Dakigaeri Valley and Lake Tazawa

Keenan and I went adventuring today with Eric, Ninoosh and Bean, on a Monday(!) thanks to an extra day off in honor of Veteran's Day tomorrow. This trip took us south and west to Dakigaeri Valley, Kakunodate and Lake Tazawa in Akita Prefecture. It was a lot of time in the car (between 7-8 hours) but we had a great day with friends and saw new places.

Zoomed in: B is Dakigaeri Valley, C/D are Kakunodate

Our first stop was Dakigaeri Valley or Dakigaeri Gorge, I'm not sure which is the official name. The gorge is 10 km long and had an old 8 km logging trail that is now used as a hiking trail. Unfortunately, due to a rock slide, only about 1 km of the trail is still accessible. It winds along the side of the rocky cliff walls and through some dark caves before finally reaching the highest waterfall along the trail, Mikaeri Waterfall. We had hoped to be here at peak time for fall foliage, but we missed it by just a few days, most of the leaves had already fallen. We were a little disappointed, but we pretty much had the place to ourselves rather than having to deal with crowds during the most popular visiting time of the year. The water in the river is an unusual light aqua color, it has such a high acidity that fish can't survive and the farmers can only use it for crops after it has gone through a treatment facility. We had an overcast day and it was still a beautiful color, can only imagine how it would look on a sunny day. Perhaps we'll make it back sometime and see for ourselves?

The hike started out passing a little shrine then across a large bridge before taking us along the sides of the gorge and through tunnels before finally ending at the 30 meter tall waterfall.

Driving from Misawa to the Dakigaeri Valley took about 3 hours and was 200 km (125 mi).

GPS coordinates: 39.608916, 140.654290

Ahh man...where else will I get any?

Mt Iwaki & Hirosaki Fall Festival

This Saturday's exploration took us to Mt. Iwaki and its Tsugaru Iwaki Skyline. I think this was our third or forth trip to Mt. Iwaki with the hopes of driving and hiking to the summit. The last couple of times we had to abort our plans due to heavy cloud cover on the mountain, today there were a few clouds, but it was looking like it'd be worth a shot. And let's face it, our time here is getting short when next year's deployment cuts out 7 months, so we've got to take advantage even when the conditions aren't perfect! 

Mt. Iwaki is near Hirosaki and using toll roads it takes about 2 hours to Hirosaki; we took a little more scenic route through the apple orchards and it took about 3 hours to get all the way to the Skyline Road (130 km = 80 mi).

GPS coordinates: 40.641561, 140.261645

Aomori Prefecture (prefecture = state) is FAMOUS for its apples. The Fuji apple was even invented here, betcha didn't know that, or did you?? Aomori produces over half of all the apples grown in Japan. Usually that's about 500,000 tons per year, from about 53,000 acres of farm land. 

That's a lot of apples, I did some quick math...

500,000 tons = 1 Billion pounds

The average apple weighs a third of a pound, so that's approximately 3 BILLION APPLES per year!

Out of curiosity I also googled how many apples are produced by the USA's largest apple producing state, Washington. About 10-12 billion apples annually, pretty impressive, although Aomori Prefecture is a "little" smaller...only slightly larger than Delaware.

Mt. Iwaki

Some apples still have their protective bags that are put on
when they're still teeny tiny.

Rokkasho Salmon Festival

Who wants to take home their very own salmon??

At the annual Rokkasho Salmon Festival you can do just that...if you can catch one!

It was a chilly start to November, but hundreds of people were here to take turns standing in a pool of water to see if they could grab a salmon within three minutes. Keenan and I did not partake in the "fishing," but we got the pleasure of watching our friend Eric and a few other people we knew. Lots of slipping, sliding, falling and all around good entertainment, at least for us spectators.

We were witness to several instances of triumph followed by defeat either because the salmon slipped out of their arms or they got bumped by someone or slipped and lost their grip.

I posted a video of the action toward the end of the post.

Keenan & Bean

Once you catch your prize, there's a tent set up where you can have it deheaded and degutted before taking it home.

Captain America got one right away...then Eric accidentally slid into him...

2 Years?? Cotton & China

Somehow it's already been 2 years since we said our I Do's!

While our time together is definitely not how or where we imagined it would be, we have also grown closer than I think either of us anticipated. During our second year of marriage we spent over 2 months apart (absolutely not by choice), we've explored more and more of Japan, tried and failed to go to Alaska and are now preparing for a deployment which will mean spending more time apart than together during the next year.
We celebrated a week late due me traveling back to Japan on our anniversary and Keenan not returning from the USA until a couple days later. In keeping with the tradition we started last year, we enjoyed a couple hours of all you can eat and drink at a local yakiniku restaurant. As for gifts, we're kept with that tradition too and gave each other stuff with the yearly theme, and according to Hallmark, the second anniversary is either cotton or china.

Fall Colors of Oirase Gorge, Lake Towada & Jogakura Bridge

Yesterday, a tiny adventure to find Keenan an anniversary gift with the cotton or china theme led Ninoosh and I to a little shop with handmade pottery. Not exactly "china" but pretty close. The shop is in the home of a very friendly couple that makes everything. The guy makes the pottery and his wife does the designs on them. All of their stuff is so beautiful! So glad I found this place, I'm sure we'll be back again and again. I believe the name translates to something like Hatano, but I'm not sure. I did pick up a sake set for Keenan...

So on to today, the leaves at Lake Towada and the Oirase Gorge are at their peak and I didn't want to miss them! Keenan will be back in a couple of days and I know he won't feel like adventuring right away, making today the perfect day to head out solo. It was a great day! I stopped a few times along the gorge on my way to the lake, took my time in the small village at the lake, Yasumiya, then stopped along the gorge in different locations as I made my way to the Hakkoda Mountains to drive to Jogakura Bridge. The leaves were beautiful everywhere I went, except high in the mountains where they had already completely fallen.

Remnants of the rice harvest.

One of my favorite gardens to drive by.

Today's route. 186 km (115 mi) and a little under 5 hours
of driving, not including any stops.

Traffic at the Oirase Gorge was crazy as I expected, but not the worst I've ever encountered. This coming weekend the road will be closed to vehicles so the river and leaves will only be viewable by walking or biking. I believe there are shuttle buses, so walking only one direction is possible. Knowing the road would be closed this weekend was another reason I felt like today was a great day for me to check it out!

As you'll see, it was a popular spot, the artists that were set up were painting some amazing pieces, and as usual, I felt out of place with my middle of the road camera and no tripod, haha.

Didn't think I'd do this again in 2014...'Merica!

Yup, headed back to America last month! Never thought I'd make more than one trip this year, realistically I thought I'd only make about one trip back to the USA the entire time we are living in Japan. This was definitely a trip of opportunity, and if it wasn't for Space-A flights I wouldn't have gone. Keenan had a few weeks of training stateside so I decided to "hop" back and spend some time there too. After his training was complete we actually got to meet up and spend a few days together with our families before I headed back to Japan. Keenan spent another week getting in some hunting and family time before he followed me.

I got to spend tons of quality time with my parents (why yes, they did just visit us in Japan a short 3 weeks ago), siblings, nieces and nephews, both grandmas, had lunch and dinner dates with friends, crocheted, shopped and ate all the foods I missed. It was a great trip! 

Short lived crochet lessons. We'll try again when they're older!

Kitayamazaki

Beautiful rugged coastline with picturesque rock formations? Sounds like it's worth seeing! Oh, there are 1,000ish stairs each way involved in seeing this awesome site? Hmmm, Ninoosh and I, both of us currently living the single life, decided it was worth it! Bean may have thought otherwise, but she didn't have much of a choice. She cooperated pretty well, except for the part where she spit up all over Ninoosh and screamed for the last 30 minutes of the drive home. I suppose since she's a baby we'll give her a pass on that, it was a lot of car-riding for one day!

Kitayamazaki is part of the Rikuchu Coast, this stretch of coastline on the east side of the island is 8km long and has cliffs 200m tall. It's near Tanohata Village south of Misawa. Our drive from was about 120km (75mi) and it took 2 1/2 - 3 hours each way.

GPS coordinates: 39.980220, 141.953490

Once we arrived and got Bean strapped into her carrier we were off. There are several observation platforms, a couple are near the parking lot, another is 363 stairs away and then there's another one at sea level...510 more stairs. I know that doesn't equal quite 1,000, but we felt like there were plenty of stairs unaccounted for and it was easily 1,000+. Didn't look like very many people take the trek down to sea level, in fact, we only encountered one person on that portion of our hike. An older gentleman in a business suit, who passed us on our way up. When he got to the bottom he started yelling. No idea what he was yelling or doing. Didn't sound distressed though. It kept us puzzled for the rest of the day.

The stairs were tiring. Totally worth it. The scenery was beautiful. 

My Parents' Visit - Part 11 - Final Days

Man, how fast time flies! It's already time for Mom and Dad to head back to America. Yesterday was their last full day in Japan. We spent the day getting them organized and doing a last bit of exploring.

We had to go to Hachinohe to get their tickets for a train tomorrow morning bound for Tokyo. After getting that must-do out of the way, we wandered the beach one last time hoping to find a glass float...see below for the results.

I will never get over the pretty cosmos
that grow along the roads.

Hachinohe Station.

Great find Mom! Woohoo!
(No, I did not "plant" this for her to find!)