Distractions
I've gotten a lot of bad news latley. Things that make me feel very far away from everyone. I wallowed in it for a couple days, and then I had to stop and mentally shake myself. My immediate family is fine, and they are the ones right here with me. And nobody would want me to be paralyzed by their problems. So I lived my life this weekend, and it was fun. Plus, all the rain and wind had washed the sky clean, and the weather was gorgeous.
Saturday we went to a World Festival at Yamashita Park. Food tents from all over the world.
Thai tent
Turkish tent
Canadian tent. All they had, as far as I could tell, was maple syrup and honey. I guess I never thought about Canada's "national cuisine."
The US tent. Corndogs, steak, fried chicken, and Budweiser.
There were a lot of unexpected food tents, like Ecuador, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and I would've liked to try foods from those places, but I wasn't really feeling up to eating much (cramps). I had some lumpia-like things from the Vietnam tent and a beer and was fine. D refused to be happy until he got an inflatable stag beetle toy.
From there, we walked away from the tent area, down by the water. The bay was really choppy due to a brisk wind, and the gulls were gamely hovering around the shore, where people were tossing them snacks. It was fun watching them wheel around.
In the distance, we saw Osanbashi Pier. From far away, it looks kind of like an aircraft carrier that someone has grown grass on. We had no idea how cool it was going to be. It was all smooth wood, laid out in curves, like a giant skate park.
The view of Yokohama from here was spectatcular, too. I took a lot of pictures as the sun was going down. In the middle of the view is the now second-largest Ferris Wheel in Japan.
An action shot of which Jeff was justifiably proud
We sat on the deck, drinking coffee, watching the sun set, and then M turned around and looked behind us. "Whoa!" he said, and he was right. A huge full moon was rising right over the Yokohama Bay Bridge. I couldn't do it justice with my crappy camera phone.
Jeff was saying, as we were leaving, how we'd never see these cool things, just sit and chill on a pier for an hour, if we dind't live here. We have time to really enjoy cool little things, as opposed to rushing around checking boxes.
We (finally) met up with Wilson and Macky, but neither of them could stay long. It was long enough for us to make plans with Wilson and his family for the following weekend: an amusement park and a town in the mountains. Wine country. I'm looking forward to getting out of town.
We found a cute cafe for dinner. Like the Moon Eyes, it was another example of the Japanese out-Americana-ing the Americans. They were playing some good blues for awhile, too.
Shakes!
Queen Amidala was there, too
and they had red wine, which was really all I wanted
Yesterday was Monday, and a national holiday. Sports Day. A lot of schools apparently have these elaborate field days. The kids' didn't, but Jeff also had the day off (for Columbus Day), so we went to a park that's about a 35-minute walk from our house. Mitsuke Koen was way bigger and cooler than we had imagined.
Kids were "fishing" for turtles with bits of squid tied to sticks.
There were 2 amazing slides that we found.
One was for sliding down on pieces of cardboard
The other was one that I wish I could've experienced as a child. It was super-long and had rollers all the way down. It was a weird butt-massage, but really fun. The kids screamed everytime they went down, which was, for once, fine with us.
Another area had this pretty temple.
I can't wait, and neither can the kids, to go back soon and explore some more. D wants to bring a net and catch turtles, because we really need some more pets.
He did catch a crazy-looking caterpillar that morning, which I wouldn't let him touch. I've heard about some poisonous ones, and I really am not familiar enough with the local fauna to take the chance.
These are some more crazy caterpillars we found on the way to the park
and this I found stuck to our bedroom window. I'm calling it a "shell-sucker thing"
I have been very impressed with M's eating habits since we've gotten here. Here he is enjoying a bowl of oatmeal he made himself, with a glass of acerola juice. It's very high in vitamin C, and I'd never heard of it before. Yum. He is wearing his new fingerless biking gloves. I remember how excited I was to have fingerless gloves back in my teenage years, but they weren't for bike-riding and I had to make them myself.
He also has a new favorite snack: dried squid. It's not bad, really; kind of sweet.
I spotted this display last week, for Breath Palette Water. Mouthwash in 31 flavors, from green tea to coffee to custard. They came in large bottles, variety taster-packs, and single-serving sizes. As those were only 50 yen apiece, I had to try a couple. I got #3 (rose) and #29 (some kind of muffin-pastry thing). I tried the rose, and it tasted about as much like rose as cinnamon-flavored Plax fluoride rinse tastes like cinnamon, which is not at all. In fact, it tastes like ass. Jeff tried the other one. He said it did indeed taste like a light pastry. I tried the little bit left in the cup: it tasted like ass.
So, next weekend, the mountains, and the following Friday, I am told, we are having our first houseparty. I guess it was inevitable. It's going to be some elaborate food-fest 'after-party' with about 20-25 people who may or may not pass out on the floor. After the sleeping, we are to get up and go to Yamashita Park and from thence to Buzz Attitude at Club Lizard: Halloween style. Damn, I don't have a costume yet. Jeff is planning to go as a drunk panda fish-thing. (see last week)
Now I'm going to go climb in my over-full bathtub and let it flood over the sides. You have no idea how fun this is.
Saturday we went to a World Festival at Yamashita Park. Food tents from all over the world.
Thai tent
Turkish tent
Canadian tent. All they had, as far as I could tell, was maple syrup and honey. I guess I never thought about Canada's "national cuisine."
The US tent. Corndogs, steak, fried chicken, and Budweiser.
There were a lot of unexpected food tents, like Ecuador, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and I would've liked to try foods from those places, but I wasn't really feeling up to eating much (cramps). I had some lumpia-like things from the Vietnam tent and a beer and was fine. D refused to be happy until he got an inflatable stag beetle toy.
From there, we walked away from the tent area, down by the water. The bay was really choppy due to a brisk wind, and the gulls were gamely hovering around the shore, where people were tossing them snacks. It was fun watching them wheel around.
In the distance, we saw Osanbashi Pier. From far away, it looks kind of like an aircraft carrier that someone has grown grass on. We had no idea how cool it was going to be. It was all smooth wood, laid out in curves, like a giant skate park.
The view of Yokohama from here was spectatcular, too. I took a lot of pictures as the sun was going down. In the middle of the view is the now second-largest Ferris Wheel in Japan.
An action shot of which Jeff was justifiably proud
We sat on the deck, drinking coffee, watching the sun set, and then M turned around and looked behind us. "Whoa!" he said, and he was right. A huge full moon was rising right over the Yokohama Bay Bridge. I couldn't do it justice with my crappy camera phone.
Jeff was saying, as we were leaving, how we'd never see these cool things, just sit and chill on a pier for an hour, if we dind't live here. We have time to really enjoy cool little things, as opposed to rushing around checking boxes.
We (finally) met up with Wilson and Macky, but neither of them could stay long. It was long enough for us to make plans with Wilson and his family for the following weekend: an amusement park and a town in the mountains. Wine country. I'm looking forward to getting out of town.
We found a cute cafe for dinner. Like the Moon Eyes, it was another example of the Japanese out-Americana-ing the Americans. They were playing some good blues for awhile, too.
Shakes!
Queen Amidala was there, too
and they had red wine, which was really all I wanted
Yesterday was Monday, and a national holiday. Sports Day. A lot of schools apparently have these elaborate field days. The kids' didn't, but Jeff also had the day off (for Columbus Day), so we went to a park that's about a 35-minute walk from our house. Mitsuke Koen was way bigger and cooler than we had imagined.
Kids were "fishing" for turtles with bits of squid tied to sticks.
There were 2 amazing slides that we found.
One was for sliding down on pieces of cardboard
The other was one that I wish I could've experienced as a child. It was super-long and had rollers all the way down. It was a weird butt-massage, but really fun. The kids screamed everytime they went down, which was, for once, fine with us.
Another area had this pretty temple.
I can't wait, and neither can the kids, to go back soon and explore some more. D wants to bring a net and catch turtles, because we really need some more pets.
He did catch a crazy-looking caterpillar that morning, which I wouldn't let him touch. I've heard about some poisonous ones, and I really am not familiar enough with the local fauna to take the chance.
These are some more crazy caterpillars we found on the way to the park
and this I found stuck to our bedroom window. I'm calling it a "shell-sucker thing"
I have been very impressed with M's eating habits since we've gotten here. Here he is enjoying a bowl of oatmeal he made himself, with a glass of acerola juice. It's very high in vitamin C, and I'd never heard of it before. Yum. He is wearing his new fingerless biking gloves. I remember how excited I was to have fingerless gloves back in my teenage years, but they weren't for bike-riding and I had to make them myself.
He also has a new favorite snack: dried squid. It's not bad, really; kind of sweet.
I spotted this display last week, for Breath Palette Water. Mouthwash in 31 flavors, from green tea to coffee to custard. They came in large bottles, variety taster-packs, and single-serving sizes. As those were only 50 yen apiece, I had to try a couple. I got #3 (rose) and #29 (some kind of muffin-pastry thing). I tried the rose, and it tasted about as much like rose as cinnamon-flavored Plax fluoride rinse tastes like cinnamon, which is not at all. In fact, it tastes like ass. Jeff tried the other one. He said it did indeed taste like a light pastry. I tried the little bit left in the cup: it tasted like ass.
So, next weekend, the mountains, and the following Friday, I am told, we are having our first houseparty. I guess it was inevitable. It's going to be some elaborate food-fest 'after-party' with about 20-25 people who may or may not pass out on the floor. After the sleeping, we are to get up and go to Yamashita Park and from thence to Buzz Attitude at Club Lizard: Halloween style. Damn, I don't have a costume yet. Jeff is planning to go as a drunk panda fish-thing. (see last week)
Now I'm going to go climb in my over-full bathtub and let it flood over the sides. You have no idea how fun this is.
posted by Sandi at 9:59 AM
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