a black and white lighthouse

After walking around the station, I found that I would have an hour-bus-riding to go to the top of Oga-peninsula, which was in parts of a national park. Around the station, there was a small main street, and along with it, I found a sushi-shop, not a restaurant. In front of this sushi-shop, a little girl was waiting to get a sushi-meal, maybe for her and her family's lunch. It was a really good winter day, not so cold, but a little bit warm.

The bus I took was nearly empty. Eventually, when reaching the last stop that was at the top of the peninsula, I found that I was the only passenger for the bus. The buy ran so slowly that sometimes boys riding on bicycles easily passed us. But by the grace of its slowness, I enjoyed the landscapes out of the window. The small library seemed to be a assembly hall for locals. School kids enjoyed playing on an empty parking lot. A line of coniferous trees reminds me of Manahage seeming to appear from the shadow of the trees.

The bus finally came to the last stop. I got off the bus, and from the bus stop, I easily found a lighthouse that had painted horizontal stripes of black and white on its side. In front of the lighthouse, there was a grassland, and over there, the winter sea made white waves beating the shore. The salt breeze brought the smell of the sea.

It was a so good landscape to see that I was beside myself with an impression, but finally I came to myself when my spouse called to me to say that she would buy a good sofa for our living room.
It was at the top of Oga-peninsula, Oga city, Japan.

going to a peninsula

One off-day during my business stay in Akita city, I decided to go to the top of the Oga-peninsula, which was near Akita citry and projected into the Sea of Japan or East Sea. According to the tourist information around Akita train station, this peninsula had good hot-springs, a beautiful mountain, and traditional fierce monster house, "Namahage" museum. To say correctly, Namahage was a monster-costume that seemed to be used for locals for a traditional event around here.
I'm not quite sure about the event, but know a little, 'cause sometimes I saw the event broadcasted by TV news. According to my imperfect knowledge, this event was a little bit similar with Halloween, especially in the United States.
In Halloween, kids will dress up as witches, on the other hand, in Namahage event, usually local adults will dress up as Namahage, a fierce monster.
In Halloween, dressed kids will ask neighbors for treats, mostly candys or sweets, on the other, Namahage-adults will ask neighbors for bad- boys and girls. In case of successfuly finding any kids (not necessarily really bad ones), the Namahages threaten them to be nice for their parents or everyone with Namahage's fierce face. Usually, in this event, kids will wail and wail badly because of just a simple fear, and it makes a TV news.
Anyway, I took a train that took about an hour to reach Oga station from Akita city.
Here was Oga city, Japan.

without a futon-set on december

On business, I've been in Akita city for just a month and stayed at the cheap guest house. On the very first night of my stay, maybe, around 24:00 (pm), when I began to prepare bedclothes including "futon-set" (or I can say, "make a bed"), I realized that there was no bedclothes, but only a mattress in a closet in my room.
Maybe, I have to explain about a "futon-set" and my self-bed making in a guest-house. A futon-set usually consists of a Japanese mattress that can be used for sitting, and a Japanese quilt usually made by feathers or cottons for covering with a body. In case this set is not enough to keep warm, people usually use blankets sandwiched between the mattress and quilt. As for self bed making, this is not a typical Japanese guest house style (I guess), but is one of reasons why this house was so cheap despite of good dinner and breakfast included just for a $30 or $40 for a night.
So, in short, I couldn't find most parts of my futon-set. I just had a Japanese mattress made by cotton. Of course, my room had an air-conditioner for keeping warm, though using this machine throughout the night made my room so dry that I might have a sore throat.
It was around 24:00 and I guessed that there were few chances of the elder landlady's still waking up. Moreover, I remembered that there was no check-in counter or particular room for us to contact with her. Moreover, these was no phone in the room, and I didn't know the number that would connect with her at mid-night.
I somehow wandered the length and breadth of the house for asking for my futon-set, but never found the room that the landlady would be. Eventually, I came back to my room with my empty hands, and decided to use the mattress for covering my body, and keep wearing my coat. I made the air-conditioner turned on all over the night.
Next morning, the elder landlady appeared from nowhere, and made for us a pretty good breakfast. At the time, I said to her that there was no futon-set in my room.
She just shouted, "Ohh, damm it! I forgot to bring it". She said sorry to me with plenty of smile.
In the same morning, it began to snow. I remembered that these were at least 2 inches of snow by the evening. Of course, it was a cold winter day at the beginning of December.
Here was Akita city, Japan.

the capital of the feudal lord and special chicken

The final stop of the bullet train we took was Akita city, which was of course, the capital of the local feudal lord, Mr Satake in the edo period, in this country. After this my first walking around here, I came back to this city on business (again! if you have a chance to look at my very previous weblogs (NY's and Hong Kong's), you'll find that I often come back to the former "walking places" usually on my way of a business trip).
I remember that it was at the beginning of December, maybe in 2001, and a snow day when I returned here. At the time, I and my colleagues reserved rooms at not a typical hotel that people usually use for a shot-term business stay, but a so-called tourist home, or I can say, a traditional Japanese style cheap guest-house. The guest house was really cheap, I remember, one night stay with a dinner and breakfast was about US$30 or US$40 (of course, we paid by JPN, Japanese Yen). The elder landlady of this cheap house always welcomed us with smile and saying in strong Akita dialect. I enjoyed its dinner and breakfast that were full of Akita local dishes, in other words, plenty of local sea foods and chickens.
By the way, one of the most famous special products in Akita prefecture is chicken. It is not an ordinal chicken, but special one, of course, its taste is so good. The chicken's name is "hinai-ji-dori". "Hinai" means the name of a particular region in Akita pref, and "ji-dori" means "local chicken". So, we can call it "hinai-chicken", just like famous "kobe-beef".
Anyway, here was Akita city, Japan.

samurai's european paintings

My friend and I were still in Kakunodate town known as well preserved samurai's houses. In here, I heard later that besides samrai's houses, there was another samurai's heritage, which was called "ran-ga", European paintings. Especially, the paintings made by the samurai around this area were called "Akita ran-ga". Akita is just now the prefecture's name, and in the edo period (from around 1600 to 1860's), it was the name of the fief of the feudal lord.
The feudal lord in Akita was the house of "Satake". Maybe, one of Mr Satakes in a middle of edo period, liked painting, at first Japanese style, then European's. He knew European paintings from his samurai, Mr Onoda who learned European paintings from imported books, and favored them. So, we can now find well-preserved samurai's European paintings around Akita area, and a library in Kakunodate town seemed to be known as the one having some Akita ran-ga.
By the way, in term of ran-ga, "ran" means "Netherlands", and "ga" means "painting" (therefore, to say literally, ranga means just Netherlands style painting. Of course, ran-ga is European painting as a whole, actually). This is because Netherlands was one of few countries that could trade with this country.
So, how's the samurai's European paintings?
Sorry, I actually missed them 'cause the library was closed at the time, and never have a chance to enjoy them.
Here was Kakunodate town, Japan

preserved samurai town

After staying at Star Hotel, my friend and I walked to the station in the early morning, while talking about where we would go next. At the time I hardly knew about northern parts of this country, so-called Tohoku area, so, my friend proposed to go to the preserved samurai town, Kakunodate. It would be almost an hour trip from Morioka city to there by taking a bullet train, and we had a free ticket. Without alternative ideas, I had no objection.
It was on Sunday, mid-June, which was considered as mid-rainy season in this country. So, it had been raining all day long.
One of my trivial memories on that day was that before getting on a bullet train, we went to a burger shop in Morioka station. In that shop, I found a croquette-burger meal on its menu and ordered it for my breakfast.
I guess that it was around 9:00 or 10:00am when we reached Kakunodate town. It was more than 10 years ago, and I guess the town just now has been re-developed to attract more tourists. But when we were there, around the Kakunodate station, there was nothing. No shop, store and restaurant. I even couldn't find a tourist information around there.
Fortunately, my friend knew the entire map of this town, especially how to reach its main street where we found several well-preserved samurai manor houses.
I say again, it was on Sunday, not a weekday. But at the time, we were maybe only two tourists who entered the quiet, beautiful samurai houses, 'cause we never met anyone, but saw only a dog wandering along with the street. Its quietness seemed to be essential for me to feel the solemnity that houses had.
By the way, just now I find the web-sites of this town, and one of the samurai-houses. Interestingly, the samurai house's HP has an English-version.
http://www.samuraiworld.com/english/index.html
http://kakunodate-kanko.jp/index.html
Here was Kakunodate town, Japan.

getting another bowl of soba noodle

As I said in the weblog put below, one of "big three" noodles known by people in Morioka city was ja-ja men ("men" in Japanese means just a "noodle", not a male, anyway). So, the other two were a small bowl of "soba" noodle called "wanko soba" ("soba" is a Japanese noodle, and "wanko" is a kind of dialect in Morioka city, and people in Tokyo ususally say "wan", which means a small bowl.), and "rei-men" that originally came from a Korean dish, "Naengmyeon" (cold noodle), but was arranged for Morioka's taste.
Anyway, in this my first walking in Morioka city, besides ja-ja men, I didn't have the other two. But on the other day, I got wanko-soba at one of the most famous soba-restaurants in Morioka city. This was, maybe, a pretty interesting story for people who never try to have wanko-soba in a restaurant, 'cause I didn't know that there was a certain manner or rule or style to have it, until entering in the restaurant.
In the restaurant, after ordering a traditional "wanko-soba" style meal for my lunch, I was just curious about the elder waitress who gave me an empty small bowl and kept being beside me. She looked just ready to serve a small chunk of boiled soba noodle.
Then, she said to me, " are you ready?"
I don't know exactly what she meant, but said just "yeah".
She began to put a small chunk of soba into my bowl, and rushed me to empty the bowl. As I was said, I ate it pretty soon and completly made my bowl empty. As soon as I made it empty, she put another small chunk of soba, then I was rushed again to empty my bowl as soon as possible. This endless flow was continued until I said to her that I just enjoyed my wank-soba at my own pace. In short, I said "don't do that, any more, please".
Later, she explained that rushing to eat was one of wanko-soba styles, and many young guys would try and like this style, 'cause they could have small chunk sobas as many as possible at a same price.
For me, I just forgot the tast of wanko-soba at that restaurant.
Here was Morioka city, Japan

kinds of noodles in morioka city

Whenever I remember my walkings, in other words, my travels, my biggest trigger to recollect a memory is always a "food" I had at the time. So, in order to tell my walking in Morioka city, I've better start to show what I ate on the night when I reached the city.
As I said in the previous blog, there were few restaurants or even snack bars around the station. So, my friend and I decided to find a restaurant on the way to the hotel we somehow reserved. The way to the hotel was a little bit far from the station, but located around the downtown (though the downtown was not so large).
At the heart of the downtown, we found a small-scale shopping arcade that had several shops and restaurants. Fortunately, these restaurants were still opened around 21:40, though we found few people on the street. The restaurant we decided to go was serving the famous noodle around here, which was also a peculiarity of Morioka city. The noodle was usually called "ja-ja-men", originally coming from China, but arranged for Japanese taste, maybe, by using "miso" or something, I guess.
Of course, we ordered dishes of ja-ja men, and I ate it for the first time in my life. Taste was so good, but I was surprised the color of its sauce, totally black.
Morioka city was said to have "big three" noodles. One of them was of course this ja-ja men, and I'll maybe tell about the other two in a later weblog.
Here was Morioka city, Japan.

a bullet train going to a northern city

It was Saturday when I and my friend decided to take a bullet train going to a northern city. At the time, we were teens, and I'm sure it was at least my first journey without my family, or my first "exploration" of unknown places. We had a little money just enough to buy a special Japan Rail (aka "JR" train) ticket that allowed us for free to get on and off any JR trains, including expresses and even bullet trains, at any stations in northern parts of Japan.
We started this journey from Tokyo station, maybe in the evening, 'cause we were busy at day time. We took a Tohoku-Sinkansen, which was a bullet train going to the northernmost station at the time, Morioka city.
We didn't decide any purposes or any destinations (as usual since then for me on my travel), but thought slightly that we would talk about it before reaching Morioka city. But in the train, which took less than four hours to reach Morioka city, we've just completely slept. I still remembered that at the Morioka station, maybe, around 21:00, we were reluctantly talking about finding a cheap hotel to stay for the night, but didn't know how to find it. Around 21:00, the shops, stores and restaurants around the station were almost closed, because this city was not a metropolis like Tokyo that any shops were hardly closed until midnight.
We had two options at the time; The option 1 was finding an outside, safe space around the station to stay throughout the night. The option 2 was calling to cheap hotels that we could find tel-numbers on a yellow page that we luckily somehow found at the tel booth in the station.
We took the option 2 'cause we were so tired, then found a cheap hotel to stay. Still I remember the hotel's name, "Star Hotel". Sound simple.
Here was Morioka city, Japan

north end of the country in a thousand years ago

I slightly remember that from the Sendai city, we have about three stops to go to Tagajyo city by Japan Rail train, aka "JR". It takes about 10 to 15 minutes, I guess, so it's so near. Tagajyo city is a relatively small city that has 60,000 population, and there were not so many people around the train station when I stood here.
So, you wonder why I write about this city.
The reason is simple, 'cause the city has a huge ruin that shows the fact, which is to say that this city was once the north end of this country. The ruin was just a trace of a construction that was a stronghold for a front defence against the northern people in a so-called "hunter-gather society", and moreover, regarded as foreigners, or more to say, barbarians in the view of aristocrats in Kyoto or Nara, in more than 1000 years ago.
Just now, a huge trace of the construction was partly hardened in concrete, and since it was located in the middle of a small mountain-like hill, the ruin was surrounded by deep green woods.
Looking up to the sky, over the green, there was nothing but the moon at that time (though I was there at the day time). I easily imaged that people in 1000 years ago also looked at the same moon.
Here was Tagajyo city, Japan

fried steamed-fish-paste

When walking through a huge shopping arcade in the heart of Sendai city, I find a crowd consisted of not only the elderly, but also juveniles in front of a souvenir shop that specially deals in steamed fish pasts. One of the most famous souvenirs of the city is a steamed fish past, especially a particular kind of a fish paste called "Sasakama" in Japanese.
The word "Sasa" means a bamboo grass, so as you can image, the fish paste's shape looks just like it. Since the Sasakama is so famous around here, there are so many fish paste shops, but not so many that have a crowd in front. The Sasakama-shop I find is a little bit special, cause the shop has a stall selling a fried steamed-fish paste for 100 yen (just less than US$1). The crowd I find is a line of people waiting to buy it.
The fried fish paste is just like a "corn dog", but instead of a smoked sausage, they use a steamed fish paste (but not Sasakama-type) to coat in cornbread and fry. Of course, the shop offers a ketchup and mustard for us to dip.
The test?
I buy more than two. That's good.
Here is Sendai city, Japan

bush clover

Though the pic is still cherry blossoms in Sendai city, this time of my walking is not about it, but the place where I took the pic. Around here, the region is named as Miyagino-ku or Miyagino-ward in Sendai city. "Miyagino" was an old name of this city, or I mean, this area (I think there might not be a city at that time) in over 1100 years ago that was even far before the samurai-era.

It was a Kyoto "kuge" era in this country, which was known as an aristocratic class era. The aristocrats in Kyoto enjoyed to make "waka", which is a traditional Japanese poetry, and sometimes they used the phrase, "Miyagino", in their poetry to long for the far away place as a quasi-fairyland. In 1100 years ago, Miyagino was near the border between the Kyoto governed and the non-Kyoto territory.

In the wakas, in short, poetry related to Miyagino, the aristocrat usually put the phase of bush clover, 'cause at that time everyone imaged the huge field covered with beautifully blossoms of bush clovers, not cherry trees.

Here was Miyagino, or Sendai city, Japan

drooping cherry tree

Because this is cherry blossoms season, I just keep writing about a series of cherry tree walking. The pic is not in Aizu-Wakamatsu city, but in Sendai city, which is the largest city in the north part of Japan and has about a million population. In case you gaze at the cherry tree in the pic, you can find that it's a different kind of cherry tree from those in below previous blogs.
In the previous blogs, the cherry tree is so popular kind and well known as "Someiyoshino" , which you can find everywhere in Japan.
In this pic, the tree is a kind of a drooping cherry tree and also famous, but not everywhere as Someiyoshino trees are.
Anyway, if it is a holiday or weekend, and is a nice day, you can find people enjoying a picnic under cherry trees everywhere, without regard to kinds of the trees.
Here is Sendai-city, Japan

cherry blossoms in the castle

April is a month of cherry blossoms in Japan. In this castle, there were lots of cherry trees that were in full bloom at their best. You can see pieces of blue in the pic. They were parts of plastic sheets that you might often see it in a construction site. But in here, these were used by people to enjoy a picnic under the cherry blossoms.
People brought plenty of foods, including bottles of beer or "sake", and enjoyed them with talking each other and watching the blossoms. Drinking in such a public place usually was/is not illegal in here. Some special places might prohibit people from drinking, but it might not be a majority.
Here was in the castle. In the samurai-era, nobody but the master of the castle and its high-level samurais would be allowed to enjoyed the cherry blossoms here. But about 140 years later, everyone could be here for free (though we had to pay admission fees in order to go inside the castle), and enjoy watching the castle with cherry blossoms.
Here was still, still, Aizu-wakamatsu, Japan

from a castle

This castle, Tsuruga-castle was not the original one. The original wooden construction had been there until the end of the samurai-era (around 1870s), though the fire of civil war (in here it was called "Aizu-war") destroyed it severely. But still the original castle was there at that time, and today, we can see an old pic of the surviving original one displayed in the new castle. So, this new castle was re-constructed in 1960s and made by reinforced concrete.

In case we want to find an unchanged heritage from a far samurai-era, I recommend to go to the top of the castle, and see the entire view from there. The mountain line was maybe unchanged.

In Aizu area, there was a tragic story related to young samurais in the civil war and a mountain that we can see from this castle tower. At the end of Aizu war, the castle was fell, and juvenile samurais watched it from the mountain, then decided to follow their seniors who died in the war in a way of samurai.

Here was Tsuruga castle, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan.

a samurai who loved a pine tree

Recently, I just listen to podcasts using my ipod, such as ABC's NightLine, CNN or BBC News, while walking. In term of my everyday routines, walking means just going to and from my office. So, walking with listening to news-podcasts, my thinking is always related to topics that the podcasts are talking about. Walking under cherry trees and looking to their full blooms on a way to my office, I think about how lucky the winner of the recent huge jackpot of the lottery in US, Mega Millions, which CNN podcast talked about at the time.

That's strange.

When I took the pic of Tsuruga-castle, ipods had not yet been in showcases of any stores, including Apple stores (I just wonder if there were any Apple stores in this country at that time). So, walking in the castle, instead of an ipod, I just had a book that a famous novelist sketched his travel around here, while citing histories about this castle and samurai culture related to Aize, I mean, around this area. My thinking naturally went to the samurai who loved a pine tree. The samurai, Mr Gamou, originally came from "Oumi" area, which is near Kyoto (former capital of this country) and has the biggest lake. Before coming to Aizu area, Mr Gamou governed the city that is now pretty famous as a source of a good tasted beef, Matsuzaka-beef. So, this city's name is "Matsuzaka", and "Matsu" means "pine tree" in Japanese. So, both cities, Matsuzaka and Wakamatsu (I mean, here, let's see the previous blog) remind us about Mr Gamou's liking for a pine tree.

Here was Aizu-Wakamatsu city, Japan.

young pine tree

Looking at beautiful cherry blossoms over there, I was on parts of the remain of the main gate, "Otte-Mon", of Tusruga-castle, in Aizu-Wakamatu city. This city has been well known for the pretty conservative (in positive meaning) "samurai culture" fostered during Edo-period (from around 1600 to 1860's), partly because the ancestry of its master was a relative to the tycoon of this country, or I can say, "Shogun".

Though a solid samurai-culture had been aged for about 250 years since the tycoon's relative brought the sentiment of Edo (I mean, Tokyo's old name and Shogun's main city) in this area, the original master of the castle was not this relative, but a totally different samurai. He made city's fundamentals and name before 1600. The city's old name was "Waka-matsu", which means "young pine tree". The original master especially liked the pine tree as many people did in his era, cause it associated with an auspiciousness, maybe.

Here was Aizu-Wakamatsu city, Japan.

a house of a legendary bacteriologist

Near the lake, there were a few souvenir shops that also seemed to be cafes serving cups of green-tea or local foods around Inawashiro area. Besides, I found two sightseeing spots around here, except for the lake and mountain. One of them was the well-preserved house where a legendary bacteriologist, Hedeo Noguchi, was born. Maybe, He was well-known by his discovering the agent of syphilis diseases. He was born near this lake in 1870's, more than 130 years ago.

The other sightseeing spot was also related to Mr Noguchi. It was parts of the set and location of this man's biographical movie, which was made around 1992, so a little bit old one.

I watched the movie before, and still remember a particular scene. The scene was that the young mother of Mr Noguchi, in short, young Mrs Noguchi, was catching small shrimps near the shore of this lake for their living. So, looking at the surface of Inawashiro-lake, I knew that there might be lots of shrimps near the shore.

Here was still Inawashiro, Japan.

the mountain famed as a treasure in an old song

I was still on the shore of Inawashiro-lake. Turning back from the lake side, suddenly I faced to a beautiful mountain in the pic. The mountain came to fame as a treasure in an old song, and the song was maybe well-known especially among the elderly. I slightly remember the lyrics. In my imperfect memory, it says that the mountain is a treasure and bamboo leaves look like gold. Maybe, the last phrase of this old song is about a local man who went bankrupt because of his liking for morning drinking, bathing and sleeping. Maybe, kind of a funny song.

The song seemed to be made in the samurai-era in this country, and enjoyed among locals in a harvest festival, I guess.

The song's name is same as the mountain's, which is "aizu-bandai-san". Aizu is the place-name, so people call it "bandai-mountain".

Here was Inawashiro, Aizu, Japan.

walking on a rutted muddy way to the lake

In the old pic, I was walking on a rutted muddy way to Inawashiro-Lake. Maybe, this pic is the oldest e-pic I have in my PC. It was on March or April, 2002. As usual, I was on a business trip to the north part of this country. On Saturday, I mean, on my off-day, I just had a short-trip to a rural area, in short, around this lake, from Koriyama-city that had about 300,000 population at that time.

I walked from the train station and took almost a hour and half-, or maybe, two hours-walk to come here. It was a nicely warm, but cloudy day. I walked around here aimlessly, then, decided to go near the lake.

Both sides of the rutted way in the pic were maybe preconditioned paddle-fields. over there, I found the surface of the lake.This lake is the fourth largest one in this country.

So, the fourth largest one. Maybe, the lake isn't famous by its size. I'm not quite sure honestly whether at first the lake is well-known by people or not. But once being on its shore, I found a solemn, impressive outline of mountains surrounding the lake.

By the way, the lake has an another name, tenkyo-lake, which means "a mirror of the sky".

Here was Inawashiro, Japan