain or something really horrific, dark, and gritty with a crunch to it and vertebrae… I don’t know… I just wont be having another… It didn’t make me as happy as those happy people were eating them.

A few posts back I talked about the Chu-Hi’s… if you did not read that post… they are like wine coolers (slightly alcoholic and delicious) in all different flavors… and now introducing the seasonal apple chu-hi! It was like apple sparkling cider, quite tasty.

For those of you wondering, we do have a grocery store (or commissary) here on base. They do have a decent selection, and most of what you would find at your local grocery, but since the produce must come from the US, it is not the freshest… and it is pricier/not always stocked... but they try their best. That being said, majority of the time, I do go off base for produce.  My biggest shock (although in hindsight I sound like an idiot for being shocked) is that there are not potatoes like we have in the states! Where are the russet potatoes like I know and what the heck is that long purple thing you are calling a sweet potato?? I had a really fun time with all the mushrooms that were available, and I really came to appreciate how neatly packaged everything was. Take for example these carrots. Look how amazing these carrots look! As well they should, keeping in mind that they were $2.00… but note that they are already cleaned and everything. By the way, these are Japanese carrots.

Another perk of going to the Seiyu for groceries is the fresh seafood selection. On this particular trip, I decided to try some fresh and delicious octopus. Definitely something we would not get back in Nebraska! (At least not for $3.00)

Earlier I was talking about all the different/more elaborate cup-o-ramen’s that they have here and mentioning that it was ‘not just college kids’ that eat them. I have noticed since it is such a fast paced society, and since space is so limited (especially in kitchens) people, even established couples, will be in the checkout with quite a few of them in their basket. It is not uncommon to go out to eat frequently and/or get pre-cooked meals (like they have for sale at Seiyu). I saw some soups that I wanted to try… salmon and something (it said so on the tag at the store but I don’t remember and can’t read it now :) ), pumpkin, and shrimp and

something. I haven’t tried them yet… but I have figured out the instructions… I figure add the packet to 150 mL of hot water and stir. You’d be surprised how much you can figure out without being able to read the instructions.

Actually, some things are really easy to figure out even without speaking the same language. Especially when there is common training and a common goal.  I saw a great example of this while participating in a joint nation exercise. For our part of the scenario, there was a practice patient coming in on a helicopter and we needed to take the patient, a doctor, and nurse from the flight line to our hospital. When it came time to physically transfer the “patient” over, the helicopter crew brought over the “patient”, we dropped down our stretcher, everyone made eye contact then looked at the head person (who is literally at the head of the patient) who did a head nod and we moved over the patient. So in any language, if a group has similar training and a similar goal, working together is fairly simple. The exercise generated a lot of attention from the Japanese government, media, and our AF public relations as well. It was a whole morning of different aspects of the exercise, the part that we had to play was small, but was the part that the AF PR caught. Here is the address for the AFNews Pacific Report: <http://afnpacific.net/Home/ArticleDisplay(DD).aspx?aid=2699>

My segment is between 1:40 – 3:23.

There is always something going on around base exercise wise. I was walking home one day and saw some paratroopers doing some practice jumps. So I took a picture. Not sometime you see every day :)

So yes, I do work, but I do still get out. Here are some pictures of a trip back down to Harajuku/Shinjuku area. The food dish was fish and chips from the food cart place that I had gone to a few months before (a few posts before too) and it was delicious! If you can, zoom in on the picture of all the people and note that up on the hill ½ a mile up… it is still ALL PEOPLE! Just a crazy sea of people.

Art is Hard

Oh. My. Gosh. Art Festa!

Whitney and I went to Tokyo Big Sight; which is the largest convention center in Japan to the biannual International Art festival that they put on. It was sheer madness, and we had a blast. They had just about every art media that I could think of and then some that I did not think of. We saw all sorts of characters as well.

They had live painting, live music (indoor and outdoor stages), live theatre (indoor and outdoor stages), food trucks/stands, and 3,000 spread over 2 stories. The booths were free-style exhibitions, so the artists were either presenting and/or selling. Some media examples include painting, illustration, photography, craftwork, flower/plant arrangement, dolls/figurines, jewelry, clothing, accessories, etc.

I did get a pretty neat view of Tokyo Bay on my way there, and I was too slow with the camera on the way back, but on the way home, there were what looked like about 20 colorfully lit gondolas floating in the water. I still really like it here, so that’s good :). The big upside-down pyramids are what Tokyo Big Sight is known for, and up close, it was quite impressive.

Japanese people are the most courteous people you will ever meet. So, I don’t know why I was surprised to see a map for the bathroom, but it made me laugh. Note it is even complete with a ‘You are here’ marker.

I did not get pictures of everything I saw since it is people’s art and they are making their living selling it, not having people take pictures of it. Some artists/vendors did not mind, and even encouraged it though. So, in some of these pictures I will try to explain… The body suit one: They were having people draw on them… That’s all the explaining I can do…

Throughout the day, on the bottom level, they had a main stage that they rotated acts though. They had interpretive dance (which was our favorite… maybe because we had beer at that point though), these drummers, belly dancers, samurai fighters, and various other acts, but those were the only ones we caught snippets of.

Once again, they sure do love cats. I cannot tell you how many cat

things I saw. Two whole booths of cat butts too! Haha. The picture of the cat I saw from clear across the room. Took the picture with the zoom on the camera. It was like Cat-zilla peeking over 5 rows of booths. Mrow!

Around lunchtime, one artist was sitting by her booth cutting an intricate design in an apple with a scalpel. Not much of a story behind that one, but she let me take a picture because I thought it was cool. Arigato gozaimasu!

We spent 7 hrs and still didn’t see everything but we decided it was just the right amount of time. It is a lot to take in and a LOT of people to be around.

Also, I know some of the pictures are small... Not sure if you guys have figured this trick out or not, but if you click on the picture, it should pop-up full size.

Happy Halloween!

I had a pretty chill Halloween because I had to work… I did wear my BCG’s to work though.

The weekend before my friend Jacqueline and I dressed up and went out for a bit. She got all zombie’d up and I was a zombie killer. The leaves are starting to turn here and it is looking pretty but it really only feels like early September for Nebraska. Anyway, Happy Halloween!!!

Animals

27 Oct 2013

Lions, Tigers, Bears… Lemurs, Tapirs, and Beetles… Oh my!

I went to the Tama Zoo with Tyler and Whitney. We took the train to Tachikawa station then took the lightrail to the zoo. I was absolutely amazed by how active the animals were.

Oh, and I had another awkward moment!

For the train, we use a Suica card. When my friend left, she gave me her Suica card because there was some money left on it. When I got on the train, I used her card… when I got off at the other station, I accidently grabbed mine and it wouldn’t let me through the gate at the other side. I knew immediately the issue, but security had already pegged me, so I had to go through and try to explain what happened any why I had two Suica cards. After about two minutes of pointing, slow hand gestures, head nods, and broken Japanese/station names, we got things figured out. Phew!

Back to the zoo…

They had a large bird area, a big bug display where I saw some bugs I never knew even existed. For example, an Orchid Mantis. A Praying Mantis that looks exactly like the bloom of an orchid. It was actually a very neat display. There was also a butterfly house. I couldn’t find the picture to upload it to the blog here but I will get it to Dropbox later, but there was a small tree with yellow chrysalises on it and it looked like Christmas ornaments. It was really pretty.

There were different continent areas in the zoo with different exhibits. It was interesting to see the size difference between the Asian elephants and the African elephants. Many of the exhibits had indoor and outdoor aspects to them so that the animals could hang out either place.

There really were some animals that I have never seen before, and even of the animals that I had seen before, I got closer than I had ever been, and I have to emphasize again that I have never seen animals so active in a zoo ever before. Some of the videos I got will definitely show you that.

For the lion tour, I think they put meat on the side of the bus because almost every bus that came by, a female lion would run over and start licking the windows. With the cheetah, it was right by feeding time… that may explain most of that activity… The snow leopards were hilarious to watch. They must have been siblings or at least grown up together. They would be on two different sides of the enclosure, mean-mugging the heck out of each other (staring each other down), and then run/pounce. It was like watching two oversized house cats playing. It was almost more fun to watch the Japanese people react to them :)

At one point we felt like an exhibit. It was quite comical… There was a little Japanese kiddo in a stroller who must have been two or so heading in the opposite direction. He pointed, went “Ooooooo” and started waving. We may have been the first white people he’s ever seen! Haha.

My favorite part of the zoo was the red panda. We didn’t make it to the actual pandas… the zoo was closing. We spent all day there but didn’t quite make it all the way around. Missed Australia and all of Asia. Still, it is a very impressive zoo.

Back in Fussa later that night, we went to the Truck Stop for dinner. Us Americans on base affectionately refer to it as the Truck Stop because we have no idea what the actual name of it is, and there are usually a lot of trucks parked outside of it. I had crab fried rice and dumplings. It was delicious.

Also, I must say, these pictures were an absolute pain to place... This is not a user friendly template at all... so what you see is what you get. :p