Since we took a military flight, we didn't fly into Tokyo Narita or Haneda, but into Yokota Air Base, which sits on the outskirts of the city. We would have liked to go down to the military hotel in the city right away, but they didn't have any openings. Instead, we took advantage of spending a few days with some friends we were stationed with in New Jersey and seeing some of their local sights.
Before I continue, I have to tell you that the weather in Yokota was terrible! It was absolutely freezing and we were unprepared. I had tried to find some gloves and hats for the kids here in Okinawa, but that was futile on a tropical island. We got off of the plane and headed straight out to the stores. Our first stop was Seiyu, a Japanese store owned by Walmart.
If you look closely at the top left corner of the picture, that is us in the black taxi. Interestingly, it had the same familiar "Rollback" price signs and the same brands, but much higher prices! Although we didn't find what we needed there, we did find it at the trusty BX and the next day we were ready for an adventure!
And what an adventure! Mother Nature decided she would greet us with an all day thunderstorm. With no car, it posed a bit of a problem. As you can see, taxis are NOT a problem, but on Yokota taxis are not allowed on base, so that left us walking in the freezing rain to the gate where we then had to call and wait for a taxi! Oh, and I forgot to mention, Tokyo taxis have a base rate of 760 yen, that's about $8 just to get in!!
Get the feeling we decided to stay in for the day? Nope, not us. We made our way to Round 1 an entertainment center similar to Dave & Buster's with bowling, karaoke, pool, darts, games, the works. Since we wanted to be out of the hotel for a while, we decided to bowl. The bowling alley was similar to any other, with swanky seating to make it unique. Except for one other lane, we were the only people in the whole place.
On our second game, the lights went black and they started making some announcement we couldn't understand. The attendant came to us and explained that they were going to play a game with us and the other team. For the frame, men had to get a strike and girls had to get at least 9 pins. Lucky me, I got 9 pins and this is what we got.
After that, it was back to the hotel, but not before the quintessential Japanese stop at the photo booth. These booths are everywhere. Basically, you sit for a few photos and then you get to decorate the photos with borders, writing, characters, any sort of cheesy decoration you could imagine. Ravyn helped do this sheet in a baby Micky and Minnie theme.
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