By this time tomorrow night, I will once again be with Jeremy. I am so excited! I'm more than ready for him to be home. I've got some pretty cool surprises in store for him. He's got a Valentine's Day present, anniversary present, and a couple other happy's waiting for him. He will get his first surprise on our front porch, before he even steps foot in our house. Once inside, he'll get to open his Valentine's gift. On Monday, our 1st anniversary, he'll get another present. Unfortunately, Jeremy won't be home for very long before he has to leave again. I know that he's not looking forward to leaving any more than I am wanting him to go. Because of that, I got him another surprise for that very long trip. I'm hoping that it will take his mind off the unpleasantness of his journey. I love shopping for him. I love the look on his face when he opens a present that he really likes. So, I really hope that he likes all his gifts as much as I love picking them out and preparing them for him.
Ok! I don't want to get too sappy! Instead, I'm going to fill you in on what Amber has been doing here in Asia! Japan can be a lot of fun! I have eaten some new foods, shopped at some interesting places, and gone to unique attractions.
The food here isn't anything like the "Japanese food" I had tried back home. First, there are ramen restaurants everywhere. They actually have places where you order out of a machine. I was like, "What?!" I still haven't been to one of these yet, but, apparently, you walk in, put your order into a machine, and then go sit at a table. I think the next time I go for ramen I'm going to try one of those places. I've had ramen at a few different places, and it is really good. I wish I had a picture to share. I need to start taking photos each time I go out to eat. They don't just serve you a bowl of noodles. It's a bowl of all kinds of stuff and also noodles. Of course, it depends on what you order, but I've had ramen with pork, with seafood, mushrooms, spinach, and a bunch of other stuff that I couldn't identify! You do eat ramen with chopsticks, and I had never used them before moving here. My skill at using them is a work in progress, to say the least! I've also been to a couple different yakiniku places. The first one I went to was a buffet style place. I didn't really understand exactly what was going on when I first got there. I picked up a plate at the beginning of the buffet line, and when I got to the food...it was raw meat. It was all kinds of different raw meats. I didn't get very much, because I wasn't really sure I wanted to eat raw meat. I mean, who would want to?! When I got to our table, though, there was a grill in the middle of the table. Yes, I did feel kind of stupid. Now, if you knew when I said yakiniku that I'd be cooking my own meat right there at my table, please don't laugh (too hard) at my ignorance! I had never heard of this before. Let me tell you, though, I loved it! I have gone to two of these restaurants now, and loved them both. I found another new food that I love as well. It was just a simple beef and rice dish from this tiny little restaurant right off post. It was delicious!
Y'all know that back in the states we have a ton of different "dollar stores." Here, we have 100 yen stores. I love them! They have all kinds of neat stuff. One in particular, is in Machida. It's like the super star of 100 yen stores. It's either four or five stories. Yes, it is that big! It has so much stuff. I just went to it for the first time last week, and I was in heaven! Not everything in the store is 100 yen. Some things are more costly, but nothing in there is actually expensive. This store had a huge arts and crafts section. They have toys, makeup, all kinds of kitchen utensils, cleaning supplies, food, a few clothes, hand held fans, and I could keep going. They have really got everything! And, I bought a little bit of everything!
Of course, I've done some other shopping as well. The train stations, and the areas right around the train stations, are full of shops. Granted, it's hard for me to find clothes that fit out in the economy, but I find all sorts of other things. I have found that I love Japanese shoes. Some of the shoes are sized simply by S, M, L, LL. When they're sized that way, medium fits almost every time. I've also found cute hats, earrings, and lots of cute hair clips. My friend showed me this one store close by the train station in Ebina that has crazy good prices. I found a cute cloak there that cost 750 yen (about $8). I also found a pair of slippers there for only 450 yen (about $4.80). That store made me very happy!
One of the most fun things I've done since I've been here was go to Hello Kitty Land. I never knew such a place existed! It's pretty small, and all indoor. They have some cute shows, and their parade is awesome! During the parade, a hoop lowers from the ceiling, and this little boy grabs hold of it, and it goes back high in the air. This kid then starts flipping all over this hoop. He looked like he was about seven years old. He was so young and unbelievably talented! They also had this thing that looked like a seesaw. A person was laying on one end of it, and someone jumped on the other end, sending the first person flying. Someone else catches them with their feet while laying on their back, and starts tossing them in circles in the air. It was so fun to watch. I was just as mesmerized as the kids! We also got to tour Hello Kitty's house, which was really neat. They had a small boat ride that took you through all things Hello Kitty. We ate lunch at a buffet, while Hello Kitty put on a show. It was my friend's daughter's birthday, and they really make a big deal out of birthdays there. They give the kids a crown, a cape, and let them sit front row for the shows. They also brought a cute Hello Kitty cake to the table at lunch for the birthday girl. The whole day was just a really good time!
I also visited an aquarium. It was so much fun! They put on a dolphin show, and a sea lion show. I know we have those back home, but I had never actually seen one. It's crazy to go to these places and hear all the people speaking a language that you can't understand. During the shows, they were all speaking animatedly into their headsets, and it sounded so weird to me! This aquarium had some really beautiful sea life. They had jelly fish that I had never seen before. In all honesty, they had all kinds of creatures that I had never seen before! There were ginormous crabs. These crabs were so big they scared me! There were also a bunch of adorable penguins. The aquarium was located on a beach where, even though it was about 40 degrees outside, there were a ton of surfers. I want to go back again when it's warm out and stay for a few days. There's an island not far offshore (you get to it by bridge) that I really want to visit.
Japan has so much to see and do. I hate that I'm having to explore it without Jeremy, but that's the life of an army wife, I guess. I'm giving myself a mission for my next post: Take pictures of food! I want to share all the neat, weird, crazy new foods I'm trying. I can't believe I haven't thought to take pictures of it until now. I am going to fix that, though.
I am looking forward to tomorrow night so very much! I have missed Jeremy so much, and I just cannot wait to see him. There is one place that I want us to visit together before he leaves again. If it works out like I'm hoping, I will have some pictures and a pretty cool story to go along with them before too long!
Oh, life is such an amazing journey. There are so many twists and turns. You just never know what will happen next. I never imagined that I'd be living in Japan. I never imagined that I could be as happy as I am with Jeremy. I certainly never imagined that I'd be sharing my journey online. I look forward to each new day, to each new adventure that comes my way. I also look forward to sharing it all!
