May 2010: More Sakura, JapanBases meetups & More!
Hmmm. This journal is severely lacking in updates and is almost a year behind. Whoops.
Let me remedy that since a LOT has happened this past year. Lets start with last April!
May started off with a meet-up from JapanBases.Com. It was a lunch so the group was spouses of our men that work on base. Some already knew each other but all of us were posters on the site's forums --some very frequent posters.
It was a good day for me because a lot of these girls became friends, even very close friends. :)
We ate at AkaOni Which I've posted about before. Which in a reminder is a buffet of yakiniku, shabu shabu, ramen, curry... the list goes on. YUMMMMMMM.
The creator of the site, Adam, couldn't stay for lunch as it was a work day but he did stop by to give me some site swag to pass out to the ladies (and kiddos). Good lunch, just wish we could have all sat next to each other!
Later that day when most of the ladies went home, Kristy and I continued on for the afternoon... evening. First stopping for a drink in town, then Club A on base, then Mexican for dinner, then the Chu-hi stand (we picked up my husband along the way eventually, ha ha)... needless to say Kristy and I hit it off and her and I are still good friends to this day.
I'm sure she'll hate the picture I posted above but it pretty much describes the end to our night. >:]
Terry and I went around base and town to look at the remaining Sakura blossoms as they're only in bloom briefly and weren't even blooming on time in 2010 since of the severe cold for that time of year.
There's our Bimmer.
Our little park on base in which I posted about in the previous post. On base has the most Sakura trees out of all of Yokosuka and this is by far the best spot to see them.
On base by a parking lot I've always noticed these steps that seem to go up a hill... that has nothing up there. On base most of the hills are off limits as there are old tunnels... and whatever that they want to keep the residents out of. But for some reason this one staircase was not off-limits so we decided to take the plunge.
As you can see the view from the hill is high up and you can see said parking lot while looking toward the "Front Gate".
And then at top you see the remains... of something from long ago. Across the once pond (which I'm sure used to be surrounded by a garden of sorts) you see a stone Chrysanthemum. Which is the Imperial Seal of Japan --which was also the Seal of the Imperial Japanese Navy from WW11 and earlier (because the Japanese Navy is known as the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force today).
Yokosuka base is now occupied by American Military but it was once home to the Imperial Navy during and before WWII so these artifacts pop up every now and then. Which to me is awesome!
Indian break!
Some Sakura off base (night and day edition~).
This is the Sakura right by the "Front Gate" of base.
Did you know they have Ikeas in Japan? They do... but the prices are a little higher... boo. But, they still have the same awesome restaurant items!
Kurou being Kurou on our new POÄNG chair.
In the middle of the month we had another meet-up with JapanBases.Com! This time in an Izakaya for the evening!
We reserved a room and ordered one of the "course menus" they had to offer. The course menus are a popular choice with big parties when groups go to izakayas and certain resteraunts. Usually they have a set price and offer a certain amount of pre-selected dishes... it's usually wayyyy too much food but a good way for us Gaijin to try new items we'd never order before. And the cool part is for an extra amount you can order the "all you can drink" option! Hurrah!
The above pictured wasn't even all the food they served... we were stuffed.
Oh yeah, the members. That us! We had a good group! The site's administrator, Adam, is the one in the tie looking all respectable (and showing us the weight he's gained -ha ha).
We eventually had to leave as there was a time limit but I think at that point we were like "No more food! PLEASE!" Oh, and a bit tipsy.
For some reason we though it was a good reason to go bar hopping after two hours of "all you can drink"... ummmmmmmmmm...
The following day, Saturday, I had the worst hangover EVER.
Sunday I finally ventured out of the house for the base "Bizarre". Which is where vendors come on base and set up shop to sell their wares --it ranges from $5,000 Persian rugs, wedding kimonos, cased butterflies, furniture, to comic books. Good deals all around.
We took a break off base and decided to eat at TGIF. Oh yeah, TGIF is everywhere. But I started not to feel well... well, worse. We left early.
...And ended up in the ER. Did I mention I had a memory gap from the Friday night out before? No? Oh, yeah. Well, it turned out I had a concussion. That my worst hangover ever was not that... just a concussion. Yep, only a concussion.
No, I have no idea how it happened.
Ha ha ha... ha.
Anyway, I got jello with WHOLE cherries in it later that month...
So. See you next time for Fertility Festival fun times! Say that three times fast. :D