Christmas and the time I met a kimono master.

Meri Kurisumasu! It is now officially Christmas Day here in Yokosuka. I just returned from a Christmas party in Tsukihama which is the beautiful area with the mikon orchards. Today was eventful! I went to work, Obama gave me 4 hours of paid leave so I got my hair cut and then went to see the Nutcracker as performed by the Leningrad ballet. Yes, I went to see the Russian ballet in Japan. It was lovely! Afterward was the party at my boss's house. We ate lumpia (Filipino eggrolls), mabodoku (a tofu and beef dish served with rice, amusingly, this is what Japanese people serve as Chinese food.), sushi, and a few more traditional items like apple pie and ice cream. It was a good time!

So, I've been meaning to post on this for over a week now, but I just barely obtained the pictures for it. I kept forgetting to ask Sheila, my fault, not hers. So about a week ago, Sheila (a coworker and friend) and I went to be outfitted in kimono to take pictures. The whole process took about an hour and a half with a good friend of Sheila's taking photos throughout.

Step one of course was to strip down to basic underwear and a slip. After that, each of the three women (kimono master, her daughter and another apprentice) had a really good laugh about my figure. Apparently, I am the wrong shape. The Japanese like "straight" bodies and "European style is more curvy". This led to what I have been referring to as my rounding out. A sash was used to flatten and plenty of padding was used to fill in the rest. Finally, feeling highly compressed and much larger, I was put into the kimono.

The next step is to arrange the kimono so it falls absolutely right, then to secure it with ties. Following this, an undersash was added before the obi. The obi is the huge belt used to embellish a kimono. These are super ornate and very expensive. There are a virtually unlimited number of ways to tie one. Mine employed a big shiny flower, 2 extra sashes, and a rope. Very pretty! Once this was complete, the kimono master looked me over and decided it was too low. This meant a lot of tugging and very small breaths on my part. Finally the kimono was on and all ladies were satisfied with how it looked.

Before final pictures, they decided my hair needed work and pulled it up into a bun. A scrunchy made of curly brown hair secured it and added style and volume. No the brown did not match, but did I really expect them to keep blonde on hand? This may come as a bit of a shock, but there are no blonde Japanese people. I know, I know... crazy! I'm digressing, I apologize.

The final touches to my hair were green chopsticks and purple flowers. My prop was a gold fan. After a few more photos, I was undressed and back in my normal clothing in astounding time compared to how long it took to be put into the outfit. The nice ladies served us green tea and cookies before we left. Japan is a wonderfully civilized place!!

Climbing on Mt. Takatoriyama

Through Navy service MWR I signed up for a climbing trip with a couple of friends. The trip was supposed to be out to a sea cliff called Jogasaki. Unfortunately, there have recently been a multitude of earthquakes in Japan. The epicenter of the largest of these was right near our climb site. So, the trip was moved to a more local site. Mt. Takatoriyama is an old sandstone quarry a short, but rigorous hike up to the top and climb sites. Tons of people were out climbing already. The leader/ organizer of the trip is a fantastic climber and had two ropes up before I had managed to put my shoes and harness on.

The first two climbs were roughly a 5.6 and 5.8. The 5.6 is fairly similar to a staircase except that you have to pick your own hand-holds. 5.8s are a little tougher and require more thought and coordination. This one was a corner, and those are always fun, though not difficult. I was the first one on a rope and the leader, thinking I had never climbed before told me to climb the 5.6. After a very fast run up that, he let me do what I wanted from there on out. The rock at this place is a rough sandstone that grates the fingers to shreds. It also exfoliates with a single touch making finding good holds difficult.

Next, we moved to another huge boulder with two climbs. One was up a face with a crack that began halfway up. It was a lot of fun and I only almost bailed on it when I reached 8 inches into a deep crack and someone below me joked about snakes living in there. After snatching my hands away from the wall and calming my panicked heart, I decided it was way too cold for snakes to be out anyway and finished the climb. That poor guy got a talking to. Next to us on the other climb, a group of what we would consider elderly in the States were tying into ropes. I watched the 70-year old man in the photo below climb a 5.11c (well beyond my climbing ability) in about 2 minutes. He made it look easy! One of the well-seasoned young climbers in our group tried the same climb and was unable to climb more than 10 feet of the climb. I was absolutely stunned.

Between climbs I hiked up to the top of the mountain (please do not compare to real mountains. It was not very high up.) to where there was an overlook and panoramic views of the surrounding area. I could see Yokohama, Tokyo, and the bridge to Chiba on one half. Moving to the next platform to see around a tree was Mount Fuji! The day was clear enough to see it through the powerlines. Turning back around, there was a view of the stone Buddha carved into a rock face and a Submarine coming into Yokosuka Base. Very cool! I love seeing the subs in the water. They're neat!

FUJI!

Sub and Buddha! Love the contrast.

The last climb of the day was a really fun crack to face climb in the shade (brrrrr!). A quickdraw and a nylon tie-in were placed above the crack since no one (except the leader who made it look easy) had made it above the crack. I decided that even without my finger prints I was going to try it. The clack was fun and easy, just a good lean to the right and a multitude of good holds, I had a blast. Then came the face. There was one good underhang at the top of the crack to grip, everything else were little tiny rocks i could grip with the very tips of my fingers. With one fall and all the work being done with my legs, I managed to hang on and push my way up past the draw. Two more tough moves like that and I was home free. I am the only person in our group, aside from the lead to have not used either cheater-line to complete the climb. Yes, I am boasting, cause it was not easy. Everyone watching me said I made it look that way though. Super big grin for the next hour. :D :D!!

We hiked down past the stone Buddha and I got a closer shot. What a day! I made it through the whole day with one tiny nick on my hand, very little of my fingerprints and a fat solid bruise on my right knee from hitting the rock on the first climb when I was being reckless.

SHIBUYA!!!

I was a little lazy the past week and haven't posted for a few days. Last weekend and the one before I visited both Shibuya and Harajuku. Both are frequented by younger people and tourists. Harajuku is famous for the teenagers and early-20s who dress up in costume and either just chill, posing with pouty faces for tourists, or dance to music. Or they grin and wander around taking photos with everyone. Some of the more entertaining costumes I have seen were a pair of 80s glam rockers (who I initially thought were female), lots of punk rockers, a gentleman in a Sailor Moon Costume with pink Mickey Mouse ears, and a girl in a Victorian-style dress who was passing out Chu-Hi to people of all ages. Shibuya is basically the Times Square of Tokyo. It is considered the world's busiest intersection. That being said, its crazy busy! There are hundreds of people waiting to cross at any time. When the light changes and it is safe to walk, all lights are red for traffic and people flood into the streets going any number of directions including diagonal. Its seriously like playing Frogger, dodging and weaving to avoid pedestrians and bicyclists. People will keep crossing even after the lights have gone green until the cars start pulling out. Look at the photo below and the two night ones a little ways down. The black areas at the bottoms of the photos are people. Hundreds and hundreds of people! In Shibuya is a huge shopping center called X Madonna. Its full of mostly women's clothing and shoes. Malls here aren't like they are in the states. The shops have no walls between them, they're situated so that they use angles and corners to present the largest possible amount of merchandise to those walking by. It's a busy place with fantastic clothing and shoes. I'm taking Emily and Anne shopping there when they come visit. :D Saturday night, I met up with a huge group of people and we decided to go back to Shibuya to sing karaoke, have dinner, and maybe go dancing. The karaoke places are a total racket. There are tons of little rooms with a tv, karaoke machine, table and enough room for about 8 people. The cost is 4000 yen (about $45) for 2 hours all you can drink. It was around 1700 yen for us non-drinkers. By the end of that, we had 4 very drunk people and a $400 bill to pay because they claimed we went over by 2 minutes and decided to charge us for an extra hour EACH! OUCH! It was a total blast though. Since I realized I hadn't posted for almost 2 weeks now (sorry), I think I should mention that we visited the Tokyo Tower about a week and a half ago. Its taller than the Eiffel, but very very similar construction. It was beautiful all lit up. Quite the experience!

Friendship Day

Yesterday was Friendship Day at Yokosuka Naval Base. This means that the base is open (in a very limited and well-policed way) to the Japanese and other visitors. The gates were positively packed with people waiting in the rain for their allowed entry into a generally off limits area. For me, this was a fairly unique opportunity to take a few photos of the place I work. I am usually forbidden to bring a camera anywhere near the ship since I have access to plenty of areas in which taking photos would cause me to lose my job.

I opted to go late, hoping to get pictures of the GW all lit up with Christmas lights and its patriotic 73. As it turned out, the rain didn't want to go anywhere and it was a very very wet day. After a fantastic curry lunch and purchase of fun socks (these people really love their socks!), I headed over with my friends Mike and Sheila. We arrived at the USS George Washington CVN 73 to a crowd of people including a bunch of wet and very unhappy sailors in their dress blues. Only the well-decorated hangar bay and flight deck were part of the tour. As there are 3 levels between the two, two of the huge aircraft elevators were being employed to lift and lower crowds of enthusiastic people (and bored, wet sailor boys).

Riding the elevator was super fun 1 because its so huge and open and 2 because its so quick and even a mostly smooth ride. That was another opportunity that I don't believe I'll have again. Normally, I have to take the stairs just the same as everyone else who calls the steel rat maze home or work.

Back to the hangar bay... One third of it was closed off to hide our unsightly trailers and forklifts. This left a still enormous area for civilians, sailors, flags, Christmas trees, fake presents, big guns and bigger missiles. There was a ton to see. Sheila and I put on flack jackets and armored helmets and pretended to be soldiers. The Japanese people went nuts! I think about 40 photos were taken of us in just a couple minutes. The sailors were rolling with laughter at Japanese children and schoolgirls posing with a huge gun while making the signature "peace sign" with their fingers.

We also ran into the carrier fire fighters, a group I see regularly. So we posed with them and some big ax-things. The gentleman to my right was breathing loudly through a gas mask in my ear - so creepy!

Once the carrier walk around was concluded, we headed to the next pier in hopes that the Japanese destroyer also featured in this celebration was still open. The skies decided to open and start pouring right about the time we left the flight deck. Soon after arriving at the destroyer, both ships were closed to tourists. Bummer! No tour for me there. Maybe another time. The day was also being called the Grand Illumination because a bunch of Christmas lights have been put up around the base. So, on the very wet walk home with a hot delicious chai tea latte, I took a few photos of the lights. By the time I got home, I was drenched up to the knees, and didn't have a picture of the 73 all lit up, but thought it a totally worthwhile adventure.

Autumn in Kamakura - Temple Day!

Today I went to see temples in Kamakura. My friend and coworker Randy is in town from Seattle and knows all of the great tourist places in the area. He was my tour guide for the day. Kamakura is a city about a 20 minute train ride from Yokosuka. We started at North Kamakura at Engaku-Ji, which is a huge temple area, thingy. The fall colors were incredible and today was Jodo-e: The memorial of Buddha's enlightenment, which means the temple grounds were ridiculously packed with people. Regardless of a bit of overcrowding, the temple grounds were still very quiet. The day couldn't have been more beautiful, bright blue sky, red, orange, and yellow leaves vibrant against it.

After spending a few hours exploring the vast grounds of Engaku-Ji, we walked a little further down the road to Meigetsu-in, another historic temple site. This one was founded in 1160 AD. The buildings have been rebuilt, but some of the tombs and statues are centuries old. A bit further down the same road, which I am beginning to think of as North Temple, is the Kencho-Ji Temple. This place is the top-ranked of Kamakura's top Zen temples. This place was exceptionally notable because past the beautiful temple buildings there are stairs and a trail leading up to the top of the hillside overlooking Kamakura with panoramic views. Lovely! It was a super steep short hike, but totally worth it. The staircase led up to a few buildings comprising the protective shrine of Kencho-Ji. The shrine is surrounded by statues. Lions guard the stairways and bird-men-warrior statues.

The fourth temple was a Shinto temple right outside downtown Kamakura. I seem to have lost the ticket stub for it so I have no idea what it is called. It is quite lovely though. There are frequently weddings there and was one going on as I walked past. I tried to watch, but it seemed like a very solemn affair and I had no idea what the rituals meant. So, I moved on to look for food. We picked a restaurant with a pretty generic menu. The little old lady almost through us out for not speaking Japanese even though they have a plastic menu. Then she ignored us the entire time we were there. Randy tried three or four times to get her attention to try to get a drink. I think its the worst service I have ever received and VERY out of character for the Japanese. However, she managed to get in a yelling match with another patron who was highly entertained by the whole transaction among the three of us, so I think she was just having a bad day. Randy was wearing a shirt that says "I am a serious foreigner." It made all the Japanese people laugh. Tons of them wanted pictures. So I hope that it doesn't have any weird connotations.

After the bizarre dining experience, we hopped a local train to Hase where we visited the Great Buddha. Turns out there are lots of big Buddhas, but this one is pretty great especially surrounded by all the fall colors. For 20 yen (23 cents ish) you can climb up into his chest. With my indecision, by the time I decided it was worth it, the line was nearly 100 people long. So, I gave up and we came home.

In other news, strawberries are just coming into season and they are AMAZING here! Also, I created a flickr account so I could show more of my pictures. I just started uploading pictures, but check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelseyintherain/

Ships, Mikons and Plastic Food

This weekend was stocked with adventure, not in the least being learning the train and subway systems. I did a little exploring in Yokosuka on Friday. The naval base takes up an entire peninsula to maximize pier space for ships. There are several destroyers here, big surface craft that Puget only rarely sees. I've now seen Japanese submarines as well. They are small diesel boats with huge sails, seeming very strangely proportioned to someone used to the sleek American nuke subs. The base is an experience in itself. Since the ship I'm here for hasn't yet arrived, my boss decided we needed to explore the mall and train station for the second half of the day. Aren't you glad our tax dollars are put to such good work? Paying me to browse the mall is a much better use than petty war!! :D After walking a pretty boardwalk with naval base views, a friend and I wandered some side streets and ended up climbing some steep stair cases. Upon a little investigation, we realized that the stairs were the only access routes to the homes built into the hill. There were absolutely no roads up. The people who lived there had to haul everything they owned up those stairs: propane tanks, beds, furniture, etc. Lucky for them, most Japanese homes are minimalist.

Saturday was a seriously long and adventurous day. A group of Space Control Team people decided to

take a trip to Tokyo. The day began with learning the trains. If you haven't seen a train and subway map for Tokyo, it looks like a bowl of moldy, rainbow spaghetti. You have to know where you are, where you want to go, which color train to get on, which train line, and where to make transfers. Saturdays are still work days in Japan and the trains were crowded. We stood and tried not to tip over the

entire way there. The first stop of the

day was Asakusa, home of a big red lantern and Kitchenware Town. The big red lantern hangs from the gate to a big market place full of trinkets, food, and gifts. I ate my first octopus-on-a-stick and octopus ball

(dough, octopus meat, shrimp). Very chewy, but quite tasty. Past the market is a 5-storied pagoda, Asakusa shrine, and Sensouji Temple. The temple is Japan's oldest Buddhist temple and I'm pretty sure it brings in a ton of cash. Japanese people come to pray and burn incense to their ancestors, both of which cost money. I bought a temple book. Its a little blank book that can be taken to different temples and stamped with calligraphy. Each temple has its own individual mark, with lovely, hand-written calligraphy. Hopefully I can fill the book up while I'm here.

After the temple and its beautiful garden surroundings, we walked to Kitchenware Town, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's an area of a few city blocks of shops full of cutlery, cookware, and best of all: plastic food! You can buy plastic hamburgers, beer, ice cream, noodles, sushi, rice, etc. They good menus for those of us who can't read Kanji. Point and nod, you generally get what you want. On the way there, we encountered a few ninjas!! Well actors doing a very silly show of a sensei and his student, but we took a photo with them anyway.

Akihabara-the electronics district- was calling our names. We took the subway over and explored an 8-story building full of, well, stuff. Seriously, this color-riot of a place contained aisle after aisle of anything you'd find in an electronics or toy store: printers, phones, DVDs, CDs, toys, laptops, etc. The top floor was food; hooray, something I was interested in buying!

Leaving that building and walking around the block led to a 5 or 6-story costume and lingerie shop, 4-stories of toys (action figures galore!), more electronics, and a ton of people.

A quick stop in Ginza finished our day. We visited the Sony Building. It was full of fun things, my favorites being a dancing mp3 player robot ($400!!)

and a camera that recognized smiles and wouldn't take a picture unless it saw one. So fun! The ride back was

uneventful except for one old gentleman who stared at me like I was growing a second set of arms.

Today (Sunday) I picked mikons (mandarin oranges). The place was all you can eat while you're there for 650 yen. Anything you pick and want to bring out, is 550 yen/kg. Little pricey but fun. I think I ate 12 mikons in an hour! Can you OD on Vitamin C?? A little walk on one of the beaches finished the little excursion off. There were windsurfers everywhere! They're way braver than I am since it was probably 40 degrees with the wind chill. Brrr!!!

The Hello Lodge

After a fairly exhausting day of travel, during which 17 hours vanished across the international dateline, I arrived in Yokosuka, Japan. The flight into Nerita was a 10 hour 40 minute tolerable ride over Alaska and a lot of ocean. We landed in the rain amidst thick clouds that I couldn't see through until just before we touched. Then came immigration in a very warm room, collecting baggage which seemed to take forever, and customs. The bus ride from NRT to Base was around 2 hours, but sorting the people onto busses was a joke. I ended up on one without underneath storage compartments. All luggage occupied the front several rows. Those happened to be the heated ones. The passengers all froze their tails off in the back of the bus. We arrived and checked into our hotels around 9 pm. Long day!!

The food here is pretty much fantastic. I ate at a minuscule Thai restaurant with a few of my coworkers upon arrival in Yokosuka. I was so impressed by the people who ran it. They were polite, courteous and very friendly, not to mention proud of what they do. I've had some amazing noodle dishes and some tasty candies. There are drink machines with all sorts of concoctions. Each contains arou

nd 30 types of beverages, some hot, some cold. The orange Calpis is so yummy!

I'm staying at this cute little hotel called the Hello Lodge. I was greeted with a sign reading "Dear Mr. Kelthy Hansen Welcome to Hello Lodge!" Not quite my name and really not my gender. The owner apologized and blamed it on my orders. The cookies made up for it anyway. :) So, Japan is a very minimalist society. Hotel rooms are generally really small containing a bed that's about half a twin, a toilet, shower, tiny desk and a microwave, if you're lucky. Seems I am one of the lucky ones. My room is the largest on the floor. It houses a full bed, decent sized desk and a kitchenette. I also have free internet. Thank goodness!

My room contains the most over complicated toilet I have ever seen. Seriously! Look at the picture below. It has a warm water bidet with 3 different settings for positioning and 7 for strength of water jet. The top is a sink to rinse your hands which drains back into the toilet for the next flush. All of the water is used twice. The shower is its own little room and contains a deep, but short tub and a sink. My little kitchenette has a small fridge and microwave, a single burner and a sink. I also have a nice balcony with a view of, well, several tallish buildings.

Work has been a lot of touring, training and walking so far. When the ship arrives, it'll be much more chaotic. I will be working swing shift beginning next week so I'll have mornings free to enjoy a little daylight. I think I'll like it here for the duration. My boss seems like a really good guy and I hope that I'll enjoy it.