MASSAGEE

I don't have a picture of this, so I'll try to be descriptive. Tim and I were on date night on Tuesday. We were walking to the Hotel New Yokosuka, a common meeting up place. It is near the place they call 'The Honch' and 'Doubuita Street' which is by the main gate onto base.

Several years ago I saw a sign there that said MASSAGE -- SOAPY FINISH. That has become a catch-phrase for me, because I thought it was so funny.

Tim told me about a time when he was here temporarily when a 'buddy' sicked a girl on him to give him a massagee one evening. They can be rather persistent.

Well, we were walking along, and since the sidewalks are narrow, I was walking behind Tim. It's easier that way, since there are bicyclists on the sidewalks here, so you're likely to not have enough advanced warning to get out of the way. Single file, even when we're traveling as a family works great. At least they'll have to mow down 3 in a row, and when I'm in the rear, well, I think I could do some damage to a bike. It's far easier than dodging back and forth when you're walking side by side. Plus, with Tim's long stride, and my short stumpy legs, it's easier for us to just do our own thing.

Anyhoo... a nice dressed Japanese lady, about 30 or so, walks up to Tim and says something. I IMMEDIATELY knew what's going down. Japanese women don't normally talk to men. So I pointed at him and said, "SHUJIN!" (HUSBAND!)

The instant surprise and abashed look on her face was priceless. It was too funny. She'd been caught, by the wife!!

Then we went into the bar and a guy I just met gave me $30 worth of drink coupons (he was heading back to the states the next day). And I didn't even have to give a massagee for it! Score one for the wife!

Seika Art Exhibition

Saturday was the Art Exhibition at William's school.

Getting to William's school is always an adventure. There is no parking available, so you need to find some type of public transportation to get there and it is a fair distance up a hill from the nearest train station. Last time, we'd parked on base and got an off-base taxi to get up there. We waited nearly 20 minutes to get a taxi, so we figured there should be a better way. This time, we took the train to the nearest train station and took a taxi from there. There is always a line of taxis at the train station so that was quick. We were also prepared to take the bus up the hill and we did actually ride the bus back to the train station when we were done.

I'm not much of an art critic, so all I can really do is provide some pictures of William's wares for your enjoyment. (Click on the small pictures to see a larger version of the picture.)
All the classes made a cow. William's class's cow is the third one from the right.




These are William's version of traditional Japanese dolls. It looks like the one on the left got into the medicine cabinet...






The highlight of the day, though, is the model shinkansen ride they had out in the playground. The bus drivers took turns driving it for the kids. It was one of the selling points for William in deciding which school to attend. I can't say that I can blame him.

Snow Festival

Our hotel was nicely located. We were a block from a subway station and the street that the ice sculptures were being built and displayed on. The first night, we looked at the ice sculptures along the street. There were a LOT of them and all very nicely done. At the end there was a dozen or so still being built so we could watch the creations in process.


The next day, we got on the subway and went the one stop to get to the big park where the snow sculptures were. It was a bit spooky. It was snowy and foggy and as we'd walk along the path, these HUGE sculptures would come out of the fog. They were so detailed and large that you'd initially think it was a big building or ... something coming up. Some of the big displays were some 20 to 30 feet tall and 60 feet wide. They had huge replications of historic castles and buildings and even a Disney scene. There was even a slide made of ice and snow that William tried out a couple of times. We found that William was only slightly interested in the sculptures (except for a few that were of trains...). He'd rather play in the snow along the side of the park. It kept him busy, anyway.

It was Friday, so kids were still in school, however, hoards of them were wearing numbered bibs and running around the site with assignments to introduce themselves to foreigners using english and getting their signature, or asking for information. Every time we came within sight, we were mobbed. We heard the following speech about 2 dozen times: "Hello, do you have a minute? I am _______ from Elementary School _____ can I ask you a few questions? Where are you from? What is your favorite thing to do in Sapporo? Thank you, have a nice day!" At one point I had about 15 kids asking for my autograph all at once.


The fog and snow cleared up a bit and we saw a bit more. They had a huge mountain of scaffolding holding up a snow board jump that snowboarders were using to show off to judges.

At night, I went back on my own to take pictures of the sculptures with all the lights on them. They had light and sound shows and some even had bands playing on them.


The next morning was our last day there, and the weather really turned nice. We took a quick peek at the sculptures and then headed to see the other sights. There was a tiny steam powered train that William was thrilled to ride on and the Sapporo TV tower had an elevator and an excellent view of the park, the city, and the surrounding hills. I suspect there is some good skiing out there...

Sapporo Beer Museum

We took a long weekend this last weekend and headed up to Sapporo, which is on the north island of Hokkaido for the Sapporo Winter Festival.

We took off from our house on Thursday morning and walked to the train with our back-packs on. We hit the trains during rush hour and it was quite an experience. Toward the end of the trek up to Tokyo, the train was getting so packed with people that we were quite literally squished in so we couldn't really move. Caroline and I surrounded William to ensure he didn't get squished, though most everyone around us was quite mindful of William and was very careful. It was a bit of a struggle to get all our bags and coats and get off the train at the right stop, but it all seemed to work out.

We caught our flight from Haneda airport. This was our first experience on a Japanese domestic flight. We tried to check in at the front counter, but they gave us a confused look. I'm not sure, but I think Japanese only use the check-in counter to change something on their ticket instead of just to let the airline know that they are there. As we put our bags on the security scanner, we scanned in the bar code on our e-tickets and slips of paper came out with our gate number. Then, as we entered the flight, our tickets were scanned again and our seat numbers were printed out.

The flight to Hokkaido was just a bit over an hour.

At the airport, we grabbed a train to Sapporo and then a taxi to our first goal: The Sapporo Beer Museum!

We started off with food in the Sapporo Bier Garten where they have an all-you-can-eat Genghis Kahn grill-it-yourself lamb meal. It was really good after the long trip.

The museum is not terribly extensive, but it is pretty nice for a free tour and has two bars for beer tasting. Hard to go wrong here.

Outside, there were some snow sculpturing going on. One guy looked like he had a beer bottle and mug outlined and a funny looking round form with two circles on it. He noticed our puzzled looks and pulled out the owl statue he was modeling. This was just a warm-up for the big snow sculptures we were headed to see the next day...

Craft Room

I heard William come in and jump on my bed and say, "Mommy, I need ANOTHER thing of tape!"
Now, a wise mom would have gotten up and investigated. It was 7 a.m., and William had woken at 5:50. I had told him he could be awake if he didn't bug mom. He had wanted to work on his 'crafts.' I said, "Okay."
I hazily remembered him asking for some more tape somewhere in my slumber, and therefore his request for a third tape dispenser did catch my interest. (BTW, I love it when the hazards of using tape shows up on the boy... although I am tired of having to take small bits of tape and paper off of my feet.)
I sighed. What is a mom to do? Go clean up the mess now? It was obviously too late for that. Any old mom knows that a small mess is as hard to clean up as a big one, so I said, "There's more tape in the cupboard by the front door, honey," and rolled over to make my reality go away.
Originally, William's room was the master bedroom. But, since we didn't have a true TV/play room, we gave him the larger room to play in. Well, that's been great until now. He now insists that he needs more table space to do his crafts, like his origami boats that he folds and colors for people. He reinforces the folds with tape. He's such a boy. Glueing just takes too long. It's the first lesson in 'bodging' something together, I guess. My tape supply has been taking a huge hit.
He has moved to our kitchen table, right by the big picture windows (so all the Japanese can see as they walk past) to do his 'washing paper' work. It goes something like this: You use paints, or markers on paper. Then you use water on it, and then absorb it with other paper. It looks interesting, and he loves it. It reminds me a bit of his Grandma Sue's funky watercolors.
He has had his markers taken away. That was a bigger mess than anticipated when he used them as 'paints.' There are no pictures of that event, because I was too busy trying to clean stuff up before it became permanent color on the expensive wall paper.
He is now skilled in using tape for a whole variety of things, like envelopes, and 'bags.'
My favorite, was him excitedly announcing to Tim as he came through the door last night, "Do ya know, I made a CRAFT! Wanna see it?"
Tim said, "Yes, I'd love to, what did you make?"
"A ball!" William crowed.
Great. I could have easily thrown it away when I thought it was just a balled up piece of paper. Now, I know it's a lovingly made 'craft.'
Ah... but as any 'crafty' mom knows, she can usually convince the child to send his lovingly made articles to unsuspecting relatives. There's more than one way to clean up the mess around here!

This Bud's for You

Even though it's a bit cold, we're starting to see a lot of blooms here in Japan. The narcissus have been out for awhile, and now the quince and the plums are starting to pop. Our quince bush is in the back of our house, so at least our neighbors get to enjoy it. For privacy, our windows in back are all opaque, so we have no view, just light coming in.

We haven't gotten any snow here so far this year. February is supposed to be cold, as well. Right now, the sun is shining almost every day. It was cold enough to nip my bougainvillea. We are told that it is rare for snow to stay more than a morning here, if we do get any.

I have bulbs in the ground (daffodils and tulips to remind me of home) and await the arrival of spring for those to come up.

The Ume, or plums are first to start blooming in Japan in Jan-Feb. I have seen white to dark pink, as you can tell in the picture of our neighbors yard. Then, the sakura, or cherry blossoms start in March-April in our area.

Lip Service

There is a stranger in my house. He has a key, and kisses me.

Tim, after 21 years of having facial hair has shaved his mustache. He is now desperately trying to re-grow it for the 'mustache growing contest' his work is having. I guess the women get to judge, instead of competing. There are a couple of Northern European guys who are so blonde and smooth, that I think some of the chicks could take them!

People keep saying he looks younger. One person thought he looked sick. He did admit he had a cold... upper lip!

That reminded me of a time when his nephew, Aidan, was 4 years old. We were going somewhere in my car and he said, "Auntie Caroline, why does Uncle Tim have a mustache?"

I replied that it is because Tim thinks it makes him look better.

"But WHY does he have a mustache, Auntie Caroline?"

I kept trying to explain in different ways how some men think they look better with facial hair. His little mind just couldn't get around it (that is an advanced concept), and it was starting to drive me nuts. "But, WHY???" We were nowhere near our destination, so I finally said, "He has a mustache to keep his lip warm."

"Oh!" That made sense to the boy, and I had a bit of peace and calm until he popped up with, "Papa Bill's chin must be cold, too!"

Tim had asked William if it would be okay if he shaved his mustache, and William said okay. This is William's reaction to the event: