So yesterday my husband had the day off. We had originally planned to go to the local Toys R Us to look for some baby shoes of our daughter but my loving mother spoiled that when she purchased several cute pairs of shoes for her from ebay. Instead we (mostly me but he agreed) decided we would go to IKEA and see if they had some curtains for our bedroom and possibly a toy box for our spoiled daughter and maybe some other things we might need for our house. So we stopped by our local Fleet and Family Support Center and picked up the directions as we headed off base.
It didn't take much time and before we knew it we were there. Driving around this crazy parking structure trying to find a spot as close to the elevator as humanly possible. We notice a lot of cars and people for a Monday but we proceed anyway...only to our demise! We got on the elevator and when we reached the showroom floor there were hordes of people everywhere! It was packed! My very first thought was, "Oh hell what did I get us into this time?!" followed immediately by, "Don't these people work?!" As we walked through the crowds using our sleeping baby in her stroller (which looks huge as if it is carrying around a baby Godzilla because it is so much bigger than the Japanese strollers) my husband and I laughed as we tried to figure out how it is that it seems like the Japanese never work but always have money and can always afford all this expensive stuff. (If you haven't read my previous blogs or forgot, everything here is extremely expensive. Especially the stuff that is American or we could buy in America. The IKEA stuff was expensive too.) Then it occurred to me, "I wonder if today is a Japanese holiday." Neither my husband nor I could think of any Japanese holidays that might occur on January 9th but we were sure it had to be one because there was just way too many people out for it not to be. So after we are in the middle of this extremely crowded store we decide to give up on looking for anything in this store and just make our way to the exit. This took us about 45 minutes to do but we eventually made it out of there. When we left I smacked my husband on the arm and said, "If you knew IKEA was like that why didn't you just tell me? We could have gone somewhere else!" He replied, "Well I thought you should experience it for yourself." Lesson learned for the day: Never ever go back to IKEA!
And yes! yesterday was a Japanese Holiday! It was 'Coming of Age Day' the celebration of everyone who is turning 20 this year. 20 is the age of majority here. Turning 20 allows one to vote, drink alcohol, and smoke cigarettes. This is apparently the way that the Japanese celebrate everyone's 20th birthday no matter what day of the year it is. I think its pretty cool but it sucked that we tried to venture off base and do something only to be accompanied by every other person in Japan. LOL.
On our way home we decided to stop at the local Japanese grocery store for some pre made food for lunch. On our way to the grocery store we passed a building that I thought might be a hospital. Outside of this building was a larger silver van from which two men, in outfits that look like they might be paramedics, were unloading a gurney with what looked like a dead body on it. Ok maybe not a dead body but it looked like a body covered completely by a light blue or white sheet. Just a half block down the street we passed the hospital so maybe that place was the morgue. I'm not really sure but all I could think was, "don't they have aback door they could go through? I don't want to see that."My husband contends that we didn't see what we thought we saw and he could be right but until proven otherwise thats my story and I am sticking with it. Then just before we got to the grocery store we witnessed a Toyota Prius (they are extremely popular here so we see them all the time) making a right turn (equivalent to a left turn in the states because they drive on the opposite side of the road here) into a parking garage. The crazy part was that the car drove over cement median to do it. Neither me nor my husband had ever seen a car do it before. I mean we have seen big trucks do it sometimes to get around to where they are going or to back into a place so they can unload the bed of the truck but never a small commuter car. We were both stunned and in awe of what we had just witnessed. This was definitely a shock and awe car ride lol.
The food we got from the grocery store was as good as expected. We got some gyozo, (which is like a large pot sticker, but better and we love them) and these rolls that are like a cross between spring rolls and lumpia. They are a small roll of deep fried deliciousness. My adventurous side forced me to get these other little brown things to try, not knowing what they were. But I got them intending to try something new. I thought they were going to be meat filled little pouches hopefully they would be good. To my surprise they were just pouches of rice and sesame seeds wrapped in some sort of brown, thin sponge like wrapping that was sweet. But they were very good and even Olivia liked them. So we were pleasantly surprised.
After our late lunch my husband decided that a Monday night is the perfect night to introduce me to Chu-hi a Japanese alcoholic beverage. Since I have been in Japan I have heard lots of talk about this drink but had not had one myself so on Saturday I had purchased one for each of us from the Japanese grocery store so I could try it. Then my husband bought two more different flavors when we picked up our lunch. So now there are 4 of these drinks in our fridge. Now I have had my experience with alcohol in my day so I was sure that two of these canned drinks were not going to have any effect on me. Boy was I wrong! I drank the first one which was only about 6% alcohol, but it was a large can. After I finished it I was already feeling sleepy and had a slight buzz. Then my husband brings me a glass with the peach flavored drink in it. It tastes delicious. I drank it a little too quickly and then we shared a third one and before you know it I had a full on buzz. So Im sure you are wondering what these Chu-His are. Well ImLOL and thankfully Olivia slept through the night as well.
My husband, who has been making a huge effort to learn to cook so I don't have to so often, also made some delicious BBQ ribs for dinner. I assembled the salad and made the baked beans (ok they are semi homemade, they were the canned Busch's baked beans doctored up with my own blend of added sauces and seasonings). Long story short dinner was delicious and a great ending to the day.
Stay tuned for the next addition to the Real House Wife of the Navy.
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