Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

So glad you liked the article, Eric. And I love Peter's reaching out to Lamont and telling him about us all - hadn't thought of that. We were in Japan at the same time, living near each other. So what we saw is pretty much the same, even though our lives were different. I do hope he joins us.

Peter - we're all delighted that you're doing so well. We expect you to remain healthy now for another 40 to 50. Okay - I'll bite - what is this "rat poison" you keep complaining about? Am I the only one who's wondering?

Tom-san - I add my welcome to you along with everyone else. Hope you share your adventures with us - we're happy to have you here.

Rat poison = blood thinner.

Eric is right. The blood thinner is Coumadin
otherwise known as Warfarin. This is a main ingredient in Rat poison. It thins out the blood so that in high doses the rat bleeds to death. They try and not give people too much and test for it every other day.. we won't talk of the side effects here. Also they took me off Lipitor. Many people are on this junk unnecessaraily for life. I am left with a small beta blocker.. I can live with that.
And Ericks moment with the article probably came at the baseball game part of the story, am I right ? It sounded so.. so..Eric [sans geta]
Thanks for asking everyone.. I feel great [except for the cold] Maybe I should go to Hawaii..

No, Peter, forget Hawaii. You and Janet need to come to NYC winters - we have great indoor heating to keep you warm, and a whole army to clean streets when it snows - and lots and lots of diversions that will keep you cheery and that you can take in increasing doses as you recover your strength. You will never be bored. And the city is more beautiful than ever.

I had no idea that that's what coumadin is. Did they use it first on rats, or people?

My one med is lipitor as a preventive even though my cholesterol is low - something about it being good for women in preventing stroke, which runs in my family. I think it also plays a role in preventing dementia and maybe other conditions. I don't think it has bad side effects in most people.

To all of my good friends at JP Guide I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas. A special greeting goes out to:
Lori, Steffi, Eric, Wally, Dave, Kaoru, Misopup, Japan Ginger, and Tom. I would also like to thank Japan Guide for hosting our little chit chat.. and giving us the latitude to discuss many varied topics apart from, the original thread.. what was that anyway?? oh well.
A very most special thanks to Steffi. As some of you know we and our respective spouces have met in person a couple of times and have developed an enduring friendship, that I trust will last for ever. Steffi.. Hawaii has palm trees.. but may I keep my option open ?
Merry Christmas to all !!

Old Santeclaus with much delight
His reindeer drives this frosty night.
O'er chimney tops, and tracks of snow,
To bring his yearly gifts to you...

Merry Christmas to all and a wonderful 2010 too!

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2299.html

To all of you fine folks in this forum, may your Christmas tomorrow be merry, and 2010 better than 2009 for you and yours!
Best-
-Jerry Campbell
(aka: Misopup)

I was the editor of the Weekly Housing Bulletin (twice) in the Special Services office, also in that complex.. We lived in Seaside for a while then moved to West Bluff. Our youngest daughter was born in the Navy Hospital in Yokosuka in 1963. My husband was on ComDesFlotOne staff from 1960 to 1963, when we returned stateside. Fourteen months later we were back in Yokohama. That time our housing was on Sagiyama Ridge until our second departure in 1966. What wonderful memories we had! The daughter born there was fortunate to visit the Yokohama area with a high school tall flag team when she was a senior. It just doesn't possible that it was 43 years ago.

Welcome Pat - we look forward to hearing about your experiences and impressions.

Jerry - thanks for telling us who you are. Has that friendly ring. And keep those interesting thoughts coming.

Again - we send our warmest wishes to everyone out there for a lovely Christmas celebration. May 2010 be an easier year for many who have lost jobs, and are struggling. Our prayers are with the troops in the Middle East, and may they be safely back home as soon as possible. Those of us who have the good things in life, great memories of Japan and more, wonderful mates who are our best friends, loving children and friends, and interesting lives, are blessed.

And Peter - you and Janet are our wonderful new friends, and we expect you back in the Berkshires next year, if not in NYC before then. We could probably even dig up some palm trees somewhere - or how about our wonderful Botanical Gardens in the Bronx where there is a beautiful Japanese Garden with a little forrest of bamboos?. I should report that Peter is a grand verbal communicator - no grammatical errors - no typos - highly imaginative and creative and warm and caring. (So - Wally, we still do have our Peter). And his Janet, who is one of the brainiest people I've ever met, is also so very nice - you have to be on your toes when you speak to her!

And Eric, you never fail to amaze with your insights, humor and stupendous memory for the tiniest detail, names, and knowledge of places and events - it is hard to imagine that you were just a kid when you were in Japan.

Dave - you are a wiz also, and very very helpful with every inquiry - thank you for helping me with my virtual revisit to my former home on the Bluff.

Wally - always love hearing your messages. And thanks for the holiday wishes - that was lovely.

Then we have the ladies - hope they're all well. Sister Cath, - are you still with us? - and Barbara and ofcourse, Lori. Hope you're well.

Welcome Pat - we look forward to hearing about your experiences and impressions.

Jerry - thanks for telling us who you are. Has that friendly ring. And keep those interesting thoughts coming.

Again - we send our warmest wishes to everyone out there for a lovely Christmas celebration. May 2010 be an easier year for many who have lost jobs, and are struggling. Our prayers are with the troops in the Middle East, and may they be safely back home as soon as possible. Those of us who have the good things in life, great memories of Japan and more, wonderful mates who are our best friends, loving children and friends, and interesting lives, are blessed.

And Peter - you and Janet are our wonderful new friends, and we expect you back in the Berkshires next year, if not in NYC before then. We could probably even dig up some palm trees somewhere - or how about our wonderful Botanical Gardens in the Bronx where there is a beautiful Japanese Garden with a little forrest of bamboos?. I should report that Peter is a grand verbal communicator - no grammatical errors - no typos - highly imaginative and creative and warm and caring. (So - Wally, we still do have our Peter). And his Janet, who is one of the brainiest people I've ever met, is also so very nice - you have to be on your toes when you speak to her!

And Eric, you never fail to amaze with your insights, humor and stupendous memory for the tiniest detail, names, and knowledge of places and events - it is hard to imagine that you were just a kid when you were in Japan.

Dave - you are a wiz also, and very very helpful with every inquiry - thank you for helping me with my virtual revisit to my former home on the Bluff.

Wally - always love hearing your messages. And thanks for the holiday wishes - that was lovely.

Then we have the ladies - hope they're all well. Sister Cath, - are you still with us? - and Barbara and ofcourse, Lori. Hope you're well.

Thank you all for the holiday greetings. I continue to enjoy reading everyone's postings and plan to continue to post when I have answers or replies to contribute.

We here in western Washington State (or at least most of us) are thankful for milder weather this year than last year. We were trying to dig out from a record snowfall a year ago. Most of us were NOT ready for it and had a tough time getting anywhere other than just a few feet out the doors of our houses.

Hope everyone has had a blessed and meaningful Christmas (for it's true reason) and may you all have a prosperous 2010.

Merry Christmas to all who visit JG. We are getting very light snow this morning and it looks as if most of the storm has blanketed western Missouri and just missed the Ozarks.

Christmas morning in Yokohama was always an event for me as a pre-teen.
One year I got a Lionel electric train with about 100 feet of track. The Locomotive would puff out little dolips of smoke when an aspirin sized pill was dropped down the stack.
The elderly gardener/repair man we called "Oji-san" came for Christmas tea a day after and took a look at all the pieces of snap-together track, cars, engine and related gear and built a beautiful blond wood toybox to keep it all in. The train and the box it lived in made it back to the states with us when we finally came home.

One item that didn't was the Flexible Flyer sled that arrived under the tree one Christmas morning. My dad and I made plans to drive to the hill near Nasugbu Beach School that funneled traffic from the Bluff. We parked at the parking lot of the church which was half way up the hill and discovered other sledders had polished up the few inches of snow into dangerous ice. Walking a few blocks toward the PX area, we found a suitable hill and down I went.
After a few passes, we went inside the Snack Bar for a Coke and left the sled outside; a fatal error.
We returned to find the brand new sled squashed flat with tracks leading directly to a Pepsi truck making deliveries. Of course the driver was apologetic, had not seen the sled and offered us cases of Pepsi if we would not report his error to the MPs.

Dad and I collected the pieces of the sled and drove home, not saying much. We put the pieces in the little garage outside our Sannotani house and dad said he thought he could repair the sled with some new wood, but never did.

Eric, the snow is coming down pretty hard here. I�fm supposed to be at the relatives for dinner at noon, at a farm near the old covered bridge over by Paris, a fifteen mile trip one way, but I don�ft know about the roads. The snow plow just went by my window, and I can see the fire truck coming down the street with its lights blinking and an occasional blast of its siren. There is no fire, Santa is riding on the fire truck! Children come out of their houses and Santa gives them sacks filled with candy, oranges, nuts, etc. This has been going on since I was a child. I remember my sister and I standing on the front porch on a cold snowy Christmas morning (maybe 1947), and here comes the old red fire truck with its bell ringing, it was bouncing up and down over the ruts, and Shannon Potts the fire chief was driving, with his big red fireman�fs hat and his corncob pipe jutting out with smoke pouring out of it (the fire truck didn�ft have a top on it). Santa handed us each a small paper sack full of goodies, which would probably be tossed in the trashcan by kids today, but to us it was gold. I remember thinking at the time that he couldn�ft possibly be the real Santa, as you could see red hair sticking out from under the white wig, and you could smell whiskey on his breath (well, it was cold).

My cousin just called and said the roads are passable, so I think I�fll try to make the dinner.

By the way Eric, maybe if you had ordered a Pepsi instead of a Coke, the Pepsi man wouldn�ft have run over your sled?

Earlier in the discussion I was asked if I recalled the Midway arriving for the first time (which I do).
I'm currently going through the slides my Dad took when we were there, found one of the ship, and looked up when it's homeport dates were. That led to this "Seahawk" scan: http://www.midwaysailor.com/midwaymemorabilia/newspaper.html

I've had a miserable case of shingles for the last couple of months. Much better now, but it's still there. But that's nothing compared to Peter's heart attack. I'm so glad you're doing okay now. My father had bypass surgery and my mother always claimed it was a lot harder on her than it had been on him. She had to see him all hooked up to tubes and looking and feeling awful. By the time he was coherent enough to communicate with anyone he thought it was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and she was left with the memory of how scary it had been. Which is a very roundabout way of saying that my prayers are also with Janet. :-)

Between services and open houses and parties, Christmas is the busiest time of the year here in the Community. Although this year we've cancelled all the daily services between Christmas Sunday and New Year's. Hallelujah!

Tomorrow night I'm taking 2 other sisters and a 7 year old to LaSalette in Attleboro to see their light display. Have any of you ever been there? It's a huge display, plus a whole building of creches, and not too far away. I haven't been there in years, and Sr. Paula wanted to take her niece, so it,s working out well on a couple of levels.

Enough blathering from me, and none of it about Japan. Oh, dear!

I'll tell you what I remember about Christmas gifts there -- I always got a box of crayons and it always had a beautiful sky blue one and when we got back to the states I never again saw a sky blue crayon. Sigh.

Now I will stop blathering.

Blessings in the New Year to all of you!

So glad your still with us. Sorry about the shingles. Please try Rishi mushroom..it wil
help, and can't hurt. Janet accepts all prayers, thank you you were right, harder on the spouces..I was about 10 days in ICU and don't remember much at all..zonked..

I�fve had the shingles and don�ft ever want them again, so a couple of weeks ago I got a shingles vaccination, which cost a couple hundred bucks. I think you have to wait at least six months after a bout of the shingles for your immune system to build back up in order for the vaccine to be effective, so when you are eligible for the vaccination I highly recommend that you get one. God bless you and hope you have a great 2010.

As a fellow part-time Bay Stater - I welcome you back and wish you a speedy recovery, and the best regards and a Happy New Year!

Wishing all a very happy and healthy New Year.
Where have all the years gone?
It seems like yesterday, not 40 yrs ago, that I was sampling yakitori in Yokohama.