Today, after being picked up by the bus in Shariki, we went to visit the memorial of those who died in the Chesborogh shipwreck in 1889. The memorial commemorates the wreck as well as the bravery of the villagers that tried to save the drowning sailors. I was very impressed by the memorial and how much the Japanese really do care about the event and how much of an impact it really had on their community. After putting flowers on the memorial and seeing the beautiful views of the Japan sea, we...

While visiting Japan, we are constantly reminded of the similarities and differences of how we do things in the United States.  An example of this is how the government conducts its business.  We share the same end goal, to ensure the health and safetly of our citizens, but many of our approaches differ.      We visited Tsugaru City Hall.  The first notable difference was the actual physical space inside.  All rooms have an open office concept being wide open with a number of departments in the...

Summary days 2-3, July 27 & 28 - Host Family Weekend Early in the morning I left with my host family to go stay at an onsen hotel near Towada lake.　It was about a three hour drive and quite rainy as we drove to the lake. The road was flooded and washed out several times so the ride was exciting, but we made it. After eating dinner of various grilled seafood where I tried squid (pretty tastey), we went to the hotel`s onsen. The hot spring was hotter than the hot tubs in the states and fel...

Generosity The most remarkable thing about my experience in Japan has been the generosity of our host families.  Mari Eosco and I are living with the Hiroshi and Yuko Narita.  They have tended to our every need, and more.  They drive us everywhere, feed us heartily, try very hard to communicate despite our language barrier, and shower us with gifts of all kinds.  For example, each morning Yuko prepares a feast for breakfast; something like rice, pickled seaweed and vegetables, fish, edamame, ...

Friday, July 26 After our departure from the Japanese style inn, we were off to Yoshinji Buddhist temple where we saw a grave for 2 of the sailors from the Cheseborough shipwreck. We lit some incense and and prayed for a few minutes. Afterword we got to explore the temple which was one of the coolest experiences I've had. While exploring, I had a very nice conversation with the priest’s wife, even though she spoke little english and I spoke little japanese, we were able to get by and have a ver...

Wednesday/Thursday, July 24/25 (lose a day in flight!) Off to Japan we go! The plane ride wasn't that bad. It ended up being a little over twelve hours instead of the fourteen we had all thought. The airline food was much better than expected and the flight staff was fantastic. The plane itself was a treat, it was sleek and fairly comfortable. There were fancy devices that let us choose from many different movies, games, and music choices to keep us entertained on the journey. The feature I w...