The End.

Well, it's all over.

And it's perfect.

Thank you, Lost, for 6 years of powerful storytelling. Job well done.

Wild Horses of Cape Shiriya

You know those days that sneak up on you by surprise and end up being so completely perfect and happy that you know you'll always remember them, even if you didn't do anything all that remarkable? This was one of those days.

Corey and I decided it was time to take ourselves out on another little driving adventure this weekend, so we made our way up the Shimokita peninsula (the northeastern tip of Honshu, about 3 hours-ish from Misawa). Our aim was to see the "wild" Kandachime horses that live on Cape Shiriya and to generally just enjoy the Spring weather since the weekend was remarkably rain-free (a rare occurrence up here).

The drive up and back was so much fun. Corey had a grand ol' time cruising along the curvy, coastal roads while I snapped pictures left and right. We managed to dead-end ourselves into a couple of tiny, hodge-podge little crooked villages along the way, and drove through giant windmill farms, newly green forests, and rocky shorelines. Total beauty.

The horses were sort of neat to see. I don't really think they qualify as "wild" though. Supposedly they're left over from the days when they used to be bred for the emperor. They're fenced off in a large open preserve on the coast, and apparently local farmers feed them hay in the winter. (Kandachime literally means "to stand in the cold." These horses handle the harsh frozen winters well and are, I hear, quite majestic to see standing stoicly in the snow during the winter.) Plus they're pretty darned acclimated to people- crowds walk into the fields where they roam to pet, photograph, and otherwise pester them. Definitely the tamest "wild" animals I've ever seen.

Even though it was a bit cold by the ocean, we spent a good long time aimlessly walking around the beach exploring and enjoying ourselves. We were two happy day-trippers when we arrived back to Misawa in the evening, and even happier after we topped ourselves off with some sushi and ice cream.

I have a few more pics from the day posted HERE if you'd like to see them.

Awesome day!!

More Cherry Blossoms

Maybe this is cherry blossom overkill, but I'm not sure such a thing exists. They'll be gone in no time, so I'm getting my pictures while the gettin's good.

Now that the sun rises at like 4:30am, it's hard to sleep in. By 5:30am I was parking my car at the swan park to take some pics in the cool morning light. I figured I'd have the park to myself at that early hour, but not only were there half a dozen cars in the parking lot, there were parents and kids hitting balls in the baseball field and a fancy-pants photographer staking out his tripod-ed vantage point at the lake. Really? Guess I'm not the only one getting up with the sun. Oh well.

Festival Food

Mmmm, treats! As far as festival food goes, Japan has many interesting typical choices. Most are fried, and most are served on sticks. Corey's favorite is always tentacle on a stick:

Other options include fresh pineapple quarters, corn on the cob, or fried plums and strawberries:

And of course the sweets... Hirosaki is famous for apples, and we had delicious "apple ice" while there this weekend:

It's not exactly healthy food obviously (and I haven't pictures the dripping-with-oil yakisoba we chose in lieu of the corn), but it's a step up from fried Snickers bars and funnel cakes, right? It's nice to enjoy festival food without going into a diabetic coma afterwards.

Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival

We picked a great day to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Hirosaki (about a 2 hour drive from Misawa to the east). The blooms weren't quite fully blossomed, but the weather couldn't possibly have been any more beautiful. Bright blue skies and sunshine were unstoppable forces- Spring at its finest.

We left our house around 6am thinking we'd get there nice and early before all the crowds showed up. But this is Japan during Golden Week (when basically the entire population is on vacation and traveling)- who were we kidding. It was already a stifling madhouse by 8am. Oh well.

We walked around, took pictures, ate treats (a lot of them), enjoyed the scenery, and had had our fill by 11am. Short and sweet, and out of there before it got truly insane with picnicking crowds.

If you'd like to see some more pictures, I have them posted HERE.

I love Spring in Japan!

Homogenous Housing

Mass-produced, cookie-cutter housing is no uncommon thing around Misawa. These little neighborhoods usually are home to Americans living off-base, but newer construction seems to produce the same type of housing tracts for native Misawans too. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but I'll take living in one of these standard structures over one of the undifferentiated (and uglier) houses on base any day.

I took these pics on a walk today in GORGEOUS weather. Spring is (FINALLY) here- yay! Everyone is out planting their gardens, and all kinds of pretty junk is popping out of the ground. The cherry blossoms are so close to blooming too. Hopefully this weekend we'll get our timing right at the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival, and I'll have lots of pretty pictures to share soon. I love it here this time of year!

Goodbyes and Karaoke

As the last of the original group of friends we made when we first moved to Japan are packing up and leaving as I write, I can't help but think about how crazy it is that we've already been here for well over a year. As of now we've said goodbye to most of the people we have gotten to know during that time, and it definitely feels a little strange. Such is the nature of military life, I suppose. With every person that leaves, someone else comes, so hopefully we'll be meeting new friends in the coming months (as well as enjoying the couple of really good friends we're lucky to still have around). Plus, with everyone moving away, we now have friends all over the world and lots of couches to crash on when we travel! :)

We went out this past weekend for one last night of karaoke glory. Good times!

We'll miss you guys. :)