Halloween 2008 at Yokota AB, Japan...Tweeko Tweet (my translation of Japanese children saying Trick or Treat!)---and guess how many trick-or-treaters we had???? So Halloween 2008 has to rank as my favorite Halloween so far. Don't get me wrong! I had lots of fun as a child trick or treating, but this was better! Gale took Commander Tim and Ryan (Clone Wars), and "Sleeping Rudy" Kira (that's what she calls Sleeping Beauty!) out trick or treating. I sat on my little front porch, handing out what seemed to be an endless number of trick or treaters. I had heard that there were going to be a lot of kids, but was still amazed at how many showed up!

A glimpse of what it looked like from my prospective....well, actually from our friend Nancy (from med school), who came by to visit!

And....

that is how many bags of candy I went thru in 2 hours! 770 trick or treaters, as I only handed out 1 candy per person!



Air Force personnel could sponsor up to 10 people on the base, and Japanese contracters were able to bring 3 dependents on base, I believe. Since they weren't able to access the west side of base, and didn't really want to go to the apartment towers, all of them ended up in our section of the base. The Japanese kids were soooo polite. "Tweeko Tweet" is as close as I can translate what it sounded like. They all lined up in a single file and politely waited for their turn. Now, the base children...most were just as polite, but others sounded bored, or just cut in line! Nancy and I had a ball just handing out candy this year.

Timothy and Ryan, on the other hand, were a little disheartened and disappointed by this year's haul. Despite having gotten over 80 pieces of candy, this just didn't measure up to the amount that they were able to get while in Troy. Because in Troy...you get handfuls at each house! Here, 1 piece per house! And you had to wait in line!!!!!! So, they came back early, as houses started running out of candy, and they tired of waiting in a long line just to receive 1 piece of candy! lol

Can't wait till next year!

Nancy and Gale before she left--So glad you came by! Nancy was our first visitor from the States! Yay!

Happy Birthday Ryan...and the Japanese Denny's experience

Happy 7th Birthday Ryan!!!!

So, Ryan asked to have pancakes for dinner tonight for his birthday. With the moving fiasco, I did not have a skillet or griddle that would cook pancakes easily, so Gale and I agreed that Denny's might be an option. Connie had even mentioned in one of our conversations that her colleague really liked the Denny's in Japan! After stopping by the ATM for some yen (many places don't take credit cards), we once again ventured off-base in search of this Denny's that we had spotted on the map. We looked, and well, no Denny's. Instead it was some steakhouse. Luckily there was supposedly another Denny's not too far down the road, according to this map. So, off we go again, searching for this elusive Denny's and some good ole American food. And we find it!!!! Yay!

So we walk in, and greeting us, is a Japanese waitress/hostess speaking to us in Japanese. All we could do is say we don't understand and nod our heads. We slide into our booth and are handed the dinner menu....in Japanese....with no breakfast menu!

A sample of the menu...note the top right corner...Historic Menu...?????

We had to laugh!!!! Everything was in Japanese, with only some recognizable foods like udon and soba noodles, and french toast. No eggs or bacon or sausage in sight, although there was sausage on the kids menu (see below). 2 selections of pancakes were visible, though one looked more like a crepe. Hmmmm....what to eat????

The kids menu

So we resorted to just picking what we thought looked interesting. Gale said his looked kinda meaty. Turned out pretty good...some kind of salisbury steak with a Japanese curry sauce, served over rice. I picked something that looked good, with udon noodles on the side, and that Gale would share. Yum! It was like a fried porkchop with fried egg and onions served over rice. Tim ended up choosing udon noodles and what seemed to be pancakes. The pancakes sounded like honey pancakes by the way the waitress repeated Tim's order. It was REALLY GOOD! And it was served with ice cream! He ate so much he said his tummy hurt and felt like puking! Yet, he still had a cupcake afterwards at home.

Ryan, the birthday boy, chose what turned out to be salisbury steak and shrimp tempura, served with rice, broccoli, carrots, potato wedges, and some weird jelly drink. We ordered Kira the same thing. The kids' food was really good, and Ryan devoured it!

Ryan chose the above meal...

This is actually what I ordered.

While we didn't get the pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon we were looking forward to, we found some good Japanese food. It was quite the experience picking out food by pointing and nodding our heads, hoping that what we ordered was gonna be good, and not something strange. Gale said I need to get on the ball and learn Japanese....Easier said than done! But it was a fun experience and we hope to continue to venture out and experience the area around Yokota AB. Next stop... Cainz...supposedly like Home Depot (so people have said), but with bikes, clothes, and puppies and kittens.....

ARGH!!!!!

Ok. It's official. This is the worst AF move ever. After the fiasco with Gale's orders, here's the lastest. Supposedly our unaccompanied baggage (our 1st shipment) with the rest of the kids clothes, most of our clothes, Gale's pro gear, our bicycles, many of our kitchen appliances, dishes, etc, and our blankets and sheets, has been sitting at TMO for the past 2 to 3 weeks. Gale was told it was highly encouraged that we call TMO to see when the shipment arrived. Well, he was told it would not arrive much earlier than a few days ago, so why would we call?

Anyway, Friday, the shipment arrives at my door. I signed a paper saying the crate, with his name written on the outside, was still sealed. The guys open the crate, and my jaw just about fell off! The crate was almost empty. They started to pull boxes out and bring them to the door. I stated that the crate was not ours! First off, I didn't recognized some of the stuff they pulled out. Second, the first box wasn't even on my inventory list!

I walked over to the crate, and sure enough, no bikes...and very short of the amount of stuff that we had packed in the crate. Ours was completely filled!!!!! So phone calls were made to TMO. They would ask the carrier to track the shipment. UGH!

So, I called again yesterday. Carrier still searching. ETA? No idea. Sigh....Our shipment is somewhere in the world with who knows whose name on te crate. Someone we talked to at Tim's soccer game told us that with one of the their shipment was a crate of someone else's goods. And they were asked if they didn't just want to keep it!

Gale's gonna call again today. I'm thinking I will need to make a trip to the shopping mall and buy my kids some clothes.

And...
Happy Birthday to Ryan!!! He's 7 today. Already opened presents from his grandparents and aunt this morning!

Deb told me to blog stuff myself...

No pics, no frills, just trying to get Deb off my back... Eventually I may put some effort into this, but this post is basically a trial. My daughter scares me. She gets incredibly excited over anything "girly." Yesterday at the mall, she proclaimed "a GIRLY store!" when she saw what was, in fact, a very girly store. Same thing with "girly" shoes, "girly" toys, "girly" clothes, etc. The boys and I are truly frightened, so we generally try to slink away when such statement flow from the Kikster. Thank goodness I am not surrounded by the gentler gender like, say, our good friend Matt. I don't know how he manages.

On a different note, the predictions of me towering over the Japanese like a caucasion version of Godzilla are only in part true. I don't feel incredibly huge around here, but on occasion, it does become obvious. Last week, we had a festival on the base where we host a bunch of locals. There wasn't much going on from a medical standpoint, so I played basketball with some of the other medics and some of the Japanese medical volunteers. At one point, one of the Japanese walked up to me an politely asked how tall I was. I told him; he reported it back to his colleagues, and they all seemed to find that genuinely entertaining...

Well, I think I may have bought a few days of respite from the Deb "Blog your own crap!" standpoint. I'll try to do something with pics in the future.

Our visit first to a Japanese mall

So we ventured out for the first time to a Japanese mall. We walked into what we would call the anchoring store first. It was like a Walmart, which kind of surprised us since we were expecting a store like Macy's. As we exited, we realized that some kind of a show was about to begin. Above was Kira's reaction to the beginning! It was a kids' show with some hip-hop dancing something or another (see below photo) And it was loud! The funniest thing was many kids were sitting in front, and no one was really reacting. In the States, we would have seen kids either singing or dancing. Here, nothing. They just politely clapped at the end.

And below, was just really cute. It is their pet store, so we think.

And this photo was taken in front of their "arcade/game center." The kids are posed in front of a claw machine to "win" some ice cream. There were a ton of other similiar machines for a variety of other toys or food. We didn't see anyone "win" anything, and lots of people were playing.

It was really, really loud in there. Actually, it was really, really loud in the entire mall. Not really the people talking loudly, but the music in the game area and the annoucements, or whatever they were, continuously over the speaker. And US goods...really expensive. We saw bags of chips, the 4 or 5 oz ones, for 380 yen, or about $3.60. Yankee candles (mid-sized) 3685 yen! Big cantaloupes...980 yen! No wonder we why we see all these Japanese in the Yokota base commissary and BX shopping!

I've decided that I need to learn Japanese, as no one outside of base really seems to speak English. Even when I have told them I don't speak Japanese, they continue to do so...I just continue to nod. And I also need to learn to read, as I have no idea of recipe instructions or what I am buying at the Japanese grocery store.

So today we are going to try the other mall. Supposedly there is a sport store nearby. We need to get the boys soccer socks. There were none left at the BX. Probably all the Japanes nationals snatched them up... And there's supposed to be a Toys R Us near there too.

My first driving experience

I just returned from driving for the first time on the opposite side of the road...just on base though. I survived!!!! It wasn't too bad, but I did keep turning the wipers on when I was supposed to be using my signal! They are opposite what they are in the US. It'll definitely be awhile before I even attempt to drive off-base!

Ok. I had to post this photo. Others who have seen it thought it was hilarious. Gale towering over the Japanese man to his left! I don't think he actually did...but funny nevertheless!


At the Fussa Tanabata Festival










And he said he saw Mount Fuji this morning while out for his weekly base PT training!

Fussa Festival, Sunday August 10th

The throngs of locals at the festival.

On Sunday, we attended the Fussa Festival, held by the city of Fussa which surrounds Yokota AB. It was a weekend full of food and activities. We were able to try out yakisoba, yakitori, gyozas, some riceball thingamajigs, some pastries, chocolate dipped bananas on a stick, and matt kebabs! Everything was delicious! Not sure what else the festival was about though! Couldn't read the map or festival schedule. Must learn Japanese!
It was fun just being around the locals. There were so many adorable little girls (and other females) wearing kimonos! I so have to get Kira some to wear!!!
In a couple of weekends, Yokota AB will be hosting their own festival, the Friendship Festival. Can't wait for that to come!

Ryan and Tim posing with some funny looking "Power Rangers"!!!!

Ugh... I've got to figure out how to post the photos where I want, and how to delete them if I put them in wrong :P Figures when I go to use the help section, it's down!

Off to Yokota AB, Japan we go!

Here we are waiting for our first flight from Newark to Detroit.

All 3 kids playing the DS and Gale playing his PSP on the second leg of the flight, from Detroit to Tokyo, Japan. The kids did pretty well on this completely full flight. They slept on and off throughout the flight. Gale stayed up the majority of the flight!

Moira NY

Enjoying the pool! Ryan is first in the air.

After NJ, we went up to Moira to see the Tupers. The kids had a blast with the pool. Once Kira got in, she didn't want to come out!

Nanny with the 5 of us after breakfast.

Nana and Poppy with Kira, Tim, and Ryan.

Mom, Gale, Debbie, Dad

My first attempt at blogging!

I started this blog mainly because I found myself typing similar messages to friends and family and was also receiving requests for updates and photos. Friends with blogs have convinced me that this is the way to go!

And email me if you'd like access to our flickr page. That'll have all the photos we've taken.

Here are a few from NJ(above).

Ryan finally learned to ride without training wheels and was riding like a pro by the afternoon!