Today was a rainy, drizzly day. Woke up 5ish again, did some tablet work in bed then got up and went for a walk with Marty. Got a picture of the Japanese manhole cover right on Scott's street. I had heard the manhole covers in Japan were interesting and varied - my first of (I hope) many pictures of them while I'm here.
When everyone else woke up, we had breakfast and made our rain plans. First went to base so we could use the ATM. I tried my 5/3 card this time and it worked! Not sure what's going on with Steve's but at least we have a reasonable amount of yen now. Headed to a souvenir store off base, searching for t-shirts and shot glasses for Steve. He did find a shot glass but still no t-shirt. I ended up buying a set of chopsticks. Our next stops were Japanese stores, mostly just for the fun of it. First was a home-improvement type store called Homac. Interesting to see all the Japanese home goods and building supplies. I bought a plastic storage container that I will use for a cache back home, since I have a "My Favorite Foreign Caches" series going. Will have to add one for Japan!
Next stop was Universe, a local grocery chain. Found kit-kats in both green tea and dark chocolate, as well as other snack foods that were unique to us because they were Japanese. Bought some other snack foods just to try them, and for thank you gifts for my volunteers in Noogieland.
Back to Scott's after our shopping trip, hung out for a while and had lunch. Next, we went on a trip to Towada, a nearby town that had a secondhand kimono store. We arrived at the store, and Trina and I were both fitted with nice summer kimonos. Secondhand, they cost us the equivalent of $15 each. They showed us how to put them on (though I'll have to google how to do it now since I don't remember much about it...) and took pictures of us all. Quite the unique experience. They spoke no English, we got by with the few words of Japanese that Scott knows and also with his translator app on his phone. A great way to spend a rainy afternoon. Ended up having to leave mine at Scott's, to be mailed with the box of Marty's things that we couldn't fit in the suitcase.
Also scored my second manhole cover picture - this one was in color, had horses on it. Beautiful.
Back to Misawa and dinner at Thunder Ramen. This was a little ramen shop in town that Scott, Eric, and Trina had already visited and they wanted to share with us. Steve finally found something he liked and I enjoyed my ramen as well. Fell asleep on the couch at Scott's about 9 pm and that made for an early night for me.
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