Japanese Resturant

Every Friday Tony and a group of people he works with go to a different restaurant together. The restaurants are chosen by the people in the group that have either gone there before or just want to try something new. Today we got to go to a sit down Japanese restaurant. It was a lot of fun but I didn't have any idea what to expect. When I think Japanese I think sushi. Which is fine with me I like sushi, Tony doesn't. In fact I was kind of surprised that he wanted to go. The restaurant actually didn't serve any sushi. You picked what you wanted and they brought it to you raw. There is a large grill in front of you and you are responsible for cooking your own food. I thought it was pretty cool until Vann decided he was going to touch the grill. Thank goodness he touched it at the beginning because the heat wasn't turned up. It just scared him. So the first dish that we ordered was a vegetable and meat platter. It had bean sprouts, cabbage, onions, potato's, and some kind of beef and I think pork. I am not totally sure. Half the time I have no idea what I am eating. In fact the other day they were serving samples at one of the grocery stores that Tony and I went too, so we decided to try what it was. It tasted really good at first but had a horrible after taste. Then I figured out what we had just eaten, yeah it was whale meat. Gross I wont do that again. But any way back to lunch. So the second dish that we ordered came in a bowl with an egg on top. I wasn't to sure what to do with it. I started to pour all of it on the grill when one of the Japanese workers came over and tried to tell me that I needed to mix it all together first. Okay so I did that. Then I poured the mixture on the grill and top it with some noddles that we got with it. Then it was suppose to cook on each side for about four minutes. Once the big omelet looking thing was done there was a poached egg that you could put on top. Instead I put the pouched egg back on the grill and cooked it just a little bit longer, I don't mind pouched eggs but this one was still really runny. Everything turned out really good though. I don't know that I would go back but the experience was great. Here are some pictures of Tony trying to be a great Mongolian chef. Yes that is a bib that Tony is wearing! The grill splattered a lot.

Just Having Fun

So poor Vann hasn't gotten to play in the last three days because it has been raining and pretty cold. I found a really nice play area inside the Daiei Mall. It costs $5.00 but you can stay and play as long as you want. We stayed about and hour. Vann loved it! It was the perfect size for him and there were other kids his age that he got to play with. He through a huge fit when it was time to leave. I didn't even get a chance to put his shoes on.

We do a lot of walking here but the nice thing is that everything that I like to see or do is within walking distance. Here are a few pictures of what we walk by on a daily basis. This is the Daiei Mall.

This is one of the parking lots at the mall. Cars park in a parking garage under the mall and all the bikes, mopeds, and motorcycles have their own lot.

This is Blue Street. Blue Street is about two blocks from our hotel and has a lot of great stores. There are fresh produce stands which I visit everyday to get fresh fruit and vegetables for our lunch. Tony is on swing shift so lunch is our big cooked meal for the day. There is also two malls on Blue Street. Every mall has a grocery store in the bottom. It isn't a small store either it is a full blown grocery store equipped with a bakery, produce, meat, and fresh seafood. The bakery's here are wonderful. I have had my full share so far. In fact Tony and I went to the bakery in the Daiei Mall today which I have been there a total of three times but they must have recognized me because I got a 10 % discount along with a punch card. I am not sure what you get when your punch card is full but I am sure it will be full in no time.

Just A Few Things

So we have been doing a lot of walking. I think we walked about 3 miles today maybe more. I had to post this video of Vann because I thought it was so cute. This was a the little playground in front of McDonald's.

This is a picture of a vending machine which you can find one pretty much any where. Look at the close up picture. The top row of drinks show the price in a red tab and the other row has a blue tab. All the drinks that are red come out of the machine hot and the blue tabbed drinks come out sold. It is really weird to get a hot coffee drink in a can out of a vending machine. They don't taste to bad either.

Here is the reason why we are in Japan. This is the George Washington. Tony has been working on the ship.

Our First Real Adventure

So Saturday was our first day to adventure out onto base. We decided to go to the exchange to pick up a few things. On the way there we stop at a little park so that Vann could play. He loved it. It was the perfect size for him. When it was time to leave Vann through a fit. I felt bad because that was the first time he has really been able to play since we got here. We also went to one of the malls. The mall is huge. It is so big we didn't even make it half way through. We stop at a great little bakery inside of the mall. We all shared a apple raisin pastry bread. It was really good, and not to sweet. Here are some pictures of our day. Oh by the way the first picture is Tony and Vann taking a nap before we left the room.

Our Long Adventure

So Vann and I spent the night in Seattle so that we could take our time in the morning before our flight. Vann had a blast, he jumped on the bed, took a bath in our jetted tub, which he is afraid of the jets. His favorite thing to do was play in the drawers of the dresser.

The next morning we got up and went and had breakfast. We had to be to the airport around 11:00 because our flight wasn't until 1:00. By the way Tony had no idea that we were coming so it was going to be a surprise. We got to the airport and made it through security with about an hour to spare. As we were waiting to board the plane I decided that I was going to go ask the counter if there were going to be any empty seats on the plain. The guy was very nice and said that there was and moved my seat from an aisle seat in the middle of the plane to a window seat with an empty aisle seat next to me. What a life saver that was. I cant even imagine not having an extra seat for Vann. So we got on the plain and Vann was having a lot of fun looking out the window at all the other plains taking off. It was time for us to take off and I was scared at how Vann was going to react but to my surprise he did great. He just looked out the window and pointed at things on the ground. The entire plane ride went great considering it was a 10 1/2 hour flight. Vann made friends with just about everyone on the flight. There were some people from Korea seating across from us and Vann kept going over to visit them. He sat in there laps and got his picture taken alot with them. He was loving it. Here are some pictures from us on the

I was so relieved to get to Japan but I had no idea how hard it would be to take the train. I took one train to some town just before Tokyo and then had to get off and go catch another train. I was so exhausted I just wanted to get to Yokosuka. I ended up getting on the first class section of the train but I didn't care i asked the lady how much extra it would be to stay and it was a bout $10.00. I was not going to move Vann was asleep and I just wanted my trip to be over. I was so thankful to see the sign at the train station that said Yokosuka. This is Vann waiting for the train. So I arrived at the hotel around 9:15pm which would have been 4:15am Seattle time. I knew that Tony didn't get off work until eleven so I decided to lay down for a little bit since Vann was already sleeping. There is only one key to the rooms and you leave it with the front desk when you leave. The front desk knew I was going to surprise Tony. I had planned to go down to the lobby around 11:00 to wait for Tony to get there but I got a call in the room around 10:45 and it was the front desk. They told me that Tony was down there and wanted his key. She asked me what I wanted her to tell him. I had to think fast so I told her to tell him that they missed placed his key and I would be right down. I hurried and grabbed Vann and took the elevator down. The elevator opens right up to the front desk . So when the door opened I walked out and said, "excuse me did you loose your key?" Tony's jaw dropped and he said, "what are you doing hear?" We were all excited to see one another except for Vann he just wanted to go back to sleep. By 3:00 in the morning Vann was awake and ready for Tony to play with him. Poor Tony fell asleep at 3:00 and had to get up at 4:00 because Vann was ready for him to get up. Here is Vann being silly.So yesterday we went to lunch with a bunch of people that Tony works with. It was a great restaurant we were on the 9th floor which was the top. He had a great view here are a couple of pictures of the view.

Airplane

So just a little while longer and Vann and I will be reunited with Tony in Japan. I am getting kind of scared considering I hate flying. I don't know how I am going to manage with Vann considering it is a 10 1/2 hour flight followed by a 3 hour train ride once we land. I am going to be exhausted. I have been trying to explain to Vann that we are going to be taking an airplane to Japan to see daddy. He gets really excited when I say we are going to see daddy. I have tried to teach him how to sign airplane, and we read lots of books about airplanes. He seems like he kind of understands but I don't know that he really does. Watch the video to see how he signs airplane.

Scary Night!

So the other night Vann insisted on sleeping in his own room. So him and I crawled into bed together and snuggled to sleep. As soon as he was asleep I returned to my room to go to bed. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep very good because he is always right next to me. I always worry that I wont hear him if he wakes up even though I have my monitor on. So about 1:30am I got up to check the fire and put some more wood in. I thought it was kind of weird that he hadn't woke up yet so I decided to go in and check on him. I walked into his room to find him not in his bed where I had left him. My heart sunk as I began thinking someone has kidnapped my son. I started to look around his room and found him sitting in his rocking chair fast asleep. I know it doesn't sound that bad but there was a pile of blankets in the chair and he blended right in. I think my son sleep walks. His has done some weird things before when I have been awake and he is sleeping that's what makes me think that he was sleep walking. I was just so scared. I don't know if I will ever feel comfortable with him sleeping in his own room.