Mexican food in Japan

Brian and I LOVE Mexican food, and being that we lived in San Diego for 1 1/2 years we really came to like the good stuff. So we have been a little deprived here in Japan. There is a restaurant near base that is pretty close, but it's still not the same. So Brian has been telling me a friend of his on the ship know where a good place is in Tokyo. Well, I of course don't want to get my hopes up so I don't believe him. Brian says, "No, really he's Mexican and he knows what he is talking about..." So of course my response, "Who cares just cause he is Mexican doesn't mean anything, he probably grew up in Kansas" Ha! Well, of course we finally go to Tokyo with this guy and Brian has to tell him I said all that! Turns out he is the first generation to be born in America, and he does know good Mexican food.

So off to Tokyo we go. We finally get to this place (I can't remember the name... La Fonda something something) and they have been bought out for the night by a wedding party. Crap! So Roberto starts calling some people to try to find out where another Mexican restaurant was that he had heard about. While we are waiting for information we start walking towards Roppongi where we think this other restaurant is. Well, the minute someone calls with all the info we needed I look over and see Junkadelic. Hilarious! I took picture before we even decided to go there. It was really good food. It was definitely an adventure too. By the time we got there it was pretty late and by the time we left we were rushing to get back home before the last trains went. Of course we did not make it and had to catch a cab back home... I think we had about 20km to go, which we thought wasn't bad, but it was a bit expensive. Oh well.

I think Shugo loves Brian more

I have no idea how it happened, but it really seems like Shugo loves Brian more. I guess he should cause technically he is Brian's dog, and we all know Sandy loved me more, but that makes sense when she only met Brian in her last few years of life. Anyway, Shugo is a bit popular here with the Japanese people. They all look at him and say... "Ah! Segoy! Oki!" Which basically means wow/awesome and huge! Brian, Shugo and Nichole had a day to themselves cause I had to work so they went to Kamakura and the beach. Brian of course had fun seeing Shugo jump really far. He is a great jumper and can jump pretty darn high.




And yes, this guy liked Shugo so much he was taking a picture of him.

So sweet

Isn't he just so cute! Who needs kids when you have a great dog!
So I was sitting on the computer and Shugo was in the other room. I thought he was just sleeping, but then I heard some weird little noises so when I went around the corner he was in his house shredding his pillow. I guess he got a litttle bored :) Honestly though having it shredded in his house gives him a much fluffier, bigger bed. He really knew what he was doing.

Disneyland!

Here is Nichole with my twin...
Me and Nichole... it all looks the same really...
She really liked me. I am guessing because we both have red hair?? Deep down though, I think she's asian...

So Nichole came here with Shugo and stayed for about ten days. She just left yesterday... While she was here the main thing she REALLY wanted to do was go to Disneyland. So we went. It was a lot of fun and hilarious to see all the same rides in Japanese.





We really lucked out and it only rained on us for about an hour and it was cool cause there was a double rainbow (although you can only see one in the video. Nichole had to dance in it though :)


And of course on the way home 11pm the train in Tokyo is PACKED. It's just the only way to truly experience Japan... Nichole was not too happy to be so close to strangers, it was a little awkward




And yes, the lovely Splash Mountain in Japanese!

Shugo The Beast!

Shugo is finally here!! Yay! It was quit the trip... full of everything that could go wrong did, but by the time I picked him up at the airport he was feeling a little sick from the flight, but happy to be off the plane. He is SO ENORMOUS! Mom, Dad, you guys are completely crazy for telling me that he had not grown very much. I guess when you see him every day you don't notice, but he is freakin' huge! So let me give the quickest run down possible...

Dad drove Shugo and Nichole to the airport Wednesday morning only to find that there was no room on the plane for him. I called and made sure a million times that the size of his kennel, his weight, and everything would be fine, and they said we were set to go. Apparently they did not look into the size plane cause his kennel would not even fit through the doors. So they told them to drive to San Fransisco to catch the transfer flight and go from there. 

On the way, they had to go by Home Depot to get some bolts cause they said the kennel was not up to their standards (even though I asked about that too). They had all kinds of hassles including having to go back to the airport after leaving to get some paperwork that the lady accidentally hung onto. Racing to San Fran they made it on time for Nichole to miraculously get through security in 45 minutes with a dog on an international flight. All this to get to Japan and have to sit on the plane for one hour while everyone gets checked for Swine flu and then to go through more swine flu checks and then customs, and the dog check... all for her to walk out with a very stinky dog. 

Poor Shugo saw me and didn't even wag his tail. He was feeling pretty sick. He had diarhea on the plane and then once they got him out he threw up in his kennel. Nichole said when she got off the plane and went through customs she didn't know where to get him, but then she saw his kennel with a bunch of Japanese around it with mops. He was pretty stinky I must say, but we got him home, washed his kennel, gave him a bath, and let him relax.

By the time Brian got home he was feeling better and Brian got a much better greeting than I did. We are SO happy to have him with us! THANK YOU dad and Nichole SOOOOO much! I cannot get over his size, and I absolutely love it! My neighbors thought he was pretty cool too. So out of all of that we got some good vouchers cause they knew they screwed up. They gave dad and Nichole a couple of vouchers and they gave me a voucher when I called and chewed them out over the phone. And then Shugo got to fly for free. Yay! 

Brian and Shugo after we gave him a bath. He was happy to relax :)

This was me and Shugo once he was out of his kennel. Even though he smelled of dog barf and diarrhea, I couldn't help but hug him!

Natto

So this is Nobuko's family... parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niece. We got to have dinner with them twice which was super nice cause we had never had a home cooked Japanese meal before. Lots of good food. However, below is a video of our very own Fear Factor. They were talking about all this food that foreigners usually don't like and of course they had to bring some out for us to try. So have fun watching the video :) In the video the reason why everyone laughs at the beginning is because the ume boshi is very sour and you usually just take a bite not put the whole thing in your mouth like Brian did...




This video below is the Nato. It is fermented beans.... not too tasty, although Brian seemed to like it :) Slimy beans, Yuck! Go Brian!

Hickville in Japan

So we made our first trip across Japan to visit Curtie and his family. Pretty exciting trip ;) We drove around a lot and saw new places. Brian had never met Curt before so that was good to finally get to know more of the fam :D They had some real good bonding time going to some Onsens and such... So here are a bunch of pics from the trip... there will be more to come, but this is it for now.

Us at Hiroshima.... pretty cool museum and stuff. Nobuko is not in this pic cause she is taking it...

Yes, we of course had to go to a "Joyfull" restaurant :D Pretty good food I guess. Brian got some good free cofffee... he didn't know it was a coffee bar and that he had to pay first. No one noticed except Curt and Nobuko and they of course said nothing until after we left. Oh the innocence of foreigners...

Brian and Curt having some good bonding over smores on a Japanese BBQ. We had a cool picnic thingy at a park with all Curt's English students.

This is a bite mark on Luke's leg from his lil' sis Leah :) She really loves him alot!




Here's the video of the bite... pretty funny. I just wanted to get a video of them climbing the tree together. What a bunch of Hicks.... can't even climb a tree without having some sort of bting problem!


This was a very common occurence on our trip. Leah is in potty training so while we are driving if she says she's got to go we pull over and Curt helps her out... I thin here she got a little stage fright though (who wouldn't with a camera aimed right at you?)



This is just another Hicks spitting at the fish.... these kids may be half Japanese, and are growing up in Japan, but the Hicks blood runs strong through their veins.