Our Travel Book, In Pictures: December 2008

Since we were authorized 2 days of travel from Misawa to Langley we decided to take full advantage of it. The night of our Atlanta layover the Thrashers were playing host to the Penguins so we went online and found the best tickets we could find for a reasonable price. Based on the map of the arena I thought we would be about 3 rows back from the glass...but I was wrong.

Can you tell I'm pretty proud of these seats? Right on the glass! High scoring game with the Pens winning by a final score of 6 to 3. The last goal coming on this empty netter from Evgeni Malkin.

The hockey game was a great time made even better by the fact that we were sitting so close to the action.

The next morning we woke up early and headed down from our hotel in the Omni at CNN Center for the Inside CNN tour. CNN gives a great military discount too...free! Unfortunately pictures aren't allowed during the tour but the main area is really something to see. Below is the tour ticket booth and right behind the booth is the start of the worlds largest freestanding escalator.

The escalator takes you up into a 50 foot globe and then it's off on a walk through the studios and learning what all goes on behind the scenes of a 24 hour news network. During the tour we watched Robin Meade from CNNHN as she did her daily podcast and CNN anchor T.J. Holmes live during the Weekend Edition broadcast.

All in all, the tour is worth the time if you're in the area. From here it was on the MARTA and back to the airport for our flight to Newport News.

Next stop Virginia!

With our time here having come to an end, we've spent the last week or so getting our last fill of everything we enjoyed here in Misawa. It has been a "Best of Misawa, Japan" kinda week and we figured we'd put up a post to give family and friends an idea of where our dinner and lunch outings take us and what exactly Misawa looks like on a day-to-day basis.

Food in Japan runs up one side and down the next. Everything from the obvious sushi and noodle shops, to the less likely Indian restaurant. The following were our most visited establishments over the years and a quick explanation of why we liked them.

Cafe Live Forever
We only found out about Cafe Live Forever a few months ago but it hooked us immediately. Sandy always had the friend chicken set and I loved the mushroom chicken pasta. What really makes this place a must visit are the scones though. At ¥90 each, they make a delicious quick breakfast in the morning and in conjunction with my weekend coffee...nothing comes close.

Karinba's Chinese Restaurant
If sweet and sour is what you're looking for, there is none better than Karinba's. A staple of the lunch special menu, you can't go wrong with either sweet & sour pork or chicken.

Cheese Roll House
More popularly known as simply, Cheese Roll, this is the best yakisoba in all of Misawa. The cheese rolls themselves aren't bad, but something changed about a year ago and they've never been the same. Certainly not the most obvious restaurant in Misawa, nor the most modern, but a large serving of the beef Yakisoba will satisfy anyone's appetite.

Grill Omiya
Known as Pizza & Curry by American's in Misawa, this is my favorite restaurant. On every visit, the B set, pork, 5. That translates into curried rice set with pizza toast, fried pork cutlet on top of that rice, and 5 is the scale of spicyness that runs from mild through 5 and 10 and so on...up to special 3 and beyond. My body only asks for 5 and I respect its wishes. Sandy always has an order of cheese rolls, bowl of corn soup, and some chicken fried rice. We will always remember Pizza & Curry as this is essentially where our relationship began over an hour and a half long meal.

Ram Tei
Yakaniku at its best. His 15 secret spice seasoning is the best i've ever had. Now in this new building, Ram Tei has been the type of place where you rally up 6 to 8 of your hungriest friends and set off in an effort to eat all the meat he has. This is you cooking your own meat, however you like it. Nothing less...but oh so much more than can be described.

Ankur India Restaurant
Two words, "butter chicken." This was already one of our favorite places to eat with the all you can eat buffet of nan, safron rice, and various choices of curry...then came butter chicken curry. Seeing it for the first time we gave it a test and it hooked us. Lately, twice a week even. We're both going to miss the delicious nan and butter chicken curry.

Tonight we do have reservations at Yoshino's, (the best steakhouse in Misawa and likely beyond) but that will be the end of our off-base dining binge we've been on for the last 3 weeks. Something that will abruptly come to an end once we arrive in Virginia. We will both miss the area, base, and especially the food. The last thing on our "must do" list was visit the Komaki Onsen for one last time. It just so worked out that I was the only person on the mens side and was able to snap off quite a few shots to give everyone a better understanding of what an onsen looks like. I think they're all pretty self explanitory, so enjoy.