Hachinohe tour

We began the tour at the fish market, which was awesome. I wish we would have had more money with us because I wanted to buy everything! I also wish we went there last so we could have bought fish, but oh well. We will go back by ourselves when we have a vehicle. It was all pretty inexpensive. We got some sushi and some mochi but that was it. Also, the mochi wasn't the type that I've typically had, but it was still pretty good. I just wish it was coated in powdered sugar rather than the flour but its all good. Anyway, here are some pictures from the fish market.



Also, because I'm weird and I think these are cool. Here is a picture of a toilet.

When you flush the toilet the clean water that refills the tank first flows through a faucet above it so you can wash your hands! I think that's a great idea. Saves water!
Anyway, after that we headed over to the train station which has the "YOU Tree." It is just absolutely stunning. I took about a billion pictures. Couldn't get the whole thing in one picture because it is just massive.



Gorgeous, isn't it?
After that we went to the Jinja (Shinto shrine) and looked around there.

I don't remember the exact term for this but this is where you "cleanse" your hands and mouth before entering the shrine. The lightning bolt shaped paper hanging above it symbolizes that it is a sacred place.

Above is the "Torii" which is the sacred entry way to the shrine.
There was a little gift shop type thing where you could get omikuji, which are like little fortunes and if your fortune was good you kept it, but if it was bad you could tie it to a tree like below and it would draw the bad luck in, leaving you only with good luck.

I didn't get any really good pictures of the actual shrine itself because there were a bunch of people crowding my space so we will try and go back and get some with no one in them! :p
Then after the shrine we went to the Hachinohe mall which is otherwise known as "Fantasy Dome" because there is a small amusement park inside the mall. I didn't have enough time to go looking for that to take pictures so again, when we get the opportunity we will go back and get some. We had ramen... real ramen, which was delicious. We also went to the 100 yen store and bought two small bento boxes, a chopstick holder, and some little sauce bottles. I'm actually going to attempt to make his lunch everyday. Now remember, I said attempt! lol.
That's about all for today. I'm going to take the Survival Japanese classes they offer on base because I'm seriously studying Japanese every way I possibly can. I'm also going to take the cooking classes they have so when I start those you will hear about them. I need to find out exactly when they are. The tour guide was rattling them off but she was talking way too fast! :p Anyway, I'm going to go back to my room and relax and watch some TV. The last few days have been pretty exhausting!