Japan Day and a Rainy Day in Hachinohe

No joke, as I sit here writing this I am eating a piece of chocolate cake with a layer of chocolate mousse, a layer of green tea mousse, and a dusting of gold leaf just to make it cute. We stopped at my baguette bakery on the way back from our rainy day in Hachinohe. We went out to the Sunday yardsale to try and sell some more baby clothes but were inside because of the rain. We barely made more than what it cost for the spot. But on the bright side we got to so our grocery shopping at the fish market! Look at our fabulous haul!

Ian wanted to get a fish head so that he could try a fish head soup recipe that is in the random Chinese cook book floating around my cookbook cupboard. We also got some great dashi and seaweed crack.

After our disappointing yard saling experience we went to lunch at a Korean BBQ place that our friend turned us on to. So much good food. The only problem was that we had to lash Bea to the high chair because it didn't have a tray infront to keep her contained. There is a pit in the center of the table that is full of hot coals and topped with a wire grill for you to cook your meat on. We ordered a set of kimchi, raw meat, veggies, an omelet, and a salad. Our friends, who had been living in Korean prior to Misawa, said that it was very authentic except for the bowl of miso soup served to everyone with their rice. We even got some Korean grocery goodies to try out at home!

Saturday was Japan Day. They have a whole bunch of people from Misawa come on base and teach us about Japanese culture. There were martial arts demonstrations, kimonos to try on, ikebana arrangements, beautiful bonsai trees.

This man was carving Noh masks for a Noh theater and for sale.

These women are playing the Koto harp. There were also lots of taiko drums around but we didn't get to hear any playing.

I'm not sure how they make these dolls or what they are really for but I thought they were lots of fun.

We didn't stay very long because Ian wanted to go game with our friends and we have been to Japan day before. I stopped in for a little bit to help some of my senseis teach ikebana to kids. They really wanted someone that could translate but my Japanese is so poor that I can only really understand the gist of what they are talking about most of the time.

As far as the rest of the week. Ian got some big news, this coming week he's going to be inspecting the different hazmat programs at squardon. Apparently, he knows the most about the Hazmat programs in Ammo. In other news Ian also perfected his domino and dart techniques.

Bea is learning lots of new things. She can now march around the house if you hold her up by the armpits. It is almost literally marching because she flings her feet out with so much force that she's practically running. She has also learned how to color a little bit with a crayon after practicing hirigana with mommy. There is more pointing than coloring but she's getting the idea. Gok, is the new favorite syllable and sometimes I think it is reference to Ginger but one can never be sure.

I am the same. Mostly just knitting on my baby blanket when I have a few spare seconds. I did manage to get a piece framed and consigned. We'll see how long it sits there. I'm hoping to be framing more often since it is so much fun. Next week there might be classes on the horizon so we'll see about that.