Wags Party of 6: 3rd Weekend, 2nd Out in Town

Mick went on an office trip to Mount Fuji (I'll let him tell you about it) and was gone our second week from Thursday - Saturday. I had just gotten my drivers' license the day before he left and cut my teeth on the Japanese road signs and the left side driving on base while he was gone. But Sunday....it was back out in town!

Audrey helped us by remembering the landmark (KFC) to turn to get to the YouMe shopping district. We went up to the second floor (1st floor was groceries again) and got a few souvenirs for our friends. Claire had to go to the bathroom, we suffered through another squatty potty episode before lo and behold, we found a Western potty! Hooray!

Then the girls each bought a skirt for the first day of school while Claire played.

We then went to a late lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was delicious!

One of the most interesting things is the extreme recycling that goes on here. There are two kinds of garbage, combustible and non-combustible. Your combustible is what can get burned. Paper and food scraps mostly. Cardboard and brown paper (cereal boxes) that are recycled in the states, are burned as well. Then the non-combustible consists of three different categories. Glass, metal and plastic. All plastic gets recycled, not just 1's and 2's like in the States. So at every garbage container, you have to separate stuff, even on the street or in this case, even at Kentucky Fried Chicken.


You pour the rest of your drink down the funnel on the right, then throw away the food scraps and the paper part of your packaging in the right container. All plastic goes in the left one. There's not a glass or metal space because they don't have any of that here.

Apparently, KFC is considered a Japanese company and a great deal of the Japanese people eat it for Christmas.

I had a fried chicken sandwich that had a sweet teriyaki sauce on it and cabbage. It was so good! I inhaled it!!!!! They didn't have ketchup for the fries, but packets of honey and alas...the very sad streak of no Diet Coke continued.

On our way back to the car, we went by this arcade.


There's also one on one of the floors in the Fuji Grand.

We went into another shop that was sort of like an Ace Hardware and amused ourselves to no end by trying on the different hats. ☺ I have a whole new super tolerant appreciation for foreign tourists who take pictures of random things in the States. I'm sure the locals thought we were LOCO!

This one had a metallic back and we thought our friend and Gigi's Godfather, Mr. Beau would like it!

So of course, everyone wanted to try on Mr Beau's hat!

Gigi's hat is for real, to cover her scar on her forehead. Whenever she wears it, Mick says she is a member of the Fruity Foreign Legion. ☺ She thought it was only fair that I try on a hat like I make her wear! ☺

Then we went to the Kintai Bridge to let the girls play in the fountains. Here in Japan, we were told by our cultural guide on our tour, the kids are allowed to play in the fountains. Audrey did a field trip through her summer camp to the Kintai Bridge and the Iwakuni Castle and loved the fountains! Unfortunately the fountains were shut off by the time we got there, but they still had a great time in the water.