Yokohama

Our second day off base we had to come up with our own plans, figure out the train system, and show ourselves around Japan. Twelve of us chose to go to Yokohama, which is the second biggest city in Japan. It was about a 30-40 minute train ride and luckily we didn’t have any trouble getting there. The trouble was figuring out to do when we got there. The train station was connected to a huge mall so we briefly walked around to see what it was like. I am having difficultly trying to describe what my first Japanese mall experience was like. In some ways the malls are very similar but in other ways the mall was much more pristine and clean. I remember almost everything being white. It was surreal walking through a mall where everything is in Japanese and no one spoke English, it really sunk in that we were in Japan. We were deer in headlights and we stuck out like sore thumbs. After a while I got impatient because we still didn’t have a plan. About three of us at this point tried to take lead but we ended up stepping back to let Zach do it. He did an amazing job and is now nicknamed Papa Zach. Our first stop was Pokémon world. It was a shop full of everything Pokémon themed you could ever imagine. There was also a room where people were intensely playing with Pokémon cards. It was fun to look around for a while but we left pretty shortly because most of us didn’t feel the need to buy anything. 

A picture with Pikachu inside Pokemon World

Next we were off to the boardwalk where there was rides and a Ferris wheel. We were all really excited for the rollercoaster, which ended up being WAY more fun than any of us thought it would be. After this we had plans of finding a place to eat but stumbled upon a Cup of Noodles Museum! We checked it out and found you could make your own cup of noodle from only 300 yen or about $3! We got to color the outside of our cup, pick the ingredients that went inside, watch them seal it, then we got to put it into this blow up bag so we could carry it with us all day. Check out the finish product below! After the Cup of Noodle Museum we knew we wanted to go to Chinatown but to get there we needed to wait for a bus. Walking all day had tired us out so all the girls sprawled out on the grass as we waited for the bus. Japanese people walked by and stared at our weird American ways but we were too tired to care. 

The Boardwalk. That is the roller coaster we went on.

The Cup of Noodle I made!

Too tired to fuction.

When we finally got to Chinatown, again we had no plan but it was fun to just walk around and window shop. We ended up running into a temple that was very beautiful but I have no idea what the name of it was. We started to get hungry so we decided to get dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Because we were such a big group we had a room to ourselves upstairs. This was nice because we all got to bond and be loud Americans together away from everyone else. Who knows maybe they put us up there on purpose. At dinner we had a ton of good laughs. At one point I even started choking and spit some of my food out because I was laughing so hard at something Joseph had said. Papa Zach was also cracking jokes left and right. We all went around and said what our Highs and Lows of the day were. This must be a Camp A thing but I like doing it. You will probably see it in my blog more often because I want to use it to snapshot the days I have with my kids and save the longer posts for my weekend travels. Anyways after dinner we finally decided that our day had come to an end and headed back to base. On the train Arran and I fell asleep because we were exhausted! We didn’t realize it but we were already fitting in! Remember a lot of Japanese people sleep on the trains.

A temple in Chinatown.

On the train ride back that night.

Kamakura - First Day Off Base!

Today was our first time out of the city and man were we excited to leave after being cooped up on base all week! Camp took us off base to show us how to use the train system. First some interesting train culture/etiquette. 1. You are supposed to be quiet on trains because people tend to sleep on them. (This was really hard for us Americans) 2. If it is a crowded train there is no such thing as personal space. They even have people whose job is to push people into the trains! 3. It is not abnormal to see a young child traveling alone to school because Japan is known for being really safe and everyone being super nice. Once we got to Kamakura we walked to Hachimangu Shrine. On the walk there we saw so many Japanese school age children going on field trips and walking in groups. Interesting fact: Younger kids don’t wear uniforms but will wear all of the same colored caps and the older kids are the ones that wear uniforms. We also noticed on the way how small all Japanese shops are. They are so cute! When we finally got to the shrine we walked under a torii, which is a red gate at the entrance of all Shinto shrines. The shrine was at the end of a long procession of beautiful greenery. We walked around and I got some beautiful pictures, check out facebook if you’re curious I won’t put all of them here. One thing which I thought was really cool was before you got to the shrine there was a place to wash your hands, but this was no ordinary washing station. Check out the video on facebook to see what I’m talking about.

My first Japanese train card!

The torii for this shrine.

Hachimangu Shrine.

After the shrine we got back on the train and headed to Hasedera Temple. The temple was on a hill side so it took some stairs to get up to it. On the way up we saw thousands of miniature Buddhas decorated with flowers from people who had put them there for worship. The temple awaited us at the top but nothing was going to prepare me for the beauty that was inside the temple. I walked inside to find a 30 ft golden statue of Buddha that I was so moved by that tears almost came to my eyes (Unfortunately pictures were prohibited). For those of you who don’t know I have been wanting to learn about Buddhism for years now but never got around to it. Well now I am reading a book called What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula and it was just really cool to see such a beautiful depiction of the Buddha. I am finally getting around to it now because in my research of what to do before coming to Japan I found that temples are something I should visit. So I thought, “What a perfect time to actually learn about Buddhism while visiting Buddhist temples in Japan.” After gawking at the Buddhas beauty we went on a hydrangea path and saw so many different types and colors of hydrangeas! They were beautiful and my new camera lens did some great work.

Hundreds of Buddha statues

Hasedera Temple

Hydrangea Path

After the last temple we all headed back in the direction of base and were allowed to eat lunch off base before we had to return. A big group of us chose to eat at a Sushi-go-round place where the sushi comes to you on a conveyer belt. Pretty much no waiter is needed because there is a screen at each table where you order and then your sushi comes around to you on color coated trays. What’s even cooler was the price. It was 100 yen, which is almost equivalent to a dollar–actually a little less with the exchange rate– for two pieces of raw fish over rice. It was BOMB. I will definitely be going there again.

Our last adventure of the day consisted of going to our first karaoke bar! 12 of us had our own private room to sing our hearts out! It was the best thing ever! Getting a private room is how karaoke works in Japan. There is not get up in front of everyone at the bar and sing. I thought this was cool because I got to bond with my fellow Camp A friends and see all of us let loose for the night. Definitely something I will be doing again. Overall, an adventurous first day it was off base.

Programming

The past couple days consisted of programming, making posters, painting our clipboards, and adopting our new Disney names. To program we had to pick out activities for the kids every day for the month of July and do a write up for each activity. Each week of camp also has a theme, so to make it more fun for the kids we try to theme our activities. For each theme week we also have to make a big poster. I got to help make the Willie Wonka poster which will be the theme in a couple weeks. Aside from the themed weeks, every day camp counselor has adopted a Disney persona. I chose to be Ms. Eeeva (with 3 e’s) from the movie Wall-e. I love hearing the kids say my name with their high-pitched voices. But lets just say its really hard to NOT to introduce myself as Nichelle and that I’ve already accidentally did it once. Whoops. Good thing the camper didn’t care that I had just revealed my name to him. The kids will guess our names all summer but we will only tell them at the very end. In the process of adopting this new persona, we got to personalize out clipboards (see the picture below). I must say I am very pleased with the name I picked for myself considering I was going to pick Ms. Scar from The Lion King. I probably would have scared the kids away.

A work in progress at the time of this picture.

My clipboard.

Week 1 Coming to a Close

And day 4 comes to a close. Not a lot has happened this week, we have been programming and getting ready for the first week of camp. It has consisted of a lot of meetings, which means there hasn’t been much to write about. We also have yet to go off base because of all the preparation. I am dying to leave base on Friday! With that being said, of course some things happened in the last 4 days. On Sunday morning my roommate got switched to someone in aquatics named Tori. She is very sweet, but we haven’t gotten to hang out all that much. So far I have gotten very close to Crystal, Giselle, Trisha, and Taylor. We have been dying to go to a karaoke bar and have been talking about it all week! Singing has become routine in our walks from housing to the building where we’ve been sitting in these meetings. To give you an idea of what the base is like I will try to give a brief description. It is a Naval base in Yokosuka, Japan which is about an hour south of Tokyo. It is 568 acres large. It feels like a mini America here or like a small college town expect with military personnel and their families instead of college students. There is a lot of diversity on base which is cool to see because I am sure when I leave we will stand out like sore thumbs. On base they have a commissary (grocery store), the Navy Exchange (i.e. NEX or a mini department store), a place to rent movies, a movie theatre, a bowling alley, a gym, a library, all the fast food you could imagine, which if you know me doesn’t really matter, but the list goes on. Now you can imagine how it might not even feel like I’m even in Japan at times.

On Tuesday it was Trish’s birthday, she turned 20. A bunch of us on the floor got her a big poster that said happy birthday and we all signed it. Later in the night we walked to Chili’s which was like a 20 min walk if that gives you any idea how big this base is. We had 21 of us all at Chili’s it was a great time! I will post soon about our week of programming and then our first time of base! 

The Birthday Girl!

Everyone who came to Chili's to celebrate!

The girls I've gotten closest to :)
From left to right: Giselle, Crystal, Trisha, and Taylor