Sendai Baseball Game

Over the 4th of July weekend, Chris and I joined some friends to drive down to Sendai to catch a baseball game.

Our hotel was about a 30 minute walk from the stadium.

It was a pretty fun group of people.

The beer girls wore keg backpacks so you could get a freshly poured draft beer. They carried those backpacks up and down the stadium stairs for hours, and always wore a smile. 

Chris is a fan, obviously.

The stadium was so CLEAN. Everyone picked up their trash and brought it to these trash centers, were workers sorted out everything into recycle bins.

During the seventh inning stretch, everyone in the stadium blew up red balloons and then released them together. 

When the home team won, the stadium released white balloons. 

On our walk home from the stadium, we found this great little (miniscule really) karaoke bar. We sung all the American classics as the owner of the bar conducted our harmonious voices.

Karaoke should always be a group effort.

The owners brought us Japanese cherries and crackers to munch on... on the house. Maybe to quiet us down for a bit?

The next day, on our way out of town, we drove by some of the areas hit the hardest by the earthquake/tsunami.

A sobering end to a wonderful trip.

American Day Flyover

Do you ever wonder how flyovers are always perfectly timed to hit at the last note of the national anthem? No, it's not because the singers or the bands time their song down to the second. It's because usually there's somebody up on a roof somewhere, listening to the song and calling in the jets at the correct moment. 

During American Day, Chris and I got to help with that role. Ok... Chris was really calling in the jets. But I took pictures! And helped watch the clock!

Occasionally there's a problem establishing radio contact with the formation... fortunately for us everything worked out okay because the anthem was sung about 13 minutes too late. Needless to say, that kind of information is important to be able to communicate to the pilots.

Another perfectly timed flyover. Nice job guys.

Catch-Up! Hakodate (May 27-29)

I'm way behind on blogging... I think I kind of forgot I had a blog. But now I'm ready to do some catching up. 

While Chris was on reconstitution (the two weeks of vacation he received after returning from Iraq), we took a short trip north to Hakodate. Hakodate is a port town on the southern edge of the northern island of Hokkaido. 

We stayed in the brick warehouse district, full of shops, restaurants and tourist traps. The first day we were there we had a rare bit of sunshine... the rest of the trip was pretty overcast, but at least we didn't get rained on.

We had a weekend pass for the trolley, which took us anywhere we wanted to go. 

One of our first stops was the British Consulate. It came highly recommend for the excellent tea. 

One of many strange experiences I've had while living in Japan... Afternoon tea and scones at the British Consulate in Hokkaido.

After our afternoon tea, we took the ropeway to the top of Mt Hakodate for one of the "most famous nighttime views in the world".

It actually was a pretty awesome view.

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The brick warehouse district was all lit up at night... 

And the lights led Chris directly to the Hakodate brewery:)

If there is a brewery in the vicinity, Chris can sniff it out.

The highlight of the trip for us was the open-air, rooftop onsen in our hotel. For all the 'Mericans reading this blog, an onsen is a public bath. The hotel provided these unisex-one-size-fits-most-Japanese-and-only-a-few-American pajamas to wear around the hotel and to the onsen. The provided slippers were just barely big enough for my feet, but Chris had to delicately balance on the balls of his feet in order to walk.

We even got baskets with towels and disposable combs/razors for use in the onsen.

Coffee the next morning was fresh ground, French press goodness... way better than plain ole' fresh brewed coffee. I could get used to this (except my arm was getting sore right about now from grinding coffee beans).

Later that morning we went to the Morning Market. We were almost eaten by a crab.

More of the Morning Market... this was mostly fresh produce.

See the crabs escaping? I told you we were almost eaten by a crab.

Our incredible roomy (for a Japanese hotel) room.