Aug 2008

You can now access this website by going to www.globalnada.com. Makes it a little easier to hand out the website address. You can keep going to www.trackers.travellerspoint.com if you prefer.

Sorry for the long time between blogs but reality has hit. I have to work! For a while there I was starting to think that travelling was my job. I need to figure out a way to make that happen. Anyway, I have my own classroom at school and my caseload is starting out at about 20 kids. A very reasonable size. However, I will also be the Child Study Committee chair which means there will be LOADS of paperwork. Any one who has worked with me knows how much I hate paperwork. So, there are pluses and minuses just like with any job. But having your own classroom as a Speechie is pretty fabulous. We are often relegated to closets or worse. We had orientation all week long and I have been introduced to the world of elementary school and teachers. I had just finally figured out how to deal with doctors and nurses and now I have a whole other set of nuances to decipher. That is okay though because I like riddles. If they are doing what I am doing, boy are they in for a surprise I'm an enigma inside of a riddle.

Most of the teachers here have many years of experience. I was told in my HR inservice that there are 50,000 applicants in the DODEA (department of deferense educational activity) system every school year. There are only a couple of thousand positions so the competition is stiff. Needless to say there are very competent people working here. My co-workers have already pointed out that I am the youngest person on staff.

This is Paul. He is the teacher for the hearing impaired and also another speech language pathologist. He previously worked for DoDDS (department of defense dependents schools) in Spain, Azores, Italy, Turkey, and some others that I can't remember. He just came from Zimbabwe to take this job where he was doing missionary work. Did I mention he was also in the Peace Corps? There are just a ton of interesting people like this who have seen the world. I want to be like Paul when I grow up....hehehehe.

Back to Japan. This week we ate at more restaurants including Korean BBQ where you cook your own food at the table. Forgot the camera that day so no pictures. Sorry. I am sure we will go again.

We did go to a Japanese rock climbing gym this week with the Outdoor Recreation Department. It is an hour drive away by car. The programmer for the rec center really likes to rock climb and invited us to go with him in the upcoming months to do some outdoor climbing so hopefully we can make that happen. Here is a pic of the gym. Pretty much like American gyms except that they have about double the amount of routes on each wall than we do in the states.

This weekend is the Friendship Festival on base. It is the one time of year that they open up the base to local nationals and put on a show of friendship for our "neighbors, " (the Japanese). It appears that we have a good relationship with the locals but since the Japanese avoid confrontation at all costs I suppose we will never really know how they feel about us being here. So, they bring out all the planes onto the flight line. This includes both American and Japanese planes as we share this base with the Japanese Air Force. Yokota Air Base is mainly for cargo planes so there are not any fighter jets or things of that nature on this base which is a good thing because those things are noisy and they tend to fly them more. Don't forget we are living within a mile of the flight line. During the week they began to fly in the fighter jets for the festival so it has been cool to see those outside of my window coming in and doing their showy maneuvers.

It rained today so everyone had their umbrellas out. The runway is about two miles long and they had about one mile of the flightline (road next to the runway) open for people to walk on. There were zillions of Japanese people out and about. There was both Japanese and American food stands up for people to choose from. The lines for hamburgers, hotdogs, and pizza were unbelievable. Everywhere we looked there were people stuffing their faces with $10 hamburgers. The Japanese couldn't get enough of them. We didn't even have to wait for Japanese food. There were long lines to get into the planes and long lenses to take pictures of the planes. They have the most amazing cameras. Unbelievable. I never knew hamburgers were so loved. I guess they come to see and experience "America." It was really cool.

People waiting in a long line.

We ate some deep friend sweet potatos from the Japanese stand. They were yummy.

Here I am with my predecessor. Hughey with a huey.

Another funny thing about Japan. When you smoke outside you can't just smoke anywhere. They have designated smoking areas and people actually abide by this rule. Here was the smoking area for the friendship festival.

I finally got to meet Quinn's "running buddies." He has been rubbing elbows with the top brass here for a couple of weeks and I get to sit through hours or inservices and orientations. Sometimes life isn't fair. LOL.

We are still eating, and eating, eating. We found a restaurant that is now in the top 3 places we have eaten EVER. There are many options for eating and the most prevalent are French, Italian, Indian, Chinese, and of course Japanese. The restuarant that we love is a French style restaurant with a Japense chef who wears a really tall chef hat. There are only 6 tables in the place and you get a 5 course meal for about $20. We had soup, salad, main course, desert, and special tea. Here is a picture of the main course.

Today we ate at another French restaurant with 6 or so courses. It is also a bakery with AMAZING bread. Here is a picture of the breads.

Here are pictures of the food we ate. We had an onion soup, a potato/egg/chicken appetizer, garden salad, Chicken with vegetables, ice cream and tea. It was awesome. I can't say enough about the food here. It is rivaling Italy and you all know how much I love Italy. Meals here are similar to Italy in that they take about 2-3 hours for lunch and dinner. I love it.

So, onto the Japanese friend story. While we were waiting to be seated for our meal I noticed two Japanese women signing to eachother. Of course, I am staring at them trying to figure out if Japanese sign language is in any way similar to American Sign language. It seemed like it was somewhat similar but I couldn't really make out what they were saying. (just a side note for those of you not familiar with sign language....it is not universal....all countries have their own versions just like spoken language). At one point we made eye contact with them and some visual humor joke. They whipped out a piece of paper and wrote us a note in ENGLISH!!!! They said they were deaf and I wrote back how I knew American sign language and am a speech therapist who works with children with cochlear implants. They seemed really interested and I tried out some American sign langauge with them with little success. They live near Fussa train station which is about a mile from where we live. Before we left the restaurant they came up with a piece of paper with their email address and asked us to contact them. If you would like more information about Japanese sign language I found this website http://www.deaflibrary.org/jsl.html. I am excited to hear more about the education system for Japanese deaf children. I understand that Japanese children learn English beginning in grade school and many are able to read and write in English but we haven't had many opportunities to test that out so this was our first encounter.

Onto another subject. Yesterday we went to Showa Park with Mark and Molly with their two kids. Showa park is a really imaginative park geared to families as an escape from the city. Here is a picture of a giant cloud/marshmallow bouncy thing for kids. It is really big.

Here is a picture of "misty mountain" where they have mist that comes out and covers these mounds of grass where children cam play and use their imagination that the dragons are coming.

Here is a picture of the dragons.

There are many cicadas here and there was a cicada forest in the park where many had molted and left their shells behind.

They also have a train that goes around the park and a water park as well as many bike trails. It was really hot so we didn't go around the whole park. It seems that many of the places around Japan inspire creativity for both adults and kids. We love it here!

We spent most of yesterday running around completing various trainings and tasks required by the base. We now have driver's licenses and know that all of our belongings will arrive on base by September 18 or sooner. We continue to visit Ethan daily for about an hour. He is really sad when we leave and so are we but it is better than having him in the kennel.

People on base are so nice. We have been renting bikes to get around base and we went to the outdoor recreation department to pay to rent them for a few more weeks and a woman who lives on base overheard us and told us that she is moving to Tucson, AZ and has a bike that she is giving away. She drove us to her house gave us the bike and drove us back to the rec center. There is a very strong community spirit here on base. Quinn tells me it is just like Marshall. No one really locks their doors, kids play outside in the area playgrounds and people actually say hello and start conversations. It is very refreshing. However, with so many children around there are bound to be a few accidents. Yesterday, one darted out in front of me while I was riding my bike and I moved out of the way as to not hit him and fell over. Here is a pic of my injuries. It hurts.

Off of base the Japanese are very friendly too. And very gracious. We went shopping today at the mall because my work clothes are not accesible until we get our apartment (long story). So, needless to say I need to get a few shirts to wear to work. Shopping in Japan is very interesting. The mall near the base is HUGE and three stories tall. There are at least two malls within 3 miles of the base. Each time you walk into a store you are welcomed numerous times by the sales people and they continue to welcome you while you are shopping. When you try something on they bring it into the room for you, unbutton everything that needs to be undone and hang it all up. You take off your shoes before you go in the dressing room or before you stand on a little platform and you put this sheer disposable fabric thing over your head when you put on a shirt so as not to get your make-up on the clothing (I think). Then when you buy something they wrap up the package hand it to you with two hands and bow profusely with more welcoming Japanese sayings. Customer service is HUGE.

We went to a sushi place in the mall. The restaurants in the mall are plentiful and pretty nice. The chefs are in the middle of the restaurant making sushi and it goes around on a little conveyer belt on little plates. You take off the plates you want and you pay per plate. It is a very noisy place and the chefs are constantly yelling about the food and ringing bells and making general hubbub to get people excited and to welcome them. Quite the experience. I wish I knew what they heck they were saying. When you want something you push a button at your table and all the chefs yell something at your asking what you want (in a very nice, playful, fun way). I turned bright red when this happened because I just wanted the check. Here is a picture of the conveyor belt and some scallops.

They have awesome furniture here in the mall. We are going to buy a new dining room table because we didn't have ours shipped. I am thinking of getting a traditional Japanese table and chairs like this one.

On the way to the mall we passed a variety of districts. They basically do not have the zoning laws that we have an agriculture, commercial, retail, and residential are all mixed in together. Here is a picture of a corn field right next to an apartment building. I joked with Quinn about how many farmers have curbed sidewalks next to their fields in WI. The fields in town are about somtimes only about 5000 to 10000 square feet. Here is also a picture of people putting the mats that they sleep on out to dry after washing them. They have really big clips that they use for this.

We also went to a second hand store/ recycling shop. You can buy used items here including bicycles and they also recycle on site. Very interesting place and inexpensive furniture/textiles. You take off your shoes when you go inside and wear these slippers. Quinn was not happy about it because his feet were too big for them.

So this morning I showed up for the first time to run with the Striders running group. I had to be there at 5 am and we were going for a 9 mile run. I had told Kristen that I would run with the group on the way out and then pick it up on the way back if things weren't going fast enough. I was the first one there and within a couple of minutes the first guy rides in on a bicycle and says his name is Ron. As we are standing there up walks one of only 3 Colonels on the base (He is second in charge on the base). I am a little intimidated, but he seems like a nice enough guy. In all there are only 4 people who show up, and through the course of the run I learn that Ron is a Lieutenant Colonel and has been nominated for Colonel (He is on the 3rd rung on the base). Needless to say, I never took the lead the entire run, but I was told I should come by the officers club tomorrow night for food and drinks (there are a lot of people going to the party, it is not just us and the Colonels). They ended up being really nice guys and we had a good time talking but it felt extremely random to meet these guys on a run of all places. Ron told me I run like a gazelle and was sure that I was holding back for him. The other two people to join us on the run were a Chief (highest rank of enlisted men) and a woman who I didn't learn much about yet, but she is around 40 and can run under 8 minute pace for 9 miles, which makes her the most impressive runner in the group of us all.

Well I think it is important to let people know that before I came to Yokota I went online and looked up all the important figures on the base so that I could recognize them if I were to see them. I knew the Colonel as soon as I saw him. I figured I better not be screwing around if one of them were in the area. The sad part is that even knowing what they looked like is only reasonably helpful since I am fairly naive on what the ranks mean anyway.

Just when I thought that was a hell of a way to start the day, I was surprised to see Ron speaking to the group of 100 people (most of them enlisted soldiers and dependents) when we went to our drivers education course. As he is leaving the room he spots me, says my name loud enough for the whole room to hear and then turns to them all and says, "I just ran nine miles with this guy this morning at 5 am. Let me tell you, never get into a foot race with him, he is really fast," and everyone just looked at me wondering who the hell I was to be running with the Lt. Colonel.

Quite the day.

Our new home will be ready on September 10. Until then we are going to continue living in the Kanto lodge. The upside is that we get a daily allowance for food so we are tasting a lot of new foods. So about the new digs. It is in a "gated master planned community." It is a two bedroom one bath and we will have a small yard for Ethan to run! Much more spacious than originally described. There are many amenities including: free gym, indoor and out door swimming pool, auto workshop, community center, personal travel agent, free flights on a standby basis, outdoor rec center, and tours of many desirable destinations and events. Did I mention there is a grocery store, wal-mart type store, and furniture store that are all tax free? The train station is just a short bike ride away and for a small fee you can travel anywhere in Japan. Pretty amazing deal. By the way, this apartment comes with a paying job. Haven't started there yet so we will see how it stacks up but, I think it will be great. Here is a picture of a breakfast joint with an upclose view of the runway. The bakery is to the right in the picture. Yes, you can really get that close to the runway. We were surprised too!

Today we took Dave's recommendation and went to Harajuku. This is a shopping district about 20 or so miles from Fussa and it took us 45 minutes by train and only one train transfer. It probably would have taken 2 hours by car. The train is much faster. These are just rough estimates because I don't really know the area very well yet. The styles in this shopping district are CRAZY and I have a few pictures to prove it. First though, here is the parking lot near the station.

Now here are some crazy clothes and such.

If Brandon Fitzpatrick were here he would love this hat store, I think.

If Bob Morganelli was a truck driver here this is what his truck would look like. This is a coke delivery truck and about the size of all the delivery trucks. Not sure how many times they have to go back to the warehouse to load up....could make for a long day.

Apparently the Japanese are really intrigued by Native Amerian jewelry, crafts, and clothing because we saw about 5 of these shops.

The phones here are absolutely amazing. These are prototypes (I think) of phones that may be released? They are different kinds of instruments. The sticks you play in the air like air drums and it plays music. There is a harmonica phone, a harp type phone, and a flute phone. They all create electronic music while you play. AMAZING. I don't think I am doing it justice with my description. You couldn't play with them in the store but you could listen to headphones to hear how they would sounds. The phone store is called AU and they have a 5 story building with prototype phones, concept phones, real phones, phone characters that you can buy and much more. I know that Dad will LOVE this.

They also have lots of name brand store that I think Tracey would love. They are HUGE.

And it is true. You see many American things for sale for INSANE prices. All of you guys from Arizona are going to get a kick out of this picture. This bag sells for the equivalent of $25.

The name of this store cracked me up. Inside the t-shirts were $60 and up. All the people shopping inside were decked out in the BAPE clothing from head to toe; shirts, shoes, socks, pants. It was incredible. I think it was a hip hop store.

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Here are two cars.....one is a redone original mini and the other appears to be some type of SMART car....at least that is what the symbol looked like.
Both of these cars were located in what appeared to be a fancy housing area. There were single family homes (very rare in this area) and everyone had really expensive cars in front of their houses. Here is a picture of the street and a few single family homes.

More about food. It seems like every blog has info about food. Obviously that is one of the things I love. We got lucky today and the menus had pictures. Which one would you choose?

Here is some food we ate today.

Quinn is loving the desserts!

I tried to get a picture to capture the city streets but it is really difficult.

It was a really fun day. It is very hot here. We are not really having any culture shock yet. I think it is because we get to come back to the base every day and chat with other americans. That really helps. I start work on August 18. Tomorrow we are going to take the written Japan driving test so we can get licenses. We haven't decided if we will buy a car yet. It has been easy so far but it isn't cold either. Let me know if there is something more you would like me to include in these blogs. And keep those comments coming. I like to hear from everyone. AND DOWNLOAD SKYPE. I miss you all!