Day 11

August 26th 2007

We woke up around 8am and headed to Morioka station where we picked up some maps that the Tourist Information Center had of Kakunodate and took the train to our destination. We arrived nearly an hour later and started our walk around the old samurai town.

From the station if you head down the hill towards the actual city the collection of samurai era houses are on your right. Ryan and I mistakenly walked the long way around but we got to see a great view of the countryside that we would have otherwise not seen. There is a specific street that has the majority of the old buildings that the samurai used to live in. It was walking through a hole in time. The smells and the sites make you think of a time when everyone walked in their wooden sandals (geta) carrying packages of rice on their backs, with a sword at their belt.

You are able to walk around the outside of most of the houses and some you can go inside as well. There was one of the houses that had been converted into a museum of different armors and tools used back in the feudal era which you have to pay a small sum, but it is definitely worth it. We walked inside the Ishiguro House, which is said to be the oldest and the home of the highest class samurai family. On the English sign outside of the residence it says that a direct descendant of the samurai family gives the tour of the house, which is very large and certainly impressive. We spent around 3 or 4 hours walking through the town before we headed back to Morioka for the last leg of our journey.

We took the shinkansen from Morioka back to Ueno and made our way to take the Tsukuba Express to meet Lower in current place of residence. We arrived around 6pm, transferred our things to his apartment and then headed back into town to attend the Tsukuba Matsuri.

For the festival they had closed some of the main streets from traffic and had extremely elaborate floats running through the streets. It was exactly how you would picture a Japanese festival with people lifting a large wooden shrine on their shoulders, taiko drums playing loudly and people singing and chanting old songs. It was an amazing experience. We spent the night watching the festivities and walking through the small shops selling festival food (yakitori, takoyaki, some even selling hot dogs) and trinkets. It was a great time and if you ever get the chance to attend a summer matsuri, I highly recommend it!!

We settled in for the last night of our trip in Lower’s apartment readying ending Ryan’s last full day of Japan and my last day before travelling to Hirakata to attend university. In my next post I will tell you how to use the JR East Pass, and the shinkansen, because we found out in the latter half of our travels in Tohoku that at first we were doing it totally wrong, so until then!

 

Day 10

August 25, 2007

We decided to relax this day on our trip, as our journey in Northern Japan was coming to a close soon. We woke up and put our bags by the front desk and just went for a walk around Hakodate. We had breakfast, ate some ice cream but didn’t do anything too exiting. Around noon we headed to the station to go back to Tohoku, and got on our train to Aomori.

We arrived at Aomori around 5pm and went to the tourist information center to see if they could reserve us a place to stay at Kakunodate, however they told us that something was going on in Kakunodate that night and all the hotels and ryokans were booked so we decided to go back to Morioka for another night at the Kumagai Ryokan.

Taking the shinkansen back to Morioka we arrived at Kumagai Ryokan without a problem, and since we didn’t try reimen the last time we were there, we ventured out to find a restaurant that served it. As I described before, reimen is cold noodles with kimchi, and to be honest it did not fit my fancy. I guess I just prefer hot noodles, I’m not exactly sure. I do recommend that you try reimen if you get the chance just to have the experience but don’t get your hopes up too high, and who knows it might fit your tastes!!

We spent the rest of the night, before heading to bed, walking around Morioka at night to places we had not already visited. We found a Mister Donut and had some coffee and donuts there, then enjoyed the sights of Morioka at night. As I said this was our rest day, unfortunately things did not go as planned, we were hoping to explore Kakunodate and stay there for the night, but at least we were not sleeping at a train station or some other place not as comfortable as Kumagai Ryokan.

Next time I will talk about the last full day of our trip, going to Kakunodate and finally to Tsukuba in Ibaraki-ken. Until then!!

 

Day 9 Part 2

Continuing from where I left off, we ventured to Mitsuishi Temple (Three Rocks Temple) the site of the devil’s (or demon’s) hand prints.  Another English information sign for you:

Mitsuishi (Three Rocks) and the Demon’s Hand Prints

According to legend, long ago, in this district, there lived a demon called Pasetsu which was always causing trouble. The inhabitants prayed to the god of Mitsuishi and then the god bound the demon to the three rocks. The demon swore he would torment the people no more and that he would never com to this district again. The god made the demon put a handprint on one of the three rocks as the sign of his promise and then let the demon go.
It is said that the handprint on the three rocks (Mitsuishi) are the origin of the name of Iwate Prefecture (which literally means “rock-hand”).

At the temple are three very large rocks (go figure) and the handprints are very interesting.

From Mitsuishi we walked back to Kumagai Ryokan and proceeded to the train station to start our trek to Hakodate. We rode the shinkansen to Aomori then we had to switch to a train to go through the Seikan Tunnel, which actually travels underwater beneath the Tsugaru Strait from Northern Honshu to the Hokkaido region. The trip took at least three to four hours total and we had to buy the ticket for the train that travelled from Aomori to Hakodate because the JR East pass does not cover that area.

Hakodate

By the time we reached Hakodate it was getting dark, so we went to the next and most expensive ryokan, Ichinomatsu Ryokan, and dropped off our bags. In Hakodate the easiest way to get around is by trolley (streetcar, or tram), so at the station we bought two 1day tickets because we figured it would cost us less in the end as we would be riding more than three times. The cost to ride the trolley a single time was around 200 yen and the cost of the all day ticket cost 600 yen.

After we dropped off our luggage we headed to Mt. Hakodate and took the ropeway to the observatory which offered a 360 degree view of the city. A round trip ticket on the ropeway cost 1160 yen but the view was worth it. After coming back down the mountain we went on the walking tour in a pamphlet we obtained at the tourist information center. What is really nice about Hakodate is that first; it is much cooler temperature-wise than any of the previous cities we had visited, and second; at night I expect it is a seasonal thing) they light significant sites of the city for the tourists to take pictures of them at night from 8pm to 10pm I believe. Walking around the city was very refreshing and the sites were beautiful, the pictures will be on the flickr shortly.

We hopped back on the trolley to go back to the ryokan and went to sleep. In the next post I will detail what we did on our day in Hakodate then going back to Northern Honshu for our final leg of our Tohoku trip, visiting Kakunodate, the city of samurai residences, until then!

 

Day 9 Part 1

August 24, 2007

We woke up early to go on about four of the walking tours that we got from the Tourist Information Center that we combined into one long walk. First thing I want to say is that I love walking in Japan, just walking is an experience in and of itself because you will see so many differences in architecture, land, and people. We started going to a monument that was across Nakatsu-gawa, we had a hard time finding it because it was basically a polished stone with Japanese written on it with no English explanation, but the walk to find it was nice so it was worth it.

From there we headed back over the river towards the remains of Morioka Castle. I say remains because duing the Meiji Restoration it was destroyed, but it is still a nice sight to see because the walls still stand and you can walk through it without a problem. Here is what the English information said outside the site:

THE SITE OF MORIOKA CASTLE, IWATE PARK

Construction of Morioka Castle started in 1597 and it became the residence for Nambu, the lord of the Morioka Clan in 1633.
The castle was built on a hill near the confluence of the kitakami and Nakatsu Rivers. It was made up of three major buildings; Honmaru, the main building where the lord lived and worked, Ninomaru, the second building where official business of the clan was carried out, and Sannomaru, the third building which was used for Shinto rituals. The castle’s stone foundation walls were made from local granite and in some parts stones were heaped up in different ways in different ages.
The castle buildings were totally demolished in 1874. The Iwate Prefectural Government made the old castle grounds into Iwate Park and opened it to the public in 1906. The Morioka City Government gained full ownership of the park in 1934. The grounds of Morioka Castle were registered as a national historic site in 1937.
Many residents of Morioka visit Iwate Park, which harmonizes with the impressive old stone walls, to enjoy seasonal changes through the year; cherry blossoms in spring, fresh green leaves in summer, red and yellow leaves in autumn, and snowscape in winter.

We exited the castle grounds from the North exit and took a few pictures of the temple located near the exit then headed further North to see the Rock-Breaking Cherry Tree (Ishiwarizakura 石割桜 ) in front of the district courthouse. It is quite an impressive thing to see. Not to burden this site with quotes from informational tablets or anything but it says it better than I could so here it is:

The Ishiwarizakura is one of Morioka’s most famous symbols of the spirit; endurance against all hardships, even the impossible; a cherry tree growing from solid granite.
Moreover, the beautiful delicate petals come and fall each April and they have been growing for the past 350-400 years.
Standing strong in front of the Morioka courthouse, the uniqueness of this is such that it has been designated a national treasure, dear to all who take pride in being from Morioka.

From the Rock-Splitting Cherry Tree we went on our way North-East to Hoonji Temple. We kind of got lost on our way there, so when I asked one of the policeman at a koban where it was he actually led us to the temple and told us to have a good time (Japanese police are awesome). Hoonji was considered the head temple among the 208 operated by the Nambu Clan. One of the reasons it is worth your time to take the 20 minute or so walk out there is that it is the home of Rakando (Statues Hall), which has the extremely impressive statues of 500 disciples of Buddha made of wood and finished with Japanese lacquer. Included within the display are statues of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Yet another English information stand was present:

Hoonji was first built in Sannohe in 1394 under the authority of Lord Moriyuki Nambu. In 1601 at the time of Lord Toshinao Nambu the temple was moved to its present location. Hoonji belongs to the Zen sect of Buddhism called Sotoshu. The temple precincts covers an area of 23,000 saim, which contains facilities for the ascetic practice of Zen. the main temple building is dedicated to the Buddha Sakyamuni. The upper story of the temple gate enshrines the Eleven Faces of the Goddess of Mercy jichimen kanzeonbosatsu. The Hall of Disciples of Buddha rakando houses the five hundred disciples of Buddha which profoundly surround the Buddha Biroshana biroshanabutsu. The Zen temple dedicated to the Buddist saint monjubosatsu contains room for up to fifty disciples.

After leaving Hoonji we went to Mitsuishi Temple because of the devil’s handprints. Because this post is going to be extremely long, it was our busiest day of our trip, I will make a part 2 to this which will follow shortly, until then!