November 11th our first snow arrived, right on time according to the average first snow being between the 7th and 14th. Not really enough to measure, but that will come. Just a little reminder that Misawa is the snowiest US Military base in the world and averages 125 inches per year...so this is the beginning!
Keenan's home! I survived a month by myself in Japan. Did some adventuring on my own and with friends and spent a lot of time crocheting. Business has still been hopping! If you missed it the blog about my business is here and my business page is here. Went out for lunch one day to "Pink Sushi". It's similar to the place with a conveyor belt called Kappa Sushi, but I'd heard this place was better...here's the verdict. It was much better! Still cheap, but seemed better quality and fresher! The prices are based on the design on the plate, most are about ¥150-300 ($1.50-3.00).
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| Boiled shrimp, fried octopus and crab. |
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| Fried shrimp...mmm my favorite! |
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| This was supposed to be the "pizza roll" but there was a communication error and ended up with salmon with cheese...ehh. |
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| Tuna and salmon with avocado. |
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| Here's the pizza roll. Shrimp on top of marinara sauce with cheese. It was...interesting. |
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| View of the restaurant/conveyor belt. |
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| Outside view. Know why it's called "Pink Sushi"? |
Since Keenan missed my birthday and his was coming up we went out for dinner at a nicer place in Misawa called Marche. Supposedly its a French restaurant, but I thought most of the food was more like a steakhouse. Everything was great! A couple things that are nice about dining out in Japan are that tax is almost always already included in the price and tipping is not necessary and is considered rude in most circumstances. We have noticed a few restaurants with tip jars but most of those are not Japanese owned.
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| Front door, on a dark street of course. |
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| He had the Steak & Lobster. I had the Steak & Prawn. |
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| Best corn soup ever! (or so far) |
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| Thought my plate was pretty cool! Don't know how they cooked those carrots but they tasted like candy! Mmmm! |
I had read about an "illumination" that would be going on at a park just to the north of Misawa. I thought it would be our only real shot at seeing any Christmas lights so one night I convinced Keenan that we should go check them out. Of course the weather was bad and the drive that should have taken 10-15 minutes took over 30 minutes and here's what we found...
And that was it. Pretty disappointing! After that we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant in Misawa called Ogasawara (小笠原). I had Sweet and Sour Pork and Keenan had Chicken-Teriyaki. We also had the frilled dumplings (they meant "fried").
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| Miso soup, rice, pickles, fish cakes and chicken teriyaki. |
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| Sweet and sour pork, miso soup, rice, pickles and fish cakes. |
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| The outside, it wasn't a super easy place to find, even when following directions I'd found online... |
The egg vending machine. Yes, I'm serious. Farm fresh eggs, stocked daily into a vending machine. Insert 200¥ ($2) and then press the red button next to the door you want to get eggs from. The door opens, you take your eggs, close the door and carefully transport them home because they are in a mesh bag. You can choose from 8 large white, 8 large brown, 10 medium brown or 15 small brown. What they consider "large" were so big they wouldn't fit into my egg carton... I'm just glad I can have eggs that actually taste like eggs vs tasting like nothing. They are great!
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| 2 vending machine eggs vs 1 bought at the commissary on base... |
Made a quick trip to see the ocean on December 23rd since I was missing it. My crocheting business has consumed my free time so I haven't been beachcombing in a couple months. It was beautiful.
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| Trying out my new rain boots/beach boots! |
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| The snow really brings out the tsunami damage to the trees. |
Dinner at New Miyaki Chinese restaurant in Misawa.
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| Corn soup and crab fried rice. |
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| Shrimp with chili sauce and beef with garlic shoots. |
Christmas was spent at home watching lots of bowl games and also at a gathering with friends. We also video chatted with our families back in Nebraska which always helps make it seem like we aren't half a world apart!
Up next: No gifts, but a trip to Sendai
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