Scary carp, etc.

Yesterday we chose to explore Takamatsu no Ike, our local forest park about a 10-minute walk from our house. There are several kilometers of forested jogging trails throughout the rolling hills of the park, most of which end up at a dammed lake on the western edge of the park. It’s a great place to walk and escape the heat, since it is both higher than most of Morioka and very shady.

We stopped at the lake for a cold drink and were immediately accosted, not by ducks as you would be in the States, but by CARP! The fish sensed our presence near the shoreline and flocked to us in droves. Catie was a bit concerned that they had “really big mouths”. A few ducks also showed up, but there were at least 10 fish to every duck.

We also saw a few turtles and a big raptor (some kind of eagle???) fishing.

There is also a fleet of swan boats available to rent on the lake. In case swan boats are not your thing, they have a few other choices, such as a pink panda or a blue helicopter. It remains to be seen whether Catie will want to go in a swan boat with all those “big-mouthed” carp in the water. I have a feeling it will be a repeat of the flat-bottomed boat/alligator incident in South Carolina.

Even if we never make it onto the water, I’m looking forward to spending lots of time up in Takamatsu no Ike and can’t wait to see the fall foliage!

After our trip to the park, we headed over to Gandai for lunch in one of the campus cafeterias. Andy & I have always loved cafeteria food in Japan! Kind of odd, since I think I ate school lunches maybe a dozen times during my entire K-12 years in school. Since it’s summer vacation, everything at Gandai appears to be working with a skeleton crew, but lunch was still very tasty and cheap. After eating, Catie asked to go visit the goats- now named “Thomas” and “James” for their blue and red collars. She decimated the foliage on the side of the goat paddock feeding them every weed, blade of grass, and mulberry leaf she could get a hold of. The goats cried when we left. 

This morning we hosted the first of several monthly host parent meetings at our apartment. My job (assigned by Yuki) was to clean the place to Japanese standards, provide iced tea, and provide a sweet- ideally from Richmond. Since no one told us we would be doing this, I didn’t bring anything from Richmond, so I was forced to learn to use the microwave/broiler/oven.

In spite of my initial fear of the gray box, it wasn’t all that bad and I made a decent batch of shortbread. E-House continues to disappoint me with the huge and yet weirdly useless supply of dishware. All I wanted were 10 little glasses for iced tea and some little plates for snacks. We probably have service for 40, but could I find little glasses?- NO. Only 2 of one kind and 1 of another. How about tea cups?- there are at least 2 dozen mugs/tea cups, plus an entire punch bowl set (really??? I don’t have a punch bowl in my huge house in Indiana, why is there one in this tiny apartment?), but I could not find more than 4 that actually match. Why can’t we have a dozen matching tea cups and huck the rest? I did manage to find enough little plates, but I really think someone needs to gut this kitchen of all the useless crap and get one decent set of service together. More on E-House later!

Andy is off schmoozing with the Morioka Board of Education. They are our official hosts here, and are therefore responsible for our good conduct. That meant suit and tie in 90 degree weather...poor Andy!