Japan rocks....

Aunt LJ sent her an Easter egg hunt that I had to hide around the house for her..... She wasn't thrilled.  She thinks she's too old for Easter egg hunts.... She's not!

Seriously, it was like pulling teeth to get her to find everything!

My neighbor and I rode to a shrine off base.  I drive past it all the time! There's no parking, so biking was the best mode of transportation.  It was really so cool!  There were a handful of Tori gates and a few little shrines, plus s temple!  I would like to know more about this shrine!!

Next day I had my cooking class!  I LOVE them!  

I also love that they love to bake and will bake FOR me, since I don't enjoy it!!

I tried a new restaurant out the gate and i loved this tuna bowl!  But I could do without the nori....

My English class took me to see the cherry blossoms in towada.  There is an observatory at the top of one of the city buildings.  

Look at the view!

And they created these mirror-like benches so we can see the cherry blossoms with the blue skies!!

I finally finished, glazed, and signed my cow.... Now I need to finish my big wave and start on my starry night!

I took my friend to my beach....

My neighbors roasted a whole pig!!

I went to a Mother's Day brunch without my child and with my friend!!

Oh, look at that sunset!  I ❤️ Japan!

As my friend was getting easy to board her plane and leave Japan forever, we were able to have visitation rights and chat... Even though she had already gone through security and left me!

My cooking class made empanadas... And we made a LOT of them!  That isn't even half of what we made!

They rolled them like gyoza!

I found Totoro!  He's in sky plaza, hidden I plain sight!

I bought this beautiful platter... Then a mug fell and broke it.... Ironically I found the exact same platter at another recycle shop!  

nic performed in an orchestra concert... 

She totally rocked it!

Doc rocks, too!

Our parking situation is atrocious.... But soon we'l have covered parking, which will hopefully help with the snow!!

Look at my recycle shop find!  (From last summer!)

Totoro is a chameleon!

Keepin' It Classy in Japan!

In aomori, Moni and I found these pumpkin kitkat!  But they are like real squash.... Kinda savory.  Interesting.  

Finished my headboard.  Nana should've proud!

Moni invited me to a conversational dinner at the international center.

If was catered by Misawa Kizan, it was delicious!!!

We did a round robin.  My table discussed work!  It was pretty cool!

The next day, nic and I went to the shimoda mall.  She ALWAYS wants to go to the pet store and we ALWAYS see a schnauzer being groomed!  This one is very interesting...

Fun stores had to wait... We were on a violin string mission!

And then we had to have pepper lunch for dinner! I tried this ham and cheese skillet, it was awesome!

And I found some wine!

A

Few nights later we had a photo scavenger hunt in Misawa.  

Uh, yeah.  

My English class took me hiking last week!  We all met and carpooled to the hakkoda mountains.  

And took the gondola to the top of the hill.  

Then we took a short hike.  

I am a lumberjack!

The hillside was beautiful!

The mountains were amazing!  We can across this little pond, perfect for posing...

Perfect!

My friends invited us over for dinner.  Pizza night!!

Uh, yeah.

In the morning I had my cooking class come over.  This is a sign that there are a bunch of japanese women at my house!

We were busy!

And they think my kitchen decor is hilarious!

But we made quite a spread!  French onion soup, croutons, butternut squash soup with cranberry relish and pesto, croissant breadsticks, and 7 Apple pies!!!    (And we ran out of time to make caramel apples!)

Saturday was a nice night of carb loading and celebrating.  (Aren't these wine glasses cool?  The constellations glow in the dark!)

This morning we all went to Hirosaki, posed with Anna and Elsa, and ran a half marathon!

See, there's the goal... 

We headed straight for mt. whichever.... Just hoping that 6.55 miles is not on the top of said mountain!!

And I ran with this guy for a while... Til I needed to move on!

Then I found Hiroko from my cooking class!  We ran together for a little while til I needed to move on.... I mean, til she passed me!!!

Uh, apparently I can't run and chew gum, but I did c arch this cool tori gate in the middle of our run!

Look!  I did make it!!

Wahoo!!!

And everyone got an apple for finishing!  Hirosaki has amazing apples!

FYI

Compression socks... Japan-style!

And then I got a corn dog... And chicken nuggets.  The end!