I'm a survivor! I'm not gonna give up!

I really love the Olympics. You can actually find a lot more of my commentary about them on Eilonwy's blog, as we've made it a tradition to transcribe our conversations about them, whether we watch near or far from each other. It was so exciting to watch the closing ceremonies in Rio last year, when they did the official hand off to Tokyo for the 2020 summer games, because I was in the midst of preparations to move there myself! Unfortunately, and I knew this then too, we will likely be leaving before the Games themselves, as we expect to be heading to our next duty station in fall 2019. I recently saw my first call for Olympic volunteers and got bummed that I wouldn't be here to do it. Still, I figured I'd keep an eye out for test events or other opportunities to be involved in the lead up to the games. So, when the American Red Cross (with which I am officially signed up to volunteer with - all paperwork and briefings and such) on base sent out a call for volunteers for an emergency preparedness drill at a future Olympic site, I dropped everything else I had going on during that time and signed up!

I can actually read the word "sailing" on this banner!

The drill was this morning out in Enoshima, an island we love to visit in nearby in Sagami Bay, where they will have Olympic sailing. Team 1 did a drill to simulate a bomb attack at a train station closest to the event.

Train station, prepping for the drill

Future victims, lining up and waiting for their assignment

I was on Team 2, and we simulated a sarin gas attack at the actual yacht club where they will hold the event. Of course, given the option between being an actual victim who would fall and have to be transported to care and safety instead of just running and screaming away, I definitely opted for the more dramatic.

Everything beyond the rope is observation - media, military, emergency personnel

Pretending to just hang out in the yacht club, but really waiting for the drill to start

It's a beautiful location, some of the best sailing and wind-surfing in Japan. You could also see Fuji today, but I couldn't get a photo.

The attack has begun! These were the first victims and our cue to start.

Amanda down!

And since I really couldn't take photos after that (until I was cleared medically), here's how it went down. I waited on the ground for close to 30 minutes. It went rather quickly, but I bet it would feel like an eternity if it were reality. Emergency personnel finally arrived in hazmat suits, which would get less serious the farther away I got from ground zero (from huge suits to just basic masks and everything in between). Eventually, one of them came behind me, hooked his arms under mine, and then started dragging me to the exit.

My pants tried to stay where I had fallen. Once they had slid past my bum, and I was given a chance as my rescuer was readjusting, I pulled them back up and tried to keep them from doing that again. Soon, someone had my feet and my legs weren't dragging anymore. My apologies to everyone who saw my underwear. In a real emergency, none of us would really care.

I then laid on the balcony outside of the room of the attack for several minutes. Being right on the water, in the shade, and with a breeze, I was getting pretty cold and shivery, so I was pretty glad when a couple more rescuers rolled me onto a flexible plastic stretcher thing (kind of like an open top body bag), tucked my feet into a pocket, buckled a helmet on my head, and dragged me down the stairs. Then the sun was in my eyes, but I wasn't shivering anymore. From there, I got put into a stiff orange stretcher to wait outside of decontamination and another orange stretcher into the decontamination tent. This is where it wouldn't have mattered if my pants had come off earlier, because in real life, I would have been stripped and showered here. For the purposes of the drill, I just had to remove my hoodie. Outside of the tent, I got one more final check and was sent to hang out and wait in the survivor area, finally walking under my own power. Apparently I missed getting to ride in ambulance, even just around the block - maybe I should have been more dramatic.

Overall, it was a really interesting experience and, pants situation excluded, actually pretty fun! It was all Japanese emergency personnel and most of the other victims were medical students (maybe from pre-med high schools though), but they wanted a few non-Japanese speakers to help prepare for that eventuality. We had about ten Americans at each site. If I were really attacked with sarin gas, I probably wouldn't have been so calm. I started out crying, but since we mostly just waited for 30 minutes, that's a long time to fake cry. By the time I was getting help, I recognized that if I knew was getting help, it's entirely possible I would wait quietly if I could. That's just how I am.

Another interesting note was that a lot the personnel would ask me, in English, if I was okay when they approached me. I always answered "Okay." When someone, several steps in, asked it in Japanese ("Daijoubu desu ka?"), I responded in Japanese ("Daijoubu desu"). But when they reacted with pleasant "Oh! Nihongo o hanashimasu ka?" (Do you speak Japanese?), all I recognized in the moment was "Nihongo" (Japanese) and just stared at him. "A little" I finally squeaked out, in English. Under normal circumstances, I would have been able say "Sukoshi" (a little), but for all intents and purposes, the answer at this point to whether or not I spoke Japanese was a definite "Nope!" Anything I can automatically say, like excuse me (sumimasen) or alright (daijoubu), came out, but anything I had to think about even a little? Definitely not. This would likely be the case in a real emergency as well.

If I never get another opportunity to help prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, at least I had this! I had a great time and I think that with some more practice over the next three years, they will be well equipped to handle emergencies that may come up. Hopefully, they never have to.

Amongst the vending machines and the year old magazines

Everything you've heard about the popularity of vending machines in Japan is true. You may have also heard that you can get everything in Japanese vending machines, but that has not yet proven to be true. Mostly, it's drinks. There are drink vending machines everywhere.

Five vending machines in a row, adjacent to a parking lot

If you own property in Japan, you can put a vending machine on it. Therefore, you can be walking down a residential street and pass vending machine or even several along your route. There are multiple machines in every train station and pretty much everywhere else you can think of. So, thirsty? Have a little change? You will soon come across a vending machine and your problem should be solved.

This one is on base, on our usual route in. We are amused by the extra large Pepsi cans (shown actual size) and Tommy Lee Jones advertising coffee. There is another one we pass on the way to church with at least four different Coca-Cola size and bottle or can options.

A little more American looking in variety, this is in the lobby of the building of Blake's office.

The end of that same bank.

This is in the lobby of our apartment building. It is way too convenient sometimes.

In the cooler months, vending machines will have both cold (blue labels) and hot (red labels) beverages in the same machine! It's mostly coffee, but there is some hot cocoa and usually our favorite, hot lemonade. So good.

Vending machine at our home train station.

The PASMO is one of the two possible transit cards (the other is the IC card from Suica, they are interchangeable in use around this area), so if you don't have change, you can pay with your transit card!

Hot corn or bean soup anyone? We have not been brave enough to try this yet.

We try not to use these too often, but we will definitely miss them wherever we go next.

In the supermarket she got distracted in the meat department

When people find out we don't have a car, one of the most frequent follow up questions we get is what do we do about groceries? Well, getting groceries in Japan without a car is actually really easy and fairly typical among the locals. There are lots of little green grocers around for produce and I'm gaining familiarity with the supermarkets. Between having small kitchens without a lot of room for storage, having to walk everything home, and cooking with fresh ingredients, the Japanese tend to make smaller grocery trip more frequently, maybe even daily.

We have a bigger kitchen, since we live in base housing, but having to carry it all and preferring to cook fresh - we, too, make more frequent trips rather than stocking up on everything every two weeks, like I remember my mom doing when I was a kid. We tend to get most of our milk, eggs, and produce out in town at supermarkets or green grocers and everything else at the commissary on base. It depends on what we're making though, and I'm definitely trying to make more of effort to cook local foods. I have a lot to learn, but we have some time to keep figuring it out!

First, a grocery trip I documented back in March. Every grocery store does things a little differently, but this is the place I go the most.

This supermarket has two levels.

You pay a 100 yen deposit for the cart, which you get back when you return it. When you check out, they move the things from the red basket into a green basket.

Everyone bags their own groceries. Most of them are also going into backpacks. This was an usually large grocery trip, since I had to borrow Blake's largest backpack to get it all home.

Heading home!

This is a less pleasant trip when it's training.

And this was yesterday's haul:

I actually know what all of this is! One thing that I like about this store is that a lot of the store seems to be organized by meal type. The ramen section has a lot of what I need for ramen, all the okonomiyaki specific stuff is near each other, etc.

I'm getting lots more confident at the Japanese grocery stores, but I'm also confident that I will probably never buy one of these.

And this is dinner from last night! Blake's bowl says "No Ramen, No Life", which we picked up at Fire Ramen in Kyoto.

You and me, but mostly me!

Blake and I see "we" a lot. We're a team, after all. We went to law school. We're in the Navy. We live in Japan. (Okay, that last one is obvious). We can argue about the circumstances under which saying "we" is appropriate another time. My point in telling you this is that when Blake said "we won!" in regards to a contest for which I had done the work, I surprised myself by quickly taking more of the credit and quoting The Book of Mormon musical in the process, two things I don't normally do. My response was the title of our blog today - "You and me, but mostly me!"

So, what did we win? Second place in the Ikego Best Halloween Decorated Tower Balcony contest!

We got the results tonight - a fancy plaque and $75 in MWR gift certificates!

Because of the timing of our move last year, we practically had to skip Halloween. We dressed as Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect for the church party, because we could do so with clothes from our suitcases.

This year, I had some time to decorate our place and put together more complicated costumes, and I had a blast doing so.

The Dread Pirate Roberts, Princess Buttercup, and an R.O.U.S.!

Some friends of ours (with the same first names!) had the same idea this year, so we embraced it and went to our parties together.

I actually decorated the balcony twice. I had it all up and ready to go, but then we had a couple of typhoons come through and it was advised we take everything inside. So, in order, I decorated the balcony, took everything down, submitted my name and balcony into the contest, and then finally decorated again!

To be fair, Blake does do the work that affords me the time and money to do things like this and it is his balcony too, so I'm actually good with calling it a team effort after all. Hopefully, I can find something we can do together to spend our gift certificates on!

I've been thinking about you

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons. When possible on Sundays, I discuss some things related to my faith and what I believe. With respect to your own beliefs, I hope this gives you a chance to get to know me and my religion a little better. For previous installments, click here.

With so much tragedy in the world today, both man-made and acts of God, it's hard to know what you can do to help or change anything. When big tragedies happen, there are frequently opportunities to help by donating time or money to the cause. But, sometimes, because you are nowhere near the tragedy and those affected or don't the time or money to help, the most you can do is offer "thoughts and prayers". Unfortunately, saying "my thoughts and prayers are with you" has become somewhat of a joke, if not entirely misunderstood. Those who don't understand "thoughts and prayers" can be frustrated by its seeming lack of conviction and it can be confused for not doing anything at all. I would like to offer that it is actually doing a lot of good and explain why.

As a religious person who prays as well as donates both time and money charitably, people shouldn't presume we only rely on "thoughts and prayers" to fix what is wrong in the world. Conversely, those of us who pray should not assume those who more visibly contribute time and money don't also meditate or practice some form of mindfulness. Trying to prove who makes more of a contribution to the world is, however, ridiculous. Even though some people can't see a tangible benefit to "thoughts and prayers" doesn't mean those of us who offer them don't. 

Most importantly, "thoughts and prayers" can help give us direction on who to help and how. It's those same thoughts and prayers and mindfulness that help people think of someone to send an applicable job posting to or a funny meme based on something they like.  It's the friends who ask if I need dog food at Costco when they go because I don't have a car and that's a tricky errand on the train. If they never think and/or pray about me, they wouldn't necessarily be inspired to do those things. I personally find it most helpful to pray and do something tangible. With limited time and resources and, therefore, the inability to help everyone, having some guidance on where and how we can help us feel good about what we can actually contribute and that we've made a difference to someone.

Recently, I experienced a medical emergency while Blake was away on assignment. As someone who received promises of thoughts and prayers during that time, I can tell you that at the very least, I appreciated being thought of and that people were taking time out of their days even just to send me a text to ask how I was. It helped me know who I could call when I did need something, especially before Blake was able to come home. I also appreciated people who brought us meals, drove me to the doctor, and the people who stayed with me in the hospital or at home. It was all at least some contribution to my emotional and physical well-being and I'm grateful for it all.

(And now, since you're probably wondering, I'm recovered and Blake got home soon afterwards.)

At least to me, thoughts and prayers are actually a good and meaningful offering, especially backed up with actions, however small they may be

Also helpful? Cute puppies to snuggle when you're home resting.

I spent time at a friend's house on main base in between doctor's appointments one day. They weren't home and Blake was running errands, but Yuri was on duty.

Apparently Yuri isn't usually a snuggler, so his attention was especially sweet.

Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

Today, we spent our day on some local adventures. First, we helped clean the church and took the missionaries out to breakfast at Burger King. Then, as the sun started warming everything up, we took a bus down to Kannonzaki Park for a hike and the roller slides! Japan is really hilly, so lots of parks feature roller slides down the natural slopes. 

Lovely view of Tokyo Bay

Of course, it's a hike to get there, but today it was worth it. Our primary route to the slides was blocked by some tree cutters, so we had to hike up some stairs of death to get to the top of the hill. While we were hiking around to find the detour, we discovered some ruins of a citadel of the former Imperial Army, which were neat to see. Turns out this park may also have connections to Gulliver's Travels and Godzilla - so we should do a little more research and go exploring again! Learning this helps make the extra detour worth it. 

As expected, the highlight of the trip was the roller slides! We each went down twice. Since you have to hike back to the top of the slide, and we'd already been hiking for awhile, we didn't have much more in us energy wise. We will just have to come back! 

It's me!

On the way back home, we stopped by one of the very few places I know in Japan where you can get Slurpees. 7-11 (or 7 and I-holdings here), and other convenience stores (konbini), are extremely popular here, but Slurpees are rare. I'll have to do another post just on konbini, because they are amazing.

Fanta Melon for Blake, Fanta Grape for me!

It was a smaller adventure overall, but one I look forward to doing again.