Smooth Sailing

Larissa in front of the George Washington, a US Navy Carrier.  The base was filled with sailors and family members.

Lunch at Chili's with Song and Sam.  Song is the new Periodonist on base and good friend of Rene's.  They have two lovely children and enjoy hanging out with us.  They followed us to Yokosuka to spend the day.  Renie spent the day at an International School in Tokyo , home of many Embassy students.  He enjoyed playing tennis with some very experienced kids.

The USS George Washington

Atilano was getting very nervous the Song's daughter was going to fall in the water below (LOL).  

This weekend we traveled to Yokosuka to see the George Washington since it will be leaving on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, due to security reasons this was the closest we managed to get.  The ship was under heavy security with sailors coming in and out to shop and eat on base.  Such young men who sacrifice so much to be out at sea for so long.  Our goal was to get Atilano to drive off base to Yokota for the first time.  Overall, he did very well as I guided him back to our base which took 2 hours.  The traffic was heavy this weekend.  I also managed to get them to eat off base for the first time.  Slowly, but surely they seem to be venturing out.  

Cravings for Dessert

Well Rene is still away in Dallas visiting with his mom and brothers.  He will be home tomorrow.  Last night the kids and I had dinner at Mori Town, a mall nearby with eateries.  We had shrimp tempura.  On our way back to the base, the kids wanted some dessert and Chateraise is the place to go.  It is right outside the East gate and we go there for their wonderful cakes and fruit popsicles.  Yum, Yum, it has also become Melba's favorite place to go off base.  So yes you guessed it, I had some strawberry cake then woke up and ran 4 miles this morning.  Lucky for us we were spared the typhoon and had a beautiful day.  We are off to a dental BBQ later.   So if you ever come visit, you will be treated to Chateraise-

Fun on the bullet train

Osaka Japan-3rd largest city in Japan

Renie relaxing on the train-

The Shinkansen (Japan's Bullet Train)

Sasebo in a navy base on the South side of Japan.  The sports team took the bullet train, also called Shinkansen and arrived in 5 hours.  The bullet train reaches speeds of 300 km/h.  This is a destroyer navy ship docked on base.  The team traveled through Osaka, Hiroshima, and other areas of Japan.  Renie described the experience as "great".

Home alone

Today is Saturday in Fussa, Renie is off to Sasebo by bullet train with the sports team for the weekend.  Rene is off to Texas in the middle of a storm and Larissa and I are home resting from a busy week.  Melba and Atilano are here for an overnight visit so they will keep us company while everyone is gone.  I am glad everyone back home will be safe from this huge hurricane headed to Texas.   Have a great weekend-

ICD 2008

Typical school lunch meal in Japan

The Soyjoy girl.  Great Soy snack bars-You will

find them at your favorite grocery store.

Yokohama Japan

The kids will enjoy this!  This has to be the tallest fairest

wheel in the world.

We enjoyed a great lunch at Ristorante Attimo overlooking the bay-This was a wonderful italian place.  My meal started off with a salad decorated with octupus (Yum!, it was not bad), mushroom pizza (the best), pumpkin cream topped pasta, fish over pumkin and other veggies, then the best italian ice & tiramisu/coffee, and all for just 2,800 yen.  What a deal-

The Pacifico Yokohama where the conference was held

 
Today I had the fortunate experience of being able to attend The International Congress of Dietetics held here at Yokohama Japan.  It is the most prestigious international conferences in the world.  It is a conference that brings together dietitians from all over the world.   Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan.  I had never really been to the heart of Yokahama but it was truely a great place to visit.  The location is right on Tokyo Bay with plenty of things to see and do.  It was great feeling the fresh sea breeze and experiencing the blend of cultures and warm hospitality of the Japanese people.  Sorry about the order of the pictures, I am still learning how to use this blog site.  Yes, and by the way, I did sit in on some interesting lectures (LOL).

Monkey Act

I have never seen such a talented human like monkey 

The Outback always has great service and english speaking

waitresses.  Larissa had a hair cut yesterday.  This will save

us around 10 minutes of arguing in the morning about

how to fix her hair (LOL).

Today, Rene, Larissa and I ventured out to Tama Outlets to go have a nice lunch at Outback.  This time we took the train which is about 60 minutes from Yokota.  Renie has been in Misawa since Thursday evening at a Tennis match.  He has taken quite a liking to tennis ever since we started playing about 3 weeks ago.  Some of his friends who did not go out for football this year are playing tennis, so he really enjoys it.  I am not sure I am ready for some of the overnight trips involved in playing sports here in Japan.  Some bases require overnight lodging and taking the bullet train.   Nevertheless,  I will have to accept the fact that he is growing up.  Overall, we enjoyed our window shopping today and the monkey act taking place on the grounds.  Prices in Japan are high so we would rather shop on base.