Takatori Yama

Today is our anniversary - 27 years. We've had some great fun and seen alot. We'll be heading to Bali in a few days. Good thing for us we both like to travel.

We live in Yokosuka, but our section of town is called Shonan Takatori, and the ground is primarily rock. A few days ago, we took a hike up Takatori Yama (Mount Takatori to you). My student and friend Kimiko Ito introduced me to the area which can be reached by climbing a set of steps (sound familiar) just a 5 minute walk from my house.

It's cherry blossom season. The trees are covered with pink blossoms for ten days or so. They don't stay on the trees long, but are enjoyed tremendously while in bloom.

This is a good hiking area, so we passed young mothers with toddlers, couples with backpacks, and even came across a few American guys grilling.

Since there's plenty of rock here, there are rock climbers. The average age of the climbers surprised me. They aren't teenagers and as many women as men were climbers and spotters, or whatever the correct term is for the guy handling the ropes.

It's no accident that the rocks are flat vertically. They've been cut and the blocks used in foundations for houses.

The tower peaking out at the top of this photo is our destination. We will however, take a different route.
Allan loves to take photos wherever we go, and he's pretty good at getting the shot.

We made it to the top. You can see Mt. Fuji from here, IF the skies are clear, which they weren't this day.

The first two photos are of a rock carving of a Buddhist deity. Here it is from the observation tower. It's a kannon, which is neither a he or a she.

These last two carvings or paintings are ones I can't identify, but definitely religious. Actually, we would call these friezes.

Almost Normal

Twenty-four days after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused a tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdowns, things are fairly normal again. Well, normal for Japan. Train service is limited, stores are dimly lit and have shorter hours, and many areas have rolling brownouts (to conserve electricity). We have not had any loss of power since the beginning.

March 17th marked our halfway point in Japan. Allan's contract ends Sept. 16, 2012, but we may stick around a little longer to see if another position opens up. What do you think about Italy or Spain?

Everyone should travel abroad. You never know what you'll see... like a monk on a corner. Or what you'll learn about the culture. March 3rd is Hina Matsuri (festival for girls). There's a festival for boys as well on May 5th. No mother's, father's or secretary's day, but two celebration days for children.

For girls' festival, Hina ningyo (doll) is displayed and the house is decorated, although I'm not sure what that entails.

The decorations are promptly removed at the end of the celebration, else the daughter may not marry. I can't explain chocolate rabbits for Easter, so don't expect me to explain this.

I've said before, students wear uniforms through high school. And colleges have some dress restrictions as well. This was last Sunday when Allan and I went to Kamakura on the train. These girls may have been to cram school, or something like Sylvan, private tutoring. They study English and one other language, with Japanese teachers who usually cannot pronounce many English words correctly. Then when the students try to communicate with westerners, it's next to impossible.

Japan is a cash society. I pay our electric, water and gas bills at the 7-11, and the phone bill is paid at the business office, which is close to base. As far as the rent, I walk to the agent's office every month with 290,000 yen in cash. That's a lot in any currency.

Speaking of the house, some houses are built in strange places, like this one over a tunnel or on such a steep hill there is no vehicle access. You can only reach it by foot, and it's usually quite a climb. Would you want to lug a stroller up those steps?

Here's my washer/dryer. They hold 1/2 of what yours do. The washer has no hot water, so Allan devised this hose from the sink using a waterbed attachment. It takes about 4 hours for the average load to dry, so I partially dry my laundry outside, then finish in the dryer. It's a bit of an inconvenience, but it's the price we pay.

Here's a common site on a sunny day. The Japanese say mother is always busy when the sun shines.

Tubs are for soaking after you've showered, and the water recirculates through a heater, so no soap in the tub. Nothing browns in the oven, which turns off when it's open. Sometimes it will come back with the start button, but most times you cancel and reset it. If you have an oven, it's very small, but everyone has a fish grill.

Houses have shutters, which are traditionally closed every night, but most are only closed when the house is empty or during very bad weather. My student Kimiko was shocked to see my shutters open when I was away for a week. Oops!

Not all rooms are air conditioned. We have a unit in each bedroom and two in our main room. We keep that door closed.

Your mailbox is public domain. Anyone who wants can stick something in your mailbox. So I guess it's not a federal offense to take something out. I wish someone would take my junk mail, please.

In Japan, we drive on the left, and people are very cordial. If you're driving on a 4-lane road and you need to stop, just pull to the left and take care of whatever. People will go around you without shouting obscenities, honking, or giving you the finger.

It's okay to slurp your soup. I don't think parents insist their kids slurp, but it's very normal to make noise. You can inhale over food, but don't blow on it. The rule is; in is good, out is bad. So don't blow your nose. You can smoke in a restaurant, but not on the street. Why? Because restaurants have ashtrays, so it's more about cleanliness than health. If you can find one of these, feel free to stand next to it and smoke.

Shoes that tie also have zippers. If you remove your shoes whenever you go into a residence and some restaurants, it's just easier.

The only sign for the girls' department in this Japanese store is in English. That's just weird. Signs are usually in Japanese first and English second.

This really isn't the paper bag section, but close counts and it's like a puzzle figuring out what a sign means. This one is easy, but some, you never get.

Handicapped and elderly people are accommodated on public transportation. A person in a wheelchair will get assistance from the driver, who will stop the bus, pull out a ramp and after folding seats to make room, wheel the rider onto the bus. He finds out the person's stop and does the reverse at that point. Any healthy rider will give up a seat to an elderly person or pregnant woman, or just someone who seems to be having difficulty.

A student gave me a 'Japanese towel' that I keep in my purse. It's smaller than a washcloth. Since public restrooms don't always have papertowels or dryers, they're pretty handy to have. I've needed it more than once.

If you want cream or a substitute for your coffee, you might get a product named 'creepy, so you can have creepy coffee or you could just drink sweat. Brian had this one. I must say 'eeuw'.

Speaking of creepy, most alleys aren't. Lots of good restaurants and shops can be found in alleys.

When I walked down my first alley in Yokosuka (it was nighttime), I admit, it was with some trepidation, but now I cruise along like I'm on a national park trail.

This alley leads to our favorite restaurant, Watami. It's an izakaya, a bar that has food. It's like tapas, small plates so you buy lots of different dishes.

And sometimes you find a yakitori stand. Yaki means grilled and tori means chicken. This booth has grilled chicken skin, chicken cartilage, pork heart, pork liver, pork tail (again eeuw!) and probably some beef.

I've tried many new things here, but I draw the line at standing in an alley eating only meat. Give me tablecloths and a nice bottle of Italian red. Yeah, that's the ticket.

No nukes is good nukes

Have you seen tee shirt that says "I'm with the bomb squad. If you see me running, try to keep up"?

We've had loads of e-mails and phone calls over the last 10 days. People here and in the states are worried, especially about radiation coming off the Fukushima power plant. My husband is a public health expert. When I see him running, I'll keep up.

Here's a map of Japan (sans Okinawa) that shows all the U.S. facilities and the epicenter of the quake. Yokosuka is south of Tokyo and 176 miles from Fukushima.

Today, we heard the first stories of food contamination. I know the military can easily arrange food shipments from the states, so still, I'm not concerned. However, I am staying prepared for evacuation, as instructed. I am doing laundry daily, we are not buying perishables or any other foods, since our freezer is fully stocked, and our bags are packed.

Word from Fukushima is encouraging, but in the long term, I suppose it's anyone's guess. Our friends are leaving or sending their children stateside. Word has gone out that the school year would continue, but more than one of our friends have already gone because school was closed until further notice.

While I was sweating in the cardio room this morning at 7:20, an attendant came in to announce that the gym would be secured in 10 minutes. I had that much time to shower, dress, pack up my clothes and get out. Speculation around Allan's office was that it may be used for processing the hordes who would be evacuating.

According to Stars 'n' Stripes, 4083 dependents have signed up for travel assistance. That doesn't include people who took commercial flights. Over in the building where I teach English on Monday, it's business as usual. But the base population has diminished.

Tonight we had dinner with friends. It's a department custom to celebrate the completion of a large project with a beer after work. Allan finished the Ship Repair Facility report. He did the survey last June and finished the report Friday. A beer just wouldn't do, so we went to Watami, our favorite restaurant.

Possible mandatory evacuation for Americans

On March 17th, the Dept. of Defense published information that they will assist in voluntary evacuation of military and civilian families from Japan. This would begin within 24 hours.
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People will likely be moved to Korea, where they will be processed and await transportation to the states. Some, like our friend Chris are leaving from Narita on commercial flights, but we will remain here unless the situation takes a sharp turn.

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Efforts to cool the reactors have been ongoing since the plant was damaged by the tsunami. What has not been said is how much progress has been made. After 7 days, perhaps the best case scenerio has not been realized, but has there been any progress? I don't know.

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Today, Friday, March 18th at 7:30 am, Allan attended a department meeting where the possibility of mandatory evacuation was announced. We spent the day gathering information and filling out forms. We aren't expecting it to happen, but if the decision is made, it may happen this weekend, and we will get a call and report to base with the correct documentation and our limit of luggage.

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Around base and in town, restaurants and stores are limiting hours in an effort to reduce power usage. We have been expecting brownouts at home, but so far, it hasn't happened.

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The D.O.D. school year has been called, as of March 17th. Grades accumulated to date will be final. Our friend Karen is taking her son to Ohio to finish his junior and senior year.

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Those who will not be evacuating, namely the Japanese, are handling things well. The radiation threat is monopolizing the news, but the rescue efforts and the rebuilding are still very important.

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Our only chore now is to watch and wait.

Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown

Day six of disaster watch in Japan.

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This earthquake produced 464 aftershocks in the first 4 days.

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The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is the big issue. Allan is not overly concerned right now, but I'm not making any promises. We have CNN, so alot of our information is exactly what you can see in the U.S. The difference being that you also have Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, so you might know more than me.

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We have received a message from the U.S. Ambassador. The nuclear situation is being monitored, etc.

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Locally, the trains schedules are limited, which is a great hardship. Allan's friend Takagi-san waited until 10 am or so for the train to leave Yokohama. He was a bit late for work. Gas is an issue. I'm not sure if there is a shortage, or if people are just being cautious, but yesterday Allan and I passed a line of 37 cars waiting at a station. But the Japanese take it in stride.

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Businesses are using reduced lighting, and it's kinda nice, the glare is missing. Grocery stores have empty shelves, so we're happy to have a fully-stocked kitchen.

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Allan's work is not affected, but I've had a few cancellations in English classes. My only male student, Ichiro told me today that his son was in Sendai City during the earthquake. He was able to send a text and received a return text from his son saying that he was fine. He was not on the coast, so was away from the tsunami area. Whew...

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We might limit our movement for a few weekends - gas shortage, reduced train schedules, radiation exposure, all that stuff. But it's not too bad. I finally got my birthday dinner last night at the Officers' Club. It was Mongolian Buffet with a game. Fill a bowl with raw meats and vegetables, then guess the priced at 75 cents per 28 grams (28 GRAMS!!! could they make it more complicated)? If you come within 5 cents of the total, your dinner is free. Guess who had a free birthday dinner! Then, since Tuesday is $1 movie night and we saw 'Green Hornet'. What were those guys thinking?

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BTW: tomorrow is our half-way mark. We've been in Japan for 18 months. Can you believe it? If you're planning to visit, times a runnin' out. We're looking for a new post now, so who knows where we'll land? Keep watching.

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So, how's everything with you?

Whole lotta shakin' going on

At shortly before 3 pm last Friday, yes - March 11th, my birthday, a fault line off the coast of Northern Japan shifted causing an 9.0 magnitude earthquake (jishin). Shortly afterward, as the epicenter was in the Pacific, a tidal wave (tsunami) hit the coast. Three hundred miles away, the quake was felt by Allan and me. He was in his office and I was at the base library on the first floor of a 4 story building.

Quakes are common enough in Japan that I went about my business for a while. Once it reached the 30 second mark, I thought I might go outside and wait it out. I was joined by a crowd of others. During the 7-8 minutes that the tremor lasted, most of us agreed this was the largest tremor we had experienced. Some of those people have been in Japan for more than 20 years.

Back in the library, about 25 minutes after the first tremor, we felt what I hoped was an aftershock (yoshin), and not a separate quake. Outside again, one of the men from the building told us there had been a tsunami, but we did not anticipate the depth of destruction that was taking place while we stood on the sidewalk. The wave was over 20 feet high in some areas and came ashore for 2-3 kilometers.

There was a short third tremor shortly after the second subsided. About 40-60 minutes had passed. By 4 pm, things were being shut down around the base, especially along the perimeter by Tokyo Bay. Allan and I had plans for a birthday dinner, but we could easily postpone that. Since the trains and buses had been shut down for the night, we offered to take a friend home. He lives in Yokohama and depends on the train, as do thousands of others

Since a local elevated highway was closed as well, there was gridlock on local roads and hundreds of people filling the sidewalks. Three hours later, we arrived home, our friend decided to walk rather than have us continue to Yokohama, as it would take around the same time either way.

Luckily, we had electricity when we arrived home and there was no damage.
We have been watching CNNj (j for Japan). But there is no local tv news in English, so we were unable to find out how Yokosuka would be affected. The following day, we cancelled plans to go to Kamakura, which is a cute town close by with shops, restaurants and beautiful cherry blossom trees. Winter is ending, and we were anxious to get out, but that can wait. We didn't know what was happening with the trains.

Knowing that family and friends would be waking up soon, we tried to send an email that night, but were unable to phone or get a message out. I woke up early on Saturday and put together a short message.

Train service has not been fully restored, and shops and restaurants are limiting hours or staying closed. Several of my students cancelled classes, since there is a shortage of gas, and very long lines at the stations. Today, a schedule of blackouts was made public. We are scheduled to be without power twice today for a total of about 5 hours. It is necessary, since five nuclear reactors have been shut down.

A plant in Fukushima had a partial meltdown Saturday and a 2nd today, but emergency measures have been taken since the beginning. One hundred, seventy thousand people were evacuated within a 15 mile radius of the plant. If I were in the area where something like this is happening, I would want the Japanese handling it. They are by nature very cautious, not likely to cut corners where safety is concerned.

Allan and I are well and safe. The Navy has deployed (moved) several of the ships located at Yokosuka to the affected area. Japan will recover. Volunteers from 45 countries are helping with the effort.

Diego Garcia isn't a Spaniard

After traveling to, and hiking around Singapore for 3 days, finally, I could sleep late. Liz had to get up early to catch her flight back to Japan. My flight leaving Singapore was at 2 pm, while hers was 7:30 am.

The flight to Diego Garcia was on a DC8. This is an old plane that is in frequent need of repair.

Diego Garcia is an atoll (coral reef surrounding a lagoon) 7 degrees south of the equator. It's 42 miles long if you follow the strip of land around. It's a British Indian Ocean Territory or B.I.O.T. You'll see those letters on a sign further down.

The island is very tropical with thousands of coconut palms, coconut crabs, donkeys, lots of birds and no snakes or poisonous animals or insects.

There are about 2500 people on the island, 2000 Filipinos, 400 Americans and only about 40 British.

Since I found I was going to Diego Garcia, I was curious why it was named like a Spanish sailor. The island previously had a coconut plantation, managed by Diego Garcia. And the donkeys, which were probably used on the plantation, are protected by the British.

I made a lot of friends and enjoyed lots of Filipino food, including pancet (like pasta) and lumpia (a sort of eggroll with fish).

Here's the highpoint of the island, the pool (above), six feet above sea level. Below, are my host Dave, his friends Ray and Nani, who was the lumpia chef, and me on the left.

We went deep-sea fishing on Saturday and had a blast. It was my first fishing trip in the Indian Ocean. We made a good catch and cooked most of it for dinner.

I caught this wahoo, 3 grouper and a few snapper. Transportation for our catch is a wheelbarrow.>

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We played golf on Sunday and had a picnic afterwards near the ruins of the old plantation house.

I looked around the ruins. It's too bad the island is off-limits to anyone not working for the British or U.S. government. It would be a nice quiet family vacation spot.

I arrived on the island on Monday evening. At lunch on Tuesday, a dive instructor overheard my conversation about wanting to dive. Jason offered some of his gear and I made a dive in the lagoon on Thursday after work (mostly to get my buoyancy adjusted).

I went diving in the Indian Ocean (again a first) after work on Friday. We were in about 10-15 feet of water when we spotted a shark, who you will see in a video at the bottom of this posting.

Here's a coconut crab. They hide in the bottoms of trees and obviously like to climb.

The turtle is in the lagoon, where I did a short dive Thursday. Water's pretty clear, isn't it?

Jason photographed this lobster (very unusual color) and the video of the shark.

I played in a golf tournament on the island with Dave, Ray and Mr. Kim. I played terrible but considering the course, I had fun. The fairways are on limestone (think coral atoll) and one of my shots hit in the middle of the fairway took a 30 foot bounce and flew the green, a tiny carpet covered green.

This sign is in front of the ship's store, so called because it's a navy store. As you can see, the island is pretty far from everywhere. And who knows where St. Cloud, Florida is anyway?

As promised, here's a video taken by Jason, the dive instructor. We were in about 10-15 feet of water and the shark was just checking out the unusual fish (us). The remora attached to the shark is about 2 feet long, making the shark about 8-9 feet. In the video you'll notice a lot of tropical fish, a large snapper towards the middle of the video on the bottom, and near the end of the video, far in the distance some dark objects (these are large grouper).

My flight was delayed because of mechanical issues, so I caught a C17 back to Japan. If you do not know what it's like to fly 13 hours on a cargo plane you don't know what you're missing!! It was loud, uncomfortable, cold and long (really long). And who makes these flight arrangement? I left a 1:00 am!I made it back to Yokota Air Base and Liz met me. A shower, dinner and some sleep was all I needed to get back to my happy old self. Thank you Liz for being there when I needed you. You're the best.