August 16- 22, 2010
Obon is finally over and the town is almost back to normal, it's now safe to go to the grocery store! We started off the week with another morning at the pool. Patti chose to forgo her normal walk and she came swimming with us. We all swam really hard, which lead to a relaxing evening, which I needed since I was starting to feel a bit under the weather.
I woke up Tuesday morning feeling pretty crummy, which put playing tour-guide on hold. Glenn went swimming without me and Patti cooked lunch and dinner while I rested on the couch all day.
Wednesday I was starting to feel better and Glenn and Patti's visit was coming to an end with places still to see on the list so, Patti and I drove to the outskirts of Ajigasawa and visited Kurokuma Falls (Black Bear Falls) it's ranked Japans 7th best waterfall!
Unfortunately the small hike took a lot out of me so Patti cooked dinner again while I rested. Patti even walked to the grocery store and sought out help finding the right kind of margarine for us and bought me some get better goodies, she cooked every meal that day! She's taking such good care of me!!
Thursday Glenn and Patti celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary :) We went to Goshogowara after school to pick up a few last gift items and we stopped into Uni-Qlo, the Japanese version of Gap. Eric I hadn't ever actually been shopping there before, but we went on a mini clearance sale shopping spree. Glenn bought fantastic hats that were mis-marked and therefore the best deal in town, and patti bought some awesome denim leggings. Eric and I got wonderful new house slippers that will certainly make Winter more comfortable. We ended having to push our dinner reservation back because we had too much fun shopping! We went to Dadan for dinner and ate delicious food and listened to a husband and wife play the shamasen. It was a great dinner! We had some really delicious Japanese foods that I've never tried before, their Eggplant special dish was phenomenal. If you've never heard a Shamisen, you're missing out, it's a really unique and beautiful Japanese instrument. I've included a short video below.
Glenn and Patti, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary visiting us in Japan! They're sitting on the floor of a Japanese restaurant about to indulge in a delicious dinner and enjoy a beautiful Shamisen performance. Somehow, I don't think this is how they ever imagined they would spend this anniversary!
A very talented, husband-wife Shamisen duo, who also run the restaurant and cook!
Friday Eric took the day off to spend with his parents since they were leaving early Saturday morning. We wanted to show them Mt. Iwaki as their final pit-stop in Aomori. It's fun to look down and see the town and the ocean and point out the places we've been!
We drove up the switchback road consisting of 69 sharp turns, then road a chair lift into the clouds and then Patti and Eric hiked up towards the peak. This is where Eric and Patti started their hike! 
Glenn and I sat it out, Glenn's knees can't quite take it after 2 replacements and I was too sick to climb. My mom would have been proud of me for sitting something out when I wasn't feeling good, I'm really bad at saying 'no' to fun things. After enjoying the mountain we drove around the back side of the mountain and went into Hirosaki and ate at a nice sushi restaurant. Since Patti and I aren't big sushi eaters we had phase two of lunch at Mos Burger. Then we came home and packed :( After the packing was complete we went for a nice relaxing soak in the onsen at the Hotel Grand Mer to watch the sunset from inside a hot spring bath overlooking the ocean. It was perfect. After we got out of the onsen there was an unexpected fireworks show over the ocean that we could see perfectly from the hotel. It was a perfect ending to an amazing month!
I woke up Tuesday morning feeling pretty crummy, which put playing tour-guide on hold. Glenn went swimming without me and Patti cooked lunch and dinner while I rested on the couch all day.
Wednesday I was starting to feel better and Glenn and Patti's visit was coming to an end with places still to see on the list so, Patti and I drove to the outskirts of Ajigasawa and visited Kurokuma Falls (Black Bear Falls) it's ranked Japans 7th best waterfall!
Unfortunately the small hike took a lot out of me so Patti cooked dinner again while I rested. Patti even walked to the grocery store and sought out help finding the right kind of margarine for us and bought me some get better goodies, she cooked every meal that day! She's taking such good care of me!!Thursday Glenn and Patti celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary :) We went to Goshogowara after school to pick up a few last gift items and we stopped into Uni-Qlo, the Japanese version of Gap. Eric I hadn't ever actually been shopping there before, but we went on a mini clearance sale shopping spree. Glenn bought fantastic hats that were mis-marked and therefore the best deal in town, and patti bought some awesome denim leggings. Eric and I got wonderful new house slippers that will certainly make Winter more comfortable. We ended having to push our dinner reservation back because we had too much fun shopping! We went to Dadan for dinner and ate delicious food and listened to a husband and wife play the shamasen. It was a great dinner! We had some really delicious Japanese foods that I've never tried before, their Eggplant special dish was phenomenal. If you've never heard a Shamisen, you're missing out, it's a really unique and beautiful Japanese instrument. I've included a short video below.
Glenn and Patti, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary visiting us in Japan! They're sitting on the floor of a Japanese restaurant about to indulge in a delicious dinner and enjoy a beautiful Shamisen performance. Somehow, I don't think this is how they ever imagined they would spend this anniversary!
A very talented, husband-wife Shamisen duo, who also run the restaurant and cook!
Friday Eric took the day off to spend with his parents since they were leaving early Saturday morning. We wanted to show them Mt. Iwaki as their final pit-stop in Aomori. It's fun to look down and see the town and the ocean and point out the places we've been!
We drove up the switchback road consisting of 69 sharp turns, then road a chair lift into the clouds and then Patti and Eric hiked up towards the peak. This is where Eric and Patti started their hike! 
Glenn and I sat it out, Glenn's knees can't quite take it after 2 replacements and I was too sick to climb. My mom would have been proud of me for sitting something out when I wasn't feeling good, I'm really bad at saying 'no' to fun things. After enjoying the mountain we drove around the back side of the mountain and went into Hirosaki and ate at a nice sushi restaurant. Since Patti and I aren't big sushi eaters we had phase two of lunch at Mos Burger. Then we came home and packed :( After the packing was complete we went for a nice relaxing soak in the onsen at the Hotel Grand Mer to watch the sunset from inside a hot spring bath overlooking the ocean. It was perfect. After we got out of the onsen there was an unexpected fireworks show over the ocean that we could see perfectly from the hotel. It was a perfect ending to an amazing month!Saturday came all too soon :/ We left the house at 4:30am to head to the airport two hours away for an 8:10 am departure for glenn and patti. We watched the sunrise over the rice fields as we made our journey. 
We made excellent time due to the lack of traffic and were at the airport by 6am... only to find out that you couldn't access the parking lot or enter the airport until 7am, shucks, so we sat outside quite thankful that the weather was nice and eventually parked the car and checked them in and sent them on their way. It was a very sad car ride back from the airport.
After our early morning airport excursion we picked up Wyatt from a train station and drove him around Goshogowara and Hirosaki to go car shopping. Fortunately it was a big weekend for car sales and he found a car before the end of the day. By the time we made it home we were certainly tired pumpkins.
We made excellent time due to the lack of traffic and were at the airport by 6am... only to find out that you couldn't access the parking lot or enter the airport until 7am, shucks, so we sat outside quite thankful that the weather was nice and eventually parked the car and checked them in and sent them on their way. It was a very sad car ride back from the airport.After our early morning airport excursion we picked up Wyatt from a train station and drove him around Goshogowara and Hirosaki to go car shopping. Fortunately it was a big weekend for car sales and he found a car before the end of the day. By the time we made it home we were certainly tired pumpkins.
Come Sunday, Eric and I passed out like zombies all day, we just relaxed and eventually started to get the house back in order. The house feels empty, huge and pretty lonely. Hopefully it will feel normal again soon.
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