Sunday, December 30, 2007

Hakkoda-San Snowshoeing

Me and Dan went snowshoeing up in the Hakkoda Mountains over the weekend. It seemed easy enough...a 2.5 mile hike up to Sennentai Cabin for the night.

The first part of the hike was through a heavily wooded area. We just followed some cross-country skiers' tracks.

We left the wooded area and found ourselves in a big frozen river bed. It was beautiful at first, but then the wind picked up and the visibility quickly dropped to less than a hundred feet.


At the top of the river bed, there was what looked like a vast frozen wasteland. On a sunny day, I'm sure its quite a sight, but on my first trip in an unfamiliar place, the wicked wind chill and the low visibility made it a rather daunting place. I don't know how tall these pine trees were, but judging from the height of other trees further down the mountain, we guess the snow to be near 30 feet deep. It would be an easy place to get into some trouble.


At last, we found a row of long bamboo poles stuck in the snow which led us to refuge.


The cabin was already being warmed up by some Japanese cross-country skiers. We warmed up and ate some chow...then went outside to "look around" a bit.


Warmed up with a full stomach and knowing where the cabin lies gave us some comfort of mind to go explore a little bit. Unfortunately, the visibility was still too low for us to wander off too far.


The cabin we stayed at was called Sennentai Cabin. It was built in the 1980's by local enthusiasts. Anyone is welcome to stay as long as they share the space with anyone else who may be staying there. The cabin is basically an open room with three levels of bunks. I guess that it would sleep 15-20 fairly comfortably. It has two large kerosene stoves for public use. When Dan and I arrived, there were 6 or 7 old Japanese men already staying there. Although they spoke pretty much no english, they were friendly and hospitable. Judging from their knowledge of the facility, I think they may be part of the group that built the cabin. Throughout the day, they were busy installing new bamboo trail markers and replenishing supplies in a room located below the main cabin.


Me with Shojiabo on the right and Jimol Hanga on the left. Shojiabo was being very generous with his Sake and Jimol Hanga was doing his best at communicating with us as he knew the most English out of the bunch. All of the Japanese men were incredibly friendly and helped us out with the basic tasks of staying in the cabin (i.e. melting snow for drinking water!). I hope I run into them on future trips.


There was a sulfur field at the bottom near the end of the hike with steam coming out of it (the Hakkoda mountains were formed by volcanoes).
Overall, it was an exciting trip. Being my first winter hiking trip, I did come up with some "Lessons Learned."
Lessons Learned:
1. Don't use Camelbak bladders...the tubes freeze and you're left without water until you find a place to thaw out.
2. When using a new camping stove, make sure you test it fully prior to the hike. I have a new Coleman Fyrestorm Ti stove which I decided to use for the first time. It uses an inverted butane canister. I couldn't find the recommended Coleman butane, so I used another brand. It worked fine for a few seconds, but then the butane valve suddenly froze over and started leaking butane. The ensuing fireball scared the crap out of everyone and nearly lit one of our Japanese hosts' ass on fire.
3. Gear that works fine for years will not necessarily work as well in the snow. My trusty Magellan GPS's clip holder got ice jammed in it and broke when I tried to stow my GPS. My trusty Mountainsmith walking sticks were a total failure. The snow disk fell off of one rendering it useless...it is now simply a long stick which completely sinks in the snow. My other stick got ice jammed in the locking mechanism and kept collapsing on me.
4. You need tinted goggles...but not those ones you got free from military issue for Middle East sand storms. Goggles keep your eyes from freezing and prevent snow-blindness. Good ones won't fog over.
5. Bring more bourbon!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Sledding!

I took the kids sledding today. We had enough snow to cover the slope beneath our base "ski lodge" overlooking Lake Ogawara.








Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Schichinohe Orphanage

Me and the kids spent last Saturday on a unit visit to a local orphanage. It was quite an emotional experience for many of the Americans who had never been on an orphanage.

Most of the children were disabled. Here, they are performing a song for us in sign language.
We cooked some dogs for them.


Chowin' down.


Santa wasn't able to get down here for the visit, but luckily, his second cousin, Tyrone, was able to fly in from Atlanta.




Each child was sponsored by a member of my unit so they all received a gift.


Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Family Pics

Well, it took 8 years, but we finally went and had our pictures taken...


Sunday, December 2, 2007

Towada Hike

Well, we decided to take the trip up Oirase Gorge to Lake Towada again...this time on foot. The view was different as winter has hit and all of the trees were bare. We were hoping for snow, but it was all melted. Maybe we'll try again in a month.
My friend Dan crawled out on a rock for a pic...pretty gutsy for a Navy guy who can't swim:)

Here I am all dressed up at Towada. The wind was freezing coming off the Lake.We had planned on eating up at Towada and found only one restaurant open. The waitress spoke no English and the menu was in Kanji. Dan simply pointed at the menu and...this is what we got! It was delicious as always and also pleasant to the eyes. Remember how I said Japanese food is always supposed to look as good as it tastes?

I knew Origami came from Japan, but I had no idea what they were capable of. Yes, these displays are nothing more than folded paper.
One thing I really miss about Italy is the availability of great Cappucinos. Japan has the next best thing...Cafe Latte served hot in an aluminum can! Well, its actually the worst coffee I've ever drank, but its drinkable...in an MRE kind of way. Anyway, its also hot, fast, and served at your nearest soda machine.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Snow!!!


We had our first snow here. No wind and relatively warm temperatures, so it was actually very enjoyable.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Rob Rogers

We received news of a recent tragedy in Italy (http://www.aviano.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123075514). Three guys I knew well, Kenny Hauprich, Mark Spence, and Rob Rogers, died in a helicopter crash. Kenny was full of youthful energy and always smiling. When he wasn't annoying everyone with his awful harmonica playing, he would always be trying to cheer people up when they were down. Mark was a comical cynic. He would spend an hour lecturing you on why there was no value to reading books or why you simply can't trust a man without sideburns. He was kind of like a walking Seinfeld episode. Rob was always laughing. Always prone to the worst of luck, he simply laughed most things off. Rob was one of the best friends I ever had and we did everything together in Italy. I couldn't find any pictures of Mark or Kenny, but I've posted several of Rob.







Monday, November 5, 2007

Viking Restaurant

You may see by our posts that we really enjoy eating in Japan. We recently went to a different restaurant called The Viking. At the Viking, you basically...
load up on uncooked meats and vegetables...

cook them on a little grill in the middle of your table...
and eat! It was really delicious.


Thursday, November 1, 2007

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween here at Misawa. Helen had a nice party at school where she dressed up as a princess. We then had trick-or-treating on base. I dressed up a little myself and handed out candy. It was pretty funny because about 500 Japanese children typically come on base for Halloween. They would approach the porch thinking I was a manniquin. Then I would move the candy bowl and they would freak out a little bit. The Japanese Halloween tradition here at Misawa does help highlight how accepting the Japanese are of us and our cultures. Prior to Halloween, the local Japanese communities also put on various activities such as a small children's parade and costume competitions.





Saturday, October 27, 2007

Rokkasho Salmon Festival

Yesterday, we went to the Rokkasho Salmon Festival. Rokkasho, Aomori is known for two things...a national nuclear reprocessing center and their annual festival of salmon. What better place to pick up a bargain on salmon than right next to a nuclear plant? Anyways, the festival was quite fun.

I really love the way Japanese eat. They had a big building full of small bbq grills where you brought in your own fresh vegetables and meat and cooked it right there. Its like a big Mongolian BBQ for everyone.

The highlight of the festival is the actual salmon catch. Everyone buys a salmon ticket for $9-$14 (depending on how early you bought it). They then make a circle around a little knee-deep pool full of salmon. Keep in mind that the temperature is about 50 degrees F and there's a wicked wind coming off the ocean. Notice most of the Japanese all bundled up while most Americans are barefoot in shorts.


And they're off! They're all given a signal and they all jump in at once. The salmon are instantly whipped into a frenzy and everything goes crazy.


While many of the older Japanese men easily pluck their salmon out by the tail, this guy shows that it is definitely harder than it looks.
Overall, it was an interesting experience. There is another salmon festival in a couple of weeks at another village. I plan on trying for a salmon at that one.







Friday, October 26, 2007

Hachinoe Fish Market

We can't get enough of the fish market. You could eat there every day for a month and never eat the same thing twice.




Mmmm...shark fin and jellyfish salad.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Hachinoe Tour

Yesterday, Rose and I went on a tour of Hachinoe City. We started out at a fish market and then went onto a Shinto shrine and then a mall.
This is Rose and our tour guide, Kuniko. Kuniko was wonderful and did a good job of helping us sample many different kinds of Japanese cuisine. We tried dried herring, herring eggs, squid ink pastries, rice (as opposed to potato) chips, and apple vinegar juice just to name a few. Our favorite, by far, was a mixture of shredded shark fin and jellyfish marinated in sesame oil. It was absolutely delicious.
The Japanese take the look of their food quite seriously. While I didn’t take nearly enough pictures of the food, it was quickly apparent that creating a pleasant looking dish is a painstaking process for the Japanese cook. This is a picture of Japanese pancakes. They fry the flapjacks in special molds that look like a fish. They were quite delicious and had a type of pudding inside the pancakes.

This is a wooden carving of the particular Shinto god worshipped at the Hachinoe Shinto shrine. This god, Hachimon, is the Shinto god of war. The tour guide was quick to point out that the many bottles of Sake at the base of the statue does not mean that Hachimon was an “Alcohoric”. These bottles of Sake were left as gifts by those seeking Hachimon’s grace.





At Shinto shrines, you can buy small pieces of paper with your fortune on them, much like a fortune cookie. If your slip of paper forecasts good luck, you take the slip of paper home and share the good fortune with your friends. If your slip of paper forecasts bad luck, you tie it to this fixture so that the gods may examine your future and perhaps mitigate your future bad fortune.



The Japanese are quite fond of trees. The boast some of the nicest plots of old-growth forests in the world…not a bad thing for such a developed society. This particular Cedar tree (in the middle) is over 400 years old. While I couldn’t make out everything the tour guide said, he said something about using parts of this tree to make a very special kind of Sake.