Misawa Air Fest 2011

A few weekends ago there was a huge air show here at the base.  Many groups had booths set up to tell food and other items, and Ryan's work was selling cupcakes.  I decided to make black bottoms, because we were told to make cupcakes without icing (I am fairly certainly that would be a muffin!).  The reason for this is that the Japanese like cake, but not too sweet, so the frosting os overkill for them.  So, like I said, I went with black bottoms.

I started off by making the cheesecake like filling.

Then I worked on the chocolate cake bottom.

When you fill these in the pan, the cake goes on the bottom and then the cream cheese filling is added on top.

Then you have these cute, perfect little muffins.

Yum!

Now the thing we did not know was that this was a huge event and they really just needed plain boxed mix cupcakes minus the frosting, and mass produced.  Like dozens and dozens.  So mine were a tad on the fancy side.  No worries...because they looked so good, they did get eaten by people who were working the booth.  Since we are new, no one thought to be specific.  I guess I know how my version of a cupcake differs from others!  Next time I won't go so gourmet for bake sales aimed at the Japanese.  Turns out they really like plain cake.

I'll get back to that in a minute.  The night before the air show...after baking the cupcakes...we went to a friends house for a little cookout.

It was so nice that they thought of my food prefs and made grilled shrimp and veggies.  My friend also prefers shrimp over the more manly meats (they did ribs and chicken I think) so she was happy to have me there as a good excuse to add shrimp in.  Even better, they were thoughtful enough to cook these separately from the meat.  They also had some potatoes.  Yum!  It was a great meal and good times with new friends.

So that brings us to the Air Show.  Here is Ryan's work's food booth.

This is the fun menu they made for ordering.  The Japanese are all about the combo meals, which they call sets.

We were there really early.  At 7 am it was still quiet, but lots of people around getting set up.

That gave me the chance to explore the food booths before the big crowds arrived (like thousands of Japanese bussed in, and then many Americans too).

 

At some point, it was discovered that whole cakes sell well.  I am not kidding.  The Japanese bought up these cakes in 3's and 4's.  Just plain cakes, in round pans and square pans.  Look at all those cakes!  And it wasn't just from one booth.  Dozens of booths all over had these for sale.  Yeah, as it turns out, there may have been too many cake booths this year because there were a lot left over.  We'll see what happens next year.

They make these crazy hamburgers.  While I don't eat meat, it was still interesting to see how they prepare these.

Here is this same traditional street food that Ryan had at the other festival.  I am still wondering how people would want to eat this at 8 am, but they did.  I guess I can't really be one to talk.  My breakfast is coming up.

Yeah, my breakfast was shrimp pad thai.  I just couldn't resist!

More crazy burgers (may be the same ones as above now that I think about it).

Then we got to some fly by's and demos.  I know the pictures are blurry, but you can kind of make out the planes.

 

This one is special because it is the Miss Veedol.  This is the actual plane that made the first transpacific flight.  It flew from Misawa to Washington State.  For the air show they did fly it.  Otherwise it is on display at the museum here.

In addition to the planes in the air, there were plenty on display on the ground.

 

Here is one taking off.  This was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen.  This was the F-16 demo.

The pictures are blurry, I think because it was flying so fast.  This plane did all kinds of tricks, with twists and turns, and flying upside down and all kinds of crazy things.

This is probably the clearest picture I took on my camera.  My iPhone seemed to take better pictures.

Some more pictures of the planes on the ground.

The line was too long to go in, but we just took a peek.  Ryan has been inside one before and I didn't need to wait around in the sun (I got very sunburned), but I did want to see inside.

The next thing we looked at was a display of Japanese bombs.  The American stuff was on the other side of the building, so this is just the Japanese.  On this base we have Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines and then the Japanese Air Self Defense Force.

You can see the American plane on the other side.  Here they are placing a bomb on a bomb loader to get it on the plane.

Here you can see it in the air being brought over to the plane.

I actually videoed this part, but here you can see after the whole demo, the bomb was loaded on the plane.

The last thing we watched before we headed back home for some shade, was the Chinook demo of how it carries water to assist from the air in putting out ground fires.  So here you can see the helicopter flying with a big bucket of water.  When it released the water it really just looked like a big mist of water in the air.

That was actually my first air show, and it was a lot of fun...until I realized I was super sunburned.  Not sure why I didn't put on sunscreen, but I am sure it was because I only had a few hours sleep and it was early, and I did not realize how long I would be in the sun for.  Oh well!  I'll remember for the next time.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever been to an air show?  Have you ever been in a helicopter?  Do you live near a military base?