For those of you who aren't familiar with Japan Misawa is in the Aomori prefecture on the northern end of Honshu Island which is the biggest Japanese Island.
We have actually been here since the end of August and are all settled in now. We have gone on some adventures with Chris and Florrie since arriving. The last few days of August were spent recovering from a very hectic summer that involved leaving Italy to visit the states, going back to Italy to pack out, and then flying to Japan.
September involved visiting many of our old haunts and introducing them to friends from Sicily who also transferred here this school year. We took them to Hachinohe so that we could show them around our favorite fish market. On the way we stopped at this crazy eclectic place called Slow Base.
Here is the fish market.
As you can see there are many kinds of seafood
at the market. Chris had some uni which is one of his favorite things. Nemo is always a little
stressed when we go to the fish market. He thinks the world should go vegetarian. A vegetarian, does not eat fish, that would be a pescetarian.
We also introduced our friends to one of our favorite shrines in Hachinohe. Florrie always prays for world peace at any religious place in whatever the religion may be. She figures even if it doesn't help it probably doesn't hurt. I think world peace would be a good thing too, but it will take more than prayers to get it.
In October we decided to drive around the "axe head" of Japan in hopes of seeing the snow monkeys that live there.
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| On the way we saw seaweed and rice drying. |
We also got to watch the rice straw being fed through the thresher.
As we continued around the axe head we came
across some beautiful views and a monkey trap!
Nemo and I checked it out but we were a little
leery of Chris and Florrie; we have been jailed
in assorted locations from Guantanamo Bay to
Europe and now Asia.
And, yes! We did see monkeys! Nemo and I really wanted to hang with them but Chris and Florrie were worried about having to chase monkeys through the woods to get us back.
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As we continued driving we were delighted at some of the views.
We saw this place and just had to stop and check it out.
It was long way to the bottom but we couldn't
resist going down. That was the easy part,
coming back up was not fun.
There was a shrine in a little cave on the way down.
The area reminded us all of Cappadocia in Turkey,
except there was no water in Cappadocia.
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| We all wished we could have had a ride on that boat. |
In October we got to revisit one of our favorite
activities from when we were here before,
Yabusame, or shooting arrows from horses.
 This man was practicing before his turn.  |
| And, this is the parade between rounds. |
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| Here we are hoping to get an autograph. |
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| One of the competitors. |
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| You can see the arrow speeding towards the target. |
We ended October with Japanese friends that
we have known since our first time in Misawa.
This is Mana, when she was five she was
Chris's sous chef, now she is 13 and has stepped
back into that role.
November found us enjoying the Salmon Festival, where we got to watch our ramen being made from start to finish.
We tried two different kinds and couldn't decide which we liked better, they were both so good. We gave thanks for our food by saying itadakimasu.
There was also the excitement of watching crowds of people trying to catch salmon in a giant wading pool. It was not catch and release, it was catch and take home for dinner.
We enjoyed our day at the port; as some of you may know I have an affinity for fishermen and Nemo is always happy to be at the ocean
Those of you who were with us when we last lived here may remember the giant creations we enjoyed visiting. This seems to be some guy who just enjoys making these creatures in his driveway.
Over Thanksgiving break we took a trip with our friends from Sicily,
We spent our first night in a town called
We spent the next nights in Aizuwakamutsu (Florrie just loves this name) where we had lots of fun
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| playing cards, |
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eating, |
and checking out this thatched roof village from the Edo period.
Hopefully there will be a more detailed post about this later.
On December 31, 2017 our friends Yasu, Yuri, and Mana came over to help us celebrate the New Year. This is a bento box full of special New Year's food. Each one has a special significance.
We will let you know how well the bento box of special
New Year's food went; we'll catch you up at the end of March.
Florrie's sister and brother in law will be visiting us the end of March,
we expect to have a fun Spring Break with them.
Sayonara and Peace to all.
