Katya's first piano recital

Katya performed at her first piano recital on February 22nd. Ms. Bridget is her teacher who lives on our street. Katya absolutely loves Ms. Bridget.

Katya performed three pieces this time. And I think she did a great job. She was not nervous at all, or at least she was hiding her fear well.

This is Ms. Bridget with all of her students. Katya is one of the youngest ones.

I think we'll need to practice getting onto the piano bench for next time, what do you think?:)

She looks as if it is a breeze for her.

She looked very cute! (but who did her hair??!!!!) I know my Babushka Maya would go crazy if she saw this picture.

This is what she looks like when she is unsure if she is playing the right notes. She was doing just fine then.

We are so proud of our little Katya who is growing up fast. We love that she has such a great desire to learn to play and is very talented in piano (and singing around the house with an opera kind of voice). I think it's a must in our family to play the piano. So I hope she continues to enjoy learning and practicing.

What I See Almost Every Day

So I thought I'd give you a quick tour of places I see while driving around town. But first--do you know what this is? Our mailboxes. Lots and lots of them. And each time we go check our mail (every 2-3 days for us), we are hoping to see a yellow slip of paper telling us we've got a package. Shopping online is the main way to shop here, therefore we do get lots of packages. What would bring us the most excitement ever is getting real letters and stuff from friends and family!!!! There, you've got it. I am a bit homesick at the moment:)

So this is what we see on our right every time we enter the main gate. Our base has both Japanese and American forces, working alongside.

This is a picture of a house that is known as "Mafia house" or "American house". Just look at it! It's gigantic! Especially in Japanese terms. This is about 5 minutes away from one of the base exits.

Lawson...good old Lawson. First week we were here, we thought that Lawson is actually a good prominent landmark. So we'd say, "Turn right by Lawson", or "It's next to Lawson". Little did we know! There are at least a dozen of these convenience store in Misawa, everywhere you turn. They have some good food for a fast snack, I hear.

This is driving around town, pretty close to the main gate. Construction is everywhere nowadays. Not sure what they are doing, but they are very efficient and polite. Workers always bow to you when you pass them by. And their flashing lights are much cooler than the ones in the states:)

As you can see, the name of the store is both in English and Japanese. I just laugh. Super Drug! It's not as bad as the other store a mile away--Happy Drug:) They are just grocery stores.

We drive pass this restaurant all the time. Really need to go try it. But where would we park? hmmmm. The only place where it says "Parking" is that spot with the green rug. Maybe they only serve two families at a time? :) Pictures look good. Lots of ramen and soba.

Recycle shop, a.k.a. second-hand store. Japanese do not like to shop at that kind of stores, but there are a lot of them. I don't think I'd every buy any of the clothes there, but I did find a pair of cross-country skis for kids this winter for only $3. They have lots more of recycle shops in Hachinohe (town 3o minutes South of us).

Misawa looks like a village in some spots. Just imagine lots and lots of rice fields and lots and lots of barns in random places. But then across the street, you'll see a very nice neat neirbourhood and fancy cars.

This is a picture of a pretty well maintained part of town.

And I wanted to post a picture of an example of an off-base house. My friend, who lives there, wanted to remind me that their house is NOT a typical off base house for Americans. Most of them are not two-leveled homes and are not as big as this one. But doesn't it look so cozy, bright and American:) hahaha Oh, and it has a garage too.

Sorry about the date on the pictures. After having no date for a while, I realized I cannot keep track of the order of pictures and thus mess up the way I put them in my picture album (yes, I get some of the better pictures actually developed).

Sayonara.

Video showcase:)

It was snowy yesterday, so I decided to go through some of our videos taken last summer.

This is "Summer end bash" at the beach on base. I just thought this was kind of funny.

Everyone calls this park where this slide is Horse Park. It's very fun. And beautiful! These slides are really cool. Kids absolutely love them. If you are going to go down one, you should wear shoes, not flip-flops.
That's all for now.

Snow Day

We were told on Tuesday, March 9th, by Misawa weather forecasting services on base that a significant snow storm was moving our way. Knowing how "great" our forecasters are here, we did not really take them seriously. Boy, were we wrong!
In the morning, I got up as usual, saw half a foot of snow already accumulated, nothing major. Nevertheless, I turned on the TV to the Commander's Channel to get an update on cancellations or delays. I was shocked to find out that schools have been closed and non-essential personnel were delayed for two hours. WHAT? No school:)? How bad was this going to be? They rarely CLOSE schools here. In fact, our friend, who is also a teacher at Katya's school, said that this was the first time in 6 years she got a Snow Day day-off.

Well, at around 11 am, dental clinic called me and asked me to reschedule my appointment (I had one scheduled for 3:30 pm today). Did it mean that Robert got to come home early too??? YES! They shut down the base!!!! So only emergency and "essential" personnel were working.

Good thing he has a four-wheel drive on his Pajero. We stayed home all day. Robert and the kids came out to clean out the sidewalk and dig out the cars and that's it. It is after 8 pm and it is supposed to be snowing till 10 pm tonight. A total of 24 inches is predicted (or 60 cm). But it looks as if a lot more has fallen because of the drifting snow in some places.

I just laugh at myself every time I think about how I tried to clean out the patio and get some summer stuff out two weeks ago......hurry up spring!

Snowshoeing the Hakkkoda Mountains 八甲田山系

About a 2.5 hour drive away is the Hakkoda mountain range.  Like all mountains in Japan, they are volcanic in origin.  The Hakkodas are a very popular destination for backcountry hikes year-round.  Of course, in the winter there's so much snow, the only way to traverse the mountain is with snowshoes.  Usually there is from 20 to 30 FEET of snow.  This year, apparently, has been a dry one, so there was only about 10 or so feet.  Still, it was surreal to walk through the forests and realize that your 10 feet above the ground and in some areas, only the very tops of trees can be seen.

This was my very first snowshoe trip.  I went up with four other guys on Friday, and we planned to spend the night at a cabin at the top.  The cabin is open to anyone.  There's no running water or electricity.  Essentially it's just a wooden shelter.  But it has emergency supplies, kerosene heaters (you have to pack your own fuel) and wooden bunks (3 high).  Enough to uncomfortably sleep 30 or more.  We didn't know if there would be anyone else there spending the night with us.  But that's part of the adventure.

Here I am at the base, ready to go.  Slight drizzle in the air.  Yes, it was actually raining when we started.  But that didn't last long.

We hadn't travelled far before I took this shot.  You will notice the fog up ahead.

You can definitely see the fog now.  We hiked most of the way in this.  You could actually see about 100 (normal) paces ahead.  

Yay!! (or is it Yea?) I reached the top!! Okay, truthfully, this isn't actually the top.  This was simply where we turned to go to the cabin.  The cabin was buiilt in a saddle between two peaks.

Welcome to the Comfort Inn. Usually the snow is so deep you have to dig down to the door at the top of the ladder.  We went through the lower door, through the hole to the far left.  Notice the fog is gone; this pic was taken the next morning.

5 guys and 2 kerosene heaters.  Make sure you turn those heaters off before going to sleep or you might not wake up in the morning.  

I worked hard for this next picture, so don't scroll by too quickly.  About 9:00 Friday night, after hanging out in the cabin for a few hours (and playing an oddly enjoyable game of Skip-Bo), we went outside to check out the view, if any.  To our amazement the sky was completely clear and the 7/8 full moon was shining bright.  15 minutes later we were snowshoeing up to the highest peak in the Hakkodas, Mount Odake:  1,584.4 meters high (I read the sign).  We reached the top at 10:00, took a few well-deserved photos, enjoyed the breathtaking view of the cities all around the mountains, froze off our noses in the wind-chill, then went back down.  Usually the hike down is easier, but not when you're wearing snowshoes, it's the middle of the night, and the snow is frozen solid.  Add in trees, rocks, and rebar (do not confuse with rhubarb) sticking out of the snow, and you get a rather treacherous descent.  Multiple falls, slips and slides later we were safely back at the cabin for a good night's rest.

Good night's rest?  Here's my bed.  Although there were blankets in the cabin for padding (and covering up your head in the middle of the night in case you don't have enough hair on your head to keep it warm), it was difficult to forget you were sleeping (or in my case not sleeping) on bare wood. 

Here's Mount Odake in all its glory (Saturday morning).  If you could zoom in on the picture, you'd see our tracks up to the peak (the highest one on the right).  You can tell the tracks going down because they zigzag through the trees and occasionally go from snowshoe tracks to sliding on our backside tracks.

I wish I had a sled (I'm much better at sledding than skiing).  Many people actually take skis or snowboards up with them and then sail on down.  This is one of the many amazing views from just outside the cabin.

 

Tree well.  While attempting to take a picture of a tree well (essentially a hole in the snow around a tree), my pole jumped into it.  So I ended up taking a picture of my pole at the bottom of a tree well.  I got it back.

We took a different way down initially, then intercepted our tracks from the day before.  Here's looking back up toward the top.  I was happy to see the snowman I built (on Friday on the way up while waiting for the other guys to catch up) survived the night.  Look closely.

Back at the base, looking up at Mount Odake.

I'm definitely going again next year.  Anyone care to join me?