Todd's Visit!

From January 2nd to the 17th, Todd was here visiting me! He's going to grad school at the University of Minnesota, so he had a break from classes until the 22nd. I went down to Tokyo to meet him at the airport, and we spent some time in Tokyo before coming up to Morioka.



Here we are in Asakusa, an area of Tokyo.

Since it was still the New Year's holiday, Asakusa quickly became packed with people in the morning.

We went to the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Tower and got to look out over Tokyo.

We stopped to watch an outdoor taiko drumming performance in Midtown.

Seeing the "sights" in Morioka - behind us are the castle walls in Iwate Park, all that remains from the castle that was once here.

Morioka's rock-splitting cherry tree - a lesson in persevering through the seemingly impossible (according to the description on the sign). The beloved tree is wrapped up in a "sweater" for the winter season.

Sushi is usually delicious, but this natto (fermented soybeans) sushi was not so delicious. Natto smells/tastes like... feet.

We made peanut nanbu-senbei, a type of cookie/cracker, at the Hand-Made Village outside of Morioka.

We learned what indigo dye smells like and saw the process of creating the beautiful patterned cloths.

Of course, we had to let Todd experience wanko-soba while in Morioka!

Those of us who ate over a hundred bowls (don't worry, they're only a mouthful) received a little wooden sign.

Todd and I cooked an "American" meal of chili for the Miyakawa family.

We made mochi, pounded rice, with the kids at Hallelujah nursery.

Natto in all its glory... Todd and I opted not to put it on our mochi.

Todd discovers the "Men's" flavor of Pocky - bitter chocolate. I'm not sure why it's so manly... pretty sure it's a marketing scam.


Playing duets in church

We found this disintegrating USAFA (my brother's alma-mater) sweatshirt in a trendy clothing store for about $45! We also found an old Gustavus Adolphus sweatshirt for about $30. No Luther College ones though... we checked.

A few days before Todd left, I came down with a sore throat and fever and had to spend a couple days in bed. But I was better by his last day, so we went out to supper at Hamaya, a small traditional restaurant that our friend, Yoshi, recommended. The staff were so kind to us and we had a great meal!