Fukuoka!! (Lots of Pics)

Super random trip the other day.

After I had dropped Jordan off at his ship (he was preparing to go to fire fighting school up north) I called my friend Sy and asked if she wanted to go somewhere. I didn't care where, just anywhere. I had spent that last full 7 days in the house and I  needed to get out of the house and off of base housing. So you can imagine my excitement when she asked if I wanted to head up to the city of Fukuoka!

Fukuoka is the capitol of the Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu Island. (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still learning!) and it is this island's version of Tokyo. No where near as big but they have nearly every store imaginable. There's also tons of things to see and do there, its amazing.

We tried killing two birds with one stone there. Sy's husband needed to take his iPhone in to get swapped out for a new one. His is giving him all sorts of problems. We went there assuming we could get in and get out but this place was freaking PACKED! I mean, the hottest club in town kind of packed. We set up an appointment to be seen a few hours later which never worked out. So we spent the whole day hovering around the store unfortunately and didn't get to experience a ton of what Fukuoka has to offer, but it was still fun non the less!!!

Here's what the Apple store looked like:

Now let me try and describe Fukuoka. I'll start with putting a small picture into your brain...if you have ever been to Seattle imagine that for me. Just picture cyclists clogging streets and pissing off cars and Starbucks on every corner...you got it? Alright, multiply the bike traffic by 10 and instead of them in the streets, picture them all riding on the sidewalks, and envision a Starbucks every other store! There was even a Seattle's Best and Tully's!!! Minus the Space Needle, I felt right at home!

Holy BIKES Batman! Oh and by the way, I took this on our walk back to the car, double the amount of bikes here and you have an idea of what we saw at noon that day. Hahaha

While we were walking around we went into a few stores like Forever 21, H&M, Nike, etc. Even though these stores are from the states, the clothes and some sizes were definitely what I would define as "Japanese style". They were small sometimes and the style was crazy. In Forever 21 I noticed most the clothes were trying to revive the 1950s. There were 50's style letter sweaters, jackets, and other clothes that had a flare of some modernness to it. Lots of products with Disney and Coca-Cola too. Japan LOVES vintage American things, its crazy.

After just walking around for a bit we decided to get food. This turned into a total shit show! NO WHERE took cards! Our first problem was that all the restaurants stopped serving lunch at 3. Then the little mom and pop shops around didn't take cards. We were all so sure, that since Fukuoka was such a big city, every one would take cards. Not true when it comes to food. We almost thought we were going to just have to starve until we saw a Family Mart (just like a 7-11) and we knew they took cards. Weird right?

Oh but before we saw the Family Mart, we checked if Subway took cards and they had some crazy food options. I can't remember exactly but it was seafood and melted cheese combos. I think there was a shrimp, bacon, cheese melt sandwich I was excited to try...but of course they didn't take cards. No one here takes cards!!!

Anways, back to the Food Mart and another bonus of Japan...you can get some amazing food from Family Marts. Seriously. So I got this:

And as a dessert I had to try a Japanese candy and Sy suggested this:

They. Are. AWESOME.

During our lunch we caught something going down:

These guys started a processional of some kind...

Then this followed:

I have no idea what the celebration was for but just beyond where these people were walking, was live music and concessions. If we had Yen I would have totally ate some more to try it all out. Here's a closer look at what they were carrying:

It of course had a person in it. Who? I have no idea...but it was cool.

By the way, shrines out here are like churches in the states. You see them everywhere! Even dead center in the city. Here's a panoramic I took of an entrance to a shrine next to the bus stop:

Here's what the shrine inside looked like:

After 5 hours of realizing Mason's iPhone would never get fixed, we decided to walk back to the car. On the way we saw a bad ass Ferrari:

This structure that is half building and half hill side...seriously, its like a forest on one side of this place!

Alright, we get back to the parking garage and cram into the elevator. I had to take a picture. The freaking stroller BARELY fits!!!! What the hell?!

And last, but not least, the rest stops here are amazing. In the states the rest stops are dreadful. Deep down you pray to the rest stop gods that there might be a vending machine when you typically end up with super crummy bathrooms and creeper hitch hikers...not in Japan. This is a rest stop Japanese style:

It's a terrible picture cause it was dark and I was using my phone. However, I know you can see how there are like stores right? Yeah, they have a food mart, bathrooms, everything. They hook you up at the rest stops here. So legit.

Really that was our day! I mean it wasn't too exciting but never having been to the city (minus flying in when we first got here) I made the most of the day!

Saikai Friendship Softball Tournament

Saturday I did the Yosakoi Festival and then Sunday, I did the Saikai softball thing. It was pretty cool. It's a fairly new tradition I believe between the Navy's athletics and the town of Saikai. Really all it is, is softball and BBQ.

The day starts with an opening ceremony. Japanese coaches and the mayor come and say a few things about the tradition as well as an ambassador from our end. Then we shake hands and play some ball! We play a total of about 4 games. The first 3 are slowpitch and everyone starts with a 2-2 count. So the game moves FAST. Even kids join the fun! My team played against a group where I swear there was a 10 year old and 13 year old. They were pretty awesome though!

The fourth game was an actual male fastpitch game. That was amazing.

During all the games, minus the first one, is the BBQ Japanese style. I saw Japanese style because for the BBQ we had yakisoba, rice balls, and meat. Maybe it was pork? I don't know, but it was freaking amazing. They had a tent set up too with tatami mats and tables to sit at (on the ground of course). For drinks there were two coolers, one was mostly non-alcoholic and the other was all types of alcoholic Japanese drinks.

I was searching for the beer...and I found sometihng else...the picture will show up in the video. I'd post it here but my computer won't let me for some reason.

Anyways, it is known as high ball. I immediately tasted whiskey and water. WHOA! Yeah, to much for me. I poured it out in the bathroom and grabbed a soda instead. Haha. I was not trying to have THAT kind of BBQ.

All in all it was great! Lots of fun playing softball and I got a personal handshake and compliment of my performance from the mayor of Saikai himself! Win!

Here's another crappy video from the day. (I'm not fishing for compliments on my video. I seriously spent no time or effort throwing it together but I still wanted everyone to see my day!)

Yosakoi Festival

Last weekend, October 18-20, was the Yosakoi Festival!

I compare the festivities to it being like a city wide "So You Think You Can Dance?" type thing. Haha. Seriously, groups of people dance all over the city (not even an exaggeration) and they are competing for the best dance. Anyone can join at any age. I saw toddlers dancing and it was SOO dang cute I couldn't even stand it. I  mean, check this little guy out!

Alright, so some history on this festival...

This whole thing started in the 1950s, so it is relatively new in Japan. There is an official Yosakoi Naruku dance and a song to go with it. Dancers also have these clapper things to make noise with. If you look at the picture above you can see the dancers holding them.

Since its creation, dancers dance to all sorts of music. As the dancers move through the town, they are lead by a car with a sound system and an MC so to speak. It seemed to me this MC would tell some kind of story, joke, or maybe describe the dance? I don't know, I don't speak Japanese. Haha.

The festival also has some booths set up to sell candy, food and random souvenirs. 

It was an insane day! People dancing and yelling EVERYWHERE! 

I took video and pictures and at the end of this post is a video I put together from it. It is a terribly edited video but there is one portion of the coolest dance of the day on there, it is totally worth watching!

Just so the video makes sense to you, I took you through my whole day, beginning to end. It started with me and a friend taking the train at Huis Ton Bosch for the first time, seeing dancers, and at the end I bought these dumplings? I ended that in a question cause I'm not sure if dumplings is the proper term. Anyways, I shoved the whole thing in my mouth. It wasn't to bad and there was a seafood taste to it so I was fine. I made my friend try it. She is not a fan of trying crazy food but she was a soldier and tried it. However, she only bit into half of it...and then....she started screaming!!!! Holy crap there was octopus inside!! I didn't care, I like it. She was grossed out, spit it back out, and I have officially scarred her for life from trying new food out here. Whoops!!

Anyways, check it out!

CrossFit and Paleo in Japan

Aww....a topic I know you are all just DYING to know and hear about right?

Thought so.

Well let me tell you all about it.

Ok, I'm gonna start with CrossFit. Within two days of us being in Sasebo, I found a CrossFit group. They call themselves CrossFit Kool-Aid. Pretty good, huh? The creator, Nikki Moore, started the group and even established legit classes through the fitness center on base. Although, sadly, after about 3 weeks of us being here, the class was canceled. Kind of a long story, but it came down to outsider complaints and the whole thing being a bigger hassle than it was worth. Typically, the military is very very welcoming of CrossFit. There are bases all over the world with affiliates and/or appropriated spaces for it. The Navy though...not there yet. They are behind the times on everything.

However, we figure it out and find ways to get our lifting and WODs done. I feel bad for the 40 or so athletes that were a part of the classes. Good news though. The group facebook page is still going and Nikki posts WODs all the time so that the members can still do CrossFit. I'm helping out people here and there with their form when I can. I don't have a car so I can't drive out to main base whenever.

There are 3 gyms. There are 2 on main base and 1 in Hario base housing.

Us CrossFitters congregate typically on this part of one of the main base gyms...

To the far left you can see a lifting platform and then the obvious pull up rig. I heard they are taking that out soon...which would leave us with ONE fucking pull up bar. Sorry for the language but it pisses me off. There are a lot of people that use it that aren't CrossFitters...

Now where I workout typically is Hario. Mainly because I don't have a car. However, I have a friend that lives here that I'm going to start carpooling with the main base for WODs. I was working out alone since I got here. My friends in OH were programming for me so that I can get stronger and better to compete in the Open. But today I just couldn't do it. I fell in love with CrossFit for more than its intensity and results. I fell in love with it because of the community. The people involved with the sport are the greatest. It's almost like church. Every time I walk into a CF (crossfit) gym, I feel like I'm surrounded by my best friends.

I don't have that here, but I do have CrossFit friends here. That's what motivates me. That's what I need. That's who I'm going to start working with. Competing in CrossFit may not be my path, not right now, but my health and sanity is. So I need to get back to why I started CrossFit. Get back to the basics!!!

Anyways, here is what I have to work with at Hario...

This is what I have to work with. In the top photo I clear out those benches for certain WODs and on the bottom I use the squat rack, and to the right I use that black pad as my Olympic lifting "platform".

It is what it is. I do what I can with what I got!

On to paleo. This will be short and sweet...I can eat all the same things I do at home. We have the commissaries here. Although I have to mention the Japanese produce here. It is soooo fresh. The eggs are totally different and their cuts of meat, the size of them, are half the size of USA. Why? Because they don't pump their animals full of crap to make them bigger. It is what it is here. It tastes different. It's amazing. So if I have a car, I go to the Japanese grocery store for produce. It's a little more expensive though. Worth it! As long as Jordan is cool with it, haha.

When it comes to eating out...I just eat what I get. No use trying to change things up here. First of all, I'm not fluent with Japanese and second, changing the order or explaining an allergy is seen as WEAK! I mean, I read that somewhere...can't be a weak American right?! RIGHT!

Ok really its just because I can't speak Japanese...haha.

That is my life right now! Changing things up with CrossFit, paleo is still a thing...oh and people here think I'm nuts. lol. Again, that's ok. No worries there.

Sayonara!!!

No More Patio Furniture!!!

Oh happy mother-lovin day people! Jordan and I got our household goods shipment on Wednesday. Which means that I have spent the last 3 days cleaning, organizing, donating and throwing away 7-8 bags of crap!

For those of you that don't know, back on Whidbey Island, Jordan and I lived in a 3 bedroom, 2 living rooms, 2 car garage house....do you have any idea how much crap you can put in a house like that? Not to mention that I used one entire closet for myself, Jordan used 2 (one for uniforms and one for regular clothes), another full closet strictly for jackets, and a big and deep linen closet.....

Now we live in a fairly standard 2 bedroom apartment with very little storage space. It was insane to pack 2 rooms full of stuff into one. The dude room/guest + office are all one room now. Haha.

While spending the week doing all this sorting, I came to realize a few things.

1. If you live in the PNW, you will NEVER realize how many jackets and sweatshirts you own until you move into a place half the size of the last place you lived. Holy mother of jakets batman! I had to fill two bins to put into storage cause they won't fit in our closets!
2. Nick knacks. You know all those super small things you collect over the years? Think junk drawers, office supplies, and random decor items. Whoa. Who needs all that?! It's like, where was all this shit when I was looking for it 6 months ago? Haha.
3. You learn who your "true" friends are. For example, our super good friends, the Blanchards. There kids clearly did not want us to leave. I found their son's sock and two water bottles, Jen's sweatshirt (which she says isn't hers so I'm convinced she has dementia), remnants of dart battle her husband and daughter had like 2 years ago, and her husbands voice on this megaphone we have. Insane!

I think those are the biggest things....

Wanna see pics?

This is a view from the front door....

...and from the doorway in the hall....

...if I turn to my right, we will enter the dining room...

In our old house, one of our living rooms was the bar/game room. So we are trying to do a pub style dining room but I'm TERRIBLE at decorating!!! Plus, we need to get special brackets for the shelves we have to hang Jordan's glasses. But this will do for now!

...straight ahead is the kitchen...

...as I head back to the leaving room, I turn left, then right and BOOM...the office/guest/dude room...

Jordan still has to decorate this how he wants it, so a lot of stuff is on the floor...

...next up...the bedroom...

For the first time in 3 years, we have a decorated bedroom!! Clearly we don't have much to work with but that's ok...

...now if I turn to my right, we get a view of the hallway...

...as you can see, on my right I have my little softball coaching tribute wall...

Now I would show you the bathroom but there is honestly NOTHING in there. The walls in the bathroom are all tile and the floor is exactly what you would see in a dorm room. The shower head is detachable too. The whole point is to literally hose down the bathroom when cleaning it. There's a drain right in front of the toilet, hahaha.

Alright, I need your help!!! If you revisit the pictures of the bedroom and the living room, you can see it is pretty bare. Not that I need more crap but I would like this place to be decorated better. If you have any ideas please share!!!!

I plan on getting curtains for the house, blackout ones for the bedroom...and I want to get a more Japanese influence here. That would be fun! My friend and I thought we would get slippers for guests because these hardwood floors can be a pain to keep clean.

Anyways, that is our place!!!

Sayonara!!!