Monday, November 23, 2015

OIRASE SALMON FESTIVAL, JAPAN

Sunday, November 22

A few weekends ago, Nick and I tried getting tickets to catch salmon at the Rokkasho Salmon Festival. Unfortunately, we arrived to the festival too late to purchase tickets; however, we discovered that there would be another Salmon Festival in November! The Oirase Salmon Festival would take place November 21 & 22, and there were still tickets available!


The drive to Oirase is an easy 30 minute drive. We arrived at 10am when the gates opened. 




The food looked tempting, but we'd just filled up on Mister Donuts at the Shimoda mall nearby. The donuts were so buttery and delicious! It's a little too tempting having donuts that close to us.

Speaking of donuts... :)

The first catch of the day started at 10:30am. The temperature was just above freezing; and the water temperature wasn't too different.
Nick had his game face on. He was the only one wearing a wet suit out of the hundreds of people there. He certainly got some attention because of it. And he stayed fairly warm!
Each ticket holder could catch one fish in a 3 minute time period. 
The announcers counted down from 10 in Japanese as the salmon catch began...

Even though I'd bought a ticket to catch a fish, I chose to stay on the sidelines while the mad throng of people made their way into the water first. I definitely wanted to get some photos of Nick doing his first salmon catch. Plus, I didn't want to get pushed, or slip while entering the water. I was happy to wait a few minutes.


It wasn't even 60 seconds before Nick caught his fish! He was screaming like a little girl. :)

He made his way over to a man holding plastic bags to bag his salmon. He dropped the fish off with me, and ran back for fish #2.  
I told him he could catch one for me, since I had a feeling I wouldn't be very good at it. His second catch was huge! Nick thought it weighed at least 20lbs.

Look at that look of pure joy! Nick made it look so easy, so I finally decided to make my attempt.

Here I go!

I stuck my hands in to realize that our gloves that I'd bought were garden gloves and definitely not water proof. I immediately stood back up because the water was so cold! 
I bent over one more time to feel 4 or 5 fish slip between my hands. It was so much harder than I imagined. I don't know how Nick did it! After about 25 seconds, I'd had enough. I was grateful Nick had actually caught one for me. 

Before we exited the pool area, a man approached Nick with an Hawaiian lei. After a few seconds, we realized that Nick had won the style award because of his wet suit. Hahaha! They motioned him over to a platform for him to be interviewed.

The woman asked Nick if it was his first time to the festival, and if he would be back. 


This is him answering, "Oh, I'll definitely be back every year!" Haha!

Nick with the 2 salmon he caught, and his award. He was a happy camper! 
There were a few other awards including: catching the smallest fish, and catching a fish with a yellow ribbon.




Thankfully, they gut and cut the fish for you there for 300 yen per fish. My fish kept jumping off the table. 

I snapped a few more photos of the yummy food as we left the festival. 

These little cake-like pastries are filled with custard or apple filling. Mmmm. :)


You can't leave a Japanese festival without having a chocolate covered banana on a stick. 

I would definitely choose the banana over fish on a stick any day.

Nick and I had SUCH a blast at the salmon festival. Since Nick told the interviewer that we'd be back every year, we have to keep our promise now. :) 
Can't wait to come next year. And with a baby no-less! 

Sunday, November 15, 2015

SALMON FESTIVAL, ROKKASHO, JAPAN

Sunday, November 8

We had heard about a salmon festival from a few people in the squadron. The festival was the first weekend of November, but Nick wouldn't be back until Saturday evening. Sunday morning we hopped in the car and drove about an hour north to Rokkasho Japan for the festival.



We got there before the activities began in hopes that we could buy tickets to catch a fish. Unfortunately, they were sold out. We enjoyed walking around the market and watching others instead. 
We came across some interesting food though! Lollipop meat? I wasn't brave or hungry enough to try it.



I did try chocolate covered banana! Yum!

By 10am, the excitement was about to begin. You can see all the people lined up outside of the pool with all the salmon.

There was a countdown and then everyone dove in!

It's hard to see, but there were people slipping and sliding all over the place. Many people face-planted.


And they were off! They only had 3 minutes to catch a salmon!

If you didn't have gloves, you were pretty much sunk.




One of the new guys in the squadron got a ticket from someone that couldn't make it. (Lucky guy!) He wasn't prepared at all, but after the 3 minute bell rang he grabbed a plastic bag and caught a fish. Haha! I don't know if it was allowed, but he didn't get caught.

Nick and I can't wait to try it next year! 

BIG BUDDHA NEAR AOMORI, JAPAN

Wednesday, November 4th

Since the guys had a big exercise going on the first week of November, a few wives decided to go to Big Buddha near Aomori. I had no idea what to expect. It could have been a restaurant, park, or temple for all I knew.

After about an hour and a half drive, I discovered it was a little of all of those things. We walked through a forested area, and up a hefty hill to a zen garden and on to see the biggest Buddha I've ever seen.


I love the changing colors of fall. It is by far my favorite season.


These little windmills were placed in the ground as a small memorial to children. 

Here was one of my first looks at the Big Buddha. He towered over the trees.


That's a BIG buddha!!

What were we doing here, you ask? Sumo pose? Squatty-potty pose? You'll never know! :)

After viewing Big Buddha, we drove on to Aomori for lunch at Tony Roma's. The girls were craving American style food. I had just gotten back from the States a week before, but I didn't mind another taste of America. It didn't disappoint! 
I was surprised, however, by the size of Aomori. It's a small Tokyo. Hopefully, Nick and I will be able to go back one day to explore. 



MUTSU PENINSULA, JAPAN

Sunday, November 1st

There was a big squadron party Halloween night. I made an oven out of a big box that could open to reveal my "bun" in the oven. Nick was the "bun maker." I'm so sad that after all the hard work I put into making that darn costume, I didn't get a single photo! Doh! Oh well! And to top it off, we left the party at about 9pm. Haha! 

We got up early the next morning and drove straight up to the tip of the Mutzu Peninsula, or "hatchet," as we American's like to call it. 



We were greeted by these wild horses. They were so big, and furry! I think the black one was pregnant.

I had thought ahead to bring some carrots with me. The horses wouldn't leave us alone after they discovered them!


We drove a bit farther to check out the Shiriyazaki lighthouse. It was quite windy, and Nick only had summer clothes on; so we didn't last very long.


On our way back to Misawa, we stopped at a beach in hopes that we would find glass floats. We stopped at the "deserted jellyfish beach" recommended to us by some friends. We never found any glass floats, unfortunately, but we had a good walk on the beach.

Nick had fun chasing the large flock of birds.


Nick also found a starfish! Maybe we should rename this starfish beach. :)

We had fun exploring and can't wait to explore more of Japan!

SHIPWRECK BEACH, JAPAN

Sunday, September 27th

One of our first weekends together in Japan, Nick and I decided to go on an adventure to Shipwreck beach on the Western side of the Mutsu peninsula. American's around here call it that because there's a partial shipwreck still left on the beach.

After driving about an hour and half we reached the beach. What we didn't expect to see was the mountain of seashells before we reached the beach.
Nick thought it would be fun to climb, until the shells started cutting his feet. And he noticed there were literally hundreds of spiders covering the mountain of shells. Eew.



We walked down the beach in hopes that we would find the shipwreck and some glass floats!

We found the remains of the old boat, but never did find any floats.



We did collect a bit of sea glass. It's all over Japanese beaches! 

We loved our first visit to the beach. We couldn't wait to make more trips to the local beaches!