Pimp My Ride!!

So in the states I was driving this:

A 2008 Mercury Mariner--fully loaded, black leather interior...it was beautiful and I almost cried when we took it down to Jersey to put it in storage.

Now, that I live in Japan, I most definitely have upgraded (not) and am driving this:

A 1995 Mazda MPV--I know, I know, I always swore I would never drive a van, but now I am a van driver and have to admit it is not that bad. So our car, you can kind of tell from the picture, is a piece of junk, but we love it and the best part we only paid $700, that is right--what a steal!! For being so junky, the car runs pretty well and doesn't have too many kilometers on it. The best part is, we don't care what happens to it as recently happened to me. The kids and I were going to visit a friend off base. The road to their house is SOOOOOO tiny. On one side is a fence covered in tons of overgrowth and on the other side is metal fence. Well, I missed the turn to her house and came back and was turning onto her street and remember ALL the streets in Japan are very narrow, anyways, I cut my turn too close and my car scraped up against the metal fence. Well, I tried to back up and fix it and again my car scraped, so finally I was like, who cares and just turned in scraping up the WHOLE side of my car. I was kind of embarrassed, because there was a japanese lady sitting there watching this whole episode and I know she was thinking, "stupid, gaijin (that means foreigner)". Well, I was telling my friend what I did and she showed me their car and it had scratches all over it. Anyways, that night, I fixed a nice dinner and over dinner I told Eric I had something to confess and told him about the car. I didn't think he would be upset or anything, but his response surprised me a little. He just laughed and said, "Who cares--that is why we have a $700 car!" What a great husband--anyways it is know a nice little laugh we have with others. Also, it is kind of funny because so many of my friends have similar stories about scraping their cars--it is pretty funny. So, moral of the story--it is nice to drive a beater!

On a side note, I have become very accustomed to driving on the other side of the road. I have a feeling when we finally move back to the states, driving will be a BIG adjustment--so watch out!

Hase-Dera Temple

As we were walking back to the train station, we stumbled upon this temple and were so glad that we did. The Hase-Dera Temple is dedicated to the goddess of mercy, Kannon. The temple grounds contain a whole complex of different houses and building dedicated to different gods and statues. In the main building there is a huge statue (30 feet tall) which has 11 different heads and each face has a different expression depicting Kannon's compassion for all kinds of human suffering (you can't take pictures in there, so I don't have a picture of it--you just have to come see it for yourself). There were several other halls and a little museum here also. Here are pictures of some of the things that we saw.

Ethan making friends with the statue--actually he thought it was his Uncle Aaron--okay, I can see the resemblance!

Ethan and Eric under a shinto gate that leads into a cave where there are things chiseled into the rocks--it was kind of interesting.

This is a massive bronze bell and following Buddhist tradition, the bell is rung 108 times beginning around midnight on Dec. 31 each year to to dispel the 108 sufferings of humanity (I have no clue what the sufferings are).

Kailey and I meditating by one of the meditation gardens--okay, really we needed to sit down and rest!

Ethan hiding near the little bamboo forest--notice the three cute statues in the background.

Ethan learning to pray like the Buddhists.

Trying to find food to feed the koi--thanks Dad, we can't pass a koi pond without Ethan throwing something in it!

Ethan trying to be like his Aunt Brooke (Tolman) and light incense.

This was the Jizo-do Hall and surrounding the hall are thousands of little Jizo stone statues standing in long rows, some wearing bibs or knit caps and festooned with cute charms. The statues are there to comfort the souls of unborn children. I thought this was kind of sad, there were several people lighting candles and incense while saying prayers here.

Some of the statues of unborn children--there were tons of them.

Family picture overlooking the ocean

The Giant Buddha

The first thing we went to go see in Kamakura was the "Great Buddha." This is the second largest bronze Buddha statue in Japan. It was cast in 1252 and originally stood within a big temple, but the temple was washed away in a tsunami so now it just stands outdoors. Besides the Buddha, there really isn't too much else there. You can go inside the Buddha, which Ethan and Eric did and also you can see Buddha's sandals. Here are some pictures:

Ethan doing his lion face

Before you enter any temple you have to wash your hands--this is Ethan's favorite part

Giant Buddha sandals

Eric and Ethan in front of Buddha

Welcome home Japanese submarine!

Monday we took advantage of the holiday and decided to venture out and explore a city nearby called Kamakura which use to be the capital of Japan in the 1200s and is a very historic city with tons of ancient temples and shrines. As we were leaving the base and walking to the train station we were excited to see that a japanese submarine was coming back. It was so fun to watch the submarine come back and pull into port and see all the men standing on top.

Our son...the make-up artist

Tonight Eric took me into the bedroom to show me how to work something on our t.v. and Ethan followed us in. While we were busy Ethan walked into the bathroom. After like 2 minutes we finished and Eric walked in the bathroom to get Ethan and found him standing on the toilet going through my make-up bag....

Then he turned to look at us and we realized he had been a very busy boy (notice the front of his hair also--he needed some mascara there). Eric and I burst out laughing and then started laughing even harder when we heard Ethan say, "I need to do my eyes." The not-funny part was that he had just barely taken a bath and so it took me about 10 minutes of HARD scrubbing to get my cute little boy out from underneath all that make-up (never thought I would say that!) Hopefully he learned his lesson, if not we may have a problem on our hands!

All-American Rejects Concert!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, the All-American Rejects came and performed a free concert here on base. I have to admit I LOVE them and was so excited to go. Eric was out of town, so we went with a friend of ours-Rachel. She also happens to be a JAG and got here about the same time we did. Anyways, the concert was held in the parking lot of the bowling alley and I thought it would be packed, but it really wasn't. We were able to get pretty close. The band was great and put on a phenomenal show and the kids did great. I know, what a nice mom I am taking my 1 year old and 2 year old to their first concert!!! Kailey absolutely loved the music and was dancing away; Ethan had fun, but preferred to sit in the stroller and eat his snacks. The band was pretty funny--their usual concert crowd is teenagers and young adults. Here they had tons of babies in the audience and young kids. They were making jokes about crowd surfing huggies up to the front if a baby had messy pants. In the middle of the concert the lead singer got passed a note and started laughing and he said that this was probably the funniest note he has ever gotten passed while performing. The note said, "someone lost their 2 year old. If you lost your 2 year old please come to the front of the stage." Anyways, they did a great job and we had TONS of fun. I guess later this month the band, Flowrider, is coming. Anyways, another great perk of Japan--we get awesome free concerts!

A little clip of the music. It seems like we are far away, but we actually were pretty close.

Rachel and the kids at the concert.

Kailey and I rockin out!!

Kailey had a little admirer. This little boy couldn't stay away from her!!

A Few Random Pictures

I found that I had a few random pictures that I hadn't posted but want to. Several of them were taken in St. Louis, but with Eric coming home and moving, they never got posted.

Ethan and Papa--my dad has this great bike seat that sits on his crossbar and Ethan LOVED to go bike riding. The funny thing is, I remember sitting on the same seat when I was a kid. Ethan still always asks to go bike riding with Papa!

My dad was always coming up with new things to do with the kids. Here he is pulling them in Kailey's walker with his cane that he used to walk with while he had a broken foot. The kids loved it!

This is with the big turtle at Grant's Farm in St. Louis

Kailey feeding the baby goats at Grant's Farm

This is the view from the base--that island is called Monkey Island and there is a ferry you can ride out to it.

Kailey having fun!

We have been bowling a couple of times since we got here in Japan and Ethan just loves it and is pretty good. He has gotten his fair share of strikes and spares--he is almost better than I am!

Friendship Day!

A couple of weeks ago they had friendship day here on base. They open the base to the public and invited the Japanese people to come onto base and experience what the Navy was about and experience a little American culture. There were booths set up all over base by the different commands. My favorite was the NCIS booth--I just love that show. At each base they were selling things or food. Most of the food being sold was like typical American food--hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, ribs, etc. They also had an area where they had tons of bounce houses you could buy tickets to go into, they had concerts going on, etc. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to get to know our Japanese neighbors better!

Ethan had so much fun in the bounce house that he did not want to get out!

Kailey in the bounce house

Who can resist this little face??

Ethan seems to get more face time on our blog so I decided to do a post about Kailey and plus I had these adorable pictures to put up. Kailey, Kailey, Kailey--where do I start??? Everyday I look at her little face and think "how did I get so lucky!" She has just the cutest personality, although she is starting to get a little bit stubborn. She is so happy, has the brightest little smiles and for the most part is so laid back and has the cutest chubby legs and arms! When we were living with my parents they were always saying that they couldn't believe how good she was. I have to admit I was a little bit miffed, I thought I was a good baby, but they said she was the best baby they had ever seen and she is! Kailey, stay just the way you are. Your mommy and daddy and brother love you so much and have so much fun with you around.
So I took these pictures the other day. Her hair is starting to get kind of wild, but is still too thin too do too much with. I decided to try pigtails and I thought she looked SOOOOOOO cute. They aren't perfect, but give me credit it is hard to do a one-year old's hair!!Here is the pigtails with bows--isn't she just so cute!!!