Hirosaki Castle - Our 4th Spring!

We woke up today to incredible weather with lots of sunshine, so I decided to load the kids up and head to Hirosaki Castle to check out all the cherry blossoms!  We originally had plans to go with friends on Sunday, but I couldn't pass up a trip with the weather like this after so many days of rain...then, when I checked the forecast and saw rain all weekend, I knew this was a good decision!  I felt a little bad at first because I would have to take Katie out of school today to go, but I decided it was a great "cultural field trip" and totally worth it...come to find out (and I didn't realize this until after our trip today) today is a Japanese holiday and Katie didn't have school anyway!  No wonder the secretary wasn't answering the phone at school!!  :)

Getting ready to walk around the grounds at Hirosaki Castle

Luckily, my friend Mary (who I was supposed to go with on Sunday) saw an email I sent this morning begging for directions to Hirosaki (the only ones I had are quite safe on the laptop that crashed recently...) and decided to hurriedly get her kids in the car and join us!  I ended up following her to our destination and she lead us to the best parking spot EVER!  It's right next to a beautiful park that I didn't even know existed until today.  There's a huge pond with Koi fish, a beautiful red bridge in front of a big waterfall, and flowers just waiting to bloom everywhere (it will be even more beautiful here in the next couple of weeks.)  We may have to go back again very soon and take more pictures like two below...can you imagine what these would look like with all those tulips in bloom?!

After checking out that hidden gem, we walked over to Hirosaki Castle.

 We've seen the "insert your nugget here" photo ops here before, but this is the first time I've seen one for the WHOLE family!  Too bad Daddy wasn't with us for this one, but the kids look cute!

  It's been kind of a rough couple of days here...too much missing Daddy!  It kind of carried over to our trip today.  It was quite difficult to get smiles!

 

 Poor CJ...being stuck in the stroller doesn't allow for very many photo opportunities!  He was able to roam around a bit while we were having our lunch!  And, as you can see below, he finally realized that if he looked up while in his stroller he could see me!  :)

While the weather was beautiful, it was still quite windy.  We didn't really notice the wind though, until we sat down in an open area for lunch. The ladies pictured below nearly blew away while trying to put their tarp down! 

The blossoms were beautiful and I always enjoy going to Hirosaki Castle.  I'm so glad Trevor was extended here and we are able to spend one more Spring and Summer in Japan.  ....and I was able to capture a few smiles, we DID have a good time!  :)

 

While there were quite a few trees that had blossoms, there were still many that hadn't bloomed yet....so there will probably be another installment of "Hirosaki Castle" ...if we can manage to get Trevor back home soon!

Sakura Yabusame April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!
Holidays just aren't the same without Daddy around, so we've decided that it's much easier on everyone when we do something completely different than we would normally do...like take in a Japanese Archery Festival on Easter Sunday!  So I packed a lunch, piled the kids in the car, met up with some friends and headed to Towada to check out the Sakura Yabusame. 
  At this festival, we watched Japanese women and girls in amazing 'costume' galloping fast down a lane shooting arrows at targets along the way.  It's all beautiful.  The horses, the riding gear the ladies wear, the bright red umbrella that is opened to show a hit target. 

 When we arrived at the festival, we happened to walk up to the end of the lane where the riders gathered after their run.  The ladies were nice enough to let the kids pet the horses and take pictures.

 Katie even got to dress up like a Samurai and ride a pony!

 CJ...was not impressed with the Samurai.

 Unfortunately, it's been raining quite a bit the last few days and the grounds at the festival were pretty muddy.  There were plenty of places to walk though that weren't covered with many inches of water....however, Katie prefers to make a splash.

 We thought this little girl was just adorable in her outfit.  She was even cuter on her little pony!

 After the competition was over, all the riders and horses lined up for photos.

Definitely a memorable Easter.  I can't believe we've been here for three and a half years and this is the first time we've made it to this festival! 

The Art of Karaoke

Oh karaoke, how I'm going to miss you when I'm gone! I don't know if Koreans do karaoke the way the Japanese do, but I'm really going to have to find out....because it's one of my absolute favorite things to do here!! There is a very specific way to do things though, if you really want to have a good time. I'll explain...

First, you must gather up as many of your crazy girlfriends as the fire code in your favorite restaurant will allow. If your favorite restaurant also happens to have an "all you can drink" option, your night will be even better! The restaurant of choice for this evening out was Uotami Misawa. AMAZING Izakaya restaurant with traditional Japanese seating, and I must take Trevor here when he finally gets back home....he's going to love it!

We ate a family style dinner which started with this amazing soup-dish:

There's a little chicken, squid, scallops, shrimp, veggies (leeks, cabbage, onions,) tomatoes, and cheese. Heat it all up together while you start getting your money's worth from the "all you can drink" option and it's just amazing!
The dinner also included the edemame and some kind of fried something that you see at the top of the picture, chicken on a stick, cheese rolls, fried chicken, a sushi salad and japanese sausages.Above is a fresh grapefruit drink. Even though I had to juice the heck out of that grapefruit, it was worth it!I think after the waitresses got an idea of the types of drinks the customers tend to order, they just start bringing out what ever they thing you might like. And it was good. Above I have a White Russian and some kind of almond jelly drink. I wish I could remember the name, because it was like dessert in a glass.

After your time limit at the restaurant has expired (yes, it's all you can drink, but you only get 90 minutes!) you walk on over to La La La's to work everything off. I have found the the evenings are most fun when you start off walking like an Egyptian.Then you pick Sir Mix-a-lot and everyone shakes it all together to really get into the Karaoke mood.
A few duets are in order...Then you just pick what ever songs come to mind and dance until they kick you out!And they do kick you out. If you don't opt to pay the extra to stay for another hour they turn on all the lights, grab your microphone, take your drinks and just expect you to leave. It's really a bummer. But that's when I remember I have a babysitter waiting for me at home...I'm so glad I have a sitter that the kids love...it makes nights like this even better!