Out and about in Morioka

We woke up to clear blue skies with a lovely view of the 2041 m (~7,000 ft) Mount Iwate.

the view from our bedroom window

Today is our only day without meetings or other appointments (thank goodness Yuki likes to spend Sundays with her family!), so we decided to head out and explore Morioka. We walked the ~2 km into town and explored the ruins of Morioka Castle, wandered around Iwate Park and the surrounding area, then walked a few blocks to the shopping district.

Catie in front of a rock shrine near Morioka Castle

there are gorgeous purple hydrangeas all over Morioka right now

 After Catie’s love of wearing yukata last night, we decided she would probably like to have her own to bring back to Richmond. We knew that if we found one today, she’d be able to wear it at the festival tonight, so we went yukata shopping! They showed us some absolutely gorgeous silk kimono for the 3-5-7 festival in November, but we left with a basic cotton yukata.

Obi tying lessons followed by goofy Catie faces in the mirror

Just before heading home, Catie got to play one of the sansa odori drums. She’s been talking about doing this for the past 3 days, so it was a nice treat. 

***whhooooaaaa. The room is shaking. Really shaking! I guess we are having our first earthquake for this trip. A 6^th floor apartment gets a bit wobbly. Not my favorite thing***

We're heading back into town for more drumming and dancing after a little rest!

 

Parking lot Cinderella

After a yummy yakiniku dinner with Yuki’s family, Catie was transformed into a proper Japanese little girl ready for a summer festival. Yuki altered and then dressed Catie in an old yukata of her daughter’s in a parking lot before dropping us off at the festival. 

 

Tonight was day 2 of the 3-day Sansa Odori festival- the largest taiko festival in the world. We didn’t last through many of the dance/drum troupes because the huge crowds freaked Catie out a little, but what we saw was pretty awesome! Plus, Catie loved dressing up.

First Impressions

Overall, our first day and night in Morioka went well. Here are a few of my first impressions of our new living situation:

1)  Jet lag isn’t fun. After getting up and eating breakfast at 4:30 AM, Catie demanded a bike ride on “her new bike” at 6:00 this morning. I’m hoping it wears off in a few days.

2)  E-House is much bigger than I expected. It is a corner apartment on the 6^th floor of a 7-floor building. We have a gorgeous view of Mount Iwate out our bedroom window. It’s about 1 block from a shopping plaza with a big grocery store (Catie LOVES the car shopping carts), dry cleaner, plant nursery, and a ramen shop. Something for everyone! We’d been warned that it was right across the street from the hospital, so we were not surprised when we heard an ambulance at 3:30 AM. Contrary to my expectations, the apartment has a queen-sized western bed, big closet, and 2 large dressers in our room. The living room/office/Catie room combo is reasonably sized with big windows on 2 walls. She loved sleeping on a futon, but wasn’t all the sure about us packing it away in the morning. After the initial shock of seeing her bed packed up, she decided it was fun and proceeded to take out and put away her blankets and animals a half dozen times. I think it’s going to be ok.  

3)  Illiteracy is tougher than I remember. I had to ask Andy which was the dish soap versus the hand soap this morning. I need for my class to start!

4)  Japanese bike locks are way cooler than American ones.

5)  Throwing away trash is a major project here! Not only do we have 6 different trash/recycling bins in the apartment, but you have to WASH & DRY all the plastic! Every single piece of plastic and styrofoam needs to have all labels removed and be completely clean before you can throw it away. A single plastic juice bottle has to be broken down into a paper label (bin #1), clean & dry plastic cap (bin #2), and the clean and dry bottle itself (bin #3). Some things like styrofoam food trays even have to be washed, dried, and returned to the store!

6)  Netflix, Amazon Prime, and even PBS Kids aps DON’T WORK IN JAPAN!!! This might not be a big deal to the average ex-pat, but it’s devastating to a 3-year old who wants her Thomas fix (especially when bad mommy packed her real toy Thomas in the luggage that’s being shipped up from Tokyo). It looks like we need to set up a VPN or something else to block the geotracking on our I-pads so that poor Catie can get her shows back.

We’re off to dinner with Yuki’s family and a night of Sansa Odori festival dancing and drumming!