Yokosuka Gazette 10/12/13

Hans and I are watching Japanese TV...there's a show on that looks like "Hoarders".  Yes, definitely "Hoarders" or a jumble of Kanji that means something like "Keeps Many Things of No Value".  There is a nice Japanese lady holding out a trash bag and coercing a man to put something into it and his house is a little messy.  Nowhere like American "Hoarders" standards, but by Japanese standards.

Off topic:  I really enjoy taking my vitamins in the morning since I switched over to an all gummi vitamin regimen.  No more swallowing big tablets all day, now taking vitamins is as fun as going to the candy store.  Calcium, multi and probiotics.  Yummy AND I'm helping my bones and my intestines.  It's a win-win.

So...this week has been all about husband and father reintegration.  The reunion is always a happy moment, but it's always a big adjustment after those initial hugs and tears.  Add to the fact that Hans is jetlagged and coming to a new home thousands of miles from...home.  Whatever.   You get the point, right? 

As a single parent, I have to roll with the punches and sometimes make rules that make sense to me when I'm alone with the kids, but don't work when he's home.  The kids have to get used to having another source of authority telling them that they can't have waffles at 9:30 or to get their fingers out of their noses.  Since it's been a few months, I asked him before he came home to just back off for a bit on discipline, etc. and follow my lead until he got used to this week's discipline system.

Yeah, it changes from week to week...if you have something that works 100% of the time, please let me know.  I'll be happy to laugh hysterically in your honor. 

So far, so good.  The first couple of days were a little rough because of the jetlag, but he's already staying up until after 9:00 and waking at 4:30.  Today it was 4:40!  Yay!  It's the little things that matter.

What have we been up to?  Hans had some official things to do, stuff I won't bore you with, though I still want to know why it takes 2-1/2 hours to introduce yourself to the DESRON.  While you're supposed to be on leave spending time with your family.  Gen, you'll be happy to know that he has already registered with DBIDS.  Driving test was completed on Friday.

I feel for the guy, you know?  How weird must it be to come home not once but TWICE this year to find your things in a different house?  At least he had seen the house in Norfolk before he moved in and knew where it was and approximately what it would look like. 

So...we basically have an entirely new life, new home, different car, different set up that we've been living here for the last couple of months that we have to incorporate him into.

Sorry, it's early.  My writing is not very good this morning.  Sigh.  Still drinking my coffee.

On Friday, we decided to take a field trip.  When the kids got home from school, we rushed them around saying that we had to hurry and get on a train to Yokohama to go up and get Daddy's driver's license.

Riding the train is always an adventure unto itself.  Keeping the kids quiet, keeping their feet off the seats, keeping them from offending the old Japanese ladies, keeping them from falling over the edge of the platform, etc., etc., etc.

Yokohama, home to Landmark Center, home to:

The Pokémon Center!

They didn't figure it out until we were right in front of it...

 

The store wasn't quite as big as we thought it would be, but that didn't matter to our Pokemon lovers.

Yes, I bought the Pikachu pancake mold.  It comes with a mold AND a stencil for powdered sugar, so I can make the pancake and stencil Pikachu's face on it.  So Martha Stewart, if Martha Stewart had kids that liked something as pedestrian as Pokémon.

Blurry, I know, but what the whaaattt?  It's a mold to make bread or muffins, but take a look at the finished product.  I'm pretty sure those Pikachu are screaming.

 The kids love to play this game in Yokosuka, luckily there was a staff member that spoke great English and was able to give us some pointers on how it works. 

Josiah waited in line to play the Japanese version of a new Pokémon game coming out this week.

Annika, modeling a Pokémon-style Japanese school hat.

 

 

After we lightened our wallets at the Pokemon store, we needed to eat.  I insisted we NOT go to the McDonald's in the mall, but try something different.  We had Italian...not that different, but better than McDonald's.  The restaurant turned out to be quasi-fancy and there we were in our jeans with our three kids.  It's still hot out, so we were all a little sweaty and windblown and probably looking like Grade A tourists, but they brought us in and served us, so I guess we passed muster.  The kids were absolutely, stunningly well behaved at the quasi-fancy Italian place.  I got a glass of wine, the lighting was low enough so that I didn't look completely haggard and the stains on people's clothes weren't glaringly obvious.  No one broke anything.  Everyone minded their manners and arigato-ed the waitress constantly, which they found adorable.

 

I'll spare you the gory details of the ride home...it was after work on a business day, so the train was packed like sardines.  Not to the point where the station attendant had to shove people to get the doors closed, but way too close for this American and her children, who couldn't understand why we couldn't SIT DOOOOOWWWWNNN.

 

It's less than 30 kilometers from Yokohama to Yokosuka, but it takes over an hour on the train and even longer by car.  Sigh.  In Germany, we'd have 30 kms done in about 22 minutes flat.

 

Have a great weekend!