Friends Visit and Tohoku Trip

Michael's childhood friend Luwan came to visit with a couple of her friends, Elizabeth and Linda. They each had a Japan Rail Pass that allows visitors to Japan on a 90 day visa unlimited use of the shinkansen (bullet train), so they took advantage of that opportunity and went to Kyoto and Osaka for the first two days. Over the weekend Michael took them to Tokyo and they visited most of the touristy areas such as Odaiba, Asakusa, Shibuya, etc.. I met up with them Saturday night for some yakiniku then karaoke. We were lucky and our friend Chase was also in town for a business trip so he met up with us in Tokyo. Sunday, we went to Harajuku and the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Harajuku in always an interesting time, but unfortunately there were only a few people out for cosplay (costume play). The Ghibli Museum was pretty awesome, we were lucky to even experience this because we've never read about it. Thanks to Elizabeth for the suggestion.
This past weekend we went on a road trip with our friends, Tada and Kenta. We drove all around the Tohoku area to 4 other prefectures. It was quite the journey. We started off by going up through Fukushima prefecture then west to Niigata prefecture. We saw the Sea of Japan for the first time while being in Japan. Since it's winter, the waves were pretty strong. We had lunch at a delicious sushi restaurant, Asahi, it was probably the freshest sushi I have had in Japan so far. Also, the pieces of neta (the piece of fish over the rice) was extremely big. I think the crab was a good 6 inches per piece. Simply delicious! Sushi will be on the top 10 things I will miss about Japan. After lunch we drove over to a city called Tsuruoka in Yamagata prefecture to visit a tsukemono factory. It was pretty interesting the process of pickling things. This particular company also exports to the United States, but the packaging was completely different based on the market. It's interesting to me that a small little tsukemono factory in the middle of nowhere exports to the U.S.. After the factory, we headed towards Yamagata city where we were staying the night. The plan for the evening was to go up to Mount Zao to see the ice monsters that are created by the enormous amounts of snow that the city usually gets. Unfortunately, it was a very warm day and the ice monsters did not come out to play. So sad, we decided to have a little fun in the snow to make up for it. For dinner, we went to a Yattai street, which was full of small little restaurants with 10 - 12 seats that were like stands at the carnival. It was a great experience and the cook came out to talk to us and even showed us how to make fried rice. The next day, we drove to Miyagi prefecture to visit Matsushima. There is a famous bridge that people can walk across to an island and then explore the little island. Due to the earthquake in Chile, the aftershock caused for a tsunami warning and most of the town was being shut down. It was pretty interesting being in a tsunami warning. The city made a big announcement that the trains were going to stop running at noon and many people were running for the station. The restaurants along the waterfront were sealing up the windows and put water barriers in front of the entrances. The city seemed to be used to the conditions because no one was really panicking. Our final destination before going home was Sendai. Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku area. It kind of had a small Tokyo feeling, but with less hustle and bustle. There was a nice covered shopping area that was filled with stores ranging from daiso (the dollar store) to Gucci. For lunch, we ate タン, which translates to cow tongue. We've tried it before at yakiniku, but it was prepared a little differently. The taste wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but the meat was very tender. We definitely enjoyed the meal. According to google maps, we drove around 900km (560 miles) which took more than 14 hours. We are so thankful to know such wonderful people in Japan that is so eager to show us the country. Thanks to Tada and Kenta for all their planning and especially driving! We had a great time!



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