Pictures of some of our Japanese adventures

Now that I got the picture posting thing figured out (I think) I'll finally share some pics from this past week's adventures. Here ya go:

 First, the Japanese toilets- you either love them or hate them. There are some that are literally holes in the ground (picture a man's urinal laid out flat on the ground)- I've managed to skip those so far, but I am sure I will have to brave it one of these days. But sometimes you get lucky, and find the super fancy ones- with heated seats, a flushing sound to cover up any noises you might make, various sprays to clean you afterwards, perfumed spray...they are out of control. I know most people don't put toilet pics in their blog, but prego+exploring Japan=toilet exploration!! 

Daphne and I found the Diamond City Mall. Apparently it has now been renamed the AEON mall though. It is HUGE and we had a good time walking around. Surprisingly, lots of the stores have English names (and there is even an LLBean, Eddie Bauer, Gap and Lush stores inside!) They also have a store on one end that takes up the whole end of the mall and is fairly well priced for home decor, clothing, baby items, etc. It is close to base (requires only 1 turn- I could probably get there on my own!) so I'm sure I'll be back. This is also the place where I experienced green tea flavored ice cream. All I can say about that is...ICK!!!

Very NOT ick was the sushi Brett and I ate the other night. We went to a place called Santa Sushi, and it was YUM!! I am not a big fish eater, and have heard the numerous warnings about not eating sushi while being pregnant. However, I'm in Japan folks, home of the sushi roll- I had to branch out. We just ordered a "sushi snack" as we called it (we were walking home from the train station and weren't all that hungry really, but had to stop in and try a few bites). The place is tiny- maybe 10 chairs around a counter top. We ordered cucumber rolls, shrimp rolls, crab rolls, and fried oyster rolls. Unlike the states, you don't get a huge plate full of sushi- you get about 2-3 rolls per order. But, they aren't expensive ($1.50-$4 depending on what you order). It was SUPER yummy, and we will be back (and if you come visit, I have a feeling we will take you here!) Note the chopsticks in the picture too- no forks to be found in this place! People we have talked to who have been stationed here for a while, or multiple times, all swear this place is one of the best and most authentic and I 100% believe them!!

I figured out the picture thing...

Ok, so I finally figured out how to post pics without them being all scattered and crazy. I went back and added some to a few posts, and I'll post more pics tomorrow on the cherry blossom fest, our sushi experience, etc. No more excuses to not add pictures and no more complaining from you readers that you can't "see" Japan now!

A few cherry blossom pics- and my blossoming belly

Here's my belly at 21 weeks- Brett cut off my head :) but you can see that my gut is sticking out quite a bit these days. We found out in 2 days if that's a girl or boy in there- yippee!

A couple cherry blossom tree shots. These are actually on base, taken by the back gate. The pics don't do them justice- they are really SO pretty!

Thursday is THE big day!!

Yay!!! We got our sonogram appointment scheduled for 9:30am Thursday morning (which is 7:30pm Wed night for those in Texas). Everyone cross their fingers that this kiddo uncrosses it's legs and shows us it's goods! We can hardly wait to go buy something pink or something blue!!! And I can hardly believe I'm far enough along to know what we are having already! If you haven't voted yet- throw your vote in on the poll on the side and I'll let you know after the appointment if you were right or not!!! Wish us luck!

Dinner from a 7-11

Have you ever had your dinner from a 7-11? You might if you live here in Japan. We were hungry, and the Commisary/BX closes at 7pm. We didn't really want to go out to dinner, so we just went around the corner to the off-base 7-11. They sell all sorts of random food concoctions there-it's crazy. A few of them (well, more than a few) are hard to tell what they even are, so we tried to pick things we recognized. I tried a corndog (yup, just like in America although better b/c there is more batter and it is sweet), and a pkg of cheese pizzas (although they put corn on all their pizza here- bizarre). Brett got a "fresh and tasty sandwich" with various things inside- he couldn't really identify them but he is braver than I about eating stuff. He also got a noodle/shrimp dish that turned out to be fettucine alfredo with shrimp on it- he said it wasn't bad for a 7-11 meal. He of course got a few more of his favorite chu-hi drinks (I swear he is going to go thru withdrawl in a few years when we leave) and I got a mint chocolate ice cream bar. There was NOTHING healthy about dinner tonight, but mmmmm....it was good! Who knew you could get dinner from the local 7-11 store? (I'd call it a gas station- but they don't have gas pumps- just the store part and a big parking lot. I think they have the biggest parking lots in Japan at 7-11's!) 

Getting lost, getting Japanese directions, and getting our stuff- a lotta gettin' goin' on!

So the other night Brett and I tried again to go to dinner at a place called "The Wok" just outside the gate near our house. Last time it was full when we went. Wed night we drove by and the sign said "closed on Wed". Wha??? I guess that place isn't meant to be for us. 

So, we kept driving and found another place to eat. It smelled good from the outside, and we realized once we got inside it is a place where you cook your own meat and veggies at the table. It isn't like a habachi grill with a big flat cooking surface. It has like a little round mini-grill on built into the table and you just put the meat slices on it and cook them to your liking. I had a Korean salad, gyoza (pot stickers) and the beef meat that Brett and I split. Brett had the meat, plus some onion soup (broth with green onions in it) and a bowl of some sort of noodle/veggie mix. Oh, and he had a nama biru (draft beer)- he's serious about using my DD status to its full extent! :) All that was only about $35 and it was really good food!

As you can see, if you order a drink, it is decent size. If you get mizo (water) it is microscopic, and it is like that EVERYWHERE here! It has about 3 sips of water in it- crazy!

After dinner, we went to go back to base, but turned the wrong way somewhere, so it turned into another exploration trip. We found a really big Japanese grocery store that we stopped at and wandered thru (there are some REALLY interesting things in one of those stores!) and had to stop at a 7-11 (yep, they have those here) to get directions. I stayed in the car but it was quite funny to watch Brett and the little clerk do this arm motion explanation thing about how to get home. Brett said there were a lot of "hai's" said in the conversation (means yes- they say it all the time!) We were probably 500 yards from base in the end, but everything is so built up and blocked around here, you can't tell where you are, and you certainly can't read any signs for help! We made it back, and laughed about it later. 

Today, our unaccompanied baggage shipment arrived! That's the smaller shipment- mostly baby stuff, a few clothes and some sheets/towels. Our big shipment, with our furniture and the rest of our stuff, probably won't arrive for another few months :( I am ready for it to get here, so we can turn in the temporary stuff, set our stuff up, and really make this place feel like home. I guess my "nesting" is kicking in- I can't wait to decorate and really get settled. But, at least one of our shipments got here so we have some more of our things (I was getting tired of the same clothes out of my suitcase!) I know 3 years is going to fly by and by the time we get all settled, it will be time to turn around and move again, because we already love it here, but I'm still itching to decorate and make this place home (blame it on the baby- I can't WAIT to do that room!!) 

shaka shaka...chicken

This week has been mellow here. It's all good though. Brett hasn't really finished in-processing yet. Instead, he's spent a good part of the week getting caught up on his master's class papers. Oh, what fun. I've been exploring a bit on my own, and with another girl I met here. 

Tuesday, Daphne and I went out the Fussa gate to the Seiyo (say-you) and Daiso (die-a-so) stores. Seiyo is like a big Dillard's I guess, and Daiso is more like an overgrown Dollar Tree.

 

They were fun to walk thru, and although we didn't buy much we had fun looking and exploring. The crazy part- we drove there and parked in the lot. You had to get a ticket to park there (parking is SOOO scarce her) and to get out of the lot we had to pay $9!!! It was nuts- that's the most we spent all day! 

It was fun though. We also went thru the Fussa train station (it is sorta in between the 2 stores) so now I know where that is. 

We also stopped at McDonald's for a snack. We'd heard it was better than the states, so we thought we'd try it out. I ate a pretty American meal- cheeseburger, fries and a drink. Daphne got a "shaka shaka chicken".  It's a chicken breast in  a paper bag, and they give you a little packet of flavoring to "shake" onto it- like shake n' bake. It was funny. Then we got ice cream cones- YUM!

It was a fun day and I enjoyed getting out while poor Brett wrote his paper.