South and West Coast Shimokita Peninsula - Part 1

This post and Part 2 covers our attempt at driving around "the hatchet" also known as the Shimokita Peninsula. It's the farthest north are of the island of Honshu (main Japanese island). This area is still part of Aomori Prefecture (prefecture is like state). We didn't make it all the way around, but did see the south and west coasts. 

Before I get to that drive here's a few other things:

Being the handyman that I am (and with my Dad's detailed advice) I was able to repair our headboard to the point where we could set up our bed. You can't even tell there's anything broken when looking at it! The first couple nights I was a little nervous the whole thing would come crashing down, but I kept reminding myself of all the wood glue and screws involved in the repair. This should get us through the next few years until we get stationed where we can actually get a replacement. AND...it fit in our room with both nightstands and we can still open the closet! Yay! (Sorry, this was very exciting!)

We went out to dinner one night with a Japanese friend to a place called Ramen House Ogasawara. There was no English menu so luckily we didn't need to worry about ordering! 

Cheese rolls and egg rolls.

Edamame and the meat balls were either pork or chicken (I don't remember)

Yakitori, chicken and green onion with great seasonings

These translated to chicken dumplings, they were stuffed chicken wings.
I think they were stuffed with ground pork and vegetables, really good!

Fried rice. We also had yakisoba but I forgot to get a picture.

After dinner we went to a small bar called the Sugar Beat. There were maybe 8 bar stools and then room for another 2-3 people to sit behind the stools. Very tiny, but typical bar size here. These were the snacks we each got with our drinks...

3 kinds of chocolate, black pepper cheese,
almond cheese, sausages and crunchy snack mix.

Ok, now on to our attempt at driving around Shimokita Peninsula or "the hatchet." I had way too many places I wanted to stop so we only made it about half way and then it was dark. We'll have to explore the rest another time! 

See the little helicopter?
We saw them flying out above fields, not sure what they were doing.

View of Mt Kamabuse from Mutsu,
and showing the crazy amount of power lines there are everywhere.

Grape flavored ice cream sold at a winery.

This wine was named "Sarah." Yes, we bought a bottle!

The ice cream reminded me of the grape flavor of
some bubble gum (Bubble Yum?) I used to get as a kid. 

Name of the winery, Sun Mamoru

We are where the red dot is at the bottom.
This map does a pretty decent job showing the highlights of the peninsula.

Lanterns set up for a festival.

Little Shinto shrine we passed along the way.

We stopped in a little village named Wakinosawa to eat the lunch I packed. This was a shrine not far from where we parked. I had to walk quite a way up the hill to get to it, constantly swinging my arms in front of me to sweep for spider webs. I don't think I've mentioned that yet. There are spider webs everywhere. Walking out of our house, between our cars, and of course on narrow trails in the woods. Always trying to watch for them but occasionally you forget and walk into one. Oh well, walking through a web is still way better than living in a house infested with brown recluse spiders (which we did for a year in Missouri).

Smallest torii gate I've ever seen,
it might have been 14" tall

Whale island off to the left.

View of the village from the shrine.

Walked though the village to another shrine. I loved their decorations.

Lavender hydrangeas.

I'm always amazed at the carvings that are on the shrines.

Manhole cover, from top clockwise,
Whale Island, Japanese Serow, Wild boar, Snow Monkey

The fishermen of this village still actively use glass fishing floats,
they were piled up on the docks. So cool to see so many,
too bad they weren't on a remote beach so I could claim them though!

Whale Island or Taijima, this is viewed off the southwest corner of the hatchet.

Can kind of see the lighthouse in this picture, where the blow hole would be.

As we drove back through the village they were getting ready for a festival celebration.
We were told earlier that it was to celebrate successful fishing.

Continued at South and West Coast Shimokita Peninsula - Part 2