Sumo

I hit the jackpot this weekend. Sallie, my Civil Engineering friend and I went shopping on Saturday leaving the men home. Well, I hit the sumo jackpot. I try to collect a lot of sumo dolls and stuff, but its rare when I find one. I scored at Dragon Fly Second Hand Store #2, our second stop, by finding a great statue of an old yokosuna, (I need to find out who he is.) Then, then we went down town and I found yet another Sumo doll on sale even ($77.???) and finally a third which is absolutely huge. I don't think I can even get it in my display case.
Sumo is a great sport to watch as it's a very old sport, with lots of pomp and interest. Nothing like WWW, which I never watch, nor like Greko Roman wrestling. Nor is it just big men pushing eachother out of the ring. Everything is steeped in tradition from the clay ring that takes a Master to build, to the uniforms they wear, to the dress of the umpires and judges.
And less and less is it fat men who are sumo. The current Yokosuma isn't fat at all, in fact he is mostly muscle and technique and while I don't particularly like him, you must admire his ability.
I like Kaio, an aging Oseke who is so injured I feel for him, yet he keeps winning. Ama is another favorite of mine. Young, skinny, looks like a fly against some of his opponents, has a fighting spirit and doesn't mind taking on the big boys, and he wins more than loses.
This basho, I have a new favorite. Futemo, who has risen quickly up the ranks and is a real giant killer. He is a joy to watch and even if his win/loss record isn't the best, he has knocked out some of the top guys.
Yokosuna lost his second match last night and by another Russian. There are a number of non-Japanese in the sport. The Yokosuna is Mongolian as is Ama. There are a few folks from Russia or the Baltic area. The number of "foreigners" is limited in Japanese sumo, and it would be nice to see a Japanese come up thru the ranks and take over the top spot,, but I don't see anyone on the horizon.
I hope we can get Japanese Sumo in the states when we come home. I will certainly miss it.

Mexican Dinner

Sunday was a blast. We invited our group of Japanese friends for Mexican Dinner and they just loved it. Sallie made some salsa and enchiladas and I fixed the rest, refried beans, baked corn, chili verde, etc. It all turned out marvelous and most of it was gone by the time everyone left.
Hope we can do it again soon

Humidity has hit

Well, don't know how much traveling we will be getting in this summer. DH plans to climb Mt Fuji in a couple weeks and that will be a great experience for him. Me, climbing anything is just not an option. I want to do one last trip to Sasebo, Japan to shop at the NEX there, and we have to do Tokyo and Kyoto because you can't come to Japan and not do Kyoto. Also, in November we are going to go to our last Sumo match in Fukaoka.

Just have to add another picture of Japanese Gardens

June 17th 2005

I just had a call from Phyllis, bud from Okinawa who said they have had 3 days of constant downpouring rain. When I was in Okinawa last month all it did was rain, so we didn't get out much. Actually if I never go back to Okinawa that will be fine with me. Everywhere we went the food was blaa and tasteless, both on base and off, unless you like fast food and there were tons of those around. We went out for Chinese and everyonne just raved about the food and I thought it was bland and tasteless.
Of course I was not there to sightsee, we were there for a meeting but the only thing worth the trip was the airpost. Every hallway, every window, every knuck and cranny had orchids, the most beautiful orchids. I took lots of pictures but unfortunately they are not in photobucket.
Speaking about orchids. Sallie went to the states for a couple of weeks and asked if I would babysit her orchid. The poor thing was about on its last legs, half the stalks didn't have and leaves and the ones that did were lookin pretty sorry. The next morning I was watching Tipical Mary Ellen on TV and what did she talk about was how to care for orchids. Sallie was watering them from the top. Well I went and got a large flat bowl, filled it with gravel and placed the orchid there. Still lost a couple of leaves but, I think it looked a lot healthier than when she gave it to me.
Sallie is one of the folks that I will miss here in Japan. She is a civil engineer who works for the Marines and I love exploring Japan with her. We never use the same road twice and she knows every back street in Iwakuni.
We also go to pottery class together and what fun that is. I need to bring my camera to show you the teachers work. He and his son are amazing potters and his glazes are amazing.
I am going to miss Japan but I am so ancious to just get home and put ARC behind me.

Japanese Rose Gardens

June is the season for flowers in Japan and there is nothing more beautiful than a Japanese Rose Garden. This one we visited a couple weeks ago.

Cool, figured out how to post pictures. Now the sky is the limit. Need to figure out how to go fix the ones I posted below.

Anyway, back to Little P, our motorhome. I really feel that we can find free places to park at night for our night camp and not spend the money on parking lot spaces that they call campgrounds, will save us tons of money, money that we can use to improve Little P. We need a solar system for the electricty, we need a satellite dish for interent and we need leverlers as we will probably not be camping on level grounds.

So, I am not off to my favorite web site, Amazon.com to look for free campsite books. Wish me luch

Everyday I check in with George and Ms Tioga and today was no exception. He was just going from Oregon into Calif at Crescent City where we were just this time last year.
So looking forward to starting our own adventure. Last night, Roy and I invited Sallie, our engineer buddy and Barry Nelson , whose wife went home for the summer, to join us for Italian night at the club. I ordered the Chipolte Sauce and it was a tad on the spicy side, but I really enjoyed the food and the company was delightful. We will miss our friends here in Iwakuni.
But not enought to want to stay. We have our own Ms Tioga to worry about, but our turtle shell (RV) is a Georgie Boy Pursuit which has been idle for a couple years and will need a lot of TLC to get her into go condition.
I think the maintenace will be up to Roy, but I have been reading up on what needs to be done, just in case and my list is getting extensive.
I need to check to see if I can download my picture so excuse the little detour here.

Recently I found a blog site, The Adventures of Ms Tioga and George. This team also consists of Mr Camera, and Ms GPS and the like, George is the only living, breathing member, but as you read, each member seems to take on its own personallity.
The team has a few simple rules. Tioga gets daily maintenance. The team travels no more than 200 miles a day and they rarely pay for a campground. Also Ms Tioga keeps her speed at under 50 MPH. Each rule really makes financial sence. RV campground parking can cost up to 30 even 40 dollars a night and that rapidly adds up. Folks say well they need the campgrounds so they can have electricity, internet access, etc. but the way George saves money, he can readily afford a solar system. He has a bank of 6 batteries and 6 solar panels which give him adequate electricty for the day. He also equiped Ms Tiogo with Levelors and that is generally a must have for boondocking. He added a larger foot pad on them so they don't sink into the ground.

So, I am so interested in this way of life and hope that I can emulate him at some point. 5 months til retirement. Happy days.

June in Japan

The wonders of Japan still continually amaze me. Yesterday it was summer, the humidity hit us in the face like a wet wash cloth. We watched the track of the first thyphoon of the year, and felt yet another earthquake.
We were in a big 6.7 earthquake last month. We went to a festival in Yamagawa and while we were standing next to the river, watching the prince and princess go by, the earth really started to shake. It was rather funny, because I remember looking down at my feet and wondering why they were moving and I'm a Calif girl, I know about earthquakes.
Anyway, what really interested me was the reaction of the children. They immediately dropped and covered their heads. All of them, in little circles. It was amazing to watch. They are well trained here, much better than we are in the US.
So, I have to figure out why my pictuers are not showing up. HUMM, the rose garden was absolutely beautiful and Im sorry that you missed the pictures.

Mt Aso Trip.

Mt Aso is one of Japans active volcanoes and IT&T was offering a trip to it, which we signed up for right away. Its on the Island called Kyushu about dead center. The volcano is active and we warned ahead of time that visiting it may not be an option. But we are adventurers and wanted to see how it measured up to our own Mt Saint Helens.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/desertthorn/Aso10.jpg[/IMG]
Our first stop was to Kumamoto Castle, one of the largest and most magnificent castles in Japan. The problem is, we have seen nearly all of them, so one more was just another castle to us at this point. It was built in 1694 but like most antiquites in Japan it burned to the ground and had to be rebuilt. I will add some pictures once I get them down loaded to Photobucket.
Our secord stop was to the Aso Farm Village Hotel. Well, I don't think I can call it a hotel as it is about 200 little igloo shaped buildings, each with a bed and a bath spread out over the "farm". I need to post a picture of that also as it was wild.
I gather it really is a working farm as they sell milk and cheese and dairy products. (I bought what looked like a bottle of milk for my morning coffee and YUCK, it was yogurt I think, NOT milk. ) But it also had a huge restaurant, (food was mediocre to poor) and other little shops. It had a hot bath for bathing, something that I haven't gotten around to doing in Japan, and a lot of craft shops, where you can make and/or purchase craft items. You could paint pottery, blow glass, etc. That was kinna cool, but it was late and Sumo was on and well, it was the second to the last night of the championship and that was way more important.
The next morning, we got up early and boarded the bus for Mt Aso, the volcano. It was a pleasant drive thru the country side and the hills were full of a heather like bush that was in full bloom (need to post that picture also) There was a sign at crater that the sulfur was stinking and if folks were allergic they probably should go up.
Well, the wind was blowing, the clouds were sitting right on the crater and so it was damp and cold and drizzling rain. Since the volcano was erupting steam, thats about all we could see, but we did take some pictures and I'll post them. The geology in the area was interesting.
The coolest and most interesting part of the trip, and an unexpected event was that they were having a Cooper car rally at the summit and we got to see nearly 200 Coopers. Now that is something that I would love to do .

Genealogy

Retiring in 6 months and would like a keep a log of my travels, keep a place for my genealogy notes and even talk about my diet.

Names in my genealogy that I am researching
Garlock
Sacrider
Johnson
Brandborg