Souvenirs

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention: Souvenirs~

I got these two cell phone charms from the place that we stayed over night at. The right one I got for Daniel and the left one for me since it's Hello Kitty! She's dressed up as Namahage (and Dan's is Namahage with a baby Namahage in its mouth). Namahage is an oni (ogre; demon) famous throughout Akita. There's even a festival dedicated to it where a bunch of people dress up as Namahage and burst into people's homes. The legend is that Namahage takes naughty children to the cold snowy mountains and they never return, so Namahage is used to scare children who live in Akita Prefecture into obedience. :x

I bought this Akita Premium Excellent Chocolat at a grocery store. They taste like Pepperidge Farm Milanos.

I also bought Akita Namahage Cookies.

The packaging inside is really cute.

And so are the cookies! They don't really taste like anything special though. Maybe like normal tea cookies?

I also got strawberry Kit Kats from the last rest stop we went to. They taste like strawberry pocky, and were so good I couldn't resist eating them all within a few days. orz

I also bought myself a little collection of Hello Kitty pencils and a pen. These pencils and pens are only sold in specific prefectures of Japan, so I was lucky to get them~ On the right is a pen that can only be bought in Akita Prefecture, which is Hello Kitty shaped as a rice ball. The middle is Hello Kitty dressed as a cow from Iwate Prefecture. The left is Hello Kitty dressed as a doll, which can only be bought in Saitama. So cute...even if they were pretty expensive for pens and pencils. Not sure I would ever have a chance to buy them again though.

And of course, I have all of my awesome memories too~