Officially ONE YEAR!

So we have officially been here in Japan for one year... kinda crazy. I have not stepped on US soil for ONE YEAR. These are some pics from our long day to get here. It was a really long flight and I definitely do not look forward to doing it again... someday though I will. My favorite part on the plane was that near the end (about the third meal in) we started getting sushi... yikes!

Brian, guarding our bags... with that face who would wanna mess with him?
Me once we arrived in Japan... I don't exactly do well on little sleep, so this is my "I'm tired leave me alone" smile :)
The day after we arrived, we ventured out to see Japan. We didn't get far cause we didn't get any yen and were so starving we had to head back to base where we could use our American dollars...

So... you might ask yourself... what have I learned being in Japan for one year? Am I fluent in Japanese? Let me tell you a few things that I have learned being here in Japan:

- Japanese people are very nice and polite
-They don't like confrontation, but once in a while you will see them honk their car horn (I make it my goal to drive obnoxiously to see how much it takes... no, not really)
-personal space is just not something they understand
-very artistic people in general
-extremely tidy/clean... they freaking sweep their gutters regularly, their gutters people!
-If you are slightly off in saying something (or if the English word is very similar, and you say it in English) they still won't understand you.
-They love dogs, but fear Shugo (in general that is... there are many people who LOVE Shugo).
-Though personal space is unknown here, shaking hands, hugging, and any public affection is rarely seen.
- They will always say they don't speak English (especially if you ask them in Japanese)
-They go out of their way to help when asked (which is sometimes awkward cause if it's not a big deal and they are still trying to help... and I just want to move on with my life...)

Anyway, there is so much more, but I must go. I know I have been slacking here. I have been really busy with work, Brian being home, and photography shoots. Now Brian is gone, and I can focus my energy into getting things done. I have no balance in life. When he is here, everything hits that back burner, and when he is gone, I overload to not be bored (which makes for a lot of stuff hitting the back burner while he is here). Has anyone out there found balance in life? Ever? Is it possible? I am still searching and someday hope to find it...

The Aquarium

So while in Okinawa we went to an aquarium... The Churaumi Aquarium. Apparently it is in the top three in the world. As some of you may know I really don't much like going to the zoo, so why would I want to go to an aquarium right? Well, I heard it was pretty darn cool and I figured if it is one of the best in the world we should probably go. It was cool, but not as cool as you would expect the "best in the world" to be. Obviously there was a dolphin show... below is a pic of the huge space they have. I think there were 3 of those huge whales in there. Tons of fish and that tank was pretty cool.


Outside there was a very nice park, with cool plants. Brian of course wanted to be fed by the mama birdie :)



I really liked the octopus. I thought it was pretty darn creative. These plant creatures were all over the place!

So this was one of our less exciting things we did. We were there for probably 2 hours and then went straight to the beach.... no funny stories from this place.

The Japanese Gameshow

So Brian and I went to this place called Forest Adventure while we were in Okinawa. It was really fun. Apparently these things started in Germany. A lot of zip lines and then in the end there was a fun course to do. Totally reminded us of a Japanese game show as you will hear in our videos. We didn't get any good pics of it, just lots of funny video, so here you go... well, one of the better videos won't upload cause it is too big, but oh well, there is plenty more :)

Fujisan

Sorry your not getting any good images... I really don't want to open them and resize and save to jpeg... to much time will be lost :) But up top is a pick of us at the very top. We found a place that blocked the wind and snuggled to keep warm. Brian bought this $4 Hot Chocolate and it was awesome cause it was a great hand warmer... tasted like crap though. We should've not opened it and just continued to use it to warm our hands. Below is a pic of us at the top. Yay for us. We took approximately 4 hours to get to the top, but that was with a 30 minute unnecessary break cause Brian ran into a friend from his ship and we stopped to chat. Average is 5-6 hours, and fast is 3 hours. I think we did good for our first time.

So there is much to update on, but I will have to do one post at a time, cause I am just not interested in posting about everything all at once... SOOOOO, to start... last Saturday (Aug 22) we climbed Mt. Fuji. It was pretty awesome. Everyone talks about climbing Fuji as if it was something they did once and will never do again. It usually rains on people and isn't much fun, but we lucked out on some great weather! It was pretty darn cold at the top, but we were fine.

A little Japanese for you.... When you meet someone they will generally call you Barkersan (Mrs. Barker). So when I heard people calling Fuji Fujisan, I thought they were funny cause we don't call our mountains Mr. Fuji. But actually San is also another way of saying mountain. So there you go.

Some wise words from a Japanese man on Mt. Fuji... As we were hiking up a man started talking to us in English. His English was pretty darn good and he said, "Hello Mr. Navy!" (Brian was wearing a Navy shirt). We asked him how many times he has climbed Fuji and this was his answer. "Ahhh, many times, yes. Many times. I think Fujisan like pregnancy. After pregnancy my wife say it is too difficult and she doesn't want any more baby, but then after few years pass, she want baby again. I climbed Fujisan many times and every time I climb I think, 'why am I doing this?' and I tell myself I won't do it again, but then the next year comes and I go again. So, Fujisan like pregnancy."

So there you go, wise words from a Japanese man on Fujisan :)

All American Rejects

Yes the All American Rejects came to Yokosuka, Japan for us :) Not us meaning me and Brian... the military... Of course any of you who know me are probably thinking... "Yeah? Do you even know any of their songs?" Well, as it turns out... I did! I just never know who sings crap... now I will forever remember. So, cool thing about the military is this concert was free. It was shorter than a normal concert, but hey, it was free. Below is my friend Lauren. The pics are actually hers. She got a new camera and was going to town with it trying to get as close as possible.

So this video is actually really funny because when they started the main singer was laughing about how he had never seen so many kids near the stage. Young kids, we're talkin' babies. This is a family thing here... hence the "free". So at one point someone apparently lost their two year old and they gave a note to the singers to announce that whoever lost their kid... he/she was found and is over by the drink booth or whatever. He thought it was hilarious. He said nothing like that has ever happened before. I am sure it hasn't and I tried to catch a little video of his talk about it, cause it was pretty funny :)

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!

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!

Driving in Japan

So... I drove around Japan quite a bit this week. First on Monday I drove with my friend Melody up to  Tokyo to pick up her stuff. She is going to be staying with us for the next month before she moves back to the states. It is nice having an extra person in the house, but both brian and I have been really busy lately. Not to mention the fact that as I write this she is locked outside the house and is likely sitting in front of it freezing to death (cause she gets cold WAY too easy) and thinking Brian is on his way. What she doesn't know is that he is still taking pictures at an event and will be coming home with me when I get off work at 10pm. So yay for her.... hope she stays warm. Sorry Melody! Wish we'd remembered to send you home with keys! 

Anyway, so back to my driving story. Monday was not so bad. We got there super fast, but took the extra extra long route home... not sure how it happened but I know most of it had to do with the side roads we took instead of the toll roads. On Thursday though, I went riding (which was awesome!). I drive about 1 1/2 hrs to go ride. Well, some say it takes two hours, but with the route I took and the speed I drove I got there in 1hr 15min.... yay for me. 

Now don't worry mom, I know that sounds like I must have been driving fast and well, let's face it, I was. BUT I was still going slow compared to others. First of all let me just say that the Japanese tailgate like it's a sport, and it seems they do it with no reason. So with that I was a bit confused when I was being tailgated for a while by this truck (which, though I say truck a Japanese truck is really small so no big deal), so this truck is tailgating me and I wanted to get over cause I was in the fast lane, but there was  this car next to me and then the sign (in English) said to slow down cause we were approaching a toll gate. So I am not sure what to do, if I speed up I  could pass the car, but I may blast through the toll gate, or I could slow down, and possibly piss this guy off even more, but then I could get over.... so as I am pondering what to do I am slowing down (opting for what I thought was the better decision), but to my dismay the guy  next to me was also slowing down (on top of the fact that he was in the slow lane), and then I look in my rearview mirror to see this guy literally ON MY BUMPER. I swear he had to have been pushing me! And then as I look he waves his arm frantically like he has a dying person in the back of his car and me being in his way is killing him! So of course this drama led me to panic, I gassed it and got over ASAP only to realize that the toll road was far enough ahead that it was not a problem and that this man was only in a rush because he had a "I don't need to stop at the toll gate" pass.

SHEESH! I think he lost 60 seconds, but it must have been his life on the line... I even have a "I am a new driver" sticker on my car. He should have had more patience with me. So what did I learn? Asian drivers are NOT asian drivers in asia! Americans are the "asian" drivers of Asia. Does that make sense? Hope so, cause I am not going to explain it any  more than that!

I got lost

So this video has nothing to do with me getting lost, but I figured it is a good story to post it with. This is near my house. They were doing road construction on this sidewalk for a bit and it was kinda weird to see their itty bitty machines (Randy and Jon, you would have appreciated this). This video really doesn't do it all justice. 

So we have our own little craigslist kinda thing out here and I posted an ad on it for pet sitting. This lady only needed me to take her dog for a walk 3 times. I followed her to her house to meet her dog and everything. Well, there are a lot of turns on the way to her house and not as many landmarks so I knew I would need her to give me written directions as well. A week later it is time to go take care of the dog. I get off work at 6pm (it is dark) and I get in the car to realize I left the directions at home. I figure I will be fine cause I had been there before... how hard could it be? I live about a 30 minute drive in the opposite direction and I really didn't want to go home first. So I head out. I did all right, or so I thought. I find myself in Japanese suburbia-land. I drove down every freaking street hoping to find her house (that I knew I would recognize). I thought of going home and getting the directions, but that would take me SO long to do! I could do this... wrong. I spent a good 1 1/2 hrs driving around only to go home to get the directions, and then go back to walk the damn dog. Ugh! By the time I got to the house it was past 8:30pm. The poor dog was so excited to see me. She was so good, no pee in the house :) I felt bad so I took her for a 45 minute walk instead of 30 min (which is what I had agreed to). So after all of that, I got home about 10:30pm. It was SUPER frustrating and in the end, the place I was driving around (when I had no directions) was kinda close... and yet totally not. I definitely would have never found it without the directions... it sucked. One thing I learned is that Japanese road construction at night looks like a freaking amusement park. Lots and lots of colorful signs and flashing lights.