Shibuya...Tokyo's Times Square

Mike has wanted to visit Shibuya ever since he heard of it, not because of any of the exciting things you can do there, but because of how much fun he had pronouncing its name, She-BOO-YA, always said with much enthusiasm, of course. So when our friend Rich invited us to go with him one Saturday, we were all over it.

First thing on the agenda was the obligatory train ride. You can't get anywhere in Japan without using the train system. We started to get hungry during the ride, so Mike passed around my homemade chocolate chip cookies I had made the night before. Mike always makes fun of me for always packing food when I travel, but it really worked out this time, didn't it?


Outside of the train station is a famous statue of a dog who, legend has it, would dutifully wait for it's master everyday at that same spot. It's a popular meeting place and we had to finaggle our way beside it to get our picture taken.


Here's a picture of the girls, La-La on the left and Lynn on the right. La-La is Rich's friend who's visiting from China, and Lynn is Colin's wife. Both Rich and Colin work with Mike.















And here are the guys, ordering lunch from a kebab place. I was a little intrepidated by the look of the big slab of meat at the window, but I was so hungry because I didn't eat any of the cookies on the train, so I ate it anyway. It was actually really good. It turns out they slice the meat and put it in a sort of pita pocket with lettuce and tomatoes and some sauce. On a side note...there was another picture I was going to put in place of this one that showed the guys, but I was afraid some people might be scandalized by it, so if you're interested, let us know and we'll email it to you. Nothing kinky or anything, but I was really surprised they had something like it in Japan where the culture is very conservative.

Here are a few interesting things we saw while we wandered around...

A Lamborghini owned by an old Japanese guy with a young, hot, blonde girlfriend.


A guy advertising for free hugs. None of us had the courage to go up and actually hug him, but later on, we did see a guy in a Winnie the Pooh costume take him up on his offer. I kid you not! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera ready to give you proof...


The cutest dogs...the Japanese really love dogs here. I saw these three, all in dresses, and being pushed around in a stroller and I just had to have a picture!

Finally we ended the night at an Irish Pub. At one point, the girls went out in search of a nearby ice cream shop, while the guys finished their drinks. We couldn't find one so we ended up sitting outside and just talking. A Japanese guy came up to us and started speaking Japanese, thinking we were locals. I've only got 3 Japanese classes under my belt, and La-La speaks Chinese, but luckily Lynn is pretty good at the language. When she explained to the guy that we didn't speak any Japanese, he says to us that he can speak English. So this is what he says after what seemed like an eternity of trying to figure out what to say, "Please, drink with me." After explaining we were married and our husbands were just inside, he immediately disappeared. At which point, we girls figured it was time to head in and get the guys.

We never did find the ice cream place, but instead ended our night by eating a crepe, which is a very popular treat here. It was a great time and I can't wait to do it again.

Zushi Beach

First of all, forgive me for getting a bit behind on the blogs. I'll do my best to catch you up on what we've been up to the past few weeks. Little did we know that there was a beach just down the street from where we live. We discovered this a few weekends ago when we decided to just get in the car and drive around the area. We had a map, but I'm not very good at navigating in the best conditions, but here in Japan where all signs are written in Japanese...forget it! Geographically speaking, the beach isn't that far away, but when you factor in the traffic, it can take over an hour to get there. The people really love their beach here and if you look carefully at what's going on behind me in this picture, you'll see the most popular thing to do here at the beach...windsurf.

Here are just a few interesting things we saw during our trip to the beach...














A guy just completely passed out. There's also a lot of construction going on because they're building these little restaurants and bars on the beachfront. Apparently this happens every summer and the little buildings get torn down every winter, only to get rebuilt the following summer.



A cute little scooter that reminded me of Mike's sister, Megan, a huge Roxy fan.





I found these little Japanese girls adorable! They look so 'ladylike' with their purses and their serious discussion on where to explore.















And finally, a scary warning sign about tsunamis. Let's just pray that we won't have to worry about that...

Hosting Our 1st Party!

Now that we've been settled in for almost a month, we decided to host a sortof housewarming. We decided that we'd provide all the food, and just let everyone come and enjoy. It was a heck of a lot of work - the appetizers consisted of shrimp cocktail, spinach dip, and a vegetable tray. The main course was the traditional filipino affair - Pancit & Lumpia, along with good 'ol American Grilled food; BBQ chicken, Bubbas, and all beef franks - consider that a practice run for July 4th! The dessert menu consisted of pecan tarts, Rice Krispy treats (by special request) and of course, Cicely's famous Chocolate-Strawberry passion bowl.


Here is Cicely cooking up the Pancit that morning - her mother will be so proud! Notice how she's got 2 pans going...now she understands why her mom has those huge, 'take up the entire stove'-sized woks!



Mike assuming his husbandly duties of running the grill - he started way before the party just to get his first [of many] beer in his hand!


Although it's hard to believe, Cicely made all this from scratch - nothing store prepared here!















Here's Cicely with all the girls who attended our quaint get-together. Most were Japanese workers from Mike's work, some were wives. Everyone had a great time - but where were all the guys? One of the girls found out while the rest were looking at our wedding album...















The Man Room! THe XBOX 360 w/ HD LCD TV was definitely a hit - for everyone!

A word from Cicely about the Man Room.... So the XBOX was SUPPOSED to be Mike's birthday present, but when he saw that the Exchange had a shipment in last week, I let him go ahead and buy it because popular things like that go pretty fast around here and it's hit or miss as to when new shipments come in. He wasn't supposed to open it until later, but he convinced me that opening it for the party would be entertaining for the guests. But every time I walked into the Man Room to check on things, it was Mike, not the guests, who was playing. I think I may have been tricked.... hmmmm....maybe this whole "Let's have a housewarming party" was just a ploy for him to open up his new toy....

Our Last Day in Hiroshima...Shukkeien Garden

On our final day in Hiroshima, we checked out of our Hotel and it's beautiful view. We still had a few hours until the Shinkansen (bullet train) left for home, so we decided to walk around the city and see what else was left. We discovered the Hiroshima prefectorial art museum, but we've never been known to pay money to see that kind of stuff; behind the museum, lay a much more inspiring attraction, however. The Shukkeien Garden. The gardens were originally constructed in 1620, for the Feudal Lord of Hiroshima - the entire prefecture, not just the city. (prefecture = state). Of course the garden was destroyed in 1945, but re-opened in 1951. The reconstruction and re-growth was not complete until 1974. This picture of us was taken by a Japanese lady, who before this shot was taken, wanted to have her picture taken WITH Cicely. We're always excited to take pictures with the local Japanese people, but who knew that they wanted to take pictures with us too?? By the way, we were trying to hurry up and take the pictures before the cranes in the background flew away, but it wasn't until later that we realized we could've spent all day there and they wouldn't have moved....they're FAKE!

While we were walking around the garden, we happened to see two people (male and female) dressed in traditional Japanese Kimono. At first, we thought they were a couple getting married, like the one we saw at Miyajima the day before. But we soon realized that they were actually models on a photo shoot for a Kimono maker. There was even a little girl wearing one - her dad was more than happy to let us take a picture...the little girl--not so much!


Here is Cicely sitting in the Chozen Kyo - not sure what that means, but it looks like a gazebo. We had to take off our shoes to go in. It was a very quiet, picturesque place for her to just sit and read....or in Mike's case, to nap.


This is a view of the Takuei Pond - notice the little islands with Bonsai trees. This is a quintessential Japanese Garden. Norfolk Botanical Gardens? I think not.

Miyajima

While we were in Hiroshima, we decided to stop by the island of Miyajima since our apartment building is named after the place. It's considered one of the three most scenic places in Japan, and I would definitely have to agree. It's an island that has an old-time Japanese feel to it-- there aren't any big, modern buildings. You can imagine that this place looks pretty much as it did hundreds of years ago, minus the souvenir shops.

Miyajima is well-known for a few things, one of which is the huge tori gate that stands in the water. Tori gates are always at the entrance of shrines and temples and this particular one leads to a very picturesque shrine that also sits in the water. We arrived at Miyajima during low tide so we were actually able to walk right up to the tori gate. Just to give you an idea of how big this thing is, check out the picture below of Mike standing next to it.



The other thing that this island is famous for are the wild deer that roam freely. There was a vendor who was selling deer food to the tourists and Mike was all about trying to get some so that the deer would come closer to him. The guy forewarned him to break up the deer food before the deer came close, but Mike misinterpreted that to mean break up the deer food AS you give it to them. This picture shows Mike with a handful of deer, but what I wasn't able to capture was the shot that came next. Immediately after this was taken, Mike was surrounded by about 20 deer who saw that he had huge chunks of their food. I was so excited because it was going to make such a great picture when suddenly, I hear a yell and see Mike throwing the food up in the air and walking very quickly (running) away. I was a little annoyed that I didn't get my shot, but it turns out that the reason for my missed picture opportunity was that one of the overly excited deer bit him in the butt! All day after that, any time Mike saw deer, whether it was real or a figurine sold in a souvenir shop, he muttered how stupid and ugly deer were. I think the poor thing was traumatized by the experience.

Another thing that makes Miyajima such a unique place is the shrine that is built on stilts so that when it's high tide, it looks like it's floating on the water. Unfortunately we weren't able to experience that because we visited during low tide, but we were able to witness a traditional Japanese wedding that was taking place at the shrine.


This guy might be a priest of some sort, but he did a ceremonial dance in front of the bride and groom.


Here's the guy doing his dance, but it took so long that Mike and I eventually left. I thought Filipino weddings were long!



Here's the bride and groom, with who I'm assuming is the bride's mother.



The rest of the day was spent exploring the shops and eating 'soft cream', or soft serve ice cream. It's much better than the kind back home, probably because it's more fattening. Which now makes me feel even more guilty because I had 3 servings during our visit to Miyajima. My only excuse was that it was really, really hot that day and I needed it to cool down. Anyways, here's a few more interesting things we saw while at Miyajima...




A five-story pagoda behind the shrine.








An evil looking, red-eyed fake horse in a barn.





A really big spoon. The wooden spoon is considered a symbol of good luck here-- I'm not sure if 'here' means just Miyajima or all over Japan.

Miyajima was a surprise discovery. I originally just wanted to go to say we went, especially since our tower is named after it. In the end, it has probably been one of my favorite places so far. They really weren't lying when they said it's one of Japan's most beautiful places.

Hiroshima

We took advantage of Memorial Day weekend and traveled to historic Hiroshima for a few days. The trip took 4 hours by bullet train, Mike's new favorite mode of transportation. He was so excited about riding a bullet train that he was taking pictures of it like a typical tourist, and even a Japanese lady and her husband found his enthusiasm funny.













But I have to say, I was really impressed with how comfortable the train was. It was set up just like an airplane, but with much more leg room. They even had a stewardess who came around and offered drinks and snacks! Of course, we didn't need any because my mother has taught me to always travel with tons of snacks. It might be a Filipino thing--I don't know. To Mike's dismay, I filled his backpack with stuff that I bought at the Exchange the day before....dried mangoes, Nagaraya Crackernuts, Pocky, Crackerjacks, trail mix, the list goes on and on....

When we arrived at Hiroshima, we took a taxi to the hotel to put our bag away. Notice how I said 'bag' singular. I was very proud of myself for packing so lightly. That is not an easy thing for me to do. But I did use every square inch of that bag. Mike was afraid that it would randomly explode as we were walking through the train terminal because I had packed that thing to it's full capacity.

Our hotel room was a happy surprise because we lucked out and had a panoramic view of the city, as evidenced by the first picture on this blog. We started planning on what to check out first and we decided on Hiroshima Castle since it was smack dab in the middle of our view. The castle is surrounded by moats and within the grounds of the castle are the ruins of the military installation that once stood there, destroyed by the A-bomb. The castle was also destroyed, but later rebuilt and turned into a museum. The only reminders that this used to be a military base are the foundations where the buildings once stood.





Here's a picture of Mike sitting on the steps of was used to be the Hiroshima Imperial Military Headquarters building.












This was the Underground Military Communications room. After the A-bomb, when all of Hiroshima's telephone and telegraph lines were cut off, this was the only place left that was able to communicate the events at Hiroshima.


After Hiroshima Castle, we headed over to the World Peace Memorial Park where the A-Dome is found. This is the only building left standing after the bomb. There was controversy over whether or not to tear it down because it's such a painful reminder of what happened, or to leave it up as a memorial. In the end, the Japanese people decided to leave it as a memorial to remind the world of the consequences of war.

The t-shaped bridge behind Mike in this picture is a busy thoroughfare nowadays, but this was actually the target of the A-bomb.


The next day, we went to the museum where we saw lots of things, many of which were disturbing and scary when you think that the tragedy of Hiroshima might still be a possibility today. But one of the inspiring things that I saw was actually just outside the museum. After the A-bomb dropped, it was rumoured that nothing would grow for 75 years. But the tree in this picture was the first to bloom, just a few short months after the bomb. And it's still alive today! The Japanese people say that this tree gave them the courage to rebuild their lives after the tragedy. By the way, I am in this picture, amidst the school children who were on a field trip. They were all so cute in their uniforms and hats. And so well behaved too!!

Our Humble Home

Ikego is our new home here, and it's about 25-30 minutes away from the base. Above is a picture of our tower, Miyajima Heights. We live on the 7th floor and have really fantastic views from our balconies.












We were really fortunate to get housing so quickly, but it took forever to get our stuff!! Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic to be out of the Navy Lodge, but I still didn't feel quite at home without all of our things. So the day our household goods arrived was a happy day! They said the delivery was to be made between 8am and noon. I was up early like a kid on Christmas morning, giddy with anticipation! Of course, the delivery guys didn't make it until 11:59. Here's a picture of Mike calmly waiting and making the most of his time by playing his PSP. Meanwhile, I was on the balcony frantically searching for any sign of a truck that might hold our stuff.

When our delivery guys ( a crew of Filipino guys) finally arrived, the chaos of boxes and packing paper began. I was trying to unpack as quickly as they were bringing in boxes, but it was impossible. Just as I was about to finish unpacking a set of boxes, they would bring in a dolly stacked high with a whole new set of boxes. It was a long day of unpacking and figuring out where things belong, but the end result was worth it. Finally.....home....


Here's the kitchen. We have a really old and loud fridge, and we were promised a new one before we moved in. Ummm, yeah, that was a month and a half ago. For a while, I resisted making big grocery runs in fear that they would call me to let me know that they were replacing the fridge and I would be stuck with defrosting food. But I think it's safe to say that my dreams of a new and quiet fridge have died.















This is the dining room and balcony. I love the big sliding glass doors that lead out onto the balcony with a great view. I would, however, change the ugly 1990's lighting fixture. Unfortunately, I can't because of the whole Navy housing thing...














Here's our living room which I'm happy with. I do miss having a mantle and fireplace though. In the house, all my favorite things were displayed on the mantle, and I had a hard time trying to find a new place for them here.















Here's the master bedroom, which is a little smaller than our old one, but it's still bigger than what I thought we would get. For that reason, I'm definitely grateful because I love my bedroom furniture and I would've hated to have to put any part of it in storage.















And finally, Mike's playroom. This is a bit of a misnomer though because he currently doesn't have any gaming system, other than his PSP, so he doesn't actually do any playing here. He is constantly hinting at getting a new system, to which I reply, "Sure, for your birthday." And just like a little kid, he replies, "But it's sooo faaar awaaayy!" Who knows? Maybe if he behaves himself, he'll get an early birthday present...