SaveJapanDolphins.org

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been a little obsessed with whales. I remember getting the Encyclopedia of Whales picture dictionary for my birthday in elementary school. I loved that book. In fourth grade, I had to give a speech to the entire grade on my favorite whale. I chose the blue whale because it is the largest mammal in the world and I thought that was just cool. I remember taping pieces of paper together until I had 100 feet of paper so I could show my class how long 100 feet really is.

I was watching a recorded episode of Oprah today from last Thursday, Earth Day. It had a segment about dolphins and Japan. Two things I find interesting so I had to watch. This episode was not about the interesting culture of Japan, but about an awful hunting practice in Taiji, Japan. Taiji is not too far from where we live. Probably a 3-4 hour drive. The episode was highlighting an award winning movie called The Cove.  Maybe the link won't make you watch the movie, but this picture will definitely make me:

Japan is one of the few countries left in the world that still hunts whales. They say they hunt whales for "scientific" purposes which is a way around the International Whaling Commission rules and then sell the meat to fish markets and restaurants. We've eaten at several sushi restaurants that serve whale. According to the documentary, dolphin meat is often sold as whale meat because both are part of the order cetacea. I told our favorite sushi chef that I refuse to eat whale and he responded with, "What are you? Green Peace?".

Well, I'm not Green Peace, Shin, but I can spread the word about this movie. For those of you in Japan with Japanese friends or students, there is a condensed 15 minute video available on Savejapandolphins.org. It is subtitled in Japanese as well. The above website is also available in Japanese. Take a look.

Singapore: My favorite building

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but I loved this building in Singapore! They are doing a lot of construction around the quays and this was one of the buildings.

I think it looks like the buildings came out of the sea and a boat got stuck on top. Maybe that's what they were going for. I have no idea, but it's going to be a main attraction when all the construction is done. Can you see the palm trees on top?

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! I hope you had fun in Texas this weekend! Miss you and love you!

December seems so far away til I'll see you next! Have a great birthday!

Singapore: Day 4

Our last day in Singapore was just as relaxed as the rest. We started our day at Starbucks as normal, then headed to Clarke Quay. This are has a ton of restaurants and shopping. We wandered around for awhile and then decided to do a little shopping. I bought a pair of sandals because the stores in Singapore actually carry my size! Yay!

We ended up in the mall connected to our hotel which was huge and also contained a movie theater. We decided to check out the new Date Night movie with Tina Fey and Steve Carell, but it didn't start for over an hour. We decided to check out this wine bar that we had walked by the other day. I think Glenn noticed it because the valet parking for the hotel next door was in front of this bar. Every uber expensive car you can think of was parked there at some point!

We had a couple glasses of yummy wine and then went to the movie. Which by the way, was hilarious! I definitely recommend it to all my married friends. It is more funny if you are married. When we got out of the movie, we saw that it was pouring rain so we made a good choice by going to the movie instead of the pool!

We went back to the hotel and relaxed and changed for dinner. We were planning on going to the Thai restaurant in the hotel, but they had some special chef and the only dinner available was a set dinner for $100 each. No thanks! We headed to the Irish pub across the street and I enjoyed 2 for 1 martinis for happy hour! No fancy dinner for our anniversary today, but I got to spend it with my favorite person! A good end to a wonderful anniversary trip. Thanks, baby!

Singapore: Day 3

Glenn and I started by sleeping in til almost 10 am. I can't remember the last time I've done that. It kinda felt great. We got cleaned up and headed to Kampong Glam which is the Arab Street area of Singapore. If you haven't sensed a pattern to our trip yet, there definitely was one. We shopped, checked out the mosque and ate some amazing Egyptian/Lebanese food.

 I think this lunch was one of my favorites of our whole trip. Their hummus was amazing!

After we checked out this area and wandered in to some fun art stores, we headed back to the hotel via the longest walk ever, but we made it! Our plan was to take a train, but our map did not tell us that that particular train station was closed! Nards! Thank goodness Singapore has miles of connected hotels and shopping malls so we could walk the last part through an air conditioned mecca of stores.

We hung out in our room for the later part of the afternoon and watched our free Stars Movie Network and then got cleaned up to go to drinks and dinner.

Before drinks, we stopped by the famous Merlion fountain? statue? to take some pictures. I'm not sure why it's so famous, but we took our obligatory photo and moved on to eating and drinking!

Drinks were at the Fullerton Hotel. Glenn stayed here last time he was in Singapore and it is one of the nicer hotels in town, but when he is with the squadron (sans wife) they all stay in one giant suite and split the cost. I think they had the presidential suite last time and Glenn paid around $100. You might not get a bed every night, but it's the cheap way to travel I suppose! They even have someone who's duty each day is to be the "Admin Queen". The Admin being what they call their hotel room. The Queen's job is to make sure they get towels, beds made and the place isn't a total mess.

The Fullerton makes an unbelievably good mojito which was the purpose of our 20 minute walk in new heels. We both ordered 2 of the S$20 libations. My four new blisters were worth it! Deliciousness!

We headed close by to another Hawker Center for dinner. S$80 in drinks = cheap dinner. We ordered something that I can't remember the name of, but was pretty much an Indian version of a cheese quesadilla that you dip in curry. Yes please! Two Tiger beers and some noodles and I was a happy girl!

Glenn and I realized that this vacation was only the second vacation (after our honeymoon to St. Lucia) that we have taken together via airplane. I've met him several places, but only the second time we've flown together with the exception of trips back to Minnesota. This day in Singapore was our 4th anniversary of our courthouse wedding. Glenn calls this April our 3rd anniversary, but I call it our 4th! The joys of a military family!

Happy Birthday Annie!

Happy Birthday Annie! My card is in the mail, but I don't think it will be there til after your bday. I hope it's a great one! Miss you!

Singapore: Day 2

Day 2 was quite similar to Day 1, but instead of visiting China town, we visited Little India! Little India wasn't as nice as China town, but they had some neat stores that sold beautiful sari fabric and bangle bracelets galore! I'm not sure what they sell at the Thong Pawn shop, I was too grossed out to venture in. Just kidding of course! 

We wandered through the streets and checked out the temple and 24 hour market (where I found my neato hip bag). We even found the Banana Leaf Apollo restaurant made famous by Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel's Bizzare Foods, but we weren't too hungry at the time to check out the fish head curry.

After a snack, we headed back to the hotel for some pool time. I loved the lady at the pool because she walked around with a cart full of cool wash clothes, cold bottled water and green apples. Yes, yes and thank you very much!

We enjoyed a late lunch by the pool (like I said, we did a lot of eating and drinking in Singapore), a nap in our room and then we got cleaned up for the zoo! We showed up late to the zoo so that we could stay until closing time and then go to the night safari next door (think night zoo).

My favorites were the white tigers and the chimpanzees. We also got to see them feed the polar bears and you could ride an elephant if you wanted!

The Singapore zoo was one of the nicest zoos I've been too. I really enjoyed the openness of the zoo. There were very few walls and some of the animals just wandered around. After the zoo closed, we headed to the night safari. The night safari is an entire zoo dedicated to nocturnal animals. First we went to the "Creatures of the Night" show. It was neat, but kind of a let down. They train the animals, but only as well as you can train an animal so some of them didn't "perform" as expected. I did enjoy the otters cleaning up the recycling though:

After the show, we got on a tram that drove us through the park. You could also get off and check out some of the smaller animals like the bat house, for example. This part of the park was much better. The larger animals were a lot of deer and racoons. Being from the midwest, we've got those down.

Here's is Glenn with a pygmy deer. They were pretty cute. After the zoo we took and taxi and train back towards the hotel and attempted to find a bar that was still serving food. Since it was Sunday night and after 10:30, that was harder than we thought! We finally found a German pub at the hotel next door that still had some food!

Singapore: Day 1

We decided to checkout Singapore's china town on our first morning in town. We arrived at our hotel around 1 am the night before. The flight from Tokyo to Singapore is about 7 hours, but we only change 1 time zone! We flew Japan Airlines (JAL) which let us choose our own movies. Awesome! On the way there we watched Sherlock Holmes and on the way home I watched Whip It, It's Complicated and Up in the Air. All movies I've been wanting to see!

Anyway, Chinatown. We checked out the temple first. We didn't realize that the temple had been closed for many months and was reopening today so it was crazy packed. I loved all of the colorful carvings and outfits though. It just makes you feel festive!

It was raining pretty hard this morning so Glenn and I wandered through a few of the market streets and stores and checked out the local beer, Tiger Beer, before heading to our first Hawker Center for lunch.

Hawker centers are stalls and stalls of food vendors, all under one roof. The food is super cheap, home-made quality food with an amazing selection. Most people go with a group and order a whole table of food to share.

We ordered some noodles with pork, soup with dumplings and a beer or less than S$10. After Chinatown, we headed to the National Museum to get out of the rain. The National Museum had a wonderful history section that chronicles the life and events of Singapore and it's people. I'm glad we went on the first day so that I understood the country a little better.

After the museum, we headed to the Raffles Hotel where the famous Singapore Sling was invented. Two please!

 After our drinks, we headed back to the hotel to relax by the pool for a few hours. I think we also took a nap in our room. Vacation is tough! After we got ready, we headed to East Coast park to check out the restaurants and outdoor dining. We were excited to try the famous Singapore Chili Crab.

 The crab was delicious although I highly recommend that you ask for the bibs. We did not. Lesson learned. The drunken prawns were good, but the crab was much better. A few beers later, I'd call the night a success!

Lady Gaga!

Glenn and I went with 2 other couples to see Lady Gaga in concert on Saturday night. The concert was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! She is such a performer that it was an amazing show to watch. Plus being in Japan with all the crazy fans- it was an experience I won't forget!

Did I mention we were in the 8th ROW!? I've never been that close at a concert and it was incredible. My ears may suffer for life, but it was worth it!

Concerts in Japan are definitely a little different though. For example, I walked right in with my bag full of chu-his and beer. I was never patted down or had my bags inspected. The entire arena had 1 place to buy beer (what?!) and this was the line for t-shirts! I think some people are probably still waiting.

And then there was this-

Still not sure what to think about that. I really do love these Japanese super fans. Lookin' good.

An awesome, amazing performance!

Hanami with Keita and Hatsuki

When the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom, a couple of my students took Glenn and I to Tokyo to check out a few places and to see more cherry blossoms. It was a long day, but fun to hang out with them outside of my house where we have class.

First, we had burritos at our favorite Chipotle knock-off and then went to Asakusa where Glenn and I had both been before, but never together. Oddly enough, we had the burritos last on Christmas Eve. Apparently we like having burritos on Jesus-related holidays. It's a tradition. :)

Then we walked to the nearby Kappabashi district that is known as the "Kitchen District". You can buy anything restaurant or cooking related along the major street. Many of the stores were closed since it was Sunday, but we still have fun checking all the places out. One of my favorite stores was a plastic food shop. Most restaurants in Japan have plastic food displays of what the food looks like so that you can see it before you order. Many of the stores in Kappabashi were supply stores for restaurants. Looks like a grocery store, right? Since everything is hand made and hand-painted, some items were pretty pricey. This hunk o' meat was over 157,000 yen. That's approaching $2000!

Next we took the train over towards the Imperial Palace to check out the cherry blossoms. We wanted to see them under the lights, but we got there a little early so we checked out Yasukuni shrine which was next door. Since the cherry blossoms only last a short time, everywhere was packed with people. I'm getting used to it though. It doesn't bother me so much any more. You just wait your turn and weave your way through everyone eventually.

We stopped for a few snacks and a sakura (cherry blossom) flavored chu-hi. Keita got the octopus legs- oishi! Then back to the cherry blossoms.

Once the lights came on, there was a collective "ahhh" from the whole crowd. No where else have I ever seen such excitement over some foliage. I was right there with them though. The cherry blossoms are really beautiful. For a week.

We took the train back towards home and went to Keita and Hatsuki's favorite izakaya near their house. Thanks for such a fun day!

Our whole day was ended with our car being impounded and booted because our tags were expired. That part wasn't so fun. Ugh.