Well as I'm laid up in bed with a nasty little bug I thought I would catch up on some posts.

Is Japan a romantic place?....isjapanaromanticplace... My personal answer is a general NO. I would consider places in France romantic but Not Japan. With keeping different opinions in mind I would have to say yes and no depending where you are and whether it's daytime or night-time. Okinawa daytime? HELL No. Nighttime? It can be but only late and I mean 'la hay hay ate' at night when no one is out on the streets and you are walking around by yourself in areas like Chatan.

I've only really been to Sasebo in Mainland Japan(Southern). I thought the town off base was way more romantic anywhere I had been yet because of the river and parks. Okinawa is so not like what you would expect Japan to be like with all the grungy boxy buildings so I think I really experienced Japan for the first time when I went on that trip up North. The Sasebo area is still pretty far South so there are some jungly areas but there are a few more deciduous trees in the mix as well. There are lots of green rolling foothills. Part of it reminded me of Upstate New York or Pennsylvania because it was so green. The train ride from Fukuoka to Sasebo took about 2 hours and on the way I saw the houses that are always seen in Japanese soap opera-like shows - nestled in the woods with stereotypical Japanese roofs and double doors that slide open to the world. It was nice to ride through a part that hasn't seen much Western influence.

The next morning in Sasebo, my boss and I walked from the Holiday Inn to the USO building. It was about a mile away and we had to cross a small foot bridge that went over a small waterway that led to the ocean. Looking North there were tall mountains with low clouds and fog just barely obstructing the view. It was a perfect dewy morning. I remember wishing the fog wouldn't lift. Once we were over the bridge we could see the USO entrance up a little further but right after the bridge is a little quaint park with lots of trees and shade. There was a beautiful worn out wooden trail going up one of the foothills so I just had to divert. Half-way up the first part of the path I almost ran straight into a banana spider’s web (make a circle with your arms, fingertips touching and that's how big the web was) so with a high-pitched squeal I was outta there. So much for that romantic scene even if I was all alone.

Japan at night is pretty seedy with lots of "by me drinky" bars. When you walk by one you can smell the stench of cheap perfume wafting through the doors out onto the street. Many shops close at 8:00pm but outside shops by the base stay open much later.

When my husband and I go on "date nights" there is no where quiet place to go, short of love motels and we haven't done that yet because we are afraid of catching crabs or something. When my friends took me into that one love motel it was beautiful on the inside - lots of waterfalls and colorful lighting but everything was in Kanji and I so can't read any of that.

Everywhere you go is super crowded. Northern Okinawa is a lot less crowded but it takes hours to drive up there. White Beach would have been romantic if it wasn't for the neighboring pig farm.

So my final answer is going to be vague because it really depends on what you're into. Romantic - technically no. If you are young, cute and single and just want to get laid? Yes. If you are young ugly and single? Still yes because of the porn/marital aid vending machines so you can get it on all by your fugly self with the help of some Marvin Gaye playing in the background.

For the love of God! If you plan on coming to Japan for an extended amount of time, stock up on American deodorant!

Especially if you are a guy. The Jp brands just DO NOT WORK! Over the past two weeks, every single male Japanese contractor who walked into our office smelled like a sewage plant. Thw worst was this one Jp fellow who was attached to military police. As soon as he walked in the three of us (myself, my co-worker and an officer) all looked at each other with The Look. I swear he smelled like he hadn't washed his uniform in over a month. It was so rancid I couldn't tell if I was going hurl on my computer or if I was gonna pass out. I can't sufficiently put the stench into words. It was the smelliest smell I've ever smelled, and it was thick like rancid fog or tear gas.

So I quickly assessed the situation and found a reason to run upstairs. I ran into one of the Marines' rooms and plopped down on their couch and said, "What ever you do DO NOT go downstairs for the next 5 minutes."

"Why?"

I proceeded to tell my story when the Sgt said, "Oooh THAT guy from PMO! Ya he's famous over there and he is the duty driver so his stank is locked up in that tiny white van all the time. When I had to stand gate duty they warned me, 'Don't get stuck with that guy'".

I couldn't believe he was so notorious....well yes I could actually. So I went back downstairs and half way down I smelled it again! He never even stood in the stairwell let alone that area of the hallway! Luckily he was gone so I was able to spray some Fabreeze air freshener all throughout our office.

Some of my old American co-workers (who didn't have base access)had rancid attacks as well. You always knew when it was time for another shopette run for them.

As far as women go, they don't smell bad...at least none of the women I've run into, but I know they like to buy the western brands in the stores around here. I've never seen an American guy deodorant though, so come well stocked.

Consider yourself warned (o.O)

I was shocked that I found almost everything I needed at the PX for my costume. This is a very rough draft of my Frank. I just slapped on regular makeup 'cause I'm saving the real stuff for later. When it comes to Frank's makeup I'm really a perfectionist so the night before I will study my pics one more time and then make my lines as straight and perfect as possible.  

In spring of '96 I joined a Rocky troupe called Barely Legal first as prop crew and then as Columbia since I already had short red hair at the time. I would have loved to play Frank and could have totally pulled it off back then but the guy who was casted was amazing. We put on the show every Satrday night at midnight at the theatre in Berkeley, CA and it was awesome. I stayed with the show until I had to relocate to Florida.

What's so sad about that pic is that I didn't apply any white...that's my natural paleness :O

...nothing has been happenin' out here. I thought I would stop by anyway to see if I could scrounge up at least one bit of news.

So.

The weather started cooling down yesterday and today was absolutely beautiful! It was a humid 84 degrees max but there was this chilly breeze thanks to the typhoon that is out there somewhere. We were able to have our doors open for the first time since about April. I'm sure this will be short-lived as it was still roasting until after Christmas time last year.

Halloween is approaching and I think this year I will resort to my old fave Frank-N-Furter costume (Rocky Horror Picture Show). I haven't dressed up like that since before I had kids so this year it will have to be toned down. I will do the full-on wig and make-up with Pearls but instead of the rest of the outfit I think I will don a pair of black gothy capris, fishnets, heels, a black tank-top, a dark red boa and the Mom tattoo to finish it off. My boss is gonna find out if we can get dressed up at work or not. I hope so.

Anyway I said all this to basically complain about online shopping. I found everything I need but now I have no idea if it will get here in time as some shipments can take from 7 working days (like Old Navy, Gap, etc.) to as many as 30+ days (like Victoria's Secret or Esprit).

This year the PX seems to be teeming with costumes so I might go there tomorrow to see what I can scrounge up. Random black curly wigs work but I have to trim the hair to get a shorter all around length. Stock make-up works but I would rather have the actual Rocky Horror make-up kit that I've been seeing online - Not that I've ever needed that before, and I must say my make-up always looks perfect because I am such a perfectionist. Anyone can do the basic stuff but I can really blend and catch the subtleties from screen-captures of the movie. I even won two costume contests the last year I went as Frank. I even had people coming up to me asking if I was a guy or a girl, thanks to one properly placed sock :P

Let's see - what else...

Oh last week while standing on the highest point on base, I saw two waterspouts over the ocean about a mile offshore. Well one really. One was skinny and was shaped like a C. That one actually made contact with the water. Another one was off to the right and it was a big fat funnel cloud that was half-way down to the water. That one was steady but the skinny one was doing touch-and-gos. I tried to get a picture with my cell phone but it didn't come out well. Everything in the background was washed out because of the grayness. The clouds weren't anywhere near land so we weren't concerned. I heard one person say there were more a few days before that. The whole week was filled with big billowy clouds over the ocean.

I guess that's about it. Back to work tomorrow :D

As I said before. Working on-base has pretty much taken away the need to drive out in town but today I had to make the lunch-time trek up to Kadena Air Force Base to run some errands. When I left the front gate of Camp Foster, I was instantly taken aback, "OMFG! I can't believe how narrow these street lanes are!" and then thought, "Woah. Did I really just think that? I need to get out more!"

I was in mini-shock. My mid-sized sedan (mid-sized in the US - large here) seemingly ate up the entire lane's width. They fit three lanes into what we would expect to be a two-laned road (6 all together. 3 going north and 3 going south with a median in between.)Today I stayed in the middle lane because the traffic was moving nicely but every time I passed a car I caught myself squinting shut my right eye. Now I have no problems staying in my tiny lane but cars are ALWAYS going into your lane to dodge the hundreds of cars illegally parked on the side of the road (super skinny shoulder so the car juts way out into the lane) and scooters and motorcyclists weave in and out of traffic that is already squeezed tightly together. Then there are the taxi drivers who constantly cut people off in a reckless manner to get to customers waiting on the side of the road. Driving is very stressful here. I can't even imagine how people deal with driving vans or SUVs - oh let alone the dump trucks.

But you know what you will NEVER see on the roads? Large MAC trucks - semis. There just aren't any like we would see on the highways of the US. There is no room for them whatsoever.

Needless to say I made it back safely. The traffic gods were on my side today.

OOOOOMFG! So Last month my DH surprised us with a 3 day reservation for the new cabins over at White Beach.

Just to get this out of the way, White Beach is a Naval Port Facility on the East side of Okinawa, about half way up the Island. Really beautiful Area.

Anyhoo, out last reservation was cancelled because of last month's typhoon. The earliest opening was this weekend. At first we were expecting to get cancelled again because of Longwang (I just like saying longwang) but since Longwang passed way south of us we were still on. The drive up there was great. The further away we got from the Chatan Land, into unrecognizable territory, the more relaxation started to take over. Once we got on base it was totally dark (about 7:00pm) and the scenery was awesome! To get to the recreation area you had to go up in these jungly mountains on tiny little roads - more like running paths. The ocean was churning a little from longwang and across the bay were more mountains and even city lights. It was amazing.

I stayed in the car while my DH checked us in. When he walked out of the check-in place he looked a little worried. He plopped down in the car and said, "Uhh...I don't think we got the biggest place here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well when I called to make the reservation I asked for the 'Biggest space you have for a family of 4' but I think we are getting one of the log cabins."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Here...," and with that he gave me the Navy brochure with some little pics.

The biggest place were these duplex house things what were about half the size of our house, with little yards. Next smallest were the log cabins. They looked smaller but still livable for two days. For the cabins they actually had small pics of the inside. They were minimally furnished with wooden rocking chairs, wooden kitchen table and chairs and wooden bunk beds. I was getting worried. The final two pics were of little trailers on the beach.

DH said, "Well if these suck we can always go home but we will lose our money ($90 for an extended day trip. Since it wasn't a holiday weekend we couldn't stay as long). So we followed the directions up to the site and OMG! The cabins were tiny! We just sat in the car for a minute and finally I said, "Well let's at least all go in there and see what it's like on the inside."

The first thing we noticed as we got out of the car? Pig stench. The brochure failed to say how the duplexes and log cabins were right next to a huge Jp pig farm. The small was horrendous. Even my girls were like, "EEEWWWWWWW WHAT'S THAT SMELL??!!"

Usually things like this look smaller in pics than they are in real life but these were pretty damn small! The view from the front was breathtaking (IMHO even more "breathtaking" than the pig shit) at night so I was like okay, but my dh was not having it! He was thoroughly disgusted. Not more than 10 feet from our front door was a little playground for the girls. When we opened the cabin, it was as wide as a single trailer but only half the length. My cell phone was packed in the trunk so I didn't have a camera but..... there were two full-sized bunk beds in each room. next to the beds in the front room was a descent little kitchen (a small one like you would see in a cheap hotel) and a kitchen table with 2 wooden chairs. To the right of all that was a small TV on a stand but if you did want to watch it, there was the big ass bunk bed blocking everything. In the back room, to the right of the bed was a little hand-washing sink and a paper towel dispenser. The bathroom was the size of one you would see in a camper. Then I was like okay this sucks but let me try the mattress out, right? Hard as a rock. It looked kinda fluffy but once you sat on it your butt just kinda hit wood. I've slept in cheap little motels tons of times while driving across country 3 times but I've never experienced anything like this. I just laid there and that's when the whole crappy situation hit me like a ton ob bricks. By now the girls were getting all giggly but DH was still standing in the front room with his hand over his nose. I just started cracking up! I was like, "Come here! You gotta try out this bed!" He saw down and was like, "Oh hell no! We are gonna get another place to stay."

I made the girls put their shoes back on and out the door we went. I took in the view once more because I had a feeling this was it. The check-in clerk said there was nothing else available except for those tiny campers on the beach. When my husband complained about that pig stench the other clerk looked at him like he was a fucking idiot and said, "Well sir, the campers aren't as LUXURIOUS as the cabins. And um YA there's a pig smell because we are like right next to a pig farm," as if we knew that before hand or something - like it was in the brochure next to the other lie about the cabins being in walking distance to the beach. Hello we were like on a cliff. Neither of us started laughing but believe me, we found out afterwards that we were both dying inside.

The Jp clerk took us to the larger of the campers and they were way too small with only 1 full sized bed and we were like, okay. No way. Let's just leave.

It broke my oldest daughter's heart. After some mutual bickering (without opposite viewpoints really) we took the long drive back home. I kept saying, "Look I can handle the stench," but my hubby was like, "That's the second smelliest smell I've ever smelled! No way are we staying there." That about the extent of our mini-vacation. The first sort of overnight stay we've had in 5 years. Now he's trying to make reservations at Okuma for sometime in November.

Moral of the story:
If you are single guys or girls looking to have a drunk fest at the beach, go there and rent 1 large camper for every 2 people. It's about $50 a night and there's no pig stench at all down there. The Cliff's Club Diner delivers meals to your cabin. Sounds like a good time. There weren't any duplexes available for us to look at but still - they were in the same area as the pig poop. DO NOT STAY IN THE LOG CABINS IF YOU HAVE A FAMILY! THEY ARE CRAP! but...the view is beautiful.

The typhoon passing south of us this weekend is called Typhoon Longwang. heh. I'm dead serious.