一人 yakiniku

Today was a pretty eventful day.
I woke up at the same time I do for work, so that I could see the 消防団 (shouboudan volunteer fire department) and the 一輪車 (ichirinsha unicycle) club kids.

I am so glad I didn’t ride my bike and that I prepared for the rain and cold. I brought my large umbrella and a mini 懐炉 kairo (hand warmer). I also wore a scarf, heattech camisole and a warm cardigan under my long water resistant coat (but not wind proof unfortunately). And it honestly still wasn’t enough. The demonstration was right in the ferry harbor so the wind coming off the ocean mixed with the bad weather was just miserable.
Luckily people are so warm and I talked to the ladies in the souvenir shop and saw a lot of people I know.
Then I stopped by a baseball game on my way home.



I got picked up by Takako and I tagged along with her and another coworker from the 役場　yakuba (town hall). We went to Aomori to have a warm lunch and then check out our town's stall at Shin-Aomori Station (the shinkansen station) where they were selling all of our 名物　meibutsu (local specialties). I really wanted to work at this stall and do some PR in English for the non-Japanese tourists that come through. Hopefully, next time!

When I got home, I somehow had the energy to do yakiniku by myself. I used a mini 3-way cooker (it comes with a takoyaki grill, nabe plate, and grill plate) that was in my house and it looked like it hadn't been used yet! It was a really easy dinner using mostly stuff I already had at home. I only made cucumber kimchi and komatsuna/Japanese mustard spinach (小松菜）and then grilled the kalbi I bought the day before, garlic, some leftover onion I had in the fridge, and maitake mushrooms that Takako bought me at our town's stall. I also ate the scallop mayo (also from Takako), kimchi (from the store) and the pickles I got from my friend! It turned out to be a lot of food, so I'm probably going to eat it tomorrow, too.

I'm exhausted!

this poor tour bus had to go in there to u-turn out, but then the firetruck demo started and it had to wait

you can see the ferry!

bought a hot coffee and escaped to top mast
(somehow they ended up selling out of regular brewed coffee??? )

this wasn't enough

our mayor is so cool!

happened to see one of the school's principals and he threw this on me. i think it saved my life

"it was this cold"

   

the unicycle performance! amazing as always

my first baseball game (ever--I think)

yappari once you leave our town to go south toward Aomori the weather is clear

our town's sign

cassis apparently has a high amount of pectin, which is good for making jams

buttered scallops

米粉パン　komekopan bread made with rice flour

this bread is made by my friend (whose field I help at) and her husband!!

purchases from our town's stall!
bread made with rice flour, maitake mushrooms, scallop (shoyu/mayo)

3-in-1 cooker

#eatlocal

much needed