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Yay, the ice festival. It was really nice. We got their about an hour before it started getting dark out, because it’s prettiest to see the ice sculptures all lit up, and they had paths lined with candles in little snow igloos. They had a path lit up all the way down to the lake, where they had these bronze statues of these neked maidens. We don’t know what they represented, because the plaque was only written in Japanese, but K and I agree that we’ll come back when we can read it and figure out what it was about.

Then we walked back to the main festival area, and they had booths set up with all kinds of food. They also had this deal, where you buy a 2007 Towada Ice and Snow Festival commemorative shot glass of mulled wine for 500 yen, and you get free refills for the rest of the day. Quite a good deal I’d say, only 5 bucks to get trashed, lol. They also had these huts made out of snow with benches and tables made out of snow that you could go in and sit down and have a drink. They also had these 10’ tall walls of snow with nooks cut out of them and lights in all the nooks. They had a big ice slide that you could ride down with a sled or on your bum.

They had a really fun show with these guys playing Japanese drums, and they had a guy on later that was playing a Japanese guitar like instrument (I don’t know what it was called). Then for the finally, they had a really nice fireworks display. It was a real nice trip, and I’d recommend it to anyone who was in the area during February. The drive up was a bit nerve racking though, because you have to drive through this gorge that gets tons of snow. They plow it, so it makes 10’ high walls of snow on the side of these very narrow 2 lane road that you have to share with busses and big trucks. I almost got hit coming around a sharp corner by a bus that was a bit over the line. It was really pretty in the gorge though, with a creek in the middle, and the trees all covered with snow.

Traditional festival singers

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Kakunodate Samurai houses

12 September 2007

We went to Kakunodate in Akita Prefecture on Saturday, it was about 3 hours away from Misawa. It looked like it was gonna rain all day, but when we got there it cleared up nicely, and in fact got pretty warm. We got lucky too, cause they were having a festival when we got there. The festival was very similar to the Nabuta, except that it was during the day and not lit up. It seemed like the whole town was in it too, cause there were tons of people dressed in costume. Well, the first place we stopped in town was the Ishiguro Samurai manor. It was really well preserved, and tastefully decorated. The first room we saw was a room where high ranking guests would be given tea and refreshments. The second room is one that they used during the spring and summer because it opened up onto the garden. Then the rest of the house was turned into a museum that displayed implements used during that time period, including some pretty kimonos.

The next place we visited was called the Aoyagi Samurai Manor, and was quite a bit bigger then the Ishiguro manor. Here’s the link to their site: http://www.samuraiworld.com/english/index.html The main gate was pretty big and architecturally impressive, apparently that is a sign of prestige in feudal Japan, and it “symbolized the social prestige of their owners. It was built after the family was given special permission by the lord of Kakunodate as a reward for their contribution to the domain.” The grounds are really beautiful, I’ve attached a map of the grounds that was on the back of the pamphlet they gave us. The main house itself has a thatched roof which I found interesting, cause it had plants growing outta it XD It’s cool though, cause they re-thatch it every year or so.

The armory was pretty cool, they had all sorts of weapons like spears, armor and swords on display. The folk museum was interesting too, it had lots of different folk art on display and a ton for sale. I got little usagi (bunny) and neko (cat) dolls made outta hand woven fabric, they’re really cute A lot of the “items on display have been designated as important cultural properties from the national, prefectural or municipal governments.”

OMG, the pond was crazy, it had a dozen giant koi (carp) in it. I mean these things were at least 2 feet long, and they kinda freaked me out XD

We didn’t eat at the restaurant there, cause we figured it’d be way overpriced, it did look pretty though. So instead we opted for some soba at a restaurant down the street. We had some cold soba that was really good especially since it was getting pretty darn warm outside by then. We walked around a bit more then, and stopped at a tea house, and had some very good tea made the traditional way with the whisk and powder. It came with a cute little sweet made from mochi and filled with azuki bean paste, which is a very common filling for Japanese sweets. From anime you’ll probably recognize taiyaki (see the pic below) which is filled with the bean paste. We didn’t have any taiyaki there though, but it’s a very common festival food. I’ve even found some sold at malls from vendors.
Well, I think that’s it for today. We’re not going on another trip till the end of October, but I keep trying to remind myself to bring the camera with me to the mall. I’ll see what I can do.

A pretty garden.

A comfy room.

Hand woven items.

Sword hilts.

A family shrine, it has white fox statues in it, but I’m not sure what the significance is.

Giant carp!

A well.

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Aomori City

The Nabuta festival is during the middle of summer and is a fun way to forget about the heat. Lots of people dress up in the traditional festive garb and participate in the parade. You can rent an outfit from many shops, but they’re pretty expensive. The festival consits of many floats being pulled by hand followed by dancers and people playing flutes, drums and cymbols. It’s a very fun atmosphere with lots of food vendors and booths with souviners. As the dancers follow the route they shout “Rasera rasera raseraserasera!” It’s very catchy, and the drums are so loud you can feel it in your bones. I’d highly recomend it if you can only make it for one festival. You can also check out wikipedia for more info too.

So cute ^^

A gigantic drum.

They got light up hats.

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Sendai

Sendai is northern Japan’s fashion and electronics center. We took a bus trip down there from Misawa which was a 4 hour drive. When we got there we realized the train station was right downtown and we could have saved ourselves 3 hours of traveling but oh well XD live and learn. So we had about 5 hours to walk around there, and it was raining out XD It was clear in Misawa so we didn’t even think to bring an umbrella with us lol. The whole down town is practically an outside mall, there is so many stores. Oh, and tons of arcades ^^ I really enjoyed those, I played a couple UFO (claw game) machines but didn’t win anything ; ; I really tried to get a Piplup (pokemon) plush, it was huge, but the Japanese claw games are much harder the the American one cause most only have 2 claws instead of 3 or 4. A big majority of the outdoor shopping area is covered so we were dry for the most part. Oh, at one of the intersections there was a big clock that when it struck the hour and half hour it played a melody and panels rotated around and little guys played instruments.

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Towada jinja (shrine)

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A Torii gate leading to the temple grounds.

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So, I’m by no means an expert on Shinto customs, but it seems to me that this is part of the ritual of cleansing before you go to a shrine. I know the picture isn’t that great, but it’s a metal dragon with water coming out of its mouth. Sitting on the side is a metal cup on a stick that you first rinse off twice with the water coming out, and then on the thrid you take a drink. Also, you can see little glass containers on the back there, it’s a sake offering.

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The front of the main temple at Towada, I dunno what it’s called. The area has this nice quiet peaceful feel.

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A couple getting their fortunes. I’m not entirely sure on the ritual, but you go up the step, spread your arms to your side, bring them together and clap, do that twice, then bow with your hands together, then you put in your offering (there was a box with a sign on it for 100 yen), ring the bell twice, and then take a paper out of another box with your fortune on it. After you read it you tie it to a fence that they have in front of the temple.

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Little shrines next to the temple.

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A shrine in the middle of the town.

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A shrine on a little island in the lake.

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