Monday, October 28, 2013

Turning Japanese, I Think I'm Turning Japanese, I Really Think So!!

I ran in the perimeter run.... I did the 5k, definitely not the full perimeter!  But I love all the running activity that has been available on base!  
Acronyms don't seem to translate well.... I have a feeling this is a Pachinko Parlor!  
I love the skies!!!
We wanted to go camping in towada before it got too cold.  We wanted to see the leaves changing, have a campfire, sleep in the tent... It was awesome!  It started sprinkling early in the morning and the rain really came once we had everything packed up!  But we had soup around the campfire, s'mores, chips 'n salsa, yummy drinks and coffee and cocoa!
The drive was amazing!
A few days later we went to Kappa Sushi in Misawa... Aka 2 turtles sushi or conveyor belt sushi!  I could pick and choose what was on the conveyor belt or I could order it fresh and it would come on the shinconsen (the bullet train on the track above the belt!!)... Yummy shrimp and tuna!
I made sure to stick with what I knew..... This was the eggplant.  Pretty, but it really didn't tantalize my taste buds!!!
At our OSC function we painted a portrait... It was fun!  Mine is now brightening the inside of my kitchen cupboards!  No one needs to see it!!
We boarded a bus for our big city tour to Tokyo!   Seriously, like 11 hours on a bus!  But lots of planned stops, we didn't have to pay the tolls, I got to read, and I didn't even have to keep my eyes on the road!  It was lovely...
I kept color hunting!
We finally arrived at the Sanno Hotel!  It was beautiful!  
Tokyo reminds me a lot of New York City... Except they did have traffic lines on the sidewalks!!
These are the Tokyo city manholes... Not as pretty as the misawa and towada ones I've seen, but I do love flowers!  Cherry blossoms!
The city has amazing weather effects.  It's huge, so densely populated and busy.... But so much cleaner than NYC!  
And has funny things around every corner!
But they don't have slurpees... Still sad...

I thing this is a waiting corral for the crosswalk.... There is one at every corner!!
A long-lasting earthquake woke us up!  Our 6th floor hotel room was surely swaying!  
There were little cafés all over that I would love to try one day!!
The subways were so clean!  They had this little French drain system on the sides of the steps.
This was the only mess I saw anywhere... Blame the birds!!
Eeeeeexcellent!!
I love seeing people wearing their kimonos in every day activity!!  
Some of the buildings look like super villains...
This is outside the forbidden temple.  Seriously, there are guards protecting the bridge, I couldn't go much closer!!
Anxious to try these, just sad I have to be so $tingy with them!!
Pun?!?
We decided to do Disney sea!  The monorail was cute!
We were in such a long line to get tickets and they announced a few times they were sold out!  But we did get tickets at the window... It was packed, but we're used to that!!
It seemed like everyone was dressed up in some way!
First we went to Venice... The gondolier ride was func he even sang to us in that Italian sing-song way!  It was funny!
And they have a new attraction.... This flavored popcorn is kinda unique to Tokyo!  We tried the apple cinnamon, strawberry, and curry... Which was surprisingly good!  The flavors change, too, and they are spread all over the park.  


Nicole is ready for winter!  She really wanted one of these hat/glove/scarf combos!!!  I think she picked a cute one!!
I picked the 30th anniversary ears!  They're huge and flashy!  
This morning we were back on the bus and traveling home.  Meals and snacks are only the things we can find at the rest stops and convenience stores we stop at.... Picking from a picture and punching the buttons on yet-another vending machine.  We just got a ticket to take to the counter.  I can't read the language yet, so I picked based on pictures.  It ended up being a fried chicken breast (very fatty, though) over rice with fried eggs and onions.  Correction, the eggs were raw, the hot rice cooked them.... And the miso soup had seaweed in it (which makes it taste very fishy).... It was interesting ;) at least the rice was delicious!!!
Again, looking for fall colors on the way home!!!
It's been a great trip!  I am very tired of walking and standing and sitting, though! Home to Tink in just and few more hours!!!








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