We're back! Hugo and Reynolds here!
Since our last post, a lot has happened with mom, dad and us! Here's an update on summer life in Sasebo:
Vet Visit at Ikeda Animal Hospital
First off, mom and dad took us to meet new friends at Ikeda Animal Hospital! Dad called the office and asked to speak with Miss Megumi, who told us to just call her Meg. She helped dad set up an appointment for our checkup! Then, on July 16th mom took Hugo and me on a car ride to pick up dad, and then we all went on a family adventure to the vet! I won't lie, I was a little nervous...I miss visiting our favorite vet, Mrs. Shannon- I mean Dr. Foy- back in NC, but Miss Meg's kind words made me feel safe right away. She was the best vet helper ever! Miss Meg translated everything between mom and dad and the Japanese vet. She was so gentle and told me I was a "good girl" when I let her mess with my eyes and open my mouth! I hope my stinky breath didn't offend my new vet friend! I didn't even react when the vet pinched me with an updated Rabies Vaccine, since Japan requires us to get that shot every single year.
After sis survived, it was my turn for a checkup. Miss Meg translated everything mom and dad said and she helped answer all of their questions about my eye mole, the fatty mass on my chest and she even checked out my ears since I get such bad ear infections. Luckily mom remembered to bring my ear meds from America to show Miss Meg the evil medicine. Miss Meg and the vet even made me some more ear meds in their in-house lab so I have fresh meds to keep me clean!!! Sissy and I love Ikeda Animal Hospital, and mom and dad were blown away with how cheap our check-ups, rabies vaccines and my new meds were! (Dad said, after the yen conversion, our vet visit was only $79.33!)
After leaving our new BFF, Miss Meg, we all headed home to recoup from our adventure. Sis and I fell asleep and when we woke up, mom and dad were gone! They snuck off to meet dad's dental team for dinner.
One of dad's dental techs, HM2 Escala, is PCSing back to the states, so to wish him well and to thank the whole team for working hard, dad treated everyone to dinner at Yakiniku King. I can't believe sis and I slept through the invite to go grill our own meats and be served by robots!!!!! Dang it! But mom and dad had a great time and mom was especially happy to meet everyone who works with dad. She said it's great to match faces with names!
Little did Hugo and I know it, but the morning after mom and dad came home smelling like cooked meat, dad would leave for another 10-day float. We spent those ten days living in our single-family household...and the only good thing is that we got to sleep in dad's spot on the bed! There was plenty of room for both Hugo and I to cuddle up there with mom for a whole ten days!
On the ten-day mark, mom went early to base to watch the ship come in!
She even got this awesome time-lapse video of dad's big boat getting docked. While the video is only 22 seconds, she had to hold the phone over the railing for almost 35 minutes! Whew. I know her arms were tired!!!
Softball Hawks Baseball Game in Fukuoka
With dad home, mom made plans with some friends to go to another baseball game up in Fukuoka! Mom volunteered to buy all the tickets so everyone could sit together...and she was reminded how difficult things are when you don't speak or read the native language! With the help of her friend Jaime, they figured out how to get the tickets and even wrote mom's name in Katakana! In case you ever need to buy tickets for Japanese events, its helpful to know you have to do it at 7/11 on the copy machine! Humans are weird and sometimes things just don't make sense to us dogs.
Then on Saturday, they took the blue bus up to Fukuoka for the game! They started with a stop at Bake, the cheese tart pastry shop in one of the popular train station underground malls.
Then they grabbed a filling lunch at Bills.
And then they finally made it to the baseball game! I'm telling you, mom and dad eat good when they travel to FUK!
They said they had another great time in the PayPay Dome. Lots of fresh chu-hais, cheering and laughter as they cheered on the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks Baseball Team!
Again, humans are strange. Why do they let giant stuffed animals run around the field without chasing them and tearing out their stuffing?! This is why they need dogs.
After the game, mom and dad went with their friends Meg and Mike to get dinner and then head back home to us!
Optometrist Visit at J!NS
Mom tried for 4 hours one day to make an appointment with the base optometrist but got nowhere. She was hung up on, transferred to dead ends, and given wrong information. She asked dad to go by in uniform to get to the bottom of it and hopefully get her an appointment. According to mom, the only way to get anything serious done around here is for dad to go throw around his rank, which is super sad.
Long story short, dad went (duh, because he knows if mom's happy, everyone is happy) he spoke with the optometry department and there isn't even an eye doc here in Sasebo right now!!!! Apparently, the position is vacant until the replacement guy gets here in October. Mom wasted all that time because nobody she talked to had the right information!
Mom wasn't happy. But dad was awesome and found out she could go out in town! So a few days later, dad took mom to J!NS (pronounced like gins) to get her eyes checked. J!NS is an eyeglasses store that also specializes in giving eye exams! Mom had her eyes checked, got an updated prescription and dad helped her pick out a new pair of glasses. After waiting 30 minutes, mom walked out with new glasses and the whole visit cost a total of $42.18. Yep, eye exam included. Japan is awesome.
So things have been happening here in Sasebo!
Havin' a tail-wagging good time.
--Hugo & ...
Hey, don't forget me! Reynolds
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