Japan Day 6: Lake Towada

We were now farther north on the island of Honshu.

North of Honshu is the island of Hokkaido where temperatures are cooler. We were now expecting to see more fall colors so that the tour would live up to its name.

We arrived at night the day before so when we woke up that following morning and pulled the shades we saw through our window that fall colors were all around us.

We could hardly wait to go out to take some photos.

The buffet breakfast was wonderful. This is Art's plate with salad, miso soup, rice, pickled vegetables, etc.

Even at breakfast, we could look out the window to see the glorious autumn display.

We rushed through our breakfast and ventured outside into the brisk mountain air.

It was all very lovely.

The trees were gorgeous and our tour guide, John told us he was relieved that we were finally able to see some real fall colors and he wouldn't have to commit harakiri in shame. Actually, mom says harakiri (ritual suicide by disembowelment) is not the proper term. It should be seppuku, but most Westerners refer to it as harakiri which literally means cutting the stomach.

It was fun to see acorns again. We used to have an oak tree at our Illinois house that the squirrels loved. Hmmmm... I didn't see any squirrels in Japan.

One thing people did on this tour was to buy something at one of the gift shops to share with their fellow passengers.

It was fun to try different sweets while riding through the gold and crimson leaves of the forest.

We stopped at this Hachimantai gorge and walked to the bridge in order to gaze at the gorgeous colors and waterfall.

We arrived at Lake Towada and had our lunch at Yasumiya Restaurant.

It was very relaxing to look out at the beautiful lake.

Lake Towada is the largest crater lake in Honshu island. It is located between Aomori and Akita prefectures and is 1,073 ft deep. It is Japan's 12th largest lake and deep blue because of its depth.

After the warm, delicious lunch, we boarded a sightseeing boat for a view of the gorgeous colors around Lake Towada.

The light wasn't perfect for photos, but you can see how pretty it was.

My kids and grandkids asked for ika (dried squid) so we made sure to find some for them. What looks like a ghost that we used to make as children in the U.S. is called Teru Teru Bozu in Japan.

A teru teru bōzu (Japanese: てるてる坊主, literally "shine shine monk") is a small traditional handmade doll made of white paper or cloth that Japanese farmers began hanging outside of their window by a string. In shape and construction they are essentially identical to ghost dolls, such as those made at Halloween. This talisman is supposed to have magical powers to bring good weather and to stop or prevent a rainy day. Teru is a Japanese verb which describes sunshine, and a bōzu is a Buddhist monk (compare the word bonze), or in modern slang, "bald-headed"; bōzu is also used as a term of endearment for addressing little boys.                                     --Wikipedia

John and Yoko would also sing a Japanese song about teru teru bozu.

Teru-teru-bōzu, teru bōzu
Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure
Itsuka no yume no sora no yo ni
Haretara kin no suzu ageyo

English translation:

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
Like the sky in a dream sometime
If it's sunny I'll give you a golden bell

I must tell you that 90% of the time, it worked and we had sunny skies when we needed it. We would be going apple picking on the following day so John added an Ainu (Japanese aboriginal people from Hokkaido) song and a Buddhist chant for good luck.

Japan Day 5: Miyagi to Iwate

The breakfast buffet at the Akiu Resort Hotel Crescent was very good.

Notice that soft boiled egg again. I was feeling good about my tummy not being upset on this trip. It must be because the tour was taking care of everything for us. My digestive tract must have been happy.

In fact, at every stop, before boarding the bus, our tour guides would label our packages and store them for us. You didn't have to worry about anything.

A short drive from the hotel took us to the Saichi Ohagi shop.

Everyone joined the long line to purchase ohagi. We also bought zunda mochi.

Ohagi, or botamochi, are sweet rice balls which are usually made with glutinous rice and covered with sweet azuki bean paste.

Zunda mochi is covered with sweet soy bean paste.

The shop makes 5,000 ohagi a day and they are always sold out each day.

Ohagi is eaten in fall and named for the bush clover.

Botamochi is the same thing eaten in spring because botan is a peony which blooms in spring.

Art took this photo of me with Mr. Sato who is the owner, but unfortunately, he took just one shot and one of us blinked.

In Art's defense, we were holding up the line.

The zunda mochi is on the left and the ohagi is on the right.

Yes, they were very good.

We were now at the Genbikei Gorge. Yoko was our Yokohama Japanese speaking tour guide who only spoke Japanese so John had to translate for her throughout the trip. He said you could refer to them as John and Yoko. Her knowledge of the areas we traveled was pretty mind boggling.

No, I didn't fall over. There was a chain link barrier that prevented people from leaning out too far. A bucket on a line enabled people to order treats from the shop above.

We stopped at a restaurant that used to be Sekinoichi Brewery. Our dessert was all kinds of mochi which are carbs and not good for me, but I just had to try the shrimp covered mochi. That's something I've never seen and it was good.

We walked through the Sake Brewery museum.

The next stop was the Iwachu Casting Works. There was a display of the Chagu Chagu (Horse) Festival that is held in June in the Morioka area.

Artisans at the casting works factory have to apprentice for 10 years before they are considered qualified workers. Art was tempted to buy something, but those tea pots are expensive and HEAVY.

We arrived at the Active Resorts Iwate Hachimantai and found this notice about stink bugs.

They provided green tape with which to catch the bugs and seal them before throwing them away.

We didn't see any there but I saw several in other places.

Another huge dinner buffet with too many selections including CRAB. Yay!

We were heading north toward more fall colors and were looking forward to seeing what tomorrow would bring.

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.

Japan Day 3: Fukushima Prefecture

We woke up at 5:00 and were down to breakfast by 7:00. We were one of the last ones at the buffet. As I mentioned before, people from Hawaii tend to arrive early rather than late. Our decades of living in the Midwest have us aiming for just being on time.

Our Yokohama tour guide John and Tohoku Travel escorts, Clarence and Wesley kept us supplied with morning juice and coffee. Clarence even dispensed vitamins for those who wanted it.

One thing I got to like on this trip was the soft boiled eggs. All the soft boiled eggs were in a bowl with another bowl on the side to dispense your empty shells. You would then add some soy flavored sauce onto your egg. Yummy!

We left the Spa Resort Hawaiians to go to Aquamarine Fukushima.

We were feeling safe since John said we were 32 miles away from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

The aquarium was quite impressive with its glass tunnel like covering.

We've seen a number of aquariums on the mainland and in other countries, but the Aquamarine Fukushima had very nice displays of different kinds of marine life.

This sea lion was huge!

I thought these black spotted garden eels were plants at first.

The jellyfish floated gracefully around the tank.

It was sort of otherworldly to walk through this ocean tunnel.

Speaking of otherworldly, these spider crabs looked like alien creatures.

The shrimp looked tasty. Just kidding.

Art read at the front of the aquarium that there was a coelacanth exhibit.

When we saw this grouper, we thought it was the prehistoric fish from the deep.

Nope.

The Indonesian coelacanth was preserved under glass.

Lunch was at the Phoenix Restaurant in the Iwaki area.The teishoku meal was very nice indeed.

Teishoku is a type of Japanese meal where all the dishes are served as a set. There's a main dish with miso soup, rice, pickles, etc.

A bit of a bus ride took us to the Iwaki Marine Tower that gave us a bird's eye view of Fukushima. It was opened in 1985. It was fun to see plantings below in the shape of sea life.

Storm clouds appeared to cover Mt. Bandai.

Mount Bandai is a stratovolcano located in Inawashiro-town, Bandai-town, and Kitashiobara village, in Yama-Gun, Fukushima prefecture. It is an active stratovolcano located to the north of Lake Inawashiro. Mount Bandai, including the Bandai heights, belongs to the Bandai-Asahi National Park.                                  --Wikipedia

Tours from Hawaii always stop every hour or so at a rest area. We are seniors after all and need a bathroom break. AND there's always a gift shop. We loved the soft serve cones and this one was grape. We couldn't remember ever having a grape soft serve.

We arrived at Hotel Listel Inawashiro where a huge dinner buffet was awaiting us in the evening.

My onsen friends told me that it would be much less crowded if we visited the hot springs baths before dinner. They were right! It was very relaxing. Dinner afterwards closed the day with smiles on our faces.

Art and I were one of the few people who were traveling with Tohoku Travel for the first time. We would eventually get hints from other veteran Tohoku travelers that made things even easier for us.

It was a lovely day and we were beginning to know our 37 other fellow travelers better and loving it. One fellow was a Waipahu grad(uate) like me and knew my brother. Another traveler knew Art's cousin. One lady was also from Sendai like my mother and the same age! What a coincidence!

Just awesome!

Japan Day 2: Iwaki

Breakfast at Chiba's Hotel Mystays Premier Narita was lovely.

We sat next to a Japanese fellow named Yusei who started talking to us. He told us he was from Yokohama.

He could tell we were not from Japan and was curious as to our origin. What a shock to learn that he actually grew up in an Illinois suburb very close to where we used to live 10 years ago. No wonder he spoke English so well.

We like eating a salad for breakfast when we go abroad.

The big difference between my breakfast and Art's is the natto.

Natto is fermented soybeans and often eaten for breakfast by the Japanese. Everybody in my family loves it. Me? I somehow can't get past the sliminess.

One thing we really liked about some of the hotels was their multi chargers. It made it so convenient to charge all our devices.

We also don't need to use adapters in Japan. Awesome!

We were then leaving the Chiba Prefecture for the Ibaraki Prefecture to see the Ushiki Daibutsu (Buddha).


The following information is from Wikipedia:

Ushiku Daibutsu is a statue located in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. 

Completed in 1993, it stands a total of 120 metres (390 ft) tall, including the 10 m (33 ft) base and 10m lotus platform. The statue held the record for the tallest statue from 1993–2002. As of 2018, it is one of the top five tallest statues in the world.

An elevator takes visitors up 85 m (279 ft) to an observation floor. The statue depicts Amitabha Buddha and is made of bronze. It was built to commemorate the birth of Shinran, founder of the Jōdo Shinshū or "True Pure Land School" of Buddhism.

The statue weighs over 4,000 tons and is the tallest standing Buddha in Japan. It is more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.

We've seen a number of statues of the Buddha, but this was truly impressive. The incense burner in front of the statue is also the biggest in Japan.

We took the elevator to the observation area which is located by the Buddha's chest. Shoes had to be removed before you entered the elevator. That is the size of the Buddha's thumb on the right.

A garden of delicate cosmos danced around the statue. I love cosmos!

At one of the gift shops, we finally found a bag of pickled baby eggplants that we fell in love with years ago. This trip was almost ALL about shopping. Well, it seemed it anyway. Our tour group certainly helped the Japanese economy.

Aha!

A persimmon farm!

Art loves persimmons. It's one of his favorite fruits and the Uchida Persimmon Farm was a place he was looking forward to seeing.

We were each handed a plastic bag and clippers to select three of the best persimmons we could find.

This was lovely except that because we were being fed so well, it was hard to find a time to finish the six persimmons we had between us.

We were told that there are over 1,000 different varieties of persimmons. The persimmons we were picking was called Matsumoto and is a sweet version.

Lunch was in Mito, the capital of the Ibaraki Prefecture.

They asked first who wanted to have natto with their lunches. Mito is famous for their natto and Art was looking forward to it.

I didn't raise my hand for a sample. I just had a bean or two from Art.

More shopping in the gift area. Tohoku Travel is well known for handling your purchases for you. Just before entering the bus, they label your packages and load them in boxes in the lower level of the bus. It's great, but a bit of a surprise at the end of the trip, when you see how much you've so happily bought.

On the bus again, we watched the Japanese movie, Hula Girls. We'd actually seen this video before but it was fun to see it again.

Hula Girls tells the story of a coal mining town that is failing with the economic times. With so many residents losing jobs with the changing energy needs, the town decides to create a Hawaiian tourist center while hiring a professional dancer to teach the young women how to dance the hula. I was surprised that the tour was taking us to a Hawaiian center when we are all from Hawaii, but it turned out to be quite interesting and fun.

The rooms were large and comfortable. 

I actually went to the onsen with a couple of new friends who let me join them. 

Onsen is a hot spring bath. You have to strip down naked, wash yourself thoroughly and enter the large hot springs bath with a lot of strangers. Once you get over the initial discomfort, it's lovely and is supposed to provide lots of health benefits.

Dinner was great with lots of choices. I had to take a photo with the chocolate fountain to show mom. She loves chocolate fountains.

It was great!

The evening hula show was fun. It was hula on steroids or hula Vegas style. 

It was very much enjoyed by all the tourists from around Japan and beyond who came for a taste of Hawaii to go along with their onsen experience.

I was happy that I was getting enough sleep to keep me focused and energized. 

We were getting to know the other 37 tour members on the trip and already feeling like they were all friends.

It was great!