Two out of Twelve: Akita-trip/vacation

Eiko says...
Vacation was great! Us Matsuokas all got to have a great big whiff of the "country", got to really sleep "deep", and got to eat freshly picked vegies, Akitakomachi, and fish!
When you live in the cities, it's so necessary to leave the filth, the smog, the noise, the conveniences and the work, just really get away from it all and take a big breather,and for us, Akita does the trick. We came back refreshed and rested.

Some highlights/events of our trip

*Sleep
I mean seriously. We slept like we were in hibernation or something! It was raining quite a bit over there, so I'm sure it contributed to the sleepy atmosphere, but honestly, Mom took a long nap after every meal! Yasu would be sleeping around the clock, and I even took naps and I'm so not a napping person!

*We camped.
Yuppers. We camped by a river, and had a nice, fat barbecue with veggie-less yakisoba and way too many sausages. It wasn't exactly a camping ground. Actually, it was a small parking lot like place, but it was enough.
Enough to pitch a tent which the teens and I slept in. Yasu, Dawn and Kee-pee slept in one car, and Grandma, Dad and Mom took the other car. I didn't get much sleep due to the cold and squishiness of the occasion, but heck! Who sleeps during camping trips anyway? I never can!

*We Hiked.
I personally loved the hike best. The hiking course was beautiful, and we all got to stretch our legs and get some good exercise. We sorta out-hiked Mom and Dad by 30 minutes, but Grandma had bought us some snacks to munch on as we waited for the slow-pokes, so it was a Rom.8:28.

*Movies/Shadow Magic

We watched movie after movie after movie! 5 or 6 maybe. Wanna hear our awesome excuses for the movie binge?
1. We don't really count movies from the 12 Foundation Stones movie list. Movies from that list only count as half a movie! We watched a few from that list.
2. It was raining, and we were trapped inside Grandma's cottage with little else to do aside from,...well watch movies and documentaries, and sleep. And eat.
3. The car rides were long and slightly restless. The solution was a DVD player and a stack of movies.

And there's also, "Shadow Magic" --our savior from many a long car ride. A novel written by... sheesh, I forgot the author's name, but we listened to his pod-casted novel "Shadow Magic" during most of the long car rides, and it made time fly!

*Kiritanpo
To all those of you who don't know what that is, it's a special dish originating from Akita, and we all rolled-up our sleeves and cooked it together. If you haven't had it before, than you are so missing out! It's a slice of Heaven!

Okay, so those were the main highlights, but I'm sure if you went around and asked us individually how the Akita trip went, it would be very different from person to person. For me personally, it meant standing in the kitchen, cooking 3 meals a day, the fresh air and delicious water, the quietness and being able to spend more time with my family.

Dawn and Kipi!!