Life's a beach

WTF spent an impromptu day at Chojagasaki beach in Hayama this weekend. We had wanted to swing our clubs at the little driving range on base but it was closed thanks to the wind-which if you ask me is the perfect weather to practice golf in, have you ever watched The British Open-so we walked back home, doused the Kawaii Girls in sunscreen, packed them into the car, destination unknown. I asked WTF Husband to put a little dot of sunscreen on my back to cover a spot I just had removed, not wanting it to darken and he did just that plus some, so now I have a grapefruit size circle on my back that's an entirely different color than the rest of me, thanks Husband for that.

We've seen the beaches of Zushi, Kamakura and Enoshima and wanted to see a different part of the peninsula, so we took a shortcut through Shonan Village and came out in Hayama. After some hysterical moments trying to the turn around and back the car out of a narrow street, which by all accounts should have been a one-way street but was in fact a two lane road, we ended up at Chojagasaki.

Let me take this moment to comment on WTF Husband. He's a passenger in Japan, after years of being the driver. I do all the driving now, in large part because he's always gone and I'm more familiar with the area. While I am mostly comfortable with driving here, I still have pause every now and then on where to make u-turns, so I asked him were a good spot to turn around was but he had nothing to offer except pointing fingers at every driveway and street we passed. So I turned on my blinker-proud that it was actually the blinker and not the wind shield wiper by accident-and waited to cross the yellow solid line into a gas station. He starts in on me that you are not to cross the yellow line...hello, it is was the only way into the gas station but I was going to wait out the oncoming traffic and do it anyways, then he says with a deadpan serious tone, "There's the police don't do it." Now I'm flustered, concerned I'll be arrested and put in jail for 23 days before anyone can help me, so I move along when he says coolly, "Hey, why aren't you turning, the car is letting you through?" Hmm, smart ass, let me think about this. So in my haste and frustration I turn left onto a street that turns out to be more like a hairpin than a 90 degree turn and find myself stuck sideways, trying to back out into the road, surrounded by 5 or 6 scooters that came out of no where. In a sign of how bad it was, the normally very polite and courteous Japanese drivers started honking at me. I guess they didn't notice the shoshinsha symbol plastered on the front and back of my car. That little leaf magnet on the car gives me special license to make boneheaded mistakes and other assorted traffic faux pas'. Really, other drivers are just supposed to give me a wide berth and treat me with special care as a beginner driver in Japan. Same thing. Oh and there wasn't even a police officer, again, thanks Husband.

It was a beautiful gaijin moment. I may have even made one man jump off of his scooter to avoid hitting the car because he didn't show signs of stopping as I was working the 15 point turn to get us out of there. Did he really think I could get myself out of that jam in a couple of seconds? He didn't let go of the scooter though, so maybe we was trying to push it up the hill we were on, but what's the point of a motorized scooter if you have to push it, but I digress. The skirmish wasn't for nothing because I stumbled on The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama rather accidentally thanks to my side street detour.

So back to the beach, if it had been a perfectly clear day, Fuji-san would have been visible on the horizon. WTF will just have to go back to check that out some other day.

Photo courtesy of Shonan Boy's Adventure

We weren't really sure where to park in the lot because several sections were roped off and had signs in different colors. We chose one place that we later moved from because it looked like reserved parking and no one else was parking there. I'm not sure how that is managed since you pay the parking fee at an automated machine when you leave and there are no attendants.

Beach side, we frolicked amongst the other beach goers, splashed in the water and the Kawaii Girls buried each other in the sand. Everyone had inner tubes and little rafts that they floated on out in the water. The lifeguards paddled by on big boards and out in the distance, people swam to a large rock and by all accounts, just sat there taking in the scenery.

Kawaii Girl #2 insisted on being buried with food and drink...smart if you ask me.

When it was time to leave, Kawaii Girl #1 stripped naked, I guess she was done with having sand in her lady parts. At that, Kawaii #2 started to do the same, never one to miss out on the chance to take her clothes off. There just weren't enough towels to cover our embarrassment, or our free-birding girls, but the beach goers seemed to have found it cute, given their watching eyes and smiling faces and a mother and child came up to us at that moment to show us a crab they caught in a bucket. Back at the car, I noticed several other children in the buff so perhaps beach nudity isn't a taboo around here.

Leaving the parking lot and getting ready to pay I noted that the machine only took coins or ¥1000 bills, neither of which I had. Oh great! Stuck cars and beach nudity weren't going to be our only fun for the day. Now we were going to have to sleep in the parking lot. I was glad that we still had some Pringles, despite the can being full of sand from being used as a digging instrument and a half sipped on Capri Sun.

We re-parked the car and I sent WTF Husband, who has zero foreign language ability apart from "cervaza por favor," on a mission armed with an English to Japanese language booklet, the ¥5000 bill and hopes he'd come back with change. I tried to take pictures but cars were in the way. Somehow he managed with showing the parking ticket, the money and holding up five fingers. The Japanese man, who turned out to be a local photographer, handed him change and said in English "same money" noting that it was an exact exchange.

I would have been happy to have been short changed in the deal, a help-the-poor-gaijin fee, I just wanted out of the parking lot and there was no other way without paying the machine. It all makes for a great story however, so if you ask me, WTF's day was a great one-if you ask WTF Husband, well you might get another answer but remember he's just the passenger now and I'm the one writing the blog.

The Cherry Blossoms have left the building

Back in April the Kawaii Girls and I headed out on a train to a cherry blossom festival on the grounds of Shomyoji Temple, near Kanazawa Bunko station . I couldn't decide on which photos to post, I literally took hundreds, so I will let the photos do most of the talking and leave my words to a minimum.

These are two things that WTF Husband laughs at...that I suffer from a disease that renders me useless in making simple decisions, such as taking hours to choose photos for a blog that someone spends a quick minute on before moving onto the next, and that I would actually let something do the talking for me.

Well you see WTF Husband I don't always have to talk (or type). I can let things stand on their own. I don't feel a need to narrate everything to within an inch of its life. I mean, really, why would you think I needed to talk, just to hear myself? I am perfectly capable of letting the beauty of the photos shine without setting them up with a backstory or a funny anecdote. See, I can do it. Just you wait. Really. I can do it.

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Ajiga-ike, or the "Pond of Letter A" and the Main Hall of the temple.

Kawaii Girl #1 pounding mochi and then sampling it. That was some sticky rice, it was stuck to us for hours.

Hanami party, remember this post?

These sweet kids walked all over the festival grounds. Aren't they so...well, kawaii? On more than one occasion we popped for a ¥50 cone of popcorn. A sakura cookie, that's a real cherry blossom inside, given to us by the sweet lady that showed us around the grounds.

On our walk back down to the train station I noticed people kept stopping at this house and looking up at it, like Brangelina were on their way down. Seems very non-descript to me but I thought maybe this is were Shiego Tokuda lived. He is famous unlike anyone in the states.

Alright WTF Husband, maybe I can't help myself...but that's half of my charm!

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The Zen of Costco

I walked into Costco and bought a piano.

Okay, I didn't buy the piano but I thought about it. You know you would have too. It's Costco people.

I've been in this country for 3 months now and my pants were on fire to check out the big box store, so on a whim I printed off directions, strapped Kawaii Girl #2 into the backseat and chose the hardest possible route to get there. For reasons that defy common sense, I opted to suffer my way through the narrow and trafficy streets of Yokohama, on a 45 minute drive vs. a 20 minute, quick and straight shot on the toll roads.

I did it for the adventure. An adventure is what I got.

This is the farthest I have driven from the base and before I even started the car, I read and memorized how to get there, complete with drawings of landmarks. I knew to be on the lookout for a Colonel Sanders, of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, tucked on the side of a building where I was to make my first turn. Kawaii Girl #2 started in on me and after a brief discussion of her losing her after-nap graham crackers dipped in Nutella, I never heard a peep from her again. With that squared away, I started to panic a little...crap, the directions said to turn in 9 kilometers, what was that conversion again?? My palms started to sweat and my eyes started to go cross as I kept glancing from the road to the directions to the rearview mirrors and back to the directions. Ahh, is that chicken I smell? I made my first turn.

The rest of the drive was more relaxed until the directions didn't quite mesh with the actual street I was on. I kept driving deeper and deeper into an industrial area and my language reflected that of a stereotypical American truck driver. Why didn't I take that toll road? After a quick sumimasen (excuse me) I somehow figured out how to ask where Costco was and when the truck driver pointed across the street to the large and familiar looking warehouse, I laughed out loud, a mixture of relief and glee. I bowed and made my way up to the rooftop parking. I may be in Japan, but for this moment, I was home.

Some things that made this Costco unique:

On the way from the parking lot to the store, the downward sloped people mover that magnetically locked the cart in place so it wouldn't roll away. Kawaii Girl #2 began to hold on for dear life when she saw me take my hands off the cart to take the picture. Really, the cart didn't budge a bit. Very cool!


Local fare


Butter in a tube and grated gouda...so cool! Forget Buddha, Gouda is my inner peace.

And the reason you go to Costco:

The gadgets...and the muffins...heaven!

I went for chicken breasts and left with enough bread and croissants to overflow my freezer but just enough to satisfy me until my next trip out here. So I didn't walk away with the piano, it was tempting, but equally challenging, I am now faced with where to put the 10-pack of paper towels.

Rinse and repeat

It was time for The Warden to get her hair done. It was starting to look like a giant mushroom cloud. You see readers, I have thick hair, thick as in prison-quality oatmeal, thick. And my hair multiplies the more you touch it, sort of like spinning cotton candy.

I knew before moving here that the chances of going to the on base salon were as much as WTF Husband agreeing to a third Kawaii Girl, so I did a bit of research and settled on Kenje Salon just down the street from the gates of the base.

I forgot to bring along my camera. It was the hair's fault. On my next visit, I will be sure to take pictures. If of nothing else, the stylish people running around. Stylish in that way that I could never be. Overly-processed-a-little-dirty-way-too-much-product kind of style that looks totally hip and urban. I have hips...I am not hip.

And I do mean running. I was attended to by no less than 4 people, as were the other 5 ladies on the floor. Watching everyone move was like watching ants bounce off each other when their marching is disturbed. Zigging, zagging, bounding up the stairs, taking two or three at a time, twirling around each other so as to never bump into them or knock product out of their hand. Dare I say I even saw a stylist leap frog over someone who was tucking away an electric cord.

The salon was minimalistic and clean and was full of neat little things, like the wash basin that moved over to me, instead of getting up and walking to it. And a big pulsating wand that misted water or air or product-I don't know what on people's head. I wasn't lucky enough to get that, maybe it was for treated hair. I don't know what it was but dang it, I want to try it.

There was the man who washed my hair, and I was convinced at that time was heaven personified, a blissful 10 minutes where my hair sung in joy. The man who cut my hair, a Japanese champion stylist, who quizzically studied the photo I brought him. He was tall and thin, and sort of looked like the Asian version of Dr. Patrick Drake from General Hospital. Yes, I've been known to watch a soap opera or two on occasion, stop snickering. He wore a holster that contained an assortment of blades and shears. Watching him thin out my hair was a little like watching Edward Scissorhands. He was precise and fast shaping my massive hair.

Then the man who gave me a deep conditioning treatment and later the best orgasm of my life (sorry Daddy if you're ready this). Okay, well not the BEST orgasm of my life but his hands on my scalp...well, it was a magical 30 minutes and I needed a cigarette after he was done. He deserves his own paragraph he was so amazing. Just when I thought he was done, he started to give me a shoulder massage and that is when I completely lost it. My eyes rolled back into my head and I melted into my chair. I may have even let a moan slip through my lips. I couldn't help it people. IT. WAS. GOOD. REAL. GOOD!

Time for another hair wash and dry, then my holster wearing stylist was back refining the cut and doing it dry. This is the mark of a great stylist in my opinion. The great ones are never afraid to cut dry hair. Some amazing product later that left my hair feeling like silk (yes I dropped a pretty yen for the take-home stuff) and I thought surely I was done.

Oh no...in comes a man to massage my hands and arms. It was his first day, a stylist in training. He told me his name but in a million years of practicing Japanese I could never repeat it. He proudly showed me his training badge, like being an apprentice in this salon was a big bag of peanuts, with his name on it but of course it was written in kanji. He was so sweet and visibly nervous. He understood more English than he could speak and I can speak more Japanese than I can understand so our conversation kept us giggling. He kept looking up at me while he massaged my hands from under the shelf of bangs covering his forehead, sort of like he was mesmerized by the American sitting in front of him.

Another stylist came over and helped translate for us. She told me how excited the whole salon was that I was coming in and was very impressed that for the short amount of time that I've been in Japan that I wasn't nervous or afraid to get out and explore, let alone have my hair done.

The experience was all very foreign and completely normal at the same time. One that I hope to repeat again...and again...and again while I live here. I need another cigarette just thinking about.

3:10 to Tokyo - part three

Am I the only one who misses Paul Harvey? And now for the rest of the story...

The last stop on the 3:10 to Tokyo took us to Asakusa, a district in Tokyo, most famous for the Senso-ji temple and neighboring Asakusa Shrine. There is a whole lotta holiness happening on these grounds. Shrines and temples and pagodas oh my!

I'm going to keep this post short because while there is so much history and significance to these grounds, I barely experienced it because of the throngs of people loping around.

Nakamise-dōri is a street on the approach to the temple. Shop owners were allowed to come in to the area in the 18th century. The length of the street is approximately 250 meters and contains around 89 shops and on a weekend, such as our trip, good luck seeing anything. I saw a woping 2 of those shops. This is not a street for strolling, at least not for gaijins holding on to little hands for dear life.


Nisonbutsu (A pair of Buddha). The figure on the right is said to bring mercy on worshipers and the figure on the left, wisdom.


The Hōzōmon 宝蔵門 ,is the inner of two large entrance gates that lead to the Senso-ji. The gate features three large lanterns. The largest and most prominent lantern is a red chōchin 提灯 that hangs under the center of the gate's opening. The lantern displays the name of the town Funamachi 小舟町, who donated it.

The urn contains ashes and is used to burn paper wishes. The wishes are purchased at the temple and then placed in the urn, while praying that the wish many come true.

Tōrō, originally used to mean any lantern, has come to mean a lamp of stone, bronze, iron or wood. They are used to illuminate the grounds of temples, shrines and gardens. Many of these still use oil and candles while others have given way to the lightbulb.

Goju-no-Tu, the Five Story Pagoda, is another center of worship on the site. The pagoda contains the ashes of memorial tablet of the Buddha.


Beautiful architecture and paper lanterns lining the approach to the shrine.

3:10 to Tokyo - part two

Part two of WTF's 3:10 to Tokyo tour dropped us off at the base of Tokyo Tower, an impressive steel structure rivaling the Eiffel Tower. I was hoping to see Godzilla or Mothra battling it out but they must have been taking the afternoon off. We did see the Noppon Brothers though and just like Tiger and Winnie the Pooh before them, Kawaii Girl #1 was unimpressed and rather freaked out.

With the absence of WTF Husband, corralling the Kawaii Girls-sort of like trying to pen a wild stallion with a hand tied behind your back-can be tricky. Once I had geared up and got ourselves situated, my crew was gone. Um, hello, did you forget your friend with the two small children over here?

For a moment, a very long, scary moment, I was overcome with fear that I was in Japan, didn't speak enough Japanese beyond toire desu ka? and was stuck in the middle of a couple hundred people standing outside knowing what they were doing, while I didn't.

Deep breath, inhale in, hold it...hold it, exhale out, okay, grab my hands Kawaii Girls, we're going in.

If I thought outside was overwhelming, inside was in one word, ridiculous. Memories of my honeymoon came flooding back when my claustrophobia first presented itself whilst I was in the dead center of Chichen Itza's pyramid.

Despite being greeted by several lovely ladies that looked more like 1970's stewardesses than modern day tourist movers...who tried to do just that, move this tourist towards the other thousand or so tourists onto an elevator...I opted to forgo the observatory deck in favor of the "aquarium."

Note the air quotes. Nothing more than a bunch of fish tanks ala the aquatic section at PetSmart. For 1000Yen it was a waste of money for what there was to view but I found my breath again. I hadn't realized I had been holding it for the last 15 minutes. Plus the Kawaii Girls were free to roam without fear of being trampled, we sat around a cheesy indoor koi pond that reminded me of my mother (the koi not the cheese) and so in the end, yen well spent. A quick and crazy lunch afterward, we were ready to head to the observatory deck, a staggering 150 meters (492 feet) in the sky. The crowd had thinned down to just this picture. This was only half of the line leading to the elevators. It moved quickly with 3 elevators taking 50 or so people up at a time.

I'll leave you with just a few impressive shots and Tokyo Tower by the numbers...333 13 4000 3000 28000 24 176 360. No this isn't an Episode of Lost, the plane isn't going to crash and you're not going to find yourself in the psych ward.

333 meters tall, besting the Eiffel Tower by 13 meters
4000 tons heavy, 3000 tons lighter than the Eiffel Tower thanks to steel manufacturing advances and construction technology (folks, this is Japan)
28,000 liters of orange and white paint
24 transmitting broadcast waves
176 orange floodlights in the winter, white in the summer
360 degree spectacular views of Tokyo

3:10 to Tokyo - part one

A little thing like having WTF Husband MIA isn't going to stop this girl about town from seeing...well, the town. Metropolis actually. The Kawaii Girls, two of them, one of me, left our little corner of the world, boarded a bus and headed to Tokyo.

Since I'm all for a laugh, I'll let you all in on a little secret...I've been known to get carsick before, sadly, I've even employed the little paper bag stowed in your seat back pocket on an airplane (that is a whole embarrassing story of its own). There was just something about this bus ride up to Tokyo that put me in a tailspin. I tried to channel every mind over matter technique I know but still found myself in the toilet on the bus. There was no place to stand, bend over and loose it. So there I sat, hovered over a cup sized sink, washing my Raisin Bran down the drain.

Once I had my sea legs back, I found myself at the Meiji Shrine 明治神宮. This Shinto shrine is an oasis in the middle of a Tokyo concrete jungle. 175 acres of an evergreen forest, a shrine like no other here. If you hadn't paid attention to the traffic you drove through to get there, or, ahem...if you were hanging out in the toilet like I was, you would have no clue you were in the world's most populous city, and in a very fashionable part of Tokyo no less. Harajuku is just a short walk away.

This shrine was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945. Public donations rebuilt the shrine in 1958 and it is now the most heavily visited place in Japan during New Year's. Over 3 million people gather to worship and celebrate, buying good luck charms, or happy charms, for the year ahead.

This torii gate is the biggest wooden torii of the Myojin style. It's 12 meters tall and a bit over 9 meters between the two pillars. Torii gates mark the transition from the the normal, impure world of the outside to the sacred world of the shrine.

The act of passing underneath a torii, along with washing your hands and mouth with water, is an act of sanctification and purification. Harae 祓 is the general term for Shinto purifications. It removes sins, bad luck, disease and guilt. If you are in a state of uncleanliness you are not permitted in a Shinto shrine to pray. Sounds a lot like things we do in the Catholic faith.



These small wooden placks are called Ema 絵馬, which worshipers write their prayers and wishes on. They are left hanging so the kami (gods) later read them. If the wish comes true, the person hangs another ema at the shrine in gratitude.



Sake 日本酒 is often consumed as part of Shinto purification rituals and during ceremonies. Sake brewers will donate barrels of sake to shrines for use during these events. You will see empty decoration barrels displayed at shrines. A great read on the spiritual significance of sake and these beautiful barrels.



A display case of omamori お守り for sale. They are little cloth envelopes that hold a piece of paper or wood with a variety of prayers written on them, bringing the bearer good luck or warding off bad. Recall my blog post about keitai straps, omamori are often hung on cellphones or in cars for safety during travel. If they are opened, they are said to lose their protective abilities and are normally replaced every year.



No fantastic explanation of the history behind these shots. I just marvel at the architecture and artistry.

We were fortunate enough to be witness to a Shinto wedding ceremony. Here is video of the processional after the ceremony. You can here one of the Kawaii Girls talking about God. It was quite amazing and I found it to be very spiritual.

This is enough to digest for one day. Stayed tuned for 3:10 to Tokyo - part two and part three.

Hachimangu Shrine

You’d think something as simple as posting a few pictures and coming up with a witty synopsis of our visit to the Hachimangu shrine would be easy. I’ve been slow to see it but now it is clear to me...living in a hotel room, a small, kind of smelly, hotel room, full of four people and ridiculous amounts of luggage and its contents has sucked my brain off all its powers. The concrete walls and forest green, patterned, turf carpeting are working in tandem to drive me crazy. I wake up each morning confused as to what just happened to me. I’m about three days…four…okay, probably more like five, behind in my daily goals. Oh well, you’re patient readers, right?

Our first official tour was of the ancient city of Kamakura. Kamakura was the de facto capital of Japan (at the time Kyoto was the official capital), as the seat of the Shogunate. The Shogun era dominated much of Japan’s history. If you're a history buff or just bored and have nothing better to look at, check out more history on the Shoguns.

Supposedly a picture says a thousand words…really, I’ve actually never heard a picture speak, maybe in my own head, but that doesn’t count. I’m a little off-kilter. Anyways, we’ll give it a shot.