We, Billy and I, woke up around 6am and raided the mini-bar. We tried a "Pocari Sweat" (fruit juice and lactaid):
some sort of energy drink, and a drink labeled simply "healthy drink":
Total? 500 yen.
We checked out of our hotel, which was very quick and simple, and walked through the lobby door into Haneda airport. Compared to Narita (which must have had more international flights), Haneda had way more Japanese and much less English. It took us a very long time to figure out where the right place to be and I'm sure we visited every floor of the 5 floor building, trying to cross a bridge to the other terminal. We ended up walking underground for a long while and ended up in line with a bunch of high school aged Japanese students.
A kindly security guard with very limited English asked us where we were going. When hearing "Misawa" he pointed us to the correct line, which was a security check-point about 50 feet from where we were standing. We were rushing; our flight was in 20 minutes! Checking through our bags I forgot about a pair of scissors I included in my knitting supplies (they allowed the metal needles). The security guards tried to communicate to me that I needed to throw away my scissors, but since I don't speak their language it was difficult. I finally figured it out and we ran to our flight, arriving just as the last seats were boarding, 8 minutes to spare.
The airplane to Misawa was small and nearly everyone was in a business suit. Safe to say, we didn't fit in. In front of us were two very young Japanese children aged about 3 - 5 years old. They were very curious about us and tried to hide and stare at us at the same time.
An hour and a half later, Billy and I arrived in Misawa airport. It was still raining and overcast (as it still had been in Tokyo), so we couldn't see much. Michael met us there to pick us up and we could see each other while we were waiting for our luggage (the room was glass). As we were leaving the airport Billy and I realized we were extremely jet-lagged. This is the first time we were to meet the Suzuki Every, our faithful road trip companion! Here's a picture of it from a much later date with Michael on the left and Billy on the right (actual size!):
We dropped off our luggage at Michael's house and stopped at the nearby Circle K. I got which turned out to be soy sauce marinated fried eggs in a plastic package, and some cold pre-sweetened coffee ("Boss" brand), Billy got some apparent chips and cold black coffee ("Fire" brand) and a hot dog that looked like this and was very very hard and compact:
Next we went to a nearby mall (in Shimota); Aeon Mall. Aeon is something of a franchise and there were Aeon Malls in almost every city we went to. We went to several toy stores (Billy bought Justin's 'Superman' spoon). We went to the food court but got intimidated by the confusing system and there was no English. Fortunately, on the other side of the mall there was a restaurant that had a menu we could point to with pictures. We had Japanese 'burgers' (a flat patty of meat on a plate with rice and some sort of curry sauce on it) and our first experience with green Fanta = honeydew flavor = delicious.
After the mall we ventured to Hachinohe and went to this thrift store:
They had an unbelievable selection of clothes and toys. We tried on a bunch of jackets. I found some great black leather combat boots that were part of a display that happened to be my size. Since I had to ruin the display to buy them (which I did with a vengeance), the remainder of the trip, any time we heard an announcement over the speakers or on the radio or in public we imagined they were on the hunt for the famous "Thrift Store Display Bandit" in the area. I also bought a great cat-woman shirt. I can't stress how many toys and models and manga (comic books) they had. Here is one tiny area (note that Michael is over 6 feet tall):
What is all that? Toy cars about 6+ deep:
After Hachinohe (dubbed by the American locals: "Hach") we went back to Michael's house, played video games, watched movies and anime, and passed out around 10pm.
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