Exploring "the hatchet"

Flashback to August...

"The hatchet" is a nickname we (Americans in Northern Japan) use for the northernmost part of Honshu island. This may be stating the obvious, but take a look the map and note that the northern peninsula (Shimokita peninsula) is hatchet-shaped....thus, the name! Following our successful camping weekend with Sarah and Keenan, we were all itching to get back on the road so we planned a trip to the hatchet! Well, Sarah planned the trip, and we eagerly hopped on board (you may notice this becomes a trend. In fact, if I ever catch up blogging, you will see that we "hopped on board" all the way to Cambodia and Thailand!).

One of the first "attractions" we saw on this outing was "Whale island." Again, you can probably see from the picture why it is called Whale island...

But why is it called Whale island?

After Whale island, we made our way to Hotoke-ga-ura, which is a (almost) mile-long stretch of naturally carved rock formations on the west coast of the Shimokita peninsula. This place was IN-CRED-I-BLE. I should preface this by saying that I am a rock person. And Eric is a rock person. But, wow! Breathtaking.

We had to walk down what seemed like eleventy billion steps to get to the beach from the road in order to walk around the base of the formations. The hike down (and later back UP) was well worth it! To date, this place remains one of the coolest places we have seen. I also have to give some mad props to Eric for his baby-wearing skills! Who says you can't rock scramble with a Bean in your pouch?

Mom, don't show dad this picture!

He moved it a little, I swear! 

Uni!

The Eagle.

"You're telling me I have to walk up ALL these stairs?" -Bean

We explored Hotoke-ga-ura at beach level and then from a lookout point from the road above. It took Eric a few minutes to catch on that the view from the lookout point was Hotoke-ga-ura. When he saw the view in the first picture, he exclaimed, "oh wow, guys, this view is amazing!" The rest of us had already seen the formations by this point, and encouraged him to take another look from our viewpoint. As you can see, he was not impressed...

Sarah had heard that there is a pretty good chance to spot snow monkeys off the road in the area around Hotoke-ga-ura. Keeping this in mind as we drove away from the formations, we all kept an eye out. All of the sudden, we spotted monkeys! Right in the road. Tons of them! The cherry on top was that it was a squad of momma monkeys draped in babies! There are not words to describe the cuteness we witnessed, so I will just have to prove it in pictures.

For dinner, we hit a burger joint in the city of Mutsu. After dinner, we were treated to an Aria of screams by baby Bean. ALL,THE.WAY.HOME. Screaming aside, it was an awesome day in Northern Japan! And the best news is, Keenan and Sarah still hang out with us, which is a win for us, but I cannot speak for them.