September 18
One thing the Japanese do better than most other nations (excluding France of course), is holidays. They have a great many of them, usually bearing ridiculous names in English (such as Ocean Day, Green Day, or Citizen's Day), and they like to put them near weekends so we end up with long breaks.
This week we had 3 days off (Mon-Wed) giving us a 5 day weekend. The Boy and I took Friday off too, so we got 6 days. Being the good sport that he is, he went with me to visit my two friends, Chris and Nick, way up in Aomori Prefecture. Though maybe he was just trying to keep my friends from feeling the shame of not taking advantage of the "food" set before them. Either way, early on Friday we hopped on the shinkansen for our nice 6 hour trip up to Hachi-no-he, Aomori.
I was a little nervous about the trip, I'm not gonna lie. He and I have not spent so much time together before and I was worried...I'm not sure about what. I seem to be worrying far more about this relationship than I need to.
We actually had a really good time on the train ride up there. Turns out he gets a bit car sick so he doesn't read or anything on trains...which must really suck. I was reading a book on World War II (actually the European theater for once). We started talking about what Laurel was up to this weekend and how she was taking her friend to Hiroshima. He was surprised, as most Japanese people seem to be when I tell them I like Hiroshima or that my American friends want to go. They all think we would avoid it. This led to a long and interesting discussion on the differences between how Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are addressed in the American and Japanese education systems. As you can expect, both sides try to make themselves look as good as possible.
We arrived without trouble at Hachi-no-he station around 6 pm and were picked up by my friend Nick, who, has a car.
He took us to a pretty nice Katsu restaurant. Then we hit up the local grocery store, popped in a movie back at his place and took it easy for the night. We watched Shinobi...which is one of those Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon type movies I hate so much.
September 19
The next day we drove into the city to pick up Chris and then went straight to the beach!!!! It was chilly out, but still really nice weather. So it was awesome. Nick lives only 5 minutes from the ocean. I was super jealous.
His beach is a really awesome place, one where, if we had anything like it in Kameoka, I would probably spend most of my free time. First, there is ocean!
Then, there is grass!!
And more grass...and ocean. I dunno if you realize just how amazing it is to see THIS MUCH grass in Japan. It just doesn't happen. So we were all really excited. The boy of course did not understand why.
I decided to get things started. No one else seemed willing to make the first move and do what we all wanted to do: take off our shoes and play in the water.
They all eventually followed along. The waves were fairly strong and even though we all rolled up our pants we all got kinda wet up to our waists. But it was pretty amazing. I always forget just how much I love the ocean.
After a while Chris and Nick decided to go be crazy boys and climb all the rocks around us. I should clarify...Chris was being crazy. Nick was climbing rocks but not as crazily as Chris. I was actually nervous watching him. The coast was lined with these sharp rocks and the waves would come in and bash against them. If he fell into the water he would have gotten really hurt.
Atsushi and I decided not to be stupid and climb the rocks. We both kinda wanted to, but also didn't feel like possibly dying, or winding up soaking wet. So we ended up sitting together on a giant rock by the coast watching the boys.
Chris actually got really far out there. As you can see in this picture of me and Atsushi sitting on our rock that Chris took from his rock way out IN the ocean...yes we are actually in this picture. Look carefully....
Eventually Nick joined me and The Boy as Chris continued his quest to get to the farthest rock without dying. We waved to Chis to cheer him on.
After we finished climbing rocks and playing in the ocean we took a walk through the nearby forest. It was just an amazingly beautiful place. It had a bit of everything. We could see mountains far away, the ocean was right next to us and we could see it through the breaks in the trees. We were surrounded by the smell of the woods and the ocean. It was a nice combination. We kept walking through the woods until we suddenly realized that we were all literally covered in mosquitoes. So we turned back and headed toward the car. We played at the beach a little more and then reluctantly turned our thoughts toward dinner....
Nick took us to a gorgeous soba restaurant. I wish I had a picture of it, but I didn't feel like getting my camera out at the time and most of the pictures in this post actually came from Chris...Nick was sweet enough to let me have to Curry Udon because it was what I really wanted (he ordered curry too but they didn't have enough for 2 curry dishes...gotta love countryside Japan). It was really good. And exactly what I wanted. The restaurant had one of those amazing atmospheres that makes you never want to leave. It looked fairly old and had a lot of dark, mahogany wood. In the center of the building was a large tree. They had a set up for live jazz, but unfortunately they were not playing. Instead the jazz came from a cd player. But it was still really nice.
Out front they had a statue that was made with a chainsaw. It is called chainsaw art apparently.
After dinner we headed back to Nick's again to watch a movie called Swing Girls set
in Chris's home prefecture of Yamagata.
September 20
The next day was mountain climbing day. We got up and made pancakes which made The Boy tell me that American kids must be the happiest kids in the world, getting dessert for breakfast all the time (pancakes ARE considered a dessert here).
We grabbed some provisions at the local supermarket. I got an apple. Aomori is famous for their apples so I figured I would give one a try. It was a huge shiny red one and I was very excited to eat it, even though I was super full of pancakes.
Some of the boys made some awesome makeshift trailmix. We had no M&M's sadly but we added bamboo shoot shaped cookies covered in chocolate instead.
Then we met up with some of Nick's friends to hike up the mountain. This is when I learned that I am in much worse shape than I thought. Which makes me sad. It also doesn't help that my nose was committing mutiny. About halfway up the mountain I stopped being able to breathe through my nose. It also doesn't help that I work a desk job. Woo hoo office rot butt.
We made it about 30 minutes maybe and then we hit a rest station where we whipped out the trailmix. I wanted my apple but decided I wanted to eat it at the TOP of the mountain.
Everyone kept saying 5 more minutes, 5 more minutes...and we finally reached the top... or so I thought. The 5 minutes passed and we stopped at this big rock monument thing to take in the view. I thought this was the top so I pulled out my apple and started enjoying. But it turns out they were tricking me. This wasn't the top, just a stopping point...but I did ruin some great pictures by having mouthfuls of apple.
But I finally finished and let them take a real picture.
By the way, the giant stone monument we are sitting on is dedicated to the honorable cows...The Boy didn't even really understand it but apparently there is a milk cow farm nearby the mountain and the monument is for those cows.
We weren't at the top yet but there was a really great view.
We got up and started going again. Up to the actual top of the mountain. I'm really glad we made it up there. It was pretty amazing.
It turns out however, that the way down was quite perilous. I don't have good balance. I mean, my balance isn't awful, but it's not good. So as we are walking down the steep slope of the mountain and the boy is trying to take my little backpack full of our food and water because he "grew up with a mountain in his backyard and is used to this" I definitely lost my footing and slid into my friend Chris who thankfully has much better balance than I do and he did NOT fall over. That would not have been fun. So yay for my big tall mountain man friend Chris who kept me from falling down the mountain. He did not, however, save me from the embarrassment.
After we made it down the mountain and signed the guest book (yes, the mountain had a guest book), we decided to go get dinner. Nick wanted to take us to a buffet restaurant in the city before we headed back to his little country town for the night. He got ahold of some other JETs who came to meet us, bringing our total up to over 10 people. The restaurant was packed so we went to check out the electronics store after putting our name on the list. We had about an hour so we figured we'd head back in like 30 minutes or so.
I watched Atsushi look at computers and then we checked out the new cell phones. Which really just made me want to buy a new cell phone...which is bad because I have yet to pay off the one I am currently using. However, I don't like the plan I have and want to switch to a new company...plus the other company's phones are so much cooler. I have a slide phone but really would rather have a flip phone.
The phone I chose was actually the one Atsushi chose not to get in favor of the phone he has....
After a while we headed back to the restaurant only to find that our name had been crossed off the list. We were worrying about what to do when the host came out and asked us if we were the "Swanson Party." I guess we stood out...being a group of 10 foreigners and all.
The food was pretty good. It was a buffet which was awesome. They had a range of Western and Japanese food. As usual with buffets, I over ate.
Afterward we headed back to the car for the hour long drive to Nick's little town. We turned on the TV and introduced Atsushi to Mythbuster's (Nick has cable, the jerk).
September 21
The next morning I got up and made everyone french toast. Then we headed back into Hachi-no-He, got our shinkansen tickets and got on our way to Sendai!
Once we arrived in Sendai a few hours later, we went straight to the hotel to drop off our bags. We went to the tourist help center and found out that everything we wanted to see would be closing in half an hour...ie. we were SOL. Except for one building that would be open til 6.
Now, Atsushi is really into architecture, especially contemporary architecture. He mentioned a few weeks ago that he wanted to see this one building in Sendai that had a really interesting design. But all day today when I tried to get him to tell me what it was or where it was he wouldn't tell me. He didn't want to make us go with him because he didn't think we'd be interested.
I was annoyed but I let it go.
So we get to the subway and I look at the pamphlet and start talking about the building. The Boy adds in a few things and I asked him..."Wait, have you heard of this place?"(He has never been to Sendai). And he said, "yeah, it's actually the building I wanted to go to."
And Bazinga! I win.
It was actually a really awesome building. It was basically a giant glass building with a staircase on each side and elevators all designed so that as you changed floors you could see both outside and to the other rooms in the building. It has a library, and various other rooms and they were holding a small film festival. We missed the last film, but I was ok with that as I was already starving and Chris had filled my head with talk of an amazing Mexican restaurant.
The boys looked at the art books while I tried not to pass out from hunger. We eventually headed out...The building is actually quite similar to one we have in Kameoka, the Galleria, also made of glass. It is a site of various cultural events, etc.
We finally made our way to the Mexican restaurant. I got myself a Margarita and was, as usual, disappointed. Japan does not know how to make a good Margarita. First of all, they are about a quarter of the right size. Everyone knows Margarita's have to be put in large cups.
Anyway, aside from the Margarita, everything was fantastic. I got a chicken quesadilla. Then I split a beef burrito with Nick. I got another drink, called a matador, which was just tequila and pineapple juice. Then we got Ice Cream tacos. It was amazing. I was really happy because Atsushi seems to like Mexican food. I had to teach him what "food baby" meant after that.
Then we headed back to our hotel room to get ready for tomorrow...our trip to Matsushima (Pine Island).
September 22
We woke up the next morning and grabbed Starbucks before hopping on the train to Matsushima. It was only about 30 minutes away from Sendai.
We started off by taking the path toward the Matsushima viewing point. We stopped off at this really big shrine along the way.
Then we made our way up the long long long road up the mountain to the viewing site for Matsushima.
The road was lined with hundreds of giant spiders that actually made me feel kinda sick I was so grossed out by them. Ugh.
It took us at least an hour to get up to the top of the mountain. We stopped to grab a bottle of water out of the vending machines at a little shop along the way. There was this really old guy up there who illustrated how being old and speaking crazy northern dialect can be completely unintelligible. We were sitting on the curb and we were laughing about something and then the old man in the rest stop started going
"Hee hee hee mumble mumble mumble Ha Ha Ha"
And then he would turn and look at me. He did this three or four times and I could not understand a single word he said. On the fourth time or so Atsushi finally got it. He turned to me and said "He thought that all foreigners laughed 'Hee hee hee' but you laugh 'ha ha ha'"
What?
I think it is something related to manga.
Anyway, we continued on to the top of the mountain to get a good look at Matsushima.
I'll admit I was a little disappointed. Matsushima is considered one of the 3 most beautiful sites in Japan, along with Miyajima and Amanohashidate. And it is beautiful, but for some reason it didn't live up to my expectations. But it is certainly gorgeous.
We climbed back down to get ourselves some of the famous sendai Gyuutan...or cow tongue. The restaurants were all packed so we went to a place that served take-out and took our lunchboxes to a grassy knoll by the ocean.
It was actually pretty darn good. And the tail soup was delicious.
We were pretty tired from climbing mountains all weekend so we headed back into Sendai and took a little rest before meeting up for dinner. Chris, who lives near Sendai and often visits on the weekends took us to a nice Indian restaurant.
After dinner I grabbed a handful of fennel seeds and passed them out to the boys as a palate cleanser. The Boy took one mouthful and suddenly his face screwed up into a look of disgust. He looks at us and says in English "Tastes like carpet...seriously."
It was about the cutest thing I have ever heard...until Chris said "That's what she said" which led to a really uncomfortable discussion...
Later we were walking past a Pachinko parlor and Atsushi started talking about it. He said, again in English (he's really getting better) "Hmm. pachinko. It's so sad. so many old people wasting their time and money. I'll admit I have played, and it is fun, but it is taking over Japan. Fucking pachinko."
I think I am a bad influence...
September 23
The next day we visited the mausoleum for Masamune Date. It was raining and not all the interesting, though it was really similar to the temples in Korea.
Then we decided to head back home.
We only had one small hitch. As we got on the escalator to get on the train from Sendai I handed Atsushi his ticket. He took one look at them and then showed them to me. I didn't get it at first, but apparently, these tickets I was so excited about because for the first time ever I made the plans, the tickets were wrong. The guy at the ticket counter gave me tickets from Kyoto to Tokyo (ie. backwards).
I was pretty upset about it because I had wanted to make all the plans and make things easy for The Boy. But that didn't quite work out. When we got to Tokyo The Boy was nice and took care of everything. I just told him that when he visits America with me someday I'll take care of everything :)
It ended up working out really well because for only 300 yen more we got a ticket on the fastest train, and we got in earlier than expected. I was worried we wouldn't get any seats because it was such a busy day.
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