Japanese snow festivals

To see the pictures of this adventure click on the photo album over there on your left.

I spent most of January in the house and it was lovely to have the opportunity to get out. We started our weekend of adventures at the Misawa Snow Festival on Saturday morning. It was right on the lake and the wind made it very cold. We toured the area, four snow sculptures, a couple of sledding hills, a bridge, some snow lanterns and the food tent. Lily had a blast running around through the crowd in her snowsuit. After a quick look-see, we had some food. It was so good. We tried some traditional hot fermented rice drink, not my favorite, we had some teriyaki marinated beef on a stick, some frankfurters, some fried rice with shrimp and quid and some fried wedges of sweet potatoes. Everything was delicious, except the rice drink. We did another quick tour and watched a game of snowball fighting. The game included two teams, lots of snowballs and the mission was to capture the other team’s flag. The kids were having a blast.

Later that night Jeff and I went on our first date since the baby was born, 19 months. We parked our car and walked the two blocks to Jeff’s favorite restaurant, Ram Tei. Ram Tei is a very small restaurant, about eight tables, where you cook your own pre-seasoned beef at the table. The meat is heavily seasoned and peppered and some people are sautéing onions and cabbage as well. We spent the time discussing our dream home, as we do on every occasion we eat at Ram Tei. The walls are paneled in wood and it gets Jeff to dreaming of the house we some day plan to build. By the time we left Ram Tei we were smelling very lovely. The smell of the grilling meat, smoke and spices stays with a person for days. On our stroll back to the car in our little town, in the snow we spotted a beautiful oil painting for about $10 in the window of a shop and went in to buy it. This of course was our babysitting money, but the paining was awesome. Once in the store we couldn’t find the shopkeeper, so we browsed for a while awaiting his return. Instead of the $10 painting we ended up buying a picture of Mount Fuji for $20, Jeff climbed Mt Fuji last summer and it was a must have. After paying for our purchase the shopkeeper was telling us something we couldn’t understand, in Japanese. Finally, he held his nose and waved his other hand in front of his nose. I guess we were stinking pretty bad to be told by the shopkeeper. We laughed the rest of the way to the car. That was so much fun. I am making such a good impression of America here in Japan. On the way home we stopped to get a movie and some ice cream for Mandy, along with some more money to pay her and we ran into a bunch of our friends. We knew how badly we stank, we kept trying to get away, how embarrassing. Jeff kept telling them we were at Ram Tei, it was hilarious. That was one of the best dates of my life. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.

The next day we got up early and went to the Morioka snow festival with our Japanese friends: Ristico (Mom), Yoshi (Dad) and Kotalo (son). I am sure I spelt all the names wrong! It was a three-hour drive; we stopped once on the way. The greatest invention of the modern age is here in Japan, warm toilet seats. Imagine a freezing cold rest stop in the mountains with the toilet seat warmed, lovely. It is interesting to note that the rest stops do not have warm running water, only cold, and don’t have paper towels or hand dryers, but the seats are warm and we take what we can get.

We arrived at the festival and it was very crowded we had to park far away and walk about 15 minutes to the festival. Ristico tells me that this is a dairy farm and the fields used for grazing the cattle in the summer are used for the festival in the winter. We arrived and set up our foods at a picnic table, used the restrooms and began our tour of the festival. Here there were about 25 sculptures. They were much bigger and more interactive than the Misawa Snow Festival. There was a JR train coming out of a tunnel, we walked through the tunnel and into the train, made of snow. There was a Disney area, Cinderella’s pumpkin coach pulled by a life size horse, Cinderella’s castle with some people dressed in dinosaur costumes on a stage out front singing and dancing. There was a maze made of snow, and much more, check out the photos. Lily was having a hard time walking on the snow here and fell a lot.

Once we got back to the picnic area and settled down for lunch we let Lily run around to get some energy out after three hours in her car seat and an hour being carried around. I gave Lily her lunch but let her run around the picnic table while she ate. She got mud on her hand, in her food and on her face. The she got mad threw a fit and threw herself to the ground in a big mud puddle. Her light pink outfit was covered in mud. I sat her on my lap, now I am covered in mud, fed her and put her in her carrier for the rest of the day. No more exercise, hoping she will sleep on the drive home, but knowing there was no chance of that. I had stayed up late the night before, after Ram Tei, to make a picnic to share with our friends. We ended up not eating a thing I brought, their food put ours to shame. We often go on adventures and camping trips with this family and I have never managed to make anything that is in the same league as Ristico. So, we had the best Japanese food and we were all stuffed.

After eating, we made another tour of the festival. Mandy rode a train pulled by a snowmobile that swung around and bounced in the air. Jeff and I had ice cream made fresh from the Dairy’s milk. We bought souvenirs and went home. Miss Lily cried a lot on the way home and I hurt my knee, and slammed my finder in the door. Jeff went on forever about what a great time we had. I think it was mediocre. Travel with a toddler is at best mediocre so I thought that was a good thing. Next time I am saying I had a fabulous time.

That was our weekend before Valentine’s Day. We spent this last week shoveling as it has snowed and snowed.

Jeff and Lily at Misawa Snow Festival 

Another building in San Marino.

Me in San Marino, view of Italy.

Mandy in San Marino. October 2001. Notice the original buildings made from cut stones.

Garmisch, Germany

this is a copy of an email I wrote about a trip we took in July 2002.

We were discussing the trip on the way home and came to the conclusion that it just might have been the best trip ever. However, I think we have been saying that about every trip, on the drive home, for quite awhile now. I guess we just love our trips.

We drove up to Garmisch Germany, which is a United States Army recreation facility. Located in the Bavarian Alps, Garmisch is the most beautiful place on earth. We started our journey at noon. Originally we were to be seven people but due to the rain we became six people. Jeff, Mandy and me along with Dan and his two girls Courtney and Heather. Mandy rode there with Dan and his two girls. We live at the base of the Alps, and our destination was about 200 miles northwest, directly through the Alps. However, negotiating the Alps is difficult unless you drive on the Autostrata, which is a wonderful highway. So we had to drive southwest, thru Venice and Verona. In Venice we got hit by a huge storm and ended up driving about 20 miles per hour for about 60 miles.

We finally entered the Alps and drove north thru Italy and Austria and finally into Germany. We saw at least twenty castles along the side of the rode on the way there. It seems that almost every mountain with a flat surface area at the top has a castle or fortress built on it at some point in the past. Everything from Roman ruins, to medieval Castles to Renaissance palaces. I am trying to teach Mandy about the different periods in European history and was proud we she could distinguish between the different periods when we toured castles. This was to be our camping and castle trip. I love to enter into the Alps. I have now been to Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy and the Alps are amazing in all these places. We have seen so many wonderful things built by people over the last two thousand years, churches, castles, palaces but, nothing compares to the mountains. They are covered with trees and grasses, which paint the mountains in every shade of green imaginable. Some are rocky with no vegetation. Every twist and turn of the road and it is a whole new world. It is impossible to explain how beautiful it is.

So we got to the campground. Pitched our tents, grilled our dinner and went to bed. It was a bit drizzly but not too bad. Back in Italy we had been suffering thru the upper nineties with no air conditioning but here in Germany we could see our breath as we said our goodnights. The girls slept in their own tent and giggles for a while. We awoke to the sun rising over the most beautiful mountains imaginable. It reminded me so much of Washington State. The sights the smells and the crispness of the air. Soon we were in the car on our first adventure. I was the navigator. Which was a bit difficult because I am not familiar with the German language. The names of the towns were so foreign it was a bit difficult to find our way. But we made it to our first destination without a single wrong turn. This was a monastery in the city of Ettal.

It was very beautiful, the inside of the church amazing. The difference between a Germany and an Italian church was amazing. Then we bought some souvenirs and rain jackets as it was sprinkling again. Then we were off down the road to the next stop. Again I found it flawlessly. Linderhof was the name of this castle. It was the smallest of King Ludwig II’s three castles, but the one he preferred and the only one he actually finished. We got a tour of the inside too. This is the first time I have got to tour a castle that was still furnished. This castle was built in 1880, after the Civil War. Jeff says it is not really a castle but a palace. Very different from the medieval castles we have toured. The walls were covered in golden carvings and rich paintings and tapestries. Riches beyond imagination. We toured the grounds and then grabbed an authentic Bavarian lunch in a wonderful restaurant. The girls all had fried pork chops and the adults, we all tried different types of sausages. We had cheesecakes and strudel and ice cream for dessert. We were so stuffed and sleepy from our hike up the mountain.

The next castle was an hour down the rode and I navigated us to the main rode and told Jeff to turn at Oberammergau and fell asleep, oops. Jeff thought I said to turn at Augsburg, which was about 100 km down the rode from Oberammergau. So when I woke up we were way off course. But we finally found our next stop, Neuschwanstein castle in Fussen. Can you begin to see by all these city names how hard it is to give directions? And then when you fly by a sign saying to turn right to go toward, and it lists three cities and left to go to three different cities and straight to go three different cities. I was getting a headache. But I found it, I was very excited when I actually saw the castle on the side of the mountain. So we rode a horse drawn carriage up the mountain to the castle and then we had to wait about an hour for our tour. We all took a little nap.

Then we got our tour. It was beautiful. The castle was the inspiration for the Walt Disney Cinderella castle. From the castle we could see a lake on one side and a waterfall and bridge from the other side. After touring the castle we decided to hike up the mountain and go see the bridge. It was amazing to be so close to the waterfall and see the castle and the lake in the background. We took pictures, but I don’t think the pictures can capture the beauty of that moment. We hiked back to the car and I found our way back to the campground. We only got turned around once and then had to find our way thru a detour.

The drive back was so lovely. So we spent the day driving thru the mountains and villages and touring the castles and churches of Bavaria. It was so much fun. We got back to camp and grilled our dinner and since it was a clear night we sat out and watched the stars. We noticed several bonfires lit on the top of a couple of the mountains surrounding us and have no idea what they were for. The next day was Sunday and we had to journey home. It was sad that we had to leave, first because it was a truly lovely day and second because it was the day of the world cup and it would have been fun to watch Germany play in a German bar. But, we headed home. The trip home was clear and smooth sailing and we made it in record time, we stopped once for McDonald’s and once for gas.

Kenya

this is an email I wrote about our trip to Kenya in October 2002

We are home safe and sound! Had a great time. It was unbelievable. We went to some far off places and it took forever to get there. From our house to the first hotel took 24 hours. We saw every animal imaginable. There were whole herds of animals; it must have been like what America was like before the buffalo were knocked out.

In the second park we went to we were in the middle of a plain surrounded by mountains, low grass and a few Joshua trees, but you could see for miles in every direction and there were animals in herds in every direction for miles. Elephant herds, wildebeest herds, hippos, jackals, wart hogs, hyenas, gazelles, etc. And tons of exotic birds. It was unbelievable to be in the middle of it. But it took us 5 hours of driving on the bumpiest dustiest hottest roads imaginable. Then at our hotel, there was a film crew filming Tomb Raider III and we saw Angelina Jolie at our hotel, she walked right past us and smiled on her way to breakfast.

At our first hotel we saw a herd of elephants and the hotel is on stilts and there is a water hole out back. Everything is open and we were sitting having a drink watching the elephants and the baby, very tiny, less than 10lbs went in the water. It was too deep for him to touch and he was swimming around crying. There were about 25 elephants around and the daddy started yelling and tooting and all the elephants backed off. Then momma elephant gingerly stepped into the watering hole. She tried for about a half an hour to get the baby out. Meanwhile Dad was pacing and stomping and yelling on the shore. Finally momma scooted baby to the edge and demonstrated how to put the two front feet on the rocks along the edge and baby copied. Then, Momma was able to lift and push babies back end out with her trunk. There were about 50 people spectators by this time, and we were all so relived we clapped and cheered and momma turned around, not five feet from us and lifted her trunk in what seemed like a salute and then mom, dad and baby joined the rest of the family. It was amazing. The family dynamics, the frustrated father, the communication.

We saw a baboon family. Probably 30 all together. At one point one of the older children tried to get some of momma's milk and she grabbed him by the throat and they screamed at each other, then the littler one came along and she cuddled him and let him breast feed. All the animals with thier families, you could see the communication. We saw a pride of lions. They were 10 feet from our truck and there were 12 of them sleeping in the shade. Then one got up and walked into the distance and some of the others followed. It turned out one of the family was coming back from the watering hole and she had gone to meet her. They stood looking at each other for a minute and then went to each other and rubbed heads. It is a very beautiful country. I hope our pictures turn out good.

We got to experience some of the culture. We went to the village of a Masi tribe, we got to see the rain dance, sun dance and dance of the medicine man of the Pole Pole tribe, we went to a local market and drove thru hundreds of villages. At our hotel at the end we got to know some locals and they would talk to us for hours teaching us Swahili and there customs. We had a great time.

San Marino

I wrote this email to a friend about a trip we took in October, 2001.

We went to San Marino yesterday. San Marino is a country inside of Italy. It is the oldest and smallest Republic in the world. It is a beautiful country. The story is that Marino was a stone cutter that moved to the mountain, which is now the country of San Marino, in about the 4th century AD because he was exiled by the Roman Emperor for being a Christian. Soon several other stone cutting Christians from the area moved there as well and they built a church out of stone and worshiped there in peace. A wealthy Roman woman found out about them and was sympathetic to Christians and gave the mountain to Marino. He was later made a bishop and upon his death he willed the mountain to the people.

They built a city of stone up and around the mountain. It is beautiful. The people there are very kind and proud. One must be born in San Marino of San Marino parents to be a citizen. They are very different from the Italians, they have their own money, government, police, license plates etc. But this country is a mountain completely surrounded by Italy. It is along the Eastern side of Italy about a quarter of the way down, just below the city of Rimini, which is a very big tourist spot.

San Marino is about a four hour drive, so we left at 6am and got there around 10am, we toured the top of the mountain which is the down town area of San Marino, the old part of town. Lots of churches, statues and history. Along the way up we saw what looked like America, there were so many stores. We saw a McDonald's which was as big as a apartment building. Then after our tour we selected a beautiful restaurant for lunch. It was at the very top of the mountain and we were seated in the corner, with a panoramic view of Italy. It was breath taking. The lunch was very expensive, but it was pretty much all the money we spent that day so what the heck.

Hirosaki

this is a copy of an email I wrote about a trip week took in May 2003...

The park had 5000 cherry trees, 3000 maple trees and a ton of other trees. There were more than 1/2 a million people there, only 200 were American, all in my group. There is a four hundred year old castle in the middle of the park and there were people everywhere, on tarps, blankets and strolling around. Hundreds of food booths and carnival games etc. It was so much fun. I love Japan. We got some really great pictures of the family and the park, no matter where you pointed the camera it looked like a painting.

Some interesting observations. . . Japanese people are culturally more similar to America than Italians, in my opinion. In Italy, everyone is Italian there is very little diversity. The women all wear high heels everywhere, the restaurants are all very similar, menu same set up, lighting, decoration, food selection. There are very few non-italian restaurants. Every house is almost identical. Every car, every grocery store, every church all very much the same. If you visit one Italian city you have seen them all. France is very much like that as well, the French are very French. Germany, Austria, Switzerland and England there is more diversity than in Italy and France but not as much as America or Japan.

Here, the people are all individuals. Some women wear high heels and some wear compfortable shoes, some dress stylishly and some conservatively. Every store, restaurant and home is very unique. There are restaurants from every country in the world in my small little city. Homes come in all shapes and sizes. They have malls here, huge malls with all kinds of cool stuff. And Japanese people are very respectful and kind hard working people. Bathrooms are even cleaner than America, before traveling here, I found American bathrooms to be the cleanest in the world.