Everclear

Sunday night MWR put on a open air concert with the rock group Everclear. There was an opening band who played a whole bunch of classic tunes to start off the evening off. A couple of friends and I met with the lead singer of everclear right before they went on and got to talk some music with him. What an interesting guy. They took the stage around 8:00 and played all their hits (Father of Mine, Wonderful, and New Life). I was talking to some guys who had been here for a while and they said this was the biggest show Sasebo has had forever. I was happy to be able to see this, because one thing I miss from the states is the music concerts.

Mt. Aso

Temperatures have finally cooled and the hikes around the area started up again. It's been a while since I went on one that I almost forgot about it this morning. Mt. Aso is an active volcano on Kyushu located near the Kuju Mountains . We started our hike at about 930 and made it up and down in about 5 hours. The trail was a little more difficult than any I had been on before with little vegetation and lots of rocks that made for some interesting climbing. The top peak was 1592 meters and the active crater was right next to it. The mountains we climbed were in the middle of the biggest caldera in the world formed a long time ago. What once was the center of a large active volcano is now home to several thousand people. The trail we took didn't get us to close to the active peak but it made for good pictures

Night Clinics

The recent typhoon allowed the vet to only come down here this week. We already had a full week's schedule already made for the first week in September so we had to add on top of that this weeks appointments, so to allow for all of them to be seen this week we had the clinic open until 8 o'clock at night. This made for a long day but in the end we got everybody in and out and happy. Inspired by the "__ days without a DUI" sign in our weekly newspaper, me and the vet (with our weird sense of humor) placed a sign in the clinic stating "This clinic has operated for 2 days without a casualty" We decided to keep it at two and see what people's reaction would be, hopefully their humor is the same as ours.

Tuesday Morning Football

I found a new hardship that I'll have to get endure while living in Japan. I awoke Monday morning earlier than usual before my run and turned on the TV in hopes of seeing some of the Chiefs game this week. Unfortunatley the TV had on the 4 o'clock (EST) games and it was early 2nd quarter. I missed the entire game by an hour!! And today for lunch I sat and watched the Monday night game up until the point where it got really good. You know right when I had to go back to work, ughh. I guess I'll just have to lose some sleep on Mondays from now on and just watch the games. I was excited to see KC won though, hopefully that new defense will help out and get us far this year.

Shinkansen

Before sending me to a leadership course in Korea it is mandatory for me to get a small pox vaccine. Since the health clinic here is so small, I would need to go to the next nearest military base which is in Iwakuni, 4 hours away. The cheapest way (the only way the government travels) was by train. The regular passenger train took me from Sasebo to Fukuoka, one of the larger cities in Kyushu, and then from there I hopped on the skinkansen, or bullet train, Iwakuni. Going across the country these things can reach speeds of 100 mph, I don't know if we were going that fast, but then again I am a sort of a pessimist. Well so I got to Iwakuni and found out that I needed to have blood banked and analyzed before I even get the shot, somewhere somebody dropped the ball on getting me that information so the adventurous trip was for nothing. I will, however, have to make this trip again eventually.

Sushi Go-round (and around and around......)

Today we had a luncheon for all those associated with the army. The restaurant of choice was a new sushi place around where they lived. Now this is a good idea, the conveyor belt passed right by the booth. You didn't even have to get up! They charged by the plate and had a variety of different tastes. One of the guys who works with us is Japanese and he was showing "the good stuff" and letting us know what we were grabbing. Eel, salmon, and snapper (all raw of course) seemed to please my palate the best. I usually like eating the fish, that's no problem for me, but it's when the horseradish gets applied, that makes my eyes and nose water. Another great experience in a great country......the sushi go-round.

What's the difference between a Hurricane and a Typhoon?

I don't know either. I think it has to do with what ocean the cyclone is in. Anyways, the latter got us an extra day off on this already long holiday weekend. The first typhoon of the season was spotted on the radar around Friday and they had guessed right on the day at which it would come. Monday afternoon I got a call saying the base was going to be shut down because of the expected high winds and rain. No vet clinic appointments today, so it was spent watching movies and scheming on ways to improve my recently acuired Fantasy Football team. The rain stopped around four and I think I saw the sun peering from the clouds. I don't know if we got the worst of it, but it wasn't as deadly or destructive as what happened in Louisiana.