Earthquake-Days 2 & 3

Saturday, March 12, 2011
Amazingly enough we slept a bit that night after the quake.  Not restful, but sleep.
We woke that morning to sunny skies and warm temps.  Like nothing had happened the day before.  We went downstairs, like any other Saturday morning, to start breakfast...and then the house started moving again.

It became all too real what had happened the day before.  Coming down the stairs and into the kitchen there isn't much to see but hallway - - -so when the house started moving again - I immediately went to the living room and was reminded of all the chaos that had happened in our house.  There was still stuff strewn all over the floor.
I yelled for my husband, "babe, its starting again..." and started briskly walking to retrieve my son.  Luckily, it was just a small aftershock...again.

So as the day progressed (one 30 minute block at a time) things became all to clear...nothing was the same. We started calling family to let everyone know we were ok.  Even though we had sent a FB message the night before, we all needed to hear the actual voices. 

While my husband and I are taking turns on the phone, time is slowly ticking by. 
Every 30 -45 minutes, the house starts swaying again.  It felt like all the "little ones" use to.  But after being in the big one...there was no way to even think of trying to settle myself to any sort of comfort level to be "okay" with it.  Panic hit me every single time the house moved.

We decided to get out of the house and see what the rest of our little area looked like.  To try and get our minds off the obvious.  To try and not freak my son out any more than necessary. We got everyone dressed and off we went. 
The sun was shining, the weather was warm, even though slightly breezy.  We walked around and surveyed the damage...a few cracks in the concrete, some of the streets had busted and the sidewalks were broken and twisted.  The bridge over the street at one of the local grocerys was blocked off - but it seemed business as usual in the city.
It was all a little "too normal" - it made me uneasy.

We walked through the park to try and give my son a little play time and then decided to drive to higher ground (the place I went after the quake) to see what we could see of the Bay.  Once again, all seemed a little too normal. 
Many ships were parked, just waiting, off the coast.  Many more than normal.
There was one fire burning that we could see near the coast.  But all in all...nothing much too see.

We went home and tried to have a normal night...
although we ended up getting a phone call that said the French Embassy was warning everyone to fill their bathtubs, close all windows and do not use heat for fear of the nuclear plant and problems to come. This, once again, set wrong with me.
So we all took showers, we washed a load of clothes and ran the dishwasher...in case they shut off the water in the middle of the night.

Something a little strange settled in me...I chalked it up to the uneasiness still lingering from the quake.  So we called it a night, early.  My husband ended up sleeping with my son and as I laid down to read (my mind would not calm enough for me to sleep) the house started moving again...
I wondered when it would all stop.  When would it all be normal again.
Little did I know what was in store for me the next day...

Sunday, March 13, 2011
We woke again to a sunny, warm day.  But the day just started a little "off".  Bathtubs full of water, the house continuing to sway with aftershocks, and the phone - ringing.  A LOT.

During all this we had CNN Japan on the television watching what news was being given about the tsumani.  Only a bit of information about the nuclear problem was being leaked through.  We started doing a little research on the internet and then we retrieved messages from our American phone line...everyone was saying GET OUT...NOW!
From that point on...everything was a blur.

We got a call from our neighbors (also a Nissan family) saying they had made plans to leave the country.  We looked at each other and decided 'we needed to talk'~
My husband asked me what I thought and if all this was just over-reaction.  We re-listened to messages, we sat for a good 15 minutes and watched the news.  We then discussed how the Japanese don't like to fail at anything, and how there probably was more going on than being let out to the news stations.  He looked at me and said, "What do YOU want to do."  Before that moment - I had not really thought about me, about what I wanted to do.  Actually stopping to think about it - scared me.  My eyes welled up and a few tears rolled down, and I looked up at my husband and said, "If it were just us, no problem.  But that little boy in there has no idea and has his entire life in front of him...I WANT TO LEAVE."
We started looking for flights.

He got approval from work to leave the country.  The approval which took over an hour! 
Then -"Do what you have to do."  We started looking for ANYTHING to get us off that island.
We found a flight to Honolulu for the next day at midnight.  Then there were calls back and forth to the neighbors about their flight and what flights we could get out.  We decided that we all needed to go together because we had a car, it would take less time.  Especailly since all the trains were still shut down and it was better for all - to go together.
A flight was found...for 5 pm..THAT DAY.
It's an hour and 30 minute drive to the airport -on a good day!  We had just had an earthquake, parts of the interstates were shut down...it was 12 noon.  We needed to be there two hours before for an international flight.  I had one hour to pack my family.

We put my son in front of the DVD player so as not to alert him to the fast paced packing going on. My husband stayed on the phone with a phone on each ear...one to the neighbor and one to his boss.  The neighbor had two phones going too...one to us and one to the travel agent lady.

The things I packed make no sense now that I am here in the States.  My brain wouldn't think straight...
'We are leaving.  We are REALLY leaving.  Grab shoes...wait, what kind?  What is the temp where we are going?  Wait, where are we going?  L.A.?  Tennessee?  Did I hear them say that we could get to L.A. but couldn't get to Tennessee until Thursday?  Wait, what are the temps in both places this time of the year?  I HAVE NO IDEA.
OK - think. Start packing Landon...he is most important.  OK...pants, shoes, socks, shirts.  Oh, he needs toys or SOMETHING.  What if we are gone for more than a few days.  What will he do?  What will he NEED?  Ok - stop and think.  Okay, keep going...only 30 minutes till we have to leave.  Ok I have to pack snacks for him for the plane...he won't eat that food.  What about all the food we just bought at the store?  What happens to all that?"
At this point -  MY BRAIN IS HURTING.

Ultimately I got packed (and not well, I might add).  We got into the car, got to the neighbors house.  There were people out  - seemingly checking things out,  we spoke to a German guy who saw us packing up the car.  His wife was across the street on the phone.  He said they were looking at leaving too - but trying to figure out where to go.
We had heard that the day before, no one could get in or out of Narita Airport because of the quake.  We left and hoped for the best! Once we got started, the seas seemed to part.  We made it to the airport (detours and all) in roughly two hours...just under the two hour mark for international flights!

The airport was crazy...
there were people SLEEPING everywhere.  People from the day of the quake, people who had ended up there the day after, people from canceled flights, people trying to get out any way they could.  The airline gave us free food tickets because the VIP lounge (or whatever it was) was not operational because of the quake. We got Starbucks & Mickey D's...breakfast of champions!  We knew it was getting bad when McDonald's was running out of food, AT AN AIRPORT!  But we ended up getting a lot of food...it was free.  We ended up not eating much of it and we gave it all away... To a group of girls, a French soccer team that was stranded in the airport and had made a fort with their luggage in the corner of the food court.  They clapped and yelled when we brought over the second stash of food.  It was sad and happy all at he same time.  We were helping them and yet, there they laid in the floor of an airport...the FLOOR of an AIRPORT.

From there, we had a 14 hour flight (my poor little guy is getting so use to the flights - he said yesterday  - that when Daddy went back to work...he needed to take two planes to get there!!).
After all the chaos of the previous 2 days...I was still nervous about the flight.  If there was even a tremor: the flight would NOT take off. We would be stuck again. Only this time - in an airport.  With all the other people who were stuck.
So when the plane finally had its wheels off the ground - my heart eased a little.  I looked at my son (who was in the middle seat) then looked at my hubby and mouthed the words "Thank You"...
and he knew ~
we had done the right thing.




Now the day in L.A. was a whole different story!!!

REALLY enjoying being on solid ground,
Deeds

A friend took this at the grocery store...this is where the bread is supposed to be.  Na-da.

Sooo glad we left.

The Earthquake

***let me preface this entry by saying that my family and I are back in the United States and thanking the powers-that-be for getting us home safely.  It has been 6 days and feels like it has been 100.

Friday, March 11, 2011
It started out like any other day...
Took my son to school, came home, checked emails and started my day.  A friend called and asked if I wanted to go walk and run some errands - so off we go.
We ended up on top of the hill behind our neighborhood that looks out over the Bay.  We started talking about how close we are living to the water and what chance would we have if we had a quake and tsunami...would we make it up to the top and would it be high enough.  Conversations continued about emergency back-packs and such and she informed me that she had one and had just replaced the waters in it so they were fresh.  I told her I didn't have an emergency pack and that even though we'd been living there a year and through all the little quakes (7 since I had been there) - that it would probably be in my best interest to pack one...just in case the big one that they had been predicting for 10 years - just happened to come before we our assignment was up.
We had lunch and called it a day. 

On this particular day I had decided to leave my son at school for an extra hour so that he could play with his two best friends.  At 2:45 pm I started the ritual of finding my car keys, sunglasses and coat to go get him. 
I was standing in the kitchen and the house started to move...another little one I thought. (Funny to me how I had started refering to the quakes as 'little ones' - almost like I was getting use to them)
The house started to creak, almost like it was 'settling' in cold weather, or like the sounds you hear thinking someone is coming down your stairs in the middle of the night.  The house started to slowly sway the way it always had during every other quake I had to date been privy to.  My thought was, "you know, I have been inside the house during every one of these - I think I'll go outside and see what it looks like to watch the trees sway."
No sooner than I walked out on the porch - the bottom dropped out. 

The ground started shaking violently.  The car was moving back and forth like someone was trying to push it on its side.  The bicycle fell to the ground. The front door slammed shut.  And I was having a hard time just standing up.
There is a house being built across the street and the two Japanese  construction guys were standing there looking at me - me looking at them.  One looked at me like "What the hell?" - almost like I had done this.  I was thinking hey guy...YOU live here,not me...YOU tell ME what the hell is happening.

I walked, well stumbled, best I could to the middle of the street to get away from the house and car.  I crouched down and watched as the rest of the neighbors started running out into the street.  This lasted for a full minute at least.  A minute is not long, until the earth under you is shaking so hard, it is hard to HEAR.
As everything slowly started to stop...My first thought:  MY SON.  Oh dear Jesus.  Please let him be okay.
I took off running.

His school is only about a mile away, and as I ran - somewhere I realized I was seeing that the entire world aroung me had stopped.
The cars in the streets.  The people had all come outside of the buidlings and houses and were standing on the sidewalks. The traffic lights had all gone black.  No birds chirping.  Everything had just STOPPED.  Except me of course.  Here I am running while the ground is still shaking...
I can only imagine how crazy I must have looked to all the Japanese.  Everything they tell you is to stop and take cover during something like this.  I, the crazy white lady,  am running down the street.

When I finally rounded the hill in the neighborhood where my son's school is - I started crying...there he stood.  Outside his schoool with his two best friends and three of his teachers.  I ran some more.
They let him go and he ran to me.  As is picked him up he hugged me and said, "Mommy we just had an earthquake!"  He wiggled out of my arms and stood up and did this little wiggly-shaky dance..."it was shaking all around like this Mommy." 
He stopped and goes, "Wait.  Why are you crying Mommy?"
aaahhh.  He was completely unphased.

We walked home.  Talked about what happened at school.  Dodged cars at traffic lights that were no longer working.  I fielded questions about how come we were walking across the street when the little man in the walk signal was no longer there or flashing telling us it was all clear.  While I am Thanking my lucky stars the little guy is unharmed and seemingly unaltered by it all.

Then - I walked in my house.
It never crossed my mind that something might be happening to my house during all this.  It never crossed my mind what might have happened to ME if I had not had the silly little thought to go out and 'watch the trees sway'.  Looking back - I sort of went blank.

The house looked like someone had ransacked and robbed the place.  When we opened the door the pictures in the entryway were all sideways.  Stuff was strewn in front of the door.  The living room had plants thrown in the floor, candle sticks knocked over and broken, vases in the floor, art had shaken off the walls.  All the little decor knick-knacks were in the floor, souvenirs from all the places we had been were in the floor in pieces.  The 3 sided floor mirror - face down in the dining room.  The kitchen - every drawer and cabinet were open.  Things were out of the cabinets, stuff in the floor, and luckily...the few bottles of wine we had sitting on the cabinet had only shaken their way to the EDGE of the cabinet...they never made it to the floor!!!!  Yes, someone knew I would need those later!!!

The upstairs wasn't as bad.  Well, everywhere but our room.  The TV had fallen off the dresser, the big mirror was on the floor, my dressing table and all contents...EVERYWHERE.  It looked like a perfume bandit had taken each one out, smelled them and then randomly tossed them around the room. 
I found my cell phone, grabbed our coats and some water bottles and headed back outside to the street. 

It was TWO HOURS before I finally made contact with my husband.  All power, phones, everything - OUT.  Not knowing where he was or if he was ok...was bad.  I think the most frightening thing (besides my son's safety) was the fact that there was no way to know anything.  ANYTHING.  Sirens are going off, people are walking everywhere, all my nieghbors were still out in the streets...
they tell you to stay out of the buildings because of aftershocks...luckily we did.  Two more happened...and they were almost as bad as the quake itself.  
The construction workers had their truck radio on loud...the German lady across the street was translating the broadcast.  Listening for tsunami warnings.  Everything was surreal - the German lady translating the Japanese to us and everyone around was of some other nationality.
During the interim I ran back inside and packed that damn emergency back-pack we had talked about earlier.  Found my crappy little AM/FM Japanese radio (I bought to listen to the military rock channel) -hoping for some sort of news in ENGLISH, grabbed passports, all the extra money we had stashed and tossed it all in the car. I left a note for my husband taped to the door.
We headed for higher ground.

We went to the club where I take my son swimming in the summer.  It is the highest point in our area.  Many of the other expat families were there.  Well, not the families...the mothers and kids.  During this whole ordeal, which lasted about 4 hours - there were NO MEN ANYWHERE.  None.
It was all Mothers and kids, or Mothers trying to find their kids.  It was scary.
All the men were at work.  The phones weren't working and none of us could get in contact to find out if they were ok.  Or find out if they could even make it back to us. We couldn't understand the news about the tsunami because it was all in Japanese.  We were basically helpess.

It took TWO HOURS before I could reach my husband to let him know we were okay and to find out he was unharmed.  It took another FIVE HOURS for him to get home to us.
He works 15 miles away.  FIFTEEN MILES....FIVE HOURS.
The phones (cell phones) worked for 5 mintues, literally, and then were out for the next 8 hours.  We had no power, no phones, no nothing.  Just dead time....waiting.
For our husbands and for another quake.

Finally at dusk, we went home.  I needed to clean up what glass and broken things I could before it got too dark.  I needed to find the candles, find the flashlights.  I needed to make it safe for my son to even be in the house.
After all the glass was cleaned, and paths were made to walk...
I settled my son in to watch his DVD player (Thank God I remembered to charge the battery the night before) and I had a MUCH needed glasss of wine...
and we sat and waited for my husband.

He arrived after 9pm.  The earthquake was at 2:26pm.
Trying to get home to us he had been in a co-workers car, then walked (because he could walk faster than the cars were moving) and then in a taxi.  All trains and buses had been shut down. 

After the heartswell we had when we were all together again, we cleaned a little more, had another glass of wine and reluctantly decided to try and sleep.
Precaution lead us to take the picture off the wall over our bed and our son slept with us that night.  It was not a restful sleep...afteshocks were coming about every 30 minutes.

I was scared, freaked out and worn out.
Deeds

***DAY 2 will be posted as soon as I can.
This was all I could stomach to remember in one sitting.  I am still comparmentalizing and a little in denial.  I am trying to deal one day at a time.

This is an areial shot of a crack from the earthquake...
these are not weeds...these are full grown TREES around the crack. 
Just to give you some perspective.

Driving

It took a long time, but as you probably can tell...I DID get my driver's license.

A few things that made it painstaking:
Everything about the Japanese driver system is still rooted in the 1950s:

• the building (which is way out in B.F.E.)- over an hour just to get there.
• the SCAN TRON sheet driver test
• the classroom where you take the test (only seats about 10 people - tightly)
• the eye test machine
• the cardboard box with the bell in it that rings when you put your application in (just so they know that someone is actually out there)
• and the FOUR hours it usually takes to have the test given and graded. 

and the list could go on.  But regardless of all this, I finally got my license.  Well, by default actually.
After taking the test twice - I almost gave up.
The test consisted of 10 questions, True and False.  Easy right?...um, NO.
They are trick questions.  If ONE WORD in the sentence is wrong...you are wrong.
Then if you miss 4 questions - you fail.  If you fail, they DO NOT tell you what you got wrong.  They DO NOT let you see your Scan-Tron.  They DO NOT help you - IN ANY WAY.
They let you take the test as many times as you want...but you have to come back on a different day every time and it is about $30 each time you take the test.  And if they decide that they don't want you to pass...you never will.  NO MATTER WHAT.
Lovely.

At the end of my rope - I finally told my husband to ask his company about me having a "International License"...if that would cover me on the insurance. No test, just my U.S. license and a paper from the U.S. saying 'International Driver's License.'
Well, sure-as-hell...they said it was fine.  All that trouble and time - FOR NOTHING.  Dammit.
But it will make for a good story for the rest of my driving life.

So - jump to present day...
The hubby comes home last week and informs me that he needs to take the car to work for its 6 month check-up.  I reluctantly agree to ride my bike again for a day and give up the keys.

Now you might wonder, how come we have a car and my husband doesn't use it to drive to work everyday???
It takes him one hour and 30 minutes to get to work via a bus, then two or three train changes.  A pain is the a$$, I know.
But he kept telling me it takes longer to drive than to take the trains.  I thought - yeah whatever big guy...I would be driving!


So he takes the car for the check-up.  It takes him almost two hours to get to work - in traffic at 7:30 am.
He gets home that night and tells me that he made it home in only ONE hour!
'Wow," I said, "Maybe you should start driving to work" - and then thought better of it because I would have no car anymore.  Luckily he said "nah, takes too long."


The rest of our conversation went like this:

ME:  Why after a full year, when I tell someone you work in Zama (a little town)- every time they go "ooooh"?              So how far away is Zama actually???
HIM:  15 miles.
ME:   Wait. What? 15 miles?
HIM:  Yep.
ME:  and it takes almost TWO HOURS to get there and back EVERYDAY.
HIM:  Yep.
ME:  and even in the car it takes longer to get there?  15 miles?  nooooo.
HIM:  Yep.

I sat there dumbfounded and speechless. I finally understood.  I finally realized that I could probably throw a rock and hit my husband in the head while he was working but it would take him almost two hours to get back here to ask me why I threw the rock.

No wonder he is ready to go home too!
That 45 minute commute to work in the U.S. has never looked so good.

~as I grab the keys and head out to drive on the wrong side of the road and terrorize the locals  !!!  =-)

Enjoy your day,
Deeds





     

JAPAN'S "LOVE HOTELS"

The words ‘love’ and ‘hotel’ combined usually conjure up romantic images of weekends away, breakfast in bed, walks in the woods, dinner by candlelight with champagne - and whatever else springs to mind - by an open fire. In Japan, however, the resultant image of the same combination of words is somewhat different.


A "LOVE HOTEL" is basically this:  short term hotels throughout Japan where couples meet to have sex in a private and erotic setting.For decades Japan's love hotels have provided a place for couples to enjoy anonymous, uninterrupted sex. Politician and secretary, teacher and student, husband and hooker -- all are welcome, as long as they pay in cash and leave when the time limit is up.

They say that the hotels exist out of necessity...until recently, most people lived with their families until marriage, often with three generations under one roof, separated by only paper screens. Without a private space for the most private of acts.  So they had to find somewhere to do the 'deed'. 
What a terrible thought...having Grams in the next room watching Japanese Wheel of Fortune while trying to 'be sexy'? - umm, NO.

So voila, birth of the Love Hotel!  Everyone knows they exist and it is an accepted practice here. These hotels are typically either concentrated in city districts close to train or subway stations, near highways on the city outskirts, or in industrial districts. Love hotel architecture is sometimes garish, with buildings shaped like castles, boats or UFOs and lit with neon lighting. What wonderful imaginations!

Some more recent love hotels are very ordinary looking buildings, distinguished mainly by having small, covered, or even no windows.

As women gradually came to have more social and financial clout, the hotels re-modeled themselves away from typically male themes such as outer space and cars (haa haa...SO typical male). Porno channels on the TV were out and a ‘come early, stay late’ policy was in.  The newer hotels come complete with karaoke machines, jacuzzis and even swimming pools and most are  hilariously decorated. Some love-hotels boast sun-beds for those who like to top off their tan while doing the duty, or adjoining ‘swapping rooms’ for those who prefer to bed hop. Some have CCTV feeds from all the rooms, offering a unique in-house video channel where you can watch others watching you doing what you’re watching them do. A number of hotels provide ‘party rooms’ for groups and even S&M facilities for aficionados.
The stats say the annual turnover of the love hotel industry is more than ¥4 trillion (yen)...that's pushing $5 trillion USD.  A LOT OF MONEY.  But we all know, sex sells!

Some of the fabulous names I have seen on the signs of the Love Hotels around here:
Hotel CHAT
Hotel Rainbow
Carib Hotel
P & A Plaza
Dixy Inn
Hotel Chez Moi
Hotel J-Girl
Hotel Lala
Hotel First Wood  (priceless!)


The rates here are by the hour and rooms are often selected from a panel of buttons and the bill settled by pneumatic tube, automatic cash machines, or a pair of hands behind a pane of frosted glass.


Similar establishments exist in other East Asian countries such as South Korea,Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The same concept also exists in Central and South America, particularly in Guatemala, Chile and Mexico (where they are called "autohotels"), in the Dominican Republic and Colombia (where they are called "cabañas" or "motels"), and in Argentina and Uruguay, where they are often called "albergues transitorios" or "telos" (after reversing the syllables of the word "hotel"). They are very common in Brazil and Puerto Rico, where they are simply called "motels" (the word is exclusively used for love hotels).

In the United States and Canada, they are known as "no-tell motels" . Apparently the first love hotel will open in France next summer, in Pontoise, next to Paris!

I guess all the world needs love.  No matter WHERE you have to get it!

Enjoy the photos!

Deeds


the video screens to choose your "room"...

 the sex machine room...

 the Neil Armstrong Room - for all you astronaut wanna-bes!

the Train/Subway Room - in case you don't get 'groped' enough on the real trains!

 The Spiderman Room...swing from chain to chain!

What is this...the Land of the Lost Room???

****and they say Japan is a mild mannered culture!  Someone figured out the wild side!!!

XMAS in Japan

As Xmas time rolls around, here in Japan...nothing has changed.  The Japanese do not celebrate Xmas - but since they LOVE Halloween - I had a little hope.  
But ~ NOTHING.
Well, I can't actually say 'nothing' because there are a few places here that have the lights in the windows.  I have been told by a friend that if you drive 2 hours, there is a little village that has set up Xmas lights everywhere.  My thoughts...2 hours in a car, a 3 year-old, cold outside...ummm, NO.  Luckily my husband felt the same!


In Japan some do give Christmas presents. Some parents give presents to their children, but the children do not give presents to the parents. The reasoning  ~ only Santa bring presents, so once the children no longer believe in Santa the presents are no longer given.  (That blows!)  I mean who doesn't LOVE a good present???  No matter how old you are.


Anyway, December 25th is not a national holiday in Japan, although December 23rd, which is the birthdate of the present emperor, is. Here the Xmas tradition is to maybe put up a few lights, some even might have a tree - but the actual day of Xmas is sort of a 'date night' here.
You are supposed to spend that day/night with your significant other.  Its not about family or anything like that.  Christmas seems to be closer to the Western concept of Valentine's Day.
Christmas Eve has been hyped by the T.V. media as being a time for romantic miracles. It is seen as a time to be spent with one's boyfriend or girlfriend in a romantic setting, so fancy restaurants and hotels are often booked solid. It is also a time when girls get to reveal their affections to boys and vice versa. Because of this, extending a girl an invitation to be together on Christmas Eve has very deep, romantic implications.


For single women in Japan it is really crucial to have someone to spend Christmas eve with. It is also really important for them where they spend Christmas eve and what present they receive. The whole evening must be very special, gorgeous and romantic. Japanese women who have a boy friend tend to show off, so women who don't are not happy to talk about the topic.

There is also a "sarcasm" that Christmas is compared with a woman's age. Cake shops throughout Japan always try to sell all their Christmas cakes before Christmas eve. Any cakes left after Christmas are seen to be very old or out of date. Women over 25 years old have been referred to as 'unsold Xmas cake.'
NICE.  I can only IMAGINE how well that would go over in the States.  Think of all the black eyes and sore groins the men would have if they said that to a single woman age 25!!!!  
Actually a very funny thought!


Something else strange, thanks to the marketing prowess of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Christmas Chicken Dinner has become all the rage. Many Japanese even make reservations for their "Christmas Chicken" ahead of time. People will line up at the outlets to get their chickens.  As a result of KFC's advertising, most Japanese now believe that Westerners celebrate Christmas with a chicken dinner instead of the more common ham or turkey.


Here in our house, we have our little Charlie Brown Xmas tree (which is shorter than I am), we have a handful of presents under the tree for the little guy (most of which are Japanese so if they tear-up, we have no idea how to read the instructions to fix them!!!) and we can't send any gifts home (not that I have found anything worthy of sending) because of the "nothing over 16 OUNCES" can be accepted to the USA right now).  


Soooo...
what does one do here during this un-festive time...
WE PLAN A TRIP TO GUAM!
Now while I know Guam is NOT what you would normally think of when you think "vacation" - but, I hear its actually quite nice.  A beach, warm weather, and SHOPPING!
Yes, shopping!
They speak English, they have real stores, and real food and, and, and...a water-park!!! (Yeah - who are the coolest parent's ever gonna be this year?!!!)


So while I am missing Xmas with family, missing the snow that we got at home, and missing getting my own presents...
I am going to be pretty happy to lay my very white American butt on a beautiful sandy beach!


メリークリスマス ~ Merry Christmas!


Deeds

A Doc in a Box - LITERALLY

Some might wonder (as I did) what EXACTLY you do here in Japan when you get really sick?
When your 3 year old gets sick?
or if an earthquake knocks down your house, you escape and you need medical attention?
(By-the-way, we experienced our FOURTH earthquake last night...AT 3 AM!!)  - let me tell you - it is scary as hell to be woken up with your bed knocking against the wall...and you aren't the one making it move. VERY poltergeist.

A-N-Y-W-A-Y,
Here there is a very strict protocol:
Anything emergency - you can call the "ambulance" - but they are NOT allowed to do anything to you, administer ANY treatment or anything of the like.  They are merely TRANSPORT people.
If you want someone to DO something - stop the bleeding, wrap a broken leg until you get to the hospital to have it reattached or even just have someone tell you they suspect you are hypochondriac...you call the fire department!
Why the fire department?  I HAVE NO IDEA.

Anything non-emergency...you are on your own.
Before we moved here - we had a friend of a friend who had just moved back to the USA from Japan - she gave me her "medical" book.  All doctors in our area, their "specialty," and addresses and phone numbers. While I thought this was the best thing she could have ever done for me...now that I am here - I see it makes no difference what-so-ever!  NONE!

My son is three, and if you have a kid....you KNOW they get sick ALL THE TIME.  All the fun little germs that follow them home from school or daycare or the dreaded play area in the mall. So while we have been here only a short time - we have now seen THREE of the different children's doctors.
In the States, mom's usually go to great lengths to find a pediatrician BEFORE they have their kid.  They want to make sure that they like their personality and demeanor before entrusting their sick child to them for the next 10 years.
I had that.  Not anymore.
Now - I just HOPE I can understand, and I pray that my son never gets anything worse than a cold!

So, short version:  my list of the doctors:
(let me preface this by saying:  since we cannot read Japanese - we call the doctors by whatever the picture is on  their office door.  and they mostly all have one)
1)  The Bluff Man
2)  The Garden Lady
3) The Dolphin
4)  The Pig

Everyone here tells you something, good and bad, about each doctor - so we just started going  - to see who made ME feel better about my sons illnesses.

The Bluff Man we have seen several times.  He is somewhat quick, he speaks fairly good English, and we can usually get in the same day we call.
His office is clean and 'big' compared to everything else I have seen here. It has one bathroom (old school style), two exam rooms (both of which you can see into when you walk in the front door)  and his office - which also doubles as the MAIN exam room.
He prescribes the same medicine EVERY time.  Luckily it has worked.  I basically went in the 1st time and told him "we need Amoxicillan - the strongest you have."  (Here the medicines are about HALF the strength of medicines in America)
But it makes me wonder if he EVER prescribes anything else.  Or if Amoxicillan is his answer for it all?

The Pig I was told NEVER to go to.  But in an emergency flu situation - I decided to try it.  I was shocked when I went in.  VERY small.  The waiting room is about the size of a walk-in closet. There was no hallway to the exam room - there was a door, and then you were in a room about the size of your average American dining room.
Once in the 'dining room'  there was desk in the middle of the room, half of the room seemed to house all the supplies - stacked against the wall (and I swear there was a gurney pushed up against the boxes - casually covered by a sheet).  The other side of the room housed a couch (very old school) with a velveteen blanket over it and a stool between the desk and the couch. The couch was the exam table...scary.
This man was very talkative, and spoke very fast - broken English. He was more interested in "talking English" with me and showing my son very rudimentary magic tricks - than he was in diagnosing my child's illness.
Its sad when your 3-year-old asks why the strange man-doctor was doing those weird tricks.

Finally, The Garden Lady...I have heard she is the best pediatric doctor around here.  So much so that the adults try to go see her as well. This is where we ended up today.
Once again we walked into a building and immediately we are in the middle of 25 people waiting! While in a normal size office, or an office with more than one doctor, or even a ratty-ass Centra Care - this might not be anything to be alarmed about.  But when you have just arrived in another walk-in-closet - - it was cause for concern!
and of course they are all staring at us.  Foreigners, blonde, and very tall.  Yep, we fit right in.  ugh.

After I filled out the paper work, she said "2 hour" - I said, um...NO.
We have appointment.  She shook her head.  "We no take appointments." - well that's funny since someone told me this morning to be there at 10:30.
She walked away - and then came out another door (which I never even saw it was so small) - and she motioned us in. Maybe because we were foreigners - who knows.  I was just happy to go ahead of all those others waiting!
I was so happy to follow her I hadn't paid any attention but once I closed the door and turned around -  low and behold - I had walked into a coat closet that had been made into a makeshift exam room.
I kid you not - I could sit on the dwarf size 'cot' and put my legs straight out and touch the other wall with my feet. The room contained only a pillow, a sitting stool and a large file cabinet. My stomach got queasy just at the thought of "what have I gotten us into now?"
So they finally shuffled us into ANOTHER room - with a large (well, relatively speaking) partition. I swear it looked like a make-shift M.A.S.H. hospital.  You could hear everything going on with the patient on the other side of the partition.
Three nurses hovering on the corners - all with the Michael Jackson type hospital masks on and what looked like candy-striper outfits on.
Then a little kid comes out from the other side - sporting a mask, an IV and the rolling liquid bag.  It took everything I had to not whisk my son the hell outta there...right then.

So she (Dr. Sato - as I now know) was nice.  Spoke good broken English and she was quick.  She said he didn't need medicine "right now" - but if his fever stayed until Wednesday - bring him back to give him a BLOOD TEST.  I thought, what-the-hell?  Then the vision of the kid with the IV bag and rolling pole came back and it was all I could do to get out of there.

So we are home, no medicine, and no closer to getting a diagnosis.  We are loading up on Vitamin C, liquids and lots of rest.
And all with the conclusion that if push comes to shove...it will be back to the Bluff Man for at least a little Amoxicillan - to kill WHATEVER it is that lurks inside my child. (and hopefully some peace of mind knowing I am trying to cure him).

Suddenly the very large, over-priced, 5 doctor office we previously had in the USA- - doesn't look so bad.

Out of their closets~
Deeds

My THIRD Earthquake

Yesterday, we had another earthquake.
Here they would classify it as "a little one"...6.6


Some people didn't even know we had one.  (how that's possible is BEYOND me)  - Do they just walk around on "shaky legs" throughout their regular day?  Like someone who has the wobbly - I might be drunk walk? I just don't see how its possible not to feel these earthquakes. Or how its possible to not feel the building you are in slowly start to sway, or to hear the walls creak as they start to move?  Its creepy - period.


Anyway,
yesterday, 12:15pm...I was in the car on the top floor of a parking garage and I had finished loading my wares and just happened to be backing out of the parking spot.  As most people do - I was backing out SLOWLY, looking for other cars...and all of a sudden  - my car started shaking side-to-side and I thought "I've hit a HUGE pothole".  And I mean car shaking to the point that my head would have bounced off one shoulder pad to the other (had it been the 80s and had I been wearing them)!
So I slowed down trying to "look" at what I had run over.  Nothing.
Then I saw the car beside me rocking side-to-side.  It looked like someone was behind it, pushing it, trying to tip it over.  Yes, it was rocking that much. 


So I stopped and waited.
All of about 10 seconds ~ and it was over.


Nothing more.  No tsunami.  No panicked people running & screaming.  Basically - no one even acted like anything happened. 
So I parked the car, got out, walked over to the side rail and just looked out over the water (yes, the only place to see the water is from the top of a building because of all the industry on the coastline).
I watched and waited.  NOTHING.  


I got back in the car and started my journey home.
All the while thinking to myself...I REALLY hope I am not here when the next BIG ONE hits.  And yes, they are predicting Japan is due to get one, a BIG one,  within the next few years!

The view from my shaky earthquake perch.  
Extremely thankful that this wasn't the last thing I ever saw!!!...the top of a Costco parking garage!!!




Rockin' and Rollin' (literally) in Japan~
Deeds

Looks Can be Deceiving

So as you might guess, things here in Japan are different.  Not only in the obvious (culture, looks, schools, cars, houses) but also in the little things.

Since my son is only 3 1/2 ~ there are still certain things that he likes that are only for little kids. And whenever possible - I go through every means possible to get him the comforts of home that he wants (Cheetos, Marshmellows and even the ever elusive Cinnamon Graham Crackers).
As you can imagine, some of the things he is use to are hard to find.  Sometimes it will take a whole days search & journey around town to find what I am looking for.
One British lady I met recently explained the expat wife's daily searches for the normal as:
"We hunt and we gather.  And when we find it, we gather as much as bloody possible because you never know when you will see it again."  I thought she was joking...she wasn't.

So in my quest to be a great mom, I went on the hunt for Bubble Bath.  We brought over an ENORMOUS bottle when we moved but since we have lived here - my son has decided that he likes bubbles in his bath more than he doesn't.  So starts the search - or so I think!

The first store I hit had this display of the cutest Winnie the Pooh bottles right up front by the register.  I thought - My lucky Day!
I grab, open, smell...PERFECT.

Get home and use the sweet honey-smelling stuff in my son's bath.  It looked a little runny-ier than usual, but I thought - hey, its Japan.  It didn't bubble very much and it made the water a little cloudy.  But none-the-less, my son smelled sweet and his skin felt like butter!

One afternoon when my Japanese teacher was here, I asked her to read a bunch of labels for me, tell me what my answering machine ACTUALLY said in Japanese and to read me the contents of the new Bubble Bath.

She said it was milk & honey scent.  She said to use a capful every-time.  And she said it was FABRIC SOFTENER!!!  Yes, I have been bathing my son in fabric softener!!

Poor kid.  Luckily I have only been washing his hair with fresh water from the spout.
Once again...life changes, and things DO NOT stay the same.
Still figuring it out - one LABEL at a time!

Deeds

What's in a NAME?

• Since we have been trying to get life straight after our long journey back to the States - - I have decided that this post needs to be an easy one and the result is a list:     the names of some of the cars here.  (Since I have been keeping a list now for months - literally, a piece of paper in the glove box).

As you would guess - there are different TYPES of cars all over the world, but I have also learned that some of the same TYPE cars just have different NAMES in different countries.  I guess they sell better?!  In the States people are preferring the numbers & letters while here not so much.  Take a look!

As you will see below...some of the ones here are
ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL!
(all of these should probably be prefaced by "THE" - makes it even funnier!)

I have taken the liberty of highlighting MY favorites...

Enjoy ~ ~ ~

MOVE                                                                           CLIPPER RIO
TOYOACE                                                                    HIACE
LA FESTA                                                                     PINO
LEGRAND                                                                    PAJERO
FUGA                                                                           VELLFIRE
STAR                                                                            STREAM
GLORIA                                                                       SUCCEED
HINO                                                                           NV200
AIRWAVE                                                                   SKYLINE
STAGEA                                                                      SUNNY
ELF                                                                                SPACIO (which is SO tiny)
ROYAL SALOON                                                 FUSO
LIFE                                                                               TIIDA
NOTE                                                                            SIENTA
EXPERT                                                                        RACTIE
VOXY                                                                           WINGROAD
RETARDER (no kidding)                                         FIT
FREE                                                                               MARCH
OPA                                                                                CAMI
CHARIOT SUPER EXCEED                                      REGIUS ACE
CEDRIC                                                                     HOMY
SCRUM                                                                      
STARLET TURBO  - This one, I feel I should have been driving in high school!!!

AND THE OVERALL WINNERS:

• HIGH LUXE NAKED
• TOPPO - BJ
• JOY POP TURBO                                       

Ever since I started noticing the different names...I almost break my neck or wreck the car EVERY TIME I am out and about!...as if driving on the wrong side of the road isn't enough for me these days!!!!

Enjoy your day in your JOY POP TURBO!

Deeds

Halloween - Japanese Style

Well, we came back from the States a week early to experience our first Japanese Halloween.

I had heard rumors and I had also been WARNED.  Some of the neighbors were ready and excited about the event - some neighbors were telling of how they were packing up and heading out for the evening.  All of this led me to be a little wary.

So we began the day with a trip to the Club so that my son can have a little early trick or treat without any hassles or hiccups in the process.  All went well with a little haunted house in the gym and a few games set up for "little kids" so that they had the opportunity to get some candy, with a little bit of ease!
Afterwards we had lunch and then off to the house to meet our friends and start the evening of Trick or Treat!

We started about 4:30 in the afternoon because here it gets dark about 5:30 now...the Japanese do NOT observe ANY TYPE of Daylight Savings Time.  Which blows because in the middle of winter - it will start getting light at 3:30 AM...yes...AM.  Which is a whole other story when you have a 3 year-old!
I digress.

So... We start our journey and end up walking through the maze of the neighborhood which is a bunch of U-shaped streets.  At one point we encountered a kindly Skeleton Man waving skulls on sticks at us, directing us to go towards his home.

At this house (which was clearly the best decorated house in the neighborhood) there were people, well, Power Rangers, and a random DUCK...standing out front directing you thru the awning that led to the garage. (wait - isn't Kim Kardashian dating one of these Power Ranger guys???) anyway ~

From there we went thru the awning and down into the garage where they had it set up to walk thru crepe paper and decor to get to the table with the treats!
Behind their Treat table they had THEIR Treat table set up...containing food, drinks, a grill and all sorts of items for a lovely evening of celebrating!
I tried to stay...but they, nor my husband, were having any part of that!!!

Needless to say - - - this house was a HIT!   A little strange how "into it" they all were but COOL none-the-less!  Maybe I'm just lazy!

After a few more houses, and losing the rest of our com-padres to sleepy little kids...I cut out early to head back and hand out the candy that we had at the house.
We didn't have any decorations out because we had been in the U.S. for 4 weeks, we only had the porch light on...
when I walked up to the house there were 3 little kids waiting (they must have rung the doorbell) and were a little shocked when I came out from behind the car.

After that - it was like someone let the flood gates loose...

There were kids EVERYWHERE!  It was complete MADNESS I tell you.  I guess the word got out that we had a HUGE bucket of sweets and they came in masses!
At one point there were 30-40 kids deep standing in my driveway and around the corner in front of the next house. My husband and son were still walking the neighborhood getting candy and here I was besieged by kids!
The only way to describe it is - try to imagine that you are at a new restaurant or bar that has just opened up and it is the newest hot-spot in town.  Everyone wants to be there RIGHT NOW!!!  You can't get a table and you can't get a drink because everywhere you turn there are 30 people in front of you trying to do the same thing.  Well, I was the maitre'd, the waiter and the bartender...totally in the weeds (restaurant lingo for those of you lucky enough to never have had such a job)!  So much so that I couldn't even get a picture of it all.
All I could hear was...Trick or Treat-O.  Trick or Treat-O, and the occasional Happy Trick or Treat!
It was great!

Finally after all the craziness died down a little, my husband and son show up to a 3/4 empty goodie bowl and a little bit of a frazzled wife.
My son immediately started handing out the candy - and immediately the girls that showed up were all giggly.  Now I'm not talking about little girls...I'm talking about TEENAGE girls.  Girls dressed in fishnets and short skirts!  There was even one set of girls who asked to take a picture with him because was dressed as Superman too (mind you she was in a short skirt and heels)!  It was a little baffling.  Me and my husband just looked at each other.
Me: proud Mama and a little in awe at my son's ability to remain calm, like he'd been doing that forever!
His Dad:  Proud Papa looking on as his son deals with the ladies, and also shaking his head in disbelief that his youngest of all three sons is STILL the only one who is picking up the women in Japan!!!!!

Anyway, my son handed out the rest of the candy...one piece at a time.  Which was pretty smart considering all the people that kept showing up.  They just kept coming in droves!
The park beside our house, which is in the shape of rectangle, had bicycles parked all along the perimeter - all the way around.  There were cabs dropping people off and masses getting off the buses.

Our neighborhood, which is known for having all the foreigners and expats...gets all the trick-or-treaters...because they know that we all celebrate the holiday and that we have the good SUGARY candy.  The candy here isn't very sweet....so they come to us for the good stuff! For the sugar rush!

All in all it was something to behold.  Something we will never forget.

At the end of our candy bowl - we had to turn off the lights and just go inside so that we wouldn't get stuck in the middle of another mad rush and run out of candy in the middle of the line.

It was all such a whirlwind and seemed to go on FOREVER...but to give you some idea of how many people there were...and how flip-flopped I was ~

it only took about 45 minutes to hand out the biggest bowl of candy we've ever had at Halloween!!!!


We hope yours was one to remember too~
xoxo
Deeds

Around Stateside, and Back Again

It has been 5 days and we are STILL dealing with a little jet lag.  But, what do you expect with a 3-year old?
Regardless, we have made it back to Japan and we are all in one piece....well, relatively speaking.

As anyone who knows me, or anyone that knows I am here in Japan...knows I have been ready to visit home for, well lets be honest...9 months.  Approximately the duration I have been here.
Not that I think Japan is a bad place to live, but simply put - - -
I miss my other life.

I guess you don't really realize how much you like, or love, something until you set it free - as the old saying goes. Which honestly until now - I thought was a load of hooey!  But I am now a FIRM believer in this little saying.
As from a previous post - you can tell that I was bewildered by all I had forgotten in America.  Everything from fast food (which here has a totally different meaning) to the wonders of a normal grocery store.  I caught myself driving on the wrong side of a parking lot once while in the US too.  Luckily, it was only a parking lot.  Speaking of that - I had forgotten how much SPACE there are in parking lots in America.  I know that sounds like - "Hey Yo, Jessica Simpson - what in the hell are you talking about."  But I am serious.  Parking here in Japan is like the scene from Austin Powers where he is trying to turn the golf cart around in that little hallway...slowly back, turn 1/2 an inch, change gears, forward. STOP! turn 1/2 an inch, change gears, reverse, STOP!  and on and on and on.  Seriously, I was so happy to actually TURN into a parking space, Stop and GET OUT OF THE CAR ON THE FIRST TRY!  When I got out of the car I had to stand back and make sure I wasn't taking up two spaces.

I also cannot express the elation while seeing some of my friends.  There were a few dinners to be remembered, a few cocktails that were LONG overdue and a few old stories that ALWAYS get brought up!  The feeling of warmth that spread over me was glorious.  Like an old T-shirt that you've had for years and every time you put it on...it fits you perfect.  Or maybe the warmth was all the cocktails???  Either way - cheers to all of you who made my trip everything I had hoped it would be!

And as with almost every trip I take, I ended up having to buy a new suitcase.  Usually it is because I buy too many things and they won't all fit into the luggage I brought.  But this time it was a truly warranted purchase...all the zippers on my biggest piece of luggage had somehow all broken.  And I mean BROKEN.  The only way for me to get them open and closed was to use a coat hanger...remember like back in the 80s when you'd wear the skin tight jeans and the only way to get them zipped was to lay on the bed and have your best friend stand at the other side of the bed and pull the zipper closed with a coat hanger???  Yes, the zippers were broken and probably for just that reason - trying to stuff that baby full and then zip it when it was    over capacity at is was!!!  But that led me to shopping, which led me to all the lovely stores I have so adoringly missed.  Which lead me to filling all remaining suitcases to coat hanger zipping capacity AGAIN!...even the broken one.  And yes, I brought it back to Japan because I had too much stuff to fit into the new one!!!
Don't you know my husband loves me for dragging that damn broken suitcase BACK ACROSS THE WORLD!  (love you honey!)

But alas, now I am back in Asia, and everything is exactly how it was when I left.  Which is actually a good thing.  God forbid ANYTHING had changed...then I would have had to start all over and re-learn everything I have already learned!  I think that might have led to a SERIOUS high-speed-come-apart!!!!

My son is happy to be back at school, his friends gave him the welcome of a King back from a long journey! His teacher said they argued over who was going to get to play with him first!!!
Which filled my heart...sad and a little evil, I know.

All in all, even the 24 hour trek to get home, as much as it completely takes its toll, is always going to be worth it.  The memories of watching my son get sick from the turbulence at 35,000 feet, the rude stewardesses (hey lady-not my fault you chose this job!), the crappy wine they serve, the jealousy that I am not the one in 'business class' snoozing away with a sleep mask, and the back and shoulder pains that last WEEKS after the trip...ALL WORTH IT, just to get to see a little bit of home!
Even if this one trip happens to be the only one I get until its actually time to move home - - - it was worth every cramped moment of the trip.

The day before we left my husband asked me if I was actually going to go back with him to Japan...I smiled half-heartedly and said Yes.  I mean what is 18 months to sacrifice for a lifetime of happiness? RIGHT?
(plus he said he would handcuff my son to him and swallow the key - if I didn't agree to come back! - SO...here I am!)

xoxo
Deeds