Not Much, How 'bout You?

I did not write this last night as per usual. I went out to eat ramen, and just wanted to sleep when I got back. I have been increasingly tired-the long days are starting to affect me. My back is uncomfortable every evening. I should be stronger than this. The bags under my eyes should be nonexistent-I have been getting a good 7 hours of sleep a night! But we are coming up on the half way point-half way! Hard to believe. I love Japan, I would love to visit and just be on vacation, with multiple days in a row to see things. But I am getting beat down by this work schedule, and the work involved. I got some Japanese energy drinks, so we will see if that helps me get through the daily grind with gusto.

Another long work day, one more microwaved dinner of baby bok choy and udon. The day was beautiful, clear, sunny, and cold in the morning, but warmer in the afternoon. Spending most of the day indoors inspecting, I get mere glimpses of the outside world. I am getting used to the 1700 Taps bugle thing. When everyone freezes in place-hazard lights on, stopping in midstep to salute or place a hand on the heart-facing a particular direction-a flag somewhere? Washington DC? Yesterday we were outside when it played. Down the street a ways was a family out for a jog-the parents facing wherever they face when it plays. Their daughter was on her training wheel bike behind them, inching away as children will do when parents are not watching. She had no interest in saluting. It seemed like the parents said a few words to stop her, but would immediately turn back around. Well, once the bugle stopped, the daughter was about 20 feet away. The parents immediately resumed jogging, and the girl gleefully sped her bike up, laughing, as it seems like the dad was racing her. But just as they passed us, the dad caught up with her, grabbed the front of her bike, reached in her basket, pulled out what looked like her snack of apple slices and threw it into the road where a car promptly ran it over. The girl was shocked, she stopped, then started crying. The dad never even stopped jogging. The mother, said something to the daughter, but kept running as well. We saw them down the road about 10 minutes later. The parents were jogging a good 50 yards in front of the girl on her bike. She rode slowly and her face was so sad. It was such a fascinating glimpse into someone else’s family. I have to admit, I have never seen a father act so ridiculously childish. I wonder if it happens all the time with them, or is he slowly snapping, poised to ruin his child’s life if she is not strong enough. His antics only now reaching a level of intolerable inanity.

This is what I am reduced to. If I have found anything out being here in this situation, is that I do need people I can really talk to. Or even just one. My coworkers are nice, but it is never going to go beneath the surface. We tried one day, but we hit the topic of de-clawing cats, and I said it was a disgustingly cruel and unnecessary procedure, then she proceeded to tell me she has always done that to her cats. But she also said her husband is on my side. Either way, it stopped the digging beneath the surface conversations for a while. Ah well, I will have to survive off of the few comments left here. This is definitely a one-way mode of communication.

I did not make it up in time to post yesterday. I stayed out a little too late on Monday night. I was only going to look for a tool belt and pick up some bread for DL from the Seiyu store (88yen/8 slices!), but I ended up taking the train to Akishima to meet with Randy as he knew of a watch repair store right near the train station. I have been trying to find somewhere to fix my long unused watch. So I met him, fixed my watch for 1200yen, and we went to a “retro” Japanese restaurant a few doors down. What makes it Japanese retro-I still don’t know. He said something about the lights over the tables having the pieces of cloth for shades, and woodwork. I still would not be able to pick one out of a line. Anyhow, they serve okonomiyaki, and izakaya style foods. We had some nama, got their specialty chicken wings, an okonomiyaki, bean sprouts, and cheese wontons. Ted showed up for a few beers, then one of the Japanese abatement guys showed up as he was sleeping at Randy’s place that night. It was odd, three “hafu” (hapas) and me, and of course, I was the only one who did not speak Japanese. The waiter looked at me like I was dumb when I said “wakarimasen” and shrugged my shoulders as I looked to Randy for answers, and Randy promptly answered in Japanese. Oh well, I am getting used to it. We drank a few more beers, talking, and before we knew it, it was 1100pm. Needless to say, I got up late.

On Sunday, I went back to Shinjuku to meet with Steve and grab a can of spray glue we forgot on Saturday night. I convinced Steve to come with me to the Tokyo Metro building observatory. It was a clear day, and I could see Mt Fuji from the train. The expanse of city is as you would imagine it. Seemingly sprawled to the horizon like a bumpy concrete blanket. I could see the Meiji Temple and the park from there and decided to go to Harajuku and the temple. Before I left, Steve and I went to a little yakitori stall for lunch. It was OK tasting, and a complete ripoff. For two sodas, a stick of green pepper, a stick of mushroom, a stick of chicken balls, two chicken sticks, one chicken wing stick, and one pork stick: 2500yen. Normally, I guess you can get that for 1500yen or so. Good thing Steve paid…

Harajuku was a feast for people watching. I went through the narrow street of shops once, and at one point, there were so many people, I could close my eyes and only move my feet, the crowd carrying me along. It was claustrophobic, and the shops were all either for 12 year olds or people who aren’t me. I sat on the side for a while and watched the people go by. Lots of tourists, young Japanese girls, harajuku girls, and what I think were guys dressed as anime characters-long purple hair, makeup, and strange clothing with metal adornments. Maybe I am getting too old for it, but it seemed that the fashions are all in the category of “WTF Are You Thinking When You Put That Hot Pink Hoop Skirt On” for the girls, and “WTF Are You Thinking When You Put That Leather One-sie With the Klingon Shoulders On” for the guys. It was all very interesting, although I was a little sad that no one was there with me to talk about the people passing by. Japan can keep Harajuku, though, once was enough for me. The temple was little better. It was at least quiet in the park. The gravel trails leading to the temple were well worn by the constant stream of people. Tourists, brides, new babies, school groups. The Meiji temple was built in honor of the current Meiji era and its emperor. It was nice, but not as wondrous as I expected a temple to be. Of course I am more of a fan of the Showa era… There was a nice pond with large grassy areas where people were hunkered down for picnics, naps, or reading. Public drinking is completely legal here, so many were drinking-but in a bourgeois way. Couples with picnic baskets, champagne, and champagne flutes, it even seemed that some were posing. The man laying back on his elbows, dressed to the nines, but with his face tilted to the sky, soaking up the sun, the woman, prim and pretty, sitting up, legs to the side, lightly holding her flute of bubbly upright on the perfect pastel plaid blanket, tilting her head and smiling down at her man. It all got a little too J. Crew catalog-ish. Give me the Oriental Trading Company catalog with a little Cabela’s catalog, and that’s what I call a picnic. There was a “museum” which I did not go in because I read it contained items donated by the Emperor and Empress to show their good will and humanity. Not humility, I assume. I got moderately lost leaving the park, but luckily I noticed a tower before I went into the park, so I walked towards it. All told, on Sunday, I probably walked a good 8 miles.


And here is what Don Quijote sells here-

I was surprised that that chain is in Hawaii. Here it is a raunchy tiny chain of stores that sells some clothes, basic needs, crazy costumes, sex toys, and pillows shaped like boobs.

After a challenging week, DL and I headed to Shinjuku on Saturday, as the boss was in town for the weekend. He wanted to have dinner with us and some other business associates/friends. He invited our co-workers, who backed out at the last minute. Perhaps it was because the weather was so bad-the rain was coming down, and the temperature dropped to the low 50’s-or they don’t like us. Either way, we aimed to have some fun. We ended up at a yakiniku place. Korean style. The beef was exceptional, marbled, thin, tender. The pork was OK, and I tried the tongue, and two things that were intestines and stomach, or intestines and tripe? I am not sure. It was chewy, but surprisingly not bad tasting. We had plenty of nama and then lemon sours (shoju and a tonic water like mix). Cigars were smoked, some karaoke was sung, bad English tips were given out to the Japanese, I got “U-no” written in kanji (Language field?), and I became “Mika-chan” to a couple of guys. One Japanese guy who just joined our company said-through a translator-that his sister’s name is Mika, so he feels like he has to call me Mika-chan. Her name means “beautiful smell”. I’ll take that meaning too as I do enjoy the way I smell. I think “Brake-san” is too difficult for the lazy speaker. I could not think of waiting for the trains to start again at 530am with DL, so I got pointed in the right direction, and left for Yokota by myself on the last train. 1100pm in the streets on Shinjuku is rife with drunken businessmen and women. Staggering, laughing, 3 of them vomiting on the sidewalk. The train from Shinjuku to Tachikawa, the transfer point was the most crowded I have experienced as yet. The train attendants actually pushed people in to fit. I didn’t need to hold on to anything to stay standing. I transferred to the Ome line, and waited for it to depart. It was less crowded, with small groups of tired drunk young people. One small group had one guy who was falling asleep standing up, he would talk, then his eyes would roll back, and he’d nod off as his friends laughed. Literally 45 seconds before the train departed, the sleepy guy let go the contents of his stomach and ran like a cartoon, hunched over and very quickly off the train. His friend feebly tried to feign cleaning up, but he decided he had better run after his friend. Luckily there was person and a good 2 feet between me and the edge of his vomit. About 8 of the people on my half of the car fled like scared mice and presumably hopped into the next car. I moved down, not having any time to flee. I could not smell anything strong at first, and luckily I had not drunk that much, so I had to laugh about it. I stood by the doors so I could get fresh air at every stop. I was next to a guy who fell asleep with is head against the door. He was impressive. Like a marionette. His head lolled, his arms were slack, but he stayed upright for the most part. Every 10 seconds or so, his knees would buckle and he would dip down, then come back up, still asleep. He did this amazing puppetry for about 10 minutes, until he finally slumped all the way down to the floor, his head between his knees, and dangerously close to the opening door. I watched him while getting my whiffs of fresh air at the train stations. By the time I got to the Fussa station, I had been assaulted with more vomit at 3 different station stops-the doors would open, I would push my face out to breathe to cool fresh air, and not 2 feet from the open door was a pool of vomit-THREE DIFFERENT stations! I had also saved the poor sleepy guys’ umbrella twice from the train car door, as it would shift and stick out of the open door. Needless to say, it was a great train experience.

Guess who owns Seiyu, a chain of big department stores here in Japan?

The Japanese are building a new building for their air defense branch-I guess their only military-and it is of course right next the US headquarters building. So there is fenced off construction site there, and from the street, all you can see are the cranes. There is a Japanese workman waving traffic at one entrance, and at the end of the day the construction workers pile out in work jumpers or baggy pants and tabi shoes. I don’t know if they are steel toed tabis, but I have heard that safety regulations in Japan are not quite as stringent as in the US. I suppose that is why asbestos are still being found in recently built buildings, and the regulation and abatement area is a burgeoning industry.

Anyhow, all during the day you can hear a woman’s voice over a loudspeaker, giving some sort of announcement or warning. The voice is always preceded or followed by pleasant chimes. Once in a while you hear music. Chime music. As we have been spending more time near the site, we noticed that the music accompanies the crane’s movements. There are tunes for lifting, lowering, and turning. One tune is definitely Itsy Bitsy Spider. Today we watched as a rebar basket was being lifted and moved, while the most pleasant version of that song played. There is no other way to describe this, but cute. We did work on the roof of the Headquarters building and we could see the entire construction site from above. All I could think about were the Doosers? Doosiers? Doozers? Do-zours? The little industrialists in Fraggle Rock. A recent discussion concluded that these little guys were refining ore into some sort of addictive/nourishing crystal substance. But that’s another topic. The Japanese site was neat, with neat, clean cranes and machinery. The visible workers were all in work jumpers and hard hats, and no one was sitting around. Not one person. The chime music was playing, and that woman’s voice was pleasantly cutting through the light drone of the equipment. It was the cutest construction site I have ever seen.

Along the lines of announcements, every day in the afternoons, a loud chime rings out and a woman makes some sort of announcement. About 9pm I notice another one. Last night I slept at about 10pm and had nightmares punctuated by what I swear was something being broadcast outside. I don’t recall hearing the announcements that late, but this morning when I spoke to one of my coworkers here, she heard it too. We finally asked the Sergeant escorting us around the Headquarters about it. He had been stationed here in Yokota since 2005 or so, a long time, and he said that the Japanese announcements are off-base, and the afternoon one tells kids it’s time to go home. The later evening ones are along the same lines, but more geared towards adults. Get home, or be safe, etc. I wonder if it is because of the military base in their city, or if other cities have similar announcements. It is odd. Cute, though.

Boxed In

Today I really noticed the fence around the base. It is metal, about 10 feet tall, topped with three rows of barbed wire. You can see the buildings outside the fence, hear the cars, even smell the food. You can imagine the Japanese riding their bikes outside, kids in school uniforms, women and men with surgical masks on their faces, bike baskets filled with groceries. The signs are mostly in Japanese, the roads narrow and filled with tiny cars and pastel delivery trucks. Inside the base, while the driving is on the left, the drivers are nearly all US military. The people are mostly uniformed in various shades of camouflage, the bugle call marks 5pm everyday. The buildings are standard military issue cement affairs, all textured and painted beige. When in uniform, the servicemen and women are all business, polite, nodding, holding doors. After hours, and on weekends there’s a good amount of hooting and hollering, drinking, and a decidedly low brow atmosphere. It is a different world. Perhaps it is because at home the military folks have such a bad reputation off-base, and having spent little or no time on base, I have only ever seen them as a threat. I also have reaffirmed my disdain for “protocol” in an organized , mass setting. Stopping in your tracks, even in cars, during the bugle call, leaving cell phones and cameras out of certain areas, signing in, can’t go there, can’t go here, avert your eyes, wait here, stay in my line of sight…The TV in the room also plays almost all military oriented ads. From detecting heat stress and suicide prevention, to buckling up in the back seat and checking yourself for testicular cancer. There are also ads on foreign adoptions and appearance in public and abroad. It is all so overwhelming. Life on base is as insular in a foreign country as you can get.

Hardware

I have started to write these entries at night. I have my beer or plastic cup of wine, Fox and Friends on the TV, the day is behind me, and I have more time to catch up on my google reader in the morning. I think that yes, it is certain, the jet lag has worn off. I struggled to get up this morning. Ah well, all good things must pass. I just need to sleep earlier.

Today was a tiring, but interesting day of work. We started to tackle a secured building-a headquarters building with the General’s office. We are required to have an escort at all times, and before we entered certain rooms, they had to “sanitize” the area, or hide all confidential stuff. Probably nudie mags and manga. We are apparently the first contractors allowed everywhere. Pretty cool. Some people seemed haughty and rude, pointing out that this was sampled, that was sampled, why do we need to sample. Some were entirely amicable and accommodating. Some made the same tired cracks about getting lawyers because they have been breathing hazardous materials for 2 years. The oddest guys were in the super secret- no phone or cameras allowed- basement and vaults. They were really talkative and happy. We go back Thursday to finish up there.

This evening, DL and I were tasked with getting spray glue from the hardware store. He drove and we went off-base. The place was called Joyful Honda. It was crazy-like Home Depot meets WalMart meets Daiei meets Petco meets Homeworld meets a nuclear explosion, AND there was a full supermarket attached. We ogled. Grabbed spray glue-prohibitively expensive here-and went into the market. I jumped right in. I needed veggies. Mizuna, broccoli, baby bok choy, apples, oh my. I can tell you, I am not missing any food from home. I just wish we had stoves so I could cook meat or fish…the pork and beef look amazing, the fish is so plentiful. Ah well, some microwaveable sekihan, tsukemono, and miso soup packets, and all told I got me lunch for a week, veggies for a week, plus juice for my fiber, and only 2600yen. DL bought about two dozen of these tiny containers of Japanese peanut butter. He loves the stuff, but it is mostly sugar. We ate at some soba diner on the way back-higashi upon and 6 pieces gyoza for 500 yen. We only went for one can of spray glue…I will try to take my camera next time we go, but we heard that at another department store in Fussa, they will scold you if try to take pictures inside.

Yes, if only 7-11 in Hawaii was half the store 7-11 is in Japan. I got my dinner from there tonight. We had to use the copy machine there, and I could not resist the myriad of Japanese foods. Bento from Hawaii’s favorite-karaage chicken, to hot oden at the counter. Oddly enough, there were manapua looking things in a familiar steamer on the counter, but I did not see what fillings there were. The cold case had salads-cabbage, soba, somen…oh my. There was a bento with only sausage, one with what looked like fried chicken gizzards. 98yen packets of tsukemono. Musubis galore. I decided on a salad with lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cabbage, plus a veggie cup with 3 sticks of daikon, 3 cukes, 3 carrots, 4 leaves of cabbage, and one leaf of lettuce with a cup on top of dressing. I also could not resist a sekihan musubi as well. Next time, maybe the yakitori stick and oden and a microwaveable pizza toast…I finally got a hold of some much needed psyllium which I forgot to bring with me from home, so all is well in the-er-plumbing department.

This morning I had some trouble getting up, so I am wondering if the jet lag wore off. Too bad-I was thoroughly enjoying being able to sleep at 10pm and getting up with no problem at 430am. Ah well- up to this point, I usually am on the computer at about 530 or 6am Japan time, about 1030-1100am HST until about 715am here-not much, but if anyone wants to g-chat during that time, that’s when. I also have a microphone/headset for g-chat voice-but be warned-I am in desperate need of a good laugh, so if the funny isn’t coming I will go invisible on you. Just kitten.

Laundry is done. I miss all of you.

A couple of pics from last time-the battle on the Fuefuki and my soba meal. I had about 4 of those baskets with the noodles...

Daytripper

We had a half day of work on Saturday, so we took off to meet Randy and see our office in Sagami-ono. I struggled for a while at the machine to add money to my train card, then I saw the “English” button. The Fussa station is fairly easy to navigate as only two lines come through. We got off at Tachikawa, transferred to another train, got off at Hachiooji, and then Randy said Kawasaki-san and he were just going to drive to Hajiooji to pick us up. He instructed us to get off the train, leave the station, and start walking around, they would find us. We did that. Inevitably, when Randy called and we told him we were at Daiei he did not know where it was, and had us walk back to the train station. Eventually we got to the office. It is a tiny apartment. I went into my first 7-11 in Japan. I wish 7-11 in Hawaii had half the prepared foods they have here. It is a drunkards 2am dream come true. Every kind of pre-packaged baked good, bentos, musubis, yakitori…I did not eat anything then, but there is a 7-11 right off base and I plan on having a few meals from there. Instead we ate ramen. The noodle shop was run by a guy seemingly obsessed with America. The pictures on the wall were of 50's drive-ins, Easy Rider, and a HUGE glossy photo of a few motor bikes outside of a Japanese bar. The broth was the richest broth I have ever tasted in my life. The noodles were a really firm type. It was a pork broth. I ate the noodles, but I swear I could feel a goutbreak coming on, so I did not drink much of the broth. I think Randy said the broth was “tonkotsu” or something. My lips were left sticky and the need to eat dissipated for about 5 hours.

The plan was to meet up at a gathering of an abatement company at an izakaya. They had a few new employees and were celebrating. The place was tiny, smoky, and everyone was past drunk by the time we got there. They have 4 hapa employees. Two are brothers who are Okinawan/white grew up in Okinawa, and spoke not one word of English. On the other hand, one of their new employees, hapa also, grew up at Yokosuka, and speaks Japanese like a 2nd grader. Odd mix. It was fun, although it turns out Randy gets horrendously obnoxious when drunk. That is not fun. We made it back to base before the trains stop running. It was easy to see once we were on the train to Fussa, it was filled with military folks.
We had to get up early, as we were invited to go out and see a sort of war re-enactment out in Fuefuki. Not really my idea of a fun time, but it's different, and away from the base. A Japanese contractor drove us, and we went through beautiful valleys and a lot of tunnels. We stopped at a rest stop that happened to be in peach country. Peaches will not be ripe for a while, but a farmer was there having people sign up if they want to be notified when the peaches are ripe. He did look straight out of soko ga shiritai-the kind of farmer who has his faithful dog, and sings to his peach trees. We then met a plumber at a mall and he took us to the areas specialty soba restaurant. This was the best meal I have had so far here. By far. Best soba meal I have EVER had. They of course make buckwheat soba in house. We all had the soba tei-shoku. The noodles were all you can eat. Fresh, chewy, tasty, perfect. The tea they served was some sort of roasted deal that made regular tea taste like contaminated water, the tenpura awesome. Even the rice was special. It tasted sweet, like a mild sekihan. Tsukemono…even the chicken gizzards and beer were tasty (thank god for allopurinol). It is difficult to describe how wonderful it is to eat that kind of food.
We went to the re-enactment festival on the Fuefuki river. It got hot, apparently around 90F. The build up to the battle was slow and I was nodding off, but it was interesting after they finally stopped doing some sort of roll call. A German guy got up and spoke briefly in German, and for a second I had thoughts of a secret Axis meeting. It was easy to see their favorite fair cuisine. There were 3 yakisoba booths, 3 takoyaki booths, 3 chocolate-covered banana booths, a dried pasta booth, and kebab booth among others.

We went through the Japan's "Napa", and stopped at a winery briefly, and then I passed out until we pulled into a rest stop. An incredibly busy rest stop. There were food vendors, a huge crowded shop with omiyage and food, a dog park, people, their dogs, a Pocky the size of a fire log, and a guy selling moss and bonsai. So surreal. We then sat in traffic for about and hour and a half, but finally back at base.

The weekend restored a little of my energy, as the base seems to sap it. I am excited to shop for food off base at the japanese supermarket, I think I will go today after work. I am trying to find some sort of happy medium with myself. I treid in the beginning to be myself, and that just wasn't flying. I got a lot of blank looks and, "I'm sorry, did you say goonies?" To which I have to avert my eyes and mumble something about not minding me. I need some kind of reaction here!!! We will see how it goes today.

Fox Blues

It is still cloudy, but warmer than last night-it must have dropped to 50F. It was nice to be able to use a jacket though. I have no new pictures today. Apparently we are "ahead" of schedule with work, but it is little frustrating that all but one of them seems happy with that. I should clarify-we don't have substantial access to any buildings today because it is Saturday and many building managers are off on Saturdays. So my teammate and I are frustrated because we want to always have sampling to do. We want to go extra strong and hard in the beginning, finish the work, and be able to relax towards the end. Not just accept that we are ahead and relax now. There is too much potential for disaster ahead. But what can we do at this point.

We went to eat sushi last night, and while it was a genki style joint that the haoles call "screaming sushi" here, I was hoping it would be better than genki. It was. They had fresh fresh aku (katsuo). Lots of it. They would bring a fish out, slice it up, and ask if you wanted one before it went on the sneezecatcher conveyer belt. They had fresh flounder, the ikura was good-but the best part was the price. Plates ranged from 100yen to 400yen. The ikura was 250yen! The most extravagant one I had was one piece of fatty yellowtail-330 yen for one piece. Fatty yellowtail-hamachi on steroids? Because the color was this amazing marbled pink. It was like taking a pat of butter and putting it in your mouth. I got three of my dining companions to try one salmon egg apiece. No one could say it was bad. They even had a sushi that had half ikura and half with what looked like scraped salmon flesh. It was beautiful. Along that line, they even had one that had half crab, half crab miso. If I ate the miso, I would have tried it-but I don't. I am glad i stocked up on gout meds, though. This is not the place to be held back by gout. I would have to eat steamed peas and carrots from the Officers club buffet for every meal to avoid goutbreak inducing foods.

Well, time to catch up on my US news online. Fox news is really crawling under my skin, so I stopped watching it for news.

Slowly

The temp dropped a few today-it is cloudy and rainy. I am glad because it was downright hot yesterday. The cherry blossom tree I took a picture of in the morning was wilted and beaten down by afternoon. I thought I was in Hawaii, except the inside of my nose is dry and prone to blood-seeping abrasion. My throat sometimes feels like I have a razor blade lodged there, and water won't always get it down. I hope I will adjust to the dryness, or suffer 5 more weeks of a mummified head.

Yesterday's inspection went slow. We broke up into our two teams and had a four story dormitory each. Our way and the other company's way clashed. I knew they had a different system, but I thought it might be as effective or maybe more so than ours. Not true. It is difficult to get them to see the value in our way, but after yesterday they may have seen the light, and as of last meeting may be willing to try it today. We worked from 730a-720p yesterday, and did not finish the building. DL was frustrated because he is used to going so fast and he could not figure out why we were going so slow. It's a learning process. We just have all never worked together before, so the kinks need to be worked out, and the rhythm found.

I was extraordinarily thirsty after work, so we finally were able to meet up with our Japan coworker, randy. He grew up here at Yokota, so he gave us instructions to a certain place off-base and we met him there. Sidewalks and streets are so narrow and quaint in Fussa. We went to an okonomiyaki place. Tiny, unassuming. Randy ordered us "nama", or draught beer, and two dishes. It is a cook it yourself place-there is a definite technique to it, and randy did a good job. The first one was the basic okonomiyaki-batter with beef, cheese, cabbage and bunch of other little chopped up bits. Cooked to perfection on the griddle, doused with what tasted like tonkatsu sauce, sprinkled with katsuoboshi. You take a serving, put more sauce, maybe some mayo, nori and you have yourself a pretty delicious "pancake". The second was "special" I don't recall the name-it was sticky. you eat it with a metal mini spatula, and you pick your piece up by holding the spatula on it, letting it stick, and lifting it. That one had a more salty pickled taste to it than the other and I ate half of one.

Randy then led us through alleys and buildings to the "red light" district, Bar Road. People from the base are banned there after1am due to a spate of recent mafia-on-military stompings. Apparently there is a decent mafia presence in Fussa. Who knew. Randy said he once saw two military guys being chased up the street by a guy with a samurai sword. As such, I did not photograph the narrow street of bars. Anyhow, he took us for a nightcap at his friends bar. Tiny-9 seats, one military regular in there. It was nice. A few good stories were told, one involving a man in tights, bloodied and torn at the end of the night after tripping in the street because he was drunk and wearing large awkward boots. We were back at the "barracks" by 1043p, and after I walked my face into a low cherry blossom branch, I made it to bed. Overall a decent day.

First Day

Yesterday was the first day of work. We got our base passes so now we can come and go as we please. Attained some floor plan drawings, our cohorts got their rental vehicles and practiced driving on the left side. I have to resist saying wrong, because here it's not-but when you say right side, it is not only literally true, but-in my mind-the only way to go. :) Glad I am not driving. The cohorts from the other company are really nice. I think we will get along just fine. DL seems withdrawn much of the time-I think he is uncomfortable that everyone speaks "proper english". So far he latched onto the filipinas working at Burger King, the food court, and one of the housekeepers. He is OK sometimes, but I wish he would speak up more-especially when it comes to work-as he has more experience in sampling than I. Ah well.

Last night we had dinner with all the other company's folks. They drove off-base to a sake factory. They assured me another 1st time Japan visitor that there were Japanese choices available. Well-they served italian food. Of course, you have your uni and tomato cream sauce pasta, but that's about as "Japanese" as the menu got. However, the place is a 400 year old sake factory and microbrewery. The facility was nice. I wish it had been daylight, as the cherry blossom trees in the courtyard still had blossoms! Anyhow, I ate a salmon and rapeseed blossom pizza. The salmon on the pizza was actually aweseome-it was pacific salmon belly! Yummy! Rapeseed blossoms? well as far as I could tell its the mystery green stalks in korean soups. It was tasty, but J, the other gal who is in Japan for the first time, and I were disappointed that it wasn't more "japanese" Slightly. We shared their seasonal sake-and it was delicious. It tasted how you would imagine the cherry blossoms would smell. Light, crisp, sweet. Oh yuck-listen to me. It was good, and I needed a drink.

Tonight I hope to possibly meet up with out coworker here and eat maybe at okonomiyaki. He grew up in Fussa, and I think can take us to a less haole place. I withdrew yen from the atm here, but didn't get to use it yet-so maybe today.

What is weird is seeing the Japanese in a new light. Previously they were only awkward tourists. Here they are regular people making livings. Construction workers, cops, waiters. It is strange to be somewhere and be the non-native speaking tourist. However, it is true so far-the Japanese are the most respectful and polite people.

First Impressions

Good morning from Yokota Air Base! I hesitate to call this a "blog", at least not the the traditional sense. I have always bristled at blogs just a bit. But I am using this as a chance to keep everyone in the know about what I am doing, eating, and seeing. This way-if you have absolutely no interest in any of those things, you need not come to this site. That being said, I will try to keep the entries descriptive-but concise and interesting-if you like recaps of 6 days a week of building material sampling, with a picture of a soba set thrown in.

We arrived, coworker Daniel and I (call him DL from now on), yesterday (Tues Apr 14) at noon. We had a few hours to kill at the airport before catching a DoD shuttle bus to Yokota Air Base. Not bad considering we had a heck of a lot of luggage and it took us a while just to get from spot to another. At the airport I used my first public toilet in Japan-without getting too graphic-I did use the "buttock spray", fake flushing sounds, and "maximum deodorizer". Why this is not in the US I have no clue. Along the same lines, I also ate some noodles at the airport "food court". 830yen for a bowl of hot soba and a bowl of shoyu egg on rice-donburi? Anyhow it was tasty, and they gave a giant wooden ladle. I hope that was to drink the broth or else I looked like a peasant at the rivers edge. I have put the picture here I hope.

So at 4pm we were departing Narita on the shuttle bus. Gray gloomy weather. I saw a few dots of cherry blossom trees, but much of the landscape looked like maybe the Carolinas or even central/eastern washington state-two different climes, i know, but from my memory thats all I can pull out. One big thing-in all the industrial areas we drove through-hardly one speck of grafitti. Also, many many gardens all seemingly with green onions.

We drove through Tokyo-awesome! It looked like NYC, but cleaner. What was odd was that all the office buildings next to the highway had clear untinted windows, and no shades, or shades open. It was about 5pm when we went through and everyone was still working. Every window was like a snapshot into the life of salarymen and women. There was no indication of what kind of work they were doing, just people and computers. Meetings, dinner breaks, working at computers. It was surreal. I definitely cannot wait to get into the city.

I could tell when we were nearing the air base-the shops started to have pictures of Tupac's face on the signs, diners with american food, a buy/sell furniture store with a giant permament sign saying something like, "Are you relocating? We will buy your furniture!" That may have been the name of the shop. Alas, we arrived at Kanto Lodge, our home for the next 6 weeks. Internet is only the the main lobby. We are in a separate building across the street. It's a third floor walkup. But we do have a freezer/fridge, microwave, coffee maker, and toaster. It's basically a hotel room. Not bad. There is a TV, and at first glance of the channel guide, it seemed like I was gonna be relegated to Fox News, but before bed I checked again, and CNN Asia is available, as well as japanese channels and almost all the basic US cable channels. So I will be watching only Fox News-but by choice. :)

That was a little lengthier than intended. But my brain has been processing a lot in the last 24 hours, so that was just opening the bilge. I will attempt to put some photos here.