Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Japan.

Chris and I carved pumpkins and volunteered at the very first American Haunted House in Fussa.  While we were off base, the Japanese children came on base to trick-or-treat.

Update for awesome foods/drinks in Japan:

Coke with lemon and orange

Strawberry Milk Tea

Whatever the heck this is…

Tasted like French onion soup with bacon on top of smoky flavored rice. Yumm!

Colorful/Cultural Nikko

As Fall comes to Japan, many citizens take to the hills to see the 'Changing of the Colors'. Since there is mainly city here and a few trees, it is a nice break to road trip a few hours up to the mountains. Our neighbor is from Hawaii and he told us that Nikko is an amazing place to go view the colors. I had wanted to go to Nikko because there are a few temples and shrines, it’s known as a mini Kyoto in that aspect, so this time of year seemed like a perfect time to go.

Chris photo-bombing a pic of the new toaster… Car.

After work one day, Chris and I started off on our journey. We got a new car (new to us) a few months ago. It has 3 doors and reminds me of a toaster. Juan told us we officially have a van, Japanese style… we are in denial.

Nikko is about 3 hours North of Fussa, which took us 4 hours with my awesome navigational skills. We finally found our lodging, which was a house turned into a hotel. I found it charming. Everything was just my size. Chris on the other hand, had to bend down to get through doors and his feet hung off the bed.

The next morning, we walked a few miles into town and saw the Shinkyo Bridge that connects main Nikko to the town’s shrines and temples. From the bridge, we trekked up this immense slope which brought us to Rinnoji Temple. It was under construction, but we could still walk through and see the renovations taking place as well as the restoration of some beautiful and iconic statues, ect. Unfortunately, no pictures. You will have to go and see it for yourselves… Construction set to end in 2021, so you have time to save your money :)

We then continued up to Toshogu Shrine. It was beautiful and educational. Did you know that the ‘See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil’ monkeys originated here? That image that we know so well is actually part of a story.

Also at Toshogu, there is a carving of a ‘Sleeping Cat’, which is well known. There are also thousands of stairs that we climbed up to view the Ieyasu Mausoleum.

After descending, we walked over to Futarasan Shrine. It was nice and flat compared to its neighbors which was ironic because it is a shrine to Nikko’s sacred mountains.

Right next to Futarasan Shrine was Taiyuinbyo; which is the mausoleum of Iemitsu who was the grandson of Ieyasu (who’s mausoleum was up the hill from the Tosogu shrine). The Taiyuinbyo was spectacular but built slightly more modest from his grandfather’s mausoleum out of respect. One thing that I found interesting about Taiyiunbyo is that it had both Buddhist and Shinto influences. It is usually one or the other, and most Buddhist elements get removed from Shinto shrines and visa-versa, but in the Meiji Period, it was common for shrines/temples to contain both religious elements, and there is not complete separation here.

After we had seen the shrines and temples, we headed back to the hotel to grab the car and drive up the mountain to see the colors. There is only one way up and one way down the mountain and they are different roads. So if you were not intending on going up the mountain and just took a wrong turn, there goes an hour of your day going up and back down the mountain! The road is called Irohazaka. Something interesting about how it got its name, ‘Iroha’ are the first three (or 48) syllables of the old Japanese alphabet meaning ‘a-e-i-o-u’. The road has 48 turns… and ‘zaka’ means ‘slope’. So Irohazaka = A-e-i-o-u Slope.

Anyway, the first day we were there was very foggy and we could not see much of the colors…or a waterfall.

The second day we were in Nikko, the sun was shining and the air was crisp and clear! We drove back up Irohazaka and stopped at the Akechidaira Plateau; which is almost at the top of the mountain but contains a cable car ropeway that leads to an observation deck. Chris and I rode up the ropeway and got a spectacular view of Lake Chuzenjiko and Mt. Nantai (which is a volcano). We headed up a little path away from the upper observation deck. From there, we got a truly awesome view of the lake and the Kegon waterfall.

From there, we rode back down the ropeway and headed to see the Kegon waterfall up close. Kegon Waterfall (Kegon no Taki) is rated in the top three most beautiful waterfalls in Japan and is almost 100 meters tall. Wow.

We drove from the Kegon Waterfall around Lake Chuzenjiko to Ryuzu Waterfall (Ryuzu no Taki); which means ‘dragon head waterfall’. It was absolutely spectacular especially with the fall colors. Afterwards, we headed back towards the main part of this mountain town. Along the way, we stopped for some food at a café and walked around Lake Chuzenjiko collecting some seashells and volcanic rock.

After about an hour or so, the fog was coming back in and the sun started to set, we went back to the car and headed back to Fussa.

Friendship Festival 2014

Once a year, Yokota opens the gates for our Japanese neighbors to come and celebrate our friendship. This year, over 148,000 Japanese and Americans crowded on a part of the flight line to view 20 military aircrafts, chow down on some snacks, and see some good ‘ol fashion American fireworks.

I worked medical coverage for the festival and showed off our American style ambulance. While I was working, I had Chris run around and take some pictures.

Deep Fried Oreos is one of the biggest
sellers at the Festival.

 Thanks Chris!

Chris

So statistics here at Yokota have it that two out of three Airmen will get married during their tour here. I did not come to Japan thinking that I would be part of that statistic, but I also did not think that I would meet someone like Christopher Lilley.

Chris and I worked together in the Urgent Care and got to know each other well. We would hang out quite frequently on our off days, and even when we were not on shift together, we would talk every day.  Long story short, we decided to get married. On June 9^th we went down to the courthouse in Fussa. Once there, we found out that two Americans getting married in Japan was a bit more difficult than we anticipated. We had to translate the paperwork as well as our birth certificates.  We started the process at about 9:30 AM and were running around pulling favor cards until 4:30 PM when we walked back into the courthouse with all our translated documents and an hour later, walked out as husband and wife.

We then went to The Black Teahouse in the foothills, about 30 mins away, where we were treated to an amazing 8 course traditional Japanese feast with some close friends. Tonya Toche-Howard is a Nurse that we work with who has been a mentor and a friend to both of us and signed as one of our witnesses. Juan Garcia signed as our second witness. Chris and him have been friends since they both arrived here about two years ago. We like to hang out with Juan and Rosemary. They got married a few months after Chris and I and now live two floors below us in our tower.

Chris and I lived in the dorms for about three weeks before we had a favor card pulled for us and got offered a three-bedroom tower apartment. I was wary at first, but after we walked through it and found out we had a view of Mt. Fugi, we could see ourselves in the apartment life. Once we moved all our things in and began to decorate, it was a lot easier to call our 8^th floor apartment Home.

A little more about Chris:

Chris is 22, from West Virginia (but born in Pennsylvania), and moved around the lower half of the US when he was younger.  His birthday is 23 December and he has three older sisters and three younger brothers (One older sister and two younger brothers by blood). In high school he was in ROTC and led the rifle team. He even got to go to Nationals for shooting. After high school, he and his two best friends joined the Air Force. He was originally supposed to be a SERE Specialist (Survival Extraction Resistance and Escape), but he got re-classed into being a Medic. Yokota was his first duty station after training. He is witty, charming, stubborn, and he makes me laugh.

Fun in the Last Frontier

Part of my wonderful job as a Paramedic is recertifying every two years. The big part of that recertification is taking a week long refresher course. I am the only working Paramedic at Yokota so there is no refresher class available at my level. So, that means that I get to go somewhere else for the training. The closest military installation offering a Paramedic course was Elmendorf Air Base in Anchorage, Alaska.

I was fast-tracked and approved for this TDY (temporary duty assignment) and headed off to Alaska. After 19 hrs of flying, I was in Alaska. I got a rental car so I was able to drive myself to Elmendorf. Thank goodness I was authorized a rental car because my lodging was on one side of the base and the hospital was clear on the other side of the base which is much much larger than Yokota. It is a joint base with Richardson (Army) so it is referred to as JBER (Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson). It was also much much cooler than Yokota. The locals told me it was actually the first week of nice weather of the season. It was in the mid 40’s and low 50’s as compared to Yokota; which was 30 degrees warmer.

The class was good and I got to meet some great people. The class was approx. 10-12 people. Everyone was from Alaska except for one TSgt from Eglin in FL and me.

For the class, it was lectures and practicing our skills. Over the last few days we took a written test as well as testing out of our skills stations (much like taking registry all over again). There was a group going through an instructor portion as well and I was in the student portion so I got done first which meant I got the last half of the day off. Finally, some time to REALLY get out and explore Alaska properly.

Up until then, after class, I had spent my evenings driving into Anchorage and venturing around town. One day I went through some holistic shops then went and bought a Reindeer dog (instead of hot dog) from a vendor and ate it while walking on part of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. The vendor was a native Alaskan and he said that they can shoot the Reindeer because they become overpopulated and will roam the streets (much like deer) but selling moose is illegal. The reindeer dog was a darker/slightly spicy meat cooked up with caramelized onions. It was also the first meat I’d had in about 7 months (other than fish).

Another night I had gone to Moose’s Tooth Pizza and had some gluten free pizza and gluten free beer! Haha, it’s amazing how much Anchorage catered to those of us with unfortunate allergies.

I even found a gluten free/vegan bakery… and even if it sounds a bit whacky, you couldn’t tell at all. Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop was simply amazing. They had daily specials and the products were straight up sensational. I went the second to last day and bought stuff to take back with me. I also bought a sandwich for dinner and one for lunch the next day IT WAS THAT GOOD! Haha. It’s just not what we have back in Japan, so I had to get it while I could. I brought back a loaf of Alaskan Sourdough to my work crew who ate it all up.

I really just had a great time reviewing during the day and soaking up the American restaurants and ambiance at night. I even had REAL Starbucks instead of Rickenbacker’s ‘Proudly Serving Starbucks’ (knock off).

My favorite part was my half-day post-class adventure into the last frontier. I took my rental car and drove an hour and a half along the coast up to the Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood, AK. The drive alone made my trip magical. On one side was a wall of mountains; the other side was a railroad track, then water. Across the water you could see more beautiful mountains. The sights were just breathtaking. When I got to Alyeska, I took a tram up to the top of the mountain where people were still skiing. Funny to think the ground is packed full of snow up here when a short tram ride down, the grass is green and gravel is dry. It was nice to be up in the clean, crisp air.

Once I had had my fill of the cold, I went back down the mountain and wanted to venture back down the road a bit and see if I couldn’t find a Mine that I had seen a sign for a ways back up the road. My friend Tim from Omaha had said since I was going to Alaska, I should go to a Mine. Well, I found the road, and it brought me back to my Colorado mountain driving days. It made me miss Andy (my Jeep)… and made me glad I had gotten the insurance on the rental car… About 15 – 20 mins down the unpaved trail, I found the entrance to the Crow Creek Mine. Below it was a sign stating that it was closed for the season. I had come way to far though, so I turned down the path and wanted to check it out. I drove down to the main area, got out and took some pictures. Then I saw some dogs come out and realized that people still lived here on off season to maintain the property… so I skedaddled on out of there :)

After that, I headed back towards Anchorage, enjoying the drawn out sunset along the coastal drive. It stayed light until about 9:30 PM or so. As I was driving back, something caught my eye far back in a field and then I saw a truck set up taking pictures on the side of the road. All I wanted to see while I was here was a moose… I think I finally spotted one. I pulled over and grabbed my camera. It was a moose! I went and talked to the man taking pictures in the truck. He used to be a Texas Ranger who retired to Alaska about 30 yrs ago and picked up photography. He was taking pictures of the birds but he let me borrow his binoculars to see the moose more closely (and it was awesome). He also pointed out another moose and let me know where about 5 more like to hang out as well as giving me directions to their location. I drove over to it but didn’t see them. Still, it was a pretty drive.

Either way, mission complete: I got to see not one, but two moose!

I finished my drive back to Anchorage and for my last night in town, I got some Pho. I have not found a place to get pho in Japan and for as much as I ate it in Colorado, man, was I craving it.

The next morning, I got up and headed to the airport. I cut it really close… like within 5 minutes… but I still got to see a fantastic last sunrise from my terminal window before time travelling back to the future.