Seagull Island is an interesting place, it’s literally a once in a lifetime experience. It’s also one of those experiences you must see to believe kinda thing. From March to August it is the breeding ground for literally tens of thousands of birds. Making the dash up the stairs without an umbrella is risky because there are so many birds flying over you! We’ve made the dash umbrella free two times [Read more…]
Japanese Wooden Masks
Japan Fish Market
We like going to the fish market. Despite the overbearing fishy smell we can get fruit, like apples, strawberries and bananas, for cheap. Watermelons & cantaloupe are way to expensive up to $30 each! When family was here visiting my dad found they sold fried chicken gizzards and he was in heaven! I have heard it’s way better than any fish market in the States, I wouldn’t know for sure because [Read more…]
Japanese Salmon Fest
We arrived here at the end of Oct 2005 and in Nov 2005 we decided to jump right into our first cultural experience. We headed out to the local Salmon Fest. It is where you get in a man-made pond and catch large Salmon….with your hands! It was hysterical watching Mr. B and Boo try to catch these fish! Boo’s was so strong he couldn’t even pick it up himself, held onto the tail until Mr. B helped [Read more…]
Samurai
Here are the photos of the guys dressed up in Samurai gear at Japan Day. The boys really got a kick out of it. Bea wanted to join in too so the people dressing them up gave her a sword for the picture.
The guys all decked out in Samurai gear…a little small for American adults
All of us 2007
The boys Samurai gear the first year we went to Japan Day 2006
Kimonos
Last year at Japan Day (where the Japanese host cultural activities here on base for us Americans, we in return do an American day once a year) Bea and I had the opportunity to dress up in Kimonos and the guys had the opportunity to dress up in Samurai gear (which I’ll post tomorrow). The Kimono dressing was a neat experience although it took about 30 mins for them (2 women) to dress me and it was [Read more…]
Engrish….Say What?!
There is lots of Engrish here in Japan. What is Engrish you ask? It’s a Japanese attempt at English which is often quite amusing to us Americans. They have hard time with L’s and R’s…just the other day I seen a sign for “House for Lent” I need to take a picture of that one. And I’m not sure if I want to get my hair done at the Cut & Parm shop…what the heck is a parm? Here are a few [Read more…]
Egg Vending Machine!
The Japanese are big on vending machines. You can literally buy almost anything from a vending machine: hot and cold drinks, ice cream, noodles & french fries, cigarrettes (which they buy like they are going out of style) and even X-rated material! But who would’ve thought you could buy eggs from a vending machine?! There is one close to where we live so I took some pictures. For 200 Yen, less [Read more…]
Japanese Wooden Rice Cake Molds
Click on Pic to see it up close
I have always wanted to buy some of these Japanese wooden molds, they were used to make rice cakes, for decoration. I was holding off because being the bargain hunter that I am I didn’t want to pay $20+ each. Luckily when my family was here visiting we went to an antique store where I found these marked down to $6 each! I would’ve eventually broke down and bought [Read more…]
Small Japanese Glass Fishing Floats & Sea Glass
I wanted to do a blog about the smaller Japanese Glass Fishing floats. These are harder to find on the main island but can easily be found on a trip to Hokkaido (which is semi expensive). They can be bought from local vendors but they don’t look the same as the found ones…they look less authentic I guess. At the last bazar we did end up purchasing a few different sized ones we didn’t have like [Read more…]