Revisiting one of our favorite places...Monomizaki

Today we wanted to stay close to home but still do a little exploring...the weather was amazing. Hot for this time of year (80's). I wanted to show Keenan a different beach and go back to a place we'd discovered last year shortly after getting to Japan...Monomizaki!

Monomizaki!

Azalea Festival & Gelato

Today I convinced Keenan to check out an Azalea Festival with me in Shichinohe. I know...a flower festival...how exciting! Needless to say he was less than thrilled, but a promise of some gelato sweetened the deal a little bit.

Tenno Shrine with Azalea Blossoms:
Gozu Tenno Shrine has received many worshipers since 1394. After World War II, a famous horse painter Kayo Kamiizumi asked for a donation of precious azalea trees from volunteers of the town. The trees were replaced on the temple grounds as a means of beautifying the area which had been badly neglected. Now, over 500 azalea trees with their pretty pink petals every May, which are more than 300 years old, cover the grounds of this shrine. The scene of the area, fantastically illuminated at night during the Tsutsuji Matsuri (Azalea Blossom Festival) in mid-May, are too beautiful to be described.

We were too late for the peak of the blooming, most of the petals had already fallen, but it was still really pretty. The azaleas cover the hill where the shrine is located. One hundred and six stairs lead the way up to the shine. Paper lanterns line the path. Other than viewing the flowers and the shrine there was not much else to see at this festival. There were a couple vendors selling donuts, but nothing else "festival-ly." Perhaps there was more to it when the blooming was at its peak?

Morioka...teapots and noodles (Morioka-area Weekend Part 2)

There are "Three Great Noodles of Morioka," jajamen, reimen and wanko soba.
We finished up day one of our weekend by finding a restaurant with jajamen.

Hot JaJa just happened to be right next to our hotel, R&B Hotel, which just happened to be the smallest room we've ever encountered...coming in at a cozy 97 sq ft! For those that don't immediately grasp square footage, that's smaller than 10ft x 10ft...and includes the bathroom. Yes, I knew it was that small when I booked the room, but for $50 and one night...oh well!

So back to the jajamen...the noodles are similar in size to udon, made of soy and wheat. They're served with a topping of meat-miso sauce, cucumber and green onion. Ginger, garlic, vinegar and hot pepper oil are on the side/table and can be added. Before eating you mix everything up well. When you're done eating the noodles there are eggs available on the table...crack one into your bowl, mix it and then call the staff over to make you chi-tan-tan (egg soup) using the hot water the noodles were cooked in. It's all very delicious. Our experience wasn't all that smooth, we didn't know what we were doing and each ordered a set from the menu that included several side dishes...some were good...others...not so much... We had no idea what we'd really eaten, Keenan was guessing there was pig's feet in the salad, I thought the kimchi had some sort of sea creature in it. When we got home I translated the menu...see caption below for the results!

We ordered one of the first set and one of the second set.
First set: jajamen, pig's feet salad (yuck), edamame, octopus kimchi and a beer.
Second set: jajamen, and 5 sides (I think). We got edamame, octopus kimchi, gyoza, a tofu dish and a potato curry stew(?).
Next time we will just order jajamen...it's filling enough without the extras!

Gyoza

Potato curry, tofu and pig's feet salad.

This is what our jajamen looked like, I forgot to take a pic before digging in!

Geibikei Gorge and Chuson-ji (Morioka-area Weekend Part 1)

It's Memorial Day weekend which means it's a long weekend! Yay! Now what to do? I had a few things in mind (surprised?)...we settled on checking out some places in Iwate Prefecture including Morioka and a couple spots just south of there. Morioka is about 150km (95mi) and 2 hours south of Misawa (when taking the toll roads, about ¥3500 each way). We actually started off the trip by going all the way south to the Geibikei Gorge (light blue marker) near Ichinoseki and Hiraizumi (took the Mizusawa Exit off the toll road, another hour and ¥1600 from Morioka).

The Geibikei Gorge is a 2km gorge formed by the Satetsu River, There are tall cliffs and rock formations that can be seen best by taking a 90 minute ride on a flat-bottomed boat. The boat ride (¥1500 per person) was fun and the river was really calm. The guide steered and propelled the boat along with a long pole and he sang us a folk song during part of the ride. We had to take our shoes off and sat on little cushions. Huge carp were swimming in the river and we fed them some fish food we'd purchased at the dock. The guide only spoke in Japanese and I'm sure he explained every important rock formation, cave and waterfall, of course we couldn't understand a word he said. Everyone else laughed frequently so he must have also had some jokes! We did get a little English brochure with pictures and explanations about the rocks so we weren't completely lost. At the turnaround point we got off the boat and were able to go for a short walk. There was a little hole in the rock wall across the river and we purchased some "undama" or "luck stones" and tried to throw them into the hole...our aim was not lucky today! They were 5 stones for ¥100. After the boat ride we checked out a couple of the souvenir stores (I got a hand woven vase made from vines and a sweet sugegasa (conical hat)) and we tried a not so bizarre flavor of ice cream.

Wisteria in bloom!

Takayama Inari Shrine & Tsugaru Peninsula

Today we ventured toward the west coast, something I've been wanting to do for quite awhile. We never got it squeezed into our adventures last year so it was on the top of the list for this spring! My planned destination was the Takayama Inari Shrine (red marker on map). We took the non-toll route going there (160km or 100mi) and it took us about 3 1/2 hours. Takayama Inari Shrine is on the west coast of the Tsugaru Peninsula. Coming home we went north to Cape Tappi, then southeast to Aomori and took the toll roads home from there (185km or 115mi).

Rice planting is in full swing! They flood the fields then work up the ground and then plant.

Driving through the mountains we re-encountered snow! The scenery went from spring right back to winter-ish...

It's the middle of May! This is crazy!

Random Happenings of May

Lots of things happening in May that weren't substantial enough for individual posts, so it's time for another compilation of randomness!

May 1st I took a drive and wandered some beaches...found some beautiful coastline and a ton of sea glass.

So tragic! I'm sure it was a beautiful float!

I only picked up large pieces of glass today. This is just some
of what I got. These pieces are all parts of broken glass floats,
some are sealing "buttons," a couple are makers marks.

________________________________________

Had a date night (well deserved after not seeing each other for the last 8 1/2 weeks!) and checked out a restaurant we'd been meaning to try for a long time. Aburi An is a nice yakiniku place. We weren't disappointed. Everything was wonderful!

Left to right: cabbage, soup, kimchi, salad, 3 kinds of beef
with vegetables and rice.

Kabushima Shrine & Shirahama Beach in Hachinohe

This was Keenan's first "real" weekend back in Japan (can't count the first jetlagged blurry days) so we didn't do anything too exciting or venture very far from home. We went to Hachinohe and visited Kabushima Shrine (Seagull Island) and Shirahama Beach (Sandy Beach). A pretty calm weekend...

Kabushima Shrine is designated as a natural monument as the breeding place of the black-tailed seagull. Estimates are that nearly 40,000 seagulls migrate here in March and stay until fall. Toward the end of May-early June the baby seagulls hatch. (We were a little early to catch that event...) We didn't miss the thousands of seagulls though! Keenan refused to get out of the car, I braved it, but only for a couple of minutes. They say it's good luck if you get pooped on, but I feel like that's just a saying to make you feel better if it does happen! The yellow flowers are rapeseed blossoms (canola plants).

Every white dot in these pictures is a seagull...

Karumai Tulip Festival

Today I drove south to Karumai to check out a tulip festival. It was a tiny festival and only had "events" on a couple of the days. There were a few food stalls open today and I was one of maybe 15 people there. It was nice that it wasn't crowded at all! Even though it was small and really just "flower viewing" it was more impressive than I anticipated! The festival is from May 3-18th this year and is a yearly event. The tulip park has around 40 varieties and 150,000 tulips! They even have a windmill to make it similar to the Netherlands!


For map, driving details and cost see bottom of post.

Their choice of music was a little unusual I thought...and maybe a little eerie? Not sure why I felt that way, the pitch of the song? The surroundings? Remote location?

View from within the windmill.

Had to wear these fancy shoes while in the windmill!
Very stylish!