Japan Day 7: Aomori

It was forecasted to rain on this apple picking day and Teru Teru Bozu's magic may not have worked.

We started our morning with a lovely breakfast.

Tohoku Travel makes sure that everybody rotates seats throughout the trip. It was our turn to be at the very front of the bus.

Ummm... It was definitely raining.

Oh my! We got to see John up close. Our first stop was the Nenputa Museum. If you look closely, you'll see that Art volunteered to try doing the taiko drum.

The Nenputa Festival is held between August 1st-7th in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture.

Giant floats parade through the streets during the festival.

We got to hear a master shamisen musician named Sadao Kawamura.

Outside the museum was this garden and a huge stone lantern that reminded us of our small one at home.

A short half hour drive took us to the apple farm. The rain had stopped! Teru Teru Bozu was doing his job after all.

These huge apples from Aomori are called Jonah. The Aomori area produces over 50% of the apples from Japan. There are over 1,000 varieties of apples which is rather mind boggling since we tend to just buy Fuji in Hawaii.

The huge Jonah apples were tart, sweet and crunchy. They were so big and heavy that we never ate the four that we picked because we were always too full from dinner. We ended up giving them all to my aunt when she met us in Sendai at our hotel.

As we left the apple farm the owners happily waved goodbye.

And then just down the road, it began to rain. Thank you, Teru Teru Bozu.

The trunks of the cedar trees along the roadside were amazingly straight.

I know it seems like we were always eating, but it was fun to try the delicacies in different areas of Japan.

Here in the Akita region, their specialty was kiritanpo.

Kiritanpo (きりたんぽ) is a Japanese dish particularly in Akita Prefecture. Freshly cooked rice is pounded until somewhat mashed, then formed into cylinders around Japanese cedar skewers, and toasted over an open hearth. It can then be served with sweet miso or used as dumplings in soups.                  -Wikipedia

Unfortunately, that was a whole lot of carbs for me, so I could only sample a couple of them. The broth was very delicious.

The area is also known for their Hinai chicken. Sigh... I wish my taste buds were in better condition. I'm sure it lived up to its reputation.

While on the bus, we were shown the movie Hachiko: A Dog's Story with Richard Gere.

It's a tear jerker.

Hachi is the Akita dog who waited for his master, professor Ueno at the Shibuya train station for 9 years after Ueno died of a cardiac arrest while at work.

Even though I've seen the movie twice, I still couldn't help crying again. John went quickly down the bus aisle passing out tissues to all of us.

We stopped at the Akita train station to take photos and to visit with another beautiful Akita dog.

This region is full of gifts bearing the Akita likeness. I was sorely tempted.

The Taiko (drum) Museum was our next stop. I'm standing in front of the largest taiko drums in the world. There were 147 drums from 40 countries displayed. We tried drumming on several of the drums. I'm afraid I don't have much rhythm.

We were now at the Akita View Hotel and had to pack for another blue bag two night stay because our suitcases would be sent on to Yokohama.

Our evening was spent in a party room at the hotel where we were once again served very fancy dishes. The flat, silky udon noodles were awesome! They are famous in the Akita region and called Inaniwa udon.

We would have only a few more days of our tour so John, Yoko and Mr. N (our very strong and efficient baggage handler) sang and did a judo demonstration. Watching the power and concentration of Mr. N was pretty darn amazing. John and Yoko made us all smile and sing along.

Many of us were feeling a bit melancholy since we'd gotten to know each other and enjoy our time together.

Soon, it would all be a happy memory.