It's day 10 of my parents' visit and they're still hanging in there with me dragging them all over the Japanese countryside! Today we visited the famous Oirase Gorge and Lake Towada, plus tried some Japanese "pancakes."
The Oirase Gorge is a river/stream that runs out of Lake Towada and is designated as a Natural Monument of Aomori Prefecture. It's about a 90 minute drive from Misawa. There are over a dozen waterfalls along the gorge and a 9km walking trail. We chose to drive and just stop a couple times near the main waterfalls and continue up the road to the lake. It's a beautiful area regardless of the season. Lake Towada is Japan's 12th largest lake and is the largest crater lake on the main island. The mountain containing it is 400m (1,800 ft) tall. As for depth, it's the third deepest lake in Japan at 327m (1,073 ft) deep...think about it, that's deep! For comparison, Lake Towada's surface area is half as big as Lake McConaughy in Nebraska...BUT Lake Towada is 10 times deeper!
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| An awesome garden along the way. |
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| Lake Towada, in its current state, was formed by several volcanic eruptions that happened thousands of years ago. |
On our way home we stopped by a restaurant in Towada called Dohtonbori to try some okonomiyaki, or Japanese "pancakes." As I've said before, I really have no idea why they're sometimes called pancakes...other than the fact they're round and cooked on a griddle. Okonomiyaki is a mixture of a flour based batter with cabbage, other veggies, meat and egg (sometimes seafood, sometimes cheese, just depends on which one is ordered). Once the ingredients are all mixed together it's cooked on a griddle; sometimes it's done by the restaurant staff, sometimes it's done at the table by the patrons, in this case it we were in charge of the cooking. The finished okonomiyaki is traditionally finished off with some special sauce, mayonnaise, dried seaweed flakes and dried fish flakes (bonito), we skip the seaweed and bonito.
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| How to Make Okonomiyaki 1. Mix everything in the bowl softly. 2. Spread oil on the hot plate, put okonomiyaki making it 3cm thickness and wait for 5 min. *Do not press okonomiyaki while waiting. 3. Turn okonomiyaki upside down and wait 5 min. *Do this twice. 4. Put dried bonito shavings, green seaweed flake, sauce and mayonnaise on if you like. The rest describes how to make other choices from the menu. |
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| We chose a table with chairs. Traditional floor seating was also an option. |
Up next: My Parents' Visit - Part 10 - Misawa Air Festival
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