Greetings from the land of the rising sun and falling snow

It is hard to believe that it has been a week since I arrived at Yokota AFB Japan. It was a very busy week of inspecting. The weather was alot different from what I left in Hawaii. The first few days the highs were in the 40's and the low's in the 20's. Not bad by midwest standards but compared to Hawaii, they were a shock to the system. Luckily I remembered my gloves. Yokota sits in the central part of the western edge of the country. It is bordered on the east by the foothills which lead up to Mt Fuji. On a clear day from the roof parking lot at the commisary, you can see the mtn in all its splender. Luckily we were able to have one of those days and I was able to get the picture.

Unfortunately, I was bikeless so I had to resort to the stationary bike at the gym. My knee has been bothering since I completed my fitness test a couple of weeks ago, so I didn't do any weight lifting or running. I started the week off eating very carefully and managed to lose a couple of pounds but that changed mid week and I had a few drinks as well as some big meals so all progress was lost.

Friday night we finished our inspecting and were able to go off base. We had dinner in a 5 story shopping center. The meal wasn't too bad. It had a large window with a nice view. I took a couple of pictures of the KFC and the street. After dinner, we headed to the bar district. There must have been a hundred bars about the size of a living room. The drinks were quite expensive averaging 7 US $'s. The Bar area became off-limits after 0100 so we headed back to the club on base for some better priced drinks. Saturday there was a Jazz band at the club so I enjoyed the concert with a couple of the other inspectors. On the way home, we noticed it was spitting some snow. I didn't think anything of it until I woke up Sunday to about 3 inches on the ground.

I walked to church and ran into one of my old co-workers and his wife. They offered to take me off base for lunch. We went to a great "truck stop" which served a variety of stir fried items as well as Japanese style egg rolls called gyoza . They were very good. I brought 4 extra's home. Even in my refridgerator, they smelled up the room. Not sure if I will eat them or not. Afterwards we did what military do when the visit another base, checked out the Bx annex. I went home and finished packing then headed for the gym for an hour on the exercise bike. I pushed it pretty hard and my knee felt pretty good. I hope it is on the road to recovery but I am still going to have it looked out when i get home. Tomorrow, I am going to get up early and watch the Superbowl before heading back to Hawaii. It is still snowing so hopefully that won't affect our trip out.