Yokosuka Japan Whoo hoo!

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Thursday (7/1/10) was safety day for lessons. It went Amazing which felt good for me because I was one of the three that planned the event. We had three stations that were safety topics related to a ship wreck. The three stations were life jackets, survival floats, and the lifesaver. It was really fun for everyone I thought. We also had it really planned out and made changes really quickly to the plan when we needed to modify it for the younger children. Guarding was the same old thing. It is really nice to get a break because we have access to internet so we can work on things and look up other things. Thursday night was really uneventful. Just kind of a hang out night. We did decide to go to the galley for supper for the first time; it was really nice to get a meal that was not out of a microwave for once. We had to run there thought because it closes at We went to bed rather early because we wanted to wake up early and swim our laps. We usually swim our laps during our break between lessons and guarding, but because of our Fun Friday and all the food that is brought to that event we knew that our stomachs would not like swimming right after that so we went early.
Friday (7/2/10) was really fun!! We do not have to do anything with lessons it is just a fun day for all the kids. We do a samon run were each child show something that they learned during the session. My preschool 1 class did a song together and then my level one kids all did something different. It actually went really well, I was a little nervous! Then we play a tone of games with the kids which was also a great time. Mostly with the little kids we sang a bung of songs. After the game portion of the fun day we handed out their certificates for taking the course. We then had a bunch of food!!! The first session brought some amazing food. One of my kids gave me a Japan key chain which was really nice. I must have been a good teacher! Lol. After the fun Friday we again had lifeguarding which was the same as always. I was only on the schedule for an hour so I had a lot of time off. We laid low on Friday and went bowling!! And of course we got in free! We went with one of the MWR staff to go bowl and then went to the 7eleven to get Japanese ice cream. We drove around with him which was a new adventure for us because we walk everywhere!
Saturday (7/3/10) we woke up early to go to the Lifeguard Olympics. It was for all who wanted to come, including the MWR staff. It was really fun; we did a bunch of relays and also senerios which was cool because we got to pretend we were kids and make problems for the ones that were the lifeguards. We also got prizes for being there. My team won!!! After the olyimpics we first planned to go to Tokyo but decided not to because the George Washington was coming and we wanted to go see that. So, we stuck around base and waited for that to come in. Once we did that we walked around base and Yokosuka some more. We walked all the way through a mall and Blue Street. That night the band Blue October was playing so we watched them for a while and then again walked around the sea wall on base.
Sunday (7/4/10) was the 4th of July! It was great to see everything that goes on at the base. We worked the events that went on, which was a carnival like set up. I worked the Toddler bounce with another camp adventure staff. We worked eight hours that day. We first worked to help decorate the area. We then went to Green Beach pool (where I work most of the time) and got some free cookies which was all that was left of the free food that was there; so instead of eating there we went to Taco Bell. After lunch we then started to work at the stations we were assigned. We worked those stations from 3 till about 7:30p.m. The fireworks were at 8 so we got to go see them. They were ok Fireworks, but nothing to get really excited about. After the fireworks we had to go back and clean everything up for the day. It helped just to keep thinking that we were going to get paid for all of our work.
Monday (7/5/10) came really fast! I got to talk to my parents which was nice. It also started my guard only session which will last for two weeks. I know go to Green Beach at 8:30 until 5:30 and will just be guarding. They talked about us also teaching private lessons to, but I don’t really know what happened with that since I have not heard anything about it. We did not work much at all and had a lot of shift off because it was a holiday so the Day Camp did not come in the morning like they usually do, and then we were not put on the rotation schedule a lot of the day( I did not complain). In the morning there was a running blitz for the Japan Olyimpics for Camp A, which I did not attend. There will be other things that I will attend later in the week. There was really nothing going on that night. My roommate and I watched Lady and the Tramp and then went to the weekly meeting for Yokosuka Aquatics. We did a really cool activity were you have everyone close their eyes except for 3 people and then one person says things like “ tap the persons shoulder if you admire them”. It was interesting to see or I guess feel the taps on your shoulders, even though you did not know which of the three people touched your shoulder there were some that all three tapped your shoulder so you knew that they felt that way about you. The meeting was long again!!!!! I no longer expect a meeting that will last a half hour, but a meeting that will last a lifetime!!!
Tuesday (7/6/10) was not a very exciting day. I guarded all day at the Greenbeach pool. Nothing very exciting happened there either. We did have inservice for life guarding today. It was a mess because there are so many people we have to have two different inservices and then one group of people were mad because their inservice was during their lunch and so they did not go up on stand when they needed to so a couple of people were including me were sitting out and waiting for an hour. So there were some people mad at each other. Everything was ok though when we went and played water polo! It was really fun. We ahd to wear long socks like day camp does everyday. We also had a couple of the MWR staff come and play with us which made it even better. So we played with socks on and my team won!!! It did help thought that we had a player that actually played in college. After water polo and the many underwater pictures taken, we practiced our song/dance for the Olympic challenge. And then we were done. Tuesday we also started the assins game. We are playing with socks.
Wednesday (7/8/10) was kind of like Tueday. We had Zumba in the morning. This is like a work out dance. It is more fun than anything, but you do work up a sweat doing it. This was also for the olymics compition in Japan. After Zumba we filmed the dance/song for the Olympics so we could send it to our head person. Then we went to the pool to guard all day. That night was social night so we all went out bowling. Well it was supposed to be for all of camp , but about 8 of us went including one of the MWR staff. To make the night worse, I was horrible at bowling and most likely bowled the worst I ever have in my life!!
Thurday (7/9/10) was our day off from work. We decided to go to Yokohama again and go to a baseball game. In the morning I hung out around the TPU (where we are saying) and chilled. We left for Yokohama around 12; our first stop was going to the Bay Shopping area. This turned out to be a outlet mall, an American Outlet Mall. This included Underarmor, Nike, Addias, Puma ect. We were there for quite awhile. Also while we were there we went to a Pizza Place to eat. We had heard that Japanese pizza was different………………..it was!! It was good though. We tried two different kinds, one was potato and ham, and the other was ham and mushrooms which sounds like American Pizza, but the sauce was a lot different. The pizza was good, but definitely not Casey’s Pizza. We then headed to the baseball game. To get there we had to walk quite a ways and then get on the train again. Once we got out of the train the stadium was easy to find. It was 18 yen to get into the baseball game. The game was quite an experience let me tell you. They are not quite like our games, but crazy loud like a World Cup soccer game!!! They had cheers for everything! They also had a drums and trumpets in the crowd, and a director to direct the cheers! I don’t even remember much of the game itself , but all the cheering! The most exciting part of the game had to be the left fielder of the opposite team. He could speak English and saw us in the stands, he was not Japanese. He kept trying to get our attention during their warm up which we did not notice until almost the end of the game. Finally when we understood what he was saying “ Where are you from” he had to start playing. The next time he came out for warm ups he told us to come down. HE then threw up a baseball to us which was signed, had his number on it, and a note asking us to call him so he could get to know us. That made the game so much more fun. We had Japanese people asking what he said, telling us to call him, and all together talking to us! We even tried to call him, but his phone would not let us through. That was kind of sad so we went and got ice cream to make us feel better. We then got on the train back home, this took awhile since we forgot our map and had to guess what train to get on, we guessed right!
Friday (7/10/10) was our other day off. We were planning on going sailing, but the weather did not go in our favor because there was not wind at all. So instead we went kayaking, this was just as much fun. We went with one of our friends from work. We were in Tokyo Bay in the Marina of Base. It was cool we saw Jelly’s and best of all I tiped over! It gave everyone a laugh, looking back I wish I would have tipped them over as well. That was fun, and Our friend that was with us (who was going to take us sailing) promised that he would take us before the end of summer!! We then took a lunch break (and to change our wet cloths). We then headed out to an island right off base called Monkey Island. The island has a beach and a bunch of trails on it. We found out when we were walking that it was where Japanese stored ammunition during wars (at least we think) There were tunnels all around with lockers for it all. There were also battery areas. We also could walk on the edges of the island which was really cool. We got out to the island by a ferry. The beach was really dirty, we had heard that the beach was basically a place that the Japanese have a bunch of parties ( to make my point they had a vending machine with beer in it) so it is not a place to have a relaxing day on. It also was a very small beach. It was raining so we did not stay on the beach. We Walked around everywhere we could and probably places were couldn’t (sssshhhhhhhhhhhh) . After monkey island we relaxed and waited for our work day to come.

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