Looking for Leaves and a Real Deep Lake

My friends and I often marvel about our new-found appreciation of nature, which developed after moving to Japan. I always thought I appreciated nature. I always liked flowers and trees, The Lorax was a childhood favorite, I picked up trash whenever I saw it, and I was a founding member of the Freedom Court Earthsavers Club. But it wasn't until we moved to Japan that I learned to travel distances to see nature; to experience nature; to look at nature; to truly appreciate nature. And when I say, "travel distances" I mean sometimes hours. Yes, sometimes we drive hours to look at flowers or leaves or rocks or snow.

Since I last blogged, seasons have passed.  I have gone to bed each night vowing to "catch up on the blog"...yet again. I feel like I am always behind, and sometimes I feel like giving up my attempt to chronicle these chronicles. But I return again and again to try to capture our memories; the sweet moments of this life that I appreciate so deeply.

Since I last blogged, we traveled to another island for a snow festival, spent countless hours admiring the blossoms of spring, and crossed the Pacific to spend some summer days in the salty water of the Atlantic. And now, here we are in the thick of summer, sweating it out day in and day out. It is a welcome escape from the humidity to think about the cooler temperatures of the fall, and to remember our search for the changing autumn foliage. Last autumn, that search lead us southwest of Misawa to a valley called Dakigaeri, a town called Kakunodate, and a lake called Tazawa.

One day last November, Sarah, Keenan, Eric, the Bean, and I piled into a car and made our way to Dakigaeri valley; a valley in the Akita prefecture of the Tohoku region of Japan (same region- different prefecture- as Misawa). The Tama-gawa (Tama river) flows through the valley and along the river there is a footpath, which meanders over bridges, through tunnels & caves, and past waterfalls. The Dakigaeri Shrine (a Shinto shrine) stands at the start of the footpath and enshrines the God of rain. The whole area is serene and a perfect place to admire the fiery colors of fall leaves.

Oh, the mittens!

Keenan & Sarah!

After spending a peaceful hour or so in the gorge, we got back in the car and went to a town called Kakunodate, which is near the Tazawa lake. I actually learned since visiting that Kakunodate officially merged with the town of Tazawa in 2005 to become the city of Semboku. Kakunodate is historically known for its well-preserved Samurai houses and beautiful cherry blossom trees (we may have to revisit to hanami there next spring). It has been referred to as the "little Kyoto of Tohoku." After seeing the town in the fall, I can attest to the fact that they can also boast some pretty jaw-dropping Japanese maple trees, too.

Sarah learned that Kakunodate is renowned for cherry tree woodwork, lacquerware, and a particular style of pottery. We, of course, spent some time (too much if you ask Keenan and Eric) choosing our mementos to take home from this region. After Sarah and I overcame our indecisiveness and picked out our treasures, we left Kakunodate and arrived at Tazawa-ko (lake Tazawa) with sufficient daylight to drive the perimeter of the lake before sunset.

Tatsuko 

 Tazawa-ko is the deepest lake in Japan and the 17th deepest lake in the world at 423ish meters (over 1,000 ft)! Tazawa is associated with the mythological Tatsuko, maiden of beauty, who, after wishing for eternal youth and beauty was turned into a lake goddess. After circling the lake, taking some time to photograph the ever-beautiful Tatsuko, and coming to the conclusion that we need to camp at Tazawa next fall (so pretty!), we happened upon a brewery.

Unable to pass up an opportunity to try some new beer, we stopped to watch the sunset over the lake and try the local brew. The beer was only meh, but the sunset was spectacular and the perfect ending to a beautiful day with friends. Well, the long drive home was the real ending to the day, but it was, as it always is, totally worth it. 

Look how little I was! 

Herg B & B: August to October

One of the scariest things about moving to the other side of the world was wondering if we would be lonely or whether there would be long stretches of time between visits with loved ones. Thanks to some very special loved ones willing to make the arduous journey up to Misawa, neither of these worries became realities. We have been fortunate to host numerous visitors and have loved our time with each of them.

Our first visitor was Pop Pop H! We got really lucky that he had to start coming to Tokyo for business. After a week in Tokyo for work, he made his way up to Misawa for a weekend visit. On our first day out and about, we tried to take Big Jer on a drive through the Oirase Gorge, but the road was closed due to flooding. Instead, we ended up making our way to the Hakkoda mountains and took the ropeway up to the top. This was a very stressful experience for Jerry as he is afraid of heights, but he hung in there- just kept his eyes closed and his head down for most of it! Sadly, it turned out torturing him with heights wasn't even worth it! While it had been a beautiful day at the bottom of the mountain, it was a different story at the top. It was cold, foggy, and very windy! We zipped around the walking path at the top pretty quickly, then made our way back down. Jerry was thrilled that we did two of his favorite activities...heights and hiking, but he was a good sport and didn't hold it against us. He even treated us to beers and snacks at the Oirase Brewery on the way home.

Sulfur lake on the way to Hakkoda

We were supposed to visit the Misawa Summer festival that night to show Jerry a little bit of culture and get our dinner from the food vendors. Unfortunately, we got back later than expected and were all pretty tired. We opted to pizza and beer at home. Sarah and Keenan joined us and had a chance to meet Big Jer: the man, the myth, the legend...

The next day we drove along the coast to the Tanesashi Beach, which is a grassy beach alongside some neat rock formations. On our way to the beach, we made a stop at a shrine that is supposed to be completely overrun by Seagulls. Unfortunately (or fortunately since we didn't end up getting pooped on), we hit "Seagull Shrine" during a part of their migration pattern where they are away from the shrine...not a gull in sight! Regardless, it was cool to walk up to the shrine and take a look. We were treated to a great view of Hachinohe. It was a gorgeous day to stroll around Tanesashi. We had lunch at a little cafe and then got apple ice cream cones to eat while walked off our lunch.

Yoshino's

That night, we went to a popular (and a little fancier than most of the restaurants in Misawa)  steakhouse for dinner. It is called Yoshino's and is what we would call a hibachi style restaurant minus a lot of the theatrics. They serve shrimp, but they do not toss it across the room for you to catch with your mouth. This was Eric's and my first time at Yoshino's and we very much enjoyed the experience!

Jerry's visit was short but sweet! He was off on a plane back to the states the next day. Not long after he left, we had the pleasure of having Anna and John join us in Misawa for a long weekend. I reminisced about their visit here, but I will say it again and again: we loved having them here with us and did not want to see them go!

Lourdes arrived in September. I met her in Tokyo (Eric was traveling for work) and we had a whirlwind of a few days there. We packed in as much as we possibly could! We kicked off our time in Tokyo with a rickshaw ride through Asakusa. We had a great driver who adored little Bean...she played hard to get, but eventually warmed up to him as well. Lourdes and I did many of the things Eric and I had done in Tokyo the previous year to include: Senso-Ji Temple, the 8th floor (free) observation deck in Asakusa (which is a great bird's eye view of the approach to Senso-Ji and the river), the river cruise on the Sumida, Hama-rikyu Garden, Meiji Jingu Shrine, and walking around Shibuya (the crosswalk, Omotesando, and Harajuku), and Ginza. You can read more about these places here.

Hama-rikyu Garden 

Koi pond in Imperial Garden

Not included in this blog entry: the tale of my epic journey to Tokyo with Bean... let's just say that I needed room service pizza & beer as badly and as quickly as Bean needed to stretch out and roll around. 

45th floor!

I also added a few things to our Tokyo itinerary that I had not done before. First of all, we stayed at the New Sanno Hotel, which is a hotel for service members and their dependents. We had an excellent experience there. It is conveniently located and very comfortable. The rooms are American sized, which was great since Lourdes, Bean, and I were bunking together. We visited the Imperial Palace, which really just meant visiting the garden as no one is permitted to enter the actual royal residence. It took us two attempts to actually see the gardens (we got their after is closed the first time). The gardens were beautiful and the weather was really nice if not a little hot. The last "new" Tokyo experience for me was visiting the 45th floor observation deck in the government building in Shinjuku. Man, was it a hike to get there from the subway, but it was well worth it! Really cool views of the city at night! Our time in Tokyo (as usual) was peppered with great meals at little places we just happened to stumble upon. We had a wonderful time there.

When we returned to Misawa (we took the Shinkansen or "bullet train" back so Lourdes could experience that as well- it is clean, comfortable, roomy, and fast), our pace slowed quite a bit. Bean needed a few days weeks to recuperate. We were also kind of waiting on Eric to get back from his trip... even though we moved at a slower pace, we still managed to show Lourdes quite a bit. We visited the Fish Market in Hachinohe, Tanesashi Beach, and a town near Lake Towada. We hiked a portion of the Oirase Gorge, looked for sea glass and floats on local beaches and on a beach we Americans call "Shipwreck Beach," which is about an hour away. Our biggest trip while she was in Northern Japan was to Osorezan, which I talk about in much more detail here.

At luncheon after golf

Lourdes accompanied me to one of my preschool classes to watch me teach English. She also joined me on a spouse's outing where we played a version of mini golf and enjoyed a lovely and delicious luncheon with a Misawa women's group. Lourdes took regular walks around base with Bean and enjoyed a lovely dinner at Yoshino's with Eric. She really enjoyed Japan and was already thinking about her next trip before she was gone! We can't wait to have her here again!

Oirase Gorge

Tanesashi Beach

Yoshino's night!

We had just about enough time to change the sheets and clean the house before my great aunt and uncle paid us a visit! They were visiting Tokyo (as they had lived there for three years...in the 70s...I believe...) and graciously decided to make the trek up to Misawa to see us. They have seen a lot of Japan, but this was their first time this far north. They, too, were just here for a long weekend so we tried to show them some highlights.

I must say that Eric and I are going to get a reputation for torturing people who fear heights with heights. We wanted to drive Vince and Gayle through the Oirase gorge up to Lake Towada because the weekend they were here was supposed to be the peak weekend to see the changing autumn foliage. However, because it was the peak weekend, the road through the gorge was closed to POVs (open only to walkers). Gayle was having problems with her foot and was unable to walk long distances, so we decided  to try a different route to the Lake.

I should back up and say that when we first mentioned "gorge," uncle Vince and hemmed and hawed a little because he really does not enjoy heights. We assured him that the road through the gorge went through the bottom of the gorge so you are mostly looking up and not down...well, the alternate route to Lake Towada was definitely higher up and much....cliffier...for lack of a better term. Uncle Vince held on tight and gritted his teeth up down to the lake.

Once there, we enjoyed a lovely lunch and a walk through the town and along the lake where we got some beautiful views of the changing leaves. On the way home, we stuck Vince in the corner of the car where he would have the fewest views of the abyss...and he was just fine!

This was the second time we were fortunate enough to share a long weekend with Vince and Gayle. They hosted us a few years back in Tulsa and now we have had the opportunity to host them in our home. We so love our time with them. They have wonderful stories and we always share a lot of laughs. On this visit, we laughed especially hard about uncle Vince's love of the band Weezer (please forgive me for including an inside joke...this had to be written).

Long story short, from August to October, we ate well, drank well, and stayed really busy! It was a fabulous few months!