Sunday, May 17, 2009

Car Seats


Car seats here are too expensive! I found these 2 from Jusco mall, with a price of 49,800 yen or ~$498.00 and 39,800 yen ~ $398.00 either one is still too much! I could have bought a gucci or prada or louis vuitton bag or purse from that price hehehe (I wish....).

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Friday Shootout- Transportation

I'm joining again Patty (from Crisfield, Maryland) and Reggie Girl's (from Newnan, Georgia) Friday Shootout...... "transportation" (aside from your private vehicles) which was picked by Science Girl. The list of the other bloggers who joined this shootout can be found in GingerV and Butler and Bagman's blogs and others, I can't remember who else has it :-)

Misawa's modes of transportation around the neighboring towns and cities (aside from privately own vehicles) are bike, taxi, bus and train. I don't know if I have to include the airplane but I don't have photos of it. So maybe just go to Japan Airlines website and you'll see the different planes they have hahaha :-)

Some photos were taken in Tokyo, Sendai and Misawa as I wasn't able to take good photos around my town this week :-) anyways they do share the common transportation so I hope it should be ok :-)

This photo was taken in downtown Tokyo, bicycles were parked on the designated bike parking lot, I noticed all their bikes have basket in front :-)



Students in Misawa were biking on their way home


Taxis- this was taken in Sendai (5 hour drive from Misawa)



Taxi in Misawa- this is how the back of taxi looks like :-)



Train, taken in a subway train station in Tokyo last February- we also have train here in Misawa a lot of people especially teenagers are taking the train going to Hachinohe the closest city in Misawa, I haven't tried taking the train here yet. They have basic and express tickets.


JR Line train



Inside the train in Tokyo- I noticed that most people were wearing black suits and shoes :-)


Public bus, the "cat bus" in Misawa, this was posted from the previous shootout, "streets around your town"

Tour bus- this was the bus we took going to Sendai, bus tour package is $50 round trip, sometimes people are taking the tour bus to travel outside Misawa



Inside the bus



Another bus here in Misawa



Shinkansen or bullet train taken in Tokyo. Misawa has no bullet train, but if you want to go to Tokyo, you have to take the regular train going to Hachinohe; it takes you 15 minutes and from Hachinohe to Tokyo will be about 3 1/2 hour by bullet train. Driving by car is about 8 to 10 hours depending on how fast you drive :-)

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Bonus:


Disney train- if you want to go to Tokyo DisneySea or Tokyo Disney Land you have to take their Disney train from the main entrance as you get off from the Maihama JR train station and you have to pay 250 yen each way otherwise you have to walk half day just to get there :-) (LOL joke)

Monday, May 11, 2009

Game Center in Pia Do Mall

Pia Do Mall in Hachinohe is a 30- 40 minute drive from Misawa



Game Center in Pia Do Mall


Drums


Video Game- Mario Kart


Video Games (Pokeball chips and I don't know the rest hehehe)

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The following are the different kinds of claw vending machines inside the game center

Claw Vending Machine- Frozen Food (Strawberries, ice cream, candies)














In Japan, video arcade is known as game center which is very popular here. You can find small game center even in supermarkets in Misawa such as Yokomachi and Super City Asahi.

The claw vending machine is popularly known to Japanese as the "UFO Catcher" because of its claws that look like UFO.

I bet you will browse back to above pictures to check the claws of each vending machine hehehe.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Friday Shootout: Gardens

We don't have a garden in our house and even our neighboring area and so last Tuesday (the only day this week that we had a nice warm weather) my friends and I walked to few blocks away from home to find some gardens just for this Friday shootout. How come I was always in rush when it comes to Friday shootout? hehehe.

I found some houses that have nice gardens but I can't go inside (I wish I could) hahaha...of course otherwise I would be charged as trespassing. So here are some of my shots, just bear with my photos, I did not have time to edit those:


Sorry but I'm not a flower expert I don't even know the name of these flowers :-)


Some tulips in the middle of the garden



Cherry blossom and bonsai inside someone's garden :-)


I saw this house with a small garden but no flowers, but the sidewalk has tulips :-) I wanted to take those tulips with me but I don't know if I could do that :-)


Different colors of tulips along the side of the fence of this huge house, the following shots below were taken from this, just browse the photos below:


What's your name???



Orange Tulip



Yellow tulip

Red tulips



Tulips again


White tulip


Daisy??


Hey what's your name?? :-)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Japanese Kids




I was driving back home from Misawa base when I spotted these little kids, they're so cute wearing pink hats and they were well behaved holding the rope with handles as they walk along the sidewalk. Maybe they're going back to day care center after a field trip..... maybe :-)

I was in front of the intersection and the light was red and so I grabbed my camera and had these shots before the light turned green :-)

Monday, May 4, 2009

Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival- Street and Exotic Food

Snail ??? eewww :-)



Octopus barbecue?



Sweet Potato Fries



Squid Barbecue



Fried Banana covered with flour



Cotton Candy


Ice Cream for 100 yen~ $1



Boiled Sweet Rice ??? I don't know the names



squid and chicken barbecue



sweet corn for 300 yen~ $3

Fresh Strawberry coated with syrup for 100 yen ~$1, wohoo way too much; 1 pack of strawberries is only 250 yen ~$2.50




Street Food Stalls



Hungry people walking :-) to get some food

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These photos were taken last week, April 25 during the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival. There were lots of street food to choose from, you will never ever feel hungry here :-) but bring lots of yen, some food are expensive.