Wakinosawa, Japan

On Sunday we traveled to Wakinosawa village to see the Japanese snow monkeys. We have been wanted to take this trip for some time.

I have a difficult time navigating in Japan because my original map of the area only shows the street numbers for the major highways and toll roads, many of the highways and surface streets are depicted with lines just not with any names or numbers. Most of the Japanese roads have numbers. So I bought another map, this one shows all the street numbers. I thought I was on my way, but this map is entirely in Japanese. I thought I could handle it because all the street signs are in Japanese and English, I would just compare the Japanese in my book to the sign. Turns out this is near to impossible to do while navigation. It takes me a good five minutes to determine if what I am seeing on the sign is what I am seeing on the map. So this trip I thought I would be smart, I took both maps side by side, and marked out our trip route. Then I wrote all the road numbers on the English map, numbers I obtained from the Japanese map. I appears to be the exact same map, one in English without the roads being marked and one in Japanese with the road numbers marked.

This actually worked really well. Plus after all this time spent looking at our route I had the whole thing memorized anyhow. Plus we have driven most of this route several times going to various other places. When we went to bed on Saturday night the weather was nasty and we decided not to take the trip. However, Sunday morning at about nine I noticed we had blue skies. I talked the family into making the trip and we got on the road about 11:30am. We even wrote down the exact directions with the KM market at each turn. If we turn in directions to the Family Support Center here on base we can win a prize. We all worked very hard to make sure the directions were perfect. We stopped and had lemony fried chicken nuggets on a stick at a Circle K, so good. We got there in about two and a half hours with no problem.

The problem wasn't the directions the problem was the location. The problem was the destination. Wakinosawa is supposed to be the farthest north that any monkeys live. There are supposed to be 1500 monkeys living here in the wild. These are red faced monkeys that only live in this one little remote town or in a zoo. What we saw was about 10 monkeys in a cement cage surrounded by green netting. These monkeys are supposed to play in the local hot springs, this being how they keep warm in the winter. The only hot springs I saw were man made cement and dried up, filled with weeds. It cost us 200 yen per person ($2) and we took some pictures, haven't gotten them developed yet. Then we drove home. On the way home we stopped and got some yellow flower ice cream from Nanahano it is weird but good. I got the idea I should take my friend Niki to taste the Tofu donuts (which we drove past) and the lemony chicken and the Nanahonoe ice cream and we are going on Friday. The best part of the trip was driving through the forest with the trees beginning to change colors. I am hoping to take some gorgeous pictures on Friday's trip. This little jot will only be about an hour each way and I am hoping to take it during Lily's nap.

Well I guess some trips have to be unsuccessful. You never see anything if you don’t try. I am debating turning in the directions. I want to win a prize but this place totally sucks.

Meme via Angel

Three screen names that you've had:
• marshamlow
• grndragn
• JAM2000Green

Three things you like about yourself:
• I'm analytical
• I'm goofy
• I'm a good mom

Three things you don't like about yourself:
• I don't handle stress well
• I am a recluse
• I don't exercise

Three parts of your heritage:
• Scottish
• Scandinavian
• French

Three things that scare you:
• Spiders
• Ferris Wheels
• Crowds

Three of your everyday essentials:
• Coffee
• Zyrtec
• Chocolate


Three things you are wearing right now:
• Turtle neck
• Pony tail
• Band aide

Three of your favorite songs:
• Mony Mony-Billy Idol
• When Doves Cry-Prince
• Bailamos-Enrique Iglesias

Three things I want in a relationship:
• Love
• Laughter
• Conversation

Two truths and a lie:
• I am a bad driver
• I have a cookie obsession
• I got straight A's in high school

Three things you can't live without:
• My Glasses
• My computer
• My bra

Three places you want to go on vacation:
• Great Wall of China
• Australia/New Zeeland
• Cancun

Three things you just can't do:
• dance
• clean house
• loose weight

Three kids names:
• Mandy Rose
• Lily Anne
• Howard Eugene

Three things you want to do before you die:
• Have a great job
• Get my degree
• Be fit

Three Celeb crushes:
• Sawyer from Lost
• Cole from Charmed
• Antonio Banderas

Three physical things about the opposite sex that appeal to you:
• Hairy chest
• Dark hair
• Dark eyes

Three of your favorite hobbies:
• Internet/Blogging
• Planning trips, navigating trips & map reading
• Cooking

Three things you really want to do badly right now:
• write a blog entry about our weekend trip & develop the pictures to go with it
• insert a list of the blogs I read onto my blogs
• make a 100 things list for my blog

Three careers you're considering/you've considered:
• High school math teacher
• Computer forensics
• Environmental Engineer

Three ways that you are stereotypically a boy:
• I am messy and I don't pick up after myself
• I am direct, I tell it like it is, not good at being supportive
• I like spicy food, fried food & beer

Three ways that you are stereotypically a girl:
• I love babies
• I love shoes
• I like girly movies, like Gone with the Wind, Titanic & Ever After

Some people that I would like to see post this to their site:
• Everyone who reads this, tag you are it

ER

Our trip to the ER last week was courtesy of Mandy and her toe. The week before it was me and my severed middle finger.

I got a call from Mandy saying that the nurse couldn't get a hold of Jeff and that she might have broken her toe. I might add that she did break a toe a couple of years ago.

I didn't have the car, I called Jeff and no one knew where he was, he didn't respond to being paged. So, I woke up Lily from her nap, grabbed some milk and beans and we ran to the bus stop. Lily and I rode the bus to the hospital to find Jeff or the car, not knowing if Jeff had been located and picked up Mandy or if he was still in the dark. So Lily and I walked to Jeff's office where they tell me he had been apprised of the situation and had gone to get Mandy. Lily and I walked out to the parking lot, this taking about 10 minutes as she is not always cooperative. We noticed that that our car was in the parking lot. So we went to the ER and found our family.

Jeff and Mandy were in a tiny room. I knew that Jeff was very busy and had a lot on his plate so I offered to stay with Mandy while he finished up. That is how I ended up in a tiny room full of things Lily cannot touch for two and a half hours.

Mandy was in a wheel chair, ice on her toe, and that pretty much took up the floor space in the room. So after we colored every page of the spiral notebook and read all of our books that I keep in the diaper bag we moved on the plan B. I blew up rubber gloves and we used them as balls, pretended they were chickens, and popped them. One time Lily accidentally squeezed the rubber glove balloon too hard and all the air came out, she looked at the glove, and then looked all around her as if trying to find the balloon or whatever had been inside the glove to make it so big.

Mandy's toe is not broken, but still swollen. She had to miss a volleyball game in Soul Korea. Now this week she really wants to go the the JV tournament in Tokyo, but after practice yesterday her toe was swollen and hurting again. She tried to trick or treat on crutches. She wants to play in this tournament so badly, but her toe isn't healed. Tonight she is trying to practice with the team again, this time with the toe wrapped. They have a three hour practice. I am not sure if i should put my foot down and say no. I don't want her to permanently injure her toe, but Jeff thinks she should be able to make the decision herself.

We will see.

Pixie

Point cursor at picture...

Around now is Pixie's third birthday. I am not sure of the exact date. We got her January 2004 from the animal shelter. Before we adopted Pixie she had been abandoned by at least two families and had been treated badly. Our first year with Pixie was rough. She has never been mean she just has issues.

Now that she has gotten used to us, she is just about the world's best dog. She occasional digs in the yard or has an accident on the stairs, but for the most part she is spectacular. The only weird thing is that Pixie hates Japanese people. Who knew they could tell us apart. Dozens of people walk through our yard everyday. Pixie is friendly to everyone. However, no matter if she is chained in the yard or asleep in the house, if a Japanese person comes close to our home, Pixie has a nervous breakdown. She not only barks she growls and bears her teeth. I think perhaps the person who was mean to her in her past was Japanese.

Over the summer Lily learned to open the sliding glass door and let Pixie out. So I locked it. Then Lily learned to unlock the sliding glass door. This time she let out Pixie, Daisey (cat) and herself. By the time I noticed her missing Lily dressed in nothing but a diaper was about three quarters of the way to the playground, carrying her pink Carebear. Pixie stayed with Lily until I came outside, then it was every man for themselves and she took off in the other direction. So me in my pjs I was running threw the neighborhood trying to catch my stray two year child and two year old dog. Luckily I am faster than Lily and Pixie cannot refuse the temptation of cheese. So if you are ever in Misawa and hear someone yelling, "cheese" that would be me trying to catch my dog.

So happy birthday Pixie, we are so glad you have stopped using our rug as a toilet and our favorite souvenirs as chew toys. I wish that we were smart enough to have told the teenager not to use bleach to clean dog urine out of the carpet. Or smart enough to put our priceless hand painted in gold Egyptian papyrus scroll of King Tut's wedding, with our names written in hieroglyphics out of your reach. Hope that it tasted good.

photo trick

Point cursor over picture to see a neat trick. I learned this trick from here and she learned it here. Thanks for sharing.

Volleyball

The weird thing is that my finger is growing back. It was like a scoop had been taken out of it but now, a bubble is forming. Amazing, I am growing a new finger tip.

Mandy has been playing on the girls volleyball team this year. She is great and I can see a real difference in her self confidence. She walks taller, her head held a bit higher. Those girls really work hard.

I went to a game a few Saturday's back and I noticed that all of the girls were confident. I got to thinking that I don't think I have ever had the pleasure of seeing a room full of high school girls who possesed such amazing self esteem.

I have never really been a sports fan at all, now I get it. It is amazing how much of the world I was missing out on.

Processed Food

What do the following foods have in common? Grapes, tofu, cheddar cheese, bananas, rice, beans, chicken, beef, pork, fish, broccoli, beets, potato

give up? These are all foods Lily eats. Do to her food allergies (wheat, corn, oat, egg, apple, tomato) she has a bit of a limited diet.

What these foods have in common? Cookies, crackers, chips, brownies, bread, Macaroni and Cheese

Yes, they are all foods that Lily cannot eat.

But wait, I found a company that makes all of these foods without any of the ingredients that make Lily sick, so $50 later we had a box in the mail.

But, Lily wouldn’t eat any of it. There is something wrong with my kid she hates junk food. Should I be upset? I have been trying to figure out how to make all this crap from scratch and then when I got it in the mail I was so excited, and yes, it all tasted good. But, no she wouldn’t eat it. She eats tofu plain, but wont eat a cookie.

Board Games

Over the weekend we had some friends over for a game night. I have collection of about 100 board games, things like Monopoly and Risk. My friends brought over a new type of board game which includes a DVD. We had a blast, Jeff and I, we not only lost all the games we barely got any answers at all. But, did I have fun. I can't remember laughing so much. Once I got started I couldn't stop. And I wasn't drinking.

The next day Mandy came home from her volleyball game in Tokyo and she asked me, why are you laughing so much today?

The next day playing at the playground with Lily I was acting so silly that she was almost falling over with the giggles.

I had one of those morning running errands where I ended up driving around for hours. Where we live the speed limit is between 8 and 30 miles per hour. I spent a lot of time looking around and I noticed that the lake was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the mountains. The trees are beginning to change colors. The sidewalks were littered with people, walking dogs, pushing strollers, and joggers. I can't help but love this place.

All my troubles seem to melt away because of a few short hours playing games.

Potato Slicer

I love watching Japanese cooking shows. I cannot understand what they are saying but I can usually tell what ingredients are being added and the process being used. As I watched I fell in love with a Japanese Mandolin similar to this one. I went to all my favorite Japanese stores and found one. I was so excited. I have been using it daily for months. Yesterday, I got over confident, and I lost the tip of my finger. Now I am wondering if this goes in my recycle bin or regular trash. Lots and lots of pain, at almost 24 hours bleeding and it hasn't stopped. I have huge gauze thingy wrapped around the finger. I am typping without the use of my right middle finger. It is amazing how much I use my right hand.

What a baby I am but this has been one of the most excruciating experiences of my life and the ER doctor told me to take Tylenol. This was after I had the wound irrigated with what looked and burned like Lysol. Then they wrapped me up and sent me home. I was up all night. I had another appointment this morning where they removed the bandage and poked it for awhile and then made me wait alone in the room on my own. I just started bawling. I was so scared they would re-irrigate the thing. But, no they cauterized it, which was much worse. They sent me home with Tylenol 3 and I don't have to come back until Monday.

Tanasashi Seashore

Here is a picture of Mandy at the Tanasashi seashore taken over a year ago. Jeff, Lily and I went there Sunday, but didn't take any picutes. This is one of my favorite places to go but we haven't made it out there in ages. Besides the Pacific Ocean and rocks seen here in the photo there is a medatative like peace I associate with this lovely park.

For the first time we took a hike along the three mile trail. Usually we visit the beach or picnic in the park, but this time we strolled along the secluded trail. The day was perfect. Not hot or cold, a wisper of clouds in the sky. We were practically the only ones on the trail. On one side there were tall trees and flowers which walled us off from the outside world. On the other side of us was the ocean. At times there are many beautiful, rugged rocks in and around the water. Some of these boulders even have small trees growing out of them. At other times there are stretches of open beaches. Big crashing waves sounding as we walked. I collected a few shells. I have always found the sound and smells of the ocean refreshing. To be able to partake in such beauty privately while we strolled along a well maintained path is priceless.

This is truely one of my favorite places in the world. Perhaps the beauty is ordinary and it is the privacy that is so enchanting. We would occasionally walk past a family or little old ladies. They all still love our Lily. She was absolutely a perfect angel the entire trip. All told we were away from home over 4 hours. She ran along the big hills and down the trail for a bit but mostly rode in the carrier. We did not force Mandy to come along. She stayed home and enjoyed her weekend of sleep and tv.

Fall is nice here in Misawa. The temperatures are mild. The humidity is gone. The trees haven't started to change colors yet, but soon. It doesn't rain very often. It is just pleasant and comfortable. Plus, having the neighborhood kids is school all day is quite peaceful.

All told a lovely and free family adventure. Hope you had a great weekend too.

Oriase Gorge

Oriase Gorge, Tawada, Japan 2003

Adventure free

Wow, I haven't posted anything in a month. That is because we haven't had any adventures. We tried to go camping, but Jeff ended up going without us. We tried to go to a grape picking festival but a volleyball game took precedence. We have been so busy with our day to day lives we haven't had time to do anything off-base.

I am planning to go to the fish market this week. I am excited about seeing Lily's reaction. I will take pictures. Hachinoe is just south of us and it a huge fishing port. We first went to the fish market when we arrived here in Japan, it was part of the introductory tour. Lily was in my belly at 20 weeks. I was worried about eating raw fish and didn't partake in any of the free trials. I bought what I thought was a cookie but ended up being something made from fish in the shape of a cookie. Most of the fish are familiar, some seemed like they were from a science fiction movie. I will try to get pictures of them.

Mandy is busy with Volleyball. Lily is just getting over being sick. We had to give her fever reduction medicine, which contains corn and now she is done with the virus but still reacting to the medicine. On a really weird note, I have started to get stomach aches whenever I eat something that Lily is allergic to. I think this is phychosamatic, since I have been eating these foods my entire life with no problem. But, who knows.

In November we are going to the Ono festival again. School takes a big bite out of our schedule. I am hoping to visit the Tanasashi sea shore before it gets to cold. We didn't go at all this summer. We only went to the gorge once, hopefully we can go and see the fall colors this year. I also wanted to see the monkeys this summer. Where did the summer go? We still have a bit of time before the snow. I hope we will find the time and energy to go, go, go.