Doggy Do Don't

One of the things I love best about Japan is the rampant use of characters and cartoons to sell messages and products. So you can be sure I caught on quite early to repetitive themes. For example, dog poop. The whole doggy doo doo thing is a don't don't here in Japan. Below are just a few of the example signs I have come across during my stay...






I assure you I'm not obsessed with poop (albeit this is the second posting where "toire" ideas are shared), but let me share one more observation: the disposal process. I see grown men and women catching their dogs duds in a bag. And these are small dogs by majority, too, so the space between a crouching butt and pavement is limited. Fascinating. This does save humans the scraping/pick-up step, so I will give them points for efficiency.

Meanwhile in unrelated news, thousands of Japanese dogs have a complex associated with pooping while humans standy near by - researchers are still investigating.

Happy Merry Christmas

Although we will be in the States for the Christmas holiday, we have been getting some questions about Christmas in Japan. Although Japan is a Buddhist country by majority, you can't stop our Far East friends from celebrating the bright lights of the holidays. I mean, it just gives them more opportunity to put up tacky electric things, so the holiday is right up their alley!

As well, I learned that Christmas Eve is pretty much like our equivalent of Valentine's Day; it is a big day for dating and smoochie smoochies. So I suppose that means - equally - there are plenty of single gals sitting at home with their parents, eating the Japanese equivalent of Chunky Monkey while watching Bridget Jones with subtitles in kanji. Except their butts don't get bigger, unlike the rest of the female human race who indulges in pints of ice cream.

Oh yeah, and you can't get escape the George Michael holiday tune "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart..." during this season in Japan. Yep. Pretty much every store has the song on some sort of loop. Yeah. Why? I don't know, but I do know when you aren't listening to it in a store, you are humming it or replaying it in your end the other 22 hours of your day.

Well we are off to trek to the States to meet Saint Nick on the other side of the Pacific Pond. Hope everyone has a "Happy Merry Christmas!"

In the City... City of Guampton

Although Erik has been there plenty of times, I finally got around to visiting Guam this past weekend. Or as we like to call it: Guambodia. The boat pulled into port for a few days and its a pretty easy hop to the island from Tokyo, so I packed up and headed there to meet him.

Guam is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is technically a US territory. It is an interesting island that primarily caters to Japanese tourism -- its about a 3.5 hour flight, so I guess its kind of like their Miami (except instead of driving the I-95 corridor, you fly the typhoon alley of the Pacific). The main hotel areas are littered with stores like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Kmart, etc so the Japanese can spend their paper. This is how the local economy thrives for the most part (that and lots and lots of booby bars).


So I didn't really escape the Japanese life during my visit, but that doesn't really matter -- there was sun, sand, clear blue seas, pina coladas, and time with the hubby. The beauty of Guam is that it is a "forced vacation". There is nothing really to do except lounge by the water -- no check list of tourist spots to visit across the island from what I can see. In that way, I almost preferred it over my Hawaii trip earlier in the summer (that hurts to say since the price difference is quite considerable). Plus a 3 hour flight is better than an 8 hour flight any day.

There was beauty in watching our Japanese friends on vacation, actually. This is going to sound super super cheesy, but I will finish my thought: This additional lesson in overseas living re-emphasizes what I am learning, which is that we all have the same hearts and morals at our core, regardless of race and culture. Watching mom and dads play with their cutie toddlers in the sand, slathering SPF 100 on their little cheeks. Watching couples walk along the beach, hand in hand. And watching families sit at the pool and drink cold crisp Asahi beers starting at 10am, also recognizing there is nothing to do but lounge. Kompai!

My Quick Getaway is Enabled

Everyone here is posed for their getaway, Italian Job style. Pulling out of a parking spot is fast and easy, despite the narrow footprints and turning radii. This is because the Japanese incessantly reverse cars into spots, so the nose is always pointed out and ready to run. Much like Japanese shoes when you enter a home (remember to turn them so the toes are turned away from the wall - otherwise, a little old Japanese fairy comes along and mysteriously does this for you, perfectly aligning them amongst other pairs).

I have read a little about this - I ain't got nothin' but time on most days - and apparently there are plenty of studies on the subject. It turns out that us Americans will all die in a sad unchoreographed dance of reversing cars if an emergency should ever arise. Safety and traffic flow studies continuously prove that if all cars exited by pulling forward (i.e. park backwards), the world would be a better place. A utopia, if you will. Visibility and clearance are paramount in the Japanese way of parking.

And everyday people seem to agree that they have more time at the end of the day to spend the extra 15 seconds parking in reverse and appreciate a quick start in the morning by just pulling forward. There is also a vanity argument that cars just plain look better from the front (although Japan indeed is not a rear-obsessed culture by any means... because they don't have any... zing!).

Alas, I have taken to reversing my car into spots, not only to respect the uniformity that the Japanese find important, but because I have to admit it is just plain easier. Meep meep.

Hey Pretty Laaadies

This past weekend, we took a nerd photo of the Gauntlet Spouses so our hubbies can look at our pretty faces in the ready room. Of course this photo is invalid in less than a month as we are always losing/gaining new folks in the squadron, but its a nice idea.


I think the Japanese would be impressed with our uniformity. However, it did lend itself to be a bit embarrassing when many of us went on similar errands after the photo and other patrons at the grocery store were doing double takes.

We'll Try the Fist Bump Next Time...

I've always been a big hand shaker. Its kind of like a reflex when introduced to someone new (unless I have drink in one hand and food in the other - in this case, I jokingly shrug my shoulders and inform the person I would shake their hand but am tied up at the moment - come to think of it, this happens often - hmmm). So I find I'm in an interesting position here in Japan where hand shaking is foreign in practice. In the rare cases hands are offered in return, they are usually limp and contact lasts for a few seconds, or they are very grasping and continue well beyond the typically 2 or 3 "ups and downs" that I've come to expect as standard from a solid shake.

I believe I've finally gotten into a groove with introductions now. If they are students of mine or of friends, I will shake their hands since they understand this is the practice and they usually provide a rehearsed chorus of "Nice to meet you." Otherwise, the slight bow is the way to go. Especially with women. (Don't want to crush their tiny bird-like hands with my giant American man hands anyways.)

There is something to be said for introductory bowing - it comes across respectful rather than a "I don't want to touch your dirty hands" kind of way. Buuut I'm pretty sure its mostly the latter sentiment, veiled with the respectful tradition.

Prost!

This past weekend, some friends and I went over to Yokohama (second largest city in Japan, but closer than Tokyo) to attend Oktoberfest. Erik and I stumbled upon the festival last Fall while I was visiting and it was a great time, so it made perfect sense to get a group of gals to go again this year.

It was such a beautiful sunny day - perfect to kick back with some delicious beers and nosh on some German goodies. I saw some Japanese eating schnitzel and sausage with chopsticks (hashi) which was amusing (yet impressive), but there were forks and knives for the rest of us to dig in. I think our intake of beer surpassed intake of food, but that made things all the merrier! Towards the end of the evening, we were dancing and clinking steins with the locals.

Video from 3:00p (phase 1: Enjoying beer and atmosphere):


And video from 9:00p (phase 2: I love you man! Lets dance!):

(Not sure why all the gaijin stand in the front)

The only drawback of the event is that the lines at the different beer and food vendors are quite long, but perhaps its a good thing since it slows down the rate of consumption! Also distressing is the fact that all the port-a-potties were squat-a-potty style. If you think port-a-potties are already hygienically challenged, visit one of these to feel better (or worse, as it were).

Oktoberfest at Yokohama runs through next weekend. If interested in checking it out, its near Aka Rengo Soko (The Red Brick Warehouse) and we each spent probably about 5000 to 7500 yen for the day on beer, food, train, etc. We took the Sotestu line to Yokohama and then transferred to the Minato Mirai subway line.

Say Hi to Your Mother for Me...

Andy Samberg is always hilarious and his digital shorts are one of the reasons we still watch Saturday Night Live. Once in a while, he ends up in a live skit and he, again, makes everything worth while. I find myself giggling out loud at this Mark Wahlberg impression everytime I watch it. Is was spot on. Omoshiroi (hilarious)!

(PS: Because SNL actually plays on Sunday nights here, its still okay to abbreviate it as SNL.)

Come and Gone

Well I just got back from dropping Erik off at the carrier so he can get underway for his Fall deployment. He was back here in Japan for the last 5 days and it was great to be together - we basically just hung around the house so Erik had a chance to relax and spread out, eat non-boat food, and watch football (we wake up at 9am on a Tuesday morning to catch Monday night football in the States - and yes, we still make chili and eat chips despite the technicality that its breakfast time). We definitely got out, though, to do the regular circuit of karaoke, imbibing with friends, and visiting our favorite restaurants like the noodle shop across the street and the Indian place up the road.

Side bar: To clarify, Erik works out of the Atsugi (pronounced At-soo-gi) Naval Air Station. This is where all the hangars and runways are for the air wing. So we live near Atsugi base. But the carrier itself is actually located about an hour south in Yokosuka (pronounced Yoh-koh-ska), which is a huuuuge base and - most importantly - by the water. There are lots of ships down at Yokosuka, so the community is much larger down there. They have a lot more shopping and restaurants on base, so its always a bit of a novelty to pick up/ drop off Erik down there. Our standard is to eat at the Chili's the night before he goes back to "the boat."

Anyhoo, we did go into Tokyo (about an hour train ride) over the weekend to visit the music district and also the electronics district - which may as well be any district within Tokyo as far as I can tell. The music stores were well stocked, and I found humor in the flying V guitars, with 80's metal pumping in the background, and older staff with their salt and pepper mullets. The electronics district was just super busy and was store after store of things like network cable, PC parts, etc. To humor me between the sight and sound overload of those districts, Erik acquiesced to visiting a park I wanted to check out. It was so beautiful and peaceful to escape the crowds and concrete for an hour. Because as much as you'd think Japan is an aesthetically genius place to live, it really isn't, save for the temples, shrines, and old gardens you find once in a while.

So it was a quick 5 days and we are looking forward to this much shorter Fall deployment ahead. In the meantime, I am back to searching for neat things to do, hanging with a great group of friends here, and just plain enjoying the relaxed lifestyle.

Why hello there - A blog from ERik

First BLOG for me EVER....here goes.

Well...where to begin. Back in March we set out for a good old fashion summer deployment...seemed pretty simple. 6 months, a fire, and a stop back in the good old US and A later and we are finally back in Japan...but not for long. After our 5 day "port visit" to where we "live" we head back out to sea for the fall deployment and a number of port visits around the western pacific. Don't worry, the fall deployment is only about two months and I will actually be in Alabama for a week or so of it.

Other than the mainly unknown element of our summer deployment, it all actually went pretty well. Before we started trekking east we pulled into Hong Kong and Guam..good times. On our way back to the US, we got to live the same day twice (June 13th) as we crossed the international date line...this was actually a pretty big buzz kill as it make our time at sea one day longer than was on the calender...and in case you were wondering, we dated paperwork 13A and 13B to know which date we were talking about.

Then did a lot of flying in a big exercise off of Hawaii called RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific). And also we were able to stop into Hawaii TWICE, once before and once after the exercise, to get a little R&R and I was fortunate to be able to spend a week of those port visits with Kate. With the exception of a terrible fishing trip...the port visit/vacation was awesome.

At the conclusion of the HI exercise we headed back to San Diego to swap ships. After flying through Whidbey Island for Prowler Ball, we landed in San Diego and began preparing all of our belongings and work spaces over to the USS George Washington (CVN 73). It took the better part of a week to get everything moved over and all of our spaces set up the way we like them...and at the end of the day, we are pretty happy with the move.

I now have 3 roommates in a "4-man" very close to the ready room and wardroom...it is pretty nice. The GW is definitely a huge upgrade as far as size and the quality of the spaces...but there is a part of me that will always miss the good old USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) where I have spend almost 9 months at sea.

I leave you now with a few pictures of my OLD stateroom on the Kitty...standby for pics of my new room in a couple weeks.