E is for…

Earthquake! Early Monday morning, I felt my first earthquake. I was shaken awake at about three in the morning by it. The weird thing was that I knew immediately what it was, even coming out of a dead sleep. I did not enjoy it. It was a 4.7 with the epicenter north of Tokyo, so it wasn’t too powerful but it will do nicely for checking the experience off of my Japan to-do list, thank you very much. I think that earthquakes are really the bullies of natural disasters, the way they sneak up on you unexpectedly. At least with tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, plague, etc. you can see the enemy and might be warned before it hits.

Engrish! While going through my pictures recently, I found a couple of nice signs that I haven’t posted yet.

Yes, please only use your best handwriting for graffiti.


Independence Day


Chip, Rob, and Freedom Toast

Egg sandwich, yogurt...and salad.



The flight deck festooned for the 4th.





At a food court in Yokosuka...


You're welcome and OK!

Sage advice from the Hakone-Tozan railroad

At a Hayama beach bar.

Miyajima and the Shinkansen











The ride is that smooth.

Weekend in Tokyo

The Japanese hang carp windsocks for the boys in their family on Boy's--I mean Children's--Day on May 5.

It’s “Golden Week” in Japan, a string of  public holidays from April 29-May 5 that include the Pearl-Harbor-bombing-era Emperor’s birthday and Children’s Day, known until recently (and probably still mostly practiced) as Boy’s Day. Our bucolic little beach town is suddenly packed so on Saturday we woke up and decided to go to Tokyo, which is supposed to be empty this time of year. On a whim, we called the New Sanno Hotel, the Navy’s hotel in downtown  Tokyo, and they had one room available: the Japanese suite! So much for sleeping in a bed. At least we could still get room service, with all the American favorites like pizza with half pepperoni and half ham.

One room of the Japanese suite. At bedtime, they came and rolled out the futons for us to sleep on.

I’ve read other people describe Tokyo as like another planet. Driving in, that seemed to be the case. The elevated, stacked expressways wove through lots of tall and imaginatively-designed buildings. It made me realize again just how conservative American architecture, especially in a place like D.C., can be. Why can’t we just have more fun with buildings? Anyway, it looked kind of  like the Jetsons, minus the flying cars. Once on the ground, though, I thought Tokyo was more on the human scale. The weather was perfect, Golden indeed, and wandered around the Imperial Palace gardens:

On the subway.

Hello, we're here to see the Emperor please.

Azaleas galore. Take that Charleston.

And then we went to Ginza, the nice shopping district. I couldn’t afford anything, but I made a new friend.

The perfect man--silent but helpful.

Sunday morning, Chip and Rob walked around Roppongi, near our hotel. Roppongi is known for its neon and nightlife (if you want to marry an American sailor, go hang out there), but Rob found some other kinds of signs:

Meanwhile, I was back at the New Sanno, enjoying two cups of coffee, uninterrupted, and watching the Kentucky Derby on AFN. Bliss.

Sunday we wandered around Ueno Park, and went to the Tokyo National Museum. Ueno Park was beautiful and very festive. You could buy anything from octopus balls (fried dough balls with bits of octopus in them) to taxidermied sea turtles at the food stalls and flea market.

Sea Turtle

A wonderful weekend. I even drove home from Tokyo, something I never ever thought I’d do.

And now, the cutest picture of Chip from the weekend:

Little boy in the big city.

In southern Japan, it’s the Nekkid

I’ve really enjoyed seeing the way that the Japanese use English for their car model names: the Prairie, the Joy, the Comfort, the Move, the March. “Would you like a ride in my Prairie? Don’t mind the meadowlarks in the back seat.” Today, though, I saw what is bound to be the penultimate vehicular moniker: the Daihatsu Naked (click to see).

The Naked. A green one passed me as I was turning right and I almost swerved my car into oncoming traffic. (How did I know it was green? It had no clothes on.) Surely there is someone in Japan–probably someone at the Daihatsu corporation–who speaks enough English to know all the subtle nuances of the word “naked.” And if they do, what would possess them to still call their car the Naked?

Japan: you can’t drive in flip-flops, but you can drive Naked.


Anyone been to Itary?

I’m sure that I’ll have many more examples of this sort of thing to come.

Two bits of exciting news:

1. Rob’s home! He survived his first “underway” in four years. As always, he came back skinnier although he maintains that he actually ate more than peanut butter crackers this time. It sounds like they did exciting stuff like shoot things and execute high-speed manuevers. They even got their picture taken, click here to see. Stirring, isn’t it?

2. Chip has reached one of the milestones of American infanthood: eating Cheerios. As usual, he does it more cutely than one could have ever imagined:

General Mills, wouldn't this be great on the front of your box?