My Parents' Visit - Part 4 - Misawa Port Festival

Today was an early morning because it's GAME DAY! The Husker game started Sunday morning at 4:30 am so we were all up to watch them win the season opener! GBR! We didn't quite catch the end of the game because we headed off to church, but we had a huge lead so weren't worried about the outcome.

We did a little driving around showing Mom and Dad the base and of course went to get some fresh eggs from the egg vending machine. They are the best eggs, dark orange yolks and actually taste like an egg. Eggs from the grocery store on base (from USA) just don't taste like anything compared to these.

I've got the living room switched over to red, 'tis the season!

Choose 8 of what I consider XL eggs - double yolked,
10 large eggs or 15 small eggs. You can also choose between
brown or white most of the time.
After you put in your ¥200 (~$2) you push the button next to
the door you want to open, take your eggs and close the door.
The eggs are restocked throughout the day.

In the evening (after an afternoon nap perhaps?) we headed out to the Misawa Port Festival, lots of food vendors and a great fireworks display. My parent's got to experience some traditional festival foods, i.e. foods on sticks, and see many more that they could have tried. Almost everything is delicious, although strange and weird to a newcomer. It's fun getting to see a festival through the eyes of someone new again! It's a sensory overload.
What kind of meat on a stick to choose? Grilled beef, pork and chicken are the standards, but there's also corn dogs, tortilla dogs (hot dog wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried), fried chicken, blowtorched pork belly (with or without cheese), sausages that look like lollipops, chocolate covered bananas, whole fish, octopus tentacles, squid, etc. A couple of other standard foods are yakisoba (fried noodles), takoyaki (octopus filled dough ball), crepes and french fries. Did not get pictures of everything.

My Parents' Visit - Part 3 - Mt. Zao & Kokeshi Workshop

My parents' third day in Japan was another great one! We went to Mt. Zao, a little southwest of Sendai and also happened across a tiny kokeshi doll shop in Togatta with a very welcoming artist and his wife. Very nice people!

Mt. Zao is the western marker, Togatta is the point east of Zao.

Late breakfast/early lunch before leaving
Sendai...this was the most delicious
subway sandwich I've ever had! Yum!
Dad tried the McDonald's, pretty much
the same as at home, except in my
opinion better because the employees
take pride in making everything perfectly.

Lots of bike parking everywhere,
usually they're ridden on the sidewalks.

Mt. Zao started out as a major disappointment, but ended up being breathtaking! The drive from Sendai was about an hour and most of it was driving up into a cloud. Not good for seeing a lake inside of a volcanic crater... 

GPS coordinates: 38.128217, 140.446054

Zao is part of a mountain range along the border of Miyagi and Yamagata Prefectures. Okama Crater is a big attraction during the summer months. The crater has a lake that can appear to change color multiple times in a day. The road up to the peaks is called Zao Echo Line and supposedly has an amazing view...we wouldn't know :( The road is only open late spring-late autumn. Zao's elevation is 1,841 meters (6,040 feet), I know, I know, not that crazy compared to say, oh, any mountain in Colorado, but when you're ascending from sea level into clouds it does seem kinda high. When we got to Mt. Kattadake, which is the closest peak to the crater and is at the end of the short toll road, we couldn't really see anything and it was drizzling. No sign of a beautiful color-changing lake anywhere. Sigh. We continued to wander around hopeful that maybe there'd be a break in the clouds. We got lucky. Real lucky. We could tell by the "Ahhhhh's" we were hearing that we needed to take another look. Sure enough, the crater slowly came into view, and it was AMAZING. One of the most beautiful natural sights I've seen in my life. We hiked up a bit toward the peak of Zao to get a better view. It didn't last long, but so thankful that we got a glimpse! 

Komakusa Flat Observatory. This was a little before the
toll road to the crater. We couldn't see anything but clouds
from this "observatory"...name only applies on clear days!

Stacked rocks...I think it's related to Buddhism,
but I don't remember for sure.

I guess the crater is out there somewhere???
Water depth is 30 meters.
Crater diameter is 330 meters.

Beautiful Okama Crater in the background.
Haha

There it is!!!

My Parents' Visit - Part 2.1 - Eagles Baseball Game

Baseball was introduced into Japan from the United States and it became popular almost immediately. Even though sumo wrestling is Japan's National Sport, baseball is the most watched and played. There's little league all the way up to professional teams. We went to watch the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, one of the 12 professional teams. The Golden Eagles play at Rakuten Kobo Stadium Miyagi in Sendai. Rakuten is an internet shopping company and owns the team.

Our friends Eric and Ninoosh and their baby came down to Sendai to check out the baseball game with us.

So watching baseball in Japan is pretty much the same as watching a game in the USA, except for a few twists...the fans of each team have a team song and also a chant...for every player; they have some other special cheers...see 7th inning balloon video below; there's a whistle to warn everyone that there's been a foul ball hit; oh, and there's the uriko's...the beer girls that carry kegs on their backs! Another difference that throws Americans off is that they display the count strike-ball-out.

Mom, Ninoosh & Dad approaching the stadium.

6 1/2 month Bean sitting up in her own seat.

Karaage. Fried chicken, yum!

Just your typical ballpark fare, right?
Cold sliced beef tongue and edamame! Beef tongue is a
specialty of Sendai. It's very popular and the popularity
is spreading throughout Japan! They're even buying
tongue from Nebraska beef producers!

My Parents' Visit! - Part 2 - Sendai/Matsushima Bay

Yesterday Mom and Dad got a glimpse of Tokyo and we did a lot of walking and subway riding. Today we're headed to Sendai on the bullet train to meet up with Keenan, see one of Japan's 3 Most Scenic Views and check out a baseball game! Sendai is about half the distance between Tokyo and Misawa. 

We got going in the morning and headed toward Tokyo Station where we'd get on the shinkansen (bullet train). Since we were getting there a little earlier I said we should try to switch our tickets to the earlier train...we did that and then had to walk pretty quickly to get to the platform on time. That was probably not the greatest idea...it caused some stress having to rush. Instead of changing our tickets I should have showed them around Tokyo Station so they'd be more familiar with it when they make the return trip on their own. I think they'll be fine, but showing them would have probably eased some worries. It's a BUSY place, luckily all the signs are also in English.  

Headed down into the subway station.

Shinkansen seats are pretty comfortable. Much more roomy
than a regular seat on a plane. Not a fan of the mustard
yellow they chose for the upholstery though...

Next to one of the fastest trains in the world. The noses of
the trains are long and narrow to reduce the sound
blast when entering tunnels.

Tokyo is the farthest south grouping of markers, Misawa
is the farthest north, Sendai is in the middle.

Look who we found! A tall handsome guy that looks just like Keenan! Off to the hotel to drop off our luggage and pick up the car that we conveniently dropped off yesterday before I made my way to Tokyo. Hotels in Japan will allow you to store your luggage both before it's time to check in and after you check out if you have things you'd like to do before departing the city. I think it's always free and in Japan...no worries about anything going missing.

Outside Sendai Station.

My Parents' Visit! - Part 1 - Tokyo

After a delay of several hours and over 6,000 miles...THEY MADE IT!

Smiling because they're seeing me?
Or because they're off the plane??

A year and a half ago I never thought I'd ever visit Japan, chances of my parents visiting Japan...0%. But the day we found out we were moving to Misawa and I made the call to tell them (sobbing) they said they'd visit. And here they are! 

A little after 8:30 pm they made it through immigration and customs and got to where I was waiting patiently. I had woken up during the night and saw the email from them saying they were delayed so I had taken my time getting to Tokyo and the airport. 

The next couple of hours were spent getting to the hotel and involved a lot of moving parts and was a bit crazy...train, subway, taxi, walking and a potato salad sandwich. The sandwich was just my snack, nothing else significant, other than it being odd and delicious. Getting to Tokyo Station and the subway was ok, it was after getting off the subway when we ran into some difficulty...the station had a few different exits and I wasn't sure which one would get us closest to the hotel. To anyone that hasn't experienced it that might not seem like a big deal. How far apart can the exits be, right? Well, pretty far. Sometimes you walk almost 1/2 mile underground toward an exit before making your way up to the street level. So we chose an exit, there was no elevator in sight so we had to carry luggage up several stories of stairs to get to the street. Pulled up the walking directions on my phone, still 1/2 mile away, and it was raining. We hailed a cab and I showed him the map of where we wanted to go...he didn't have a clue. I tried directing him where to turn to get us there, but he didn't understand and just drove us to a random place. Finally I told him to stop and we were still almost 1/2 mile away! Ahhh, by now the rain had mostly stopped so we just walked. Finally got to our hotel between 11 and midnight. 

Welcome to Tokyo, Mom and Dad!

Being up late and the stress of a long travel day allowed my parents to sleep pretty well and not be too affected by jet lag their first morning. I had a plan to show them some of Tokyo's sites for their first full day in Japan. 

Our first stop was Shibuya Station and the famous intersection known as Shibuya Crossing. It's one of the busiest intersections in the world and can be crazy! It's sometimes referred to as Japan's Times Square. Today we were there mid-morning and it was pretty calm.
A famous landmark and meeting place in Tokyo is the bronze statue of Hachiko in Shibuya. Hachiko (1923-1935) was an Akita dog and he is remembered for his loyalty to his owner even after the owner's death. Each day Hachiko would greet his owner at Shibuya Station as he came home from work. One day in 1925, his owner passed away and did not return from work. For the next 9 years, 9 months and 15 days the dog appeared each day at the station at the time his late-owner's train was due to arrive. Commuters began to notice his behavior and he became famous after a newspaper article was written about him in 1932.
The first statue was unveiled in 1934, but was recycled during WWII. The current statue was placed in 1948.

Chasing a Waterfall...Fudodaki

Another Saturday, another adventure...this one was relatively short and sweet, but still something new and beautiful. We took a little drive to a waterfall near Aomori, called 不動滝 or Fudodaki. It's about 58 km (36 mi) from Misawa and took about 90 minutes to get there. It's a very peaceful little place.

GPS coordinates: 40.835904, 140.970952

Just taking in the scenery. Rice fields.

There's a small building to change in if
you're brave enough to get in the water.
See pictures below for inside of building.
I have no idea if those are community
towels or if regulars just leave them.

Straw sandals for waterfall climbing.