Iwate: Two (Pictures)

Forwarning: This is a massive picture post, so 56k modems beware.

Sorry this took so long. I get bored uploading pictures when it takes forever with the internet being slow, other wise this would have been here sooner.


This is at the ice cream place I went with Harumi's family.


This is Mount Iwate, the "Fuji" of the north.


The baby sheep at Koiwai farm.


Here is Harumi and I making senbei at Morioka handi-crafts square. The senbei in Morioka is a lot better than the senbei in the rest of the country I think. The type of senbei in Morioka is called "nanbu" which I found out is the name of the tribe that used to be in control of north Japan a long time ago.


A picture of the snow in the handicraft square. It was about shoulder high.


This is at the obervation tower at Mar(l?)ios at Morioka. It was only 20 stories, which is hardly an observation tower in Tokyo. I thought that was kind of funny.


More of the observation tower.


Here is the sign off the highway for the Karumai exit.


Here is me learning how to give CPR to a dummy.


Here is Ameri doing the same.


Here is Hayakawa and Ameri at the craft fair last Sunday.


One of the two grocery stores in Karumai, and it even has a parking lot. Amazing.


At the pool, yep that's me in a swimming cap.


Here are the guys I ran with Monday. They are 2nd and 3rd year high school students. (which is like 11th and 12th grade in the US) I don't really remember their names, I'm already bad enough with names as it is. But in Japanese, I'm awful.


Yuuki and I, he's the guy that picked me up before the practice and was quite talkative. Unlike the other guys who weren't quite sure what to say.


Hayakawa's mother, Sechiko, and Ameri at lunch time


The high school in Karumai. I'm not sure what the signs were saying, I thought it might have been awards because it looked like peoples' names. But I couldn't really read all the kanji.


At the high school this building is where all the athletic clubs had their locker room type rooms. Guys on the bottom, girls on the second floor. I thought this was kind of convienient. A lot better than when I was in cross country and our area was the locker room of the guest football team.


These are the people who came on Tuesday to run. Once again, their names didn't get planted in my head. The two people to the left of me are two giggly girls who didn't have much to say to me except girly giggles.


They had a lot of signs like these in Karumai. It says in Japanese-English "Silver Zone". Silver is used as a euphanism sometimes for old people, kind of like in English, "senior". It comes from the silver hair.


I think this was the main river in Karumai, at least it seemed to be the main river. At that time a lot of swan were migrating back north. You can see a few of them. The swan were about the only thing making noise ever.


This is the Higashiyama family. I ate dinner with them Tuesday night. Mr. Higashiyama has a blog that he told me about. So visit it if you can read Japanese. (here)


And here is all of the Hayakawa family the last night I ate dinner with them.


I'm a dork and took a picture of my futon just to compare with my crap bed at the dorm.


This is the main street of Karumai. With the rush hour traffic.


Just some random scenery from the bus on the way to Morioka. The clouds were really low so it looked neat.


This is at Iwate park in Morioka.


These are the walls of Morioka castle, the only thing left of the castle are the walls around Iwate park. Which look kinda neat.


A bridge at Iwate park.


A sign by the river saying not to fish because you could hit your poles on the electric lines.


The main building of the Bank of Iwate.


A graveyard in Morioka near a shrine. There were a lot of new flowers and decorations out because a couple days ago was the spring memorial day.


This is at the Demon handprints in the rock shrine. I looked all around but didn't see any handprints.


Here is the explanation of the rocks if you want to zoom in and read it.


I thought this was pretty neat. It's a little street in front of a shrine with gates leading up to it.