About 2 hours away is Mt. Hakkoda, where “snow monsters” guard the mountain. These are naturally formed by strong wind that blows water droplets onto the trees that freeze. The result are these crazy looking trees.

One of my bucket list items was to see a concert in Japan, and that has been realized! We went up to Sapporo, the largest city in the northern island Hokkaido, where the Snow Festival was. During this trip, we also went to see Queen, one of Leanne’s favorite bands.

While in Japan, I’ve picked up a new hobby: fishing! My friend Ryota is an expert amateur fisherman and has taught me the ropes. I’ve done what’s called “area trout fishing” here in Japan, which is where there is a fishery that grows the fish and then releases them into a pond in which we can fish in. You would think it might be easier than catching trout from a river, but these trout are used to fisherman and, as such, become little geniuses. They know to avoid most lures since they have fisherman trying to catch them every day. There are also strict rules: you cannot have bait on the lure, certain lures are not allowed, and the hooks on the lures cannot be barbed.

This was my catch, which I later gutted and made into a great Sole Muniere.

Fishing is my new hobby!

We spent two days at Disney Sea, Japan’s unique Disney theme park that’s kind of a cross between Magic Kingdom and Epcot, yet neither of those at the same time. The park was really fun with great food everywhere! Churros here are big (kind of surprising to be honest) as well.. popcorn. The flavors of popcorn we ate were: curry, garlic shrimp, matcha white chocolate, and soy sauce & butter. Interesting flavors and *most* of them were pretty good!

Here was something that took me completely by surprise. The whole park was decorated completely for Christmas! I mean, Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet! But it’s not just here; all the stores in Japan are all playing Christmas music and have Christmas trees. Christmas is really really big here.

That was our Disney Sea vacation! We took two days to do it so really took our time and enjoyed it. Next theme park on the list is Universal Studios Japan!

For Leanne’s 33rd birthday I threw her a surprise party!

A journey of a thousand km begins with a single step.. on the Michinoku Shiokaze trail!

This 1000 km trail (over 600 miles!) starts at Hachinohe (about 45 min drive from us). Leanne and I went to the trailhead and walked the whole thing!

Just kidding of course. But we did walk a lot, maybe about 5 miles of it. Six miles if you include Miles the puppy!

Oirase Gorge is a beautiful river valley in Japan replete with waterfalls, nature, and trails. With the leaves changing color, it was the perfect time to see the valley. We are so lucky it’s only an hour drive away; so many people were there from Taiwan, Australia, and other foreign countries to see the site. The gorge itself is about 8 and a half miles long, so we only saw a portion of it. I want to come back each season and see how everything changes.

Every year when the leaves change color, there is a crysanthemum festival at Hirosaki Castle. We went this year! The castle itself was.. small. Not like European castles at all. However, the area around was truly grand. At night, there was a 3D dragon and bird sculpture that was lit up to animate it and make it look like it was moving.