Mad Ninja Skills?

So we moved into our new house on Yokosuka!  It was a week full of packing our stuff and relocating.  It is amazing how one can move from one house to another with near identical floor plans and still need to spend over $300 bucks at the exchange!  Oh well.  It is all worth it, especially for the boys who are now walking distance to the schools and all the after school activities.  

Amie and I have done this moving things a few times with the Navy.  We have an unwritten system that I think has contributed to our collective sanity thus keeping our marriage intact.  I roll in first getting the big pieces situated and most of the boxes unpacked and out of the house in order to reduce the clutter of boxes, paper and bubble-wrap.  Amie then follows, fine tuning the set up of the room.  

In an effort to keep the backyard somewhat organized, I was arranging the boxes and piles of paper.  We don't have a whole lot of outdoor stuff, some chairs, a bouncy house and some sports stuff, but I tried to move it into the outdoor shed that is provided.  The shed is a large shed with two doors.  After I opened the first door, I had to reach in to unlock the other door.  As I swung open the second door I discovered an inhabitant of the shed.

After shouting the standard "Holy Sweet Mother Of God" and climbing back down off the roof of the house.  I slowly moved forward to see if it was still alive.  You would have thought it was a live Cobra in a killing pose by the way I was moving.  I am not a huge fan of spiders, or as Megamind and I refer to them, Arachnis Deathicus!  I thought it would be wise to get Amie's attention in case I became engaged in a physical fight to the death with this beast, so she could call for back up.  I knew I was on my own when Amie saw the spider and quickly locked the door!

So as to be able to prove the immense size of this monster I stealthily placed a ruler and took a picture, because I knew no one would believe just how large it was!

The battle ensued.  Knowing I was on my own, I quickly fashioned a weapon out of the only material at my disposal.  The bouncing house was too cumbersome, but thank god for all that cardboard.  Using my years of weapons training, I quickly folded a small cardboard box into a poor mans club!  

My thought was to stun the mighty beast by banging on the back side of the door.  Hopefully forcing him on to the grass and out of his high ground (two feet off the deck) advantage.  My prey, however, was massive, cunning and quick.  As I struck the door, he leaped INTO the shed trying to take advantage of the dark shadows inside.  Despite Amie's advice to close the doors and never open them again, I bravely entered the shed to face down this terrible menace.  

As he scrambled for better position, I swung my club (cardboard) and forced him back into the yard.  Holding onto the initiative I swung again and stuck him square on the body.  The mighty blow stunned him and he began to slowly crawl away.  For the death blow, I threw the cardboard box over the top of him providing a 2x2 foot cover.  Then using the best martial arts move I could think of, I jumped up and onto the box.  (You would have thought the cardboard box had turned into a trampoline as I quickly leaped off the box heading for safety.)  As I turned to make sure was hadn't turned into the prey, I heard Amie laughing uncontrollably at me from behind the safety of the sliding glass door.  

I cautiously lifted the flattened box off the spider only to discover he was still alive.  With no other options I dropped the box back on him and proceeded to jump repeated on top of it and hopefully the spider as well.  After 7 or 8 Wrestle-mania type stomps.  I checked again on my prey onto to discover some dismember legs and a squashed body.  In order to remove the evidence from the back yard (like any smart killer would do), I refolded the cardboard box into a makeshift shovel/rack and tossed the body over the fence.  

I will never look at a used cardboard box with disgust again, this one box saved my life.

SUMO...Japan's #1 Sport

During the first week of our time here in Japan, it is mandatory that every adult attend an AOB/ICR, Area Orientation Brief/Intercultural Awareness Training (Don't ask, I don't know why the acronym is ICR.)  It is five days long.  The first two days are standard Navy training...we take 1 day's worth of material and cram it into 2 days!  The last three days of training were great.  It had lectures about the trains, food, chop sticks, shrines, all sorts of stuff I don't remember because I was in a jet-lagged induced culture shock.  Felt like I was looking at stuff through a gas mask while cooking meth (we just started watching Breaking Bad...that's what you do when your TV options either AFN.  Thank you Apple TV).

What I do remember from the ICR is that the Native Japanese Instructor, who went to college at the University of Alabama, was phenomenal, and SUMO is Japan's #1 sport! 

You hear about Japanese baseball in the news, but Sumo truly is King.  It is the equivalent of the NFL!  We haven't been to a Sumo match yet, it's on the list, but we had a great introduction last weekend.

Lila is attending pre-school at a Japanese school out in town called the Seika.  At first it was rough getting used to the new environment but she has really taken to it and is enjoying it.  Last weekend was Sumo Weekend.  It was held on the elementary school grounds adjacent to the Seika.  The playground was your standard setup...soccer field, basketball hoops, playground with swings and Sumo stage!  The Sumo ring is a fixed structure, it was not erected just for the Sumo weekend.

The school hosts a couple of Sumo wrestlers from a local Sumo training school to come out and introduce Sumo to the kids by giving a demonstration.  

The kids spend the two weeks prior practicing their Sumo skills.  The boys actually compete against one another to come up with the top 8 competitors who compete to determine the #1 Kids sumo wrestler of the year.  As a prize, that kid gets to square up one v. one against an actual Sumo!  The Sumo wrestler was great.  Despite his size and skill advantage every kid or group of kids who went up against him won.

 

I am not so sure Lila was impressed with the whole Sumo thing.  She participated and wasn't afraid to square up with the Sumo, but when push came to shove, she chose to push her classmates into the Sumo.

Lila said she had fun, but I don't think she was that into it.  

I think the major problem for Lila was uniforms.

She just wasn't that interested.

What's 'normal life' in Japan?

I think anyone who has lived overseas will confirm, at some point, despite all the new sites, cultural attractions, restaurants etc, you still have to live your life.  As Amie would say, you still have to do laundry, you can't always be a tourist.  The last few weeks has been an example of just that.  While we've still hit some great restaurants in Zushi and Yokohama, we've been really busy in the normal day to day type of things.

Now normal day to day, may sound boring, but even that has been pretty cool, in my point of view.  For example Harrison now is a certified, working life-guard, Amie has picked up a class of Japanese ladies practicing their English while also taking day to day excursions out in town, Lila is taking piano lessons, Ethan survived an end of year history project and Liam has learned to lay down a mean bunt in 10 year old baseball.

Harrison has taken swimming to the next level by becoming a certified life guard.  Not a bad summer job to have, much better than McDonalds!  Besides in the summer heat without our own pool, it should work out great.  I am a little suspicious though...Harrison has worked only a couple of weeks and already has a couple of saves.  One was legit, another lifeguard slipped off the lifeguard stand, cracked her head and started bleeding really badly .  Harrison was the first one there and handled it great.  The other one is questionable.  The pool has a 'Wibit', a large floating obstacle course for kids to play on in the pool.  Part of the Wibit has sections for lifeguards to sit to be in the thick of it in case something goes wrong.  Now, it just so happens that this one 13 year old made her way into the pool, onto the Wibit, got to Harrison's station and then suffered, from "Oh my goodness, I can't swim, please help me!"  Of course, Harrison sounded the whistle, dove in and helped the young damsel in distress to the side of the pool.  Evidently Harrison has quite a following which means there will be a large number of saves this year.

Amie has taken over a Japanese class from a departing Navy wife.  She now has a class of 5 Japanese ladies who will practice their English.  Not a bad gig, sit around and talk about day to day experiences, while learning about the little idiosyncrasies of the English language.  Not a bad way to make "vacation drink" money.  Amie has also been busy taking day trips with a local community group, exploring the local sites.

Lila has really gotten into her school.  We were worried for awhile, when she didn't want to be away from Amie's side, but she is really into school now with hardly any morning drama.  She has started to take piano lesson's once a week after school.  I know my Grandma Brock would be very proud, as both my dad and my uncle took piano lessons.  Lila is just beginning, we haven't heard her play yet, but she is slowly working out the keys and the basic notes "Do, Lay, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do".  (I know it is an old joke, but it is also true!)

I swear to Sweet Mother of Pearl that I am ready for the end of the school 'projects'!  I am not certain what the learning point is supposed to be, if they really want 8th graders to learn, how about a good old fashion paper.  Amie has already passed her high school courses, yet she is continually tested on her ability to clearly display the appropriate information on a tri-board while constructing various things that supposedly generate thought and learning, this time out of paper  mache.  The big drama the last few weeks was Ethan finishing his Horse Pistol project.  This project required a construction of said pistol with a Tri-board of various facts and descriptions.  I won't go into the moronic way the teacher asked for their ideas and then assigned the projects.  Evidently if you are in the last class of the day, you may get stuck with only one or two options.  By the time Ethan got to pick his project his choices were a horse pistol or a gold presentation cane (No idea what that is!).  Someone is the first period was able to pick a lock of hair...really, a lock of hair, I declare Shenanigans.  What a load of crap!  Anyways, Amie did a fantastic job building the structure of the pistol, while "helping" Ethan paper mache.  The one coat of paint Ethan applied was phenomenal...okay, Amie touched up a little bit.  By little bit, I mean sneaking into the kitchen when I wasn't looking to apply a 2nd, 3rd, and I think 4th coat.  By the time they were finished applying the hardware and painting the trim etc, it looked great.  I can't wait to see Amie report card.

The final big news is Liam's baseball.  He is really doing well.  It has been fun watching him develop his skills.  His throwing and catching are great and his batting is getting better.  It's got to be frustrating trying to hit off of a 10 year old pitcher.  You have to dodge the wild pitches long enough to get one decent one.  One game Liam was walked and hit by two pitches, then got a hit.  The last couple of games, he has laid down two awesome bunts. Great stance, even pulling back the batt on a bad pitch, before placing the ball right down the line.  The good news is he is a good hitter in practice when the adults are pitching, but with kids his age pitching, the easiest way on base is to take a shot to the rib cage or bunt!

Kanazawa Zoo and Cup Noodle Museum!

Last of couple of weekends have been great weather and we've taken advantage by going out to the Kawazawa zoo and Yokohama.

The Zoo was a really nice place but somehow they managed to put this zoo on the side of a damn mountain!  Sweet mother of pearl did we do some walking!  Despite the hills and the distance we had a blast.  Lila hung in there walking just about the whole day!  You could say if you've seen one zoo you've seen them all, but as usual, it is the animals that make it different.  This zoo had a large population of kangaroos.  The kids got a kick out of seeing the babies being carried around by the mommas, and the occasional kangaroos boxing, punching each other in the snout, playing around.

Lila really liked the giraffes.  They had 3 adults and one youngster.    

Of course Harrison felt right at home.

After awhile all the kids were getting into the swing of things!

At the end of the zoo, they have a park with a large roller slide and a kids obstacle course...again, both located on the side of a pretty steep hill.  After all the walking around they had plenty of energy for a few runs up the hill.

 

This weekend we took a train ride up to Cup Noodle Museum!   The Cup Noodle Museum is centered on Momofuku Ando.  This gentlemen lived to be 96 years old and is noted for developing the first at home chicken ramen (just add water), the Cup Noodle, and then Space Ramen for Shuttle missions.  It was a pretty cool story of a guy starting with nothing by a small wooden hut cooking up noodles and his determination to the instant noodles right!   Here's a picture of the boys with Mr Momofuku Ando.

Not sure how it fits in to the story of Cup Noodle, but they had one of those "forced perspective" rooms.  If used correctly it could make Lila look larger than Harrison.  I'm not so sure my kids understood the purpose of the room.

Lila was having fun looking through the window back at the camera, and even went for the extreme close-up.  Harrison on the other hand was hamming it up as well.  First he scared off some little kid.  They he went with the angry chimp impression from Family guy.  Not sure who the girl is next to him, but she didn't mind at all with his shenanigans!

Another cool part of the museum is that you get to make your own Cup of Noodle.  You don't get to actually make the noodles themselves, that's another part of the museum, but you can add the ingredients you want and design the cup yourself.  Evidently, using some markers and designing your own label on a white cup is a great way for you to NOT realize that it takes an hour to get through the lines.  The common trend for the ingredients was curry, pork, kimchi and cheese!  "Can I have a little more sodium with mine?  I don't think my blood pressure is high enough."

Lila was all into the assembly line.  She thought it was cool when the lady sealed the cup and put it through the plastic wrap.  

Overall another great day.  Yokohama is a huge city.  We just keep knocking things off the list every chance we get.  On the way home we took a quick walk through Chinatown.  We'll definitely have to make a separate trip back to explore that a little more.

Not your normal birthday celebration

Well my beautiful wife turned a significant age this past May 1st.  I won't say what age, because that's not what gentlemen talk about.  We'll just say it was the Sweet 16th Anniversary of her 24th birthday!
Anyways, in the preps for the big day, I was notified by my favorite aunt on Amie's side that the Champagne family, when a certain age is reached, no longer celebrate just a day, it expands to a month!  Well unfortunately, due to the late notification, Amie only got a week this year.  I'll plan accordingly for next year.

Now normally when such a honorary age is reached a large surprise party is planned and friends and family from all over come to get the birthday person completely drunk in the squadron bar.  Oh wait, that only happened to me.  For Amie we actually did have a few days worth of 'surprises' planned.  It started on the Sunday prior with the boys kidnapping Amie and taking her to lunch at one of her favorite restaurants in Zushi.  Then on her birthday itself, we had the traditional birthday cake and presents.

The big day was a trip to Toyko!  Just Amie and myself.  We went to the Ginza district in Toyko, known for many high end shops and restaurants.  We spent our afternoon walking around the city blocks checking out the various stores from Apple to Sony, with a quick stop at Tiffany's.  It was a beautiful day, there was even a parade.  I would like to take credit for setting it up for Amie's birthday but it was actually an enormous Cinco de Mayo parade!

We closed out the day by taking a train over to Harajaku, which I'll save for another post, and taking a stroll through the Meiji park!  The park is similar to Central Park in New York in that it is a large green treed area in the middle of the city.  The park is home to both one of the largest Tori Gates and a large wall of Saki!  The saki is a yearly offering to the enshrined deities!  I think I like where this is going!  I think my sweet heart had a great birthday.  I mean how many people can say "My husband took me to Tokyo for my birthday!"

 

A Party is what you make it!

Well straight off of a Disney trip and into another great weekend.  This one started with the Submarine Birthday Ball.   The Sub Ball (yes it was a decent time) was held at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo.

But first...for those who don't know, we came out here with the mis-guided, ill-coincieved notion that we would get a house on Yokosuka itself relatively quickly.  The command was supposed to help out, not so much, and then sequestration slowing down transfers and moves has put off our hopes of getting a house on Yokosuka until late summer.  We just hope it happens by then so that the kids will start the next school year in the new house.

Don't get me wrong, Ikego housing isn't that bad.  It actually has some perks over Yokosuka.  It is away from the main base, it has easier access to the trains and it has some great trails and walks.  The main detractor is that it is a 30 minute commute to base.  If you have a car, no problem.  We only bought one car initially because we expected to be on base and would only need one car.  If you don't have a car you are tied to an extremely limited bus schedule, or the daily train.  After giving it the old college try, Essayons for all my Norwich buddies, we caved and bought a second car.

THANK GOD.  Talk about freedom!  This coupled with wearing a flight suit to work has given me hope that we can get through this tour!  The Japan experience is great, the job...we'll leave that for a separate post if it doesn't turn around soon.

Okay so the Submarine Birthday Ball, this proud service which for many years of my career has been a target, has honorably turned 113 year old and even invited me (sort of) to attend the festivities.  For those who thought the zany pre-ball pictures of Amie and me were done when we left Florida...the traditional lives on!

For some reason I felt it necessary to represent my own service and decided I'd go full pilot.  For reference, one should never go full pilot!  It started in the admin room, with shots of Captain Morgans and Patron, hosted by the only other pilot in the command who was actually the overall coordinator for the night.  Great Job Dan!  To my credit, my vision wasn't blurry at this point!  Amie is smiling because despite my best efforts I wasn't the loudest goon of the evening.  Special thanks to Brian, our Intel guy, for that one!  Amie actually looked at me at one point, and in a loving, proud voice said,

"Oh honey, you're not the loud guy tonight."

Oh well maybe next year.

The entertainment of the evening, after a lengthy but interesting guest speaker, was varied.  First off, there is always one guy who thinks he still fits into his Ensign issue cumber bun.  The strength of the cumber bun stitching is phenomenal (glad Amie caught a photo of this marvel of technology)!

Following this feat of strength but before before Amie and I started dancing... 

were the Traditional Japanese drummers.  This clip is only about 30 seconds of a 4 minute session!

 

Alright already, here are some Disney photos!

As I mentioned in the last post, here are some photo's of us in Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea.  Can't say enough about how great the parks were.  We had a blast all three days.  It was also a piece of cake to get there with the trains, little over an hour and a half from our house to the parks.  Once you get there, Disney of course has it's own train that circles the two parks.

It isn't quite like the mono-rail, but it isn't the run of the mill trains either.  They made there own special upgrades from hand-holds to windows!

As always, if there is a Disney park, there is some kind of castle!

 

This castle was great for Lila, when we went inside she had the chance to play Cinderella and try on the glass slipper.

After we dragged the boys, against their will, in the princess castle, we let them loose.

And what better way to spend a beautiful day in front of the castle than by practicing the force???  They even got Lila involved!  I can't say we didn't get any weird looks.  There was almost a circle of spectators watching us fool around!

 

But it wasn't all fooling around there was serious rides and character opportunities.

   

Overall it was a great trip.  Amie never allows anyone to NOT have fun!  I'm sure we'll go back at least once...now that we have a second car!  But that's for the next post!