Some Stylish Dogs

Another interesting thing about Japanese people is the way that they dress their dogs. As far as I understand, most dogs have a winter coat and a summer coat, but here in Japan the dogs are given their winter coats (even if they already have one of their own). I've seen more dogs here with coats and or little outfits on than I've seen in my whole life back in the States. Its kind of funny when I walk down the street and see a bunch of dogs all dressed up. You have to realize too that none or few of these people have yards and so all of these dogs are inside unless they are taken on walks. Anyways that's about all that I have on dogs for now. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I took of these stylish pets.

Japanese Baseball Game

Yesterday I had the chance to go to a Japanese baseball game. The Yokohama Bay Stars had a home game yesterday and so I rode the train for about a half hour to Yokohama Stadium. Going to a Japanese baseball game was on my list of things to do here so it was exciting for me to finally go. It was only a pre-season game, but it was still a lot of fun and certainly a great experience. I went thinking and hoping that I could get a ticket there that would be cheap, but also not way up in the boonies. I ended up getting there, finding a ticket booth and buying a ticket for 1500 yen, which is about $13.

Most stadiums back in the States are pretty big and you have to walk a long time to find you seat, but after two flights of stairs into the stadium I was at the outfield wall. There was one small problem. Pretty much the stadium is divided into two sections. The first base side and right field section is for the home team (The Yokohama Bay Stars) and the third base side and left field section is for the visiting team, which happened to be the Tigers. I ended up going into the wrong stadium entrance and was on the Tigers side. I don't have any Bay Stars jerseys or anything, but I definitely did not fit in. Everyone was in black and yellow and I ended up getting some dirty looks. I'm sure that they thought I didn't know any better and I didn't wear blue to support the Bay Stars, that's just what I was wearing. After a short evaluation of my surroundings I decided that I should try and get to the Bay Stars side. I ended up asking a security guard and he had to escort me out of the stadium and to the right stadium entrance. I was greeted by some warmer faces and felt a little more at home. (The Bay Stars logo on their jerseys looks very similar to the Dodgers logo.)

The game started at 1:00. It was a cold day, but the sun came out and so I was plenty warm. I brought some food and seeds of course and I enjoyed chewing them and watching the game. Next time I go I will make sure to try the Japanese Dodger Dogs. I found it funny/weird that the only thing that the concession people carried around (the people who walk around and sell stuff, whatever they are called) was beer. There were other things at the actual concession stand, but I at least expected some ice cream or licorice.

The experience part is the all the crazy fans. There was no fighting or beer throwing or anything, but there certainly was a lot of cheering. I think the stadium is divided into two to prevent all of the fighting and so on because I'm pretty sure that it would happen after watching all of them cheer. Each group of fans would stand up the whole time while their team was up at bat. They had a couple of trumpets, drums, flags, and other noisemakers to help with all the songs and chants. There was even a guy with a whistle who would run back and forth and get everyone all pumped up. It was really fun to listen to and watch. I found myself watching the fans quite a bit. The baseball game itself was the same as in the States. I don't think the pitchers threw as fast as pitchers in the States (It could be because it is only pre-season. They were still in the 80s.), but there was a home-run, some stolen bases, double plays, diving catches at the warning track, and good, solid baseball.

It’s funny though because when the fan's team is not up at bat it's almost like they don't care. They still watch the game, but it was weird sitting there after having so much noise around. Nonetheless, the game was a lot of fun. The Bay Stars lost 7-4, which was a major bummer for me because I didn't get to see the fans do a victory dance or hear their victory chant. I will be back there for sure. I ended up buying a hat at a store near there and plan on being a committed Bay Stars fan as much as possible.

Oh, and one other interesting fact. All of the relief pitchers were driven out onto the field and dropped off near the base path.

Rain Storm

When I started planning Sara's time while she was here I thought that it would be fun to travel a little bit. Being in Japan is an experience and I wanted us to visit some different parts of Japan while she was here and not get stuck in Yokosuka. So after some help from one of the chaplains and some other people, I decided that it would be fun to go to Hakone. It’s more of a small town village in the mountains that has some good places to hike, but its more famous for its many onsens. Onsens are hot springs and apparently Hakone has a lot of them. Anyways so after Eigisan's on Sunday Sara and I planned our little trip. We decided to go to a place called Yunessun, which is this Japanese onsen park thing place. It seemed pretty cool and so we decided to go for it. We made a reservation with one of the youth hostels in Hakone and planned on leaving early Monday morning.

Monday morning we left for Hakone and finally make it to Yunessun. Yunessun is this huge spa place with a bunch of different spas (coffee spa, green tea spa, sake spa, wine spa, dead sea spa) and places to eat. It didn't live up to is reputation and the pictures in the brochure made this place look a lot sweeter than it really was. It wasn't bad, we still spent three hours there, but it definitely wasn't an all day thing. So after Yunessun we went to our youth hostel. It was raining and getting dark so we didn't want to do much adventuring at the time.

We arrived at the youth hostel and got settled in to our room. We soon decided that we were hungry and wanted some food. The host wasn't making dinner that night and so he told us to take a bus down to the main village and eat at this ramen restaurant. So we left and waited in the rain at the bus stop for about 10 minutes. We finally made it to the ramen restaurant that was the only store open at 7 o'clock in the whole village. We met some guy named Stan from NY. We enjoyed some good, warm ramen, had a nice conversation and then got ready to leave for the youth hostel. Then the excitement came. I didn't really prepare for rain, well I'm not really prepared for rain at all. We had bought an umbrella from a convenience store earlier and we probably should have bought two. Anyways, upon leaving the ramen restaurant we found ourselves in the middle of a rainstorm...like the worst one I have ever been in. I haven't been in rain that much so it probably wasn't horrible, but it was still raining pretty hard. We ran to the bus stop, which luckily had some cover and waited for our bus. After the bus came and picked us up we rode it to our stop and when I saw the door open and how hard it was raining I thought to myself, "Oh this should be fun. Our dad will be proud of us." Our youth hostel was about 1/4 of a mile away, which was far enough away for us to get soaked, super soaked. I had jeans on, a shirt, long sleeve shirt, and sweater, which the rain got through all of them. The umbrella was of no use because it was so windy that it would've have just broken. So we sprinted. It was especially fun when the wind would blow at us and so we would get hit by more raindrops than usual.

We finally reached the youth hostel. Luckily, there was a dryer that we could use, but still, I hadn't prepared for rain. I planned on just wearing my jeans both days and that was about it. The youth hostel had one main bath area for guys and one for girls and so we didn't have a bathroom in the room. (Japanese bathrooms are an experience too.) Sara brought some pajama pants and so we had to figure out how to dry our clothes, take showers and get warmed up, and get back to our room without looking indecent. We managed and had a very nice restful night. We made a good memory even though it wasn't the best situation at the time. The next day was beautiful and Mt. Fuji was in clear view. I'll share some about that in my next blog.

Eigi san's!!!!!

Many of my friends here in Yokosuka will tell you that I am a fan of Eigi san's. Eigi san's is a local ramen restaurant about 300 yds. from the Lighthouse that I visit frequently, maybe too frequently. I remember going there my first time with Nate and thinking to myself, "I'm going to come back here for sure." And I have been back there many times. (I go there 3 times a week some weeks.) The food there is fantastic and Eigi san is a really neat guy. He's really animated and loves to ask us questions and it’s just a really fun place to be. (Side note: Eigi san's is what everyone calls the restaurant. I asked him what the name of his restaurant was one time and he told me the Japanese name of it which mean "Noodle Street".)

Anyways, when Sara came I planned on taking her to Eigisan's a couple of times. Many of you know that I like food and when I find a favorite restaurant I like to talk about how good it is and how much I like going there. Eigi san's is by far my favorite restaurant in Japan and Sara, being my sister, has heard a lot about Eigi san's. So after church on Sunday, Sara, Chris Wheeler, and I went down to Eigi san's. Let me say that they were not disappointed.

We were met by a huge smile from Eigisan and his wife when we walked in. I introduced Eigisan to my sister and friend and then we sat down and I told them about what's good and so on. (Everything is good that I have tried.) Another one of my favorite things about Eigi san's is that he loves to give us free food. I have left there many times way too full because I ate too much. (I always eat too much because he gives me free food and I don't want to insult him by not eating it.) So on this day, my sister's first Japanese meal, she got hooked up. I normally get fried rice (it comes with egg, pork, and other good stuff in it) and gyoza (potsticker kind of things). Sara and Chris ordered the same thing and then Eigi san decided to through in some shrimp, soup, grasshoppers, and mango pudding on the side. I was very proud of Sara because she tried not one, but two grasshoppers. Every time I try grasshoppers I like them more and more. They're still not my favorite, but I eat them more willingly than I did before. They kind of taste like hard raisins, but they have the legs and everything else attached to them. (Not the wings.) Eigi san likes to joke around with them and it was the beginning point for something really cool that I will share with you in the next paragraph. Anyways Eigisan's was fantastic and I know that Sara and Chris were Eigisan fans when they left the restaurant. I remember Chris said toward the end of the meal, "This is the best Japanese meal that I have ever had." Sara ended our meal with, "Now I know why you talk about this place so much."

One of the really cool things about going to Eigisan's right now is that he is asking a lot of questions. The first thing that I remember him pointing out to me was about John the Baptist and that he ate locusts. (That's when he loves to bring out the container of grasshoppers.) Since then there have been many nights where I go into the restaurant by myself or with friends and he has asked us about Mary, Jesus, and Moses. It’s really neat to know that he is interested in God and that he is asking a lot of questions. There are a lot of people that have been going there from the Lighthouse for many years and it’s exciting to be a part of Eigi san's interest in the Bible. I am praying for him and that he would come to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Stayed tuned for more updates about Eigisan's and Sara's visit.

Sara's Trip to Japan: Part 1

On Saturday, March 3, I rode the train up to the airport to pick up my sister. She decided that she wanted to come visit me for her spring break and I had no objections to that. I loved having my sister here. It was so nice to have someone here from my family and to be able to share my world over here in Japan with her. Everyone loved her and I think everyone would agree, including myself, that one week is too short for a trip to Japan. The next couple of blogs will be about Sara's trip to Japan. Her visit here was definitely filled with some good memories.

So Saturday night we rode the train back from the airport, which takes about 2.5 hours or so. We caught up on a lot of things during that time, but also had some good laughs watching all the Japanese people fall asleep on the train. (I have concluded that Japanese run everyone and sleep whenever they sit. Seriously, Japan is the only place where you can see 75 year old men and women running to make the walk signal and or see people fall asleep in about 2 seconds.) The train is an especially good place to see people fall asleep. They do it is standing up too. Anyways, when we got back to Yokosuka, I introduced her to all the people at the Lighthouse and we pretty much just hung out the rest of the night. One of our family friends, Chris Wheeler, was here for a couple of days in Yokosuka and so we spent time talking with him and hearing how Japan was when he was here. She got pretty tired about 10 and so she crashed. Before she came over here she asked me if there was any way to not have jet lag and I told her, "I don't really know. I don't think there is." If any of you having any good tricks, let me know. She did fine and I don't think jet lag hindered her visit out here at all. (I don't know how she is doing with jet lag back in CA. I found it way more difficult to go back.)

On Sunday, Chris and I went to church and Sunday School while she slept in. After church we walked around a little bit to find Chris' apartment building that he lived in while he was stationed here in Yokosuka and then we walked back to the Lighthouse. Sara joined us and we walked down to my favorite restaurant, Eigi san's. Eigi san's is worth its own blog so you will need to stay tuned for the next blog.

My Goatee is Gone

So I shaved my goatee off last week. I know that many of you wanted to see my goatee before you gave me your opinion, but last week I shaved it off. I'm a wimp. Some people told me that they liked it and some told me that they didn't. I kept it until my sister came here and I went for a couple of days, but it finally got to me. It was a good start though. That was the first time I have grown facial hair for that long. It just bugs me that it doesn't look clean. I like it on the day that I shave, but on day two it really gets to me. I guess I could shave everyday, but who would want to do that.