O.k. I am finally going to sit down and get this blog going! You will have to bear with me on the page set up until I can figure everything out! I would have done it sooner but the hard drive on the computer crashed. Yes the hard drive! The computer had started to slow down and finally it just quit. Talk about feeling lost. I had no contact with the American world, except for my neighbors! I deeply missed e-mail, facebook and the celebrity gossip. Plus I missed browsing amazon.com for things I can't find out here.
The weather today was beautiful! It was a nice sunny fall day! I decided to venture down to the main base, which is about 30 minutes away to run a few errands. Not only had the computer crashed but all of a sudden my cell phone started saying I no longer had service. Not that anyone calls me, especially since Grant is gone, but it was still frustrating. At the phone kiosk I learned that our credit card did not process through for some odd reason. We did have credit card problems over the summer when Navy Federal decided to send us new cards with new account numbers due to fraud but that should have been completely switched over by now. Anyways I learned that in order to pay my $10 phone bill (yes $10!!!) I would have to go over to the ginza aka outdoor shopping mall. The ginza if full of people and trinket shops so it didn't bother me to take a trip over there. Plus it is very close to the base. So Ben and the babies and I did our shopping at the exchange and checked the commissary for Lactaid milk (they have been out all week and are still out - one of the joys of living here) and loaded up in our 8 seater van for the ginza.
At the ginza we were met by our usual thors of adoring fans. Old women, young women, old men, young men, kids, dogs, rats etc. you name it - they are attracted to us like flies to fly paper. Poor Ben takes it all in stride although sometimes shows his jealousy by covering up the babies or grabbing at them. Anyways, at one time I think we had about 10 ladies surrounding our stroller saying kawaii (cute) about 20 bazillion times and touching the babies. As usual they then start asking me questions in Japanese. I guess my generosity of letting them oggle over the babies opens the door for them to start a conversation with me. Most of the time I can figure out that they are asking me - if they are twins, how old they are or boy/girl. After awhile it gets old and I try to slowly start making my way away from them. Maybe I need to hire a security guard!
Today in the ginza they were having a jazz festival. Japan's version of a jazz festival is Japanese people with little musical ability getting up on the stage and screaming out tunes in Japanese that resemble hard rock, not jazz. It is actually pretty entertaining. I tested my skills at ordering some Japanese food and eating it with chopsticks while Ben dined on cotton candy.
By the time I got home we were all hungry and tired but it was worth it.
Tomorrow I think I may try to find a store named Conan that my neighbor said was like Wal-Mart on steroids. That seems to be the common thread for a lot of things in Japan! I'm going to try my hardest to keep this updated. As long as the babies and Ben cooperate at night and go to bed at a good time I will be able to - cross your fingers!
