Joyful Honda!

14 OCT 2013

I have to take a moment to explain the wonders of Joyful Honda. This Japanese superstore is like combining a Michaels, Office Max, Home Depot, Pet Smart, Costco, Barnes and Noble, and a grocery store. Also with a full florist shop of flowers I have never seen, and a huge food court.

Whitney and I went to look for a bike for me and also just to check everything out. We ended up spending about four hours there. In Japan, they love cats. Looooove cats. However, there is also a market for very small dogs. As far as puppies go, the smaller the better, and the smaller they get, the more expensive they get. You would think with so much stuff in a store, they would only have a few animals for sale. Not the case. They had dogs, cats, fish, snakes, lizards, BEETLES, all sorts of birds, chickens/roosters, mice/rats, rabbits, ferrets, etc. all for sale.

They really just had everything you would ever imagine there. In the grocery section, they had (as expected) all sorts of foods that are completely foreign to American grocery stores. Sushi is a third if not a fourth of the price it is in the states, and 80x more available. The fruit is more expensive, especially certain fruits due to the desired perfection. We found a cantaloupe that was about $30.00. This particular cantaloupe is known for its perfect size and symmetry. Also, note how all the stems are cut just so. We also saw purple grapes that were the size of a grown man’s big toe.

One alcoholic beverage that is widely enjoyed here is Chu-hi. It is really like a wine cooler, but it comes in a lot of different flavors that were all available at Joyful Honda. I got grapefruit; I heard it was one of the best. I hear Chu-hi’s also have seasonal flavors that come out and are a real treat. If I try them, I’ll keep you all informed.

I ended up getting a bike, and if you were ever wondering, a bike will actually fit in the back of a Honda Accord without taking off a wheel! I was just looking for a bike, but the price was right, and Whitney was kind enough to oblige my irrational personal determination to fit a city bike in a Honda. :) (Also because we couldn’t figure out how to ask to take the front wheel off…) We had fun. The picture of the bike is in my room because we had a typhoon… It turned at the last minute and we really only got rain and 40 MPH winds so it was not too bad. I was amazed at how many bikes were sold in the time that we were looking at bikes. In the 20 minutes that we were looking at bikes, three were sold. Then we walked around awhile and came back and two more people were in line at the counter with tickets to buy bikes. Needless to say, bikes are big for transportation here. I almost bought a foldable bike, but it really wasn’t as compact as you would think, so I went with this beautiful red city bike. I was also going to get a bike with a belt instead of a chain, but there was only one left in the store… and it was green and a lot more expensive… so once again, I went with this beautiful red city bike.

The difference between the belt and the chain: I have started seeing a thick rubber belt instead of a chain on bikes, and when I first got to Yokota, I rented a bike from outdoor recreation that had a belt. It fits the Japanese culture in the fact that it is a lot quieter and cleaner. Instead of oil, it just needs some water to stay lubricated (and as much as it rains here, that shouldn’t be a problem). The belts are fairly new and I am sure they will be showing up more readily in the next few years. I like them though.

To address why people ride bikes vs. cars: To get your license here, to even go to driving class, it costs $3,000 and takes over a month of classes. Once you obtain your license, you are on probation for 6 months, and have a ‘new driver’ sticker for the first year. Drivers are considered experts at driving, which is considered a big deal. Yes, the roadways are very small, and cars cut close to each other. There is definitely an understanding that you mess up while driving; someone could die, so it is not taken lightly.

Interestingly enough, we learned why the streets are so narrow. Forgive the rough re-telling… During WWII, it was noticed that tanks for obvious reasons could only go through certain pathways. After WWII when they were rebuilding, the Japanese decided to keep the roadways narrow so that if there was ever a future attack, there would be less areas that tanks, large vehicles, and mass troops could go. As the population/civilization expanded, so did the narrow roadways.

And that, my friends, is your random history for the day.

Enjoy.

Finally in Japan

2 October 2013

When I arrived in Japan, I was very sleepy but we followed the sun around the Earth as we flew, so I hadn’t seen any darkness to trigger my brain to sleep, and my new time was only 11 AM. So, after getting my things dropped off into my new dorm on the second floor, my sponsor helped me go get a phone. The company that is prevalent here is called Softbank. Keep in mind that when all the contract info and stipulations were being explained I was so very tired… I thought woman was explaining to me that I can text and call anyone else from South Bank for free, so in confusion, I asked her, “Where is South Bank?” She looked at me probably just as confused as I looked, said, “No, Softbank. This is Softbank. You’re really tired, huh?” and then gave me a free towel!

So, the best way to contact me if you have a smartphone with apps and would like to text would be to get an app called Viber. My viber number is 818044426311. Or, Skype has messenger as well, I just like that I can send pictures through Viber, but really, either one works. I do not Skype video chat a lot because I do not have internet and am just going off of mobile internet. It is called unlimited but I get 7MB of data usage a month and then it just slows down a lot. My Skype name is e.addison. I check my email everyday and although I have been staying quite busy, I am usually good about emailing back. As always, my email is e.addison89@gmail.com. Or mail is always welcome too! Address below…

What a block of the mailboxes look like.

TLDR;

Viber – 818044426311

Skype – e.addison

Email – e.addison89@gmail.com

Mailing Address –

Elly Addison

PSC 78 Box 4236

APO, AP 96326

The dorms here aren’t too bad, smaller quarters and a shared kitchen, but the walls are made of cinderblocks so there is really no noise that gets through. I can hear the person above me running around, but nothing on either side. There are vending machines all over this country (or at least the places I have visited) and randomly placed on sidewalks. Something really cool about them is that they dispense cold and hot drinks. Cold is blue tags, hot is red tags. Some things I see from this vending machine picture that I have tried are Aquarius; which is like grapefruit vitamin water. It is slightly flavored, and filled with electrolytes. Pop tastes different over here. It is less carbonated and made with real sugar so it isn’t hard on your teeth, but can be more syrupy if that makes any sense. Anyway, I tried a mini grape Fanta one time and it blew my mind. They also have a melon Fanta (not pictured) and work people like it but I thought it was too sweet. All the Georgia coffees are great. I mean, come on… coffee is great in general. When I still didn’t have my coffee pot, I bought a case of these from the Commissary and they saved my life. My other favorite is Royal Milk Tea. It is the one on the bottom row in the blue container. It is an acquired taste and I didn’t like it at first but now it makes me really happy and is a treat. I hear that seasonally, they will have Chocolate and Chocolate Banana Royal Milk Tea… I can’t wait to try that.

Once again, I got busy and didn’t write right away… so I have been here for a month and have gone to quite a few restaurants and so on. But here is a picture of the first place I went. It is Yakiniku which is the Japanese take on Korean BBQ.  As you can see, there is a grill right in the middle of the table that you cook your own meat on. No way that would be in the states… it was great! I got here at a good time because there was one girl in my duty section who was just leaving so as she was outprocessing, I was inprocessing. We had the same schedule so she gave me rides to work and showed me some great places to eat. Another place that I went was a ramen shop that we ordered from a machine that gave us a ticket that when we were seated was taken. Overall, on menus, politely pointing to what you want when prompted works really well.

5 Oct 2013

A co-worker and his wife (Tyler and Whitney) have been really great about taking me out and about. They took and introduced me to the train system and we headed towards the bigger city. First, we went to Tachikawa. That is the big train station that connects two lines that I travel and at my newcomers class, they taught us just to remember ‘milkshake, French fries’. Why you ask? Because the Kanji (Japanese writing) for Tachikawa looks like a milkshake and French fries. This train station has a lot of food, shops, and a mini grocery store in it. What it seemed like to me was walking off of the train, up the stairs, there were some shops like in an airport, then out into the busy center of a mall, then passing through the Dillards counters but they were all filled with food. Something like that… Anyway, after walking around there for awhile, we went back on the train and headed closer to Tokyo.

Next stop was Shinjuku. We walked down Takeshita Street which is just full of little shops and crepe carts. They have an odd fascination with crepes I have noticed. There was a shop completely dedicated to Hello Kitty, and a candy shop that the girls behind the counter were dressed as candy stripers. It was a very busy street to say the least. The next street we were walking down, we saw some Lolitas. The look of a Lolita is to dress in lacy Victorian-ish style dresses. A cross-culture reference would be Steampunk for Americans. I have a picture of a street filled with people and I just wanted to point out that this is an active two-way road. Whenever a car came through, it would just slowly move along and people would move out of the way. We found a shop that was all chopsticks and it reminded Whitney (who I was with) of the wand shop from Harry Potter. Just a shop filled with chopsticks. People coming to find just the right chopsticks… you get it… There was even a man making chopsticks outside. Also while wandering the streets, in the middle of the busy city, we found a random temple. Across the street from that, was a circle of food (and drink) trucks and a few merchandise vendors. It was the first time that I was reminded of the states. It reminded me of back in Seattle when we went to the farmers market. It was a great find, and they had some great homemade white sangria.

After we found our way back to the train station the sun was already starting to set, as we set of towards Shibuya. Right outside of Shibuya station is a statue of a dog. It is there in memorial of a dog who would come and meet its owner at the train station every day after he was done with work. One day, its owner died at work and never came home. So the dog stayed there (or came back everyday) for years until it died.

Then, a little farther up the sidewalk from that statue is the famous Shibuya Crossing. We walked around for quite awhile. Checked out an Irish Pub and found out that they do some weird stuff to beer here. Yes, they put tomato juice in beer to make a red beer (which was not the red ale Tyler thought he was ordering –oops) but they also put carrot juice in beer and straight up sugar! Quite odd. On our way back to the train station, we saw some girls painting on the side of a building. It reminded me of the Big Picture project; which reminded me of Joe, so I took a picture of it.

Back in Fussa (where base is) we stopped at Seiyo and Mister Donut. Seiyo is a 4 story department store with a grocery store in the bottom, and Mister Donut is… well, donuts. It actually has a pretty cool back story though… and great donuts :).

Two brother-in-laws broke a partnership and started their own donut shops. One started Mister Donut, and the other started Duncan Donuts. Mister Donut started in Boston in the 1950’s. Long story short… franchised/sold to Japan in late 1980’s and is now the largest donut chain in Japan.

Well, that about sums up my first trip into Tachikawa and Tokyo (Shinjuku and Shibuya).

Also, for those of you who have Dropbox (and those of you who would like to get Dropbox), I got a great video walking across Shibuya crossing that I’ll share :) Check it out!

Seattle

September 27-October 1 2013

Port call time!!! I flew from Seattle straight into Yokota AB, Japan. I had never been to Washington before, and to mark another state off the map, my Mom mentioned we should spend a few days in Seattle before it was time to leave the states. I must say; I am very fortunate to have parents that are able and willing to spend a long weekend in Seattle with me.

We went to a farmer’s market, Pike Place Market, walked around the local area, had some great meals at some wonderful neighborhood eateries, and found a weekend market. Thanks to their public transit, we were able to make it to many different parts of Seattle and really explore quite a bit of what it had to offer. I really liked Seattle and could definitely see myself going back there.

On October 1^st, at 2 AM, I said good-bye to my parents, and headed to the airport. It was a civilian plane with military (active duty and retirees) on board. Then check-in process lasted about an hour and a half, and then I went to the terminal to hang out for a few hours until the flight. The government shut down started that morning, and there was about 2 hrs where we thought the flight was delayed 8 hrs… and I was wondering if it was due to the shutdown… turns out it wasn’t… but had me going for awhile! Ten hours or so on a plane was broken up by postcards and notes from my friends and family. Thank you all!!

Also, I would like to take a moment to mention Dropbox. Dropbox is a free file sharing service that will allow me to organize and share my photos and videos with whoever wants to see the full collection. I will be posting quite a few of the pictures, but if anyone would like to see all the pictures and any video I took, they can email me and I will send them a link to my Dropbox. One thing about Dropbox is that one only gets so much free share space. The more people I refer, the more space I get. So, if you email me, I can send you a referral request and you can sign up for Dropbox and I will get more space to share more photos later on. It’s all free and you would have to sign up to view my photos and videos anyway (basically, it’s a necessary step).  Any other questions, just email and I will try to answer, or email my mom and she can probably answer as well. My email is e.addison89@gmail.com.

OmaHome

While back in Nebraska, I was able to catch up with lots of family and friends. It seems like there is just never enough time to get everything done though. I would like to congratulate Mandy and Chad Korte on their union. They had a beautiful wedding and a fun reception.   

Another couple in need of congratulating would be Erin and Shawn Iske. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the wedding, but I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with Erin while Shawn was recovering.

I want to thank everyone who was able to come out to my going away shindig, and I would like to thank my Mom and Dad for hosting (and catering) the gathering. I would also like to thank my Uncle Mike for providing the lawn game.  Lots of fun was had by all :)

Colorado

My view of the mountains when I looked West

View from work of Denver

Buckley AFB is in Aurora, CO. Aurora does not have much to offer, but it is only 20 minutes 


away from downtown Denver, 
and base was 15-20 mins away from where Joe lives! It was great to have my brother nearby and was nice to get away from the Aurora scene every once in awhile. On my first weekend in Colorado, I joined Joe and his friends and we headed up to Leadville/Buenavista in the mountains to go camping and hike a 14’er (mountain over 14,000 ft in elevation). It was great fun but dang, was that quite the change from Keesler (at sea level). Joe hangs out with a good group of people that are very fun to be around. Another time I hung out with that group, we went rock climbing in Golden. It was a blast and I would gladly go again. Joe and his friends have been going for I believe 3 yrs now and are quite skilled.


 Many nights were spent hanging out on the stoop of the Meatyard (Joe’s house) with friends and Joe’s roommates and Ella the Great Dane. Cooking late night gourmet meals and listening to the record player. Ah, good times. Roo!

For Easter, our parents came to visit! It was a lovely sunny weekend filled with fun and adventure. We travelled to Fort Collins to check out some local brews, drove around Denver to see the sights and also to see a show that Joe had some pieces in, and went up to Red Rocks Amphitheatre. I was able to get a family room at lodging on base, so we were able to cook a few meals there (and wonderful breakfasts thanks to Dad). 

 

Being at Buckley did provide me with some once in a lifetime opportunities as well. I got to meet the President! He flies through Buckley quite a bit (especially in 2012 with it being an election year – CO being a swing state – and legalization being a hot issue to cover). In April 2013, on one of his trips to make a speech in Denver, I got to meet him and shake his hand. I didn’t think I was going to, but he is tall enough to see the short people in the back and have them come up to the front. Yay!

For those of you who want to get your political pants on, may I just say… Regardless of your views or political standing, meeting the President and shaking his hand is a great experience. That’s all I got to say about that.

I also had the opportunity to take a trip or two while I was stationed at Buckley. One of those trips was to the Four Corners! I had been to Arizona and obviously Colorado, but had never been to Utah or New Mexico before. So, on Memorial Day weekend, it was time to pack up Andygator, grab a travel buddy, put on our BANDANAS, and hit the road! Christina Miller (formerly Diehl) was kind enough to be my travel buddy. Her husband, JJ, didn’t think that driving around and camping for 4 days sounded like too much fun, so he decided to stay home and relax for his long weekend. Haha. Christina and I actually went to BMT (basic training) together and she was supposed to go to a different base but found her soul mate (JJ Miller) in tech school, got hitched, and got reassigned to Buckley!

Anyway, we went to Moab, UT and camped in the La Salle National Forest, 2 different spots of it 2 different nights, then went to the 4 corners monument which was literally two hours away from anything in any of the four states… We went to go camp in New Mexico and found out that the desert really sucks… so we went back to Utah. We found a nice camping spot with access to lots of firewood, and Christina channeled her inner lumberjack to take down an entire tree! We had beans hobo-style on the fire and planned for our TV show… Red & Blonde Camping (RBC)… One of these days!! Also, somewhere there is an awesome picture of our campsite looking like a scene straight out of a horror movie. Another of me hunting deer with a machete… they were so close!

Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico

 

While in Colorado, I re-upped my Paramedic license. I was able to go to Thornton, CO for a refresher course. It was good to be around other non-military medical folk for a bit and I felt like a real Paramedic again. Once the class was over, I wanted to still utilize those skills. At Buckley, I was fortunate enough to provide medical coverage for a lot of 5k’s that the base put on. We got to drive around in the Medic Mobile (Extra-long pickup truck) and make sure no one got hurt or fell out. Rarely did anyone need assistance, and I was functioning at a BLS level. We sure did have fun though. 

So, on my off time, I would volunteer medical coverage for some bigger events where I could function as a Paramedic and see more action. Also, I was able to get more involved at a community level; which made me feel good. I helped out with the Colfax Marathon, that also has a 10 mile, 5k, half marathon, and marathon relay portion to it. Fun fact: Colfax Ave. is the longest continuous street in the US at 26.8 miles. This year, there were 9,545 runners that participated, and yes, we provided quite a bit of care. I worked with a skilled group of medical professionals throughout the day and we all agreed that it was quite a successful team that we had. (First picture).

 Another volunteer opportunity that I had was the Run For Your Lives 5k in Byers, CO. A zombie run! Everyone was having fun. The runners, the zombies, the workers, and I got to act like a real Paramedic ! The website for this is actually great and pumps you up. We must have watched it about 15 times at work.

Which brings me to work… the reason that I was in Colorado to begin with! I worked at an off-base clinic that treats active-duty members and their families. I worked in Pediatrics, but helped out with Family Practice a bit as well. (Until it came time for PAPs or paperwork, then I was lost). I worked with a great group of people (both civilian and military) and they really were a big dysfunctional family. Heck, I am still asking Miss Diane for help and I don’t go there anymore!

What made this group great is that we were not only co-workers, we were friends. Some local favorite spots were Cedar Creek Pub for fish and chips and beer (Denni’s favorite), Dry Docks, or Pho 888 (although some of us were better at using chopsticks than others).

Buckley was a good first assignment and although there may have been some bumps along the road, I think it was an overall successful year. I will miss the crap out of the friends that I have made but hey, it’s a small Air Force… I may see them again and I will most certainly stay in touch.