Japanese adventure #1

We went out today. On our own. Oh boy!!

Let's start with the new backpack Jackson carrier we got. It retails for about $200, and used on eBay I saw some for $125. We got ours for $10. YAY! We've been looking for one so we wouldn't have to deal with a stroller on the trains. I posted an ad on yokotaads.com looking for one, and got a response pretty quickly. The lady we bought it from bought it second-hand and never used it. It is very nice.

So we parked the car on base close to the gate, and walked to the train station. I had the diaper bag (a back pack) and Mike had the Jackson-pack. We got to the train station and bought the cards you use for fares. You put money on, swipe it when you get on the train, swipe it when you get off, and it deducts your fare. In Japan, you pay based on how far you go. We found the right train going the right direction pretty quickly. It wasn't THAT hard, but very few signs were in English so we had to kind of piece it together. So we're on this train which we THINK is taking us where we need to go and we won't have to switch trains. Wrong. We get about half-way there and since we're watching the stops very closely in comparison with our English map, we realize the train we're on is about to turn around and go back the way we came. Luckily it was a long stop so we had plenty of time to figure this out and get off the train. We found some guy in the train station that understood where we wanted to go and was able to get across to us that the train for there would be leaving at 3:15. (He did this by pointing at a lit sign that said 15:15.) Okay, so we got on the right train headed in the right direction. Meanwhile, Jackson is okay in his carrier, but not exactly thrilled. But he was very interested in the train things (seats, windows, handles, doors, etc.)
We got off at our stop at about 3:30 (we left the apartment at 1:45--there was a lot of waiting at train stations).

Our destination was a place called Hinatawada. There are a lot of plum trees (like 2,500) in one area, and they are in bloom right now. So there were vendors on the street kind of festival-style. We kept saying we wanted to try something, but we had no idea what any of it was. We finally came across something that Mike and I both kind of looked at each other and said, "That looks safe." So we bought one. It was a skewer with what we thought was chicken and beef on it. Then they dipped it in some sauce and heated it so the sauce thickened into like a glaze. I WISH we would've taken a picture, but alas, we did not. Turned out the "chicken" tasted more like pork. Okay, it was still really good. The "beef" was oh so not beef. It was some kind of chewy, slimy, seafood. We think. It was a gray-green color with dark specks in it. Hmmm... So Mike and I split the chicken/pork and each of us at least tasted the chewy slimy crap and wouldn't eat the other piece of it. But Jackson did. He's apparently more open to new tastes than we are. He made a few faces, but kept asking for more, so I just kept letting him eat it. And cringing!

The main part of the day was looking at all the plum trees in bloom. They were very beautiful and we got some good pictures.
We went up a pretty big hill and then down the other side. Which was interesting for Mike with 30 pounds on his back. We also saw some shrines. I have no clue what their names were, and we didn't go inside any, but got some good outside shots:

More pictures:

View from a bridge.

Pretty hill. I think we took this from the top of the hill we climbed.

The way back was much less eventful on the train than the way there had been. We had to change trains once, but got off one and right on the other with no waiting, so that was nice. We were going to have dinner at a curry place by the station close to base, but it was very cramped and no high chairs. And Jackson was on his last leg so we decided to skip it and have McDonald's instead. It was interesting. We managed to order, thanks to the worker knowing some English and there being picture menus on the counter. As a side, you get fries, or for a little extra you can get McNuggets. And the fries are the old kind in the good oil, so they tasted much better. The sandwhiches were different. Not really better or worse, but definitely different. And no ketchup. Well, they had it, but it was in the same little cups as nugget sauce. And it didn't actually tast like ketchup. It was kind of watery and tangier than real ketchup.

So that's it for our big Japanese adventure of the day. Tomorrow Mike and I are going to a firewalking ceremony. That should be fun, but I'm not looking forward to leaving Jackson with a babysitter and not having a cell phone. How did people do it 10 years ago when no one carried a cell phone?