Fear Factor Sushi

This week we went out for a sushi dinner with one of Matt's coworkers. We strayed from our usual sushi joint  to try out a place that Americans refer to as "Fear Factor Sushi." Since many Americans living in Misawa, including us, don't know Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana (the three different types of characters that make up Japanese text), they make up names for restaurants, roads, and stores. This particular restaurant seems to have been named for the availability of unusual menu items, including soup with LIVE minnows as well as a shrimp dish where the poor little crustaceans have had their tails removed but are still ALIVE. Raw fish is where we drew the line, and it was hands down the highest quality sushi we've ever had. The melt-in-your-mouth tuna and salmon sashimi stole the show, but we also enjoyed scallops, a mystery white fish, and eel sushi rolls.

This was the first time that we had ever been presented with an actual wasabi root.

Our room














The original humidifier


















Family photo

Appi Skiing

Over President's Day weekend, we took an overnight trip to Appi Ski Resort. We purchased a package that included our hotel room, dinner and breakfast in the buffet-style hotel restaurant, as well as tickets to the Onsen. This was our first experience at a Japanese hotel (other than the airport hotel in Tokyo), so we experienced a few "firsts." Our room had two pairs of sandal/slippers as well as robes to wear around the hotel and to the restaurant. Of course, we didn't know this until we got to dinner and realized that we were some of the only people wearing our street shoes. We decided to try out the sandals the next morning at breakfast. They were surprisingly comfortable, even if a few inches of Matt's feet hung off of the back.

Although the dinner buffet was predictable Japanese fare, we weren't really sure what to expect for breakfast, as the Japanese are typically content to start their day with rice and other foods that us westerners would consider dinner food. Our breakfast consisted of croissants and jelly, smoked salmon, yogurt, cereal, apple juice, milk, and fried noodles. We passed on the boiled tofu and rice. We also decided to do as the Japanese do and took turns visiting the Onsen, essentially a hot spring spa consisting of two indoor pools (one hot, one ice cold), a sauna, as well as a hot outdoor pool and very hot outdoor foot basin. As with many experiences in a foreign country, it was a little bit confusing the first time around, but now we know how it works and would be open to trying it again.

Appi is one of the most well-known resorts in our region of Japan. It is considerably larger than the other resorts we've visited this season, offering 21 runs of varying skill level, two gondolas, and many other chair lifts. Matt enjoyed honing his jumping skills on four different jumps in the ski park, and the highlight for me was skiing a nice and easy 5.5 km (3.4 mile) green run with our friend Jan. Here are some of the pictures Matt captured on the mountain.

Engrish at the Mall

Last weekend, we set out to visit Shimoda mall, located about 15 minutes from our house. We had some shopping to do, but also an ulterior motive to document some of the unusual use of English words, or Engrish, on storefronts and articles of clothing.

What is the opposite of outerwear? Inner wear, of course. But this sign for the Women's lingerie section of a department store seemed a bit odd.

The English writing on clothing is meant to be decorative rather than taken literally.

Play the Gentleman Upright, Mischievous Dear Studio 1919, Nature Forest

Apparently refinement poses help one to have honest and upright digestion.

Not sure who would go to a training camp to decline.

We get it, it's windy. But since when is that such a huge selling point for a beach?

Yikes.


















Ridiculous.

Other funny store names...

 

Funny, because it exclusively sells clothing for girls.

Happy Price = Sale; Family portrait = Creepy.

Not a bad idea, when you think about it.

Anime-like manikins modeling typical school uniforms and the yellow hats that children wear while walking home from school. Kind of dorky, but totally practical from a safety standpoint.

We ate at a food court restaurant named "Pepper Lunch," where customers are handed a sizzling hot cast iron dish filled with raw meat and a mound of rice and seasoning that cooks while they walk back to their table.Can you imagine something like this being done in the states, at a mall no less?! Matt liked it.

The Colonel.

Despite the funny store names and merchandise, it is your typical Western mall, minus all of the familiar stores. I'm sure we'll be back many times in the next two-and-a-half years!

Makado Skiing

This weekend, we drove about an hour to ski at Makado ski resort. As with the last ski resort we visited, there was a large lodge at the base of the mountain where we took turns hanging out with Hazel.

For lunch, we ordered and paid for our meal using a push-button machine.

We still never quite know what we're going to get when we order a meal. This time we ended up with an udon dish (thicker white noodles with a raw egg on top) and a more tasty soba dish (thinner buckwheat noodles with sliced onions on top).

Although this ski area was small (only three lifts) and had pretty basic skiing, it offered beautiful views of the Mutsu Bay (the same body of water we saw at Shipwreck Beach).

 

We feel pretty lucky to be so close to this ski resort, and definitely plan to return next year.

Okunakayama Kogen Skiing

We took our first ski trip of the season (and our first ski trip ever with Hazel) to Okunakayama Kogen (Park), located a little less than two hours by car from Misawa. It was the MLK holiday, so a flood of Americans literally took over the mountain, but it wasn't very busy nonetheless. These mountains are really small compared to the Alps in Europe, but we're still really glad that we went.We set up camp at the central lodge with a group of friends, so spouses were able to take turns skiing and taking care of the kids. My how much has changed for us since last ski season!

Lodge Exterior

Lodge Interior, aka the Kid Zone...

Future skiier...

These green leaves (possibly bamboo) scattered the perimeter and bamboo shoots were used to mark the edge of some of the runs, a funny reminder that we are skiing in Japan...

And here is a video of Matt back in flight...

Now that we've seen it is still doable with Hazel, we definitely plan to take more ski trips this winter!

Tokyo

We met Harold and Diane for a two-night stay in Tokyo at the New Sanno Hotel, a surprisingly elegant and affordable U.S. Navy hotel right in the heart of the city. The Tokyo Metro system was our preferred method of travel and worked pretty well except that a few stations that were not stroller friendly. Thankfully, we weren't traveling during the morning commute, so we didn't witness the "pushers" cramming people into the cars, but I did see a car labeled as reserved for women only during certain hours so they don't have to be body-to-body with men.

Upon exiting Harajuku station, we passed by Takeshita Dori, a narrow, pedestrian-only shopping street. Click on the picture to see how packed it is; we didn't even try to go here with a stroller.

Our first destination was the Meiji Jingu Shrine in the Harajuku neighborhood. This torii gate was built of cypress more than 1,700 years ago.

Shaded, tree-lined walkway leading to the shrine...

Bamboo fencing, so much more aesthetically pleasing than orange plastic or chain link fencing...

Sake barrels presented as offerings at Shinto shrines (and providing cheap advertising for each of the brewers printed on the barrels)...

 

Entrance to the shrine...

  

Vegetable offerings...

We saw two different wedding processions during our short time at the shrine...

We also happened  to be at the shrine during the Seven-Five-Three (Shichigosan) festival that celebrates seven- and three-year-old female children as well as three- and five-year-old male children. Kids dress up in kimonos and visit Shinto shrines with their families to celebrate healthy growth. This little girl is sporting a kimono robe tied with a traditional obi (sash).

Meiji Shrine...

For lunch, we headed to a Hawaii-based burger joint, Kua Aina. As you can see from the picture below, the building goes straight up, and since our mammoth stroller wouldn't fit up the stairs to the main seating area, we all perched on small stools at a very small counter  to eat our meals. My tuna and avocado sandwich was delicious and I think the group consensus was that the burgers were good, but not Five Guys good.

After lunch, we began our trek to the Tokyo Metropolitan government Building (the two towers pictured above), the tallest building in Tokyo, to view the city from a 45th floor observation deck. It was quite hazy by the time we arrived, but apparently visitors can see Mt. Fuji on a clear day. After experiencing the natural beauty in Yoyogi Park at ground level earlier in the day, I was struck by how this massive forest (the dark patch of trees pictured below) was simply dwarfed by the sprawling city landscape. I couldn't help but reflect on the unbelievable number of ancient trees cleared to make way for a new cold, gray forest of buildings, but at least someone had the foresight to preserve small patches of natural beauty within the city. 

Yoyogi Park

 Autumn leaves at their prime

And finally, what trip to Tokyo would be complete without a funny Japanese advertisement that jumps out to the American eye...

 

 We didn't even begin to scratch the surface of Tokyo, but it was fun to be touring a major city again, albeit at a much slower pace- all the more reason to plan a return visit!