Celebrate with Rock

B & I had our dr appts today. He got off his cast, but still has to be careful for a month. His skin was so badly dry. Iwakuni didn’t put on enough padding under the cast. So he is getting lotion therapy.

I got my stitches out & soft cast off, but I have to wear a brace for 5 weeks. I was ordered not to do the dishes. Yippee!! I can’t submerge my hand for a few weeks. Guess I can hire a maid. Who else is going to get the cleaning done if I cant. Actually, my had feels really good; weak but good. I get to come back in January to do the right one.

Since we are both cast-less, we decided to celebrate. We hit A&W for dinner, then we went to see Smash Mouth in concert. It was so cool to see them live. It was B’s first rock concert. He even recognized the songs. Of course, who wouldn’t notice the Shrek song. We had a lot of fun.

ChinaTown

B & I decided to visit Japan’s largest Chinatown in Yokohama. I wasn’t impressed. It was mainly restaurants & trinket stores. I was really disappointed in the stores there. Pandas, pandas, & more panda trinkets. I was looking forward to picking me up something cool. Restaurants were kinda expensive too. We had lunch & checked out a few stores, then took the train back to base.

Checking out Yokosuka

We wandered the various stores down Blue Street; named for the blue tiles that are on the sidewalk. We came across a TGI Fridays, so we couldn’t resist having lunch. Then we hit up the rest of the stores. I found the cutest Christmas cards with the Kintai Bridge & jolly santas running all over on them. Wonder why we don’t have these is Iwakuni. I picked up a bunch to send out for xmas. We moved on to Mikasa Park. They have a Japanese battleship that we toured. It was used to fight the Russains in 1904. The US Navy helped Japan restore it to its present glory for tourist to enjoy. The park definitely water themed. It is on the Bay of Tokyo, has water fountain & waterfalls everywhere, & even a water show that is timed to music. I just loved sitting there relaxing & listening to the water.

Rare

You know those beautiful pictures you see of Mount Fuji. Rare!!! As we learned today on our trip there. Mt. Fuji is basically always covered with clouds. Today was no exception. I was pretty lucky to get any pictures today; it was extremely cloudy. We made it to the 5th station via bus, which is half way up the Mt. I got in some shots between clouds. Fuji was beautifully covered in red, orange, & yellow leaves. The Japanese love nature so everywhere we went it was packed. We had lunch while over looking Lake Kawaguchi. We wanted to paddle around in the little swan boats, but it took way to long to get our food.

We moved on to the famous Sengen Shrine. It is dedicated to the goddess of Mt Fuji. It has a huge Torri Gate in front. It is one of the largest wooden gates in Japan and according to tradition is rebuilt slightly larger every six decades. Near the top of the tori is a sign board which reads “Sangoko Daiichizan,” meaning “the highest mountain among the three countries [China, India, and Japan].” The Goshinboku, or Sacred Trees, are just huge; height & wide wise. It was the most beautiful Shinto shrine I’ve seen so far. (It was right up there with my favorite Buddhist shrine in Miyajima.)

Our last stop was Hakone Peace Park. At the park there was a white pagoda which houses a piece of Shakamuri Buddha’s bone. It was a gift from India. This was are last chance to get pics of Mt Fuji, which still decided not to show itself.

Note: Pics are a little dark since I don’t have the right software on this laptop.

Surgery

They moved up my carpel tunnel surgery a day. It went well. It was unbelievably fast & I was awake through the whole thing. The doctor just put my arm asleep. It’s not as sore as I thought it would be. I haven’t even need the nice strong drugs they prescribed for me. Right now, my hand has a nice range of motion. I just have to remember not to use it.

The day before surgery, B & I went into central Tokyo to find the Pokemon Center. B is all about Pokemon now a days. I thought it was going to be more crowded than it was. When looking for directions on the internet, people has said they spent hours in line waiting to get in. Even-though school was in, there were plenty of kids there. Right across the street was a Japanese garden, so we checked it out. There was a awesome reflection of the buildings off the water. I got some good pics. They are all untouched, since I don’t have my touch up software on this computer.