Ryusendo Caves, "Is this a good or bad time for an earthquake?"

In July we escaped the heat with some friends and went underground to explore a cave! Ryusendo Cave in Iwaizumi Town (a little over two hours northwest of Misawa) is huge limestone cave, which was discovered in 1967. The explored area of the cave expands almost 2 miles and including the unexplored area, the cave is estimated to be over 3 miles in length. Huge, deep, crystal-clear, emerald colored lakes are formed underground by fresh spring water. The deepest lake that tourists get to see is over 300 feet. Apparently there is one lake that visitors do not get to see that is nearly 400 feet deep making it the deepest underground lake in Japan.

It takes 30 minutes (to an hour depending on how many kids you have with you and how much you meander) to walk through the cave. In true Japan fashion, the portion through which visitors walk is paved and has stairs with handrails. This does not mean that the stairs were not challenging. They were more like ladders than staircases and were very narrow. They felt quite crowded with a large baby dangling in front. As we walked through the narrow rock tunnels, we debated whether we were in the right or wrong spot for an earthquake. I think we came to consensus that we were in the right spot, but luckily we did not have to test that theory that day...

The lakes, stalagmites, and stalactites were also illuminated by colored lights. And above our heads (in many places), canopies were constructed from thick plastic to prevent visitors from being subjected to poop rain from the (apparently rare) long-eared bats who dwell within.

A stream ran by the outside of the cave and the stream bed was covered with hydrangea- a dream world for me! We had lunch in a nice restaurant and enjoyed some ice cream before heading back toward Misawa.

Stick. 

Hand.

And mouth...

The day took a much longer turn when we diverted on the way home to visit the Kitayamazaki Cliffs. Since I had been to the cliffs before, I stayed in the car with the sleeping babies and Eric and the rest of the crew (who were there for the first time), descended the gazillions of steps (or some portion of them) to check the place out! You can read about about my previous visit to Ktayamazaki and see pictures of it here.

2015 A year of Matsuri-ies: A little bit of this and that

Shichinohe Pizza Festival (May) 

"Main Street" 

If you know Eric and me (even a little bit) you know that we would not be able to pass up a festival with pizza in it. Eric, Bean, Sarah, and I made the trip to Shichinohe for their pizza festival in May. They closed off their "main street" to vehicle traffic and pizza makers from who knows where lined the street to sell their pies. The lines were so long that we divided and conquered. We each came back to our meeting place with a different pizza and Sarah scored a fourth (dessert pizza). All of the pizzas were good (despite being a little weird). I know at least one of them was a curry pizza. The dessert pizza rocked all of our socks- it had a cream cheese based sauce with apples on it. Not even the raisins could ruin it. And if you know me (even a little bit) you know that is saying a lot. 

Long lines! 

Nanohana at Namiki.

One of the most exciting parts of the pizza festival was finding a really cool recycle shop on the corner of the street where the festival was held. This shop owner usually has a "call before you come" policy, but I guess he was open that day to take advantage of the pizza fest crowds. Sarah and I spent a good amount of time perusing the treasures in the store while Eric manned the Bean. That day, I purchased my first tansu, or Japanese storage cabinet. 

As I have said before, when we are in (or anywhere near) Shichinohe, a stop at Namiki for gelato is a must. It was clear that we are not the only ones who have this philosophy. Namiki was very obviously the next stop for the entire pizza fest crowd. The lines for gelato were the longest I have ever seen, but it was a beautiful day so the wait was no problem at all. 

Tanbo Rice Art (July) 

About an hour and a half west of Misawa (99km) sits the town of Inakadate. In 1993 (according to wikipedia, the people of Inakadate were looking for a way to revitalize their town. Upon discovering that they had an over 2000 year history of rice cultivation in the town, they decided to plant a rice field behind the town hall and use the rice paddy as a canvas. Using four different types of rice, they create a giant picture in the field which can be seen aerially. Today there are two different rice paddy canvases in Inakadate. This year, the larger field featured a Star Wars image and the smaller, a scene from Gone with the Wind. 

Yes, we really drove over three hours (round trip) to look at rice. These two were especially appreciative...

Misawa Tanabata Festival (July)

We attended this festival in 2014 as well. You can read about that as well as my knowledge about the significance of the Tanabata festival here. We attended this year mostly because we thought Bean would LOVE running through the streamers. She kind of had not such a great time for the first half of our time there. Her mood improved a little after we fed her some fried chicken and then significantly when we ran into one of her buddies. Running through streamers is always more fun with a buddy! 

Trying to get pumped up!

"Where am I now?"

Zombie baby wonders why we can't just have a simple night at home...

"Run through these streamers," they say. 

"It will be so much fun," they say.

Wishes on trees. 

"Now we're talking, people!"

Happiness is...

Festival of Ten Thousand Lights (August) 

Obon is a week in August in Japan during which Buddhists pay respects to their ancestors and the dead. At the start of Obon, lanterns are lit to guide spirits back to this world for a visit. At Obon's end, the lanterns are put in rivers and streams to guide the spirits home to their world. At the Showa Daibutsu, or Big Buddha, in Aomori (about an hour and fifteen northwest of Misawa), ten thousand lanterns are lit on August 15th (during Obon) each year. Also, monks gather to chant underneath the Buddha. I am a huge fan of chanting (no, seriously), but unfortunately we arrived too late to enjoy it that night. The lanterns were gorgeous though and so was the Buddha illuminated at night. This was actually the first time we had seen the Buddha up close (despite seeing it from afar on the road a number of times). 

I should add that due to this trip in addition to our other travels throughout Asia, Bean now recognizes Buddha and points Buddha (or anything that remotely resembles Buddha) out by literally pointing and shouting, "BOOT HA!" Win. 

I always light a candle for MLG. 

Morioka Funekko Nagashi (August) 

Funekko Nagashi is a festival that takes place in Morioka (2 hours southwest of Misawa) on the final day of Obon. My internet research tells me that it started a little less than 300 years ago after a group of women were killed during a flooding of the Kitakami river. Locals attempted to comfort the spirits of the deceased by placing their names and Buddhist mantras on tablets and floating them on the river. Today, the names of those who died during the year (along with mantras) are placed on roughly 15 large wooden floats. The floats are then set on fire and are dragged down the river by groups of men wearing fundoshi, a traditional Japanese loincloth. The boats are loaded with fireworks so as they burn, rockets and sparks shoot into the air and ash rains down upon the spectators lining the river. Smoke completely fills the air. 

My baby turned one and a half that day.

Randomness outside a shop.

Sarah and I took the Bean to Morioka for the festival. It was our understanding that the burning of the boats began near sunset so we killed a significant amount of time looking for recycle shops (most if which were closed due to it being a Sunday and the last day of Obon) and enjoying a slow dinner at a yummy tonkatsu restaurant. By the time we made it to the river, they were well over half way though burning the boats. Oops! Probably the most exciting thing about the festival was the junebug attack that went down at dusk. They swarmed the entire riverbed! Luckily, they disappeared with the last of the daylight (and just in the knick of time) as Sarah and I were seconds from calling it quits on the whole shebang when the 10th, 11th, and 12th junebugs crashed into our heads. The festival ended with a pretty substantial firework show. Despite missing most of the main attraction, we, as usual, had a really fun day and considered it well worth the trip!