Earthquake

My last post seems so ironic now. It was written two days before a devastating 8.9-9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan off of the coast of Sendai. It has been a little more than a week since the quake struck and life has been turned completely upside down. I need to write about this so I don't forget. It just all still seems so surreal. I never thought I would live through a natural disaster, national state of emergency, and military evacuation... Here are some of my thoughts throughout this situation:

Friday March 11th

I was taking a nap in my bedroom with Lilia and I had woken up. She was still asleep and I was just laying there not wanting to disturb her and thinking about... I can't remember. Maybe the English class I was supposed to teach in about an hour. At about 2:45pm the bed started shaking and then the lamps started to shake too. I have experienced numerous earthquakes in my time here so I didn't think too much of it at first, but then it got stronger and it kept going. I heard creaking sounds and people shouting outside. Lilia woke up with a horrified look on her face and our bed was rocking and shaking more than I have ever felt before. I thought it might fall apart. I held Lilia to me and told her it would be ok over and over again. I think I was telling myself too, because the shaking wasn't stopping and I was beginning to feal frightened. Usually earthquakes around here last about 30 seconds to a minute or so. This one went on and on. I have heard that it was over three minutes, but maybe even 4 where we were. The whole house was creaking and books were falling off of shelves. Finally I got us out of the bed and went into the hallway where there were no windows or pictures on the wall. The shaking stopped and I carried Lilia around the house to assess damage. We had nothing break. Picture frames were all askew on the walls and some had fallen down. A few books had fallen. Wow! I thought! That was totally crazy! I jumped on Facebook to announce that that was by far the largest quake I had ever felt. I had no idea what it meant for others further away at this point. My friend Leia came over about 15 minutes later and told me she didn't want to be alone. "Can I hang out with you for a bit?" "sure!!" I told her I would have to pick up my English student soon, but she was more than welcome to join me. We felt an aftershock before we left. It was strong too. We headed out to my car and drove off base to pick up Minako. She wasn't there. She is never late. I decided to wait for 10 minutes and then go back home. When she didn't show we came back home and I had received a very curt e-mail from her saying that she had to cancel. Leia and I stayed together and then decided to go out to dinner. We didn't feel like cooking. We went to eat and experienced further aftershocks at the restaurant. Everyone was on edge. After we finished eating I went home and made some phone calls and checked my e-mails. At first the earthquake was labeled as a 7.4 or so but the number climbed and climbed. There were tsunamis and further warnings. I was sick with worry over Cliff who had left for deployment the day before and his ship was due to pull out of Yokosuka that afternoon. When I heard about the first tsunami I frantically called the XO's wife to see if anyone knew if his ship had gotten out to sea! They had and I relaxed a little. I spent the evening watching the horror of this disaster unfold. We had aftershocks throughout the night. I was in disbelief.

To be continued....

The Water Wheel - Fabulous Japanese Dining

Alright, so my camera doesn't really do "night shots," but you get the idea. This little restaurant is tucked away on a tiny side street off of Route 51 and the Japanese name translates to "The Water Wheel." Our friends Dan and Yumiko wanted to take us here and I am SOOOO glad that we found a babysitter and took them up on it! The restaurant is an old house converted and is located very close to both Camp Zama and the Army's Sagamihara Housing. Dan and Yumiko explained to us that because of the remarkable collection of Samurai and turn of the century armor and weapons housed here, the big wigs of the military and American government are often entertained at this restaurant. I have to admit that even with my limited interest in armor and guns, I was super impressed! The places is both a restaurant and a MUSEUM! After one of the servers, (robed in full kimono,) showed us to our private room, we slipped out to view the armor and weapons collections. Below is the room of armor.
Almost all of the guns were well over 100 years old. Every one of them was uniquely decorated and carved.
Not sure how old these guns were...
Cliff amidst the armor. Again, every suit was unique and interesting.

We all liked this one a lot.
Detail of a dragon.
And what samurai collection would be complete without some swords? The rusty thing on the bottom was apparently a sword dating back 1,000's? of years?
And onto the food! Equally if not more impressive than the weapons was the FOOD! I am an artist and thus a sucker for presentation. The Japanese do presentation like no other country on earth. Everything that was served to us had it's own place, edible flowery counterpart, and seasonal story. Everything was fresh. Most importantly, everything was was mind blowingly delicious. We ate crab, squid, season fish, roe, Japanese vegetables that I have never heard of... It was such an adventure! The salad in the bottom right corner had crab and squid and fried squash and POMEGRANATE! Who comes up with these combinations? It was spectacular of course.
This might have been my favorite dish. It was the best sashimi I have ever had in my life. It was fresh and cool and firm and fantastic. The lemon was a nice touch too. YUM! There were at least 6 different kinds of fish.
The sukiyaki was the main course. They brought over the marbled beef and cabbage with mushrooms and noodles and cooked it right in front of us. It was awesome. Just awesome.
Fish and flowers! Lovely!
Scroll in our room.
Our table.

Here we are outside by the wheel. The place is also open for lunch. I can't wait to go back!

Ikebana and "Spit" Restaurant

I have always wanted to take the "ikebana" class offered on the base, but never made the time or the effort until today. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. I really enjoyed it! I had the instructor all to myself for the first 30-40 minutes and she was adorable. I mentioned that my mother loved ikebana and had studied this art in the states and BAM! - we were instant friends. She wanted to know all about my mom and her southern garden club. I promised her I would send pictures of my arrangement to my mother for her, so here you go!
Our sensei uses all fresh and real flowers and prefers a "natural arrangement" as opposed to other schools of ikebana. Apparently there are other methods of arranging that focus more on "feeling" and "impressions." Her mantra is basically that "less is more" and the greatest beauty is in simplicity. I really enjoyed her explanations of arrangements as her process reminded me a lot of my art background. Each arrangement needs a foreground, middle-ground, and background and both positive and negative space are important. For the month of October, our sensei brought pumpkins to use in the arrangement! Kawaii!
I am very pleased with my work, though truth be told, my sensei did most of it...
At home on the kitchen table. Lilia loved the yellow and the pumpkins of course!
I couldn't resist. I added a few pumpkins of my own!
After ikebana I met up with Mari and Nicole and together we tried a new restaurant in Yamato for a late lunch! Can you read the sign? Yes, it says "Spit." That is the name of this adorable little "mom and pop" cafe where we ate today. The owners, (a husband/chef and wife,) spoke no English, but we made do with our limited Japanese and hand gestures. It was delightful. The food was wonderful and we were well taken care of.
"Spit"
The lovely Nicole awaiting her meal.
I ordered the pumpkin soup and the pork cutlet millanaise. Just for Cliff :)
The food was wonderful and... "handmade" apparently. The wife/ server was adamant about this. All of the dishes served at "Spit" are handmade. Good to know!
The decor was fun and interesting. Definitely a lifetime of memories in this place.
Husband/ chef hard at work there in the kitchen.
The adorable couple themselves. I will definitely be going back to "Spit!"

Sagamihara Park and more Hydrangea

Sagamihara park is always a favorite for families around here. There are lots of playgrounds for the kids, beautiful flowers and landscaping for the adults and even a free petting zoo! We took my mom there to see the hydrangea in June and she was kind enough to take some pictures of us!

Omuraisu

We interrupt your regularly scheduled "Kyoto" programming to bring you a brief edition of dining in Japan! Cliff and Lilia and I went to the VinaWalk today (a local outdoor mall) to get lunch and do some shopping. We went up to the restaurant floor and browsed the display cases for something that looked appealing. I have to admit that when we stumbled upon a display like the one pictured below, I had mixed feelings. Actually... I thought it looked pretty gross.
We deliberated for a moment and I ultimately left the decision up to Cliff. We decided to be adventurous and go for it! Turned out this was an "Omuraisu" restaurant specializing in rice-filled omelets that are covered in various sauces and ingredients. This cuisine borrows its name from the West even though it is absolutely born and bred in Japan. The dish is composed of rice fried with onions and sometimes chicken and veggies and then covered by a very thin omelet. The omelet is then covered in a sauce. Sauces range from tomato and cream to curry to white cream sauce to plain ketchup and sometimes a combination!
I think what made this dish work for me was that it was more rice than egg. I like eggs as much as the next person, but I don't want to over do it. The Japanese people LOVE their eggs, cooked, raw, sweetened, cold... I have braved most egg avenues, but I tend to prefer a conservative dose rather than the eggstreme. Ha ha.... Anyway, the moral of this culinary story is, don't judge a dish by it's overwhelming egg appearance. If you give omuraisu a try, you may be pleasantly surprised.