April 16: Tokyo Day 1

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted! Well, I can, because I have lived through the whirlwind of my life these past couple of weeks, but if you haven't kept up with me on Facebook, you probably haven't understood the delay. So, please forgive me for my inattention to my blog. I am back, and life should be a little slower (but not by much) so I am going to try and get these posts done!

Once we returned from Sasebo, I basically finished preparing for the Iwakuni Craft and Information Fair (scheduled for April 20), where I had my Tenaciously Remembered memory albums up for sale. More on that in another post, but since I was leaving for Tokyo on April 16 and wouldn't return until the 19th, I knew I had better get the craft sale planning done, in conjunction with my packing for Tokyo. Of course, Rodney was still in Okinawa for Master Sergeant training, and the kids had spring break week off. Rodney finally got back the day before I left and the kids returned to school that same Monday (although they had Tuesday off for teacher in-service. I swear the kids are out of school more than they are in it! And we don't even have any furlough days yet!). But I managed to pack and prepare for my three days traveling on a "girl trip."

I went with my friend, Rachel, and her sister, Roxanne, who was visiting from the States. It was going to be a fast and furious three days... which it was. I am still recovering from the hours and hours and HOURS of walking we did!

We flew out of the new (it opened in December) Iwakuni Kintaikyo Airport at about lunchtime Tuesday, arriving in Tokyo an hour and a half later. We were staying at the New Sanno, a U.S. military hotel in the heart of Tokyo, and their web site gave several suggestions for using public transportation to get from the Haneda airport (not to be confused with the more international Narita airport). We chose the least expensive: Taking the subway to a major subway hub, and then a taxi from there. This was my first taxi ride in Japan. And, actually, my first taxi ride in a decade or more, from what I can remember. California suburbanites like me rarely succumb to public transportation. We prefer our personal SUVs. :)

Inside the taxi

Me, Roxanne and Rachel inside the taxi.

We arrived at The New Sanno Hotel in about a half hour from leaving the airport. The hotel is incredibly nice, especially for less than $60 a night. Rates are based on your rank/pay grade. Reservations are tough to get on the weekends, but since we were staying during the week, Rachel managed to procure us a room with little trouble. She is just THAT good...

The New Sanno circular drive.

The view from our 4th floor room.

After checking in to the hotel, we headed back out on to the streets to find some grub. We were in a more ritzy area of Japan, and quieter. The subway station that was our "home" station was Hiro-o. There are several embassies in the area and we saw several Porches, Mercedes and other luxury cars in driving the streets. At a boutique shoe store, we even encountered a young woman with a baby and a driver.... and the van she exited was nicer than any limo I have ever seen.

There were a lot of great shops to explore in this area. My personal favorite was Hiro-o Arobo, which had a lot of unique food items and gifts. I got some skull headphones (I heard the skull is called the Punisher) for Xan and a travel coffee mug for Rodney here, which he just "loved because everyone at work is jealous of it." Go me.

We had a late lunch at a small restaurant with friendly service called Spice. It smelled good when we walked by, so we gave it a try. Good choice in following our nose. The food was delicious and the gentleman who served us was friendly and fun. The best way I can describe to get there is when you find the Starbucks, and if you're a true American you will, whether you drink coffee or not, keep walking for about half a block and don't blink. You might miss it. Or, you could just follow your nose...

The appetizer

Before I mixed and finished cooking it. It arrives to your table HOT. Please don't burn yourself and sue them.

Hiro-o had its very own Rodeo Drive. All three of us are from Southern California, so we had to get a picture. This is Rachel in front of the boutique store. Roxanne went in and couldn't find anything under 10,000 yen ($100), so we walked on. We may be from SoCal but we are on enlisted military budgets.

Admittedly, we did a lot of eating in Tokyo, but with all the walking we did, it was definitely burnt off. Rachel found this gourmet ice cream shop and the flavors were amazing, I just had to have the kiwi ice cream... so good!

Walking around Hiro-o that first afternoon, I was amazed by how clean and organized the area was. This was a major intersection in the area. You walk above it to keep the flow of traffic steady... and to keep from getting killed by a delivery truck or speeding bicyclist.

After exploring the area and filling our bellies, we figured we'd explore the hotel. There are several restaurants, an APO post office (so you only have to pay American postage rates to ship stuff home... or use the Military Postal Service - MPS, where we can have stuff shipped from base to base in Japan for free!), and a small but complete Navy Exchange. I got a cute sundress for $20. Oh, and for my Mom and other SoCal chocolate lovers, the exchange sold See's Candy... so funny to see this regional treat in Japan!

On the corner of that major intersection above which is where we always turned to go from our hotel to the Hiro-o subway station, there was this store I loved to stare at as we passed by, Watts. It had nothing but chandeliers and this photo doesn't do it justice. It was also a landmark so I knew if we were heading in the right direction to go home!

Once we had finished exploring the immediate area and hotel, and the sun had gone down, it was time to go see the most famous intersection in Japan: Shibuya. This is the intersection and crosswalk that is incredibly busy and is always featured in Hollywood films where the Earth is being destroyed by aliens. Ringing a bell now?

We needed to take three different subway lines to get there, but it only took about 20 minutes and about $5. It was rush hour, so we got to enjoy it with thousands of Japanese commuters.

Interesting side note: There are a few subway cars on every train that have a pink placard on them. These cars are for women only during the morning commute hours. Apparently, there is a "groping" problem on Japanese trains. The cars are packed so tightly that some men take advantage of the proximity to female commuters and grope them. Often the woman protests and might accuse an innocent bystander because it is tough to tell who is groping whom. Japanese reports have said that both men and women are grateful for the cars... women because they prefer not to get groped, and men because they are afraid of being wrongfully accused of groping. Unfortunately, I am not speaking from experience. I was never groped while in Tokyo. In fact, most Japanese gave the tall blond a wide berth. Although, my two shorter, darker Filipino cohorts claimed they were never groped, either.

So, we all avoided groping and arrived at Shibuya to a mass of people, traffic and lights. And, of course, like any major intersection worth its salt, there was a Starbucks. This one was on the second floor, but was still jam-packed full of coffee lovers and people watchers.

 The two photos below were taken from inside the second-story Starbucks.

Yes, I did the peace sign. It seemed appropriate at the time.

For those who love trendy shopping in the States, Forever 21 Shibuya is six stories tall...

And features Caucasian mannequins. Most stores in Japan do, which I just find odd, especially for such a homogeneous society. I read one of Rachel's travel books and Japan is 99 percent Japanese in ethnicity and haven't interbred with other cultures in large numbers since the 14th century. Very different from America, where I'm sure we will all be beige in a few centuries.

We took a chance on a restaurant that a hawker with coupons for out in front of a 9-story mall. We did a good job of following the cries of our pocketbooks because the food  at Gyoza Yatai was fabulous. The woman who took our order was the original owner, but is semi-retired, and her son runs the place now. She told us that the food is a unique blend of Taiwanese and Okinawan food. The blend was yummy... I highly recommend going for the food, the ambiance and the service.

This is the display the restaurant had outside (many Japanese restaurants do this, showing plastic versions of their meals). It was on the sixth floor, and when looking at the Starbucks, was to the left on the same street as Starbucks.

After eating, our bellies were full and we were ready to crash. Back to the subway (still no groping) and hotel... to be woken up by the test of the fire alarm system at 9 a.m.....

Sasebo Excursion: These aren't your American highways...

So, I had lived in Japan for seven months and still had not driven myself out of the Iwakuni area on the expressways. Anyone who knows me knows that this is odd... after being the only student to score a 100 on her written driving exam for her permit at age 15, I got the privilege of being the one to drive back to the school from the DMV... on the Interstate 5 freeway in Southern California. So, with the freeway being the first place I had ever driven, I feel quite at home on it.

But the Japanese expressway protocol is different enough from the American highway protocol that it can be a bit intimidating for a transplanted foreigner such as myself, and I hadn't ventured on to them yet. I knew I needed to get over my apprehension if I was going to truly immerse myself in Japan, so when the boys and I were disappointed by the lack of room on the Space A plane bound for Okinawa Friday, I quickly started considering our short-notice spring break travel options. After all, it was the boys' birthday month and I had promised them dinner and dessert at Chili's.

The nearest Chili's was in Sasebo, on the U.S. Navy base there. I needed to drive on the Japanese expressways for about four and a half hours to get there. I got a map from the base travel agency, called to make room reservations at the Navy lodge and planned a 2-night trip, just me and the boys. Rodney made it on to a Space A flight to Okinawa on Monday for his Master Sergeant seminar, so he wouldn't be joining us.

The weather was great, the directions provided to me were accurate, and we made it to Sasebo with little fanfare (details about the Japanese expressways are below). The area actually reminded me a little bit of San Diego, complete with palm trees planted around the base. Here is the front gate to the base:

We got settled in to our room in the Navy Lodge (which was more modern than the room we had stayed in while waiting for housing in Iwakuni, but not as large) and then headed out to check out the base. The exchange was a bit smaller than ours, but since it is a Navy exchange, not a Marine Corps exchange, they had different items for sale, especially clothes. It is tough to find clothes in Will's size, since he is in that weird boy/man stage. He's sometimes too big for the boy stuff and sometimes too small for the men's size small stuff. Fortunately, Sasebo had him covered and we bought him six pairs of shorts to get him through the summer. Next to the exchange is the TINY commissary. I don't think I will ever complain about our commissary again. This one was about a sixth of the size of ours... and they were out of yogurt. I guess Iwakuni isn't the only commissary with dairy issues.

A stone's throw away from the exchange and the commissary was the base theater, which has a much more up-to-date and busy movie schedule than the Iwakuni theater has. Interesting, since the Sasebo base is about half the size of Iwakuni's, but whatever. The Jack the Giant Slayer movie was playing at 6:30 p.m. and the boys wanted to go. Sounded good to me. But I needed a beverage, first. Priorities, you know? So, we were off to Chili's...

Really, a Presidente maragarita and chicken fajitas... it's the simple things that make life great.

The movie was OK (the boys loved it, I thought it was mediocre) and then we headed back to our rooms to shower and relax. And get ready to explore more of what Sasebo had to offer. When we checked in the hotel staff was fabulous about giving us information about the base and sights to see around the area. It was just a matter of seeing what we felt like doing the next day. The boys had been thrilled to find a lot of WWE stuff on clearance at the exchange, so they used their birthday money to get new wrestling toys. As you can see, they were quite pleased with their purchases.

Tuesday we woke up to the sound of three sharp horn blasts from a ship at 8 a.m. sharp. None of us really appreciated that, but we got over it. We ate a healthy breakfast in our little kitchenette and then headed out for an unhealthy breakfast: Dunkin Donuts. To get there, we had to walk along the harbor the base wraps around.

I thought it was interesting that the Navy had life preservers attached to the fence about every 50 yards. I have seen this no where else in Japan. In fact, most of the water ways don't even have fences.

After breakfast, we headed to Yonka-cho, which is a shopping district, similar to that of Hondori Street near Peace Park in Hiroshima. The district is divided in to four "cities" and yon mean four in Japanese.

The Hina Doll girl's festival was in March, but the boys' Children's Day is coming up May 5. Emperor and Empress dolls are displayed for girls in March, and samurai helmets like this one below are displayed for boys in May. These helmet displays were not cheap. They were a few hundred dollars each.

With all the gun law stuff going on in the states right now, I thought this t-shirt in a trendy Japanese store was interesting...

There's nothing quite like booze and coffee with jazz...

Of course, we ate at Chili's again Tuesday night and then had to rush back to the hotel by 7 p.m. because WWE Smackdown was on. Fortunately, I had downloaded the season premier of Mad Men, so I plugged my headphones in to my iPad and tuned out the steroid-laced soap opera the boys were transfixed on.

We thought we would be woken up at 8 a.m. sharp Wednesday by ship horns again, but we weren't. After eating breakfast and packing up, we hit the road.

Now, a little information about Japan's expressways. Expressways are a lot like the American interstate highways system in looks and basic function, but it's not free. Not by a long shot. There are surface streets to get everywhere in Japan, but taking those will take you twice as long thanks to traffic and signals. So, if you want to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time, you have to take the expressways. The one that goes through Iwakuni is called the Sanyo. You take it northeast and it takes you to Hiroshima. You take it southwest and it takes you to Kyushu, the next island over and home to Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Mt. Aso and Sasebo. But it is a total of five expressways to get to Sasebo. As long as I have good directions and pay attention, that many freeways is not a problem for this Southern California girl. It's like taking the 5 to the 55 to the 91 to the 15 to get to the desert. No problem.

The only problem is that an error not only costs you time and gas, but it costs you tolls. Where in the states there is a get off every mile or two where you can turn around, get food, get gas, etc., express ways in Japan have scheduled rest stops and get offs are sometimes 30 kilometers or more apart, which is about 18 miles. Round trip from Iwakuni to Sasebo, I paid about 16,000 yen in tolls. That's about $165, just to use the expressways. On the way home, I went through the wrong entrance to a toll gate and accidentally got off the expressway. I couldn't find the interchange to get going to the way I wanted to go so I had to the wrong way for about 10 km and then get off, turn around and get back on. That mistake cost me another $9 in tolls. You can see how this can start to add up...

As I mentioned, there are two types of "get offs" on a Japanese express way: exits and rest stops. Because you have to pay tolls every time you get on and off the expressway, these rest stops are available to travelers. They vary in their amenities, but all of them have at least bathrooms and vending machines. Most have coffee shops and restaurants.

The exits are what get you use to get completely off the expressway and on your way to your destination. The sign below shows upcoming rest stops and the amenities they provide:

This sign shows an exit:

This sign tells me there is construction going on ahead. I know that because I can read the picture. :) There was A LOT of construction going on, but it really didn't slow the flow of traffic much.

Directional signs that tell me which way to go. All directional expressway signs are in English, which is nice.

From Sasebo to Iwakuni it is about 360 km (225 miles) and 44 tunnels. The average speed limit is 80 km an hour (about 50 mph), but I think this is a mere suggestion from the way I was getting passed when I attempted to follow the rules. After awhile I stepped it up and found that I was comfortable driving between 100 and 110 kph, which makes sense because that is about 65-70 mph, the standard for most American highways. Of course, I usually drive 80-85 mph on standard American highways, but I also know how to communicate with police if I am pulled over. I am not sure if crying and batting my eyelashes would work with Japanese police. Plus, it is not an international incident if I am speeding in America. Hopefully I will not get a photo of myself driving and a speeding ticket in the mail, which, from what I understand, is how the Japanese handle that sort of thing. I hope I never have to find out.

Regardless, I am much more confident when traveling on the expressways now, I just need to make sure I have plenty of yen for tolls, and budget accordingly. I will now also appreciate America's FREEways and never complain about the cost of the toll roads when I come across one. They're still cheaper than the ones in Japan.

Ahhh... Costco.... but with some twists

This is a photo of the Hiroshima Costco I pulled off of the internet. It was raining today, so I did not get any outside shots of the store.

As much as I am enjoying my time in Japan, sometimes I just miss some of the things from home. Family and friends, of course, but then there are the little things, like Sonic unsweet tea, Wahoo's chicken salad, my Ford Explorer, six-lane surface streets with 55 mph speed limits, produce that doesn't cost an arm and a leg... And then there are the not-so-little things, like the giant Costco warehouses and their bulk-sized products of joy.

The kids and I had planned to be in Okinawa right now, but, Space A loving me like it does (dripping heavy sarcasm here), there was no space available for us when we tried to fly Space A yesterday. So, I figured this would be a good time to finally make the 1.5 hour drive (we've always taken the train before) to Hiroshima and check out the new Costco that just opened there last month. I chose to drive to Hiroshima for the first time in the pouring rain. I wasn't going to let that stop me, I had some disappointment to get over. Plus, if I was to going to be buying any bulk-sized products of joy, I certainly wasn't going to walk in the rain to the train station with them. I needed my car. Plus, the boys and I (Rodney should be in Okinawa by then, for a special week-long Master Sergeant seminar) plan to drive to Sasebo Navy base Monday and stay for a few days, I figured I'd better use this trip as a practice run for the real 5-hour road trip.

Fortunately, my friend Yolanda's directions and map, as well as Google Maps, all were great at different points in the trip, and we were able to find Costco without getting lost. An accident and pouring rain made the 1.5-hour trip closer to 2 hours, but so be it. I was on an adventure.

The view of the Carps stadium from the third floor of the Costco parking structure.

The Hiroshima Costco is not the sprawling warehouse with giant sprawling parking lot like you find in suburban America. It is right next to, as in you can almost reach out and touch, the Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium, where the Japanese professional baseball team, the Carps play. You drive around the stadium to get to the Costco parking structure. Yes, parking structure. It is three stories high, over the store itself, and, even though many Japanese work on Saturdays, it was PACKED. So packed, in fact, that we had to park on the top deck of the parking structure and dash through the rain to the escalator ramps down to the store itself. Imagine the concrete ramps you find at sports stadiums that you walk up along the outside of the stadium. Same thing at Costco... only these are escalators made for shopping carts. Bad photo, but you get the idea.

But this could be dangerous... I can just imagine a harried mother juggling twins and a cart accidentally letting the cart slip from her grip, taking out an entire escalator ramp full of shoppers. Of course, Costco already considered that (or the escalator ramp people did and Costco took their advice) and have custom wheels on the carts. The wheels have treads that slip in to the escalator floor and than have a rubber stopper to hold them in one place. No shopping cart bowling today!

After showing my membership card (yes my one from the States works, but a manager needed to override it at the register because I do not have a Japanese address, just a Military Post Office box) I entered the suburban family's shopping Mecca...

The design of the warehouse itself is just like the American Costcos I know and love, down to the seasonal items on the left and the electronics straight ahead as you walk in. The snacks are toward the front, the food and pharmacy are on the far left. The clothing section is in the center and the bathrooms are Western style (much to my, and my bladder's, relief). Some of the products are familiar, too.

Giant rolls of ribbon! Love these, but the selection is much smaller than in the States

The clothing section... this photo belies how crowded it actually was. I think everyone was crushed in to the food sections.

The kids were thrilled to see that the playhouse was on display... even though we don't have a backyard to put it in right now.

There were a lot of Asian products that I didn't recognize and could not read. And some I did recognize but doubted I would find in the States.

As we wandered around, I noticed that most Japanese had huge bags of dinner rolls or huge frozen pizzas, or both, in their baskets. These must be very popular items here. There are only cheese and shrimp pizzas to choose from - no pepperoni. And we tried a sample of the rolls, and they had a spiciness to them I couldn't identify.

Shrimp pizza

Spicy dinner rolls

And speaking of samples, yes, there were plenty to be had, but some of them you had to stand in line for, like with this beef dish below. The line starts with the lady in the white shirt with the basket and child in green and went back about nine people.

The kids are big fans of samples and said they had about five or six different ones. Those were just the ones without lines, so there were probably 12 different products being sampled around the store. Below they were trying a salad with salad dressing.

Ultimately, here is what we bought:

My basket of bulk-sized products of joy.

Not a lot for a State-side shopping trip to Costco, but with less storage and slightly higher prices, we kept our shopping trip "sane." I bought 16 items and spent 13,428 yen, about $150, most of it on fresh fruits and vegetables since they are not cheap at the commissary. We ate the raspberries before we got out of the city. Delicious! I got two spools of decorative ribbon, a set of camisole tanks for me, a pair of swimming trunks for Will, who had grown out of all the ones he's had.

If you are in to price comparisons, here is what I paid for some of the items (these are the ones I could read on the receipt... the rest were in hiragana.

Jar of Kirkland Minced Garlic: 538 yen (about $6)
50-foot spool of decorative ribbon: 698 yen (about $7.50)
Kirkland Bath Tissue (30 rolls): 1,988 yen (about $22)
Bag of six bell peppers: 888 yen (about $10 - these cost about $2 each at the commissary).

Of course, our receipt was highlighted by the personnel at the door as we left, and the food court is out the roll-up exit doors and to the right. We were there at lunch time so it was amazingly busy. It has many of the usual menu items... pizza, hot dogs, fruit parfaits and soda... all in the usual sizes. I can just imagine how a Japanese person's mind is blown by the sheer size of some of this stuff.

As we left, one of the Costco employees said, "See you next week!" I think we surprised him by the relatively few items we had in our baskets. Other military wives have mentioned getting odd stares because of their overflowing baskets. I think we'll make this a monthly trip... and on a weekday. Just like I used to in the States to avoid the crowds and the budget crunch. Some things never change.