Driving Off Base

This morning I woke up with determination to get off the base.  Living on base is great but the downside is that other than driving on the opposite side of the road...it's like being in America.  Now America is wonderful...but I didn't come to Japan to experience America!  It's way to hot to walk around the Honcho(area right off base) so I decided that we were going to drive to Livin.  It's sorta like an upscale Target with Homes(Home Depot) across the street as well.  I programed the iPhone and we took off for the gate.  We took quite a few detours to get there but made it successfully!  We got there about 30 min. before the store opened but we could visit the grocery store on the first floor, which worked out well so that I could back into a parking spot and not have to worry about getting the van out of the spot when we left.  I picked up kid sized chopsticks in a lunch type container.  They will come in handy when we go out to eat and have to fight Noah to keep the chopsticks!  He did well sitting in a car attached to the shopping cart.  Then up to the store on the second story...by this time Noah was done and was screaming and throwing a fit...even gummy snacks couldn't fix his issues.  He wanted to have the cart with the car but refused to ride in it...he wanted to walk.  And they had baskets for shoppers...well because of our visits to the library Noah knows that you put items in the basket to buy...therefore he was putting all sorts of stuff into his basket.  I was determined though not to leave until I had at least walked around a bit in the store.  I finally carried him around while pushing the cart and we were able to check out some of the store.  We ended in the kid/baby section...which had a lot of neat items.  We picked up small wooden chair for Noah and then a medium sized yellow ball...and Noah was repeating buy, buy, buy!  And then by that time we were both done and had red faces from the lack of AC(energy conservation) in the store.  Out to the car where I bribed him with anything and everything to stop screaming so that I could concentrate on driving us back to the base.  But he wasn't having any of it and we took off for home.  The drive home went great and Noah fell asleep at 10:00 in the morning on the way home!  He decided this morning to wake up before 6:00.  We will have to go back with Zack so he can check it out as well as visit Homes across the street!  We made it there and back safely without breaking any traffic laws...and now I'm feeling quite proud of myself!  I refuse to be one of those wives who hold themselves inside of the gates the entire three years while their husbands are away.  Now I'm not saying that I'd hop on a train to Tokyo with two children by myself...but if I think I can manage then we're going to give it a shot!