Japan Day 4: Urabandai Highland

We went down to breakfast early this time and were not the last ones there. Yay!

Art saw this patch of red from our hotel window and just needed to find out what it was.

He walked down to the garden and took a photo of it.

He asked our Japanese speaking tour guide, Yoko who told him it's called a Burning Bush. We have burning bushes in the Midwest and it doesn't look anything like this so we'll have to call this the Japanese Burning Bush.

A wonderful commenter just told me it's also called Kochia.  It's a Bassia Scoparia and also called Mexican fireweed, summer cypress, belvedere, etc.

In Japan the seeds are used a food garnish called tonburi. Because its texture is similar to caviar, it has been called "land caviar", "field caviar", and "mountain caviar". It is a chinmi, or delicacy, in Akita prefecture. The glossy, greenish black seeds are dried, boiled, soaked, and then rubbed by hand to remove the skin.                                                               --Wikipedia

This is a photo Art took of Yoko's phone.

I did see it listed in one of our meals and thought at first it was real fish caviar. Nope.

It was another 2-night blue bag packing day. The clouds had cleared over Mt. Bandai and we were on our way to Goshiki-numa lakes. Goshiki-numa is a cluster of five volcanic lakes situated at the foot of Mount Bandai.

Our group photo was taken here at Bishamon-numa lake which is one of the five lakes.

Tour guide, John had to translate what this fellow was explaining about the lake.

Because of certain atmospheric conditions, parts of the lake become rainbow colored.

The guide also told us that koi with a heart on its side can be seen at Bishamon-numa.



When we were in Budapest in April of this year, I found a 50 Euro bill in the bus. I turned it in to the Viking director who said he would announce it to the passengers. He never did. He told me he forgot and would just add it to the crew tips.

Hmmm...

OK...

Would you believe that while buying a peach soft serve near the pond, I found 11,000 yen?

No kidding! That's about $110!

So what to do.

I wondered if there was a Lost and Found. The Japanese tend to be extremely honest, but in the end I gave it to our tour guide and John ran back to the area and said the police was called.

I felt good about that.

I almost never find money at home but somehow I'm finding it when we travel.

Lunch was at a beautiful mountain resort restaurant called Hotel de Premiere Minowa.

The views were incredible from our windows while we were dining.

We stopped at the Akiu waterfall which is one of the top 100 waterfalls in Japan.

There was a food stand near the waterfalls with samples of teriyaki flavored grasshoppers. John asked if we'd like to try it. Ummmm.... no.... I don't think so. However, survivalist Art decided to give it a try. He says it wasn't bad at all.

Riiiight...

In the evening, we went to the onsen dressed in the yukata that the hotel provides. Dinner was a fancy French-like meal with John entertaining us on his sanshin. The sanshin is an Okinawan three stringed musical instrument. I kept thinking it was a shamisen which is the Japanese version of the three stringed instrument.

So...from finding money to eating grasshoppers to live entertainment... yup... a very interesting day.