A Little Shaky

I get a lot of questions and concerns about earthquakes. It didn't help that two months after our move that big earthquake hit. Now it seems like every shake earns some kind of concern or comment.

95% of the time, earthquakes are no big deal. The apartment shakes a bit, we just wait it out. What else are you supposed to do? Even for the big one last year, I just sat on the couch and waited, holding a couple of steins from Germany so they didn't break.

Nejo Castle and Hachinohe Museum

Planning out my parents' visit was interesting. Traveling in Japan can be difficult with the lack of road signs and the language barrier. It's not like Europe where you can sometimes guestimate what that word might mean in English. Kanji is a whole different world.

Our tours place on base has a lot of directions online, so I just picked what looked interesting. Some places we'd been to before, some places I went to working with the school age kids last year, and some places were the right combination of travel time and price.

The Nejo Castle and Hachinohe Museum fit the third description. Just an hour drive away and something like 400 yen a person.

Revisiting the Gorge

I blogged about our first visit to the Oirase Gorge last July. It was so green and so beautiful. We just parked and took pictures at two waterfalls and I couldn't wait to get back and get walking.

Fast forward almost a year. (How does time go by so quickly?!) We were trying to figure out what to do with my parents one afternoon and decided it was too gorgeous to be indoors. Out here in Misawa, a sunny day is something to take advantage of because snow and rain are less than a day away.

Aomori Big Buddha: Temples, Pegodas, and Statues

Yesterday's Big Buddha was beautiful, but it's so much more than just one statue. There's temples and a gorgeous pegoda. The greenery and hills are breathtaking. The statues sprinkled throughout are interesting and beautifully carved. It's one of the most peaceful places I've found in northern Japan.

Aomori Big Buddha

I have about a million pictures from my parents' recent visit. I'm trying to break it up so you can look through our trip without having picture overkill. One place I definitely did some picture overkill was the Big Buddha in Aomori.

Aomori is the capital of our prefecture. It's a big city about two hours away. While there are any number of things you could do, one of my "must-sees" was the Big Buddha. It's just what it sounds like, a giant statue of Buddha. It's in this gorgeous hilly, forested spot just outside the main city streets with a couple of shrines and pegodas. It's beautiful and peaceful.

I'm Lovin' It

We had some visitors recently and we planned a lot of different activities for them to see and experience. Cultural oddities, religious places of worship, air force related information and history. Want to know one of the must-eats on our list?


McDonald's.

I know what you're thinking. Fast food?! Why would you get mediocre American food when you have all this interesting Japanese food? Greasy french fries and bad burgers?!

Who's Flying This Plane?

One of the best parts of the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum was the outdoor exhibit - planes!

Misawa Aviation and Science Museum

There's an aviation museum right next to base. I see it every day on my way to work, but we haven't gone yet. We both figured it would be a dinky little museum with one or two aircrafts and some signs about northern Japan.

We took my parents anyway.

On Base

There isn't much of base I can share online. Last week we stopped at one spot I can share.

Cleaning

Let's talk about cleaning.

I have a love/hate relationship with cleaning. I hate clutter and need it to be gone immediately, but the every day process of cleaning up and keeping it away eludes me. It's a vicious cycle of piling and stacking all week, then cleaning it all up over the weekend and saying never again. Repeat a couple thousand times.

8.5 Miles!

I'm giving myself a little pat on the back today.

I couldn't get to sleep until late last night and woke up at 4am wide awake. Why? I don't know, but 5am wasn't the best time for me. I even tried to hit snooze and go back to sleep, but couldn't. So I sucked it up and got out of bed.

Despite having zero motivation, I made it 2.5 miles this morning!

That has to be a record for me. I bought a Nike+ a week or two ago and am loving being able to keep track.

I keep meaning to take pictures of all the trees budding and blooming. The cherry blossoms are opening up and making everything all soft and gorgeous. But I keep forgetting my camera. I'll get around to it eventually...

6 Miles

I've jogged/walked six miles in the last two days. Progress! I did intervals of jogging and walking for 3.5 miles yesterday and just walked for 2.5 today. I'm trying to be more active, but I got burnt out on the gym routine of lifting and dealing with people and all that.

Getting out at 5am means you're pretty much alone on the path! I saw four people at the end of my walk today, and about twenty birds. Not a bad way to start the day.

I have a lot of fun adventures coming up in a week (woo, vacation!), so I'm sure there will be an overload of pictures very soon. For now, I have this: