Japan

[KitchenWitch]

I found a couple of websites about the area of Japan that I live in and thought you all might enjoy seeing them.

http://www2.gol.com/users/graham/misawa.html
http://www.jomon.ne.jp/~mikemika/4.html

[kwormann]

Thank you for sharing these with us:)

The cherry blossoms are so beautiful!

SInce you ARE in Japan, any sugestions for healthy Japanese dishes? I LOVE Japanese food!

[mightyh]

Neat sites... I'm especially interested in how you like Misawa. We're an air force family and are looking into the bases in Japan for our next assignment. Can you give me any feedback on what you think?

[aggie94]

mightyh,

DH's family is AF, and his oldest brother just returned to the states from Yokota AFB in Japan. He was there for almost three years, and they loved it. If you have specific questions, I can talk to him and his wife and try to get some more info for you.

[mightyh]

Wow--good to hear they loved it. I don't really have specific questions yet, as we're about a year away from having to rank sites again, but just am trying to get a general feel for how folks like different bases.

Is Yokota the one outside Tokyo? Do you know if it's city-ish or a little more suburban? Do they have children and how did they kids do there? Did they experience any anti-American sentiment? I worry about that, esp. in Okinawa. I'd love to hear experiences if you can remember any they've relayed. Where are they stationed now?

[aggie94]

mightyh,

I'll check with DH's brother and sister-in-law to get some more feedback. I'm not sure where Yokota is exactly. And yes, they have two kids, 11ish and 7ish. They lived off-base for the first year or so, until they could get into base housing. He is a navigator (C-130s) and she is a SAHM. They're now somewhere in Alabama, not sure which base. They lead such busy lives that we don't stay in touch with them near as well as we would like to. But I'll email her and touch base with her and get some feedback on what their experiences were like. (I know they raved about all the great food!).

[mightyh]

Sounds great, aggie94... No hurry, but excited to hear more. Yes, I think dh and I would think the food was a great perk! We're just worried about being so far from family, but do want to take advantage of the travel opportunities in the AF.

[KitchenWitch]

Yokota is the base right outside of Tokyo. I have only been there a few times on trips but it is nice. Great hub to travel from.
As far as Misawa, we love it. Very small town feel, beautiful base that has close ties to the local community. We have lived here for 8 years and are really going to miss it when we leave.

[akairo]

Do you have any good recipes for teriyaki sauce? The bottled stuff is awful.

Also, do you know how I could get a hold of some good books for teaching children (and myself) Japanese? Long story, but after the war, when my in-laws got out of the camps, they did everything they could to be "American" . On account of this they never taught their children the language or about their culture. I would like my children to learn about their heritage. I studied it for about 2 semesters in college, but not enough to do any real good. Any suggestions.

Tamara Yoshida

[JHolcomb]

Cool! My cousin just moved to Japan, to one of the Naval bases, but I can't remember which one. It's in the mountains is all I can remember. Your post gives me hope that she will come to like Japan (she's...adjusting) or at least come to tolerate it. Did it take you a while to adjust or did you love it right away?

Oh, and akairo_nishin, I can't help you learn Japanese, but I have a friend who is Mexican-American, and her mother refused to teach her Spanish because she didn't want her to have an accent. Wanted her to be as American as possible. She has no desire to learn Spanish, but she's still young and may want to when she's older.

[KitchenWitch]

Tamara - I will go to the bookstore tomorrow and look. We usually have some good selections here. If we have some, I can get you the titles and you can look for them, or I can ship them to you. I don't have any teriyaki recipes but I can also look for that. I am desperatly trying to learn how to make a sauce called Best sauce. I had a friend translate the ingredients, but it is a trial and error to get the right proportion.

[Don]

Hi Tamara,
One of my best friends is Japanese-American, and she was always complaining that she could not find Asian dolls or Japanese themed books and toys for her twin girls. There's a great website, www.asiaforkids.com, that specializes in Asian themed educational materials and dolls for kids. I have ordered items from there many times, and the service and quality have been great. When I ordered the first set of Asian dolls for my friend's twins, she screamed "Oh my gawd, they're Asian!" and promptly broke into tears. Apparently she had always wanted a doll that looked like her, but never got it. Check out Asia For Kids. It's a great resource.

[akairo]

I will definitely check them out thanks.

Dawn, if your friend has a sewing machine, or is good with a needle and thread, I have a book that shows how to make traditional Japanese dolls. It is called "Omiyage" by Kumiko Sudo. Once I get settled in my new home (9 days and counting:D :D :D )
I am going to get to work and sew up a bunch for christmas gifts. The idea I had is that since they are soooooooooo easy to make that I would make a bunch of dolls and little bags and then whenever someone comes over to my home I would let them pick a little gift.

Kitchenwitch, I thank you for your search for me.

Tamara