Lake Towada Firework Festival

This is a festival that is usually full of music... merriment... fish on a stick and fireworks. Unfortunately it was so rainy and windy there were no fireworks... very few people... and not so much merriment... but there was still fish on a stick... it was still really cool... here is what we found!Derick and I on the boardwalk... I was trying to turn his face.. but it just looks like I am choking him... which is really not that uncommon! It was so slippery that I kept running and slidding down for like 6 or 7 feet... it was a blast... I am sure every Japanese person that saw me thought I was special... well I guess thats nothing new!Here are the swan paddle boats we found... I was so sad the weather was too bad for us to go out in one... how hilarious!
This is my life... this is amazing... I love where I am... DUDES you all have to come visit!!! it is CRAZY....I am not sure how much fun everyone else was having but I was having a blast... I love the rain!
The wind was so strong it made this lake look like an ocean... these islands were beautiful... so Japanese... Japan is so Japanese... deep i know...
Me on the rocks next to the lake... it was so beautiful I was just running around taking pictures and my our friend told Derick that I needed a leash cause I kept running away like a two year old... oopsWe found this little Shinto Shrine in the middle of the woods on this little dirt path... Japan is so magical.. I feel like I am in a fairy tale. Ancient stairs and moss covered statues in the middle of an ancient forest full of cedar trees and ferns... amazing
This was the Shinto shrine on the top of the stairs.. I love Shinto shrines because they seem to be so in tune with nature. And when we got up there we found a little bit of sunshine...
These have something to do with the Shinto religion but i don't know what... I really like how they looked hanging there in the sun...
Tori gate leaving the forest... maybe it was the entrance and we just went the wrong way... I dont know... they are another one of my favorite parts of Japan...
We were pretty wet but we had SO much fun... I was glad we went even if there were no fireworks...
Like I said... no festival would be complete without fish on a stick... and by fish on a stick I mean WHOLE FREAKING FISH ON A STICK!

9 day market and random photos

So there are a few things in Japan that are only open on days that have a 9 in them... like the 9th or the 19th or the 29th... the 9 day market is one of them. It is a market where every day that has a 9 vendors come and set up thier little booths and sell their wares... here are some photos...
They sell everything from fresh fish.. to purses... to shoes... to fruits and vegetables.. and flowers.
This is the spoil of my last visit... peaches... apples... tomatoes.. mini grapes... bananas... and plums!!! soooo delicious!!!! The fruit is all soooo good! and the tomatoes are amazing!
Konas first package... it was her ferminator... she wasnt happy
this is our medicine cabinet.... I just want everyone to note how MY stuff takes up only the bottom shelf and DERICKS takes up the entire rest of the cabinet... he is ridiculous!
Stormy windy day over the lake by our house... The paint in Japan is not like the US it is all premixed and you are stuck with what they have... so I wanted teal for my kitchen and ended up trying to mix it myself... pictures to come later...This is what I am thinking for our living room

Thats it for this random photo update...

Shipwreck Beach

Besides cherry picking over 4th of July weekend we also found shipwreck beach. And by found I mean we followed the directions which were like "turn left at the gravel pit with the green fence" because road signs are few and far between in Japan and we couldnt read them anyway... but with out too much trouble (we know some people who have been there before and gave us few heads up) we found it! And the first thing you come upon on the short trail from the parking lot (dirt area next to the road) is....
I mountain of seashells. I am not joking this is huge pile of seashells. A huge stink pile of shells... the stinky part was discovered when someone tried to run up it... I know what you are thinking ... and no it was not me it was Derick. He got maybe two feet up and was like HELL NO... Derick and Mike are telling me it was at least 100 maybe 150 feet tall... and smelled like Kona butt... hmmm... thats very big and very stinky....
Here is the first glimps of the ships.... they were soooo cool!
I loved all of the colors of the old wood and paint against the white sand and blue water. They are old fishing ships that are probably washed up from a storm but I really have no idea how they all got stuck here. There are 5 or 6 ships total. Some are really deteriorated and some as you can see are almost whole and I could even walk up on thier decks.This area is not on the ocean it is on Mutsu Bay so the water is much calmer and crystal clear. I was really nice, there was also lots of sea glass. The water is still pretty cool but I got in up to my stomach... While the front of the ships were whole the backs were all ripped off. What it looks like is some Mutsu Bay monster came and bit off the back of a boat and threw it up onto the beach.This is looking back up the deck from the back of the boat, there was lost of rusted metal which I love, and I actually did not impale myself... yayAfter swimming and exploring the wrecks we took a stroll up the beach to look for more sea glass. The scenery was gorgeous! Apparently right after we left the boys fell asleep back at the wrecks woke up and we were no where in sight and thought we all got stolen. So the ran up the beach to try to find us.... and we were just walkin and talkin up the beach when three sweaty slightly perturbed boys found us... oops
After Derick found me and realized I had not been kidnapped by the terrorists he forgave me for running away and held my hand on the way back
Back at the shipwrecks.. I thought the now cloudy sky made for cool pictures.Over all the trip was very successful and very much fun!!! I think this picture looks like the arc!

Cherry Picking

So the best part about having gorgeous cherry blossoms in the spring time is come summer you have delicious cherries!!! SCORE!! So the cherries are very good and we (Derick, I and three other couples) all decided to go cherry picking. The base takes a cherry picking tour but we were to cheep to pay the 30 dollar fee (60 dollars for both of us) to ride the bus, and who wants to ride on a bus with weirdos and their screaming children anyway... so we just followed it in our own cars... very sneaky. So we paid 10 dollars to get into this orchard which included pick your own all you can eat cherries... I am pretty sure I ate my body weight in cherries.
Here we are walking the 200 meters from the road up into the orchard... I made sure I was nice and hungry when we got there...
Almost there, these are actually cherry trees but we went on into the center of the orchard before we began gorging...
Some of the branches were so heavy with fruit that they hung way low, I literally could just bite it off the tree... and I did... (notice my new bone earings!!! I am in love with them!)
Here we are with one of the trees, they even had ladder set up around in case you wanted the cherries from the top of the trees...
I just used Derick... but he put me down after I started shoving multitudes of cherries in his mouth and he was drooling and couldn't breath... hilarious...
It was a gorgeous day and the cherries were ripe! There were 3 different varietys of cherries that I saw... the red ones were kinda tart, the orange ones were sweet and there were some yellow ones that were kinda bland... all ripe just different varieties! We had a blast!