New Years Shrine Visit!

On New Years Day, my husband and I thought it would be a wonderful experience to visit a shrine! We found one near our area called Shinmeisha Shrine, which happened to be only a few minutes away by car! ^_^ However, it didn't exactly have an address, so we kind of got lost a bit trying to get there, but we managed to find our way there. When we arrived, we were amazed with how beautiful it was, and how many people were there! 

There was a huge line waaay outside of the torii gates just for people who wanted to say their new years prayers, but it moved at a fairly quick pace. Once we made it to the entrance, we noticed that people were stepping out of the line and making their way to what looked like a fountain or a well of water with ladles next to it. They scooped the water with the ladles and poured it onto their hands. Following their example, my husband and I did the same. We later found out that this is actually customary when visiting a shrine, and it's to purify your hands. We then moseyed our way back into the line and observed our surroundings as we waited. There were many miko (shrine priestesses) who all looked so beautiful in their red hakama serving tea and selling charms, incense, and small statues of snakes in honor of the year of the snake. We really wished we could have taken close up pictures of them, but we didn't know whether it would be awkward for us to ask them, and plus, we don't exactly know how to say "can we take your picture" in Japanese quite yet. ^^; (We really need to learn that one!)

We also had noticed a fire pit near the altar, where people were throwing what looked like thick, braided rope into it. We're still unsure about what it's for or what it may symbolize, so we are planning on asking someone to help enlighten us on the practice. My husband and I found it to be fairly fascinating, so we really want to know about it!

As we drew closer to the front of the line, we closely observed the actions of those who have made it to the prayer altar. We took note of how they first put an offering of yen into the offertory box, rung the bell (called a suzu) that was set up in front of the box, bowed twice, clapped twice, said a short prayer, and then bowed once more before leaving. We made sure to have it memorized before it was time for us to go up, and mimicked it. 

When we walked down the steps of the altar, we found ourselves in an area of the shrine where New Year fortunes could be drawn for 100 yen! We decided to give it a try, and we both drew our fortunes, though we don't exactly know what they say just yet. xD We'll have them translated by my husband's friend soon though! I really hope neither of us got bad luck! lols! We both were very familiar with drawing fortunes, though. We're both really into anime, and shrine visits are quite commonly seen in countless different series. It was very fun to actually be able to participate in something like that!

On our way out, we spotted a taiyaki (fish shaped cakes usually filled with either sweet red bean paste or custard) and takoyaki ( round balls made from batter with octopus at the center of it and topped with things like Japanese mayonnaise, bonito flakes, green onions, and sometimes other toppings)stand set up just in front of the exit, so we landed up grabbing a couple of taiyaki (we got the red bean ones) to enjoy. They were perfect because they were very fresh and hot and they kind of helped keep our hands warm as we were eating them. xD

I really loved our visit to Shinmeisha Shrine. I hope that we get to go again next year and the year after! 

Here are some pictures we got of the shrine, too! Please enjoy! ^_^

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone around the world has a wonderful, beautiful, spectacular Christmas! Whether you celebrate it or not, spend time with all of your family and friends and everyone that you love. <3 Eat, drink, and be merry! ^_^ Happy Holidays!


-Special  Message to the Soldiers Who Cannot Spend Time With Their Families This Year-

Thank you so much for all that you've done for us and our country. Your sacrifice to keep our country's people safe is brave and selfless, and I and everyone is very grateful for that. :) What you're all doing is the greatest gift that anyone can ask for. Thank you... ^_^

Caretta Shiodome

We took a trip out to Shiodome last night to take a look at the Caretta Illumination Show! It took us roughly an hour and a half to get there by train. At first we weren't sure we had the right directions to get there, but we made it! It was much easier to find than we expected. xD  There were tons of people there waiting for the light show to start. We literally had to push and shove our way through people to get as close to the front as we could! O_O We couldn't get too close, however, so we weren't really able to see the whole setup... It was insane how big the crowd was (we visited on a bad weekend, since it was the emperor's birthday and everyone pretty much had a long weekend), but nevertheless, the show was still worth it! The whole set up was gorgeous! Thankfully, we were able to take many pictures! <3

We even recorded some of it! You can see the video here! It was really beautiful! We had a lovely time... until the show ended... Everyone was pushing and shoving to leave the area, and we and a lot of other people almost fell over and on top of each other. =_= We were exhausted once we managed to get out of there, and thankfully no one was hurt or trampled! It was pretty scary!

Once we caught our breath, we decided to grab some dinner in the area. Caretta Shiodome had a big variety of restaurants to choose from, that we were having a bit of trouble trying to decide where to go. xD Eventually, we all settled on Indochine. The food looked delicious, and the price was moderate, so it seemed to be a good choice. ^_^ 

What I ordered - So yummy!

Cashew chicken -  Hubby's dish

What the mother-in-law ordered - it looked so good!

We were all pretty happy with the service and the food. :D We left completely satisfied~! After dinner, it came time to make our way back home. We didn't make it back until 10:30 pm! That may not seem too bad to most people, but it's kind of rare for us to stay out so late. xD We were so drained, that we all pretty much were on the verge of falling asleep on the couch. ^^; It was a very fun trip though, and I'm so glad that we did it!

Catch up~!

It's been over a few months now that we've been here in Japan, and a lot has occurred in that short amount of time. So much had happened within that time period, that I didn't have much time to post about it all! So here in this post, I will be updating you all on everything (well, at least on all of the biggest highlights, anyways) that had went on so far up to now! ^_^ Brace yourselves, this is probably most likely going to be long! Here we go~!

Oct. 6, 2012 -

This is the day when we first took a trip to Harajuku, Japan's fashion district! I scheduled a much needed hair appointment at Watanabe Hairdressing and had booked with Kenichi. We got lost trying to find the place, and we had to resort to asking people in Japanese if they could speak any English and for directions on how to get there, and thankfully someone had pointed us in the right direction. ^.^ We managed to make it there just in time.

We had to walk through this sea of people to get there. O.O

The entrance to Watanabe! We made it!!!

My experience over at Watanabe was hands down the best experience I have ever had at any hair salon by far! The staff was very kind and attentive. My husband and I were offered tea once we had walked in. The shampoo process was very relaxing, as they massaged my scalp and were very gentle throughout the process. Then, once that was done with, I was escorted to a chair where I received yet another scalp massage, this time with essential oils added to my hair. Following that was a neck, shoulder, and arm massage, and then came time for the haircut! Kenichi was great at listening to what I wanted, and seemed to be very knowledgeable with what would look good with my face shape! Needless to say, once he was finished cutting and styling my hair, it looked fabulous! My hair was so soft and shiny, and even when the wind blew it all over the place once we left, it fell perfectly back into place. I felt like a pampered princess~! I'm definitely going to be a regular customer there as long as I'm here in Japan!

Other than Watanabe, Harajuku has some of the coolest and cutest clothes and accessories I have ever seen! I never thought I would see stores like H.Naoto, Angelic Pretty, Liz Lisa, and so much more with my own eyes! It was so exciting! (Too bad I didn't take pictures of them though... Too many people hustling past us. Hopefully on my next trip, we can get more pictures!) They also had a lot of neat stuff being sold outside of the brand name stores, as well. A lot of the stalls out in the streets had so many things for sale that I wish I could have bought~!

Loooove these shoes! I don't think they'd fit me, though. I don't think they carry 9's... TT_TT

To my surprise, there was also a building dedicated to Tamagotchi!!!! I was so curious as to what was in there, so I begged my husband to go check it out. x3

There wasn't too much inside, but it did have a lot of gashapon machines with Tamagotchi related items in them, a little game center, lots of posters, and a Tamagotchi ID L with items that can be downloaded onto your own tamagotchi that you can't get anywhere else. I thought that was pretty cool, and I regretted not bringing my tamagotchis with me.... TT_TT

Oct. 24, 2012 -

The day of my dear hubby's birthday! We decided to celebrate at home, so while he was away at work, I worked my tail off in the kitchen preparing a surprise! I thought it would be fun to maybe add in a celebratory Japanese dish for the occasion, so I had prepared some osekihan (basically, it's a glutinous rice prepared with adzuki beans and topped with gomashio, which is black sesame seeds mixed with salt). As a bonus, I had also baked a Pikachu cake with pokeball cupcakes. <3 That was probably the most difficult part for me, because cakes aren't my strong point when it comes to baking. In fact, Pikachu's face tore right off when I tried to remove the cake from the pan, but somehow, I managed to salvage it. Once I frosted it, it wasn't even noticeable! See?

The cake, sekihan, and a Sena Kashiwazaki figure (a gift I bought for my husband)

It turned out pretty well, but the frosting was a little hard to work with, since it kept crusting over and it came from a tube.... I couldn't find any food coloring at our commissary, so that was my only option. ^^;  Still, I need to work on improving my cake baking and decorating skills! I don't work on it nearly enough. :P The important part of it all though was that my husband was ecstatic when he came home from work and saw everything! All that hard work paid off in the end. ^.^


Nov. 28, 2012 -

We FINALLY got our beloved kitties back to us! We drove 2 hours one way to get to Narita Airport, but of course it was well worth it. We were just so happy to have them back with us after months of not being with them. It honestly felt like forever! To think that we could have possibly had to go even longer without them is just crazy! We really wouldn't have been able to get them back when we did without the help of our friends and family members. They contributed so much, so I'm really grateful! ^_^ We really missed Blair and Sundae so much, and now everything feels so complete again now that they're here. I'm also so happy that they remembered us still despite having been away from us for quite some time. :)



Dec. 14th, 2012 -

It was back to the airport yet again, only this time, it was to pick up my mother-in-law! xD She was (and currently still is) visiting us for the holidays. She was sick with bronchitis for the first couple of days she was here, but thankfully she's a lot better now. We've been showing her around base and off base, taking her to our favorite restaurants and hang out places. She seems to be enjoying herself, but she's also still in shock by how different everything is out here compared to the US. She's so used to just striking up conversations with random people, but she finds that to be rather difficult over here for the most part. ^^; We've also been teaching her some simple but useful Japanese phrases to kind of help her along and to get by, and she's been doing pretty well considering she didn't know anything about Japan before she came out here. :) She's gotten used to thanking people, greeting them, and responding  with "hai!". Lols! She also fell in love with Purikura booths out here (which I totally understand, since I've fallen in love with them, too! They pretty much guarantee that you'll look flawless). She even managed to drag my hubby in the booth with us to take a picture today!

My mother-in-law's first purikura pic! (Taken a couple of days ago)

Me, my husband, and my mother-in-law (Taken today!)

Dec. 22, 2012 -

Today, we picked up an assortment of Christmas cakes from Cozy Corner at Seiyu! They just looked so sweet and delectable, we couldn't help but get them and dig into them right away, even though Christmas is still a few days away. xD They were too irresistible! 

So that's what I've been up to as of late. Looking at it now, it doesn't really seem like I did much, but it felt like of done a lot this entire time. O.O Funny how that turned out.... ^^; Anyways, I should be posting more tomorrow, since we'll be taking a trip to Caretta Shiodome for the Shiodome Illumination! So I'm looking forward to that and sharing pictures of it here for everyone to see!

My 4th of July!

WARNING:  This post will contain an overload of pictures!

My husband and I had spent a lovely 4th of July with my mother and her boyfriend this year! ^_^ We actually had went over to their place on the 3rd and stayed over, since we also wanted to celebrate my mother's birthday (which was really on the 1st). It was so nice being able to spend more time with her, and also... I got to see my little monster, Lady! Seeing her just makes me miss having a dog so badly! 

Isn't she just so cute?!

Another great thing about staying with my mom is the food! I swear, if anyone out there is a better cook than me (my cooking is the one thing I'm cocky about! xD), it's her. She prepared a huge, juicy steak with a baked potato and some asparagus cooked with onions on the side (I absolutely hate asparagus and I usually just feed it to the puppy in the picture above, but the way my mom had prepared them was delicious!). I couldn't even eat everything because the steak itself took up nearly the entire plate and the potato was pretty big, too!

Following dinner, was shortcake for dessert!

Afterward, my mom decided to open her birthday present that we had bought her!

As you can see, we picked out a very pretty glass teapot along with a canister of a variety of blooming teas for her, and she loved it! As soon as she saw it, she wanted to use it right away! Lols! It was funny too, because all of us were just sitting there around the teapot with our gazes fixed on it as we waited for the flower to bloom. xD Oh! On a slightly random note, I had also learned that giving away a teapot as a gift brings good luck to the person receiving it! Isn't that interesting? :D I hadn't any idea of that before my mother had told me so.

The next day (the 4th), we had to get up early to catch the 4th of July parade! For a small town, I thought the parade was very well put together! Some of the floats were outstanding! I had so much fun watching it!

Amazingly, the parade lasted for 2 hours! I never expected it to be so long! Lols! Still, it didn't really bother me so much, the only thing I regret is that I didn't put on sunblock... TT_TT Now my shoulders and the upper part of my chest are sunburned.... 

I was pretty hungry after the parade was over, and I decided that it's not really the 4th of July if we didn't eat hot dogs, so we spent quite awhile walking around trying to find a place that sold some. My mother and Rick said that there was one place in the area where the farmer's market is held all the time, but that it was always closed every time they passed by it. We figured we'd go to see if it was open or not, and by some miracle, it was open for business! :D Lucky, right?!

I thought the sign was adorable... ^^;

Once it was finished, we went to the car show where we were able to see some of the cars that were in the parade!

Unfortunately, the phone died and we weren't able to take more pictures.... :( There were so many cool, old cars! 

The day was finished off with a movie (we went to see the new Spider-Man movie in 3D! I was pleasantly surprised with how good it turned out to be! Definitely worth the watch!) followed by fireworks. ^_^ I have to say, I think that this was one of the best 4th of July celebrations I've ever had. :3