Adventures in Japan - two (ni)

It has been two weeks since my last post.  Here is what we have been up to in Japan!  

Every year Yokota Air Base hosts a Friendship Festival.  This is an event where the Japanese community are invited on base to celebrate the partnership between the U.S. and Japan.

Family Selfie

Checking out the planes

Sometimes things get lost in translation

The boys enjoying their snow corn

I ventured off base with my neighbor to a store called Hard Offs.  It was a thrift shop with a little bit of everything. We also went to a Recycle Shop which was similar except it had appliances and furniture too.

We checked out a nearby Japanese grocery store.  You can find some interesting flavors in common American products.  I wonder what turkey leg pringles taste like?  We did buy and try sake kit kats and green tea kit kats.  The sake was pretty good but would not recommend the green tea.  The boys liked seeing the random fish throughout the store.

Over the weekend we checked out the Aeon Mall.  We shopped at the Gap.  :)  They also had an H&M but those were probably the only two stores I recognized.  The food court experience is always interesting.  The boys had KFC, I found a flat bread pizza, and Eric is always sampling some noodle dish.  We sat in the kid area on little chairs.

They put Eric's name above our door.  The Vaillants live here!

We decided to get a 2nd car.  Check out E's new 1998 Pajero mini.  I might steal it.  It is smaller than our yellow car!

We went to our first Japanese Baseball game.  We did a travel tour through the base so we took a bus there and back.

Our home team is called the Seibu Lions and they play at the Seibu Prince Dome

The boys before the game

One with mommy!

Eric sampling the ball park food.  There is a picture of a baseball player on the seaweed.  I struggled to find anything to eat so I resorted to KFC french fries.  They also had beer girls with back pack mini kegs with beer on tap.

The atmosphere is very loud.  Across from where we were sitting there were bands for each team that play the entire game.  Sections of the stadium also did chants and dances in unison.  It felt more like a college football atmosphere than the baseball games we are used to back home.  Here is Linc with his plastic bats you hit together with the crowd.

You also want to fly your team flag

All the commotion led to a nap for Linc

In the 7th inning you can buy these balloons to let go together at the end of the inning.

Let em fly!  The Lions won the game!

Adventures in Japan - one (ichi)

We are all moved in to our permanent house on base.  We had temporary furniture delivered on move in day and will be using that until our household goods arrive (hoping by mid-October). It is a 3 bedroom garden unit which backs up to Hayden's school.  He is enjoying the short walk to school and so far has reported good days.  His only struggles so far have been with Japanese class and Spanish class which is understandable since he has never had either.  We are learning some basic Japanese words and both boys can count to five in Japanese....ichi, ni, san, shi, go.  We have visited two pre-schools for Lincoln, one a Japanese school and one an International school, both off base.  We really liked both and are in the process of deciding and getting things lined up to enroll.  More on that once all is settled.  In the past week we have stayed busy.  I attended a ladies church kick-off event where we made a Japanese flower arrangement called Ikebana.  Over the weekend I visited a Japanese antique sale on base.  These are held once a month.  I had never been to an antique sale of any sort but the girl I went with was a pro and helped me know what things were and how to negotiate on the prices.  I was able to purchase a beautiful full length mirror for our room and 3 Kokeshi dolls.  We also visited the library so the boys could check out books, dvd's and board games.  We are watching dvd's from our computer currently but it is better than nothing.  We were able to borrow a tv and microwave from the base loan locker which was helpful.  We have AFN (Armed Forces Network) tv which is limited in its channels but we can see some primetime shows and sports.  We enjoyed watching a Georgia football game on a Sunday morning and the Redskins on a Tuesday morning live.  :)  On Sunday we followed our new neighbors over to a cute shopping town off base called Mori Town.  They had a climbing wall for kids there, shops, restaurants, and a nice mall.  I am looking forward to going back without the kids to shop!  We walked around and got icecream.  It was interesting trying to order but we figured out which was vanilla frozen yogurt.  The cones were different too but very good.  I signed up for a wine and design class one night and painted a Japan painting which was fun.  Our sponsor/friend took us to the Costco here.  It was very similar to Costco's in the US except for some of their products obviously.  Eric bought sushi which he said was super fresh and delicious.  Most of the sushi here has raw fish so I won't be venturing to try any of that.  Here are some pics from our newest adventures in Japan....

Hayden walking home from school.  I am standing in our back yard.

My Ikebana flower arrangement.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement.  The stalks, leaves, and flowers were cut at different lengths and placed in different positions to symbolize heaven, earth, and man.

Kokeshi are Japanese dolls, handmade from wood, have a simple trunk and an enlarged head with a few, thin painted lines to define the face.  One characteristic of the dolls is their lack of arms and legs.  There were many designs and sizes to choose from at the antique sale.  I gravitated towards the girly one's. :)

Hayden on the climbing wall in Mori Town

Ice cream!  Yes, that is a KFC behind him which we have seen a lot of here.

We were safe and went with vanilla.  They had a vanilla/melon swirl which sounded interesting.  Our neighbor tried it and said it tasted like cantaloupe. 

Eric with his new grill and patio set.

We are trying new Japanese snacks each time we go grocery shopping.  The animal crackers had very interesting animals.  There are about 50 different animals named on the box.  They taste a little more like a cracker than a cookie but we all liked them and enjoyed a good laugh at all the animals.

Me with my painting.  Not sure I love Japan yet but I thought the picture would be nice in our new house.  :)

Eric eating Sushi....from Costco

Our first week in Japan

We arrived in Tokyo, Japan at 2:45 pm local time on Tuesday.  Baggage and Customs were faster than we expected so we were able to catch the 4pm shuttle to base.  It ended up only being a two hour trip so we made it to base earlier than expected.  After being up for 28 hours straight, we were all tired and ready to relax.  We checked in to our temporary lodging and met up with our sponsor and his family, who brought us some food essentials to get us through our first night and morning.  The boys were begging to go to bed but we kept them up until 8pm in the hopes they would sleep through the night.  It has taken some time to get used to the time change but we are all starting to feel a sense of normalcy.  Our first few days were busy getting everything set up for housing etc. but the holiday weekend has been a nice break.  Today we will move in to our permanent living quarters.  We may not see our household goods for 4-8 weeks but we have temporary furniture being delivered and are excited to have more space until then.  Here are some pics from our travel and highlights from our first week in Japan....

There's our ride to Japan!

The boys settling in for our 14 hour flight.  The lights were turned off for most of the trip.  We each had our own tv with lots of movies to choose from.  The food was pretty good too!

This is how Lincoln fell asleep the first night.  The boys have adjusted pretty quickly to the time difference.

The boys with daddy on his first day of work.

Hayden was able to start school on Friday.  He had a great day and really likes his teacher, Ms. Stinson.  He has 12 kids in his class, 9 of which are boys!

Ready to start!

While Hayden was at school, our sponsor took us off base to a Japanese restaurant.  Lincoln thought the chop sticks were cool.  Mommy needs some practice!

Eric really enjoyed his big bowl of ramen.

Slurping is encouraged!

We were able to pick up our car on Monday.  We chose a yellow Toyota Sienta.  :)

Eric passed the Japanese driving test on Thursday and I will take mine this week.  I'm a little scared about driving on the left side of the road.

Our new 3 bedroom garden home.  We are really happy with the location being so close to Hayden's school and the church we will attend