We live in the Aomori prefecture (which is like a state in the US) (Japan is about the size of California) so the largest city in our prefecture is Aomori! We went up to Aomori the other day to go the aquarium and have a look around the town. It is about an hours drive away. This is one of the most beautiful drives I have been on, we drove by countless rice patties, huge mountains, and through vivid green valleys.
This was one the mountains we drove by, I am not sure which one it is but its really pretty, that kind of cloud cover you see is pretty common right now because it is the monsoon season. But “monsoon” is not exactly what I imagined, its really just a slow drizzle for a month… but like every third day is sunny and gorgeous! Its about 70 when its raining and 75 or 80 when its sunny. And really its nice because I hardly ever have to water my garden, I don’t even own a hose yet!
Here we are driving through one of the valleys, Japan is sooo green. You can se we are following the traffic on the left side of the road! It actually was not as hard to get used to as I had imagined… and yes I have been driving… and yes everybody is really scared! Although when we were in front of the aquarium but trying to figure out how to get into that stupid parking lot Derick turned down the wrong way on a divided highway… we were just driving along and then “why is that car in my lane?” “UH OH” “What do I do?”
“DERICK EXIT, TURN OFF HERE” But it was so funny in America I am sure people would be laying in their horns flipping the bird, yelling, but in Japan they all just calmly move into the other lane so we can pass on the wrong side of the road. All of the cars being driven under SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) so all Americans on base have a Y on their license plate before their numbers, so when we do something stupid in Japan our new excuse is just “Y Plate”
Aomori is on the big bay at the top of the main island of Japan, this is the bay, If you look closely at the big green island there is a red gate right on the shore… that is called a Tori gate and marks the entrance to a Shinto Shrine! I just thought it was really pretty!
This is a sign at the aquarium that I thought might be good reference later… Aomori is on the first dip down on the left side of the bay… the lake on the right hand side is the lake I live on, Misawa is on the south part of the lake in-between it and the ocean!... and the circle lake near the bottom is a really beautiful hiking area that we are planning on going to soon, the lake was formed from a volcanic crater… Up on that north area of the prefecture on the hook is the “mythical entrance to hell” Mt. Osre or something like that and its just jagged volcanic landscape on top of this mountain with caldrons of sulfur water bubbling up ranging in color from sulfur yellow to blood red! I really want to go there to!
This is a traditional style Japanese toilet, you face the hole… squat down… and do your thing, it does not bother me to use them, heck I will poop in the bushes, but some Americans just wont to it! But in most places you can find a western style toilet… most of which also have heated seats!!!
The aquarium was pretty cool, but some enclosures were really sad, like this sea turtle enclosure had like 6 giant turtles and they just had a concrete box pained blue, no rocks, no sand, no plants… well some slime was growing… I have never seen an animal enclosure so bare, it was sad.
Here we are in the tunnel
There was also a dolphin show that we went to. It was pretty hilarious. I don’t know why the sign says “heart to heart” and the trainers all wore matching pink jumpsuits.
This however was what I thought was the funniest part, the family in front of us all wearing different color plaid shirts. Plaid is really popular, you know like the lumberjack shirts, everyone has one!
This is what Japanese vending machines look like… and they are everywhere… see all the blue squares beneath the beverages… that means they are cold, there are none here but often some will be red and those are hot beverages, like different kinds of canned coffee and tea… They will put anthing in vending machines… Drinks, cigarettes, French fries (they actually cook in the machine and pop out fresh) porn (they will be locked up during the day and then at night they will open and sell) and even used girls underwear… (I have never sean but I have heard high school girls to make a buck will bring two pairs of underwear to school, at the end of the day switch and sell the used pair to the vending machine dudes who in turn sell to creepy old men)
This is the sign by the dolphin enclosure… I think it speaks for itself…
We wandered the streets of Aomori looking for food, and after finally choosing an establishment this is what I got, it was very good… miso soup, rice, and some sort of stir fried beef and onion with raw cabbage shreds on the side… yum
Derick got the same thing too… but I ate his rice : )
This is their ice cream selection… the tiny serving cups in the states is their normal here… and a tiny Hagen Dazz (I dont think that is how that is spelled?) as you can see is 248 yen which is a little more then $2.48… expensive… thank goodness for the commissary!
They have green tea everything… including ice cream! I really want to try some... I just haven’t, I will let you know how it goes!
This is the main aisle in the grocery store with all the other aisles coming off of it, of coarse I cant read any of the signs so I mostly just wander aimlessly with my mouth open
This is our friend Mike Parker and he is holding a solid block of ice, it costs $3… I don’t know what that is used for or why you cant just make your own…
This is a typical bakery in a grocery store… they always smell amazing and I always pick out one thing Derick will buy me and I get to take home and try… I have never been disappointed.
This is an international food store in the mall… Mac N Cheese: 303 yen (over $3.03)
Bertolli Pasta Sause: almost $7!!!!!
And SPAM on sale for almost $5!
Another Bakery in the mall, everything is so perfect, all the fruit looks fake, but its not!
Here is a close up of the cupcakes… how cute!
This is the inside of the mall, pretty normal looking
Here is Kimono shop, this on is 290,000 yen… that would be $2,900.00… and somebody told me these are not even the expensive ones….
My friend Yazmin, she has a “large” size shoe next to hers… hmmm… that’s not gonna work
This is some game in the arcade with lots of noice and lights and people shoot coins into it but then balls roll around the tracks and I really had no idea what was going on… it looked pretty intense though
These were in a candy shop like Mr. Bulky… it just seems so wrong…
We spent 15 min watching this lady to try to figure out what these were but we never could figure it out… everybody wanted some though, there were white ones, one rolled in brown powder, some in a black sauce, some in a brown sauce, some green ones… what the heck!
