Weekend Adventures

Friday was Dave's last day, well at least he was there in the morning for a few hours before catching the bus on base up to the airport. It has almost become a joke that when ever someone leaves or is out of the office all the problems come up and work on Friday wasn't full of problems but it did have its full share of meetings, questions, which lead to more questions and a lot of running around. When the day was over I had to admit I was very ready to do nothing this weekend. But I did make a run by the grocery store, to attempt cooking in my hotel room for the first time. Shopping here is always way fun. There are so many rondom things I have just never seen before in the store and if it wasn't for the people looking at me funny there would be more photos of food up on my blog. But I had a recipe from off the web in mind and so with some improvising I ended up roughly with the ingredients and a whole bunch of snacks that I didn't need also. 

Cooking is always relaxing for me. Not sure why it is for me, but I am glad to have the capability here. The dish tasted something close to food I have here, but I wouldn't call it Japanese cooking yet. I did start a collection of Japanese food, both that I cook and also those that I find out and around town. You can see the photos here. 

Having such a full work day I wasn't very energized to get going early on Saturday. So after talking with my wonderful fiance and father I took the train up to Yokohama. It is the bigger city north of here and thought that with the day as nice as it was and looking at a week of rain ahead of me I didn't want to waste the whole day inside. 

Yokohama was booming with people. I was attempting to get to Queen's Plaza where Landmark Tower is located. I had forgotten that there was one extra train I needed to take so after much wandering around in the main Yokohama train station (which is bigger than most malls in the US, filled with stores like Louis Viton and Gucci, yeah in train station?) I did find my way to subway and ended up where I had planned. I didn't mind the wandering and with limited maps it was kind of a safe little challenge to me in getting around all alone. I wandered through the area for maybe 3 or 4 hours, some of the photos are uploaded here, some very similar to ones of the past. 

With all my long and filled days, Sunday was nice to just relax. The church service here in Yokosuka was great, and after service I grabbed a meal at a bento place. Essentially it is like a fast food restaurant that fixes common Japanese meals to go. I picked up a menu too because I pass the place going home from church every Sunday and for about 300 to 700 yen the prices are really good. Maybe a nice little Sunday tradition to pick up lunch from there. The evening was relaxing, more cooking up what I had bought at the store before it goes bad and reading while I listened to the rain fall outside my hotel room.

One Full Night

And actually I am not talking about my schedule but rather my stomach. After work today Dave, two of my other coworkers and myself went to this all you can eat restaurant. For about $25 bucks, you had 90 minuets to eat as much as possible. The fun part is that the place had a combination of different Japanese meals and some you got to cook on the little grill in the middle of the table. Needless to say we worked out a system and always had something grilling and something entering out mouths. There was little talking but I do have to say that I got my money's worth from the experience.

Now I am home and thinking that sleep really is the only viable option for what to do... and it is only 19:30! The time was very fun, and with Dave's last day being tomorrow, I was also glad to spend the last evening with him before his Friday flight. More updates to come as the weeks progress.

First Weekend Travels

I didn't waste any time getting out this second trip back. Dave (my coworker) and I decided that we were going to make the trip out to Hakone. It is this volcanic area which some cool trees, lakes and black eggs. The morning started at a decent hour. Meeting up at 0800 at the JR train station here in Yokosuka. Then our first train change was in Odawara, and we thought it would be a good idea to jump out of the station and check out the local castle. The place was very impressive. It was reconstructed recently and the whole interior is a museum dedicated to the era when the castle was predominant. Tons to see there.

After the short detour, we continued onto the Hakone area. Our first major stop was an outdoor air museum in tribute to Pablo Picasso. Many artists came together to create sculptures inspired by his work. Warning some of the people in the photos are atomically correct.

The rest of the trip was a combination of cable cars, sky gondolas and fake pirate boats. I put up a selection of a few photos from the trip. Some notes, the top of the trip was the sulfurous area where they boil eggs in sulfur water which turns them black on the outside. I skipped this strange food. Seeing them was enough for me. I figured that if the whole area smelled like someone passed gas I didn't need to eat an egg that would remind me of that too. But if you ever needed to fat in public this was the place. After about 10 min at the top you couldn't tell if someone had or not. The hike up and around there was really fun. Kind of weird to think though that they put a tourist attraction on top of an active volcano spewing out toxic gasses...

To end the trip I wanted to see the Hakone guard station. It was drawing late in the day and right outside he gard station most of the shops had closed up but I was able to go into the area where they made Japanese puzzle boxes. The wood worker was very impressive and I was shocked to find a puzzle box that takes 320+ moves to open. I didn't ask how much those were but I did buy another puzzle box from him.

Sunday I took it easy after all the traveling. Nice to enjoy a day to read and stare out over the balcony of my hotel room.

New Abode

Welcome back to Japan! The flight went great and it was nice to not have the new to the area feeling. Actually I felt rather comfortable getting around from the base to my new hotel location, then picking up dinner and groceries. It almost seemed routine. I am of course doing more walking. My hotel is located closer to the base but father from the train stations here in town. I up loaded some photos of my new room. Much nicer place. It has almost 3 times the space, a bigger fridge, microwave and stove top along with all the furnishings needed also. I think I am going to have to experiment more with cooking while I am over here, now to find recipes that I can get the same ingredients here.

Getting back into the work groove was not that tough either. I don't seem to have much of any kind of problem with jet lag and have been able to function pretty well in the office. Many people are surprised at how quickly I came back and it is nice to see some familiar faces.

Today my coworker Dave and I are going to Hakone which should be a fun trip and I will make sure to fill everyone in on the details.

Lots of love to everyone back home. - Nikku

Here We Go Again!

My time in the states has been too short. Actually it has been under 4 weeks that I have actually been back and already I am headed out again.

My flight leaves today at 1329 out of Seatac Airport and it is another straight flight right into Japan. A quick train or bus ride down and I will be returning to what is becoming a second home. So far it looks like this is going to be another simple trip. I am in a different hotel, so new pictures of it will come. I will also try and organise my new photos online so everyone can have them separate from the last trip.

I have a three day weekend in this trip and don't know yet what I am going to do with the extra day off. I have been thinking of some different places. Maybe norther Japan, or going to the south, or even spend the weekend in the town just outside of Tokyo that is filled with ninjas....

Thanks to everyone for following along, I am looking forward to this trip and I will keep everyone posted as the days go.