August 20

After the Bon Odori Festival 3 weekends ago, last Saturday we headed to NAF Atsugi for their American Festival and Bon Odori. The Idols of America (American Idol finalists?) were performing and there were food booths as well. We didn't stay long (no fireworks this time). For dinner we tried an off-base Mexican place, Mike's. :) Some photos:

the torii by the entrance of the base

oops the photo is misleading

billboard on the left is of the Friendship Day which will take place next month;

right side billboard is the lineup of events for the American Festival :D

I grabbed the chance to take closer photos of the military planes

and helicopters

Oh! I learned something new last Saturday. I now know what 'F' and 'A' in the aircraft names mean: fighter and attack. Before, military planes were either F or A. Newer planes are now F/As.

there even was an inflatable playplace for the kids

the Bon Odori stage

Nathan's!

we got pizza though, not hotdogs :D

Mike's photos up next. I was still full from the pizza so I just had a quesadilla for dinner.

here comes the sun!

sombrero!

clockwise from top-left: chips with salsa, my beef quesadilla with guacamole on the side, W-san's beef burrito and soft (chicken) taco, Ronjie's (beans) burrito and beef taco

Mexico is in my bucket list

next time I'll try a margarita

Busog na naman. And it was a good night filled with wonderful kwentuhan. :)

Bon Odori Festival at Camp Zama

Three Saturdays ago (yikes! major blog backlog!) Ronjie and I trooped to Camp Zama to experience their 52nd Annual Bon Odori Festival and to see some fireworks. :D The base was a 10 minute walk from the Sobudaimae train station. Initially, we had fears of getting lost since it was our first time in the area + we didn't really have any directions on how to get to the base from the train station. We got out of the station along with a huge crowd of people... apparently everyone else was headed to the base too. So we just walked and followed the crowd. :D

we'll be back to try Uncle Sum

Camp Zama was open base that day for the festival. There were a lot of food booths! There were also some exhibitions and cultural performances in the afternoon and a series of Bon dances (Bon Odori) in the evening. And of course fireworks to cap off the whole thing.

Bon Odori stage and dance grounds

See the people on the stage and around it doing some choreographed actions?

ribs and nachos for dinner

I loved seeing Western people in their kimonos and yukatas

the crowd after the Bon Odori - waiting for the fireworks

VIP seats

some food stalls were still open even after the fireworks show

Here's a partial video of the fireworks. Spot the hearts and smileys! :)

Ronjie's porksteak

♥

good morning pancakes

This was breakfast yesterday morning. We had berry juice with the pancakes. :) Today we had cereal and stroopwafels. Good morning! :)

Ronjie's pile of pancakes

Nasunog ko yung una. Ooops. :D

berry juice, taste of which was guava-dominated

Korean food photos from last week

So much blog backlog! I'll be antedating some so check my posts dated last week. :D (I'm hoping to finish by tomorrow at the latest.)

Dinner with Ronjie's colleagues. This time at a Korean restaurant downtown. Good food. :9 I particularly enjoyed the chapchae (no photo, sorry), bulgogi (6th photo) and this vegetable pie/omelet(omelette?)-like dish (4th photo). Was just wondering the whole time why there were clothes hangers all around the restaurant.