More of Melissa

Melissa feeding the koi at Zuiho Hotel, Akiu.

It's been several weeks since my sister Melissa has moved to Sendai.  It seems that she's gotten the hang of things.  She goes to work and walks to the mall by herself.  Over the past few weeks, Aaron and I have taken around to do some different things.

Out of everything, she's enjoyed the shopping the most.  Ever since she got here, she'd been talking about a store called Cecil McBee.  I never heard of it, but she saw someone coming out of the Parco department store with a bag and was determined to find the store.  Aaron and I searched through the Parco directory all written in Japanese until we finally found it listed under 4th floor.  We took her up there and she had a heyday.  She and her roommate Olivia spent I-don't-even-know-how-long in that store.  Aaron and I walked around the entire floor, perused several different shops, and came back and still ended up waiting forever for them to get out.  Finally, she bought a wallet and a bag for herself.  It was her birthday, so I guess it was a nice birthday present to herself.  She was super happy after that.

After Cecil McBee, we had some purikura fun.  We made two different sets of purikura.  It was an adventure and probably my favorite part of the day because it requires some sort of creativity.  I don't know if Olivia enjoyed it, but I know Melissa loved it.

We took her to Don Quijote.  Another field day in there.  We spent several hours there as she went through EVERYTHING.  Groceries, shoes, and especially cosmetics.  It wasn't a total waste of time for me and Aaron either.  We found a set of pretty good hangers for cheap.  Something we really needed.

Finally, since it was her birthday, we took her out to dinner.  It took us a long time to find a place we really wanted to go to.  We specifically wanted to take her to eat some okonomiyaki.  The problem was that the best okonomiyaki shop that I knew of was very far away and we were without a car.  So we had to find a different place nearby.  We ended up going to Kita-Sendai, the only place I knew of.  It wasn't as good as the other place I wanted, but Melissa and Olivia seemed to both enjoy it.  We did too!  It was good.

Recently Melissa expressed a desire to try an onsen and to check out some temples.  Aaron was feeling burnt out from work, so he took the day off yesterday.  We decided to make a trip to Akiu onsen and we wanted to check out the Jogi temple.  Well, halfway there it began to rain really hard so we decided to scrap the trip to the temple, which was very far away.  Instead, we went straight to Akiu.  When we got there, it was miraculously sunny.  The clouds didn't reach that part of Sendai.  We went into the Zuiho Onsen.  There Melissa and I went into the women's side and Aaron went into the men's side.

When it was time to undress, Melissa didn't realize that we had to get naked.  She adjusted pretty well to the environment but commented that it was wasn't prepared for this much sisterly bonding.  I didn't care, haha.  I had no problem walking around naked.  We washed off and went straight outside to the outdoor baths.  It was pretty nice and relaxing.  But Melissa was disappointed it wasn't a wild pond out in the mountains with steam and monkeys.  She said it was basically a naked jacuzzi.  Which it pretty much is.  After about 20 minutes, Melissa was bored.  So we left.


Aaron still took another 30 minutes in his side, so we had some time to spare waiting for him.  I went to get some ice cream from a vending machine.  When I came back, an old man had given Melissa a bowl of fish food to feed the koi in the fish ponds.  Sad to say, it was probably her favorite part of the onsen.

Afterwards, we did more shopping.  We took her to Birthday bakery in Kuriu.  She liked it there, the bread was good, and it's a cute shop too.  After that, we took her to Seria.  She loved Daiso (the dollar store), so I thought she would like Seria (another dollar store) more.  I do anyway.  I think their stuff is cuter and better quality than Daiso.  I was right.  She spent a good amount of time looking at all the cute stuff.  Aaron and I bought some stuff too.  I found a measuring cup that measured actual cups.  And some measuring spoons.

Finally, we ate some dinner.  Melissa had been nagging forever about wanting some tonkatsu and miso soup.  The only place I knew of off the top of my head that served that stuff was Kadoya in Ayashi.  So we headed there.  She liked the ambiance.  Definitely the nicest atmosphere of all the restaurants we've taken her.  And finally, she was satisfied with her dinner.  She loved the tonkatsu.  She said the miso soup was too fishy and so was the sashimi.  Luckily, she's not a big eater so that tonkatsu was a enough for her.

We're getting the hang of what places to take her too and what kind of food she'll like, so she's been enjoying our outings a lot more now.  That's the good thing.  The bad thing is that Sendai is not a really busy city, so we're running out of shopping places to take her too!  We still have to take her to a temple though.  We'll see if she appreciates that when we come to it... Overall, I think when she goes back to AZ, she'll realize she enjoyed Japan! ;)

Sister in Sendai

Melissa and her roommate, Olivia, over our meal at Namaskar.

My sister Melissa came back to Sendai with me at the end of May.  She's interning at MeySen Academy for the summer.  So far she's been working mostly non-stop, though she seems fine with the pace so far.


Aaron and I have been playing tour guide.  We've taken her and her roommate to various places around Sendai.  We first took them to our favorite sushi place, Umai Sushi Kan.  It was pretty disappointing when the roommate only ordered a cucumber handroll and Melissa said she liked Arizona sushi better.  And I know for a fact that Arizona fish does not compare to the quality to Japan's fish.  But Arizona has a wide variety of creative rolls, with avocado, cream cheese, and jalapeno peppers.  Japan is traditional and kind of boring compared to that.  Still, that meal was not cheap.

Look how yummy it looks!

Next we took them for Indian food at Namaskar.  Thankfully, they seemed to enjoy it that time around. Afterwards, we took them to Yodobashi Camera, the biggest electronics store in Sendai.  Usually, that's the place that most internationals are excited to see and are most impressed with.  But I guess the girls weren't really into electronics.  We got what we needed and left.  Next was a series of clothing stores, an arcade, the Pokemon store, the taiyaki shop, and Daiso the 100 yen store.

I guess in my head this was going to be a lot more fun.  Like I'd take lots of pictures and stuff.  But the girls reactions haven't been largely underwhelmed.  They mostly seemed to like the kiddie stuff.  They'd probably be more impressed with someplace like Tokyo or Osaka, but there's no chance we'll ever have to go there.

Due to the busy work schedule of the summer, we don't know if we'll be able to take them to the better places like Yamadera or Matsushima.  Maybe one day we'll make that happen.

Back to AZ, USA

In the month of May, I flew back to Arizona for my brother's college graduation.  Since my sister was also planning to come to Sendai for an internship at MeySen, I ended up staying for two weeks and flying back with her.

Those two weeks were pretty good.  I went to my brother's graduation at Arizona State University Polytechnic.  It was a really small graduation.  Smaller than a high school graduation.  My brother majored in Mechanical Engineering and his campus is separate from the main campus so it's a smaller school.  But it was a very nice graduation.  At the end, we all got free ice cream and cake.  Something I'd never seen before at a graduation ceremony.  What was nice was that my whole family was there.  Me and my dad.  Usually one of us is missing.  But this time we were all there.

We spent most of my two weeks there eating.  And most of that eating took place at Denny's.  I've never eaten so much Denny's in all my life.  But it was great to eat real American food again.  We ate so much food, so much dense food, that by the end of the two weeks I was really for the lighter Japanese cuisine.  And now I'm on a diet!  I gained a gut while I was in AZ.  I don't know how they can do it.

While there, one of my mom's good friends' son graduated from high school.  At the time my mom and dad were in Vegas to visit my mom's cousin.  Erik, Kayla, and I went for her instead.  My mom was adamant that we make a money lei for this kid.  We spent the whole day frantically folding 10 one dollar bills and attaching them onto a bead necklace.  It was a little weird when we got there.  For one thing, I haven't been at a high school in over 10 years.  It was so weird to see how kids dress these days.  Also, Erik just graduated college, so even he was old.  Weird.  What was also weird was that this was a high school in our district, so they were kind of our rivals in high school.  But the weirdest thing of all was that I was the one who presented the lei to this kid, and the last time I saw him, he was maybe 7.  He probably had no memory of me.  I didn't even know what he looked like.  But his mom is a good friend to our family and we were there to support her, just like she was there to support me at my wedding.

My two weeks also included lots of shopping.  I bought two new pairs of shoes that altogether cost me half of what I would've spent on just one pair in Japan.  I also bought 4 dresses.  Two I bought for only $10.  Deals!  And probably the most exciting thing was that Erik and I watched Godzilla together.  Not the best movie in the world.  But what was cool was seeing a Bluewater member IN the movie!  I was so excited about it that I facebooked it right away.  Very fun.

At the end, Melissa and I left for Sendai.  We had a LONG journey of layovers, 3 flights, and 2 train rides.  We made a stop in Portland, OR on the way over and we saw a really cool piece of art.

  

Now I'm back in Sendai again after a nice two weeks back in USA.  And this time Melissa is with me (some of the time), but that's another blog entry.