Tokyo (May 23)

We all met Jerry in Tokyo yesterday and we are spending 5 days here as a family.  Bill has to come over here about 4X a year to visit the prisoners and have other meetings.
The hotel is beautiful and close to everything.
First, my Tokyo manicure...

Caroline's manicure...

Bill is off to work and we are off touring....

Caroline explains the Tokyo metro to Jerry

We made it!  Caroline and Jerry navigated our way around all day.  I literally fell asleep in between stops.  The day I have been praying for has arrived!

First Tokyo Metro for Patrick and Jerry

I am relaxed.

Our first stop was Sensoji Temple.  A bunch a shops line the way to the temple.  You may recall Sensoji from an earlier post back last Fall.  I thought this would be a slam dunk.  Funny, when the day you have been praying for finally arrives, it isn't what you thought.

Now, my cool excursion does not appeal to the teenage set, they don't need me to get around and Bill was at work.

Hmmm...

They were not as impressed as I thought they would be.  I still love coming here and looking around.  The shops did not even grab them.

They were mostly into horsing around and having fun together.  Maybe the day I had been praying for did arrive after all, but better.

At the gate entering the temple grounds and heading toward the shops.

I took this picture as we were crossing the street. The gold building behind them is the Orion Beer Factory.  It is designed to look like a mug of beer.  Gold bottom for the beer and silver top for the foam.

Caroline was explaining the meaning of the urn to Patrick and Jerry.  People burn their wishes. Buddha can not see you but he knows your presence by smell and sound.  People gather the smoke on themselves for luck.  Then they toss a coin inside the bin that has bars on it.  Each coin toss produces a unique sound for Buddha to hear your wish.

OK, back on the Metro to check out the trendy-outlandish Tokyo fashion scene.  They were more interested in seeing this.

We stopped at the Nescafe Cafe (yes, Nescafe) for lunch.

Patrick is heading up the stairs to a trendy shop.

This area actually ended up being too far out there for Jerry.  Patrick is exploring a new look (from bleach blond to jet black hair).  So this wasn't a great stop either.  I like to people watch.  Some of the clothes is much crazier than New York City.  

So tomorrow we will look for a less out-there look.    The mall that I want to take them to will have to wait until Thursday when Bill can join us.  I have a surprise planned for him.

We caught up with Bill about 5 and had dinner in the Teppanyaki restaurant in the hotel.

Our Chef.

Jerry thought it would be good idea to put the entire serving of Wasabi in his mouth at once.  He just about exploded.  His eyes were watering and he could not breathe, just laughed.

A good day!

Easter at Manzamo Resort (March 24)

You may remember Manzamo Beach Resort from a recent post with Caroline and her friend Veronica.  Well, I took Bill the next day and we have been going about every weekend since then.  $10 to park, we have access to the beach, the beach pool, the changing room with hot showers.   Then they take $10 off your buffet lunch if you choose to go for the buffet, so it is essentially free access.

BTW, The hot shower alone makes it worth it.  I take 30 minute steaming hot showers.  Can't get that at base housing...

Anyway, we decided to spend Easter there.  great buffet and and a beautiful day.

Patrick's first time here.

Caroline and Patrick on the Aqua cycle.  They fought the whole time but it still makes for a great "peaceful" picture.

On our way to lunch after an amazing long, hot shower!

Patrick wants me to listen to the latest Lady Gaga song.  We love Lady Gaga!

The path around the beach to the hotel is really neat, it feels like the inside of a cave.

As you know, everywhere we go, Bill takes pictures of the flowers for his madre.  The kids (and their friends) even know that he is always looking for nice flowers for her so they are always on the lookout and point them out to Bill.  So here is a collection of his photos for his mom.

Bill and Caroline have the biggest sweet tooth (teeth?) in the family...

BTW, you may notice that Caroline will have a colored stripe in her hair. Across the street from our house, you can get a braid put in for about $4. They last for about 3 months.  They have a lot of colors.

View from the restaurant.  You can see the wedding chapel in the background.  All of the resorts have them.

 

More photos of my Okinawan nail art.  So fun!

Fire! (April 21)

So, do any of these guys look like a pyromaniac to you??  Who looks nervous?

So we were having dinner one night.  Great homemade pizza.  I spent all day making pizzas.  A knock at the door and some guy asks us if we are okay, you know since your backyard is on fire.

Que?

We had no idea, we turned around and sure enough the backyard was on fire.  We had no idea.  Yeah, the pizza was really that good!

We have a neat hill and hideout area behind our house that the neighborhood kids love to hangout in.  So we assumed that they got into fire games that got out of control.

Take a look.

That is the corner of our house.

Always calm, cool, and collected.  Always.

The fire engines arrive and the crowd is gathering.  You can also get a sense of what our neighborhood looks like.

Bill and Caroline look on.

Bill talking to the Military Police.