May . Slices of Life

May 14, 2011

We went to eat at this fabulous Hawaiian Burger place down the road from Kamakura Beach. It was so delicious I don't really think we knew what hit us. Mike and I both had the avocado burger which literally had an entire avocado on one burger. It was probably one of the tastiest burgers we have ever eaten. The boys had cheeseburgers and the girls settled for chicken. We will definitley be visiting this place more often during our summer visits to the beach.

May 15, 2011

Andrew came home from school today all excited that he had found a four leaf clover. I was surprised to find that it was still intact and in pretty good shape. What a lucky kid!

May 20, 2011

Well it has been almost a year and I haven't tried sushi yet. I agreed to let Mike take me to a really good sushi go round place right next to the Yokosuka-Chuo station. I told him I would only try the the tuna this time so he started me with the decent tuna and progressively gave me the more expensive and tasty tuna. My last tuna which was the best one cost 380 yen for one piece (about $5). I was surprised that it was actually pretty tasty. I don't think I will ever crave sushi like Mike does but I think I might be up to the challenge to try something else next time.

May 25, 2011

We were really fortunate to find out about this FREE Japanese class for the kids to learn Japanese. It is taught by some Japanese volunteers that also speak English so it has been really easy to communicate with them. I still try and speak Japanese to them when I can. Lucky for us the class is located right outside the main gate of the base on Wednesday afternoon. They have been so good with the kids and at times our kids were the only ones in the beginner class. Some of our friends that also live in Shonantakatori have been attending this class all school year and were in the more advanced class. At first it was hard for Emma but eventually she became more confident. The boys caught on pretty fast and could already write some hiragana and katakana from their Japanese Host Nation classes at school. I love how they teach the kids how to make things with origami at the end of each class. We are so excited to continue on with this class when they start up again in September. I suppose I will need to keep them caught up through the summer.

May 27, 2011

I love how Abby always drinks from the little spray bottle I use to wet the girls hair when I am doing their hair each morning. It has been a great way to keep her occupied and still long enough for me to fix her hair.  She is such a hoot!

May 28, 2011

It was a typical Saturday today only I banned the TV, Wii, and any other computer/video type games for the day. They all had played too much the day before during their day off from school. Andrew seemed to be having an unusually hard time trying to find something else to do so I told him to go get some exercise clothes on and meet me downstairs to go for a run. He was beyond excited. I decided to take him out 2 miles today. It was raining lightly but it felt really good. He ran the entire mile out without stopping which was impressive as part of it was uphill. I was surprised to see that our pace was hovering at the 9 min/mile mark. After a mile I made him stop and drink water before turning around to run the last mile home. I have no doubts he could have done the entire 2 without stopping. We talked about his running form a bit but mainly we just talked about life. It was really nice to have this alone time with Andrew. He loves running and is excited to keep running with me. After some conversations later about his love for running we have decided to start Andrew into training for Cross Country for his 6th grade year. Seeing as the summers here are too hot for kids to run we will pick and choose cool days but start up for real in the fall. Assuming all goes to plan I hope to get Andrew ready for cross country and hopefully work my way into helping coach the middle school boys cross country team in a year. I am excited for the prospect to have another runner in the family and to gain some insight into coaching!

Getting Dressed

There is no need to ever go to the circus when I have Abby around.  She is literally a one kid show with all of her funny ways.  Her latest funnies have included how she loves to be naked after going to the bathroom.  Since she has been potty trained she has been really paranoid about peeing on her shirt or dress so instead of just lifting it up like I have taught her she would just rather take it all off instead.  These days I find that she is more naked than not.  Instead of getting her clothes on right away she loves to roll up in her favorite blanket named, "Whitie." We love generic names around here.  Emma's favorite blanket is "Brownie."  Abby will stay naked all day if I let her.  It's too bad for her that I eventually make her get dressed.  Since she can put on her own clothes I do encourage her after some freedom to get dressed.  I had a fun time watching her today play in her blanket and act super silly as she got on her shirt.  I loved watching how focused she was on getting the button buttoned on her little shorts.  That is still something that is a little difficult for her to do but she is pretty determined to be independent.  I just love her curiosity, spunk and innocence.   

USS George Washington

We had the opportunity to take a tour of the USS George Washington with the boy's cub scout troop while it was still in port. The GW (as it is called here at Yokosuka) has been in port since the earthquake getting some repairs and maintenance work done. Many of our church members are on duty aboard the GW. It was neat to see what it was like aboard this gigantic vessel. We got a tour of the Bridge and the kids got to sit in the Captian's Chair. Then we went into the aircraft command center where they explained to us how they deal with the storage and positioning of the aircrafts and how the process works. It was really fascinating. Next we headed down to the flight deck and got to walk across the entire deck (no working aircrafts are allowed on board while they are in port) and down into the anchor room. We were told that each link to the anchor weighed about 350 lbs. The kids loved being able to be on this big ship and we even learned some interesting facts about the USS George Washington (little Abby was not with us because no one under the age of 5 was allowed on the tour).

-there are more than 5,000 sailors serving on board the GW
-the GW is a mobile airfield that is able to travel more than 500 miles a day and is also a completely self-contained city with aircraft repair centers, medical and dental facilities, gyms, stores and even its own television station.
-there are approx 70 aircraft aboard that provide the ship with tremendous striking power and tactical flexibility which makes this ship the most powerful weapons system in the world today.
-the ship was commissioned on July 4, 1992
-the GW is propelled by 2 nuclear reactors
-the ship can get up to speeds of more than 30 knots
-the flight deck is 257 ft long
-the height from keel to mast is 244 ft (equal to a 24 story building)
-there are 2 gigantic anchors each weighing 30 tons

Ninja Restaurant

After hearing good things about some of the theme restaurants in Tokyo we decided to give the Ninja Restaurant a try. Since this dining experience is not for those that are trying to go cheap we decided to leave the girls with a babysitter and take the boys for a little date night with mom and dad. We drove to the New Sanno, parked the car, and rode the train to Akasaka. After walking out of the train station we were bombarded with Japanese protestors who were not happy about the Chinese President that would be arriving the next day. Good thing we only had to walk across the overpass to get to our destination. We were greeted inside by a lady Ninja who showed us through dark tunnels, a draw bridge, and finally to the main area of the Ninja lair that housed lots of different private rooms for eating. The beginning was so exciting that we knew the rest of the evening was going to be awesome. We had our own little private tatami room with a table in the middle and a space under the table for our feet to dangle. Our server Ninja brought us the menu that was essentially a Ninja scroll...how cool. We looked over the menu and decided that the boys would order something off the a la carte menu while Mike and I each ordered one of the set menus. The food was absolutely amazing and even Andrew and Peter loved their dishes. Andrew had cold udon which he loves and Peter had a chicken dish served over a little tiny grill. Our set menus came with a variety of courses, all of which were so tasty. Some of them were cooked right in front of us with crazy fire and Mike's soup was cooked with a large hot stone. It was fascinating to watch. I had a Ninja salad which was a salad in reverse. It was a large crouton on the outside with the salad part on the inside. I thought that was so clever. All of our appetizer dishes were so tasty but I was not prepared for the pure awesomeness of my main dish. The meat was so tender and the asparagus, potatoes, and mushrooms were delectable. I am drooling just writing about it. After our main course we were presented with a small grapefruit ice ball to cleanse our palate before eating our sushi tray. I was so proud of myself for trying ALL of the sushi on my dish. My favorites were the tuna and the salmon. It's a good thing I had just been with Mike to the sushi go round to eat sushi for the first time since being in Japan this time. It wasn't as hard this time for me to just be brave and try it. We even got Peter to try a bite of my tuna sushi and he didn't spit it out so that was positive. Andrew wouldn't touch it.

After we finished eating the Master Ninja came to our room to show us some magic tricks. He was really good and being that close I still couldn't figure out how he did some of them. The boys were so enamoured by it all. On the way out we headed to the really nicely decorated bathrooms. I had to take a picture because it was so unique and there was a giant arrangment of fresh flowers including lilies which I love. After leaving the restaurant we were once again greeted by our server Ninja who whipped out a sign that read, "Please come again." After all the money we dropped in one meal I am sure it will be awhile before we come again. The boys asked us at least a couple of times during dinner when we could come back again. The food and entertainment was so ridiculously good that I can't wait to return.

*all photos taken with my handy dandy iPhone!!!