Sushi

I thought that I'd post the pictures I took from the last time Travis and I went out for sushi.  People seem to be confused as to why I would WANT to eat sushi - or why we like it!  It's delicious, and this is why:

 The best sushi always comes with excellent sides.  Like above, we got pickled ginger (YUMMO!) and wasabi that was so fresh they grated it in front of us, and gave us a bit of the root!

 This is the assorted set that we enjoy the most.   It's nice to be able to have a little bit of everything.  I don't remember exactly what everything is - but I know their is salmon, tuna, shrimp, yellow fin, crab, and scallops there.  (I have to admit, I always give my scallops to Travis, just not my favorite!)

If you get one of the bigger sets you get more (go figure!) as well as some specialty sashimi, like this raw shrimp sashimi that Travis got that still had it's head and some of the legs.  

 As an added bonus - you get to eat with chopsticks!  Dinner is always more fun with chopsticks!!!

Misawa Air Show

This past Saturday Misawa Air Base hosted an Air Show, opening up the base to the Japanese to come and demonstrate both the USAF (United States Air Force) and JASDAF (Japanese Air Self-Defense Force).  These are some of the pictures we got from the event.

JASDF fighter

 This is the Miss Veedol  it was her last flight before her retirement.  The Miss Veedol was the first plane to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean.  The flight left from Sabishiro beach outside Misawa - and traveled for 41 hours across the pacific ocean where the pilot and copilot crash landed in the middle of Washington state.  (The plane had to crash land, because they jetisoned the landing gear after take off to drop some of the weight from the plane).  Obviously it has been recreated and reattached since October of  1931!

 USAF demonstrating formation flying with the F-16's

Learning from Wilton

Through the month of August I took a Wilton cake decorating class on base.  I figured I loved to bake - and I love being creative with my cards and scrapbooking... so why not?

What I discovered was that scrapbooking and card making may be creative, but not necessarily artistic.  My artistic talent is little to nonexistent. 

We started learning what each of the icing tips did, and what shapes they made.  I decorated some sugar cookies, but they were so pathetic I didn't even think to take pictures.  The cookies looked better without icing!  The next class we were told to bring a cake, and she would show us how to layer it, fill it, and ice it.  If their was time we would learn "3 dimensional icing"

So the cake turned out well, filling it and layering it was easy... but covering it was a pain, and my 3D artwork on top inspired this coversation:

Kristen: "Check out the cake I finished in class today"
Travis:  "Looks great"
Kristen: "Do you know what that is on top?"
Travis: "uhhhhhh....."
Kristen: "Take a guess, I know it sucks - what is it?"
Travis: "It looks like the mushroom from Super Mario??"
Kristen: *laughs* "It's suppose to be a cupcake, but that is awesome!"

...we referred to it as the mushroom until the cake was gone.  I personally thought it looked like spaghetti worms in a cup, so the mushrooms from super mario was definitely a step up!

It was a tasty cake though!  Don't judge a book by it's cover!  Chocolate fudge two layer 8" cake.  Filled with Almond mousse, and covered in chocolate icing.

The next class we were learning how to make icing flowers, and decorate cupcakes.  I improved ten-fold over the 3 dimensional icing lesson that I failed so miserably.

First a large spiral of white icing.  (let it be noted that this is where Travis and I later determined that I should have stopped.)

Then I piped on some leaves - I think the leaves turned out fairly well actually!

And then.... I practiced the flowers on top of the cupcakes.  Destroying them, and making them look ridiculous!

When it was all said and done though, I got the practice I needed, and they still tasted fine.  Even if they did look like a cross between a bad 80's wedding and something from Cakewrecks.com!

Vanilla bean cupcakes filled with strawberry preserves, topped with an almond flavoured icing.

For the last class we brought a cake and were allowed to decorate it in any way that we wanted, utilizing the lessons we had learned from our instructor.

I'm actually fairly proud of this cake.  The icing was completely smooth until I had to drive home with it in the passenger seat.  Seriously, how do professionals do that???  It was a dense vanilla bean 4 layer cake with kahlua cream filling.  It was iced with chocolate icing, and the polka dots are flavoured vanilla, chocolate, and kahlua.  I avoided drawing any pictures and stuck to basic shapes - a move that I think made me look like I was more talented that I actually am.

It was a fun class, and I may take level two in October... we'll see!  (I passed level one and they told me I could - I have a certificate to prove it!)

The Misawa End of Summer Festival

Their is nothing better than celebrating the end of summer than a giant festival that includes floats, drums, costumes, and entertainment.

 The day began with a parade.  Most of Misawa came out to watch the parade.  The people performing in the parade danced down the streets in traditional Kimono's, shoes, and hats to music being piped in from speakers that were installed up and down the street.

 In the evening their was a float competition.  I never did fully learn what was going on - but from what I gathered the best looking float that could go up and down, and spin around faster than all of the other floats was going to be the winner.

 This float was done by the United Nations club that gathers here in Misawa.  Made up of mostly Americans and Japanese they work on learning the cultures of others - and teaching their own culture to the rest of the club.

 Thse guys were my favorites!

 After the floats were finished this Japanese drum club came in to perform.  They had drummers as young as about 8 years old.