Fresh Food

Please forgive me for neglecting my blog.  I have taken tons of pictures and have a million stories running through my head.  In my mind I have to have a story and it has to come out just right.  My mother's advice is to break it up into short stories, those of you who know me, KNOW, I can never give a cliff note version of ANYTHING!  So, I ask that you bare with me as I continue to learn my way through this blogging forest of do's and don'ts.
 
Food is definitely a need.  Living in a foreign land can have it's drawbacks if you can't read or speak the language making it hard for one to find a grocery store. However, working on a military installation allows us to shop at the commissary where fresh produce is much to be desired there.  Produce currently offered is shipped over from the US leaving it not so fresh.  A recent acquaintance took me a local Marafuji supermarket, a chain. I was quite impressed with the produce, but not the prices.  Potatoes here - $8.00 for about five lbs, tomatoes - $7.00 for four, broccoli - $4.00 a head. But they are FRESH. 

Through David's work we met a wonderful couple, Skip and Leigh Bennett, who have been a big blessing in helping us find our way around  the local area. Skip, is a science teacher and his wife, Leigh, is a Japanese national and domestic goddess, such as myself. 
 I was so excited when Skip and Leigh invited us one Saturday to go the farmers market with them.  I couldn't wait..it was our first time doing something off base and with new friends, e-e-e-e... how exciting!!  They took us to the Akigawa farmer's market, which turned out to be about a mile and half away.  I can walk there.  Everything was so nice and fresh, beautiful, and even better, cheaper! There were so many different types of vegetables there.   I haven't a clue what some are, but the japanese love them. There were even fresh cut flowers - lilies, my favorite offered there.  A whole stalk of them for 400yen, about $5.50.  Needless to say, everytime I walk in my house now  a bouquet of fesh lilies greet me at the door!  We even pick up fresh soba and yakisoba noodles here, mind you my stirring technique is still wanting but tastes good.  I was unsure about how to take photos of the produce inside but here are some of the gardens surrounding the market place.  It looks like the countryside but believe it or not this is part of Tokyo, crazy.  It is so crowded here, yet they find space to grow gardens, I love it! The farmer's are so proud of their produce that their name is on all their items sold, and oftentimes you will see them rearranging their produce to catch your eye.  Now I go there about three times a week and the farmers and cashiers are getting used to seeing me - I'm quite tall and very foreign! This is a well hidden secret from the base and I'm thankful that Skip and Leigh trusted us enough to share their secret market with us.

Searching for Fall and feeling like Gilligan!

This past Sunday, David and I were hanging about the house and it was one of those days you ask yourself, "Do you, or don't you leave the house today?"  The morning had been blah and the afternoon was feeling the same... drizzly, windy, not quite freezing, but not too cold. We had planned on biking about town, but I just wasn't feeling it.  I was really missing the Fall season and all the festivities and smells that come with it - Apples, cider, visiting the pumpkin patch with Lisa's boys, and most of the the Leaves. I just love the Fall palette, it's my favorite!

David, then, suggested we take a drive to the mountains.  According to his co-worker it wasn't too far away, and an easy four hr drive. Two there, two back.  Perfect! I was ready and dressed in 45 minutes, really, I was...no Indian Time here!!  We had also thought of springing Oliver from the Kennel for the day but it was closed.  Well we followed the suggested path, ooh-ing and ah-h-ing, and just enjoying ourselves and were well on our way when it ended...hmmmm...that wasn't supposed to happen! So we decided to throw caution to the wind and go left!  This was the first view of Fall that we saw...I was a Happy Girl!!This is in Ome. We stopped the car and walked the bridge to take this spectacular view. My mother used the word breathtaking. I would say it's gloriously breathtaking!!

 After this first stop we were excited to drive further winding round and round, higher and higher, through more tunnels than I could ever have imagined and in awe of the view each turn. We finally, ended up at a dam, and since the sign was in Kanji, I do not have a name for you! Here are a few photos of our view where we achieved our cardiac exercise for the day with a daring mountain walk and jumping.  Jumping  has now become a family tradition to help our cousin, Alex's cause to prove that Jumping Pictures Will Save the World! And if you haven't thrown all caution to wind and jump in public, no matter your age, skill, and audience I would suggest you do. I promise you the rest of your day will be a happy one!!  

 









Did I mention that we I did NOT bring a map? Daring aren't we?  Well not knowing just exactly WHERE we were, we thought we would attempt to read a billboard map of the surrounding area. Off we went, round and round, higher, and higher. It was also getting cooler and cooler!
By this time I'm saying to him, I'm not sure we're going in the right direction? David is saying, "No, it'll be okay, lets just see where this goes". Now for those of you who know me, I have a great sense of direction and I also like to be in "CONTROL".  I was definitely not in control.  I started to pray and ask the Lord to just let me enjoy this ride and for once I was not driving..I was going to learn how to not be in control.  The ride was just beautiful, albeit, nerve wrecking - I was watching the sun quickly setting. We say tiny shrines, walking clubs of seniors that would put the 40 something club to shame, but that's for another time.  We even stumbled upon small baboons, I wish that I had not put my camera away because there they were sitting on the guardrail face-to-face with me.  It was amazing! 

I had finally settled back, nerves relaxed, all was OK...everything was OK. David and I were still oohing and ah-h-ing, all of a sudden, something in the horizon caught my eye. "Is that..? I think...I think that's Mt Fuji?!" I thought it couldn't be we were going the OTHER way. As the view broke again between the mountains...I yelled, "that IS Mt. Fuji!!! We are going the WRONG way!" By then there wasn't much we could do but finish the path we started. We were almost through the mountain pass and crossed our fingers that whatever town we ended up, someone could speak a teeny weeny bit of English.  Did I mention that we didn't bring a map? Just checking.  I have to laugh now looking back; we found out that we were three hours out of our way and the nice elderly gentleman was wonderful in helping us find our way home.  He couldn't speak English but I remembered what my newcomer's orientation speaker had said.   Just say Yokota the way the Japanese do and they'll help you.  We as Americans tend to say it in two syllables instead of three.  Once I said that, the look of surprise on his face, well...it was priceless! A blend of Jerry Lewis and Mickey Rooney flashed through my head as he said, " YO-KO-TA?!! Hai, TOKYO? Hai, oh-h-h-h, far, far away!!  So we outwardly laughed, inwardly groaned, and made our way back home. Our four hour day trip, turned into an Eight hour tour I couldn't help but think of Gilligan's Isle and their three hour tour. I'm so glad we had gas!

Catching up...October.

Where do I start? Ah.. Week 1! - As soon as Oliver and I hit the ground at 7:35 a.m. I couldn't wait to get off of that plane, 2 days is a long time to travel with a dog. I was quite proud of him, he did very well and held his pottie the entire 14hr flight.  Customs was a breeze and Oliver was cleared and approved for entry.  Unfortunately, we underestimated his stay in quarantine. We were counting on the end of November but he'll be released around January 23rd. *tear*  He is quite happy in his kennel and the facility is top-notch. Nonetheless, I still choked back tears leaving him there. It's not quite so bad now, we have a morning routine of a two hour walk, which equates to approx. 4.25 miles depending on the chosen path of the day.  Household goods came the same day we arrived and I was too tired, too wired, to care where things went.  We were so impressed by the efficiency and the professionalism of the Japanese workers. Everything was cared for as it were their own. Our walls were not dinged, they took their shoes off upon entry of the house and removed all papers, wrapping, etc.  Before we left GA, David and I worked very hard at pairing down our belongings before we came. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. According to Japanese standards, we have a fairly decent size housewhich afforded us two extra rooms.  But we soon found out that they were not enough. As soon as the rooms downstairs and our bedroom was set up...the standing joke with the movers was.."Spare room?", "Yes. Spare room." "Garage?", " Yes, garage." Now mind you, our spare room is now our guest/storage room AND we do not have a garage.  David decided to call the small 5 x 12ft patch off the side of the house our "Garage", where our stuff will remain until we decide to buy a storage shed.  The movers did a fine job of filling it up and when they left that evening, I'm sure they had a good laugh at our expense...those crazy Americans!  The rest of the week flew by, I obtained by new ID card, driver's license and learned my way around. I was surprised though that jet lag didn't bother me too bad. Of course, i'm sure it helped that I was sick before I left and self-medicated myself to sleep the entire plane ride over.