Surf Camp

Shirihama Beach... Gorgeous... a beach south of Hachinohe... only about 50 min. total driving away... we are technically not allowed to swim in the ocean right by us because the tide and current are so strong, (a group and special forces died doing ocean exercises a few years ago) anywho... its still pretty strong down south but legal... (I went back a couple weekends after this and it was warm enough not to need a wet suit and I was body surfing... I am pretty sure I almost died... I got pounded pretty good a couple of times against the bottom... thank goodness its sand break not reef break or I would be really destroyed... I came out with huge rash burns on my back and bum from the sand... and when we tried to surf dawn patrol the next morning... we were camping on the beach... the waves were so strong that after I caught my first wave I spent forever just trying to get back out past the surf, and eventually had to give up cause my arms were so shot from paddling... oh and Derick went swimming in the ocean for the first time in his life and got hit by his first wave... remember these are really strong waves... had no idea what to do, go beat up, face full of saltwater and when he resurfaced he threw up... ha ha.. poor kid... and then another wave got him and same thing happened... I dont think he has the same love for the ocean as I do... I feel a connection with the earth while I am out in the water, the raw, dangerous, pure energy of the earth... I would go surfing and body surfing everyday if I could... ) anyway back to surf camp...
We drove down the coast to different beaches looking for the best surf, this is one spot we scouted... It blows my mind... huge coastline, gorgeous surf... not a soul in sight... score for us! Geoff (my boss and surfing guide) said had this been down south there would be hundreds of surfers out there even on weekdays... so what if we have to wear wetsuits...
Is this really surf camp appropriate... I dont know but it smelled great, and we would be dead without it!
I had a 9 foot plus board... way to long for my with the type of waves we had... but as the adult you have to make sacrifices and the kids were even shorter then me so it was all good... the waves broke in a tunnel you know like in the movies... so with a board this long you had to stay way back, my entire legs were hanging off the back or else the board would do a nose dive off the front of the straight drop down of the wave, that was pretty scary, I nose dived about 5 times probably before I figured out how far back I needed to be and I am pretty sure I almost died about 5 times. I would fall forward into the crashing wave with my board crashing on top of me... and so I had to just curl up into a ball protecting my head until the wave decided to spit me out... one time when we were just learning how to paddle out and huge... huge... wave was coming and I knew I could not go over it, I looked over at Geoff with what I am sure was a panicked look on my face... and he just said "hold your breath"... so I did... it was pretty scary... after that he taught us how to "turn turtle" if I big wave is coming that you know you cant go over (and you have a longboard) you have to roll over on your back underwater the board over you upside down... it is way more effective then just holding your breath...
The whole gang practicing "popping up"... I guess it payed off becuase everyone of us caught a wave the first day! IT WAS AWESOME! You can see how thick the sea fog can be here... sometimes its crazy thick
Pumped after our first round of surfing!
Body surfing after we all tired our arms out... these were our learning waves... the waves the next day (the ones at that beach I was talking about earlier) were two to three times this size... like if I was standing they would be probably six feet over my head!
HA HA... this makes me feel safe...
Snorkeling... we had to find stuff to do while waiting for the surf to get good! we also went sea kayaking!
Just to prove I was there!
We stayed at this little Japanese bead and breakfast... we had traditional tatami mat rooms to sleep in with futon mattresses in the closet that folded out... it was super cool and surprisingly comfortable... and we got dinner, choice of ramen or curry... the ramen was AMAZING! I LOVE RAMEN!
the last night we had a fire on the beach with smores and everything... it was great! We even star tripped... Becca you would be jealous! Star tripping is where you look up, pick a star, stare at is and spin in a circle as fast as you can for 15-20 seconds and then somebody turns on a flashlight and you have to run to the light... most people take one step and fall flat on their face... its the best game ever... best played before you eat 10 smores... ugh
And the last day the sun finally made an appearance... and even though we basically forced sunscreen on the kids... we had some major burnage... I guess maybe it was a good thing it was cloudy the first two days!

Tanabata Festival

Another Festival in Misawa... I think America would be a happier place if we had more festivals.... especially because they sell beer and mixed drinks in the street... hmmm too bad we went at 10 in the morning...
"Misawa City The Star Festival" (white sign in picture above... with this many American so accessible you think they would ask somebody if their sign was right?!?) But that is what I love about Japan... Anyways the Tanabata festival is celebrating the alignment of some stars... I think...
This girl just looks scary... Almost as scarry and the elephant creatures in Kimono behind her...
Great message kids....

There were this huge decorations all up and down the main street... there were soooo many, and they were HUGE...
Festival staple... food on a stick
Derick with the peace sign... I had to beg him to take this picture... he hates the peace sigh... and everything good in life... ha ha
They were pretty cool... I was really hoping it wouldn't rain... I am pretty sure they would melt...
Two cuties in kimono... I asked if I could take a picture... I think I might steal a Japanese baby...

Wilderness Camp

The first day of camp we went hiking in Oraise Gorge... I dont know if I spelled that right.... but it was absolutely gorgeous and I am pretty sure it is part of the wood between the worlds... There were ancient trees that created a canopy and all the light was a warm filtered green, there were huge ferns and wild hydrangea growing in the forest and the whole place smelled like warm earth, it was a quiet place full of life even the rocks in the middle of the river were covered in moss and grass... benches and picnic tables were covered in a layer of moss, everything dead was covered in life... it was intense!
This is at our base camp, we set up on these wooden platforms which was good becuase the first night it rained like crazy and it allowed for some drainage beneath our tents... I didnt bring my tent cause I thought it might be kinda big, but it would have done better in the rain then this nasty one from outdoor rec... The kids had it worse though, they got soaked that first night, but they had great attitudes and we made it through!

It was still rainy the next day and we were all cold so we decided to go to this 400 year old onsen and wait for the weather to clear and get warm... We rented a tatami mat room to hang out in and people could go soak in the onsen as they pleased... dont worry they were gender seperated... There was nobody in the onsen when we were there so I sneaked my camera in. It is all stone and Japanese Cedar... it was awesome! The water at this onsen is very sulfuric which gives it the aquamarine color, and is supposed to be great for the skin and hair..
It finally cleared up and our tents dried out and we were able to get a great night sleep before leaving for a big day hike the next day, that night was so nice I slept outside under the stars! We took the ropeway (a giant gondola) to the top of Mt. Hakkoda and took a winding hike across a couple other mountains in the range until we made it to the bottom... There were mists that moved among us and around the mountains... one moment we were in a deep haze and the next it would clear and the valley would unfold, it was very cool, I felt like we were in a magical land
And parts of the hike we were hiking through bamboo forests taller then us and I felt like we were running through the jungles in world war II... it was pretty cool...

Two thirds of the way down we took a rest on this platform and ended up all falling asleep, it was so awesome, the only noises were the wind in the grass, insects, and a few singing birds...
There were a surprising number of stairs... we went down some pretty steep decents...
a huge slug that looked like a turd... delicious!
We made it to the end of the hike... the trail ended at that 4oo year old onsen we had taken shelter in earlier.... and it had a shoe bath outside. And our shoes were VERY dirty! I love how clean the Japanese are... which is ironic because I am not a very clean person....

FUJI... dun dun dunnnnnnn

Sooo Derick was in Tokyo for work and after his thingy he was doing was over he tacked on a couple of days of leave and I took the bus down and we climbed Mt. Fuji... Mt. Fuji is only 12,300 something feet, so I was like hey no big deal... wrong... when you start from sea level, going up 12,00 feet in two days can be a challenge on your body... I got very altitude sick (upset stomach) but we made it to the top! Oh by the way we hiked at night so we could be on top for the SUNRISE! totally worth it... it was amazing... here is what happened!...On the way to the train station (it is a four hour journey by various trains and a bus to Fuji from the Air Base we were staying at) we saw some interesting vending machines... this one sells girls underwear... for nasty old Japanese men... the one next to it sold porn, but that picture is not blog appropriate... Japanese and their vending machines.... wow...

Hiking through the "concrete jungle" to get to the train station... oh and our friend DMS (John) went with us! He was already in Tokyo for the same thingy Derick was there for!
After all the trains and before the bus that took us up to the 5th station we stopped and had some dinner.. this is Udon.... which is like a really fat noodle, it had cabbage and carrots with it and I think horse meat... hmmm.... I dont know how I feel about that but I took all the meat out cause it was fatty (meat here tends to be super fatty... I tend to order vegetarian for that reason) BUT... it was super good and with super good green tea!
Here we are at the 5th station ready to begin our journey posing with old man Fuji and our walking sticks... you get these sticks and there are huts all the way up the mountain and you get it branded at each hut... it turn out really cool looking... so... it is 9:30 pm when we start our hike so we can be at the top of the mountain for the sunrise..
You can see all the people going up the mountain... it was crazy... there were sooo mannyyyyy peopppplllleeeee.....
this is 900 meters from the top at the 8th station... I was sooo sick at this point... but we had three hours till sunrise so we found a corner out of the wind and slept all huddled together for a couple of hours before the final assent...
Finally we made it too the top and we made it early enough we had a place to sit with a great view... those were a cold 30 min. just sitting waiting for the sun
And a 4 am here comes the sun.. it looked like we were on a plane... it was absolutely gorgeous and totally worth the climb

You can kinda see the ground at the bottom of the mountian.... that green area through the clouds... it was straight up....
All the people crowding around the top trying to get a good view in the last few seconds before the sunrise...
Finally warmth and sun! I was so happy!
On the top....
GORGEOUS!
And of course... Vending Machines on the top of Mt. Fuji... give me a break JAPAN!
The way down... pretty hard on the knees and not much of a landscape... I guess we didn't miss much hiking up in the dark!
Some really dirty volcanic ashy snow... looked cool though
The bullet trian that we rode on back to the Far North... it was a pretty cool ride...
Derick and I playing speed waiting for our train... GREAT TRIP!!!!