Happy Fall Y'all!

Happy Fall Friends!  

It is *finally* starting to feel like fall around here!   Jeans and boots, here I come.  Here are a few things making me happy these days ...

The North East Girl ...

My friend, Mrs. S., introduced me to this blog and my bank account hasn't recovered since!  I find it hard to add new pieces into my wardrobe each season since I don't live anywhere near a mall to peruse and I'm not exactly surrounded by a city full of fashionistas.  Thank you, North East Girl, for helping me add some key pieces to my wardrobe this fall!

This puffy vest ...

Excursion Quilted Vest

If you know me in real life, you know I live in a puffy vest all winter long.  I added this slimmer version to my wardrobe last week when J. Crew was having a sale.  I cannot wait until it gets a little bit cooler!

This Japanese antique I found at the Yamato Shrine Sale a few weekends ago ...

It only set me back 5,000 yen ... roughly $50.00!

Arashi ... a restaurant that changed my life.  You order from a vending machine, it costs $5.00 and makes a great dinner.  I've been three times in the past week.

YUM.

Lunch at a restaurant that had been on my bucket list for ages:

We even got to sit outside!

A ride on the rhino bus:

Another check off the Bucket List!

The Machida Shrine Sale:

On the 1st of every month, vendors gather at the Machida Temmangu Shrine for the Machida Shrine Sale.  It resembles a flea market and is full of good finds.  I love picking up treasures that will remind me of my time abroad for years to come.

and ...

An upcoming trip to see my hubs!

I hope your fall is starting as well as mine!

Roppongi

Ever since we arrived, we've heard talk of nights out in Roppongi.  Roppongi is one of the nightlife districts in Tokyo.  The trains stop running around midnight and don't start back up again until around 5:00 in the morning.  So, if you want to do a night out in Roppongi, you either have to go early and be on one of the last trains back to Atsugi or you take the last train to Roppongi (which gets you there around 1:00 a.m.) and then take the first train home in the morning.

Some of the guys in J.'s squadron did a night out in Roppongi before deployment but I've been scared to try it.  What if I get there and I want to go home at 3:00 a.m.?!  I knew I would try it once during our time here, I just didn't know when.  

We decided on a whim to go last Friday night.  We had dinner, took naps and met at the Ebina train station at 11:40 p.m. to get on the last train to Roppongi.  (I should also note that we did try to get a hotel room at the New Sanno but they were booked).  Once we were on the train, that was it!  There was no turning back.

Excited and scared

Mr. B. is pumped

We made it!

At Geronimo's Shot Bar

J. + Me

Bar #1

Bar #2

We successfully made it through a night in Roppongi!

Roppongi at sunrise!

We actually had a really good time!  We started a countdown on a our iPhones to help us stay motivated and I really didn't feel like I was ready to go home until around 4:00ish.  At that point, I knew I could make it one more hour!  We even tried to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market auction on our way home, but they had already let in the maximum amount of guests by the time we arrived.

My advice for a night out in Roppongi:

(1) Get a good nap in before you go.

(2) Take the last possible train there.

(3) Drink a lot of water!

(4) Do it on a night when you have nothing planned for the next day so you can go home and sleep!

I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!

bento.com

In the U.S., I am pretty reliant on Yelp.  It's a great way to find new restaurants and bars either by neighborhood or by type.  And I love to read the reviews, especially when people comment on what they ordered.  Sadly, while Yelp is in some international cities, it's not in Japan.  And it's pretty hard to do a google search for restaurants unless you are fluent in Japanese, which I am not.  Maybe someday.  

Enter bento.com.  It's not exactly Yelp, but it's the closest thing I've found.  I spent some time browsing the site and was happy to find a few restaurants I want to check out as well as a Wine Cave that sounds promising :)  You can search by city - Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyota, Osaka or Nara - or you can read different articles.  For example, they're featuring an article on the "Best Breakfast Spots in Tokyo" and another one on "Sushi Vocabulary."  The best thing about the site is that it's all in English!  

So, J. Friends, next time you need some guidance in finding something to do ... check out www.bento.com.  

Now I just need to see if they have an app ...

Weekend Recap!

Happy Monday Friends!

I hope that you all had a great weekend.  J. was in Iwo Jima last weekend and is getting ready to head off on another deployment (yes, again) so we tried to pack as much as we could into the end of last week and this past weekend!

Wednesday night we tried a French restaurant in Zama that had good reviews - La Brasserie chez-Ichisugi.  It was expensive, but definitely lived up to the hype.  J. and I shared a tomato and avocado salad, the pizza of the day and the gorgonzola pasta.  It was amazing and I can't wait to go back.

Afterwards, we had our first Mr. Donut experience.

Chocolate bear and chocolate donut.

So cute.

And then J.'s friends introduced us to a whiskey bar around the corner.  I don't drink whiskey, so I had a sparking wine:

I loved the atmosphere of this little bar.

And then we introduced them to Kamikaze's, home of the best white russian ever:

Thursday night we had a big group dinner at one of our favorite sushi restaurants, Takezushi.  Our neighbors introduced us to this hidden gem and we love it.  The owner & sushi chef lived in America for a few years when he was younger, so he speaks pretty good English and is easy to communicate with.  His wife does not speak much English, but she likes to hang around and listen to the English conversations.  They are both so nice and we love going over there!  

Our group eating yummy sushi!

Friday, J. did a lot of packing, organizing and buying last minute items for the deployment.  Friday night, we tried Mike's Tex Mex.  It is run by a retired Navy CPO, but we didn't see him there.  They had really good margaritas, so we tried a few flavors and indulged in some fried Mexican goodness.  We finished out the night at the O Club.

Saturday, J. finished packing and we headed down to Yokosuka to load his stuff onto the boat.  J. will be flying a jet on instead of walking onto the boat - meaning I get a few extra days with him :).  There isn't much room in the jet to bring stuff with you, so we had to take his stuff down and load it ourselves.  I was actually REALLY excited to go to Yokosuka, because it's a bigger base, it has a better Navy Exchange and there is a Chili's on the base.  We spent a few hours on the boat (I took lots of pictures but that's going to be a post of its own!) and then headed over to the Exchange.  I am SO jealous of the people who live in Yokosuka!  They have so many more American food options on their base (like Sbarro and a REAL STARBUCKS!), their Exchange was SO nice and they have the Chili's.  Not to mention that the entire base has a water view.  It was gorgeous.

The Exchange was having a 20% customer appreciation sale, so J. and I stocked up while we were down there.  That is the most shopping I've done since I arrived here and it felt good!  Haha.  I got some new running shoes, workout tops, Rainbow flip flops and Smashbox make-up.  I'd also like to point out that the Yokosuka Exchange had a Victoria's Secret in it, carried designer jeans, had an entire room devoted to shoes and a separate building with sporting goods equipment and workout apparel.  I foresee frequent trips to Yokosuka in my future :)

We had dinner at Chili's (of course) before heading back to Atsugi.

I finally got my cheeseburger :)

Sunday, I got up early so I could break in my new running shoes :) That afternoon, we headed over to Yokohama to catch the Yokohama Dena Baystars v. Chiba Lotte Marines baseball game!  This also is deserving of its own post, but I'll leave you with a picture:

I hope you enjoyed your weekends!

Yakiniku

The first week that we were here, one of the guys in our squadron arranged for people to go to dinner at a place called "Great Viking."  It's a yakiniku style restaurant - meaning you grill bite sized pieces of meat and vegetables on a little grill right at your table.  This particular place had an all you can eat, all you can drink for 90 minutes deal.  

Meat and vegetable selection

Mr. D. grilling his meat!

The size of our all you can drink Chu-hi's ...

The grill ... notice the shrimp and crab legs!

Fooz taking advantage of the "all you can drink" part!

We had a lot of fun ... I thought 90 minutes would be plenty of time, but it seemed to go by so quickly.  It was very intense ... especially because when the 90 minutes are up, if you have any food left on your table you have to pay extra for it!

We can't wait to go back!

Mariners v. Tigers!

The Detroit Tigers are in town this week and we ventured down to Safeco Field last night to watch them take on the Seattle Mariners.  We aren't Detroit fans, but our friends S2 and R.H. are plus all Tuesday home games are military appreciation so we're able to get tickets for $12.00.  Not a bad Tuesday night :) 

We started our evening across the street from Safeco at Pyramid Brewery.  They have a Game Day menu and decently priced beers, as well as a beer garden.  We opted to eat inside, but the beer garden will be fun when it's a little bit warmer out!  

Safeco Field

Me and J.

S2 and R.H.

Loving this Segway

Making my Dippin Dots purchase ... it was the highlight of my evening.

Play ball!

The groundskeepers had a little dance routine they performed :)

Ryan Raburn ... S2 may or may not have a little crush on him.

This guy was manually changing the scoreboard.

R.H. went to the first game of the series on Monday night and saw the Tigers beat the Mariners.  The Mariners more than made up for it last night, beating the Tigers 13-3.  It was a fun game!  Everett doesn't offer much in the way of weeknight entertainment, so it was nice to get down to Seattle during the week and have a little fun!  And who can say to $12.00 baseball tickets?

Weekend Update

Happy Monday Friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was the perfect mix of fun, friends and productivity.  I love weekends like that!  I also managed to not take one single picture (this is becoming a bad trend!) so I hope I don't bore you to death with a wordy post.

Friday night - after a VERY long week, I spent the afternoon running errands and cleaning before heading out for some yummy Mexican with my friend Fouz and her hubs.  Everett does not have many restaurants that I'd rave about ... but El Paraiso gets 4 stars in my book.  When you walk in, there is a little old lady making fresh tortillas by hand.  She slathers some butter and salsa onto one, rolls it up and hands them out as you walk in.  Once you are seated, they bring you homemade chips, salsa and bean dip.  And their menu is extensive and delicious.  Their only pitfall is that they don't have queso dip.  Bad for my tastebuds, good for my waistline!

Saturday - after sleeping in, I did MORE cleaning.  My house was disgusting ... and I'm trying to do a deep cleaning and also fix smudges on the walls so when we move out it won't be so much work.  I also took the girls to the dog park (in the rain!) and then headed north to have dinner with Mr. and Mrs. S.  We went to one of our favorite places in La Conner - Seed's.  It was a beautiful drive north and I wish I would have brought my camera!

Sunday - I ventured into Seattle with Fouz and E (check out here blog here) for lunch and Taste Washington.  What a fun day!  Fouz wanted to try Le Pichet for lunch so we headed downtown (on the bus, we're responsible drinkers!).  What a fabulous find Le Pichet was - it's a tiny little cafe with a very European feel.  We sat European style with the table next to us - and wound up meeting a wonderful couple who had traveled all over the world.  They were such fun lunch companions and a great reminder to be more open-minded to meeting people in odd situations.  We enjoyed great conversation and great food.  I loved Le Pichet's logo with the pitcher:

From there, we headed to Taste Washington (with a quick stop in a shop across the street from Le Pichet).  What a fun event - I wish I would have taken pictures, but there was just no time.  It was held in the Qwest Field Event Center and had 200 wineries and 60+ local restaurants.  There was no way we could have visited every booth during the three hour event, but we sure tried!  Some highlights were the Halibut Tacos from Salty's Seafood Grills (I HAVE to find out where they are located in Seattle and visit immediately!) and Beef Sliders from Smash Wine Bar & Bistro.  YUM.  There was also a ton of smoked salmon and oysters, but I'm not a huge fan.  I'm sure they were delicious though.  Wines I loved were Tagaris Winery's Clonk de Ponk ... love the name and the blend!  I also loved Apex Cellar's Sparking Red Wine and Chardonnay.  I love the concept of sparkling red wine!  The event was so much fun and definitely something I look forward to attending next year ... or perhaps sooner.  They have a smaller Taste Washington event in Portland in May, so if I can convince someone to go with me, I may make the trek!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!    

Tourists for a day ...

Over MLK weekend, J. and I had a "tourist day" in Seattle with our friends.  We had so much fun and I knocked a few things off my Seattle Bucket List!

We started out at the Ballard Locks ... watching boats move from the freshwater Lakes Union and Washington to saltwater Puget Sound: 

And then we headed to Fremont where we saw the Fremont Troll:

That's Mr. S. on top of the troll's head ...

After we saw the troll, we walked around Fremont and had lunch at a Greek restaurant before heading to Kerry Park.  According to the Parks and Recreation website ... "Kerry Park affords Seattle's most famous view of Elliot Bay and downtown, with Mt. Rainier for a backdrop on clear days."

It was not a clear day so we couldn't see Mt. Rainier unfortunately

Elliot Bay

Me and J.

After Kerry Park, we headed to the Experience Music Project.  We saw a cool tower made of guitars:

A Jimi Hendrix exhibit complete with a ticket to Woodstock ... $24.00 for all three days!

We recorded TV talk shows:

And some albums:

It was a lot of fun ... the guys LOVED the recording studio!

After we left the Experience Music Project, we wanted to go to the top of Smith Tower but we missed it by 15 minutes.  I got a good picture of the tower though:

We had such a fun time being tourists and it was great to see some of the things that aren't as well known as the Space Needle and Pike's Place Market!