Aviation and Science Museum

This museum was amazing!! It is really close to base too. I really can't say enough to do this place justice. It had one incredible activity after another. Everything is hands on for the kids. Each exhibit also gives and explanation in enlish of the science principle that they are learning. I was blown away by this place. The best part was that it was only $5 for me to get in and the kids were all free! It seems like many of the places here in Japan are like that. They are either free or really cheap. This museum was huge and state of the art and had many employees. The sad but really cool part for us was that we were practically the only ones there. There was one other Japanese couple with a young boy and that's it. Many of the activities that we did were things that you would expect to pay extra for in an American museum of comparison (things like flight simulators, and blasting off to the ceiling in an air powered rocket, ....). If any friends or family come to visit us; I want to take you here.

This is like a helicoptor simulator where they spun around while pushing buttons, and there were blades above them that rotated.
This is to teach the concept of gravity and how it always pulls down, regardless of the position you are in.

Aden loves Science, so he was having a great time.

This is a bunch of plastic needles that you could poke to make shapes.

Here are the kids on the other side, push in the pins. Lincoln loved it!

I really wish I took more pictures. This place was amazing. I'm sure we will be back many times. We had to rush through to be able to see everything.

Cherry Blossom Festival- Hirosaki

This was at the Cherry Blossom Festival at Hirosaki. It is about 2 hours away from Misawa. This was one of my favorite things ever!!! I have always loved Festivals, and I have fallen in love with the cherry blossom season since I've been here. This festival was a combination of the two. It was so beautiful. We happened to go at the end of the festival too. We worried that we may be too late, but it was better. Blossoms were snowing down everywhere, and covered the paths and water. This made it even more enchanting.

See how the blossoms were covering the Castle moat?
Yum! Just a little snack vendor selling small octopus....I think.
Fish on a stick or octopus leg on stick anyone?
There were vendors selling different Japanese treats up and down the walkways. We tried everything that didn't look scary.

I heard that the Japanese have a mascot for every thing. The Hirosaki Castle had a chicken (or something) with a castle on it's head, walking around.
The beautiful Hirosaki Castle.


O love the bright red against the pale blossoms. Sooo pretty.

This is aview out the castle window. Look at the mountain in the background.

Taiko Drums

The Community Center on base offers Taiko drums. Aden has been doing it for about 4 weeks, and loves it!

International Children's Ice Festival - March 2011

This is the first activity we did where we were interacting with the local Japanese citizens. It was so fun to see Aden doing games on the ice with the Japanese kids. He was on the Yellow team, and had a Japanese coach. They did activities like bowling, tug of war, and tube races. It was also my first time to drive off base, so I was excited.

Here they are giving all of the kids participation awards.

This is like Where's Waldo. See if you can spot the short little American boy named Aden in this picture.

A proud member of the Yellow team!!!

AFRC Tour

In the first couple of weeks we were in Japan, we had to get used to get our Japanese Drivers permits, and learn to drive on the left hand side of the road. To explore a little further, while getting aquanted with the road signs and everything, we were able to go on a tour which the Airmen Family Readiness Center provided. Since we hadn't been here long, I don't know what some of the names or locations are of some of the places we went.

This is a shinto Shrine in Miwawa that we went to. It's fun learning the customs and traditions of a different country and religion.
This is the Hachinohe Fish Market. This place was awesome. We definitely want to bring any visitors we may have here. There are lots of unique samples you cand be brave and try.

I can't remember what this place is called, but it is a model of what a traditional Japanese house was like long ago.

This is a Buddist Temple that we went to.

Here's my family on the bus, waiting to leave on the tour.

It was a great chance to get aquanted with the area early on, and see some sights of Japan without fear of getting lost. This was pre-earthquake.

Getting Settled

This is our backyard. We originally planned to fence it in because of our trampoline, but we decided not to. It's better to have this whole back area open.
This is the kitchen, before all of our stuff got here.

Our back porch.

This is one of our new cars. It is a Toyota, Noah. Christian installed 2 dvd players in it. The front is touch screen, and the back one is like 18". We are set for road trips around Japan! Christian bought a Landcruiser for his get-around car.

Here is our house. It is a 4-plex townhome. We downsized to 3 bedrooms, but it looks nice now that our stuff is here, and it is decorated.

Japan 9.0 earthquake March 11, 2011

Here are some of the photos that I took of the Misawa Port after the earthquake and Tsunami damage.