(11/20) Friday- Eric had the mid-year seminar again, only today he finished a few hours sooner than anticipated, so after lighting the Shabbat candles Eric was anxious to get up and do something other than sit in a chair so we headed off to Gosh again (it's kind of closest 'escape') so we took care of a few errands and a little bit of holiday shopping and then we had a deliciously comforting dinner at good ol' KFC! And, I discovered they do have biscuits :) they just aren't on the main menu. I was quite happy, now if I can only find a secret stash of mashed potatoes! While we were out shopping we went to our second favorite recycle shop and purchased a pair of short skis. Many people use them for trick-skiing. I intend to try them as regular skis, I see 2 benefits- 1 they will go slower than regular skis, and 2 I wont go crazy about the tips of my skis crossing in the front or the back all of the time! We'll see how this all goes. I am really really hoping that I like skiing and that it doesn't bother my knee too much. We'll know soon enough!
(11/21) Saturday- Road Trip!!! We have been wanting to take a road trip through the ken (state) and up to Oma, it's the Northeast tip of the island of Honshu. With Winter creeping up on us we decided that this weekend would be our last chance before Spring as many of the roads are seasonal.
We got on the road shortly after lunch and drove through Hirosaki (stopping to get a Compass eric scoped out during his mid-year seminar lunch break) and then headed we north. Around 4 when the sun started setting we decided we would not drive all the way to Oma, but rather we would head northwest and try to get to a hostel that comes highly recommended from our Japan travel book. So when we reached Mutsu, about an hour from our destination in Wakinosawa, we stopped to call the hostel and see if they had any rooms available. 
There website had a significant amount of English so we thought we would be able to speak to them in English as well... wrong! But I made it through and was able to explain to them that we needed 1 room for the night... and explain that although we have different last names, we are in fact married. Otherwise it didn't sound like they would let us share the room. So about an hour later we got into Wakinosawa and could not find the hostel so we gave them a call again and they came to meet us at the boat dock and showed us the way. It's a good thing we gave up early, we would not have found it alone! Our plan was to check in and then go find dinner, but after we checked in we soon realized they had closed up for the night, which meant that we were in for the night. Fortuately I had packed some PB&J supplies for the trip, so we had some sandwhiches and chips on the floor of our room, then we played games until we got tired of it. It was only 8:30 but we hit the sack anyway so we could get up early and finish our drive to Oma!
(11/22) Sunday- We said our goodbyes to our very friendly, and oddly (for the morning anyway) cheerful hosts and we hit the road. They had given us some tips on where to see the Snow Monkeys along the route so we were pretty excited. Unfortunately about 30 min up the road we discovered that the highway was closed! Although the signs said they weren't supposed to be closed for 3 more weeks... the storms came early so we had to turn around and go back through Mutsu. We decided to go through Osore-Zan (an area famous for its plethora of hot springs due to volcanic activity... aka the 'gateway to hell') and we almost made it there, cut short by about 9 km. Many people seemed surprised that the roads were all closed.
At this point there was only 1 other road we could take and it was pretty far out of the way, and we figured that we struck out twice already, so maybe we should just wait til the Spring. So, we turned around yet again and drove through the capitol city of Aomori. We made a spectacular stop at the Asamushi Aquarium and enjoyed lots of fun sea creatures and a great dolphin show. 
We walked around down town a bit and devoured some delicious Korean BBQ and we loaded up on lots of Dr. Pepper. The foreign foods store in Aomori is the only place we know to buy it :/ We also saw a cruise ship at the port today which was pretty surprising, not sure what they were doing so far North this late in the season.(11/23) Monday- Today is Labor Day in Japan, which means.... Eric is home :) We had a wonderful lazy morning and watched a Nick Cage movie called Next (with Jessica Beil) that we had never heard of before, but we knew Nick Cage and thought it would be good. It definitely was no movie marvel, but it was entertaining non-the-less. In an attempt to get our bedroom heater ventilated we went to the Sanwado (like Home Depot) but soon figured out that the task would not be an easy one when we couldn't figure out which parts we needed and the employee didn't quite understand, so for now we are going to wait until someone more capable of communicating can go with us. We had dinner at the mall I had Zaru Soba, we shared amazing Yaki Soba, and Eric had Maguro (tuna-raw) Salad. We also discovered that the black sesame ice cream is amazing, and of course I had the shave ice "space cream" or watayuki dessert. In a previous blog I called Kakigori, but I think I was mis-informed and that it is actually Watayuki, as Kakigori is described as "more coarse than a snow cone", and this delectable treat is definitely not anything like a snow cone.
(11/24) Tuesday- Tonight we attended the Mayors funeral. It was a very interesting experience especially since neither of us have attended many funerals to begin with. The entire funeral was in Japanese and Buddhist in nature. There were more flowers in the room than I knew could even grow in this cold weather, it was so beautiful. Literally, every where you looked there were flowers. The centerpiece was about 15 feet wide and probably 12 feet high. It was a sculpture of flowers that formed the mountains and flowed into the ocean. The space between the two was filled with beautiful white flowers and a photo of the mayor that was back-lit. Ajigasawa rests between the mountains and the ocean, so I think the flowers in the middle were representative of Ajigasawa. 3 Buddhist monks chanted for about 45 minutes and there were a few speeches from family and close friends that of course brought the whole room to tears. We didn't understand much, but we did catch on to the fact that he loved sports and one his favorites was Sumo. Judging by the amount of people who attended, and the surprising number of people came by before the funeral to drop of gifts and say a quick word goodbye, he was very loved. In our few brief encounters with him, it was very clear that he was a kind loving man. I am sad that we did not get to know him better.
(11/25) Wednesday- Tomorrow is Thanksgiving for us! We are having a big feast on Saturday with Genevieve so we went to Gosh today to get the last of the necessary ingredients. I cannot wait for Green Bean Casserole!! Genny went shopping on the AF base and got lots of goodies for Thanksgiving, it's going to be fantastic!
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