5 day vacation

Just got back on the internet after a 5 day break.  It's crazy how little I think about the internet when it's gone, but then as soon as it's available to me (at school), I feel like something missing just reentered my life.

But anyhow, I got to spend 3 days in the biggest city in Aomori (Aomori City).  It was really nice to get out of my small little town of Noheji.  I got to experience things that I haven't seen since Tokyo (giant arcades, anime/manga stores, busy streets, incredible restaurants [although there are plenty of awesome restaurants in Noheji]).

Of course, the thing that I most look forward to when I go on trips is sampling the food.  So I will talk a bit about the food.  First, the breakfast at the hotel was amazing.  Seriously, maybe my favorite breakfast ever.  They had a Japanese side and a Western side.  I frequented both sides plenty.  It had awesome seafood/rice/soups and of course Aomori's specialties, scallops and apples.  I had more apples in the last 3 days than I had in the last 3 months.  Apple picking season is about a month away, and when that happens I hear you can get 5 giant, delicious, juicy apples at the store for 1 dollar.  Right now they are about a dollar per apple.  I can't wait for the apple harvest!

The first night we went to a very delicious Indian restaurant and I ordered garlic curry and naan bread.  It was amazing.  The next night was Korean food, I had never had the stuff before, but it was awesome.  Videos to follow.

Other than that, Thursday night was awesome, 3 other ALTs (Melissa, Anne, Mike and I) went on a hunt for All-Fruit cookies.  We went to about 15 conbinis (gas stations without gas pretty much).  There is a type of japanese cookie called All, and they have cookies such as All-Raisin, All-Apple, All-Pineapple, etc.  Now they are all delicious, but we were on a hunt for All-Banana.  I enjoy banana flavored things and I had never had them before.  Our 4 hour search came up semi-successful, we were able to find All-Raisin cookies (still delicious) but unable to find All-Banana.

Aaaand oh yea, the whole reason I was in Aomori City, the JET orientation.  That was good, I got a few teaching ideas, but for the most part it was aimed at people who had never taught before.  In any case, good weekend.  Next weekend is zen mediation at the temple!  I can't wait!