Adventurous Week

Monday, July 27th

It was a rainy day. I decided I wanted to try out a ramen place close to by, Toride. I decided on Toride because it had the best reviews on Google. Toride has the best ramen and gyoza I have had so far. I cannot wait to go back with Doug.

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I have been exploring the same areas but getting there different ways. I went to Gobangai to get a donut from Mister Donut. While at Gobangai I went to the 100 yen shop there. They have some awesome kitchen stuff. Then I decided to walk around different streets to see where things are. I found the bar area of town.

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Tuesday, July 28th

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I had to do a few errands around base. I got those done and went to Gobangai for a beef bowl from Hanamaru Udon. It was delicious. I went to Village Vanguard to buy some socks for my Toms. I had to buy men’s sock to fit my feet. They were cheaper to buy out in town instead of on base. I also bought this cute pikachu pouch for all my yen coins. Then I went to Ellena, a grocery store, to buy lunch for tomorrow. Doug will be coming back and my plan is to go out when he gets back. I bought some sesame miso roasted pork with rice and some Cup of Noodles.

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Wednesday, July 29th

I worked on my Japanese for about two hours and then Rosetta Stone made me mad. There is a part where you have to speak into the mic on your device, and it wasn’t working properly. I am good at short sentences but the longer sentences are tough. I am just going to have to keep at it.

Doug got in late, like almost 9 p.m. At this point I had ate dinner which was a Cup of Noodles. We went out. It was my first time being out so late in Sasebo. It was awesome. We went to Sasebo Yonkacho in search of food. We found several places but Doug is a picky eater. He decided not to try something new tonight. We ended up at McDonald’s. I know, typical Americans going to McDonalds. Its different though! I got the teriyaki chicken sandwich and Doug got chicken nuggets. It was good. Then we went to 7-eleven for snacks. We were out for about an hour and half.

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Doug told me all about his first time being on a ship. I know he has been in the Navy for seven years and this was his first time being on a ship. Doug’s first command was a flight squadron in Jacksonville, FL. He seems to really enjoy the people he works with.

Thursday, July 30th

Doug went to work and I had a lazy day. I stayed in the room the whole day until Doug got off work. As soon as he got off, we went to have dinner at Pepper Lunch. Doug has been talking about Pepper Lunch for a while now and we were going to go last week. Pepper Lunch was delicious and an awesome experience. You get to cook your own steak on a hot plate. I have been sticking to small portions and I am glad I have been. The food is more filling here.

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After dinner, we went to Family Mart, a convenience store. We bought some snacks and drinks to have in the room. I got some gyoza for a snack and Doug got some spicy chicken nuggets. We picked up some snacks we haven’t seen. I bought a lemon turnover and it was amazing! Everything I have tried has been good. I feel like I don’t know what I am going to do when I find something I don I have enjoyed everything I have ate. I enjoy the pastry here are just sweet enough. In the U.S. there seems to be too much sugar in everything.

I enjoy when we go out in town. I love seeing their fashion sense is different and to see how small some of them are. It is amazing. Doug and I talked about how we are glad we get to live out in town and we will want to get to know our neighbors. They have a program on base that will give us a translator in order to talk to our neighbors. I am excited for this opportunity and glad to be in Japan with such turmoil happening in the U.S.

Friday, July 31st

I have a set routine. I get up, work out, eat breakfast, and take a shower. Today I decided to do a load of laundry. The humidity is crazy here. By the time we go out and walk around and come back, our clothes are soaked. I am going to be doing laundry more frequently so I only have to do one load at a time. There are only two washers and two dryers on the floor. I don’t want to hog both washers and dryers. I ate some gyoza for lunch and worked on my Japanese through Rosetta Stone. I am starting to feel more confident with certain syllables and reading the katakana and hiragana. Katakana and hiragana are easy to learn compared to kanji. Kanji is adopted logo-graphic Chinese Characters. Japanese uses a mixture of all three.

I waited until Doug got off work to leave the room. We went exploring the Sasebo Yonkacho since the shops were open. Doug has been looking for a video game store, no luck there. We know where one is for sure, but it is an hour walk or we can take the train. We are planning on taking the train tomorrow to go there. We found a store with a cute Pikachu bag and decided to go in. This place was amazing! They had Pokemon, Studio Ghilbi, Hello Kitty, and Disney stuff. We spent about 5,300 yen (about $50). I got a Pikachu resusable bag, a JiJi towel, a JiJi bag, a Pikachu key ring, and a Pikachu pen. The Pikachu pen has two colors, red and black. The right ear down is black and the left ear down is red. Its pretty cute! I love that I can find JiJi, from Kiki’s Delivery Service, items. I haven’t bought much so it was nice to actually buy some things for me!

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Then we went to go eat. Doug was thinking tonkastu or Pepper Lunch again. There is a tonkastu place next to Pepper Lunch so we knew just to walk to that area. Doug decided on Pepper Lunch again. I was happy because I wanted to try a different dish. I tried pepper steak rice and it was awesome! Doug got pepper steak rice and the same steak he got last night. It was awesome! We have decided that we need to branch out and venture out further. I feel like we have explored all we can in this area. I am glad we are planning on taking the train tomorrow to go further out.

Saturday, August 1st

We went on an adventure today! Doug wanted to go to Hard Off to look at video games. In order to get there we could walk for an hour or take the train and walk for 20 minutes. The temperature today was 90 degrees and the humidity was 89%. There is nothing like stepping outside and just being drenched in sweat. Anyways, we decided we were going to take the train. That means we had to figure out if they had a train card we could use for multiple rides or just purchase a round trip ticket. We went to information and the guy was nice enough to explain to us they have a train card only for the central area of Sasebo. Where we want to go is outside of that. We just went to the machine, thank goodness it has an English button, picked the station we wanted to go to and pay. Round trip tickets to go to Hiu station was 840 yen about $8 for the both of us. The train wouldn’t be there until 1:04 p.m. and it was just 12:10 p.m. We decided to have tonkastu (tempura pork cutlet) for lunch.

We went to Hamakastu which is right next to Pepper Lunch. I know. We actually went somewhere besides Pepper Lunch. I was happy because I have been wanting some chicken katsu. This place had a tablet that we ordered from and the waitress who seated us was nice enough to set the language to English. We started looking through the menu and it took a moment because we wanted to look at everything. Doug got tonkastu and I got chicken katsu. We got to make our own tonkastu sauce! You grind sesame seeds then pour either the traditional or the special sauce they have on the tables in with the sesame seeds. Doug and I both went with the special sauce. Then when our food came we poured the tonkastu over our tempura battered meat. It was the best chicken katsu I have had so far! This place was amazing and was worth it. It was 3,298 yen which is $31.14. I want to go back again!

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After lunch, we went to find the platform for our train. That took a little bit because we cannot read Japanese and the English translation gives the name of the train, which we didn’t know the name. What saved us was the departure time. We knew the train we wanted to be on left at 1:04 p.m. There was only one train at 1:04 p.m. which was on platform one (there were six platforms). We got there early so we waited. Once the train arrived, we got on in an orderly fashion. We were in a line by the door we were getting on the train.

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On the train, it was different, in a good way. It was quiet and if people were talking it was in a whisper. We were suppose to get off at the next stop but our train doors didn’t open. Apparently during non-business hours, the front train cars open to exit, but the second car doesn’t open. Yeah it was a small train. Well we didn’t know this and we got off at the next stop, Daito. We weren’t the only ones who didn’t know this. It made us feel a little better. At the next stop, we found AEON Shopping Center. At first, we thought it was a mall, which it kinda was, but was just a large department store. They also had a food court and a grocery area. This place was like three floors of shopping and the fourth and fifth floors were parking. This place was huge. We found Doug a water bottle for work. I found a couple of gacha machine items I couldn’t live without. Gacha machines are everywhere! I love it!

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After the AEON Shopping Center in Daito, we went walking to Hard Off. It was about 2 km walk, mostly uphill. It was brutal! It was too hot today. We found this store GEO which has video game and movie rentals. They also sell video games. Doug found the game he was looking for but they were sold out. We did buy two used games. We are getting better at handling transactions with limited Japanese. Japan charges for plastic bags as of the first of July. It can be three to five yen. Which doesn’t sound too bad but it adds up. This transaction, the guy was telling us about how the charge might take up to a week to show up. We figured that part out after we left. We literally got through the conversation by just saying ‘yes’ in Japanese. The bag part is now the easiest part because they show us a laminated mat with the the two options. Sometimes we buy a bag but if we already have a bag, we just point to the bag. I have bought a couple of reusable bags but we didn’t take one with us today.

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We made it to Hard Off! Hard Off sells used electronics and some kitchen appliances. Doug was disappointed at their video game selection and we walked out without buying anything. Which is surprising. We got some water from the many vending machines you can find and started walking to the train station. We waited about ten minutes at the train station and then went back to central Sasebo. We decided we weren’t going back to the room until after dinner. We decided to explore a little bit. We went to Tonoo Tunnel Market which is known as “the kitchen of Sasbo”. They had fresh seafood and ready made food. We then headed to Yokocho Shopping Street.

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We decided to have dinner at one of the many restaurants at Yokocho Shopping Street. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted. We decided to have a Sasebo Burger. Sasebo Burger was created when the U.S. Navy took over the Sasebo Base after WWII. There are plenty of places to find a Sasebo Burger. We picked Big Man because they had plenty of seating. Doug and I shared the Gokusen Burger, onion rings, potato wedges, and some fried chicken. Doug always orders extra food. I make sure to order small because there is always extra food. I am glad we only got one burger. The Gokusen Burger was amazing! You are probably thinking there is no way that burger was good. I hate to tell you this, but it was the best burger I have ever ate. I know, how can a burger in Japan beat all the burgers I have had in America. Easy. In Japan they have a higher quality for their food and their work ethnic is truly outstanding.

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After dinner, we went to 7-eleven for some snacks. I got some chocolate chip bread and a couple of rice cakes. I am excited to try my rice cakes. We also got some drinks.

Some more pictures I took out in town.

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Sunday, August 2nd

Doug has decided he wants a lazy day. He just wants to play video games and stay in the room. I finished a Korean Drama, Tomorrow With You and then started a Chinese Drama, Find Yourself. Tomorrow With You was a roller coaster of emotions! One moment you are happy then the next you are crying. Tomorrow With You is about a time traveler who saves someone and changes both their futures. It has some good twists. Find Yourself is about a woman in her thirties who is still single and is being pressured to date anybody. I am only a few episodes in but I enjoy how it deals with themes of being single in your thirties, living at home with your parents, dating a colleague, and being love with someone who is ten years older. We shall see how this one will end.

This week was great. I survived without Doug in a new country. Doug went on the ship for the first time. Doug and I rode the train together for the first time in Sasebo and had an amazing weekend!

Next week, we go to housing and have a driver’s test.