Stone Sauna…how relaxing became a feat of strength

So there are many ways to relax in Japan.  You can't walk a mile without running into a temple or shrine.  Despite the feeling of crowds and tight space sometimes, the temples are very quiet and respectful places.  Some go to worship, some go to quietly reflect…some of us go to look around an hope not to bother anyone.  That's just what a Japanese local would like…"hey honey, it's a nice sunny day, let's go down to the temple and watch the big American look around trying to be quiet!"
 
Now one method of relaxation we found is the 'Stone Sauna'.  You dress up in what is equivalent to surgical scrubs and go in and out of the sauna.  The sauna is not the typical wooden benches surround a heat source.  This sauna is a room full of dime sized smooth stones like a beach but not sand, larger stones.  The stones supposedly have 'detoxification' qualities.  The room is separated into little bed-like areas with little pillows.  You lay down on the stones wiggle around to get the proper body (butt) implant into the stones and relax.  The stones are heated from below so it is actually very comfortable.  There is a small clock on the wall.  You lie still for 10 minutes then move out of the sauna to a cooling room.  Round 1 complete.

Part of the admission price for a two hours session, they provided towels and a water bottle.  When we walked in the first time, they said "No more than 10 minutes".  Of course Amie and I thought, "10 minutes…easy!"  In a two hour session, at 10 minute intervals, you travel into the sauna 6 times.  After the first trip, we were sitting quietly in the cooling room looking at some of the other "relaxers".  We thought it was weird that they were breathing heavy and sweating like crazy.  I said to Amie, "I didn't think it was that hot."

That is what Karma heard…Karma is a fickle bitch with a twisted sense of humor.  Trip 2 and 3 were much like the first, a slow sweat had started and I found myself refilling my water bottle after each trip. The tail end of the third trip I thought I noticed the air much warmer near the ceiling on my way out, as I held the door open for Amie I thought is would be funny if someone had to crawl out because of the heat.  (Did you hear that one too Karma…I hate her.  Yes Karma is female!)

So trip 4 the clock started to malfunction.  After laying on the ground for what was easily 10 minutes I looked up and supposedly only 4 minutes had past.  I swear the second hand was moving back one second for every two it went forward.  Finally we hit ten minutes.  (Side note, for those of you who are wondering, yes we could have left before ten minutes, but that's not what obsessive, competitive people do…we suffer for no real gains other than to be able to say…Yes i did…idiots.)  So with this relaxing, session done I tried to get to the exit quickly.  Two things happened during this exit that I should have taken as a sign to go a little easier.  One, chivalry went out the window…if there was a damn window in this heat box.  Amie can get her own damn door.  I am a foot taller than her, heat rises so I am getting hit more than she is.  The second was my vision of the little Japanese sauna attendant, whose job it was to open the second glass door leading into the cooling room, began to get fuzzy around the edges.

Awwww, the cooling room.  Sitting there was awesome!  The only problem is I have to keep filling my water bottle.  This is a 16 ounce water bottle, I've had to re-fill it 3 times in a ten minute break, how can that be?  Oh and now the clock out here is making up for the malfunctioning clock in the hot room.  Why are heading back in already?  I think I'm starting to see things, swear to god I just saw the "You've entered the Twilight Zone" guy laughing at me.  Oh and now somehow I can speak Japanese…as I walk back in the little Japanese sauna attendant with a smile on here face said "Bet you can't make it another 10 minutes fatty!"    The hell I can't!  10 minutes, I can do this, I just need to distract myself.  I know I'll take my pulse…I don't know why I thought that, remember just two seconds ago I could speak Japanese, now clearly I'm some kind of physician.  So my resting heart rate, normally I am proud to say is around 55-60, has jumped to 125!  What is going on?  I am laying down for god's sake, RELAXING!

Round 5 complete, that's what this has turned into, a damn boxing match.  "Mic, I don't think I can make it".  "Listen Rock, you're gonna go back in there one last time."  I told Amie I think I can go five minutes.  She said something like, "if I had a dime every time I heard that!"   On our way back in the little sauna attendant, I swear, is outright laughing at me.  Yea, it'll be real funny when this big sweaty American comes crashing down on top of you on my way out!  Karma!!!!

Okay, one last trip.  I told myself, I can do this, just need to find a way to get through this relaxation!  Spend extra time sorting out the stones for a perfect bed…dammit, that only killed 30 seconds.  So I laid down and clamped my eyes shut.  Even SERE school didn't prepare me for this relaxation I paid up front for.  In an effort to distract myself, I starting singing Wild Rover, an old Rugby song in my head.  At least I thought is was in my head, Amie swore she heard someone speaking in tongues, can't be sure it wasn't me.  Anyways, two renditions of the song and we've killed 7 minutes, one more song and we're out.  After the last song, ironically finishing on the last second, I stagger my way to the door.  I think the little attendant saw the possible disaster heading her way, and nimbly moved out of the way, "was she still laughing?"

We definitely took our time in the cooling room, showering up and walking home.  Nothing says relaxing better than a self-induced, out of body experience!

Closing out 2013

Wow…before you know it, 4 months has gone by and I am now writing an end-of-the-year post vice just another up-date!  I'd like to give you a list of things that have kept me from writing, but it is mostly my adult ADD, or more commonly known as, "bright shiny object disorder".

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front, for all my non-military family and friends): School started, Amie became president of the swim team, multiple swim meets, Ethan's soccer, Liam's soccer, flag football and dodgeball, serious consideration of retirement, fortunate series of events to change my mind, trip to Thailand, a trip to Taiwan and the holidays.  So in other words…not much going on, I should have written a bunch!  Mea Culpa

I'm sure that you are all sick of hearing about Thailand since Amie and I both hit it hard on Facebook.  It was an awesome trip, something I won't soon forget.  We've got some more big trips planned for the future so stand by to hear about Hawaii or Bali, New Zealand, Singapore, Osaka and Kyoto to name a few!

It's pretty amazing to think that a year ago we were stuck in the lodge suffering from major culture shock and a little bit of regret.  We'd just left VT-3, the best tour I've had to date, leaving all our friends and family behind.  The simple thought of driving out in town was horrifying!  Now, hitting the road is as natural as it is stateside, once you figure out where you are going to park when you get to your destination.  Big shout out to Carl and Michelle for getting us on our feet.  We wouldn't be able to run now if it was for you guys.  I still laugh a little thinking of the first train ride that completely turned me around.

2013 was a crazy hectic year, but it has finished much better than it started.  Now that we've got the basics down, living in Japan is great.  Look forward to seeing what 2014 has in store!

Here's some of the pictures from our 2013 that sum up our year.

Brockzilla Vs. Mt Fuji-san

The Japanese say "A wise man climbs Mount Fuji once, a fool twice!"  It is definitely an experience I am happy to have had.  Thankfully, I don't see any need to do it again!

View of Fuji-san from Kawaguchiko 5th Station

The day started at 2:00 am.  First off...a huge Thank You to our friend Michelle for staying the night to watch Liam and Lila for us!

Amie, Harrison, Ethan and I got up and out of the house and were on the road by 2:30.  We each had a backpack with water, power bars, extra clothes, sun-screen, winter hats, gloves, Yen, rain gear and of course cameras.  Seems like a varied list but we ended up using, or should have used, all of it (forgot to apply sunscreen, which I paid for later!)   

From Yokosuka to Fuji is about a 2.5 hour drive, not very scenic in the dark, but the anticipation was more than enough to keep us awake.  Mount Fuji towers up to 3,776 meters, approximately 12,338 feet, but starting the climb at the Kawaguchiko Station already puts you at 7,500 feet.  The station has a number of shops to buy the climbing sticks, extra gear etc.  All reasonably priced...like buying a sandwich in an airport terminal!  From station 5 you work your way up through another 4 official stations but there are other little huts along the way.  The remaining 5,000 feet or so is stretched over 5-6 km.  From one of the travel guide pages...

"The initial stretch through flowery meadows is pleasant enough, but the bulk of the hike is a dreary and interminable slog: the volcanic landscape consists of jagged red rock in varying size from dust to boulder, with the trail zigzagging left and right endlessly, and the hike just gets steeper and steeper as you progress.  Actual rock climbing is not required, but you will wish to use your hands at some points for support."

Sounds real enticing doesn't it!  Maybe if you are the Three Stooges!  (Thanks Aunt Betty Ann, perfect caption for this picture!)

Now add in the rain and wind.  Rain and wind predictions for Fuji are a lot like predicting afternoon thunderstorms in Florida during the summer.  They always say there is a chance, because you just don't know if it will happen.  Well for us it didn't turn out to be a chance but an actual occurrence.  From about station 6-8 we were walking straight into the rain and wind.  

Funny things is, as bad as the wind and rain got, the view was still pretty amazing.  You just had to turn around to see anything!

View behind us as we worked up our way up in the rain and wind.

Thankfully, the wind and rain let up.  The second half of the climb to the top the weather cleared but was also getting colder.  Not a great addition to wet clothes.  

Despite the rain and wind, we slowly made our way to the top.  We were worried about altitude sickness.  Leading up to the climb, people had been sharing their experiences (always bad ones) and the MWR safety brief kept harping on the effects of altitude sickness (vomiting, extreme headaches etc).  Thankfully, we didn't have a single symptom, except for mild headaches that aspirin took care of.  It was easy to get short of breath, but we didn't see any of the really bad stuff we'd heard about.  They sold bottles of Oxygen at the stations along the climb.  One of our neighbors gave us a bottle before we left.  We tried it once on the way up but I don't think it did anything.  

The best cure to the effects of altitude, sore feet or general fatigue was the food and beer at the top, the views helped as well.  The Ramen that Amie and Ethan had and the Curry that Harrison and I had was probably the best food we've had in Japan to date!  The beer was great too!

  
Of course, i am sure everything tastes better with great views and a sense of accomplishment!  I am so very proud of Harrison and Ethan.  Harrison had been talking about this climb since we found out we were coming to Japan.  Both H and E climbed up the mountain, without a single complaint or doubt of getting to the top!

The ironic part of climbing Mount Fuji is that the hard part is the climb/walk back down!  They have a groomed path with switch-backs to come back down the mountain.  It is loose dirt which makes it hard on knees.  This is also when you start to notice the blisters!  Regardless of the sore feet, the sun was out and we made our way down a lot quicker than going up!

Ethan making his back down from the top.

By the time we got to the car and made our way home, with the obligatory stop at McDonald's...don't judge me, the fries and cheeseburger hit the spot, we were home by 7:00 pm.  Amie's Fitbit (small wrist band that tracks your steps etc) said she had taken 38,000 steps, 15.9 miles!  Thankfully Michelle had kept Lila and Liam busy throughout the day.  So by 8:30 we all had the same idea in mind...

Marking time

Well I'd like to say that we've been too busy with cool adventures and sight-seeing to write on the blog.  I was surprised to see the time that had elapsed from the last post until now.  Time flies when you are having fun...or when you are busier than a one legged man at a butt kicking contest!

Moving onto Yokosuka itself was uneventful.  I can't remember if I talked about it last post, so I won't this time.  Since we've been here though it has been the height of summer and everyone seems to be going in a different direction.  Harrison, a qualified, employed life-guard has been putting up a bunch of hours.  He's also swimming a lot with his coach and he is coaching a summer swim team himself.  Ethan has made a ton of new friends and is playing soccer.  I think he's seen every movie that has come to the theater.  He spends a lot of time hanging out!  Haven't gotten a call from Base Police about him so no big deal.  Actually Ethan is babysitting quite often trying to scratch together enough money for his movie fix.  Meanwhile Liam is Liam...he always manages to make a new friend without even trying.  He must get it from his mom.  Lila still has school most days and Amie is teaching her Japanese ladies, has become the new President of the swim team and is trying to keep track of everyone!

Summer time is exercise time at work, so for a good chunk of the last 2 weeks, I've been in the basement of the office manning the mid-night shift.  Super-fun-good-times.  Actually ran myself down pretty good that I got a chest cold that still hasn't gone away.  Yesterday morning was the last of the exercise so I was pretty much on the couch all day.  I finally managed to get myself off the coach, around 6:00, to start the grill.  In the process I ran into another one of those huge spiders I spoke about last post.  I was so tired, I didn't even jump.  I just waved and said "hey".  He waved back with one of his really long arms and meandered out of the yard and onto the nearby walking path.

There have been some new things...

- We ate at a Sushi-go-round. Your sushi comes around on a conveyor belt that travels right past your table!  Various different sushi items come around at about 100 yen ($1) per plate.  It was fun to see the plates stack up!

- Amie and Harrison went to see Gary Sinese and The LT Dan Band for the 4th of July.  MWR moved the concert inside because of the wind and rain.  Amie said they still had a blast!  Ethan and Liam were with their friends while Lila and I hung out at the house.

- Ethan went to Disney Sea with some of his friends for his birthday while Amie, H and Lila went to Tokyo Disney.

- Amie and the kids also helped a new Navy Family from Pensacola get settled in Yokosuka by showing them around base, the train and the housing development they are going to live in.  The family has kids that went to school with Liam and Lila back in the states, so it was good for the kiddos.

- And I got business cards with my name in Japanese on the back.  Oh the excitement!  What a summer.  

So you can see we've been busy.  I'll try to keep up on the posts in the future.  We do have some big items coming up.  We're going to climb Fuji this Thursday, and before you know it, it is the most wonderful time of the year for Amie...kids go back to school!  Oh, I also have another exercise coming up!  Awesome...wonder what sickness I'll get this time on the night shift!

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.