The people of Japan and elsewhere. THIS is why we travel. We had such wonderful experiences meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends.
To get to Japan: We drove to Phoenix to stay with my brother and sister-in-law on August 14th because we had a 5:00 am flight the next morning. The question was...do we stay up? Or set an early alarm. We opted for sleep, sort of. The alarm went off at 1:30 am on the 15th, off to the airport by 2:15 (thank you, Jill!!). At 3:00 am, we arrived with no lines. At 4:20 am, we began boarding, took off 20 minutes late due to lightning, and then flew to Dallas. I'm thinking: wrong direction. We then went back across the country and eventually across the Pacific, arriving in Tokyo at 3:00 pm on the 16th. We made our way to Tokyo Station, where we encountered the nicest people who helped us get our bullet train tickets to Hachinohe. Sorry, no pictures of them. In Hachinohe, we were met by Kamalene and Mike Nelson. What a welcome sight they were. We were SO tired. We arrived at their house maybe 30 minutes later, got a quick tour of the house, and went to sleep.
On our first day in Misawa they drove us around to get the lay of the land. We stopped at this beach and waved across the ocean at our home country.
Monday, August 17th, found us on a bike tour of the area with Mike. He's a wonderful tour guide. Tuesday, we rode around ourselves and by Wednesday! We were ready to take on the challenge of sitting on the right side of the vehicle and driving on the left side of the road. Yup, our first driving excursion to Towada, about 20 minutes away.
Our first Friday found us at the final festival of the summer, the Misawa Festival, celebrating the neighborhood deities of the area.
I've posted the floats already but here are images of several of the groups that lead the parade. We arrived just as the first part of the procession was arriving to our location. Good timing Kamalene and Mike!
Saturday the 23rd found us at our first beach day. It was just the three of us and we were the only ones there!
We hit the beach several more times, sometimes just the two of us. On one occasion we came with Teniya and some friends and had a surfing lesson!
To the left is the niece of a friend of ours in Flagstaff. Talk anout a small world! Her dad is in the military.
Above is our first trip to the mall where we would later take Poodle for a hair-doo.
On August 25th, we emparked on our first overnight away from the family. Here we stopped at the Kokeshi Doll Museum on our way to Hirosaki Castle.
Friday the 29th found us at the Misawa Air and Space Museum. It was a wonderful reprieve from the heat and humidity.
Teniya and Ellen going through Kamalene's jewelry and prepping for Senior Shoot Day. To the right is Teniya sitting on her practice horse for Yabusami.
Teniya
Volleyball was part of the weekend plans when the team was in town.
This was an amazing day. We paddle boarded Lake Towada with the Nelsons, a friend and our guide (above). Mike rented the boards from the Masawa Airbase outdoor recreation program and off we went! We had to come back early as one of the boards sprung a leak.
Towada Lake paddle
We liked Hachinohe so much we went three times. On the first excursion we drove the 30 minutes on a rainy day to hit some thrift stores. At lunch time we found this restaurant and entered. The menus wee in Japanese and no pictures. We did our best to Google Translate the menu and order something but that didn't work out so well. This is Ellen laugh/crying as we prepare for whatever we ordered to be delivered.
In the end it was delicious and a fun adventure.
Hachinohe
The next day, we went back to Hachinohe and visited several shrines. In walking through a neighborhood, we got hungry and wandered up to what we thought was a small restaurant. We were trying to read the sign with a translation app when the owner came out. Once we established that it was NOT a restaurant but a hair salon, we entered and talked with the owner. Through a strong accent and broken English, we learned of her American father and half-siblings living in Texas. We ended up going to lunch with her at a local restaurant down the road. Upon our return to her shop, she gifted Ellen with a squash blossom necklace from a store in Oklahoma that she had acquired. She professed her love to us, and we were on our way, stunned and reliving what just happened the whole 30-minute drive home.
Meet Tsukasa (Su Casa), a Shinto Priest we met at a temple in Hachinohe. We chatted with him for several minutes. He spoke great English and actually approached us to talk. He was retired military, something to do with bombs, and became a priest seven years ago, which was a lifelong dream. He had such a loving face, smiling eyes, and a sweet smile. Definitely one of the many highlights of our trip.
A groundskeeper at a local park. Check out his broom!
Our hostess at the Ryokan in the hatchet part of Aomori Prefecture.
We met this sweet guy, freshly graduated from University in The Netherlands. He was traveling for a month by himself and struck up a a conversation with us at the Ferry Museum in Aomori City. We ended up finishing the tour together then getting lunch! He was delightful.
Tue Sept 16-Tour starts
On the bus and a picture of our tour guide! She was great.
We were treated to a Tea Ceremony. He is the Tea Master and the young fellow in the background is in training.
Crowds
School kids on a field trip. Our guide said they wear color coordinated hats to decipher which grade they are in. These hats are worn on the playground as well to quickly see who is where.
The throngs of people on some of the market streets at mid-day.
In front of Osaka Castle.
Street scenes
School kids walking through the square.
A protest for Palestine.
An artist at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens.
A Samurai! At Himeji Castle
Resting?
Rickshaw drivers working in the heat!
Tour friends at Himeji Castle
The stairs that lead up to the Owl Sanctuary in Kyoto.
Our favorite bus driver. Sadly, he was replaced a few days into our tour.
One of our favorite couples, from Australia via India! We kept running into them at Indian Restaurants on the tour...lol.
Having lunch with some of our tour mates. They are from Australia, England and Santa Monica!
Waiting in line with our tour peeps to get on a gondola to the top of a mountain.
Priests at local temples we found.
We were walking past these two "kids" in Kyoto when it registered with me what her shirt said. I wheeled around and chased her down. She was alarmed at first and with each pair knowing a word or two in each other's languages I THINK we got across the idea that we live in the city where that shirt is from! What are the odds?? She bought it at a thrift store down the street.
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