A Beautiful Drive in Akita

After admitting camping defeat, we decided we could at least take the scenic route for the drive back home (along Rt. 341 in Akita prefecture, and then driving over Mt. Hachimantai back to the Hachinohe toll road). Wow, are we glad we did! It was absolutely beautiful. I think these pictures will speak for themselves...

After passing through lakes with insane bright blue water, calm enough to slice through with a knife, we headed up into the foggy mountain side. We passed through tons of cooky little tunnels which took us up to the still snow-packed summit (where there was no view to speak of thanks to the clouds).

Definitely a drive worth taking! (Although be ready to replace your break pads after going over the mountain; that road is no joke!)

Another (sort of) Failed Camping Trip

Why, rain, WHY do you get us every time?! (see our Yagen camping experience last summer)

Corey and I and some friends of ours decided that camping sounded good for this 4-day weekend. Lake Tazawa in Akita prefecture (3.5ish hours south of Misawa) was our destination this time around. Tazawako is Japan's deepest lake at 423 meters and has a campsite situated right on the shore. It's beautiful, but a little pricey (8700 yen, or ~$107 for 6 people and 3 tents for 2 nights) and is laid out a bit inconveniently. And, as we discovered, has at least one giant hornet flying around its grounds. Ew. Other than that, it's a nice location (I'd imagine especially in the summer when it's warm enough to be cavorting on the lake all day).

The plan was to stay for 2 nights. After a full week of sunny weather, we arrived optimistically to beautiful, warm, blue skies at around 1pm and got to setting up camp. After all the work was done and we headed down to the lake shore to start the fun and relaxation, dark threatening storm clouds rolled in and stole the sun away. Luckily the rain did manage to hold out for the evening. A few of the guys spent a very brief amount of time kayaking on the lake, us photo buffs spent time taking lots of pictures, we got in a good game of Bohnanza (have you played Bohnanza? If not, you're missing out on loads of bean-y fun!), we had a good meal, and roasted marshmallows around a strange, makeshift campfire (this place provided an odd cement U-shaped apparatus at each site to build a small fire inside of, but many campgrounds in Japan don't let you have fires at all, or regulate them to one communal fire pit somewhere in the campground. It's kind of a bummer.). So all in all, we had a decent (if slightly chilly) half-day of camping.

The rain began shortly after a rather large earthquake rattled everyone awake during the night (fyi, being woken up to a loud, strong earthquake while lying in a tent directly on the ground is a little disconcerting). We woke to complete and utter sog (as in, the state of deep, saturated sogginess). It was quickly decided that the outlook for another 24 hours of camping in these conditions was poor, so we schlepped our muddy, water-logged tents, chairs, coolers, canopies, etc back into our cars and high-tailed it back to Misawa. The drive back was something special, but I think I'll save that for another post...

Maybe someday we'll make it through an entire camping trip.

A Perfect Day in Misawa

In contrast to my last post, this one is inspired by the most beautiful weather I've seen all year. Yesterday was GORGEOUS! I even got a little sunburn on my face while we were out and about taking in the sun.

After going out for Indian food (yum!) with friends who just got back from a looong deployment (yay!), we spent a few hours at Swan Park (yippee!). We played bocci ball and frisbee, climbed the tower, explored the park taking pictures, enjoyed the remaining blossoms, and took in some much needed vitamin D.

On the way home we stopped at the Cake House for some ice cream. Some delicious, wonderful ice cream. This place is very dangerous now that I know the deliciousness within.

Crossing my fingers that this nice weather stays around so we can have more great days like this!

A Very Rainy Trip to the Lake

Today Chessa and I took a little day trip out to Lake Towada. In the morning when we made the decision to go, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Twenty minutes after our departure, the complete opposite was the case. It rained harder today than I've seen in a very long time. We decided to keep going and hope the weather was better at the lake. That sort-of worked out for us. It was still pretty rainy, but we found little windows of dryness and were able to get out of the car and walk around a bit. We had lunch in a cute restaurant overlooking the lake and then took the girls out on a swan paddle boat for a rainy ride.

On the drive back we stopped at a few places in Oirase Gorge to look at waterfalls. So pretty! This is always one of the most beautiful places in Northern Japan, and it makes me love living here so much.

Sakura Matsuri 2011

It's that time of year again: cherry blossom season! YAY! The trees have been coming into bloom over the past week, so there's lots of prettiness to look at around these parts.

We once again went out to the sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festival) in Hirosaki to view the blooms. We got to hang out at the park for 2 or 3 hours in the morning before rain came and herded us back to our cars in the afternoon. There was just enough time to take it in.

Corey got to enjoy a ton of his beloved festival food (including the obligatory tentacle on a stick, giant blocks of unknown gelatinous substance served with spicy mustard sauce, apple ice cream, yakisoba, meat sticks, and pineapple quarters), and I got to go hog wild with my camera. Something for everyone!

This year we went with our friend and her two adorable daughters. In Japan, the land that worships all things KAWAII (cute!!), these little picture-perfect blond cherubs attract quite a lot of attention. Dress them up in festival kimonos and it's all over- they had a following before even getting inside the castle park.

Yay for Spring! It's hard to believe we only have one more sakura-viewing season left in Japan. That seems insane. We just got here!!

Noda Village Clean-Up

On Tuesday, Corey and I went on a volunteer clean-up trip to Noda village, about a 2 hour drive south of Misawa. You can read an article NPR did on Noda a week after the quake HERE, but the basic rundown is that this small village of 5,000 residents was hit hard by the tsunami. 27 people were killed and 400 homes were destroyed after waves destroyed the concrete seawall protecting the town.

All that's left of the once forested and sea-walled coast

A month later on our visit, we saw that the devastation is still jaw-droppingly apparent. Much of the rubble has been cleared (and transferred to a gigantic mountain of metal and wood that we drove past just outside the town), but a lot still remains in what looks like an empty wasteland of total destruction. I've never seen anything like it before. I only had my point and shoot camera available to take quick shots with during work breaks, but these photos should give you an idea of what the scene looks like.

So we dug in. For most of the day, we moved rubble, piece by piece, into piles along the side of makeshift roads so that trucks could come haul it away. Among the wood and metal building remnants, trees, cement, etc. were haunting reminders of lives and livelihoods lost. Shoes. Dolls. Playing cards. Electric blankets. Dishes. Puzzle pieces. Photos. Makeup bags. Flooring sample catalogues. Lots of little glimpses of "before." I hope the owners of those things are alive, healthy, comfortable, and safe, wherever they might be now.

The "before" shot of one of the sections we worked on clearing

One area we cleared. At least a bit better than when we arrived.

Later in the day we helped a construction crew salvage (heavy) clay roof tiles off the top of a house that had been destroyed. With our volunteer group, we formed two giant lines and passed the tiles down across a muddy field. It was basically like doing 10-15 pound dumbbell raises nonstop for 45 minutes. With 50 big burley military men. In a muddy pit where your boots were firmly stuck in the mud so you couldn't move. Sound fun? Yeah, it wasn't. I'm just glad I still have the use of my arms.

It was a long, hard day of work, but very rewarding in the end. It was an intense place to visit and a very humbling experience. I'm so glad we went, not only so that we could appreciate and properly recognize what our neighbors are going through, but also so that we could help put a drop into the bucket of the task that is rebuilding northeastern Japan. It was a very small drop in a very big bucket, but it was something.

Toward the end of the day as we were clearing debris from a field at the edge of the destruction zone, a group of school kids walked by, waving and shouting "Goodbye!" (presumably one of the only english words the knew) to our group. In that moment, it felt like a group of smiling, happy kids getting on with their lives was the most beautiful and hopeful scene in the world. If those kids can be smiling, there's nothing stopping the rest of us. Japan will be alright.

For a few more pictures from the Noda clean-up, click here.

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

Blossom buds are only a couple weeks away from blooming. We're all ready for a hopeful dose of spring!

People keep telling me they're waiting for my updates here, so I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with it very well. The first 3 weeks or so following the earthquake and tsunami were a bit... blah (although I'm feeling better now). Life was mostly back to normal on the base in a practical sense, but so much seemed so very different. With all the uncertainty in dealing with the aftershocks and the nuclear plant and knowing all the suffering going on around us, it was hard to settle into any kind of groove or feel like things were ok again. But things here are ok, and where they aren't, they will be someday. Japan is resilient.

It's been such a surreal past month, but now spring is starting, the snow is gone, the sun is shining, and everything feels much better (haha, a mini earthquake literally shook just as I wrote that sentence. The earth loves to remind us not to get too complacent...). Radiation levels in Aomori haven't risen, so all seems to be ok (for us) on that front. I don't know what the long term effects will be with food, water, travel, electricity costs/future blackouts, who knows what all. We'll deal with those kinds of things as they get figured out, I suppose. For now, we're going to try to enjoy the last chunk of time we have here together before Corey leaves for his deployment and life gets weird again.

So, I'll try to get back to posting more often now that things (and my mood) are on the upswing. I hadn't done much photography at all in the weeks following the earthquake, but I'm feeling the pull to do more coming back. Hopefully I'll have some stuff to share soon. Thank you so much to everyone who has been there for us and the people of Japan, near and far. I love you all so much!