Yesterday marked two weeks in Japan! It seems like it has been so much longer than that already, it's hard to believe. We arrived late afternoon on November 30th with a sick, cranky baby (but really he was phenomenal traveling). I wanted to keep an open mind on what this post would be like, so I didn't do a lot of prior research. I must say I was pleasantly surprised! When I took the cub out for a stroll Friday morning I was overjoyed to see mountains close by, yay! I certainly wasn't expecting that! I'd heard that this post was small, but wow, it is really small! Without having a car yet, this has been convenient since we walk everywhere (if it was the rainy season or hot, sticky summer we'd be motivated to get a car much faster).
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| Mountains! |
My favorite thing is going off post and interacting with the locals. Everyone goes ga ga over our cub. His light hair and blue eyes give him celebrity status here. He's befriended the housekeepers in the hotel where we're staying. They flock around him throughout the day and he just eats it up. The other day he let one of them hold him and she was beside herself. I love it. I encourage him to 'talk' to them-he points at things and leads them around by the finger. They smile, laugh, bow, and speak random Japanese things to him. So far I've learned how to say hello, good morning, thank you, thank you very much, good evening, good-bye, excuse me, and delicious. Even though I butcher the pronunciation the effort is recognized and appreciated. I'm excited to learn more though!
There has been one older man we ran into off post who saw us one evening and burst out laughing! We had no idea what was so funny, so we could only guess-we were all wearing beanies, was that funny? Was the fact that I am taller than my husband hilarious? I was wearing the cub, but a lot of Japanese women wear their kids too, so I don't think that would've made him laugh... We all ended up laughing too, mostly because his laugh was ridiculous and he wasn't ashamed to openly laugh at us at all. A couple of nights later we went to the ramen restaurant just off post and lo'behold, the same old man came in. Once again, he saw us and burst out laughing! So we started laughing back. Then the cub started laughing, which made the old man laugh even more (and he only has *maybe* 5 teeth). When our oh so delicious ramen arrived and our cub started slamming noodles, he was rolling with laughter. This only encouraged our cub to eat in the most obnoxious way possible, but whatever, everyone seemed to be enjoying it. I have a suspicion we will see more of this man...
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| He devoured the fried rice and ramen. Lucky me it's a generous serving. |
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| Typical ramen shop. I especially liked the bowl of bones. |
I have more to catch up on, but I have to take advantage of the fact that the cub is asleep so I can get ready for Bonj's unit Christmas party this evening. Stay tuned!
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