july 27

today i woke up so groggy. it was about 10am i think. i got dressed and started packing up my crap. the girls had to clean the bathroom and kitchen. kara cleaned up her room. i started playing zelda. i love that game, but i can't do it without cheating. kinda sad.

bonnie and billy came over after 2pm. we were all playing our ds. kara left to go get ice. then when they were talking about dinner bonnie realized that kara didn't have vegetables that weren't frozen. and she doesn't eat stove top. so she needed to go back to the commisary. but kara wouldn't go with her. kinda weird.

she came back and they cooked dinner. i liked everything. pork chops, can green beans, rice pilaf, stove top, rolls, frozen corn. we put in willow. bonnie had never seen it. i played my game. bonnie looked tired. and no one would make the margaritas. well i got up and started. kara was just gonna keep sitting.

then we started playing mario party 8 on the wii. it was pretty fun. i had two little glasses of margaritas, but i got a headache.

i checked the train times and i need to be taken to sagamino station before 5am. it takes 2.5 hours to get to the airport. but i only want to change trains once. it will be much easier on me since i'm carrying all this stuff alone. it's still gonna suck.

next time i come back i won't buy as much, i hope.

oyasumi nasai!

july 25-26

this has been a lazy lazy last few days.

july 25
the girls had a doctor's appointment early that morning. so i heard them leave around 8ish and kept sleeping. i woke up again and saw skyelar in the dining room. surely kara wouldn't have left her here. i look at my watch and its 1230p. wow! i didn't mean to sleep that long at all.

i finally get up and we go to the nex so kara can buy willow and i found these really cute tweed-ish capri's that could go with some brown heels and a cute top.

we come back home and do a whole lot of nothing. at 6p bonnie and billy pick us up to go to the pirate ship. it was cool. i almost fell off this rope swinging thing. we played and took pictures, but then came home. watched more psych.

july 26
we woke up at like 930. kara said mom called. i got up and dressed. bonnie and billy picked us up at 1130a. first we went to the post office and i sent two more packages home to mom and dad. i wish kara would have told me about the flat rate boxes last time. but oh well.

next was the fish pond. it was really cool. the girls bought some fish food and we fed the coy. they were huge! and they follow you around the tank. if you put your hand over the tank they all start coming out puckering their mouth. and when you feed them, they nibble on your fingers.

then we went to the daiei. it is a really cool store. it is grocery, and everything. i find my lunchbox and chopsticks. i bought some hapitan and more haichu. and anpan. they had a game center too. we should have taken purikura. we had to go home after because bonnie needed to eat lunch. she's diabetic.

we go by the commissary and it's really stupid but visitor's can't go in. kara gets some milk and we head home. it's a lazy afternoon and night. i was going to go running before dinner but i started to rain. of course. but i've been eating and snacking all night. i can't help it. japanese food fills me up. american, not so much. i had spaghettios for dinner. i watched another disc of psych.

showered and almost time for bed.

july 24

july 24
today was toon's farewell party. i knew we were doing bbq in odaiba. but i'm never really given the details about anything. i had to wake up at 730 to leave after 8a to walk to the station and catch the 840 train. i dressed nice because i got tired of being in jeans and my zipoff pants all the time. but i was in all black.

i make it to the university at 10am and chinatsu calls. i was at the elevator on the first floor. then i see everyone come out of the elevator. so we head out. we are walking toward hamamatsucho and instead of taking the train we are taking the bus. it's cheaper. only 200 yen each way. nice! we get to odaiba and go past joypolis and muscle park. we get off the bus and start walking to the park. good lord it was hot that day! i was melting in all black.

it was a crackhead idea to have a bbq in the sweltering heat. we were by the river. it's a place where many people come to rent equipment: grill, chairs, to bbq. we had beef, pork, seafood, hotdogs, and yaki soba. i wanted to help, but wasn't sure what i should be doing.

later they gave some presents to toon and she gave presents to them. yoshi and taka drank too much. taka went barefoot for a while and then took off his shirt and went to go sit by the rail near the water. kinda funny. and yoshi had to work that night at the pharmacy. tsk tsk tsk.

we had some icecream and then packed it up. luckily we caught a bus right after we got to the stop. then we went back to the classroom and i was going to go to the zoo, but it is only open until 5 and the last admission is 4pm. i was too late. so instead i went to akihabara to go back to animate. it's like 5 or 6 floors of cool stuff. i bought some more manga and other souvenirs. i love japan! have i said that enough?

i got invited to go to fireworks with toon, taka, and naoko. they were meeting at the university at 630p. i told toon that if i made it back in time i would go. well i did. i saw some of the other students going to class. i went with them. my mistake. we went to ueno station. if they just told us to meet there that would have been great, but they don't really like to fill us in on things. toon was already in ueno to go to her teachers hotel. and i was only one station below ueno. so we both wasted time going back to the university. when we get to ueno (standing the whole time) we switch to another line (and stand) and get off the train. then we walk for over 30 minutes. as we are walking we see the show has started already. we keep walking and when we get to a good spot, we stand. SHIT! i really didn't need to come all this way to stand for 3 hours! i saw fireworks already but wanted to hang out with toon one more time. i should have went home. yes, it was a cool show, but wow. i should have gone home. on the way back i switch at tokyo station to the tokaido line and have to stand and then on the sotetsu line, standing again. and then the long walk home.

much too long of a day.

july 22-23

Yesterday we didn’t really do a whole lot. I woke up late and then we went to the post office again so I could send my mt fuji stick home and two more packages to friends. We came back and I think I blogged. I repackaged my belongings and I may need to post more things home if the weight limit is over. I looked up train schedules for kamakura.

Today we woke up before 830a and got ready. we didn’t leave til around 930. we got to ofuna a bit after 11am. We went to see ofuna kannon, the goddess of mercy. We were going the wrong way and a nice lady gave us directions. I understood half of it. But we eventually found it and it was really cool. A giant kannon statue. It was cool. I even got me a little statue of it. We stayed there for a bit and ate lunch.

Then we were off to kitakamakura. First was engakuji, the 2^nd most important site in kamakura. This also had the Zelda triforce symbolI didn’t go to this one before. Then we went to meigetsu-in temple and all the hydrangeas that the temple is know for had fallen off and died. But they did have a cool bamboo garden. Then we went to kencho-ji, this is where I saw the triforce symbol first. It has a nice garden in the back. then we walked to tsurugaoka hachimachi. It was a cool shrine and we got to see mikos and went to the lilypad garden and saw huge fat coy fish. And a mutated turtle. Not sure what kind it was. Then we walked down the street and looked in some gift shops.

Then we took the enoshima train line to hase where daibutsu (big Buddha) is. Its still impressive the second time around. I love it. We took pictures and I asked for someone to take a group photo of us. It got the girls a dragon and tiger Buddha for their zodiac year. and a plushy Buddha for me!

We left and headed back for home. The train was a bit packed. the girls don’t know how to stand up on the train. And they get tired so easily. I guess I’ve gotten used to standing up. For long periods of time on the train. I just read my book.

We got off at sagami-otsuka to walk to the beef bowl place. It was tasty. Then we walked home. It felt great to shower of the sweatyness. Oyasumi nasai.

July 21, 2008

So today I woke up around 10 am and spent nearly all day transcribing from written to electronic. And I had to make entries from july 11 to today. It took a while..

So then actually went running after the sun was going down and it wasn’t as hot. I went to the little track and ran 10 laps that took about 25 minutes. I think that is pretty good considering I haven’t worked out since before may? It felt good.

Tonight we went to the skate park and watched billy bash his head on the fence and come running back to his mom because he was bleeding so much. It was just running out. They ran to her friends house. They called 911 and an ambulance, 2 fire trucks, the police and another little fire emergency van came. I took pictures to give them later.

Then we came be to the house, showered, and watch some psych. It’s a good show.

Tis all!

july 20

So today I woke up at 10am and got ready to leave the house. I needed to catch the 1132am train. So I left at 11am. I was going to leave 5 til, but there is always something that delays me. Anyways, I made it to the station just in time. Caught the train and actually got a seat. Played some Zelda on the ds and got to yokohama. I switched to the minato-mirai line and went to motomachi-chukagai (old town – Chinatown) station. I met with chinatsu, youko, and yoshi. But as soon as I got there yoshi left to go and reserve our seat in yamashita coen (park) to watch hanabi (fireworks). So the three of us went to take purikura (tiny sticker pictures) and then we went to Chinatown to find food. We found a little restaurant that had some seats open. Amazing because there were sooooo many people out and about today. One, there were hanabi in yokohama and two, it is a holiday weekend. People everywhere and many in yukata. I wish I had bought one! We had pork and shrimp with rice. I liked the shrimp because it had sweet and sour sauce.

We left in search of the hot bun that I like. We found one store, but the bun was too big. Then we found another and it was just the right size. And I found a notepad with pen, AND the best part of all: I found bootleg lesportsac of tokidoki! I was very excited! chinatsu said "i don't think this is lesportsac." me-- "yes, bootleg!" "bootleg?" "fake" "is that ok?" "YES!" so of course i had to buy it. it was super cheap! And come to find out, the real lesportsac is made in china anyway! Awesome!

Then chinatsu gets an email from yoshi, saying that his phone does not have much power left and he cannot talk on the phone. chinatsu is worried that we won’t be able to find him. So we go to yamashita coen park. Chinatsu decides to stay and find yoshi. And when she does she will call/email youko. So youko and I go to landmark tower by the minato-mirai line to minato-mirai station. We walked thru queen’s tower on the way. It is also another huge mall. We walk around landmark tower and Youko keeps asking what do I want to buy. I don’t really know. I just want to look around. We found a ghibli (totoro) store and saw a really cute nekobasu (cat bus).

A bit ago youko gets an email from chinatsu that she found yoshi. And it’s almost 5p so we go meet mari and her son at the station. Then we go to the park. We find yoshi and chinatsu. Chinatsu said that yoshi was a liar and his phone worked the whole time. He was being mean to her! We sat and hung out. Mari’s son is humiya. He was really shy. But very cute. He had mari’s eyes. It was a very cool show. Of course my camera sucked ass. Oh well. i will ask chinatsu for pictures.

We walked to the jr line because the minato mirai line was way too crowded. Motomachi means old town. Yokohama is a very old city. It is also very expensive to shop. They have a mikimoto shop. We get to the ishikawacho station. It means stone river. We get on the train to yokohama and it is packed. We all get off and they walk me to the sotetsu line. They are all very sweet. Then I walked it home. I showered and put things in my new purse J

July 19th – mt fuji

So today we had to wake up at 3am to get ready. the mwr bus leaves at 4am from the corner pocket store. Thankfully it is across the street. We get on the bus and sleep a bit. Sumi-san is our tour guide and she wakes our ass up at 530 just to say this is mt fuji. But we still have another hour left. Great. You shouldn’t have woke us up. Whatever. We get there go to the store to buy our sticks. It is already stamped with the first one. We take a picture of all of us and off we go. we got dropped off at the 5^th station and were told that if we could not make it to the 8^th station by 11am we should forget about it. And we should leave the top by 3pm.

We start going up the path and it is not that bad. I think. kara and skyelar are having some trouble. Kara’s side already hurts. Not good. we get to the 6^th station and kara doesn’t look so good. she says she’s out of shape. She has to keep stopping for water breaks. Then I offer to switch bags with her. Her’s is like a ton. “what did you bring in here?” “everything on the list” I open it up and there is this huge sweatshirt and big ass first aid kit. “why did you bring this?” “that is my long sleeve shirt.” “you don’t have a long sleeve shirt?” “no, that is all I have” “you should have showed me this huge first aid kit, we could have brought my small one.” It fits in the palm of your hand. Whatever. We switch and keep going. They are still not doing good. we make it to the 7^th station. I’m still pumped to go. we keep going to the 8^th station. Kara calls it quits and skyelar doesn’t want to do anymore. Autumn and I decide to keep going. We make it to two more huts. I think the last was the 9^th station. Maybe. And then autumn says she wants to go down. GGGGGRRRRRR!!!! I am so fucking disappointed it is unreal. I didn’t pay and come all this way to only make it part of the way. That pisses me off to no end. I really wanted to drag her ass up the mountain, BUT I didn’t want to hear it from kara. This really disappoints me. Going down the mountain sucks ass big time and there is no victory or retribution in not making it all the way to the top. That is failure. I am not satisfied with only making it to the 9^th station. We make it down in about 2 hours. We see some navy guys on the way down and they are walking much faster. I see them go the wrong way, but I can’t call them back. the problem was that I couldn’t just leave her and say I’d come back. I wish I could.

We get to the bus and find kara and skyelar. We go back to town to buy souvenirs. I got a folder, cup, and little plushy. Also a coin. Fujichan is really adorable. We get some yakisoba for dinner and go back to the bus.

Because we finished so early we have hours until the bus leaves. Great. We meet another woman who just got to the base. She asks why I’m here and I saw for school. She says “yea, I don’t know what I want to do yet, that’s why I had a kid, so I’ve got another 15 years to figure it out.” Umm… I don’t really have anything to say to that. I go back to the bus and sleep a bit. Bus still hasn’t left. Finally at 7p we leave and I sleep. We stop to gas up and I go to the convenie. Unfortunately I got a rice ball with umeboshi. L so I eat around it and ditch the rest. I got an anpan and aquarius. Sleep again. We make it back to base at 930p. we get home and immediately take showers to get rid of the grime. Then sleep for real!