Out on the town

So today we went out to the town of Yokosuka, Japan outside of the base. It's a weird mix of Japanese and American interest points. The last picture is of a drink they serve in an area called "the Honch" right outside of the base. I forget the name of the drink, but I'll have to post it here when I remember. The other pictures are pictures of things we saw in town.

John and I went to a shopping mall to have some food. No one in the restaurant spoke English and we managed our dining experience just fine with the limited Japanese we know. After eating we went to the Honch, which is okay during the day, but at night it turns into an American military hot spot. The Honch is full of bars and Japanese trinket shops.

We walked over to Blue Street, a street named because of the blue flecks in the asphalt and did a little more shopping. Blue Street is more of Japanese shopping center, with less military. We stopped at a 100 yen store (basically a dollar store) and bought some reusable chopsticks. I bought some pink ones and John got some black ones. We also got a few for house guests in the future. Each chopstick set comes with a carrying case.

After that we walked back to base to do a little shopping at the Navy Exchange and now we are back in our hotel room relaxing. I can't wait to have a place of my own and get off this base. I've never been one for hanging out with other military families (except for exceptionally cool ones). Plus, the base is just full of Americans....I want more culture! I want to get away from places like the Honch which is just an interpretation of what Japanese business owners think Americans will like.

Sorry, I'm just a little cranky. This jet lag is no fun at all and it's really hard to shake it. John and I both get crazy tired around 8pm....to the point that we start drifting off to sleep and are just incapable of getting motivated to do anything. We force ourselves to stay up until 10pm and then we're up at 3 or 4am. I don't mean we're the type of awake that we could easily fall back asleep...I mean we are AWAKE like we had a full night of rest awake. Then of course since we woke up so early, the whole day is spent being tired. Oh well, I hope we get used to it soon.