Grapes, Hakone and Cheap Wine

Hi friends!

Haven't updated in a couple weeks, so I thought I should.     It is currently 5:00pm and we're going to dinner to the Thai place down the street at 6, when it opens.  I need something that will make an hour pass by quickly, so here I go:

It's raining, so Bryan got really wet riding home from work.  He just looked so funny/pathetic when he came home so I had to take his picture and share.

 In case you didn't know, a typhoon (a hurricane in the Pacific) hit parts of Japan this past weekend.  Her name was Jelawat, which also happens to be the name of a fish native to Indonesia.  She hit the southern little islands pretty hard.  There is a big Navy base down in Okinawa, which is way down there, and I heard there were major issues, including cars being flipped over.  Our base freaked out a bit and closed down, but we just had some squalls (fun new word I learned, meaning gusts of wind) all evening as well as rain.  I didn't see any trees down or flooding, so it wasn't too bad.  We decided to go over to Adam and Jimena's and hung out in their sun room to watch the storm and practice our dance moves by playing Just Dance.  I was undefeated, woop woop!  The next morning was beautiful and super clear, so I got to see Mt. Fuji from base, which is not normal this time of year.

Tomorrow is the Navy Ball!  Wanna hear a sad story?  Okay, since you insist:  I don't own any floor length formal dresses, so I had to find one.  If you're a size 8 or larger in both pants/dress and shoes, finding something to wear is extremely hard here, so I didn't even bother searching for a formal dress in my price range.  I spent almost a whole afternoon looking up dresses online, narrowing down the search to what I wanted to spend, what I liked, and what could get here in time.  I picked out a beautiful one strap Little-Mermaid-green dress, which isn't my normal style, but Bryan and I both loved it.  I have prayed for it to arrive on time and it did, today!   Sadly, I should have also prayed for them to accidentally send me one size larger.  It's supposed to fit a bit snug, but just because it zips, doesn't mean it fits.   Frickin thunder thighs :-(  The rest is really pretty, but its super tight across the thighs, and not in a good way.  If I sat, it would split.   In good news, I have a back up dress.  It's tea-length, so long enough.  And it's a  black halter with some nice beading, so also I think formal enough too.     Pictures will be posted in the next blog!

I started volunteering at the elementary here on base.  It's an American school run by the Department of Defense.  I've only been a couple of days and the front desk ladies didn't have much for me to do, but I've talked to a few teachers and they're more than happy to take me, so hopefully I'll spend more time there next week.   I still haven't received the second part of my background check, so apparently I won't be working as a sub anytime in the near future.   Very annoying.   You'd think that perhaps I could by-pass the super-duper-extensive background check since I've already worked in the public schools for 6 years, but apparently not.

I'm trying to do more of my grocery shopping at the local grocery stores, rather than the commissary because first, it makes me feel like this is my home and I'm not such a stranger to the area and second, the food is so much fresher.   The eggs and milk taste so much better and the produce is fantastic.  My favorites are the pears, which taste like a combo of an apple and a pear, and the grapes.  I still value the commissary, especially for the stuff in the middle of the store like cereal, spices, and frozen stuff.

That is an orange, not a clementine.  The grapes are huge!  They taste like concord grapes and are super juicy.   I think I paid five or six dollars for those.  They were totally worth it. 

Last weekend we went on a sightseeing tour of Hakone, which is southwest of us.   There are mountains, a lake, natural hot springs, and gardens.  On a clear day, you have a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji, which is not too far away, but it was very cloudy/foggy when we went. 

First we went to a shrine surrounded by a beautiful wooded garden area.

They're getting their Shinto on!

Nice shoes, huh?

The shrine was at the top of a hill.

We veered off course of the guided tour and found the neatest trail ever!    It was along the lake and led us to the tori in the water.  So pretty!!

Bryan did a nice color editing job on this picture.

The next part of our tour was a ride up the Hakone Ropeway.  On clear days, the view is beautiful.  On this day, we just rode through the clouds.  And that was cool too.    It's a very long ropeway, but we just rode to the next stop, which is the famous hot springs.

Here are some of the hot springs steaming.

We're holding black eggs, which is what the area is known for.  The hot springs have a very high amount of sulfur in them.  If you stick an egg in the spring, then it comes out black. I've never had hard boiled eggs, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was delicious.

They built up the area around this hot spring and this is where they dunk lots and lots of eggs at a time. 

How fun??  

There are a lot of candies made to look like eggs, including these.  Most of them were a jelly consistency.   They have samples, but I wasn't impressed by them since I have an American sweet tooth.

We didn't have time to ride in a swan paddle boat :-(  Definitely next time!

It cleared up a bit for our pirate ship ride!

After the pirate ship ride we were dropped off in some palace gardens.  I didn't see a palace, but the gardens were pretty.

We found another cool path!   These are cedar trees and are really tall and old. 

The walkway through the gardens with a fun tree.

After returning from Hakone, we had a Hail and Farewell (a social event celebrating those who are joining and departing a command) to go to.  This was was for the clinic officers.  We went out to "Steak and Wine" or "Sticky Steak" as people call it.  It's an American style steakhouse just down the street from base.  The steak came with 2 slices of butter and a ton of garlic (Mmmmmmm!) and a huge carafe of wine was 1000 yen, or $12.50.  So good!

Yay for wine!!!  Our new friends Miriah and her husband Jessee, the pharmacist are behind us. 

Friends! 

 Okay, so this took longer than an hour, which means I took a break and had Thai for dinner.  We met Amanda there (the blondie in the top left of the pic above, wearing a purple jacket).  She's a dentist with Bryan and is so fun to hang out with.  You know how when you take someone to a restaurant that you really, really love, you're nervous that the person won't love it as much as you??   Yeah, I know too, but that definitely wasn't the case this time.  Of course she loved it, because this is an absolutely amazing restaurant.    Delicious dinner.

The soup, in the top left is amaaaaazing!  The broth is a coconut milk and it has mostly chicken and mushroom, but then lemon grass, really spicy peppers, green onion, and some root that has a texture of ginger, but a floraly taste.  I'm not a fam of the root, but the rest is so good.  Pad thai is  in the middle and spicy prawns in a sweet basil sauce is in the top right.  Be very jealous.

In unrelated news, I love Taylor Swift's new single Begin Again, and can't wait until her new cd comes out.  Yes, that does make me feel about 15, but that's okay. 


Hope your Wednesday was as fun as mine was!