Thanksgiving & Getting Locked Up

Can't believe that it's already that time of year for the holiday season to begin. Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! Bern and I spent our first Thanksgiving here in Japan with our family away from home, The Cariaga's. We all decided to try out the Thanksgiving Day buffet at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo. Reservations were for 5:30pm so we thought this would be a great opportunity for us to do some sightseeing beforehand. Since J.R. is a huge anime fan, Bern and I took them to Akihabara which is the anime capital of Japan. He was so excited to see all the shops filled with Pokémon trading cards and anime figurines! After walking around for a few hours, we grabbed a quick Italian lunch and then headed to the Honey Toast Café for dessert. There are similar cafes in San Diego that serve these delectable treats but nothing to this scale. Bern and I tried their chocolate banana honey toast with vanilla ice cream...one of the best desserts I've ever had, no doubt! Really glad Kristine spotted this place as we were walking around Akihabara because now we can take visitors there to try it out for themselves.

After our time in Akihabara, we then boarded a train and headed towards the other side of town to the New Sanno Hotel. This is a hotel only for U.S. Military personnel so they had a special Thanksgiving Day buffet with over fifty American-style items on the menu....everything from the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, & pumpkin pie was on point. Even though we miss all of our family & friends back home in SD, Bern and I are extremely thankful for having the Cariaga's with us in Japan. Our time here has brought us closer and made this experience even that much better. Happy Thanksgiving 2014!

 

 

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Bern and I got "locked up" at one of Yokosuka's newest restaurants The Lockup. It's a scary-jail themed restaurant that my friend, Ben (one of the guys in my Kali group) invited us out to.

 

 

 

This place carried the whole scary-jail theme to the T... Our table was in a jail cell with steel bar doors at the entrance, the wait staff were all dressed up as cops, and even the menu had some really cool science-themed drinks & food. It was all you can drink so we tried a whole bunch of these cool drinks. Thank goodness that Ben's girlfriend, Yugumi, is Japanese or else we would have been so lost in trying to understand everything. Had a great time and hope we get to hang out again soon outside of kali class!

 

 

     

  

A Special Surprise for Bern's Birthday

There's no doubt that Bern will forever remember what happened for her birthday this year...and it's all thanks to Bern's sister Beverly! Bev found out that Bern's favorite singer, Jason Mraz, was going to be performing in Tokyo on November 14 (which is only three days before Bern's actual birthday). Bern actually knew about the concert a few weeks prior but found out a little late as tickets were already sold out. Luckily, Bev worked her connections and managed to get us tickets to the show. We wanted to keep this a complete surprise so all I told Bern was that we were going to Tokyo and that's it; she had no idea whatsoever what was going on. When we arrived at the Tokyo International Forum that night, I told her to wait outside while I got the tickets at will call. Luckily, there were no big signs or posters marketing the event. As I was picking up the tickets, the representative asked me if I knew anyone in the band because the tickets also came with two backstage passes. This completely caught me off-guard because I thought I was just getting tickets. At that moment, I knew Bern would freak-out even more knowing that she would actually get the opportunity to meet Jason Mraz after the concert...and boy was I right! I went back outside to tell Bern the good news and she was absolutely shocked.

This was actually our third time seeing Jason Mraz live in concert, the first two were back in San Diego at The Spreckles Theater & The Coors Amphitheatre. The performance included songs off his newest album as well as some of his past hits; a very entertaining show overall!

After the show, we went backstage and were anxiously awaiting for Jason Mraz to arrive. Bern had the biggest smile on her face.

I actually met Jason Mraz briefly when I was working for the Padres. He sang the National Anthem for Opening Day one season and I happened to be near the suite elevator as he was heading up after his performance. But Bern getting to meet Jason Mraz was like a dream come true for her! When he finally got out, I thought Bern would go crazy but she played it cool surprisingly. I mentioned to him that it was her birthday and so he signed our ticket stub as well as taking a few photos. It really made me happy to see her filled with such excitement. What a wonderful moment, Thank You again Bev for making it possible! 

Still shocked from the meet 'n greet, all Bern wanted to do on her actual birthday was have a nice & relaxing day. So we just stayed home while she cooked Filipino spaghetti (which is sweeter than normal spaghetti & includes pieces of hot dogs) and I baked her a strawberry cake. Bern wanted to see the romantic movie The Best of Me which was playing on base so that's the only time we left the house.

 

Overall, I truly believe that this was one of Bern's most memorable birthdays. The 17th of November was just another ordinary day in the calendar before meeting her, but now it means everything to me. Hope you had an amazing birthday Beautiful! Love You!