long ago and far away...

All this cold weather is taking me back to Japan in my memories. So I thought I'd share them with you. :)


Yeah and I thought we had gotten a lot of snow here this year. *sigh* I do remember this. Brrr...shivering. For those of you who remember Japan...this is the road to Towada Lake.


Lest you think that Japan is always snowy. The Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival. I don't remember exactly how many trees there are here, but I thinks its in the hundreds. (Arlene, do you remember)?



The Cherry Blossom Festival again. Yes, I've changed a bit.

The Aomori Aquarium. Our singles group from church went there for an activity. The man in the foreground with the camera was in our group. I think his name was Earl Jefferson. He was in the Navy. My at-the-time-future husband was taking the picture; this was before we were married.


The Aomori Glass Factory. One of two in Japan. This was downstairs in the gift shop. This stuff was really expensive. I bought a small glass piece that I have since lost and it was around 500 yen which was about $5 then. (Airmen don't make much money).



Upstairs in the glass factory where all the action took place. These people were super talented. They do this the old-fashioned way: glass-blowing. This is the huge furnace and several assistants. The man in the white shirt and hat on the far left walking away was one of the master craftsmen. There were only a few.


Yes, Dairy Queen in Japan. Speaking of DQ. Have you had this month's Blizzard of the month? If you go to their website and sign up for their fan club, they'll send you coupons via email. So far we've received two "Buy One Get One Free" coupons. This month's Blizzard of the month is chocolate overload. (Not that you can overload on chocolate, but you get the idea). Yum! But, I digress...back to Japan.


And last, but certainly not least. My husband holding our oldest. (She loves the fact she was born in Japan). See that little bottle he's feeding her? It was so cold in our house that I could set those little bottles of breast milk outside our bedroom door in the little hallway and they would stay cold all night. I literally lived in our bedroom that winter (she was born in December). The house we had was off-base, built for the American military but by Japanese builders. Can you say "no insulation"? We kept the heater in our bedroom going constantly and only heated up the living room when we had company...which wasn't often. Now, I did nurse M.D., but on the few occasions I would pump to let my husband feed her I seriously never had to put the milk in the refrigerator. Very convenient for middle of the night feedings.

And have I mentioned one of the things I absolutely LOVED about Japan? Heated toilet seats. I kid you not! Unfortunately the amps (?) are different here and we can't have one sent to us. They wouldn't work.

So, that's my little stroll down memory lane. Doesn't someone have a meme about this? I think I've seen it somewhere. Oh well. :)


Until next time...