NINE MARKET, JAPAN

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

The Nine Market shows up in Misawa every day of the month that ends in 9. I am terrible at keeping track of what day it is, so for months I have managed to miss the 9 market. I finally wrote it in my calendar to get out on February 9th to see the Nine Market. 

There were about a dozen food vendors, some clothing vendors, and vendors with fruits and veggies. 

I had to try the warm Obanyaki with bean paste. Most Americans enjoy the custard or chocolate Obanyaki, but I decided to try the bean because it's a Japanese favorite. I would likely still chose the custard over the bean paste, but it wasn't bad.

I've never been a big fan of apples until moving to Japan. The apples here are so delicious!!

My friend, Ashley, joined me. She's also expecting her first baby soon. She stocked up on a few of the yummy apples.

I am excited to come back when more vendors are out, and maybe with family and a BABY! :)

LAKE TOWADA ICE FESTIVAL, JAPAN

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Nick and I took one of our last big outings before baby. The Lake Towada Ice Festival was a 2 hour drive through the beautiful and snowy Oirase Gorge.

I had asked our local travel agents for some information on the ice festivals in our area. Lake Towada is one of the bigger festivals. The biggest one is north of us in Sapporo. It's about a days worth of traveling just to get there, so we decided to pass this year on that festival. 

I asked the travel agent about how long we should stay at the festival. She said we could make a day of it. 

When we arrived, we realized the festival was much smaller than we were anticipating. We could walk the entire festival in about 10 minutes. Not to mention it was 22 degrees and windy outside at 4pm! Brrr!

The Great Wall of Japan. I loved the lights inside.

Nick was ready to get inside and warm up. Someone didn't bring enough layers! :)

This sculpture was in the shape of a heart. It's kind of hard to tell from the photo.

They even had an igloo with a bar inside! Unfortunately, there were only alcoholic drinks, so we didn't get to stay long. 

Nick and I escaped to the food stalls to keep warm. 

Don't adjust your screen. It really was pretty steamy in each of the food trailers. There was condensation dripping from the ceilings on to everything in the trailer. It was still better than being out in the cold!

This smelled so good as we walked by, Nick couldn't resist getting it. It was much tougher than it looks.

There was supposed to be a firework display at 8pm, but by 6pm we had walked the festival several times and we were frozen! 

We were glad to have gone to this ice festival before the one in Sapporo that we're hoping to go to next year. Lake Towada is beautiful! We can't wait to see this area in different seasons. We'll definitely be back!