Fall Activities

Joe's home! No, I can barely believe it either. I have so much more fun sharing experiences with Joe than going it alone, so we've been making the most of our time together by checking out new restaurants and seasonal events in the area. 

I'm really not sure what the purpose of this parade was, but someone posted about it on one of the Iwakuni facebook pages to which I subscribe and we decided to check it out. Eddie came along with us because it's only about a five minute drive and he behaved well until all the noise and strangers petting him got overwhelming. It's okay, Eddie.


Here's a shot of Eddie climbing on my lap to take in all the sights and sounds:

These older ladies were my favorite. They were so poised and their kimonos are gorgeous.

 

 I'm 90% confident that this mascot is the albino habu snake. I've never seen one, but there is a visitor center near the castle where you can hang out with them (if that's your thing). 

  
Since the parade, we've decided that this strange green man that appears on everything in Iwakuni is a promotional character for to help Iwakuni lure athletes to train for the Olympics.

We love getting the scoop on new restaurants to try in Iwakuni, so we tried out another yakiniku (a.k.a. grill your own raw veggies, obscure animal parts, and delicious beef) place across the street from Jan Jaka at a friend's suggestion. I've come to partially hate yakiniku restaurants because their poorly translated menus describe normally gross animal parts in the absolutely most disgusting way thinkable. Joe ordered a massive set for himself that included chicken gristle, salted pork tongue (flattened), and a host of other vomit-inducing treats. It did include some tasty kim chi that I snagged off Joe's plate. I ordered some dependably delicious bi bim bap (under ¥1000) and the unlimited soda bar (¥220) while also stealing a few bite-sized pieces of steak from the grill. How would Joe even notice they were missing as he was filling up on all those other horrors?

The grill in action.

You might be figuring out that I hate grocery shopping, cooking in my obscenely small kitchen, and washing dishes without a dishwasher. Well, here is another way of avoiding such chores: Monte Beer! I think the idea is that it's a "bar" and restaurant rather than a brewery, because we didn't come across any new beers on the menu. My heart skipped a beat when I entered the restaurant because it looks like a (Japanified) Max & Erma's! We opened the menu and I was so excited to see American pub food on the menu!

How could you not order a Guinness "harf and harf"? This ridiculous beer was over $5. Blasphemy.

My first Caesar salad in a restaurant in almost a year!

Joe said his burger tasted like meatloaf. This seems to be a common recipe in Japan.

Love the Italianese plate and tasty (but not spicy) buffalo wings.

This is what to look for if you're in downtown Iwakuni (close to the train station). It's hard to miss and the waitstaff speaks good English!

I've been whining since we got here about the lack of cafes and sandwich shops. I was driving around with Joe trying to find a coffee shop I thought I had seen (maybe I dreamt it) when we saw this cute little bakery along the "New Road" (outside the main gate, past Mike's Tex-Mex, before the bridge). I'm thinking we were there around 5pm on a Saturday hoping to drink coffee and eat fancy desserts, but they were closing up shop for the day. I've noticed quite a few Japanese places that do brew coffee only do so between 10am at the earliest and 4pm at the latest.

Heartbroken with defeat, we took home this small consolation prize. I assumed from the color that it would be a mocha, cappuccino, or caramel flavor, but it's important to let go of any silly assumptions like that in Japan. This little treat was bean and lemon flavored with a sugar cookie center.

If you need to see something delicious again, here's Eddie:

It's love.

Through all my traveling, I've never missed food from home so much! Who wants to ship over a combo platter from Al Oumara? How about a sandwich and salad from Panera? Red pizza from Tomato's Apizza? Spicy garlic boneless wings from B Dubs? What about all those pumpkin beers and treats I've been seeing all over Facebook? I'm just getting started! I know you still have them! Put them all in boxes for me.


xoxoxo
Heather

For the Price of a Cup of Tea

More shopping adventures! Whenever I want to make a price comparison, this song always pops into my head. Go ahead and play it, it's a good one.

Here in the land of the rising sun, I've been stunned by the prices of everyday products like Parmesan cheese (or really any kind of cheese), melon, and today: grapes!

We can get all these things on base at average American prices, but I try to do my grocery shopping out in town where everything is fresh and, not unusually, very local. The problem with the food on base is that it comes from the USA, so it's already been on a boat for a few days before it arrives in Guam, leaves a shipment in Okinawa, then the boat makes another stop in Fukuoka, and finally we get the rest here in Iwakuni.

There are lots of rumors about the food here, like we get the meat that doesn't sell on clearance in the states, so it is frozen and then sent to "institutions" (i.e. prisons, hospitals, the military). Meat is a lot cheaper on base than off, but you can't get any fresh meat on base. I also think it's sort of questionable to have eggs and milk on a boat or airplane for that long.


So, I like to pack up my reusable bags (Japanese grocery stores usually only provide bags that are flimsier and smaller than our produce bags in the US), and peruse the aisles. Here is a selection of interesting things I've found lately:

At today's exchange rate, this cheese is $12.90. OUTRAGE.

$19.30 for ONE melon. You can bet I haven't tried one.

$7.68 for the bushel

Apparently Japan knows their grapes. OH MY GOODNESS. I read about an ITT trip for grape picking here in Japan, but didn't want to make a day of it. Finally I gave in and bought this stem of grapes with my normal-sized iPhone for size comparison. They are massive! They absolutely don't skimp on flavor either. They taste like a juicy plum and a seedless grape had a baby together. If you're in Japan, you have to try these! If you're not in Japan, well...I'm sorry.


That's all for now, folks. Did you catch my Halloween tablecloth in that picture? I'm getting the house extra creepy for Halloween this year! I don't think we'll have any trick-or-treaters, but we might have some drinkers. I'm so excited to see all the costumes!

Eddie Update!

The puppy and I have been very busy lately. We're going on lots of walks and meeting lots of neighbors who can't resist his adorable face. I can't blame them.

Our neighborhood has some great scenery for long walks. Here are the lotus fields at the end of the growing season.

The lotus fields, a neighbor's house, and the sunset.

A picture from a walk at dusk.

Kisses!

Strike a pose!

These are some of the cutest kids in the neighborhood. 

The two little girls were fishing and ran over to play with Eddie when they saw him. The little boy is Filipino-American and loves Eddie too! These kids motivate me to learn Japanese! Kawaii!

                 

Eddie loves his care package from my Grandma Anna! :P Thank you so much! He loves his lion the most but he has fun with all his toys. He will chase his basketball to the end of the earth. :)


Now, here's a chance to get up close and personal with Eddie. Most of his cuddle time comes after a bit of biting and being bad. I think he might be making progress, but it's the reality of puppyhood. Eddie's teeth are growing fast and I was going to just take a picture, but he moves so fast that a video helped me capture his teeth better. Then it turned into tickle torture. Enjoy!

I think these moves might be inspired by the following classic:

Then! A spoiler! If you want to be surprised by Eddie's Halloween costume this year, don't click "play" below. If you don't mind because you're on the other side of the world and you need more cute puppy videos; play on, playa!

The main reason why we call our pup "Eddie" is because it reminds us of this hilarious cartoon: 

In Japanese, mame means 'bean', so a mameshiba (Eddie's breed) is a bean-sized dog, or shiba. We saw it only fitting that he should dress up to explain his name to his friends. I guess it's similar to a dachshund dressing up as a hotdog for Halloween. One word: adorable.


Leave a message if you're lurking out there!

Rainy Days

Last week was ridiculously rainy. I love the way the rain smells and sounds, but I had one hyper puppy on my hands and wasn't a big fan of taking him for leisurely walks in the rain or oppressive humidity.

I've seen kids fishing in the ditch outside our house for these crab-like creatures (anyone have a name?), so I thought they carried on with their lives far from mine where I wouldn't have to worry about them. 

One rainy night, I opened the door to coerce Eddie outside and this creature was waiting for us:'

Nice claw there, big guy.

Longer than my fingers!

Do you think he's missing a pincher?

They aren't scary or poisonous like the massive Huntsman spiders we were seeing during the rainy period, but definitely outside my realm of normalcy from growing up outside Detroit. I didn't kill him or shoo him away, but when I went back outside in the morning, he had disappeared.


Have you ever encountered this crustacean on your doorstep? Do you know his name? Any idea why I keep finding crab parts all over the road (i.e. in Eddie's mouth) by the ditch? Are people eating them?

Hiking Seven Falls

Here in Iwakuni, I have the opportunity to hear really great "small world" stories. I was jealous that I would never get to bump into someone from my past on a military installation because no one in Michigan besides my husband is affiliated with the military (I'm exaggerating, but not very much). Strangely enough, just today I saw our scuba instructor from Okinawa on base! I'm in the club now!

Our hiking trip began with another such "small world" story. Joe saw Kristen, a former classmate at the Naval Academy, at the Officer's Club ("O-Club") on base and we all had a few drinks together. Kristen is a great person; really fun to talk to and very accomplished. She built her own wooden kayak, lives in Guam, and flies helicopters in the Navy! We got to chatting about our bucket lists for traveling in Japan and Seven Falls came up. We had been planning to go for a while, but laziness was trumping adventure. Kristen said she really wanted to go and I locked in the plan for Joe and myself. We decided to go the next morning!

It takes around two hours to get to Seven Falls from Iwakuni and it's not too hard to find. We got directions in English from the ITT (Information, Tours, and Travel) office and headed out with Eddie in tow. He is a fantastic car dog, by the way! Very calm and cuddly. The hike itself was challenging but having a tiny puppy to set the pace helped keep our muscles cool. We took lots of pictures on the hike, check out some below:

"What is that!? Joe, take a picture!"

Just when you think you're getting used to Japan, you see a white dog with ears dyed hot pink on the side of the road.

Luring Eddie along the trail.

Walking Eddie along the path

One of the picture perfect falls

EDDIE

What a refreshing lagoon!

Family Portrait

Ryubi Falls

We were getting pretty high up at this point

Kristen climbed down to clear leaves off the information plaque

Five-fingers ad!

Eddie loves waterfalls.

Didn't quite get the jump shot on time, but cool picture anyway

"I don't want to stop for pictures. Onward, please!"

Pitch black cave we went through to get up the mountain

Strolling along a manicured path

Cave ahead!

The view was definitely worth it!

Another angle from the top

Gorgeous tree surviving at the top of the mountain

Picnic in the sun

Chacos ad :)

 Click play for a video from the top of the mountain. MEGA BONUS: Watch Eddie fly :)

Trying not to smash Eddie on the way down the mountain

THIS is the way down? A ladder?!

Problem solved. Pup in a bag!

Off they go! I was dying of laughter but headed down after Kristen. She said Eddie calmed down after he saw me come after him.

So there is an abbreviated trip to Seven Falls! Not pictured: me sliding down the side of the mountain on my butt after losing my footing, getting my first skinned knee of the last 15 years, or the hoards of normally politely indifferent Japanese crying out "KAWAII!" upon sight of Eddie. 

It was a beautiful day for a hike! I can't wait to go again in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. Love it. 


And of course, Eddie's first staircase ascent:

Thanks for reading!