Samantha's Morioka Birthday

Samantha and I have been trying to go on a weekend trip since she got back from America. Every time we have tried to go though something has come up at church, work, and life in general. So last week we practiced saying no to things and got the weekend to our selves. I even took Monday off work to have a 3 day weekend to celebrate Samantha's birthday. We went to Morioka, the prefecture capital. As we have said in past writings its a nice city with a lot to do. Since the weather was a warm but rainy we didnt do a whole whole lot of stuff but still had fun. The big highlight was going to a place we went in High School and are thinking of taking my folks. The Morioka Handicraft Village, its kind of like a Japanese version of the parts of Gatlinburg that dont have a million tee shirt airbrush places. There was even a bear holding a welcome sign. Iwate is famous for its iron work, especially cast iron tea pots. Its also famous for its wool craft brought over by an Enlgish missionary. The day we went they even had Japanese dance. It was 1000 yen to watch but they let us see a bit for free since we were foreign. Here are some photos from it.