I go all the way to Japan and promptly head to Chinatown!

So I go all the way to Japan and what's the first thing I see when I go on my first excursion? Chinatown!!!! Yokohama is about a half an hour train ride north of Atsugi and they have a large and very vibrant Chinatown. The place was packed with tourists (mostly Japanese) and very busy. Unfortunately it was raining most of the time and we got down there late in the day so I didn't have enough light for many of my pictures. We also ate a really nice Chinese dinner in this mall which had the largest food court/market I've ever seen in a mall. Food vendors and grocery store aisles kinda just ran into each other! I was just happy we could find a place to sit while we ate since they didn't have much space for tables. Other than that Yokohama is just like many other major cities. We only had time to explore just a little bit since the city is actually pretty large. It's the sister city of San Diego and they have an area which commerates that partnership somewhere that I hope to find at some point. Yokohama has both a baseball and football team which play at their main stadium. Their football team has a few games in November so we're going to try and see how good the Japanese are at playing American football. We walked right by the stadium and it looks really nice. We could actually see onto the field at one point and it looks like they have a nice setup in there; I look forward to seeing a game there at some point.

This is an old picture taken in the Persian Gulf during my first deployment in 1998. Behind me is one of the Iraqi oil transfer stations off the coast. The area we were patrolling was along the Kuwaiti, Iraqi and Iranian coastlines where the Tigris and Euphraties dump into the gulf. When this picture was taken it was about 127 deg F; good times.

Is it just me or does Sona look like a muppet?!? LOL

Lahaina's Beach House

This is me with two of my dearest friends in the whole wide world, Sona and Sarah. We're at Lahaina's Beach House in Pacific Beach enjoying the sun and being happy to be young and alive in America. When they come visit me in Toyko it's on!

This was done by my artist friend Crystal who lives in New Orleans. It's a graphic art piece of me and my buddy Dave at a Halloween party. I was dressed as an "Afronaut". Crystal is an incredibly talented artist and I have some great works of hers in my house. Thankfully she, her husband Chris and their dog Lola are fine but still somewhat displaced. Their apartment was on the third floor of their building so their stuff is fine but one of their cars flooded out and it's still not safe or feasible for them to move back. But they're safe and alive and that's what's important.

Viva Las Rivas! and I at Dooley's wetting down at the Liar's Club.