Trip to Kuroishi (黒石市)

During Feburary, I saw the Japanese show introducing a Malaysian Cafe (selling chicken rice and curry) opened by a Malaysian who stayed in Kuroishi. Kept pestering S to bring me there! He finally brought me there when he was free. This was my first time in Kuroishi and the main street retained old Japanese era time. Seemed like the street was entrapped in the past.  We found the Malaysian Cafe, 十文字カフェ. Click on the link to know about the cafe :)

Saw a few interesting shops and cafes but since we came especially to taste the chicken rice and curry so we were window shopping while waiting for the cafe to be opened. S was interviewed by TV station reporter and it was on the recent TV news on how a Japanese submitted their daughter photo to Kuroshi city contest and it won the first prize. However, Kuroshi city office withdraw the prize upon realising the girl in the photo had deceased by committing suicide (seemed to be bullied by others in school). The girl's family felt insulted by town office's response and complaint, this eventually became a nationwide news. What a heavy topic to be interviewed by, luckily I don't have to comment. 

松の湯交流館 matsunoyu kouryuukann, the Malaysian cafe is just around the parking area.

十文字カフェ, found the Malaysian cafe but it was not opened yet.

Inside the 松の湯交流館

Along the street

Sake brewery 

Interesting cafes and shops along this stretch.

津軽三味線 (Tsgaru traditional instrument) performance

Selling all sorts of handmade products and Asia style goods.

Too bad I did not meet the Malaysian that opened this cafe.

It also appeared on TV show before where the celebrity disguised himself as staff of the cafe and prepared surprise for the guest (Upon request by the family members that wrote to the TV program requesting so).

Curry set, it was spicy and I liked it.

Chicken rice! Delicious rice but without the chill it was rather bland. Came along with the chilli.

Ordered a small set as S was not willing to share.

S's Birthday gift

Was thinking what I should get for S's birthday, past 2 years did not get anything for him and he would not care less for his birthday, not even willing to eat outside. Then while I was window shopping, I saw metallic Nano puzzle of Gundam and I brought it thinking I should be able to make it. Boy I was so wrong......

1) The puzzle instructions guide indicated the different parts estimated time to set it- 1 hour, I took          2.5 hours, 2 hours I took 4 hours. 

2)  It was supposed to all connected without using glue, sticker - It was only 1 hour when I broke the         first pieces, along the way.... I continued breaking various part along the way...... What to do?!            Super glue!!! I basically glue alot parts since it were all in pieces :p

3) Left foot and his fingers were all wrong.... but I only realised it after I completed it.... some were         glue on... To take it apart might have the possibility of destroying the connection points..... 

4) I broke 1 or 2 parts as they were so tiny that they snapped the instant i applied pressure..... Luckily     they were not placed in prominent area so I ended up throwing it away (can't even glue it).

Verdict:
S was not pleased with the model, I took 5-6 nights to complete pulling in hours and hours. He said it did not resemble the original picture at all. He would rather I buy it and just present to him and let him build the model by himself. No more gift for you next year then! So many complain!

trying to create S's birthday gift. Its was a mess!

Hehe my blood vessel condition is 10 years younger than my age. thanks to healthy cooking lifestyle by S~! if i continue to eat the way I did in Singapore, the result should be worrying

So pretty, like flower petals!

Yuka pet dog

Outing @ Shiroi Mori & Hitotsubu

Met up with my friend I knew from Wednesday, conversation Japanese Class. As she is new in Misawa, brought her to the Cake House near my house which everybody loves. I think she is my official first Japanese friend in Misawa, that is proactive to meet me and eager to hang out. Usually, the others just say only... No action lol! I have another friend that ask me out twice but its either I am not free (S is off) or I am free (but no car lol). In this instance, this friend has car and she stayed less than 10 minutes driving distance away and does not mind picking me up. Bad news is that... she also won't stay for long.... 2-3 years until her husband is transfer out of Misawa.....

My Japanese friend brought "Star Wars" English  dictionary. I was stunned, never seen such bling dictionary lol!

I always choose the same, this time my friend exchanged with me so we each had 2 different flavors. 

Pumpkin dessert?

New shop opened near the Shiroi Mori Cafe..... All farm grown vegetables and products!

Also sell soft cream, burgers, milkshake and others!

I forgot the name but its contains caffeine, tasted like vanilla milkshake though. 

C1-Cargo JSDF Flight

Thanks to S's being in reserve JSDF (Japan Self Defence Force, like Singapore SAF but unlike Spore, military service in Japan is not compulsory) and participating in Misawa Air Base activities, we were invited to board the C1- Cargo military plane. Shit... the moment I woke up, it was raining..... and it looked like it would continue to rain throughout the morning... My father in law was saying we might not board the plane after all like last year, maybe just tour the plane that's it. 

In the end we managed to board the aircraft, it was much smaller than commercial plane, seating capacity probably around 50? We took turns to enter the cockpit and I had never entered a cockpit while the pilots were in operation. So many buttons and gauges.....Did not take long since long queue was forming behind me. 

After a while, I had a little motion sickness (small aircraft so the motion felt stronger) and I sat in my seat thereafter. Brought my father in law to Oirase sushi for lunch and he loved the food. Yay!!

In the bus waiting

Inside the military aircraft

Each of us get turn to view the cockpit while the pilots were busy setting off

Its pretty compact

S in his work uniform since he met us the moment he left work

Nothing wrong with the English but if you understand Japanese, this is impolite form. Not the typical polite phrase meant for customers

Flying around Misawa

Oirase lunch! 1000 yen premium set from the one coin book

Free for us! The chef recognised us as regular customers and maybe he was being apologetic for not able to cater to our extra orders. It was one man show that day,

Takko Town Beef & Garlic Festival 2016

This year is our very first time attending Takko Town Beef and Garlic Festival. The journey was so far! Around 2 hours of driving and since everyone was heading the same way, we were stuck in the midst of the mountain road, I had lost count of how long we waited. Not to mention upon our turn to enter the car park, we were directed to park at the peak of the mountain (nowhere near the festival) and to take bus to the festival instead. Not to mention the bus driver taking his own sweet time oblivious to the full packed of passengers waiting for him inside. The last family (American family with 2-3 kids and whole brunch of stuff) looked pissed when they realised the bus was packed and we eventually drove off without them. 

We reached the event place around 12pm i think but some of the stalls already sold out their food (the festival was supposed to end at 3pm), the main event of grilling the whole cow was also sold out (I only saw the bones left) and there was nothing left for me to take pictures lol! At this time, there were long queue of cars waiting just to enter the parking lot. We ate variety of beef from the stalls and its was interesting to see large scale of people grilling the food with the pits. You have to buy the tickets (2000 yen) in advance which included a raffle ticket, a souvenir bag, mixed vegetables, garlic meat sauce, Takko garlic, a package of beef, chopsticks, and a small paper plate. 

We left a hour later and walked to bus stop only to realised the bus just left and we waited 20 minutes for it. There's another bus went a different route and it came every 5-10 minutes. At this point, S's anger was accelerating rapidly from the moment the staff told him the next arrival bus will be 20-30 minutes later and the other bus kept making frequent stops in front of us lol. 

S commented that the festival was poorly organised (1 entry to the carkpark, there were another limited edition cars show near the Beef & Garlic festival hence 2 different of events but only 1 entrance.), our carpark at the peak could not be helped since no more lots but the frequency of the bus was too slow. They also underestimated the number of people turning up for the festival, some of stalls that sold beef were sold out and its was only 12pm. The festival supposed to last til 3pm....

This should be our first and last time to attend the festival lol!

while waiting in the long queue, even the lamp post resemble like garlic!

finally we reached!

Miso tofu, too hungry just buy whatever had no queue

Beef beef beef

400 yen per stick

Never seen the original plant of garlic!

beef again.... what you expected from Beef festival!

So cool, you have to buy the bbq ticket (2000yen?) in advance in order to use the pit

400 yen scallops! Kristi are you drooling?!

Either its garlic or beef pizza, forgot about it

Garlic contest for the best garlic

Our carpark was on the peak of the mountain