We have added a new member to our little family here in Japan! We call him "Shorty". Shorty is a Mitsubishi Pajero Junior, and we love him very much.This past Saturday, we woke up early and hopped on a train to Aomori City, about 2 hours away. Aomori City is slightly larger than our little town of Hachinohe (approx. pop. of 350,000 versus our 250,000), and it has a more metropolitan feel to it. It has become a stopover point for people traveling to Hokkaido, as it is a port city at northern tip of Honshu, and there are ferries and bullet trains that depart for Hokkaido daily.
We had scheduled to meet up with another JET who recently moved to Aomori City from a more remote village and discovered she didn't really need the car she had purchased only months ago (In fact, she never even got her license and hadn't really even driven it). It's a 1992 Mitsubishi Pajero Junior (two door) - in the States they call it a Montero. It runs on diesel and sounds like an 18-wheeler when it idles. Quirks aside, it's a great little car and it should (hopefully) get us to the mountains for some snowboarding this winter! It even came with racks!
Before picking up the car, we fueled up (our bodies) with some delicious Vietnamese food from a little restaurant downtown called Saigon. We got there just as they were opening and had the first entrees of the day. Andy got yellow curry and I chose the green.
Andy cemented his status as a member of the Clean Plate Club...
When we finally hit the road back to Hachinohe, I was a ball of nerves. Andy repeated the mantra, "Stay to the left, stay to the left," at every turn. I constantly adjusted the wipers in lieu of putting on my turn signal. It's amazing how strong the physical memory of driving a car can be. Now try turning that memory around 180 degrees in your brain while you're in a foreign country, you're slightly hung over, and it's raining.The drive back was slow but scenic.
Amazingly, we made it home in one piece.
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