Life in Fukuoka, Japan: July 2012

Monday, July 30, 2012

Astoria and Seattle

Mark and I have been very busy the past few days. On Friday we had an appointment in Portland to sign the paperwork at the shippers, Nippon Express. We decided to hit the stores at Bridgeport Village in Tigard. There were a few specific things that I needed to get before heading to Japan. Once we arrived at the shops I realized that the main store I was looking for was not there. I found out that it was at Washington Square which was about 15 minutes north of the area we were at. The funny thing being that 15 minutes on a map does not mean 15 minutes in traffic. So, it took us forever to get there and then we had to fly through a HUGE mall to find the store. Once I found it I had to run in, try something on to find my size, and then run out. That left us one hour and 20 minutes to get across the highways to arrive at our destination at 5:00. Let me tell you, Mark got me there with only 2 minutes to spare. Then we were only at the shipping place for 10 minutes just to drive home for an hour and a half.

On Saturday we got up early and headed to Astoria. My niece, Ella, was in a play. We also wanted to b able to say goodbye to everyone before we left. We had a great drive. When we got to my brother's house he was ready to go. His wife, Michelle, was working until 5:00 and Ella's play was not until 3:00. With Ella at her rehearsal we had a few hours to hang out with my brother and explore Astoria. It was a gorgeous day in Astoria. We ended up going on a little tour of the area. They were having an "open studio" day. This is where the artist from the area open their studios for people to come in and see and to talk with. We saw one artist out on the corner blocking one of his paintings. We talked to him for awhile and found out he started the paining on the Fourth of July. He was almost finished blocking it and then he will paint the remainder of the oils at his home studio. Some of you may think that he had been working on the painting for a long time, but in reality with the weather in Astoria he had to work on and off. (It is rainy quite a bit in Astoria.) They have been revitalizing one area in Astoria so my brother took us to a brewery that has taken over an old automotive area. It was beautiful. We went on a brewery tour (no we didn't have any samples...it was just a learning about the process) and learned a lot of things. I never knew that working in a brewery was such hard work. We went to the play and Ella did a great job being a wallybird. The play had a little twist at the end....she didn't eat children that she had been catching, she just needed to have them help her with her garden. She was a vegetarian. It was very cute and very funny. It was put on by the missoula theater organization. They were in Astoria for one week where they have the kids come and learn the play and practice and then they put on the show. It is a great summer activity for the kids. After the play we ran home for a short time before heading to Drina Daisy (a Bosnian restaurant) for an early dinner. Michelle was able to meet us and we had an amazing meal. Then Mark and I headed back to Salem. We drove a lot those days.

Sunday was a day of errands, cleaning and packing. We got everything done and were able to relax a little in the evening.

Today is was off to Seattle. We got up early (yes, we had to use an alarm clock) to head to Seattle. It took us about 3 and 1/2 hours to get to our hotel. We checked in and then went to catch the light rail (the Line) to take us into Seattle down by the water. Seattle is a city that I want to come back to and spend a few days. There is a lot to do in the area and the transportation system is great! We walked around The Public Market, saw the original Starbucks (no we didn't go in....the line was SOOOO long), had lunch at Elliots, and then took the monorail to the Space Needle. We waited in line which did take a while. We really enjoyed the view from the top. We had the photo taken as you get ready to take the elevator up. I am not sharing it because it is so hockey. It is a fake background and it really looks fake. I just have it for us to remember our trip to the top. After returning to our hotel later in the day I needed to repack for tomorrow.

Now everything is packed and ready to go. We do not have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow. We will get up, get ready, eat and then we can head to the airport. My flight doesn't leave until 2:00 PM, but I will be there at noon (2 hours early). I will probably not be in contact after tomorrow morning until I get to Japan on Wednesday, August 1st. I do not arrive until later in the evening. On August 2nd I meet with the person who will be taking me to look at apartments. Cross your fingers that I find one the first time out. I want to be able to get settled before Mark and the cats come (and Melvie).

I'll be in touch as soon as I can!!!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Lavender Festival

Sunday, July 15th

My sister-in-law, Michelle, spent the night after our big shopping day on Saturday. She left once we all got up since she had to drive back to Astoria. It is about a 3 hour drive depending on traffic and the route one takes.

After Michelle left, Mark and I headed to Wilsonville for a lavender festival. Now, I do not know about you but when I hear the word festival I think of a festival. Lots of tents or booths with crafts, food, lavender and more. As we were heading up I was looking forward to the festival. I love the smell of lavender. I kept thinking about all of the things they might have there.

We followed the signs that pointed the way to the festival. Once we saw where people were parking I was beginning to get a strange feeling that this was not really going to be a big festival. It was held at The Barn Owl Nursery. The nursery itself is a small building. There were gardens around that had strawberries, blueberries and other fruit/veggie plants. It was interesting to see them all around the area. The Willamette Valley grows all kinds of berries and they are fresh and plentiful twice a week at the farmers market. We walked behind the nursery to see three or four little booth areas that had the white tent over them to protect us from the rain. (Today was much cooler than yesterday had been and there were only a few sprinkles.) We took a quick walk around to see what the tents had in them. One had a make your own soap for $10. Now there is no soap I could make that is worth $10. I passed on the one. One of the other tent areas had yarn in it. Hmmm.....I don't knit or crochet right now. The other two tents had some items made with lavender, like a little wreath. Those were cute, but I can't pack them to take them to Japan so I don't need any. The last tent area had a cook demonstrating some recipes you can make with lavender. Let me say though that the woman was just getting started and there were no other people out there besides me and Mark. We decided to go into the gift shop in the nursery. This is where the trip became worth it to me. I ended up buying some nice things. I found a little address book that was made in Florence, Italy that had lavender flowers all over the book. It is very adorable. I also bought some lotion and some lavender shortbread cookies. We had a woman who was working at the festival talking to us. I honestly do not know how our conversation started, but I know how it ends. SOme how she went on to tell me and Mark about her granddaughter. Her granddaughter is going to be a teacher. Well, she had been in Ethiopia working at an orphanage teaching English. She and the others also had to teach sex education. The grandmother was telling us how the girls (between 8-12) were asking what a bra was and what it was for. Since the granddaughter was with a bunch of girls she turned around so they couldn't see her and she carefully took off her bra and passed it around. The younger girls were looking at it and giggling. they were saying how they would not like to wear one of those. How odd is that for conversation with people you do not know? I thought it was a little strange. Mark just kept saying, "Who does that?" he couldn't figure out why this lady told us all of that. I just had to laugh. After that we high tailed it out of there.

We were going to make a stop in Wilsonville to look at an area called Village at Main Street. This was a beautiful community of town homes, apartments and houses. The community has a pool a fitness center (LA fitness), stores, and a huge park all right within walking distance. We are looking at it for next summer if we come to Oregon for a month or so. The area is newer and more modern than Salem. I am glad that we had a chance to live here in Salem before buying property. We feel that Salem is nice but we would rather be in a different area of Oregon.

The park has a public dock that Mark could use to go kayaking. The forested paths lead all around the park and and go to the dock. There are more baseball/soccer fields than I could count. The park was very busy while we were there. They were having baseball games and the area for picnics was getting set up for a family party.

It is nice to know we can head to Wilsonville to kayak and walk. It is north of Salem, but it only takes about 30 minutes to get there. We will be heading up before I leave to use the park. Once I go Mark can take the kayak and hang out for the day.

This week.....packing and getting our stuff to Portland to ship to Japan. (With less than two weeks to go I have a lot to do.)

Lavender fields

Lavender

Dock leading up to the forested park.

Walking path

Path

Car we saw at the restaurant. It is a Smart car with a wind up on it.

Kayak Tour

On Friday, July 13th Mark and I went to Oregon City for a kayaking tour that we bought on Groupon. The tour began at 5:00 PM. I wasn't really worried or nervous until I sat in my own kayak and they pushed me into the river. I am a very good swimmer, but I had never been in my own kayak. It felt a little wobbly. I was very uncoordinated at paddling for the majority of the tour. I managed and survived, but when the jet skis flew by or the boats went by I was not sure if I was going to make it. We went by the Willamette Falls and the locks that are right there, too. I am glad I had the opportunity to try kayaking out. I will have to see if I can do it again one day. I am thinking that I would probably love kayaking in the Carribean where the water is clear and I can see what is around me. I honestly did not love the smell of the river. Yuck! Mark said it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be and that it only smelled like river water to him. I am guessing that river water won't be my favorite place to kayak any time soon (unless it doesn't stink).

The tour was only 90 minutes and it seemed to go by very quickly.

All of our kayaks.

The Willamette Falls

This is me and Mark. He has the hat on. I kept falling behind so he stayed with me.

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

I am a little behind on my blog once again. This past weekend was a busy and fun one. On Saturday I was lucky enough to have had my sister-in-law, Michelle, come own from Astoria to go shopping with me. She is always very put together and I felt I could benefit from her helping me select clothes to take with me to Japan.

We began at the outlet mall in Woodburn. I had been there before where I did purchase quite a bit of clothing from Eddie Bauer and a few other stores. This time my goal was to have outfits that I could wear to work and look more professional. This may surprise a lot of my Colorado Springs friends since I always seemed to dress so casually (more Eddie Bauer-ish).

Our first store was White House Black Market. I really like this store because my favorite color for my clothes is black. I tried on a ton of clothes. I need up getting two skirts, and three sweater and/or shirts. I was so happy with my first stop being so successful. From there we headed to Van Heusen where I tried on many outfits. I ended up getting many blouses, scarves, pants and a skirt. Michelle was great to shop with because she is a big fan of What Not To Wear. She helped me find cuts and colors that help me to look my best. We selected skirts and blouses that can be interchanged to create different looks and outfits. At the Bass shoe store I was in luck because they were having a very amazing sale. You bought one pair of shoes and got two pairs of shoes for free at the equal or lesser value. You could also buy one pair of shoes for 60% off. Michelle even pointed out why would you buy one pair of shoes and not get the two for free. So, needless to say I left with three pairs of shoes. I bought one pair of heels that can go with all of the different outfits. I also bought a nice pair of gray suede shoes and a pair of sandals. I am thinking that at least one pair of these shoes can be my "school" shoes in Japan. We went to The Dress Barn, which I should say I had never been to before. I do not know why I feel intimidated by stores that are new to me. Hopefully I will get over this. I got a purple and a brown skirt, a pair of black slacks, a couple more blouses, a scarf and some earrings and necklaces to top off my outfit. We were getting hungry by this time, but our plan was to finish up at the outlet mall so we could then eat and head to the Keizer stores. So, we had to hit Jockey so I could stock up on camp undershirts and underwear. You may think that is silly, but going to a new country and needing to have at least 12 months worth of clothes makes you wonder how long some of these items will last. After shopping at Jockey I felt much more prepared for my under attire!

By now, we were starving and getting a little exhausted. Well, I will speak for me....I was becoming exhausted after all the shopping and the heat. This was a very sunny and warm day in my next of the woods.

There were no nice sit down restaurants at the outlet mall so we drove to Salem and ate at a delicious Italian restaurant. It felt so good to be in an air conditioned building and to have some ice cold water to drink. We hadn't had anything to eat or drink since heading out to shop. I am sure this was not the best thing for us to do, but we had a lot of ground to cover.

After dinner we went to the Keizer stores. I have never been a Ross shopper and it isn't because I don't want to save money buying my clothes. It is that Ross takes a lot of work. Michelle is a talented shopper so I knew I was in good hands. She took me through the store and I can't even tell you how much clothing I tried on. I was getting tired. I did get some little shrugs to wear with different outfits and a couple pairs of pants. We ended up having to leave just when we were getting our second wind because it was 9:00 PM and all of the stores had closed. What a bummer. It was probably for the best. I had spent enough money for the day ( and longer).

All in all between the two different days that I shopped for new clothes I walked away with a bunch of new clothes that I am looking forward to wearing in Japan. I bought a new Coach purse and wallet at the outlet mall. I bought two bottles of perfume, at least 9 skirts, 4 or 5 pairs of dress pants, 5 pairs of casual pants/cropped pants, a couple pairs of city shorts (dressy), 3 scarves, 5-6 blouses, about 10 shirts from Eddie B., and about 4 pairs of shoes....as well as all of the stuff from Jockey. It is amazing to think that it took me moving to Japan to finally get a new wardrobe. I haven't taken pictures of everything, but when I get a few photos I will post them.

If anyone has any other suggestions for places to find good clothes for a bargain let me know. I still need gray pants, a couple of items from Soma, and make up. Maybe I will buy a new suit if I have time and have the courage to try them on. I don't love bathing suit season so I may have to pass, although I may need one in Japan.

OK, that is all for now. More to come very soon about Friday and Sunday's activities.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Mark went kayaking in the river.

Well, this day was a long time coming. Mark has been trying to find a way to get into the Willamette River that flows past our apartment. He has been taking his bike out and investigating trails that have water access for weeks. Today I took him to a boat launch down river. He is able to get in the water there easily. Once I drop him off he can kayak for a couple of hours. He even goes right by our apartment. Today I was watching for him so I could get some photos. Mark kayaked from the boat launch and ended up a couple of miles down river from our place. He called when he was ready and I drove over to pick him up. Now that we have this down he will be able to go more often. He needs to take advantage of it because once I leave for Japan he will have to find a different body of water to kayak.

We are looking into taking a kayak tour that is being offered on Groupon. I am hoping that we do it since I have never really gone kayaking in my own kayak. Mark's is a one person kayak so I can't go with him. Hmmm....isn't that convenient how that worked out?

More to come tomorrow.

Astoria and more

Astoria...

I have been to Astoria for the past three weekends. It will be so odd not to drive up there this weekend. The first weekend I already wrote about. I had gone there to watch my little Ella Bell's dance recital and to bring her back to Salem with me for a week. The following Sunday Mark and I drove my mom and Ella to my brother's house. I had a great time with my mom and Ella, well, except when Ella was sick for a couple of days. It is so hard to see the little ones when they don't feel well and you can only do so much to try and make them feel better. When we arrived on Sunday we all decided to go to The Wet Dog Cafe for lunch, and then afterwards Mark and I would head off to Cannon Beach for the night. The Wet Dog Cafe is a place Mark and I enjoy going to eat. They have a great view of the Columbia River. Since there were so many of us we did not get seated in the large room with the great view. That is OK though, we had a delicious lunch and we all got to talk and catch up. After lunch we said goodbye and Mark and I headed down the coast.

Cannon Beach is a very popular destination for tourist and locals alike. Whenever I have visited Astoria in the past I have always gone to Cannon Beach for a day trip. They have really nice little stores. Yes, they are somewhat touristy, but I like them. This time Mark and I were staying in Cannon Beach a little bit farther down the beach from the “touristy center” of town. Our hotel was called the Tolovana Inn (you can see it: www.tolovanainn.com/). It is very good sized hotel. There were rooms with ocean views that I am sure were amazing, but we didn't have one of those. Our room was nice and the sink was made locally. It was beautiful. We changed into shorts and walked down to the beach. It had been pretty cloudy, cold and rainy in Astoria. For any of you who know Astoria then you know that is the normal weather for that area.

We walked for hours on the beach. It wasn't very crowded and the sun was coming out. There is a large rock called The Haystack that was in between our hotel and the city center. The Haystack has puffins that live on it. They are such unusual looking birds. They are one of my mom's favorite birds For those of you who have not been to a beach lately--- you really have to go. Cannon Beach is the best of both worlds for me. It is has forest all around and the beach. To me that is the perfect location! I would be happy to live in or around that area.

After walking and exploring for several hours we went to Mo's for a little snack and a cool drink. Mo's is right on the beach and is always crowded. We got lucky when we went in because we only had about a 5 minutes wait. When we were leaving the line was all the way out the door. I didn't have a meal so I couldn't see if all the fuss about Mo's was worth it. We had a nice time though and our appetizer was delicious!

The next day we got up and went to a little bakery for a small breakfast and some hot tea/coffee. It was a packed full little place. I do mean little...it had maybe 3 or 4 tables that sat two to three people. The counter to order from was at the back and surrounded by people. Our drinks took forever. We were planning on getting our muffins to go, but we had eaten them and sat for awhile before our drinks were even ready. It was no Starbucks!! (Speaking of that, one thing that is nice about Cannon Beach is that they have NO big food chains in there town.)

After leaving Cannon Beach we headed down the coast. There are so many little towns that you pass through. Some are a good size while others seem like they only have a store or two and then the town would be gone.

We stopped in Tillamook to see the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I have been there many times, but I always enjoy going through the store and of course having an ice cream cone. Mark and I really don't eat ice cream (we usually have dairy free desserts) but when I go to Tillamook for a visit I have a cone. Yum!! Mark obviously didn't see how big of scoops they were giving out. I knew to only order one scoop while Mark ordered two scoops. That was a lot of ice cream.

After our ice cream break we headed back down the coast. The next place we stopped was Lincoln City which is a beach town. It is a really nice little town or city. We stopped to look at the hotels that were along the beach. We may go up for a night or two. The beach area is long and there are several hotels that would be right on the beach. One of the hotels has a large lighthouse painted on the side.

Going down the coast the next area we came to was Newport Beach. Mark and I climbed the lighthouse and went down to the tide pools while the tide was out. We didn't arrive there until the tide was beginning to come in so we missed the lowest tide and we could only explore in a limited area. There are seals that live there out on the rocks. They were many seals swimming around. The baby seal pups were waiting on the rocks for their moms to return. We were told at the lowest tide time you can get out almost to the seals. That would be something to see. I would love to stay the night there in order to have the opportunity to explore more of the tide pools. As we were leaving the lighthouse we saw Agate beach down below. We were able to get a few pictures of the dock that washed up on the beach from the Japanese Tsunami. It is about a 60 foot dock that washed ashore several weeks back. It is costing $84,000 to have it dismantled and hauled away. They are going to use a portion of the dock to make a memorial for the tsunami.

We really lucked out with the weather. It was overcast but it didn't rain very much. The temperature was cooler, but I loved it.

This past weekend we drove to Astoria on Saturday morning to celebrate Ella's 7^th birthday. She was having a party with all of her friends and then 5 would stay for a sleepover. My mom was at my brothers and she was going to tough it out and stay in the guest room where she had been staying. We offered to get her a room at the hotel we were staying, but no luck. I am sure she was second guessing that decisions since most of the girls stayed up until the wee hours in the morning. I heard that some girls were up after 2:00 AM. Yikers!! Oh, before I forget I wanted to let you know that Ella designed the dress she was wearing. She had it all sketched out and Michelle had it made. She actually has many outfits sketched out. One of her gifts was that Michelle put all of Ella's sketches in a book with the plastic sleeves over them. She has a great eye for fashion at a very young age. Who knows, she might one day end up on Project Runway.

The party was a lot of fun. It is amazing how busy little girls are. When everyone arrived we had a BBQ with all the scrumptious side dishes. My mom makes the world's best potato salad and deviled eggs. At our family gatherings we always have more than enough food to feed an army and this was no exception. Mmmmmmmmmm...

Following lunch the girls all got into their party tote bags and put their “party” masks on. I have a picture of the girls before their masks were on and with their masks on. You will all see how adorable they looked.

Presents were next on the agenda. Ella got such great presents. Her friends were very excited to see everything. I took photos of Ella and the girl who gave her the present. It became a joke because all of the girls wanted to be in all of the photos. It is so different from the last party I went to because it was so difficult to get Ella to pose for a photo. Not any more. She is great at posing and she looks so cute!

Michelle, my sister-in-law, bought a flower candle. When you light the candle the fire gets bigger and brighter. It starts to play music and sparks while the flame burns down. Well, the girls did not know what to think. This was something new for everyone. I will say that it started out with everyone wondering if it was going to do anything to girls freaking out that it was going to explode. It was all very amusing, although at the end we wondered if anything would catch on fire. Not the safest candle, but we will never forget it.

Craft time was up next. The girls were all going to make their own placemats. They had paint, flowers, bugs and animals to use to create any design they could think of. Most of the girls really got into making their mats. Others started out strong but fizzled out. Following the craft activity the girls were able to make their own cotton candy using only two hard pieces of candy. I have to say that I really enjoyed watching this. Who would have thought how much cotton candy two Lifesavers would make.

Many of the girls were picked up and when we had the last 6 including Ella we got ready to head to the movies. We were going to see Brave. Now, something you should know is that my mom, Ella and I had already seen it the week before in Salem. The funny thing about this is that my mom does NOT enjoy going to movies. She rarely goes to any movie for any reason, but here she was seeing Brave for the second time in a week. She was a good sport though. The girls got to relax and eat popcorn while they watched the movie. After the movie everyone went back to Ella's and pizza was ordered. This is when Mark and I said goodnight and headed to our hotel. Mark had escaped from the party earlier in order to go to the hotel and check in. Once we got to the hotel we took a nice walk along the riverside. The weather was beautiful and the sun going down made for some good photos.

Mark and I went to “Pig and Pancake” for breakfast. This was an interesting experience. Nothing fancy. I think it probably is about the same as a Denny's. We hit the cash machine and were off to get my mom. We were headed to the Sunday Market of Astoria. The Sunday Market has such fresh and local berries, tomatoes, asparagus, apricots, cherries, green beans and so much more. We bought a bunch to have for the week.

When we got back to my brother's house we saw he was BBQ-ing for the girls. The party was still going strong. Most of the girls were being picked up at 1:00 PM. That was one long sleepover. It did make for an easy get away. With Ella so distracted she just said a fast goodbye. I knew that if it would have been just me and the family I probably would have cried since I may not see her again before I leave for Japan. My brother did say they would see me. I will have to see how it all works out.

We tried a new route back to Salem. We took a road through the forest that looked like a glorified forest service road. It was beautiful. We saw every shade of green that anyone could see. The woods are so dense. It was easy to see how someone could think the shadows were something moving in the woods. I didn't see Big Foot though just in case you were wondering. As we continued on we stopped in McMinnville at the Space and Air Museum. Don't get all crazy thinking I was looking at all of the planes. I am not saying there is anything wrong with looking at old planes (the Spruce Goose is at this place), but it is just not “my” thing. We did however go to the gift shop and bought many different packages of hazelnuts. Here is a little fact that I did not know. All of the hazelnuts, or the majority of them, that are used in the Nutella from the states are grown right here in Oregon. I learned something new. Who would have thought?

I was happy to get home so I could relax a little. Sometimes being on the go and sitting in the car for hours can really take a lot out of you.

The bonus good news was when I was about 30 minutes away from Salem Jessica sent me a text to let me know she was going into labor. She didn't have Raegan until the next day, but I was so happy for her. It was difficult to wait for the news. Well, probably not as difficult as it was for Jess to deliver Raegan. I guess it is all about how you look at things.

Stay tuned for more. I am still trying to get up to date.