Things I Love About Japan

Everything is cute, even the ice cream....

Yukatas are for Summer

A yukata is a type of kimono only worn in summer, as it's made of lighter fabric than a traditional kimono, and is usually only one layer as opposed to two or three. They are usually worn at festivals by young women, especially firework festivals. They are incredibly pretty, with lots of different colors and patterns available. As such, my sister could not resist their charm, and bought one at a traditional kimono store in a mall near here. The assistants help you put on the yukatas so you can see if it fits, and if you like it as much when it's on you as opposed to on the hanger. The picture above shows my sister trying on the yukata she eventually ended up buying, but without the obi, or sash belt, as this was when they were taking it off. It's a very nice one, and the dark color suits her, but don't ask me when she's going to wear it in America. Maybe she can start a new fashion trend...

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Japan has many things that have gone the way of the mammoth (in other words, extinct) in other parts of the world. Mini-disc players, walkmans, holes in the ground for toilets..... the list goes on. These things that the rest of the world long since declared obsolete are still kicking, even popular, in this Land of the Rising Sun. Another one of these such things is arcades. Not only are video arcades still alive in Japan, they are almost a national past-time. These are not the arcades you grew up on, with a few coin slot machines in the back, and maybe a DDR machine or two populated by teenagers with too much time on their hands. These are literally 7 story temples to the sanctity of gaming in all its forms, from claw games, slot machines, music games, to shooting games. Any type of game you can imagine is within the borders of this holy place, and now they have added a new type of game to this mix.


When my sister came out for a couple months this last summer, we spent a few days in Tokyo before she headed back to the states. My husband heard word of an amazing new game being tested for only a few days at an arcade in the Shibuya district, so we all made the trip out there to see what the fuss was about. It was Metal Gear Arcade, which only happens to be one of Aaron's favorite game series. In 3D. Aaron had to get a ticket and wait for about 30 minutes to demo the game, so my sister and I just watched and took a couple pictures. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out that great, but suffice it to say that Aaron quite enjoyed playing the game, as well as the bragging rights that went along with it. I feel that it's safe to say that 3D gaming might be pretty cool after all.... providing they do something about the stupid glasses.

Things I Love About Japan

Kamepan! Turtle bread! I found this bread in the big mall we go to a lot, and they were so cute! All the turtles had different faces. Unfortunately, this one looks like it's sad I'm about to eat it. >.>

Towada Lake Fireworks!

First of all, I am not dead, thank you very much. However, my computer was. Thanks to sub-par parts in my laptop, the internal fan suddenly decided to stop doing its prime function, that of cooling. Therefore, my computer would become a million degrees hot and shut down after about 10 minutes of use, while uttering a horrible death shriek. This concerned me, so I decided to try and contact tech support about it. I won't bore you with all the horrible details, but suffice to say that after many attempts to talk to people in India, I ended up giving up, buying a new internal fan, and asking my supervisor's husband to fix it for me (he's the IT guy for the entire town). For doing this, he has my eternal gratitude, but the whole process took a good two months. During this time, obviously, I could not blog at all. So, I have a veritable mountain of a back-log of things to post now, which I will try and work my way through as quickly as I can. With all that being said, let us begin!


The picture above is of a boat on Lake Towada. When my sister was out here for two months during the summer, we all went together to see the yearly fireworks festival they hold out there. It was a lot of fun, because in addition to the fireworks in the sky, the boats were lit up and floating on the water beneath them. I tried to take more pictures of it, but it was so dark my poor little cell phone couldn't handle it. However, luckily for us, my sister brought her camera with her, which takes pretty decent video, even at night. So, without further ado, I present to you videos that I took with her camera. They're not perfect quality, but hopefully they will give you the impression that you were there with us. ^-^ Oh, and ignore the voices, we chattered the whole time we took the videos. Sorry! >.<

Things I Love About Japan

This is a Devil May Cry 3 slot machine. I have never found a cooler slot machine anywhere, although granted I don't exactly spend all my free time evaluating them. If you are wondering... Yes, I did play it. Quite a few times. I lost all the $3 I fed it, but it was well worth it.


The part around the wheels is actually a TV screen, which shows cinema from the game while you play. It was pretty awesome, and as I love my Devil May Cry something fierce, you know I had to take a video of it... So here it is. Enjoy!

Tanizushi Seashore

Continuing on from the previous post, this was our last stop on my day with Aaron and Chieko. It's a fairly famous beach, even though no one can swim there due to a nasty undertow and dangerous cliffs. It's still known, however, for it's beauty, and people often take walks or have picnics on the shore. I confess I found it absolutely beautiful, and while Chieko was upset that a slight misty fog was preventing us from having a better view, I preferred it that way. It looked like something that you would find in England or Ireland, not Japan.

We all enjoyed walking along the beach, combing for seashells. We found lots of awesome shells, including whole sand dollars and moonstones! It was beautiful, and when it gets a bit cooler again, I would love to go back. I shan't take up your time any longer, however. Without further ado, I present pictures to you! Photodump style!

The water was so clear... absolutely beautiful. I hope you enjoyed these pictures. ^-^ Until next time!

The Birds

About 3 months or so ago, I had a lovely day out with Aaron and Chieko, also known as Ishibashi Sensei. She was another English teacher at my elementary school when I first got here, but she has since moved to another school district, and now we can only see each other occasionally. She's an awesome lady, and I really miss teaching with her.

In any case, we started the day out by going to a fish market in Hachinohe, which was really interesting, if a bit smelly. They sold everything you could imagine there, and then some. Everything from a disgusting animal called a goya, or a sea pineapple, as it's referred to in English, to whale meat, which was a bit of a shock. Whaling is...technically... legal here, since the Japanese are allowed to hunt a certain amount of whales each year for scientific research purposes, and the remains may be sold and eaten. How much research goes on, I don't know, but there certainly was a lot of whale bacon there.

Next, we headed off to Kabushima, or Seagull Island. Also known as Alfred Hitchcock's inspiration, and Aaron's personal hell. There are literally thousands and thousands of seagulls living on a few rocky islands surrounding an old shrine. An old shrine which they have taken over, might I add. When we went, it was nesting season, and you could hardly walk around the shrine for all the seagull eggs everywhere.

The shrine, well aware of their infestation, gives out free umbrellas to use while you walk around. Unfortunately, the day we went was incredibly windy, and umbrellas proved to be more trouble than they were worth. Aaron, Chieko and I were lucky, as we ended up not needing them. The poor military man who looked up at the sky and received a lovely souvenir from the seagulls flying above right in his mouth, was not so fortunate.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the seagulls are also completely without fear. You can walk right up to them, and they won't budge. If they decide they don't like you, they start squawking at you, but that is the extent of their wrath. These particular specimens, shown above, were slightly perturbed at my getting close to their nest, but not enough to do something silly like actually run away.

You would think that the shrine would be upset by their colony of flying rats, but on the contrary they built a statue celebrating them. Apparently the living seagulls like hanging out with their stone counterparts, as seen in the picture above.

They also like hanging out on all the fences, apparently.

Well, let's be honest. They like hanging out everywhere, really. All those white dots you see in the picture above? Seagulls. All of them. And those are just the one's choosing to rest at the moment, there's more flying around, fishing, chilling in the shrine or hanging out on the other small islands.

For some reason, unbeknownst to me, there are people who actually pay money to feed them. These poor creatures above are confused that no one is feeding them at the moment. There was a lady who was feeding them before this picture was taken, and she literally became invisible as the seagulls swarmed her.

We went to one other place that day, but that's for the next post. For now, enjoy the horror of a real life 'The Birds'. I know they haunted my dreams for a while, and Aaron promptly declared it the most terrifying place on earth. I tend to agree.

Engrish of the Week

One of the teachers at my Japanese class that I go to brought this especially delicious treat in to share with all the students one night, having just discovered it recently herself. Upon bursting out into hysterical laughter, myself and the two other English speakers in my class (the students are primarily Chinese people, actually) had the unenviable task of explaining what 'Harem's Delight' means in Japanese..... That was fun. Ah well, these things were delicious, so it was totally worth it. ^-^

Things I Love About Japan

Dragon Quest Slime Soda Pop. Oh yes, it does exist. And it tastes much, much better than the Final Fantasy Elixers, in case you were curious. The orange one is kind of fruit punch flavored, and the other one tastes kind of like bubblegum. They were too sweet for Aaron's taste, but I liked them well-enough. Regardless, we now have awesome empty slime bottles, so they were totally worth the couple bucks they cost us.

Sannohe Castle Park Cherry Blossoms

Following along with the previous post, this one will also mostly be a photo dump. But more cherry blossoms are always good, right? These pictures are from the castle park here in town. Sannohe also has a local cherry blossom festival, which is incredibly convenient, seeing as Hirosaki Castle is about 2 hours away. Unfortunately, we went a little past the prime season, so a lot of the cherry trees were already starting to turn green, and their petals were falling off. However, I found this to be almost as beautiful as when the trees are in full bloom. The falling cherry petals are like pink snow, there's so many of them floating down. It's times like this one that I really wish I had a camera more suited to capturing life's moments, instead of just my cell phone. But hey, I bet these are still better pictures than your cell phone takes. :P Enjoy!

And with a final vista of my little town, we bid farewell to the cherry blossom posts. At least until April next year. Look forward to more posts soon!

Cherry Blossoms in Hirosaki: Photo Dump Part Three (Final)

Click on any of the images to embiggen!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures. Look for more posts soon! :D