Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival

Building snow sculpture

Another view of the building snow sculpture

Animal Snow Sculptures

Not sure if this is Mickey Mouse (??)

I don't know the name of this snow sculpture, maybe Mama and baby bear (???) hehehe, this sculpture is big it's like a stage size

Different lanterns and overlooking Hirosaki Castle

Visitors are getting the candles once you enter this area and putting them anywhere they want to

&*^%$100 #@ ! (whatever that is hehehe)

Hello Kitty (has mumps LOL)

This Japanese farmer snow sculpture is taller than me

Snow lanterns

My son was inside the small igloo ;-)

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Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival

This snow lantern festival was held from February 11 to February 14, 2010. We went last Saturday, Feb 13. This festival began in 1977 is now one of the five biggest snow festivals in Tohoku region (Northern Japan).

The snow lanterns have different sizes and shapes. There are some with pictures of samurai warriors and some come on different odd shapes like the heart and star shaped snow scultures.

Happy Heart's Day

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We went to Hirosaki Castle Park yesterday to see the Lantern Festival, it was awesome!!! Amazing ice sculptures. The weather was nice but of course it was too cold and a bit slippery along the walkway but over all.....I enjoyed it very much!

Since today is Valentine's Day (although I posted this a bit late already) I uploaded the heart shaped snow sculpture.

I will post more photos tomorrow.

Hard- Off Store

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Hard-off is one of Japan's largest recycle stores where you can buy used clothes, sports gear, shoes, furniture, bags, electronics, appliances, housewares and other stuff that you can think of :-)

This is where we bought my snowboard since we're just newbies to snowboarding we might as well buy used ones rather spending $300+ for just 1 snowboard excluding its binding which will cost you $100+. Too bad, we didn't find any snowboard shoes for all of us, the sizes were all small since most Japanese are short so what do we expect? of course small shoe sizes hehehe. Don't ask my shoe size, it's big too :-) I bought my snowboard w/ bindings already attached for 2300 yen (~$25).

If you are looking for branded bags they have them here too such as louis vuitton, gucci, prada, chanel, coach and more which are being displayed in a covered glass cabinet. So if you want used branded bags this is your store hehehe. I haven't tried buying one though ;-) And sorry I didn't take pictures what's inside the store.

By the way, why the h*** is it called "hard-off?" LOL


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Hard-off is located in Towada City, a 30 minute drive from Misawa.


Directions:

If you want the directions, leave a comment here hehehe

Farmtown/ Farmville in Misawa during Winter

Hay stacks covered with snow

Hay stacks

Rice Field covered with snow

Greenhouse

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These photos were "drive-by shots" along Misawa after the snow fall. I'm speechless right now, my hubby has been deployed to one of the countries in Middle East and can't think of anything to say just.....enjoy my photos!

Snow in Misawa Base

Main Entrance Right after the main gate

BX Parking Lot

Base jets display

Bldg 653 Parking Lot

Burger King

Abandoned car at the BX Parking Lot

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This post is a bit too late, sorry but I've been busy lately. These photos were taken 2 weeks ago when we had heavy snow. But now the snow is melting no slippery roads anymore.

Snow in Misawa

Rice field and the green houses covered with snow

We had a heavy snow last January 13. For the past 2 months we just had some light snow showers and flurries. But last Wednesday was like a 12 hour (or more) of non-stop snowing. The weather warning that day was 4 inches or more of snow. The Misawa Base had to allow "non-essential personnel" (like me) to come in 2-hour delay and even the DoDDs students too. I wasn't lucky enough to hear the news earlier neither I wasn't aware that I can call the snow line to check if there's a delay :-) so I came in early in the office. My boss was surprised and said "how come you're here, you're not essential (LOL) ??" Dangg I should have stayed home for 2 hours and went back to bed hehehe.

The kids were really waiting for the snow to come down so they could play outside and my son was one of them complaining of not getting enough snow ;-)

I have to shovel our driveway when I got home from work. They let us go home 2 hours early too! My back hurt! Hmmmm I miss Hawaii now!

Sutamina Taro (All-You-Can-Eat) Restaurant

Sutamina Taro Restaurant

Yakiniku (Barbecue)

Yummy barbecue!

Make your own pancake or crepe (just follow the pictures)

Cotton Candy Machine

How to make a cotton candy

Pour the sugar into the hole

Get the paper stick and grab the cotton, simple!

My son, getting the cotton candy from the machine

Inside the restaurant

Desserts

Sushi

Tako yaki (octopus ball), shrimp tempura, chicken karaage

Orange, apple and lychees

The food section

Sutamina Taro Restaurant- Jan 2, 2010

Last week we're supposed to go to Oki Doki Recycle Shop but we found out that it was closed already, it's actually permanently closed maybe out of business or they moved to a different place (I don't know what's the actual reason, I'm just guessing hehehe). We thought that we missed the store so we even turned around and saw no sign of Oki doki, it's really closed. We saw the actual store with no signs and no displays inside and it's empty (I should have taken that picture too LOL).

Anyways, we were hungry that time so we ended up going to a yakiniku restaurant which is a few blocks away from that store. I just found out the real name, while I'm writing this post I asked my daughter if she can read the name of the restaurant. So there you are...it's Sutamina Taro! Thanks for having a daughter who's taking Japanese class ;-)

This restaurant is an All-You-Can-Eat, it offers a lot of varieties of dishes such as sushi (of course hehehe), ramen, udon, soba, tako yaki, chicken karaage (fried boneless chicken), salad, french fries, fruits, desserts such as cheese cake, mochi, strawberry cake and many more. You can make your own cotton candy and crepe which are the 2 favorite things that my son like to do here.

I think this was our 5th times eating in this buffet restaurant; some of the pictures above were taken last August and last week ( I combined them).

Price: (this is weekend and holiday price only)

Adults- 1980 yen (~$22)
Children- 1340 yen ($15)

The weekday's price is cheaper but forgot the price probably 1000 yen for adults

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Directions (for US military newcomers here in Misawa):

Using back road not the toll road : (We always use this route since we are far from the toll road entrance and to save from toll fees hehehe)

1. Go out from the Falcon or POL Gate
2. Go straight and make a left on Universe
3. Go straight (pass Eneos gas station and family mart), make a right when you see Lawson on the right and Esso gas station on the left
4. Go straight all the way to Hachinohe (approximately 30 minutes or more from this intersection), this is route 45
5. At the end of the road is the T-intersection ( so you won't worry of getting lost) where you will see the Sega World, make a right on this T-intersection (you may get confused but this is still route 45)
6. Go straight (pass Popeye Pachinko and you should pass the Yellow hat on your left side)
7. Make a left on Route 29 (going to Kabushima), the landmark intersection is the Cyber Pachinko & Slot
8. The restaurant is on your right (you would pass Uni Q Glo on the right hand side)
9. You will make a U-turn when you see the Pachinko Parlor on your left hand side (be careful the road is a bit narrow for a van to u-turn)

Using Toll Road:

(Note: You should know how to drive going to Hachinohe using toll road before you can follow this directions since I'm too lazy to type hehehe)

1. When you exit the Hachinohe toll road, turn right onto route 45
2. Go straight until you hit the T-intersection (You will see Sega World)
3. Follow steps 6 to 9 on above directions

ENJOY!!!