Gearing up to head to the States

Before heading to the States, there was still almost a full weekend to enjoy with Ryan.

First up, for Friday night, we headed to the Cheese Roll House, which quickly became a favorite.  When we got there, I know the server saw us, but somehow managed to forget and after other people came in and she took their orders, we started to wonder what had happened.  Apparently, they did not see us in the corner.  Oh well!  They brought us 2 extra cheese rolls.  Not sure we really needed the extra food, but they are good, so of course we ate them.  Then for dinner I got the same yakisoba I always get, but Ryan went with something new.  This is chicken and eggs over rice.  He said it was really good.

That night was a little on the exciting side.  Around 4:30 Saturday morning we experienced a 6.6 earthquake.  We live on the 9th floor of a building on rollers (specifically for earthquakes...and I will point out our building did experience the big earthquake last Spring, and suffered no structural damage). So this felt like being on a boat.  The bed was rocking back and forth.  Around 7 or so there was another 5+ and then again an hour later.  This was a big 3 earthquakes in just a few hours.  Crazy!  

The next day we ate breakfast on base.  I gave the veggie breakfast burrito a try.

I also had some hash browns.

Saturday, Ryan and I went exploring in Hachinohe.  Using Google maps, we discovered some Shinto Shrines in the area.

 This is at the second shrine we located.  Notice the nice wooded area.  Yeah, I am still scratching the bug bites from this one.  Oops!

 I always love these wearing the bandanas.

 After the feeding frenzy on our skin, we opted for staying in the car and driving around.  It was also rainy, so this was a better idea.  First up, we stopped in a Happy Drug to explore.

 I couldn't believe that Nature Made had a Japanese market.

 I just couldn't resist taking a picture of these with the Japanese label. 

 This was the one that really amazed me.  Check out this 4 liter bottle of Brandy.  Who on EARTH needs a 4 LITER bottle of any alcohol.

Maybe this picture shows the size a little better.  Compared to some regular size bottles, this thing is huge!  It's the V.O on the right.

Hello! 4 Liters!

 Here are some coffee drinks for sale.  I think it is so neat that they sell coffee in cans, both hot and cold.

 This is from Seattle.

 After Happy Drug we found a French bakery.  Since I was headed out of town I had no need to buy anything then, but I can't wait to try this place in the future.

 Plus, there is this Italian restaurant next store.

 Saturday afternoon, there was another 6.6 earthquake.  Can you believe it?  This region usually has many small earthquakes daily.  Most you don't even feel, but there are some bigger ones that you do feel.  These are, I guess, frequent for someone not used to living in Japan, but otherwise you get used to them. However, this was a little more than usual, so it was a bit scary only because then you wonder if another one will come.  I guess annoying it a better word than scary.  We just kept thinking the room was moving, even if it wasn't.  Since the big earthquake earlier this year, more people are aware of the earthquakes in Japan, but this is nothing new for people living in this area.  There is nothing unusual about the earthquakes here, it is just they are reported on more often to people in the US.

Good thing we had plans to go to dinner with another couple for Indian that night so we weren't in the apartment wondering when the next one would come.  I love Indian so I was glad when we were invited to join some friends for dinner.

YUM!

So that is it...I am in the US now.  I have a conference in San Diego, so I decided to make a bigger trip of it and meet up with my mom and Joe before the conference, and I will be headed to San Francisco afterwards for my friends big birthday celebration,

QUESTIONS: Have you ever experienced an earthquake?  What is the strangest alcoholic product you have ever seen?

Sushi, Sushi, Pretty Sushi

While this first picture may not be from anywhere special, this was still some tasty sushi.  It came from the commissary, and was a mixed seafood roll, significantly reduced in price because it was near closing time.  That's the best time to get some cheap, and usually good, sushi from on base.

 But, if you really want good sushi, of course you need to head off base.  We really liked the train place, but there are other places in town, so we decided to give this one a try.

Any guesses what this place might be called by Americans?

This is Pink Sushi.  I will also point out that the inside is mostly pink and the employees are all ladies who wear pink.  It is very appropriate to call this Pink Sushi.

This is another conveyor belt sushi place.  We got there very early, so it wasn't busy yet and there was no sushi made.  We got the party started! 

Nigiri is probably the most common.  This is generaly sashimi, which are sliced items (usually raw fish, but can be cooked items too) laid on top of rice.  This one is tuna.

 Salmon is very popular.

 I gave these grilled scallops a try.  One thing that was interesting was that they used a blow torch to cook these scallops.

 This is egg, cooked of course, and the Japanese word for egg is tamago.

 They also make sushi rolls, and we saw this one go by on the conveyor belt, so we gave it a try.  It had lettuce and surimi crab inside, along with a few other things, and then some fish eggs on the outside.

 This was probably the most unique of all the sushi we tried that night, although not the best tasting.  I didn't mind it, but there is so much more there that tastes better, so I probably won't try this again.  Are you wondering what this is?  Any guesses?

This is salmon with cheese melted on top.  It was so different looking in fact, that a Japanese family asked about it when outs went around on the conveyor belt and tried it too out of curiosity.

 As we have in the past, we questioned the hot water since we did not see tea bags around.

 Good thing the lady spotted us looking at this green powder or we never would have known that this gets added to the hot water to make green tea.

 Boy does it make green tea!

 Of course the sushi craving is hard to get away from when living in Japan, so we also tried Kappa Sushi again.  This is the place with the train that delivers your sushi and the cute little turtles.  This is a replica of the Shinkansen, which is the Japanese bullet train.  

As we parked and walked in I saw this sign at the handicapped spot and thought it was too cute to resist taking a picture of.  This is awesome!  Meet kindness parking...

I just love watching the conveyor belt go around here.

They even use plastic chop sticks instead of the disposable wooden ones.

 This might be my new favorite.  This is cooked shrimp with avocado (like guacamole), onions, and like a mayo on top.  So amazing!

 I really love the Japanese omelet, so I made sure to order one of these.  Sometimes, like with this one, we take one plate, and we each eat one.  It's fun to share and try all things, and then you don't get stuck with too much if you just wanted to try out one piece.

 Ryan had some salmon with onions.  This is common to top with onions.  Do they do that in the States?

 Here is the yellow tail.

 Ah, another interesting combo.  This is corn sushi.  It is like corn salad (corn and mayo) on some rice, wrapped in nori.  Definitely interesting, and in a good way.

 I am really loving this tempura shrimp.  They have tempura down perfectly and it goes so well on the rice too.

 Last up is the basic, but classic, salmon nigiri.  All of this sushi was delicious.

QUESTIONS:  Do you eat raw items for sushi?  What is the most unusual sushi you have seen or tried?

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?