Our Town

We live in U.S. Navy housing in a town called Zushi. The town has about 60,000 people in it, and today I saw a part of it I haven't yet. I've only seen routes 24 and 16 between Yokosuka (the main base) and Ikego, so only one small section of town. We went on a walking tour of Zushi today. But like anything run by the Navy, it began with a brief! So yes, even though the service members weren't there, we had to sit through it. We learned about our neighborhood and resources available to us though, so it was useful information. The girls weren't overly thrilled to sit in a room for 45 minutes, but they did well under the circumstances. Every Tuesday Fleet and Family Support organizes the Walking Tour of Zushi. You've got to sign up ahead of time, and since the weather looked promising, I signed up Monday.
After our brief we headed out with a small group to begin our adventure. I'll include some pictures, but others can be seen by clicking here. We had a Japanese tour guide from the Zushi Japan-America Society, and he brought along some other members too. All were so sweet and kind, and one woman really took to Keanna. She wanted to hold her hand, and Keanna was all for it. I had grabbed my double jogging stroller to bring, but they wouldn't let me bring it since the roadways and sidewalks are so narrow. I ended up bringing the umbrella stroller and Keanna walked a good part of the day. My friend Myra, and her daughter, Katie shared their stroller, so Keanna got a break once in a while. We met at the Navy Lodge...she moved here one week before us.

We walked about 30 minutes into the center of town and shopping district, Zushi Ginza, and didn't get home until after 4 pm! We saw fish markets, farmers markets, a bakery, Zushi Beach and went into a grocery store. It was wonderful, we had our own personal tour guides! One gentleman, he's wearing the "Chicago" tshirt, bought everyone a loaf of bread at the bakery. We ate lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant. No shoes, no chairs. The kids loved it! The pictures really will speak for themselves so I won't write much. So glad we went, had a wonderful time, and would like to do it again when Bob's home. Of course we could go and walk around on our own, but I loved the experience of doing it with a group. We met new people and truly had a wonderful day. And besides, who wouldn't want to go shopping and eat at a restaurant with their own personal translators?!

Oh, speaking of restaurant, since there are no shoes allowed, there are slide shoes to wear in the bathroom. Thankfully the bathroom door had the baby changing picture on it, otherwise I would have walked into the men's room. And the highlight of my day was the last part, finding banana Kit Kats!