China - Day 1 - November 26, 2008

We decided to spend Thanksgiving 2008 in Beijing, China. The tours office offered a great 5-day package and off we were. We woke up on Wednesday morning at 4:30 am to get ready for our 4-hour flight. We had to catch a bus from the base at 6:00am to get to the Narita airport (a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive) for our 10:30 a.m. departure. It was a relatively quick 4-hour flight to Beijing. From the air we had this gorgeous view of Mt. Fuji.

We were escorted by our Japanese tour guide Yuko and greeted in Beijing by our Chinese tour guide Cha Cha. It was very smooth getting through customs, everything was done as a group. As we made our way through the airport it was explained to us that due to the Olympics this terminal was all brand new as were a lot of the roads and renovations to the hotels. Everything was very Western looking. The Chinese even drove on the correct side of the vehicle and the road.

Traffic in Beijing was very heavy. They don't have the wonderful transit system they have here in Japan. So we had a little bit of a bus ride, but we did see some wonderful buildings.
Soon we arrived at the Joy City International Hotel. We were amazed at the wonderful 2-bedroom suite we had. It was so luxurious, definitely bigger than the Japanese hotel's we've heard about but yet to stay in. Our room was a 2-bedroom suite. Each with a king size bed and it's own dream bathroom with separate vanity. Each bedroom had it's own flat screen TV and reading area. The rooms were divided by a living room and kitchen with oven, stove, microwave, refrigerator and washer/dryer. Had we known we needn't have packed so much. And the view was absolutely gorgeous. The only drawback was the heat, was uncontrollable. The room was very hot and there was no airflow even with the windows open. What we would soon learn was China was very dry.....which led to Kyle's 13 bloody noses (yes he kept count, but he was a trooper!)

We arrived to the hotel about 4:00p.m. and had some free time until dinner which was provided by the tour at 6:00 p.m. We quickly unpacked and went to stretch our legs at the mall attached to our hotel. We went in search of the Starbucks in the mall to get collectable mugs of China...mission accomplished!

We were then on our way to dinner for our first Chinese meal, Peking Duck. Unfortuantely, on the way Kyle got a bloody nose, which lasted about 45 minutes due to the dry weather. So for the first 20 minutes of dinner we tried to stop it enough to put some cotton up his nose to enjoy the rest of dinner. He was a real trooper. Don and the kids really loved the duck, I didn't try it since I'm not much of a dark meat eater.

We had a wonderful first day and were looking forward to Day 2. We had a 6:30am wake up call, which we were up an hour before so we could board the bus at 8am. It would be a busy day - The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, The Summer Palace, and the silk factory.

Disney Sea Japan

As promised here are some pictures from our trip we took the kids on to visit Japan's Disney Sea in November for Veteran's Day. What better way to celebrate our Veteran than by taking him to a day filled with Mickey, Minnie and the gand and a bunch of rides? I have to tell you all that it is a Disney park unlike no other we have visited in the states. It is kind of like a mix of DisneyWorld and California Adventure. The rides were not like any we had ever been on so it was great since we had just took the kids to DisneyWorld in February.

The food was interesting. Everyone told us to pack our own lunch we wouldn't find anything we would want to eat. The hot dogs were not like American hot dogs. So we did pack food but left it in the car and thought we would see what we could find and if we didn't find anything we always had that for a backup. Luckily we found a NY style deli that had soup, pastrami and turkey. Although, the kids meal was a salmon sandwich, hmm? Not my kids kind of kids meal, but we survived on soup, pastrami and turkey. We did manage to fill up on lots of snacks too. They have this wonderful thing and DisneySea and Tokyo Disney. It is flavored popcorn. I know you are thinking caramel, butter, cheese. Well they have that, but they also have flavors like curry, strawberry, chocolate, cappuccino, coconut, black pepper, sea salt, and lots of others. You just buy a container that ranges from $12-$13 and then go from stand to stand and refill it with a different flavor for only $5. We tried 3 flavors that day. The great thing is that they let you bring the container back each time you come. We even have a container that we didn't know we saved from our visit here 10 years ago. I keep my cookie cutters in it.

We went when all the Christmas decorations were up so it was beautiful. Next year we hope to go at Halloween time, which we hear the Japanese really go all out for.

Entering the park was very impressive.

Christmas DisneySea style...
Even Santa made it to DisneySea...
Nothing brings a smile to kids face quite like the magic of Disney...

Happy New Year!

Where did 2008 go? It seems like yesterday we just arrived in Japan and now we are closing in on 10 months here already! I must apologize for not posting the last two months. I let the holidays get the best of me. We took some small day trips with the kids and a trip to China over Thanksgiving. Between that and the holiday preparation, the online shopping, volunteering at school and I finally started subbing, that I ran out of time and neglected my blogging duties. That and the fact that for awhile we could not get the cameras to download thanks to the USB ports.

We are thinking of buying a new laptop soon. Don is back to taking classes working on his degree, Megan is using the computer for her homework and I have been subbing at night, so all three of us are always scrambling to get to the computer first. Then Kyle wants to get on and play an activity from his class website. Our other laptop is 4 years old and is about as slow as a snail, so soon we will update. We waited too long and the laptop we had our eye on is of course sold out. So I will spend the next few days updating you on what we have been doing and posting some pictures from DisneySea, China and another first for Kyle. Can you guess what it is? He was so excited about it.

We all had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did to. Don's parents were here to spend time with us and visit Japan for the first time. They were a little jet lagged with the 15 hour time difference. We had beautiful spring like weather while they were here 50's and 60's. Today it was down to the 40's and they had called for our first chance of snow. It was rain though which brought out the sourpuss in Megan. She wanted it to snow. Her and Kyle are both now missing the winter days of Connecticut and the snow. They thought if it snowed it would get them out of school for a day. They've only been back for 4 days, come on Mom needs a break.

Now that things are settling down, the holidays are over, and our schedules are returning to normal I hope to blog on a regular basis. So keep checking back for updates. Happy 2009 Everyone!

California Pizza Kitchen Japanese Style

We actually found a California Pizza Kitchen in Japan, can you believe it? Thanks to my friend and neighbor. She said it was good tasted just like it did back in the states and was fairly easy to get to. It was just 4 stops away by train. However, once you got off you had to walk to the other train line and around it to get inside the Lozano Mall. It was a huge outdoor mall with mobs of people. They had a little fashion show of some type going on we couldn't see it or understand it so we didn't stay to watch it. The funniest part we had to say was that it was about 68 degrees outside and all the Japanese thought it was cold. They must have looked at us with no coats and Don and Kyle in shorts, shaking their heads thinking "those crazy Americans". They were already in winter coats, scarfs and hats. The train had heat blasting. We were so refreshed when we finally got outside in the fresh air. I guess it's like when we lived in Hawaii and after the first year we were finally acclimated. Even the dogs had sweaters on them. Just an observation on my part I'm not trying to say anything bad about anybody, just thought it was funny and how they had to be sweating but they weren't.

Here is a picture Kyle had me take on the train. The "two clones" (they never travel without a book), you always find them like this, they didn't even know we snapped the picture:

Here is a picture of Lozano Mall and the crowds of people:

Here are pictures the kids took of us at the table. Here's Megan's photo skills:

Here's Kyle's picture:

Next, we hopped back on the train and went one stop to Yokohama to Cosmo World to ride the Ferris Wheel at night. We had never rode the ferris wheel yet. It was a 75 minute wait which they both did well in line. However, about 10 minutes before we were ready to ride Kyle had to go pee. We couldn't get out of line so we told him he had to hold it. Then we finally got in the ferris wheel. It's about a 15 minute ride. We were about more than half way around when he really had to go and said he couldn't hold it and Megan now had to go. I guess the 4 refills of lemonade were finally working through the system. Yes, we did make them go potty before at the train station. Anyway, we made it accident free off the ferris wheel and ran to the nearest toilet.

Good thing we didn't see this before they went to the bathroom, I think it would've scared the pee right out of Kyle.

The Nina, Hina and Monta Vahina (according to Kyle)

Kyle had a Christopher Columbus project to do for school. He had to make a boat that would float out of recycled materials. They learned all about Christopher Columbus. Kyle retold the cutest story how Christopher Columbus had 3 ships named: Nina, Hina and the Monta Vahina. Whenever we tried to correct him he told us NO, the are called: Nina, Hina and Monta Vahina. So we quit trying to correct him. Eventually, by the time Columbus day rolled around he was actually saying: Nina, Pena and Santa Vahina. Close! He paid attention real well in class. He learned how Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. When he sailed he thought the Earth was flat but soon found out it was round. He also told us that he sailed around and bumped into the US and before he died he discovered the US! He had many other wonderful facts that I was impressed he remembered and paid so close to the details.

Here are pictures of his finished boat. It was supposed to be a project that parents helped with. Daddy glued the milk carton closed and clamped it. Kyle painted the boat, and the chopsticks which held the sails. I only painted the windows, anchor and USS Kyle, then Daddy just put the sails on. So it truly was a group effort.

The Friday before Columbus day, the Kindergarten classes tested their boats and wheter they would sink or float?
Will it sink or float?

Of course it floated....cardboard floats says Kyle!!!

Megan's First Swim Meet

Megan's first swim meet was Saturday, September 27th. I'm a wee bit late in posting the pictures, it took me awhile to download my camera. She was nervous and didn't want to compete but she did pretty good for her first competition. She swam in four events and was at the pool from 8am - 3:30pm which made for a very very long day. There were about 5 other teams competing. Teams from Yokotoa Air Base, Atsugi Naval Air Base and I believe 2 Japanese swim teams. Megan only competes in events with girls in her age group 8 and under.

Her first event was freestyle 50 meters. She finished 2nd in her heat with a time of 1:00.85 and 9th out of 22 overall in her age girls 8 and under.

Her second event was the 50 meter backstroke. She finished 4th in her heat with a time of 1:12.72. She finished overall 15th out of 21.

Her third event was the 50 meter butterfly, which Megan has now told us she likes and prefers over the breaststroke. She finished in 1:36.31 and was 11 out of 11 for her first time.

The last event was the 200 meter relay. Megan swam the last 50 meters of the relay. They were the only team in their age group, so they came in first place and they got a ribbon. YEAH!!! Their time was 4:03.21.

The meet is finally over...Great Job Megan, we are so proud of you!!!

All Clear

We woke up this morning to Typhoon Readiness Condition (TCCOR) I, which meant the typoon was set to hit within the next 12 hours. This was at 7:15am, by 8:30am the typhoon changed course and we were all clear. It was quite a rainy night but we are glad that was all it was.

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day. So we ventured off base for lunch at Twelve Frogs (Kyle and Don had yet to be there), a trip to Bagel & Bagel for fresh bagels for tomorrow's breakfast and shopping at the 100 Yen store.

So we are all safe and sound in our little world over here.