Sayonara

It's been a short two weeks in Yokosuka. I'll miss my sushi from Livin, the trips to Liquor Port and Seven Eleven, the ice cream at the Mini Stop, the cramped Moriya Mansion, our walks towards the beach, Manami's family and especially Manami and Reggie.

Reggie got home last night after putting in about ten hours at work. He started with, "Guys, we need to talk about tomorrow." He didn't find out until yesterday that he's able to take the day off today. And so of course it's too late to rent a car. Our luggage will not fit in the Airtrek, so we let him off the hook by saying it's ok if we take the train.

We didn't realize that it's not cheap to take the train either so what we ended up doing this morning was taking a cab to the train station at seven for the 7:28 train and having them accompany us till the Yokohama station.


I guess that time of the morning is the 'rush hour' on trains - can you say SARDINES?



After several stops, it took us around 45 minutes to get to Yokohama. We said our goodbyes before the train came. They helped us board the JR Narita Express (NEX) at around 8:30 and we took it from there. It wasn't too bad because after a couple of stops, the NEX dumps everyone right at the Narita airport and from her phone call last night, Manami had already found out that the EVA Air counter is located in Terminal 1. There are several luggage carts available at the train station.

At exactly 9:58, we were wheeling our luggage out into Terminal 1. The precision of train schedules in Japan is unbelievable. In my rush, I forgot my hat in the train, by the way.

I had a little incident at the security coming out of the station. I inserted my ticket, assumed the gate will open so I just pushed it open with my cart. A train cop had to tell Donna who's following me that she had to insert both Yokosuka/Yokohama and NEX tickets for the gate to open. Not sure if that was the reason but on our way up the escalator to the departures terminal of the airport, a couple of cops ran after us and said they needed to check our passports. They were both pretty nice though, asked us a few questions, took some notes and let us go.


All we had this morning with Reggie and Manami was toast and egg so when we arrived at the airport we were ready to eat again. I wouldn't have minded having sushi but it was terribly expensive so we ended up having some Chinese instead.


After the meal, we headed towards the EVA counter, waited a few minutes and checked-in. We were first in line, by the way. And yet it seems like we were the last to finish checking in because of our situation. We got questioned again on our extended stay in the Philippines since we're US passport holders. Donna had to explain to them it's allowed because we were born in the Philippines but they had to make sure by painstakingly looking it up in their manual. Donna asked them about our in-transit status in Taipei but they didn't know too much about it saying our having a confirmation number should be good enough. And then they almost wouldn't let us check in 3 pcs of luggage totaling 60 kg saying it's a Pacific flight but Donna argued we originally came from the US and Japan was basically just a long stop over of some sort for us. Somehow she convinced them.

The meals they served on the flight were pretty cool, literally. At least mine was. I chose fish and it came in a seemingly gift wrapped box.


Donna had the boring chicken. :-)


I'm happy cause I was able to finish the movie Departures. Rent it Reg, it's a good one. You can understand Japanese anyway so it doesn't matter if the DVD rental doesn't have any English subtitles.

We arrived here at Taoyuan Airport on schedule and a gentleman with our names on a white board was waiting for us by the EVA counter.


Donna had a heck of a time explaining to them that her credit card should have been charged for our room already. But she ended up paying $85 at the counter and we finally got out of there after almost half an hour of discussion.



We found out that the Evergreen is an in-transit hotel owned by EVA Airlines and it's actually located in the terminal building so we didn't even have to go out of the airport and it's here that I'm posting this right now. We already have our wake up call tomorrow for our 9 am flight to Manila. Ok, I'll have to go now so we can have dinner.


We arrived at the Taoyuan International at around 5 pm so after checking in and dinner, we had plenty of time to walk around the terminal checking out the various displays.


June 13, 2009
Finally, here's our plane to Manila!!

Japan '09 - Misc part 4

It's a bit embarassing to admit but we're a family of snorers. Reggie almost always sleeps before everyone, whenever his back touches something - a couch, the floor, a futon - he's knocked out. That's why we can hear him snore and usually Donna follows suit and she snores and then it's me. According to Manami we all have our own unique 'sound'. Apparently, I have my lips flapping around when I exhale, to the amusement of everybody when Manami told us. Surprisingly, she does not snore.

Yes, this is how small their apartment is over here.

Yesterday, after Reggie has unwound a bit, we walked towards the Yokosuka Chuo train station where we were supposed to meet Manami's parents, Masukazu and Tamiko. When we arrived at Gonta restaurant, they were already waiting for us.


The first thing I noticed when we got seated at the table was a peanut in each place setting. Donna and I were wondering if we were supposed to eat it, how come there's only one. Then Manami explained it's there as a chopstick rest but it can still be eaten later.


Dinner was great as usual and the Karaoke session afterwards was even better.


Both Manami's parents sang a couple of Japanese songs and her Mom did a fairly decent version of a Carpenters song although she spoke very little English. Manami sang a Japanese song as well. I'm surprised I was able to sing in spite of my cough which hasn't completely gone away. Two glasses of iced tea helped cool down my throat in between Bed of Roses and Faithfully. Of course, Donna did her ohako (favorite Karaoke song) Top of the World and Torn Between Two Lovers.


A little before nine, we had to call it a night and said goodbye to Masuchan and Tamichan - they have to work in the morning. We walked with them towards the train station and bid our Sayonara promising to see each other again in the future.


Karaoke was a bit short so Reggie got a hold of his old friends Ryo and his wife Minako. I met them during my last visit in Japan in 2006.

After Manami's parents have gone into the train station, the four of us walked towards town and we went to a basement venue with Karaoke booths. Ryo and Minako were already there waiting. They remembered me from 2006. After paying for one hour, we headed to our booth. Luckily the drinks were free and I ordered my usual iced tea. It felt great to be able to sing again. Reggie just had to hear me sing Nowhere Man again with Ryo singing harmony. Ryo didn't disappoint with Billy Joel's Honesty and like Minachan, he spoke a couple of English words. He also backed Reggie up with Woman. Here is Manami singing the song "Sayonara No Mukougawa" with Ryo. It didn't feel like it but the phone rang, the front desk telling us it's been an hour so I had Reggie ask for another half hour extension.


With the half hour extension over, we had the prerequisite group pictures and the 10 minute goodbyes.


When we got home, Donna opened up the goodbye presento from Tamichan - more souvenir sembei.

Japan '09 - Misc Part 3

When we lived here in the late 70's, there was no five-minute-walk to Livin, no Liquor Port down the corner and no Seven Eleven across the street. Nowadays it's so convenient with these stores so close to Moriya Mansion. But yesterday, my housemates got all sushi'd out so they ordered some Chinese. I found it a bit strange that the food got delivered in its own china.


Manami said if we leave the dishes out the door, they will be picked up in a day or so not unlike room service. And talk about food delivery, we ordered pizza a couple of days ago. It wasn't cheap but it was the greatest thin crusted pizza I've had in a while.

Remember I mentioned how good watermelon is around here albeit a tad expensive? Well, we were at the Livin grocery today and I thought I'd take a few pictures as proof. Here are some watermelons and just to give you an idea, the current exchange rate is 94 yen for every dollar. So these watermelons are roughly over $14 EACH! And that's like 700 pesos. Heck, they sell three watermelons for 100 pesos in the Philippines!


Go check out these peaches, a whopping $7.50 each.


So those of you living in the good ol' US of A, stop whining and be thankful with what you've got!


I almost forgot to mention, however, there are certain times of the day in Livin (like lunch and around 8 pm) that sushi and some tempura get to be on sale.


I sent my niece Jack an eMail a couple of days ago to try to make arrangements for Carding to pick us up from the airport this Saturday and today I received her reply saying that he's been notified. Thanks, Jack.

And talk about eMail, I was chatting with Sherwin yesterday and he sent me a link on the brand new website to his travel agency. Pardon the shameless plug but take a peek at Kairos Travel for your travel and touring needs.

Now I'm not sure if it was the cough syrup with codeine or the Vicks on the soles of my feet but I'm actually feeling much better. I had like a total of 3 cough attacks today.

WooHoo! Karaoke, here I come!

I'm not quite sure what got into Donna but she's been cooking like crazy over here. And she's been showing Manami how to cook all these Filipino dishes: adobo, arroz caldo, paradadas, nilaga, bistig, etc. Tomorrow, she's planning on cooking sinigang and bulalo. I think it was mostly Manami who cooked the adobo we brought to Mio's house last Sunday.

We haven't had the chance to go inside the base to do our laundry so I've done a couple of loads up here and have been hanging up our clothes outside to dry.


As soon as Reggie got home from work this afternoon, we went to an Ikea like furniture store called Nitori and they showed us the furnitures they ordered for their new place in Sasebo. They've also been eyeing these cool lamps that surprisingly are made in the Philippines which we probably could get for a much cheaper price back home.


Tomorrow we have another (and maybe the last) dinner date with Manami's parents. And perhaps Karaoke later, if I'm lucky?