June 20, 2007

Jim and I decided Saturday to find an iris garden in Yokosuka that we'd read about in the paper. It was very warm, so I decided to go Japanese and use my umbrella as a sun shade. It really helped.

We knew we had to take a bus from the Shiori Station. Most buses have Roman letters under the Kanji, but when we arrived there, they didn't. People line up very orderly for buses here, and at the first line I said to everyone, "Sumemisan" (excuse me), which bus goes to the iris garden? One person understood, and said this was it. We got on the bus, and then realized we wouldn't know where to get off. I turned to the person sitting behind us, and she kindly asked the bus driver to let us know where to get off. When we got off, we stood and looked around, and I saw a sign with an arrow pointing to the iris garden, 1.2 km.

It was a nice walk, up and down small hills, through a very nice neighborhood. We sat and relaxed, enjoying the breeze and shade at the top of one hill, where there was a pergola covered with wisteria, and benches. It looked out over a valley of houses.

The iris garden was amazing. it cost 300 yen ($2.80) to get in. The iris just went on and on, and where there weren't iris, there were blooming hydrangeas. Here they had many iris planted in flooded fields, like they plant rice. We'd never seen anything like it. Everything looked so healthy and well-cared for. I took many, many pictures. The flowers of both the iris and hydrangea were enormous.

One funny incident. An older Japanese man saw me taking pictures, and he motioned me over. I went, and he showed me that I should get low to take the pictures. So, I sat on the ground, and, sure enough, got a very nice shot. I'm not agile anymore and we had a good laugh over my getting up and down!

On Sunday, Jim and I had signed up for an MWR tour to New Sanno Hotel Brunch and a tour of the Kirin Beer factory. Of course, the food was excellent, and we enjoyed meeting the people at the table we shared. I always enjoy factory tours,and at the end we got 2 free glasses of beer.

June 21, 2007

Haven't done a lot the past several days. I did spend time organizing our pictures. I'm learning how to e-mail them, which other people seem to know, but not me.

Jim and I have been to a couple of movies at Fleet Theater.

I also bought tickets for another baseball game in July.

June 22, 2007

Still laying low- not sure why.

June 25, 2007

Saturday Jim and I got up at 4:45am. We had volunteered to work at Embassy Day in Tokyo with SRF. We walked over to SRF at 6am to meet everyone.

The first order of business was to chop onions and load the vehicles. The room we chopped onions in was a lounge room in an office building. There was a kitchen area, a dining table, a TV room with sofas. I could only chop 6 onions and I was crying like a baby. The onion juice permiated the air. I had to leave and help load the vehicles. We took a big BBQ grill, sacks of charcoal, lighter fluid, boxes of tomatoes, onions, condiments, paper plates, napkins, sippy cups shaped like animal heads, coolers, lemonade mix, tables and chairs.

Four vehicles went up. Jim and I rode in a van. Most of the men were chiefs in their late 30's, early 40's. There was a terrorism specialist, our age. It was a fun group, only 2 of us women. They were hard workers and big jokers. They made Jim and I feel right at home. Embassy Day is held at the compound where people working for the American Embassy live. It's a very nice place. I don't think we'd have ever seen it if we hadn't volunteered.

It was made to be a 4th of July celebration. Anyone could come, and they had to pay $10 to get in. For that they got free popcorn, cotton candy, beer, soda, water and snow cones.

Many groups besides us were selling food. We sold hot dogs, hamburgers and lemonade in sippy cups. We sold all of our food.

There were bands, door prizes, clowns and Uncle Sam, and motorcycles. It was so much fun to people watch.

We were done at 6pm and got back to Base by 7:30pm. Of course, then we unpacked.

On Sunday, after brunch, we walked over to Kosano Park where they had a farmer's market. They were almost sold out, but we bought a $13 cantaloupe, a small squash and garlic. Fruit is very expensive here, but delicious.

We then took a train to Harajuku in Tokyo to meet Juan. This is the area that young people love to dress up and show off. It's delightful. I had my picture taken with two, and when I commented on what good English they spoke, they admitted they were from New York! We had a good laugh over that.

We're not shy anymore, and we asked a lot of people if we could take their picture, and they loved it, too. We found a little narrow street crowded with young people, lined with little quirky shops. It was raining, and the biggest danger was getting poked by an umbrella. We ate lunch at a Wolfgang Puck Express, and it was delicious. We finally got to our original destination, the Oto Memorial Art Museum. I'm not sure we would have found it without Juan. They were having an exhibition of u-keyo (woodblock) prints. I had bought a deck of cards that Jim and I have been playing 500 rummy with every night, and each card has a woodblock print on it. It was amazing to see the original!

June 27, 2007

Didn't do anything exciting the past couple of days.

Dance class was fun Monday. We worked on the waltz again. Because Jim had been there the week before, another husband showed up. That made it more fun.

Yesterday I did my full workout at the gym. I'm sore today!

We had drinks with Jade and Mike, a fellow from PSNS, on a different project than Jim. It was fun.

Jim and I then went to see Fracture at Fleet Rec Theater.

Bethany arrived back this evening.