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!