I'm Sorry, But This'll Be Boring...

When I taught writing to my 8th graders, I told them to never start off by apologizing for what you're writing about. I'm afraid I'll have to break one of my own rules with this particular blog entry about my typical day-to-day life. The only reason I'm even writing this is for my friend, Julie Boucek, who after kindly reading about our weekend adventures, wanted to know what I did during the week. So, Julie, this blog's for you.

5:30am Pretend to wake up when Mike says goodbye as he leaves for work.

5:32 Go back to sleep.

Between 7:30-9:00 Wake up for real. Unless I've got an early morning wives' club board meeting at 7:30am at Starbucks. Then I have to get up at 6. And yes,I'm a board member of the wives' club here. It's a long story.

9:00-9:30 Convince myself that it's worth the pain to go to the gym because I don't want to hit the big 3-0 this year as a big girl. Read the Boucek blog as I procrastinate on the gym thing.

9:30-10:30 Work out at the gym and run my 2.5 miles on the treadmill. Feel really proud of myself until I notice that the much older and more out of shape lady next to me is still running as I wheeze to a stop.

11:00-1:00 There are several options for this time slot: 1) Catch up on phone calls and emails to my family and friends back home, 2) Meet Mike for lunch, 3) Attend a wives' club function, such as a Bunco game, 4) watch an episode of "What Not to Wear", 5) clean the house and do some laundry, or 6) any combination of the above.

1:00-3:00 Go to the Exchange/Commissary. I go to the grocery store almost every other day here. A lot of times it's because I'll forget an ingredient I need for tomorrow night's dinner. Also, they don't always stock what I need, so if it's an essential ingredient for my recipe, I'm out of luck. I'm forced to come up with a new dinner plan on the spot, but I don't have all my recipes memorized, so I inevitably forget something, and then have to come back the next day. It's a vicious cycle!

3:00-4:00 Reading time. I'm an avid reader and there's this pretty little park that is perfect for that sort of thing. When the weather's nice, that's where I go to get my book time.

4:00-5:00 Oprah!

5:00 Start dinner.

5:30 Mike calls to tell me he's going to be working late (again), so I hold off on dinner. I like to time it so that dinner is ready as he walks through the door. I hope that doesn't sound too 'Stepford wife-ish' of me. It's just that I actually enjoy cooking now and I want my meals to be displayed and enjoyed to it's best advantage, and that only happens when it's freshly prepared.

Between 6:30-7:30 Dinner time.

7:30-11:30-ish The rest of the night is devoted to catching up with my husband. We usually end up walking to a nearby Japanese convenience store to get some chocolate ice cream for me and then watching some tv. We have cable here, but it stinks...there's never anything good on and everything's behind schedule. Even though all my favorite shows have just started their new season, here, they're still playing last season's shows-- shows I've already seen! So we've gotten into DVD sets. Right now, I'm working through Grey's Anatomy since I never got a chance to watch it back home. It's fabulous! Mike doesn't like it so much, but he watches it with me with the unspoken understanding that he'll get to play videogames afterwards while I read beside him.

So there you are...a glimpse into my typical day. Come back again soon and I hope to have a more exciting blog up for you.

I Caught a Fish This Big!

OK, not really me, but on Saturday, we went to a place where lots of other people caught enormous fish-- The Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market. Visiting here was not my idea because I still have memories of when my parents would take me to the fish market in Korea...smelly, dirty, raw fish guts...not my idea of a good time. But I figured, Mike's been such a good sport whenever I want to go on shopping expeditions that I'd compromise on this one. I agreed to go, but I didn't promise that I'd have a good time.

Here we are at the beginning of our fish market tour. Notice the difference in our expressions.








By the end of our time at the fish market though, I surprisingly had a great time. I eventually became numb to the smells, which in truth, weren't as bad as I remembered as a child. The market place was so busy and there were so many interesting things to look at that it was impossible not to have a good time. Take a look at some of the things we saw. If you're squeamish about seeing raw fish being filleted, you are hereby forewarned...

Inside of the marketplace

The constant traffic makes a traffic controller necessary. I love how he's in a suit and cap, but in fisherman's boots!


















Fish, fish, and more fish!















Fillet'o'Fish!! Check out the size of that knife. Mike got in trouble for getting too close here.












There was even a taxodermy shop!








Despite my initial reluctance about going to a fish market, I'm so glad Mike suggested this trip. Where else would I have experienced all this?

Nikko- a last minute adventure

I've always wanted to visit Nikko from the first moment I heard of it...beautiful scenery and the most ornate shrine in all of Japan. So when Saturday came around with nothing else to do, we decided to check it out. It took about 3 hours by express train to get there, even though our directions said it would take only 2 hours. And why it was even labeled an "express", I don't know because we stopped at EVERY single station. It made for an incredibly loooong day trip. Thank goodness it was a scenic route.

Our first stop was to visit the Shinkyo, or Sacred, Bridge (shown above). Back in the day, only the shoguns and imperial messengers were allowed to set foot on it, but now, anyone willing to pay 300 yen can have that privilege.


Next we went to see the temples and shrines that Nikko is famous for, Rinnoji and Toshogu.
























We even got to witness another traditional Japanese wedding, our 3rd one! Someone told us that it's good luck to visit a temple while there's a wedding going on. I certainly hope that's true.

We saw many beautiful sights that day, but here are a couple of my favorites: puppies! It's amazing how many people bring their dogs to temples and shrines, but I have to say that they are very well behaved.

Look at the cute little bows on her ears! I apologize for the goofy look of admiration... I didn't realize Mike was including me in the picture.


This cutie kept jumping up on her daddy until he finally picked her up and held her like a baby. Then she was completely content.

So there you have it...we visited one of Japan's most beautiful places and my favorite part of the day was spotting cute little puppies. I wonder what that says about me?

Baseball and Buddies

Doesn't this picture look like Mike and his buddy, Jeff- visiting from California, had a great time at the baseball game? In truth, they didn't get to the baseball stadium until 10 minutes AFTER the game ended. Jeff had arrived earlier in the afternoon and Mike went to go pick him up, and the plan was to meet up at the game. Things were going according to plan, and they would've made it okay had it not been for their missing the stop for the stadium and then getting completely lost. At least they made it and got to see the baseball stadium.



Here's Rich during the game looking forlornly at Mike's empty seat.





But other than worrying about my missing husband, the game was a blast! Japan loves their baseball!! Every player gets their own special chant that the fans dutifully call out as they come up to bat.



The winners... Tokyo Giants! Check out the size of that flag!



Fans are extremely loyal to their teams. Even though the Giants practically shut out the Yokohama Baystars, the Baystars fans stayed to the very end. There was no mass exodus to beat the crowds just because they knew their team would lose. It was amazing to see that kind of loyalty.