Wet Camping at Yagen

Our hopes of having a dry weekend for camping were not met. At all. It basically rained continuously for the 30ish hours we stuck it out in Yagen Valley. Don't get me wrong- we had a good time and managed to do some stuff during the less-intense mistings, but we were all thoroughly soggy by the time we packed up to leave.

Most of our time was spent like this:

Huddled under the canopy, playing cards, games, eating, and twiddling our thumbs waiting for the rain to let up. We did have some really yummy food, so spending a lot of time eating really isn't anything to complain about.

We did manage to get a hike in one morning, and had a couple of slightly blood-pumping adventures along the way. First, we came across this dude:

From a distance, we had a hard time trying to decide what we were looking at. Initial guesses included wolf, goat, hyena, monkey(?!), cayote, and mutant forest creature. We dubbed it a "Yagen" and, not knowing if it was an animal that would enjoy eating us for lunch or if there were more of them lurking around, we walked quite tentatively through the forest for a while after seeing it.*

A few minutes later we came across a cave tunnel. A very dark, very creepy cave tunnel. If it had been me, I would have taken my chances going back through the Yagen's lair before venturing through this thing, but I didn't get my way, and before I knew it we were risking our lives venturing into an unknown darkness with countless possible terrors awaiting us inside. When I say this cave was dark, you have to understand something: there was NO LIGHT. At all. It was a black hole of cold, endless darkness. We had no flashlights, just the sad little orange glow of a camera button, and the periodic flash I fired off to make sure we weren't walking straight onto a bear's dinner plate.

Of all the creepy crawly creatures I'm sure were in that cave, we only saw one bat and a larger-than-life spider at the very end of the tunnel, which is for the best, I'm sure. It was one of the more creepy experiences of my life, and I must say I don't think I'll be venturing into many more mysterious dark forest caves anytime soon.

Those were the highlights of the camping trip (along with the good company of some new friends). The lowlights included the ultimate sogginess and the ankles full of insanely huge bug bites I came back with:

It was still a good trip though, and overall we were happy we went! Can't wait to try it again when the weather is better.

*After looking it up at home, it appears our Yagen animal was actually a Japanese Serow... which is a goat. Our "we came across a wild, dangerous forest beast" story is much less impressive now.

Some more pictures of Yagen Valley (which is a really pretty place!) HERE.

Happy 4th of July!

A couple of days early, but I'll take this time to say: Enjoy your weekends, BBQ's, fireworks, fun and whatever festivities you have planned. As for us, we're going camping! Wish us luck- it might be a very wet trip if the past few days' weather is any indication. But we've made some new friends who just moved to Misawa and their excitement about getting out and seeing things is infectious, so hopefully it'll be an adventurous weekend. What's a little rain gonna hurt, anyway?

Happy 4th!

Boston (where no one knows my name, yeah...)

I've had that Augustana song stuck in my head for the last week. It's an unstoppable force that begins playing any time I hear or think of the "B" word. "She said I think I'll go to Boston...I think I'll start a new life..."

Since I had never been and wanted to see it, we spent an afternoon out in the city during our trip. It's a pretty cool place (based on the little glimpse of it that I got). I'm normally not all that wowed by old stuff (which might seem odd coming from a former archaeologist), but the sense of history here actually felt real and exciting. That coupled with the architecture, the people, the intellectual collegiate atmosphere, and just the overall vibe made it a really appealing place to me.

So we had fun! Corey's mom treated us to a harbor cruise and a trolly tour of the city. We walked around Faneuil Hall and ate our way through the marketplace. We walked through the USS Constitution in all its glory. We took the T to Boston Commons and saw the state building (complete with protestors). We paid $34 for parking (pretty as it is, Boston aint cheap). Here's a bunch of Boston-y pictures:

And that was my experience with Boston. I'll definitely be back someday to see more. Yep yep.

"Yoooouuu don't know me, yoooouuu don't even care... yeah yeah..."

Just had to point out...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the psychic bridesmaid gifts Caitlin got us girls. The personalized tote bags she got each of us just happened to match the dresses we each were randomly wearing that night. Weird or what? I think so!

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled internetting.

East Coast Trip

Home again! This time from Massachusetts where we went for Corey's sister's beautiful wedding and to spend some time with his family. The trip's main event was this good-lookin' couple:

I don't really have any pictures from the wedding yet, but let me tell you- it was beautiful and SO much fun! We were so happy and honored to be a part of it.

We got to stay with Caitlin and Ryan for almost a week, which was great since it was the first time I've ever gotten to spend any real time with them, and they're completely fun and awesome peeps. Despite the overall fairly crappy weather we had during that time, we managed to have a lot of fun hanging out around the fire pit in their backyard, going to Old Sturbridge Village, taking the boat out on the lake for an afternoon, eating lots of good food, and a whole lotta other good times.

We also stayed with Corey's dad for a couple days, spending relaxing time hanging out by the pool and re-discovering Corey's old toys:

After all the wedding fun, we still had almost a week left to spend on Cape Cod with Corey's mom (and aunt and cousins who were in town too). She showed us a good time! We spent days lounging on the beach (where I miraculously managed to not get a single sunburn!), visited Provincetown and Boston (I'll post pics later since I've already got so many going on here), had cookouts, went shopping, and had tons of fun while the time went by at lightning speed.

Thank you so much to all of Corey's family for everything. We had a great time and can't wait to see you all again (hopefully next summer in Japan... right?)! :)

Yet Again, Back to the States

(This was my first attempt at producing an HDR image, and obviously I didn't totally succeed, so please ignore the ugly green splotch under the sun.)

This will probably be my last post of this spring season in Japan. Corey and I are leaving for Massachusetts on Wednesday (for Corey's sister's wedding and to see his family) and will be gone until the end of June. I assume the hot, sticky summer will be kicking into high gear right around the time we return, so I'm going to enjoy these last few days of mild-weathered beauty while I have them. Poor Corey JUST got back from spending a week in Maryland for work, so he's thrilled by the prospect of enduring even MORE 24 hour travel days back and forth... :) It'll be well worth it though.

What we've been doing lately: Corey has a new position at work (and his promotion finally kicked in at the beginning of this month), so he's been having fun with training and getting the chance to do something new. I've been doing my same old routine- running (with wonderful shin splints to show for it) and yoga at the gym, trying new recipes, practicing photography, trying to teach myself how to use various editing software, killing plants as I attempt to grow them, and learning little bits of Japanese in between. We've been taking advantage of the weather with walks, drives, and little day trips, interspersed with lots of board game playing, new restaurant-trying, and festival-going. It's a rough life, I tell you... :)

I don't really know what I was planning to write about in this post. I guess it was basically just an excuse to put up some pretty Spring pictures before we leave.

Sorry for being boring! Have a great day! Can't wait to see some of you guys in a few days!

Afternoon at the Beach

Corey and I went to the beach on Memorial Day to hang out for a while. Unlike a beach in the states would have been this weekend, this one was just about deserted since (duh) there is no Memorial Day in Japan.

Corey miraculously (and ever so gracefully) learned how to fly while we were there.

I love the beach. The water up north here is much too rough (and cold) to swim in, but it sure is pretty. I found this particular beach when driving around with my Uncle Rus and Aunt Eileen while they were out visiting last week, and it's the most sandy and suitable for relaxing on that I've come across so far.

The weather was beautiful and we had fun goofing around. Probably too much fun...

This is the little mini forest we drove through to get to the beach. It's so pretty with the fresh greenery! I know I probably say this too much, but really... I so completely love living here.