random hachinohe local festival

Random pictures from Hachinohe festival. This was at central hachinohe where there has a theater and some shopping centers. Churo in Japan is chuaritos. they put sugar when they receive the order. This small thin churo was 2 dollars and something..

Hachinohe Aquarium, Marine Science hall (Mariento)

this place is near the port of hachinohe and fishing place. It was hard to find the place at first, it was shown the straight road to here on the map, we found out this is not the straight place so needed to make few wrong trips to here.

Direction

1. Take a hahcinohe express toll road. ( to get to the hachinohe toll road, take the main fate or POL gate. If you take POL gate, go straight to universe and homac. Keep going straight and follow the sign of Hachinohe express lane. There will be a small bridge and the toll gate is right before the bridge.)

2. Exit at Hachinohe North (Hachinohe KITA) and make a right turn to be at the route 45

3. Take a left turn at the big transaction (follow the sign of central hachinohe or port of hachinohe, don't take the way to NANGO)

4. If you are on the right way, you will be on the route 1, when you see the route 1 keep go straight to port of hachinohe, at the end of route 1 make a right turn. there will be a gas station on your left. 

5. keep going straight untill the almost the end of the street, and make a right turn when you see the big building written on the black Japanese Kangi (super complected words) and keep going straight until you see the blue building written on Japanese words (Mariento) 

*If you're lost, Ask where is the Mariento. Everyone will know what mariento is but won't know Hachinohe Aquarium..

This small aquarium cost 300 yen per adult. It has cool looking fishes and some more but kind of disappointing place if you imagine of okinawa aquarium.. It's like a small fish tank at somebody's house. The ocean was pretty cool and great trip to see the other side of hachinohe.

Toll fare was 350 yen to hachinohe. make sure that you get off at the right exit there won't be any exit for a while after hachinohe central or kita.

more info about contact lenses in japan

I wasn't paying any attention to this brochure when I received at the front gate of Aeon mall (=shimoda mall),  they have a promotion going on at the store. the small paper saying that any customers who purchase 2 packs of contact lenses will get a 5 days of one day contact lenses, 2 weeks one, and 1 month one as well. this promotion will last till July 31st,2013.

Onsen experience in Misawa

Since my mom visited misawa, we dicided to go to onsen here. I downloaded a map but couldn't find any onsens from the map. I went to a onsen in front of docomo intersects, facing docomo. The price was 270 yen per person. They seemed not have towel, hair brush or anything.. there's a vending machine in front of the door. I put a coin in and there's little fake coin or something is out of the vending machine.

I grap that and handed to lady there. Ladies are all naked.. I think they allow people to smoke at the waiting area..

The water was hot spring and pretty good.. but I don't think it's kind of the thing that western people can enjoy. I saw another onsen on the map which has personal hot spring spot. I would recommend that place

Contact lense in Japan

So I went to shimoda mall today and happend to pass by contact lense store inside of the shimoda mall. you don't have to have a prescription from eye doctor in japan. You can just bring what kind of contact lense you've wearing (acuvue or something..) and how bad your vision is. Or you can bring a box of disposable contact lense and show lady at the store. The name of the store was (chu-o contact lense, means central contact lense) and a lady works there is pretty good at english.

Acuvue disposable contact lense (a packs of 30) was about $30. They have 2 weeks acuvue as well.

Half and Half - Juice in Korea

I found this half and half juice at E-mart in Korea. This is a great juice has not only grape juice but also orange juice. The compartment blocks between those 2 different types of juice and prevent juice from being combined together. There are two holes on the bottle which makes customer to drink each juice efficiently.

This creative item was on beuty show in korea. The host used the empty bottle of the juice to store shampoo on one side and conditioner othe other side.

Space A travel - Osan AB to Misawa AB

  I'm back to misawa ab this morning. As I mentioned at the post earlier, Roll call for space A to misawa was 0900 today morning. (Every Tuesday) I got to passenger terminal at 0830 then I checked at the desk as present. though the roll call was at 0900, I couldn't find my name on the screen on the far left side. I was nervous about not catching on the space A because my husband is supposed to come back from the states next Monday and my mom will be coming to Japan on the next day. The next Space A to Misawa AB is in a week, I was getting nervous. I asked the military lady on the desk, what I heard from her was 'Stand by, We'll have more roll call on the screen in a minutes' I waited about 15 minutes, then I finally could see my name on the list.

  I checked my baggage in then got the boarding pass. My seat was 4D which was equivalent to business seat (kind of) on the commercial flight. there was almost 70 seats open for misawa, but only 1 seat open for Seattle. there was so many people waiting to get on the plane for their pcs to the states.

  Not like the Space A from misawa, the space A took off very soon after I moved to waiting room. I got on the flight and I arrived in misawa around 1pm. I picked up the baggage and wrote the custom then finally got in misawa.

  If you need a taxi, this is a dial you can make from your cell phone.

   017 666 5438

Bakery in korea

There're bakeries everywhere in korea. They have amazing cakes and great treats. The bakery is called 'paris baguette' I went had great selections of cakes.

Wanted-korean style

Random poster at some apartment. This kid broke a surveillance camera and was taken his face picture. Kind of funny.

Trip to Korea - Pyungtaek

  Today, I went to pyungtaek to meet friend who has a boyfriend as an american army. I went there little earlier than the time we actually set so I can drop by some stores around the station. This place is the one of the city near Osan AB. There is department store called AK mall. this department store is connected to the station. My husband and I used to watch movie here. Though this place is pretty small, It's still fun to walk around the station area to see lots of stores and restaurant. There's humprey army base around here. I found the sign saying 'army TMO' in the station which was pretty cool. I recommend to see the cheap cosmetic stores around the station, they actually real good quality compare to its price.   

Hop to Osan AB - Military space A travel (2)

  At Osan, several military people got on the airplane and explained about customs and things that is going to happen to people who is PCSing to Korea. Lots of army people needed to hop on the bus to go to wherever they're going to work for few years. I remembered when I PCSed to Japan a month ago. People there would feel the same way that I did before and I understood how tired they are right before finishing their long trip of PCS.

  Everyone who was on the airplane went to the conference room to write down customs paper and entrance paper as a foreigner in Korea. After writing down the paper, I went through customs in Korea then I needed to find my baggage that I send from MIsawa. It was absolutely chaotic because there were tons of same colored and same sized bags turning around of 3 conveyor belt. also, many bags were already out from the belt and displayed on the floor near conveyor belt. I kept moving around and finally found twp bags that I send from misawa.

  After all of these process, I finally could be in the terminal at osan AB. I registered my name at the customer desk to go back to misawa in 2 weeks. the hop to go back to misawa is at 0900on Tuesdays.

Hop to Osan AB - Military space A travel (1)

  I arrived in Korea (Osan AB) this Monday. I am here to take GMAT test (Graduate school entrance exam) in Seoul. the reason why I came here is it's much cheaper to come to Korea than go to Tokyo. I heard sinkansen trip to tokyo cost $300 but coming to Korea cost none (set aside a cost of going to Seoul). I have a family in Korea, so I don't have to pay for hotel either. I decided to come to Korea. Finally I finished testing today.

  

  As a spouses of active duty in military, a person needs a document to be selected to get on the hop to osan. It's called 'unaccompanied space a travel, CAT 5 document'. IIt needs a sign by commander so you have to go to wherever your husband's commander is at. the secretary wrote down my information including social security number at the office and send it to first sergeant and then went up to commander to get the signature. They also need passport number so it's good to have a passport with you when you go to get the signature. I happen to take a picture of passport number on my phone so I saved time to go to home then come back to the office. 

  After obtained the completed document, I went to the passenger terminal to register my name before the trip. registering can be done on the day of traveling. To raise the possibility of getting on the hop, I needed to go there few days before the travel day. On a travel day, which was on Monday 11:15am, I showed up at the passenger terminal and checked in. the list of the name who checked in was posted little later on the green board above the trash can. Then the worker started to call names as a order of categorized on the list. since I am at category 5 (none active duty but a family of active duty, travel alone), my name was called almost the very end of calling process. when they called my name I brought my passport and stamped by customs. I was seated and wait till they call the category of people. I came up to the gate and send my baggage, then pass the entrance of the gate. 

  when I entered, there were lots of military people and their families who was waiting for PCS to Korea. Majority of people there were army military or their families. I waited again and finally I could get of the airplane. After landing, flight attendant shortly served lunch which was ham sandwich or turkey sandwich. I chose ham one. oreo and small bag of ruffle were in the lunch box with ham sandwich. It took 2 hours and 20 minutes to come to osan. Roll call in Misawa was 1115 but landing was 13 something. I arrived in Osan around 1520.

American Day

Today was American Day. There was people live in misawa and more from other city around here. It looked great that they block the whole road toward city hall. We could see many Japanese people's outfits. We could tell flower printed pants is popular here. 

Mario!

Group Exercise class - Yoga & Spin at Fitness

  I was so surprised how many good group workout classes are here in misawa. I'd like to talk about the classes that I've taken so far and my impression about those classes.

The schedule is available at http://35fss.com/fitness.html  

Kickboxing FIP
  I expected this class to be more like real kickboxing. I thought I could be able to learn some skills with tone up my body. the class was more like zumba with lots of kicks. This class is great if someone is a fan of zumba and like dancing with music.

Yoga Sculpt
 This is little bit modified version of yoga. participants need to bring weights that he/she can handle and the class is combined with half time of yoga and halt time to weight lifting. I brought 2 sets of same weights and little heavier weight. It worked out perfectly. I would like to go back to the class and start to go regularly.

Cardio & ABS FIP
  I haven't gone to this class yet. the maintenance person at fitness said  this class is aerobic for half and hour and half an hour for ABS workout with music.

Indoor Cycling / Instructor: Adele / Katy
  Great spin class. 50 minutes of cycling with music. instructors are amazing. I bring 2 bottles of water and towel to swipe the sweat. I found there are usually 15 or less people at the cycling room.

Power Yoga
  This yoga class engages more of stretching. It's great yoga class because I need to stretch my hamstring especially for better performance of running, walking, or cycling. This class usually pretty peaked with people. instructor will be gone after this summer because of her PCSing. I wish she stayed with us but well this is military life. I hope there will be same structured class for future.