Halloween

Halloween night on base was a great time. The kids made off like bandits with gobs of candy. It was a little chilly, but all had a great time.

It's surprising I know but Rayce was a ninja. Again.

Mario and Luigi, Danielle and her friend Ashlyn looked so darn cute.

Avie always seems to take off her costume before I can get a picture. This picture was from the Med Group trick or treat at the base hospital.

Jack O Lanterns

Tonight was pumpkin-carving time. I was relieved that the commissary had many pumpkins to choose from. The kids got to each carve their own minus Avie who fell asleep shortly before we started. My job was to scoop out the seeds.

She was overwhelmed with excitement.

Danielle did the Mickey Mouse pumpkin and even drew her own template! Rayce did the middle one and carved it by himself, with some close supervision. Dan did the last one right before Avie woke up upset that her pumpkin had been carved...we might have to go see if they have anymore left.

Just a Pic

Just another picture of some beautiful Japanese countryside.

As I am typing this a small earthquake is rocking me in my chair. A strong typhoon hitting the Tokyo area is sending strong rain and wind our way. There is a lot of interesting and unfamiliar weather here in Japan. Just another thing to get used to. Depending on the typhoon we may or may not go see Hirosaki Castle this weekend for their Chrysanthemum festival. I'm crossing my fingers we can go!

Mail

These are our mailboxes here in Misawa:

They're kinda fun, although it takes a while to get anything in the mail, Amazon has been the fastest so far at about a week. It's usually more like three weeks.

Kakunodate-Samurai House

This weekend we went to Kakunodate to visit two notable samurai houses, the Aoyagi House and the Ishiguro House. I was excited to go but didn't think I would enjoy as much as the other things we have been doing.

Yeah, I was wrong, this place was really cool and the history of samurai is fascinating.

This is the entrance to the Ishiguro House. The house was constructed almost 200 years ago and remains almost exactly the same.

I thought this had to be an entrance to some elaborate room...nah, it's storage.

Then, on to the Aoyagi House. This house had a collection of artifacts from the 15th century through the 19th century.

After the Samurai houses we had some free time to go and get lunch and explore a little. We had lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant across the street. I tried the udon noodles, I definitely like ramen better. Dan had some really good curry.

After lunch, ice cream time. Rayce got chestnut flavor, IT WAS SO GOOD!

Hinokinai River. This place is a cherry blossom viewing hotspot in the spring, lots of cherry blossoms.

Hakkoda Color

We try to make use of any three day weekends, there is just so much to see. I'd really been looking forward to seeing some fall colors so on Columbus Day we decided to go hiking up the Hakkoda mountains...but Avie woke up with a fever and Danielle wasn't feeling good either. I was bummed! Dan was on call anyway so he said he would stay home with the sick ones and let me go with Rayce. He didn't have to tell me twice.

There is a ski resort up there as well as a spa and an onsen (public bath).

My friend, Rachel and I, made it to the top.

Beautiful.