Lunch @ Un Cafouverture (アンカフェクーベルチュール)

Had lunch with my friend (also by the name Sachiko! Same name as my longtime Japanese friend!). Known her from Misawa Internation Centre, she is a staff there and able to speak good English. Started our friendship when we went to Aomori  and helped out with my Japanese Language teacher. Went to the Un Cafouverture cafe near Maxvalue (a supermarket in Misawa that we normally go), even though we often passed by countless times, I had never been there. S commented the food was awful and the amount was pathetically little. this was further endorsed by my mother in law. Hence, S never brought me there. 

My friend suggested the cafe saying the dessert is good and the cafe also have a section which they sell all sorts clothes, accessories, tableware etc. My lunch set turned out to be tasty and good amount so I guess either the chef changed or something haha! Would go again to try their dessert.

P.S Tomorrow will be a brand new 2017 and I have stay in Japan for 3 and half years. Next year will be a super busy year as we are building our house!

2017 target: To pass JLPT 2!    

Enjoying the sun

Sandwich lunch

My lunch set (1200 yen) Volume just nice and quite delicious

came along with drink and dessert

Selfie with Hideji!

First car ride with window opened. He was enjoying it

My Disastrous Night/Day

Have to clear it out of my mind. Last week S was gone for reservist training and I slept late knowing no-one ("S") would care anymore. Just less than 2 hours of sleep, I heard noises. Wanted to ignore it but my sixth sense told me I better go check it out. Looked at the time 3.30am, and opened the door and switched on the light. There was Hideji outside his cage sitting.... which was strange since winter is cold so he usually refused to move out of his cage unless I was preparing to take him out. I said What's wrong Hideji? Then I smelled something awful..... like shit..... Looked around and saw the big pile of poo right behind the door. I was thinking oh man he could not endure anymore and chose the furthest away from his cage, so smart. Started to clean it up by throwing the floor mat away, then I realised..... Hideji back paws were in shit and his "shitty" paw prints were on the floor!!!   Took me a good while to clean up and I even smudge little of his "poo" on the pet toilet sheet and let him smelled placing on the ground where we put our shoes to show him he can "poo" here if he is urgent. Went to bed at 4plus. 

Morning came and it was 8.30am, went to check on him and saw the skateboard which was originally placed beside toilet sheet had fallen on the ground and diarrhea on S's fake crocs. No!!!!! Something was wrong, maybe tummy upset? Cleaned up again and brought him out for his usual walk. Its was a sunny day and so I wore my sports shoes. Near my house, there was a stretch of road that the sun couldn't reach and hence ice remained. I underestimated the power of slippy ice and overestimated my ability to walk on them with normal shoes."Slip", "Slammed", "Banged"! Hideji was not reacting to my freak accident, he was like a "I don't care" bystander..... Luckily nothing beside my pride was broken, half of my pants were in mud .  Then Hideji had diarrhea for the third time and I had to bring him to the vet.

The doctor said I might have changed the portion of new dog food too much resulting in his tummy upset. Luckily he did not diarrhea anymore after the visit to the clinic or I might up crying and cleaning if I need to clean up again. My right arm was in pain the next day to the extent that I could not exert force or lift my arm. I guessed the impact of the fall landed on my right arm, took a few days to recover.  

P.S

The vet praised Hideji for being unusually obedient and quiet, he was receptive to being inserted thermometer in his anal (to check if he had fever, most dogs hated it according to the nurse) and typically Shiba breed is very defensive. They dislike strangers and have a high tendency to bark or even bite in defence. Hideji on other hand, showed no such behaviour, at most he will keep pulling away and shivering.

super cool shadow

Waiting for my clearance to eat

2nd diarrhea 

3rd Diarrhea. all these taken not to gross you out but to show to the vet.

on

Orange Range Concert

Orange Range came to Misawa to perform! You will have no idea how small Misawa is that those really mega big stars (singers/groups) would only choose big cities to perform their concert so even if they come to Tohoku, they would go Sendai (Biggest city in Tohoku). I was not much a fan of Orange Range but I liked their song in Naruto and the ticket was not expensive (6000 yen $75 sin per person). Since S asked (he usually ignored me when I said I want to go watch like Superfly etc), of course I said yes hehe.

It was my first time entering the hall of Misawa, the hall was not big and the crowd that came did not filled up the hall. Also our first to attend a concert together. Everyone was dancing to the beat including me! We followed the hand movement of front crowd since everyone was doing the same.

Unfortunately in the middle of the concert, I felt a gush of wetness in my pants and I had to rush to the toilet. Did not want to miss the songs but no choice. Yup my period came and overflow to my pants yikes! Luckily I wore dark pants and 3 layers including my themo wear so nobody could tell anyway.

S came back home and began to behave like an Orange Range Fanatic fan. Started playing all their songs from Youtube and singing throughout the rest of night before sleeping lol.

Before the concert started, they are very strict, no photography/video allowed even during waiting.

Not a good angle, just nice he was also wearing orange to Orange Range concert

Eating at Kadoya (Yakitori place) after the concert ended

Lunch @ North 40-40 & Dog run

Meet up with my friend and brought her to North 40-40. She liked the place! After that we brought our dogs to try out the another dog land that was located inside Misawa Aviation and Science Museum. This dog land is even better than the previous dog run as it has a high hill for them to run up and down. Since it was a pretty warm day, there were also other dog owners with their dogs. Hideji had a blast! Non stop running up and down, up and down and kept pestering other dogs to play with him. Since other dogs were all small dogs; chihuahua, toy poodle type. They did not like running at all, especially my friend's dog Spin. She took a long while to warm up. 

Everyone was shocked by Hideji non-stop running ability, he was the only dog zooming off like Sonic the Hedgehog and other dogs were not happy that he kept pestering them to play. Hideji was not affected by their growls at all, when they chased him around (out of anger), he was still playing and hopping around them lol! Due to the run, he even lost close to 0.3 kg of his weight when we brought him to the vet. We are supposed to make him gain weight to 9kg (under Doctor's advice ; healthy weight for shiba) and he lost even more weight than before lol!

Appetiser 

North 40-40 brunch set 1000 yen? 

Fish as main dish

So many new friends!

sniffing

more sniffing

All waiting in line for snacks. Auto sit down and looked at you and wait lol!

Miyuki Sensei Birthday

It was Miyuki Sensei Birthday and we gave a small surprise for her. Miyuki Sensei doesn't like to take pictures or whenever we took photos, she will either block half of her face or all of it lol. Was trying to make her reveal her age which she said 50s or maybe 50......? She is such a mystery haha!

Being funny! She is always in black and she said she had nothing but black outfits

variety of Japanese snacks

Group picture! Amanda made red velvet cupcakes and it was delicious!

Hideji's New Friend

Was having lunch with my friend the other day and she was eager to meet Hideji since she has a dog herself. She brought Spin along after our lunch so we could stroll together. Spin being a dog from pet shop and was raised with humans from puppy, has no interests in other dogs. She loves being around with people and anyone that came to her house, she will be wagging her tail in joy. Hideji is the opposite, he regards the entrance (where he sleeps) as his territory so whoever enters will trigger his hostility. But if we placed him outside the house, he will bark (growl) at strangers then be ok if we scolded him. Spin doesn't like Hideji much lol.. She will shiver whenever Hideji is sniffing her so Hideji lost interest in her as well. 

Looking at me when I was busy taking Hideji's stuff. 

We saw the rainbow!

difficult to control the 2 kids

Back the clinic for review

Happy time @ Misawa Dog Run

We found a dog run in Misawa while driving around and thought it was prefect place to let him run around without the leash. He has only been with us less than a month and shiba breed easily distracted by anything (leaf, pets, moving objects) so releasing him is a big NO NO. The chances of him running off and not coming back is 100 % lol. Many parks, playgrounds forbid pets and so we could only walk around our area. This is sad but I understand, some owners really let their pets shit around and not clean it up and if owner do not watch their pets carefully, they might harm the children.  

Upon arriving the Dog Run, there was another shiba playing with its owners (Mother and daughter). We chatted a while and realised they are from Aomori City and they would drive to Misawa every Monday to bring their dog here. Main reason: there are no "Free" dog land in Aomori City, 1 hour would cost 1000 yen ($13) and hence they rather drive all the way down and shop around here instead. Hideji had a blast playing with other shiba, he was playing and running non stop for close to a hour. Its really interesting to see 2 shiba played with each other and both are grown in a pack of shibas (not like those in the pet store): their playing was so rough and more like sumo match trying to hold the other to the ground. 

so nervous and whimpering in the cage

running in a flash!

never seen him grinned so happily

Jumped!

shrieked in pain when the other shiba bite his neck

Their sumo match

KO!

Salmon Festival 2016 @ Rokkasho

Went to Rokkasho salmon festival not to catch salmon but to eat nice food haha. Their salmon soup and tempura soba are a must to eat if you are there. One of the good catch of the festival was we (or I) discovered a Korean stall selling authentic Korean kimchi and pancake. Tasted so good that I wish I am back in Korea again. I took the picture of the article they were framing against their stall so we can go visit the store in Hachinohe. The weather was cold that we went back soon after eating all we could ordered hehe.

it was cold that day and was queuing to buy takoyaki

tempura soba

Salmon soup 

First time seeing this Korean stall. Wife is Korean and Husband is Japanese. Their kimchi and pancake was so good!

Also have a shop in Hachinohe

getting ready for salmon event

Lunch @ New Miyaki (Misawa)

S took me to New Miyaki (Chinese restaurant located within walking distance from the base). Been here 3 years and yet this was my first time as it was pricer than other Chinese restaurant. You can place order using their tablet (pretty cool). We ordered the 1200 yen which came along with fried rice, vegetables, sweet spicy prawns and fried spring roll. Always have craving for Chinese food especially fried rice lol! Would come back again!

1200 yen set

The view of the shop

He fell asleep in the car easily... Like me!

Stuck in an awkward position and could not get up hehe