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!!!