Akita

On Thursday October 18th, I went to Akita with my host family. I woke up pretty early and ended up going to my host dad's company (where my host mom also works). It was a bit smaller than I was expecting (I knew that my dad was a company president but I wasn't sure how big the company was), but it was nice.
My host dad's company seems more laid back in some ways compared to bigger companies. The other worker who was at the desk next to my hdad's was using more casual language with my hdad even though he is the president which was interesting to note. Anyway I'm glad I was able to see where my host parents work!
At around 11 we went to Tokyo Station and got on the Shinkansen we were taking. I regret to buying a duffle bag with wheels on it in America, but oh well. That was my first time riding on a Shinkansen, so I was pretty excited. For lunch we ate a gyudon ekiben (a bento sold at train stations). The weather was a bit cloudy and gloomy. The mountains here are so amazing. I guess I'm still not used to seeing them. It was 4 hour train ride, but overall it went by pretty fast. It would have been 8 hours by car.  I really enjoyed watching the scenery pass by; I got to see a lot of country side areas, fields, and flowers still blooming. Some of the leaves on the trees were starting to change color too, an event called kouyou in Japanese. Kouyou seems pretty important here, I've heard that word a lot this past month (I don't really think it's such a huge thing in America). The further north we got the more mountains we passed by and through. The last hour and a half was all mountains. It was beautiful. Sometimes would go through tunnel so it was dark, but then there would be these amazing scenes of mountainsides once we got outside again. It really moved me.

We got to Akita City around 4 and headed to our hotel. They ended up reserving a room just for me (which I didn't know about in advance). I felt a bit bad since I wasn't sure if my host family was spending beyond their means to make me comfortable. But I was really thankful. For dinner that night we went to a nearby yakitori place. I was pretty tired by this point, but the food was delicious. I ended up eating too much. We tried some Akita dishes (I remember one was called donburi) and had some Akita Nihonshu (which I'm not a huge fan of) as well.

The next morning a taxi came to take us to Shirakami-sanchi, which is a UNESCO world heritage site (you should read more about it here :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirakami-Sanchi) which was two hours away from Akita City. During the drive I got to see more of the city and Akita prefecture. The city reminded me a bit of South Bend in that the city is more spread out and there are bigger grocery stores, etc. Definitely a different vibe and area from Tokyo. The city has about 300,000+ people living there (so it's bigger than my home town), but it was still referred to as the inaka or country-side by my host parents. I mean there isn't much there, and there are a lot of farms around the city, and it is a really different city compared to Tokyo, so I guess in some ways it was pretty inaka.
Anyway, our taxi driver was from Akita, so I got to hear my first bit of Akita-ben. Throughout Japan there are different dialects (Tokyo Japanese is the standard version I guess), so sometimes it's pretty difficult to understand what someone is saying when they are using the dialect (which is standard for them). I could hardly understand what he was saying and my host parents told me later that they had a difficult time understanding him too. When we were getting closer to Shirakami-sanchi, we drove next to the Sea of Japan for a while! The coast was pretty rocky (so I don't think many people go swimming there), but the scene was breathtaking. Especially when the sun came out.

So far I've failed to mention how cold it was in Akita, about 46 degrees in the morning! A big change from the 70s in Tokyo. It was refreshing and nice to get away from Tokyo for a bit. The air was crisp and fresh, especially at Shirakami-Sanchi. Our taxi driver was also our guide at the mountain! There wasn't much/any hiking involved (though some walking) since the area is a world heritage site and you need special permission to hike the actual mountains. The areas we were able to go to though were stunning. There were trees everywhere, and some of the leaves were starting to change color (it would have been great to be there when the leaves were fully changed). At one spot we saw some huge fish (I can't remember their name but our guide told me there were a lot of them around Russia) and a decent sized pond (there are many ponds there). Next we went to look at a pond called aoike (literally blue pond). This was probably my favorite spot at Shirakami-sanchi. The bond was strikingly blue, and some of the leaves had turned yellow around the pond, so the contrast was really beautiful (especially when the yellow leaves would gently fall down into the pond, so pretty and peaceful!). We did some more walking and saw some more ponds and forest area. At one spot there was a waterfall with an area where you could drink the water (which was also unbelievable beautiful). We also drank macha tea there too. I can't do the area justice by describing it. All I can say is that it was really beautiful.

Before we left we stopped at an area known as Nihon Canyon (Japan's Great Canyon lol). To get close the the mountain side we had to walk through a rocky stream area. The rocks there were orange and gray and all over the place. The actual "canyon" area was pretty beautiful too. While I was there I kept thinking of the Geology class I took at Earlham lol.

On the way back to Akita city we ate at a restaurant near the Sea of Japan (you could see the sea from the windows!). I had ika sashimi (squid) which was soooo good. The atmosphere at the restaurant was great. The sea was beautiful, there was relaxing jazz music in the background, and the food was great.
Next we stopped at kanpuzan, another mountain, where we could get a 360 degree view of the area below (which used to be a huge lake but after ww1? there wasn't much food so they took out the water and turned the land into fields-according to taxi driver). Kanpuzan wasn't as fun as Shirakami-sanchi, but the views there were great.

As the sun started to set over the Sea of Japan we continued to the hotel. Once we got there I took quick bath in the shared bath area with my host mom and brother then we all went out to eat. Earlier I mentioned that I was a bit worried about them spending beyond their means, but we literally ate at three different restaurants for dinner that night (maybe they were still spending beyond their means but really, three different restaurants). First we went back to the yakitori place (my host dad was working the night before so he didn't get to go) which was delicious again. This time we sat by the grill area so it was interesting to see the workers actually make yakitori.
Then we went to a themed restaurant. There we had a lot of different food and drinks (I had my first nabe, delicious). The main reason why we went there was to see the namahage show. Namahage are these demonlike things native to Akita who carry around these knives to scare lazy children (look on Wikipedia for a more in-depth description lol). Our room was the last room to be visited by the Namahage, but when they show first started my little host brother hid under the table. It was actually a bit scary waiting for them to come since we could hear them with their loud footsteps and loud voices. When they actually came though I started laughing just because the whole thing was fun I guess. The spoke (yelled) in Akita ben, so it was a bit hard to understand them, but basically they were telling us to make sure we do our best at work and school and that if we became lazy they would chop off our hands (or something like that) I was able to take a group picture with them, which was pretty cool. When we left the restaurant they were outside too, so my little host brother started freaking out (which was kinda funny). Finally we went to a ramen place that my host dad recommended since he went there the night before (we also had curry there, so much food that night).

Saturday was our last day in Akita. My host mom wanted to take me to a glass bowl (etc.) making place, where you could actually make one I think, but it was a bit far away and when she called they were pretty much booked for the day. So we ended up going to a museum about Akita festivals close to our hotel. In Akita the have this one festival during the summer, called the Kanto festival, where men balance these huge poles with lanterns on them on their head (sometimes)! The festival looks pretty amazing, but the museum was a bit boring so we didn't stay there long. Basically there wasn't much to do in Akita City. We went to a super market to buy lunch and some omiyage, but after that there wasn't much to do. Our Shinkansen ticket wasn't until 3:40 or so, but since my host family wanted to leave earlier, they bought an earlier Shinakansen ticket (for a different type of Shinkansen, it made more stops than the one we took to get to Akita). Everyone was feeling a bit sick and tired by then (and my host brother was crying a lot because of this), so we all just slept on the ride back.

Overall I had an amazing time in Akita, and I'm so glad and thankful my host family planned this trip!~