Friday, July 28, 2006

Going to the Fish market

I finally slept late. I didn't get up until 6:30am. Hoorah! I worked out after MB did. The good thing about it being a little cold is that when I work out, there is a nice breeze through the windows. Have I mentioned yet that there is no air conditioning in this country?

So, although it was wet and drizzly today, we headed out to Hachinohe to go to the fish market. It's only about 10 or 15 minutes away, and we felt it was a requisite part of the trip. I'm not a big fan of fish, but I may now check this experience off the list of things to do before I die. Ok, so it wasn't on the list, but now I can check it off anyway. It looks unassuming from the outside, but their are some bad smells inside. yikes.

Now I would like to share some of the many sights with you. Come along with me. Almost all the vendors had huge crabs. Every once in a while one would still be alive. The vendor would tap it, and it would wiggle. A lot of crab eating going on in this country. The price is 2500 yen or about $24.00.

The yellow baskets are full of sea urchins. I don't know if you are supposed to clean with them or eat them. But I knew I wasn't touching them.

Almost all of the fish still had their heads, and the poor shark just had his head. Looks happy, doesn't he?

You probably can't tell, but the bucket is full of small slippery things swimming around. No idea of what they are.

We walked pass a man trying to get us to eat worms and a lady trying to get us to eat seaweed. She smiled with delight when I decided to get a photo. I think she thought she had a chance of getting me to eat whatever it was.

There were also some really big fish. The box is probably 5 feet long. That is a big honkin fish.







Another irony of the Japanese. I fully expected only squatty potties in the fish market. Instead they have magic potties. Who would ever guess, as MB puts it, the country with the most backwards potties also has the super advanced. If I spoke Japanese I might even know what all the different buttons are. I believe one is a bidet. However I did not wish for water up my hiney. So I didn't verify. MB says some of them are even heated.

On the way back we stopped at the Harley Davidson store. I thought for sure there would be some fun thing that showed Japan, but no nothing. After the Harley store, we went to the Ramen house for lunch.

I have now officially eaten at a restaurant that required us to sit on the floor. The legs to go numb. I kept this photo because the blur on the right is Grace. Both of her children are blurs. As Dad would say aconstant barrage of sound and whirling dirvishes of movement. Sometimes they mak e my head hurt. I can say that because MB has confessed, sometimes they make HER head hurt.

After lunch, we went to a nursery (plants, not children) that MB had been wanting to see. I'm betting money that she finds her way back there to get some when it's not so gross outside. Lots of fun stuff for the garden too. She broke down and got the kids a garden dragonfly with working wings. very cool.

We stopped at the commissary on the way home. (Days not complete till we've been to the commissary and the post office.) Once home the little ones were sent out to play. It's been lovely.

Mike got back from climbing Mt Fugi. They climbed all night (took about 8 hours) and arrived at the top in time to see the sun rise. Then they turned around and walked down. Talk about some serious exercise and sleep deprivation. I've decided listening to Mike tell us about climbing it is a fabulous substitute for actually doing it!

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad to see you appearing in the photos!

    I'm looking forward to finding out if hearing you tell about Mike climbing Mt. Fuji is as good as climbing it myself.

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