Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Road trip in pictures

For one of the long weekends in September, a road trip seemed like a good idea. I think it was. We went from Yokote, to a small town in Yamagata that I can't pronounce to pick up Jackie, a failed attempt at going to Mt. Zao, and onto Miyagi - including Akiu waterfall, Sendai, Ishinomaki, and Matsushima Bay - aaaand home again.

"Road or Not-A-Road?" Game I often play in Japan. This was probably not a road.


Fantastic ramen shop in Sendai. We made our selections at a vending machine, which gave us a ticket to present to the chefs. Service was pretty speedy.


We saw some of the damaged coast from the tsunami in Ishinomaki and Matsushima. This was an entirely sobering and haunting experience, but also helpful in grounding in my mind the reality of what happened in this part of the country not even a year ago. It's easy to forget, living in an area that hasn't been so directly and obviously affected.

But it was weird, being there and not being able to do anything. I'd like to find more ways to help instead of just knowing what it's like there.

I should mention that Ishinomaki is famous for a certain manga comic. Thus we saw these characters all over town.

Well-wishes from the world.

Matsushima Bay
Mountains of rubble still to be cleaned up.
Finally, we said goodbye to all five of our couchsurfing hosts. Three of them did tricks. Guess which ones.
Yes I realize that was cheesy.

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