Aug 22, 2008

New Adventures in Old Japan

Yesterday we went on a base-sponsored tour of Misawa. It was designed to help us learn to live in Japan. We learned a LOT!!!
Our first stop was a Buddhist temple! (very cool!) We learned how to properly summon Buddha;

We learned a little about how they honor their dead...
and we rubbed Buddha's belly for good luck.
Next, we went to a "briefing" where we learned all sorts of good stuff and got a card with all sorts of useful information on it. Like how to say
"I'm lost. Please direct me to Misawa Air Force Base." in Japanese.
Plus, we got free sushi.
(Gabe gives it two thumbs way up!)
Next we took a tour of a Samurai house . It was all set up like it would have been back in the day. (What day, you ask? A day long, long ago. That's all I remember. Give me a break.) It had cool rice paper walls and the rooms were all furnished and even came with creepily surreal wax figures.
FYI, do NOT walk on the stage in the back. It's for display only. NO FEET!Next, we did some other cool stuff. But I don't really remember what anymore. (Did I say this happened yesterday? It's two days ago now. I've been a lazy blogger lately.)
The important thing to remember here, is what I DIDN'T learn. I DIDN'T learn how to get my Google Reader to Read to me in English.

That's what I didn't learn. And since that's pretty much all I needed to learn, I feel cheated. And I'm going to take it up with the Chief. Or Colonel. Or Commandant. Or President. Or whatever.

'Cause this stuff is important. Obviously.

I'll let you know how the President responds.

In the mean time, anyone know how to fix my Reader?

7 comments:

sunsetandcamden said...

I don't know if you've figured this out yet or not, but I'll try to help anyway. On the upper right hand corner of google reader, there are some tabs. There's your email address and then the tabs start. The second one in after your email address is the settings tab. Click on that and then the first option is "Language" and there is a pull down menu. Click on English and you should be good to go! When I was in China, I lived with it for months in Chinese before experimenting and figuring out how to change it. Good luck!

FOX said...

Em!! I miss you! Thanks for being shocked about that crazy email, right along side of me, even on another continent!! You are awesome! I can't wait to visit!

Tell Gabe to stop getting bigger until I get there!! He is freaking me out!!!

Marni said...

Hey! I just moved all my subscriptions over to Google Reader - since I'm in Google all the time! Check out the settings link and choose "English" as your language. Oops, just noticed that someone else mentioned that too!

On another note, the other day Ryan came into the room and said "I want to go see Sam and Max." I guess that's his way of saying he misses you! :) (I miss you too!)

Melissa Abby said...

Gabe looks SO old!!!

Mel said...

When I first opened your blog page I got all excited & thought that the first pic was your house! MEL :)

Beeswax said...

So, on the phone last night, my sister says, "I was reading your blog comments and those ladies seem cool. Who is acte gratuit? You should invite her out to lunch so we can meet her."

To which I responded: "Alas, she has recently moved to Japan. There will not be any lunches with us in her near future."

I cannot fix your reader problems. Unless you can learn to read Japanese, real quick-like?

acte gratuit said...

Beeswax;
High praise, indeed!
Now please do the following:
1) Arrange for us all to meet for lunch...in two years and 11 months...in Carlsbad.
2) Tell your sister to start reading my blog and to tell all her friends to read my blog so I can get rich and famous and then in two years and 11 months I'll TREAT when we go out to lunch!
3) Tell her not to be disappointed because I'm not that funny in person.

:)