Alice in a Labyrinth

Tokyo has a few themed restaurants that are very popular among both locals and foreigners.  Everything from the food and drink to the decor and costumes fit the particular theme.

There is Ninja Akasaka where you have a ninja who pops out of the ceiling as your waiter and serves you food shaped like ninja starts, Alcatraz E.R where you are a medical patient in a prison and eat in a jail cell and also, 5 Alice in Wonderland themed restaurants scattered around the city.  We chose Alice in a Labyrinth located in the popular neighborhood of Ginza.

After walking up and down the same street for 40 minutes we finally found it. 

Our waitress, dressed as Alice, hands us a pop-up menu to start our experience.

We chose sushi, spicy shrimp and the cheese plate to start off.  As you can see the theme continues with the food. :)

We also ate yellowtail pizza shaped like the Chesire Cat's tail, but the lighting was bad and I couldn't get a good pic.

The ambiance was cool and decor was even better.  I really wanted to sit in the tea cup!

Thanksgiving in Tokyo-Part I

Konnichiwa!
One of the best parts of living overseas is the ability to travel to so many great places.  Before we even moved here, we made a long list of destinations and Tokyo was up at the top.

Since Jeff had a 4-day weekend for Thanksgiving, we decided to take the bullet train into Tokyo and enjoy the city.

And it's.
Amazing.

We took the earliest local train out of Misawa on Thanksgiving morning.  The train was full of high school kids in uniform, a few people making their morning commute, and the two of us.  It was only about a 15 minute train ride to meet the Shinkansen (bullet train) in Hachinoe.  We had heard good things about the bullet train and it did not disappoint.  The seats were roomy (much bigger than on an airplane) and it was a smooth 3 hour ride.

Once in Tokyo Station, we needed to catch the subway to get to our hotel in Roppongi.  Thank goodness we met a sweet, old Japanese guy who spoke excellent English to help us find our way out or we would have spent the entire weekend in there.
Tokyo Station is GIANT.

Inside Tokyo Station:
Shinkansen
JR trains (local)
Subway station
department store
boutique shopping
hotel
Starbucks

Ok, so maybe a weekend in there wouldn't be too terrible. ;)

{Tokyo Station}

We made it to Roppongi and to our hotel.  This area of town has a lot of restaurants, bars, shopping areas and was a block away from the subway so it made getting around the city very easy.  We checked in, dropped off our bags and began our adventure!

{on an overpass}

First stop...food.
Tokyo has every type of food you could want.  Since we can have good Japanese any day, we wanted anything but noodles and sushi.   Right around the corner from our hotel was this small Turkish sandwich stand.  It was awesome!!

{Happy Thanksgiving!}

After lunch we spent the rest of the day exploring....
Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi is a large shopping area connected to the Four Seasons hotel and other businesses with most of the stores underground.  Outside they had 10-15 different Santa statues that you could take pictures with...they were so cute!!  I wanted to take a picture with all of them!

I chose this one.....

{Hey there Santa}

We walked around Roppongi for the next couple of hours checking out the neighborhood until going up to settle into our room and get ready for dinner.....

Alice in Wonderland awaits!!!

You'll see.. ;)

Oriase Gorge

Fall is here!

But almost over.

Last weekend we drove over an hour out to Lake Towada with our friends Brent & Allyson.  We knew we had to go before all the leaves were gone!  

The weather was amazing and the area was absolutely beautiful.

{this guy is so talented!}

{this was what he was painting}

{we made it}

{don't fall in!}

{Allyson & I were hungry after our hike}

{Lake Towada}

Painted!!!!!

The desk is finally painted!!
Since we don't have a backyard or patio, I had to set up shop in the kitchen.  Not ideal, but it worked.

The painting was the easy part, 2 coats and I was done.  But then I used polyurethane to seal the top and it turned yellow!  I did some research and figured out the issue most likely was because I used a light paint color, so I sanded it all off, repainted and used a spray protector instead.  I would feel better if I could find a piece of plexiglass to put over the top to protect it, but Kashi said it's really expensive here.  And Kashi would know!

I'm really happy with the way the entire project turned out.  I'm still looking for desk accessories and drawer pulls.  Good thing Target ships to APO! :)

{started underneath to make sure the paint was okay}

{lookin' good}

The desk is finally done!!

Here in Misawa, we live in a 2 bedroom/1 bath apartment.  Although we really like the space, finding a strategic place for everything has been challenging.  With our floor plan, we have a large living area that can actually be broken up into two parts: TV area and small home office.

Since we technically have a small office space we desperately needed a desk!  I searched everywhere online, but furniture is expensive and I couldn't really find anything to fit our space.

So why not build it myself!?

I did some research online and found a great plan with a modern design.  I have no experience in the wood shop other than my little iPad display, but I was eager to get started.  Go big or go home right!?

Our wood shop imports all types of wood from the states, so I was able to get what I needed there and bought screws, glue, plywood and drawer slides from Homac.

I then rolled up my sleeves, put my protective eyewear on and I. Was. Ready.

{Here we go}

{cutting all the wood @ the beginning}

Wood is more expensive here than at home, so a few adjustments had to be made right from the beginning.  I was unable to get one large piece for the top, so we pieced together 4-2x4's to make the top.
I then used biscuits in between each board for more support.

After the top was glued, nailed and clamped, we sanded it down and it became so smooth it looked as if the top was one piece!

{Kashi sanding the top}

Next up was the legs.....this was interesting.  We measured and cut according to the plan, but once all the parts were laid out it was too short on one side, too long on the other!  I think I spent a good half hour playing Jenga with these pieces.  Other guys in the shop even came over and tried to figure out what was going on and we came to the big conclusion:

the plan was wrong.

WHAT!?

"Oh, it happens." they said.

Again...WHAT!? 

So we just recut a few parts and kept on building.  

Dori, from Finding Nemo, kept echoing in my head..."just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

{new legs glued and clamped}

{I used small nails & then filled everything in with putty}

I spent 4 hours one day sanding everything.  It was a daunting task, but Kashi said it was the most important part. :)

The next step was to put all the pieces together!

Kashi said it would be a good idea to use screws to reinforce the glue and I didn't argue.  I made wood plugs to hide the holes.

Finally...the drawer.  It was the most difficult part of the build, but it's done!

 and after three weeks it's finally done and in our place!

{ta-da}

 I'm now in the process of deciding what color to paint it.  A final reveal will come soon!

Dentists just wanna have fun

Last weekend the dental squadron had their annual brewery trip.  About 40 people from the clinic loaded up onto two busses
This wasn't your typical brewery.  In fact, I never even saw where they made the beer!

We walked in and they had 5 long tables set up waiting for us.  Each group of 4 had a small grill where we were going to cook our own meat and veggies.  While we were eating they brought out pitchers of their beer, along with sake and the house drink Melon Shochu (it's like vodka).

{beer, sake & shochu}

{the Commander & Docs-incl. 2 wives}

{our friends Allyson & Brent}

After the 40 minute bus ride home, we decided to go out to a bar where a Doc's husband was DJ'ing.  This place was right outside the front gate.

{Jeff's dream job!}

{drink menu} 

{pumpkin pie shots}

Until next time…..