We're not in Kansas anymore!: May Adventures: Mt. Oyama, Strawberry Picking, Friendship Festival and More!

Now that it's almost June, it's probably time to write about how we spent the month of May. Speaking of May, this makes me laugh way more than it should:

The end of April and the beginning of May was Golden Week. My friends at Wikipedia saved me some time from writing this myself:

The Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays within seven days. In combination with well placed weekends, the Golden Week becomes one of Japan's three busiest holiday seasons, besides New Year and the Obon week. Trains, airports and sightseeing spots get very crowded during Golden Week, and accommodation in tourist areas can get booked out well in advance.
The national holidays making up the Golden Week are:

April 29
Showa Day (Showa no hi):
April 29 is the birthday of former Emperor Showa, who died in the year 1989. Until 2006, Greenery Day (see May 4) used to be celebrated on this day.

May 3
Constitution Day (Kenpo kinenbi):
On this day in 1947, the new postwar constitution was put into effect.

May 4
Greenery Day (Midori no hi):
Until 2006, Greenery Day used to be celebrated on April 29, the birthday of former Emperor Showa. The day is dedicated to the environment and nature, because the emperor loved plants and nature. Before being declared Greenery Day, May 4 used to be a national holiday due to a law, which declares a day, that falls between two national holidays, a national holiday.

May 5
Children's Day (Kodomo no hi):
The Boy's Festival (Tango no Sekku) is celebrated on this day. Families pray for the health and future success of their sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, both symbolizing strength, power and success in life. The Girl's Festival is celebrated on March 3.

This meant I had several days off from work, which worked out very well since our friends Brittany and Zack came to visit. One of my favorite things about Golden Week was seeing all of the koinobori.

Koinobori are displayed around Children's Day, May 5th. Families with boys fly, "Koinobori　鯉のぼり (carp-shaped streamers)", to express hope that they will grow up healthy and strong. The carp is a symbol of strength, courage and success.

Bryan and I took advantage of the beautiful spring weather and went to Mt. Oyama for a morning of hiking. We took the train to Isehara and then in true Japanese fashion, we took a very crowded bus from the station to the start of our hike. The hike wasn't too bad, but mostly because we took the cable car over halfway up the mountain. We hiked for about 1.5 hours, which included a short break or two. Once we go to the top we took some pictures and enjoyed the view for awhile.

Ema at one of the shrines.

Stairs, stairs, and more stairs.

Outside of Afuri Jinja Shimosa. The children in the statue are pointing to Fuji-San.

Some of the trail towards the middle of the hike.

Almost to the top! If it was a clearer day, you would be able to see Mt. Fuji in the background.

Don't go the wrong way!

We made it!

Us with the view from the top.

Many families pack a mini gas stove so that they can heat water to make noodles for lunch. Genius!

Nice ride, kiddo! Japanese hikers are much more colorful than American hikers. I love their outfits! I will definitely be returning home with some colorful pieces.

The cable car that took us up and down the bottom half of the mountain. Best idea ever.

This next pictures are random, but fun.

Proof that Bryan is really in the Navy. A bunch of the Officers from the clinic were invited to go see the jets and try out the simulators.

More proof of Navy life. This is the view from when I had lunch at Yokosuka after we did some shopping at their bazaar.

You know the fire departments in the US have the tiny houses on wheels that have fake smoke so that kids can practice getting out safely? Well here in Japan, the fire departments have the Earthquake Experience Vehicle too. They have the kids sit on the ground under the table and hold on tightly while the floor shakes. They can crank it up to simulate a 7.0!

We went out for shabu shabu. There is a pot of 2 kinds of very hot broth and you dip very thin pieces of meat and vegetables into it to quickly cook them. The term is an onomatopoeia, derived from the sound made when the ingredients are stirred in the cooking pot. It's an all-you-can-eat kind of dining, but instead of being buffet style, you can just order more using the touchscreen on the table. It was a lot of fun and delicious.

The Friendship Festival is one of the two open-base events. It is mostly an event to showcase all of the aircraft on base. People come from all around to get on base and wait in crazy long lines (I heard over 2 hours!) They also enjoy stocking up on Dunkin Donuts and Anthony's Pizza, two of the restaurants in our food court. They take pictures with the pilots and buy autographed professional pictures of the planes they fly. Many of the commands bring in over $10,000 that day, selling the pictures, patches, hats, t-shirts and of course American food. With the Clinic being our command, we're not nearly as popular, so we just sold chili and funnel cakes. The planes are of course out on the flight line, but then the food and other performances are in the more residential part of base. There was a "flight demonstration" (NOT an airshow, because those have been cut from the federal budget!) this year, so that attracted even more people than normal.

Some drummers from one of the local schools. They put on quite the show.

If you have a few minutes, you can enjoy their performance too.

Apparently the city where I live, Ebina, is famous for their strawberries. There are many strawberry farms where you can go pick them yourself. The AWA ladies (the Japaese Officers' Wives group) invited AOSA, the American Officer's spouse group, to go strawberry picking with them. It's just a quick walk from the main gate of base. I went on the second day, later in the season, so I think it was less than $10 and I could eat all of the strawberries I wish for 30 minutes. They give you a little plastic dish to put the strawberry stems in once you've eaten the good part. The more important part of this dish is the little section that holds sweetened condensed milk. I've used sweetened condensed milk for year in baking, but for some reason I always assumed that it was one of those things that is just not good on its own. Boy was I wrong! It's soooo good! And you can have as much of it as you wanted!