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rkoldSaturday April 25 dawned gray and drizzly. I woke up super early but as usual failed to get moving quickly. Erin and I went down to our free breakfast and I tried to figure out what was palatable. I'm horrifically provincial when it comes to breakfast and prefer a very Western breakfast of something sweet (pancakes, waffles, french toast) or something light (oatmeal, regular toast, fresh fruit) with the occasional omelette thrown in. Rice just does not do it for me. >>;
We checked out and then got to walk to try to find the rental car company. It was somewhere on the same street as our hotel but neither of us was sure how far down it was since Japanese maps are only so good lol It turns out it was right near the Animate I had discovered the night before. We spent a little bit of time filling out forms and were given our small silver K-car, "Rolo." (It was small and had a weak "heart"/engine) We piled our bags into Rolo, typed our destination into his GPS and away we went...
The road to Kakunodate is actually pretty straight forward and just consists of taking Route 46. It's not an expressway and we kept expecting we would be getting on one at some point so did not go so fast the first part of the trip. lol
I took random pictures of sakura from the car lol
and snow covered mountains...
We passed a really interesting small dam and what looked like observation area and planned to go back there on the trip back but sadly it did not happen.
We were not so far from Kakunodate when we saw one place where cars were turning off and parking. Having plenty of time, we decided to join them and discovered...
Skunk cabbage!
I'd read a bit about walking in the skunk cabbage when looking into this trip, but had not been terribly interested because of the name. In the case of Japanese skunk cabbage, or perhaps because of the time of year, the name was definitely a misnomer. Instead it had this lovely light floral scent which just made the air seem fresher.
We were able to find a space and after checking out the small farmer's market for longer than we probably should have we set off this explore this free attraction. (Though I think I later donated money.)
The parking lot and above that the road we had been on lol
Erin!
Skunk cabbage grows in swampy areas so wooden paths are put down for people to walk on, I love walking on things like that lol We actually saw them repairing one while we were there.
A path to nowhere, to be distinguished from some of the roads we were on which seemed liked roads to nowhere lol
some sort of pretty wildflower
We went back to the farmer's market and bought things we did not need! I bought dried muscat grapes which do not taste like raisins as well as the best raspberry juice I have ever tasted. We both gave in and bought Limited Edition stamps and Erin bought some weird rice thing on a stake. We then watched 3 little girls do what I assume is a traditional dance. I thought they looked cold.
The official map!
We continued on to Kakunodate and paid quite a bit to park in the lot right next to the train station. Kakunodate is famous for having old samurai houses that are very well preserved, old samurai houses that in season are surrounded by sakura. And because of how far north it is, Kakunodate tends to get its sakura for GW, making it a hugely popular destination with tourists. Despite being on a shink line, it is mostly popular with Japanese tourists though and with a scattering of Western and other Asian tourists.
I'd gone once before in March 1999, but Kakunodate was still in the grips of Winter then and empty lol Fortunately, because it was the first week end of Golden Week, things were less crowded, that and the weather forecast.
The train station done up all cute and touristy
random street we walked down
The temple was being massively renovated
Another temple complete with playground
I'm pretty sure this is Momo
Erin's sakura flavored ice cream, complete with candied blossom
Samurai houses, complete with crowds. This was actually not as crowded as some of the other parts of town.
You couldn't go inside the houses, (at least not the free houses) but you could look in and of course take pictures
Brilliantly colored Camellia
A park I was enjoying taking pictures of sakura in... until Erin got surrounded by Chinese tourists who wanted her picture. And then they wanted my picture too, since how can you beat 2 foreigners! ~.~
Escape into the crowds!
I was so wishing I had gloves lol
Pink Camellia
Japan for hanami is not somewhere to visit if you're afraid of crowds
A wall of pink
We walked down to the river, which is of course lined with sakura
When I passed back over the river on Tuesday to get to Akita all the trees I saw were green instead
The back of the festival booths. The one with the straw type roofing was where the guy was who made puffed rice the traditional way. I wish I had filmed it but I just didn't think. We did get to watch it though! It consisted of heating the rice up in this container that was constantly turned so it would not burned. A whistle was then blown and the rice was then effectively shot out of the tube like it was a canon! I paid 300 yen for a bag and it was delicious! I ate it throughout the trip and still have some left.
We found a tiny cafe to eat in and ate a late lunch/early dinner. I had pasta and a yummy cup of coffee. By the time we were done it had started to rain more. We bought some souvenirs and walked back to the car. We then drove back to Morioka to pick up some supplies and the expressway. We spent too long at the mall and got a late start on our trip to the Pony Inn.
Erin had booked our night in Towada, thinking logically that Towada must be close to Towada-ko (Lake Towada) and so was quite surprised when the GPS told us to stay on the expressway towards Hachinohe and not to go on the split off towards Hirosaki. At this point it was raining very hard and it was quite dark. Japanese expressways do not have lights along them. So we drove along in the pouring rain, jet lag trying to make me fall asleep having no real idea where we were going or how long it would take. We soon passed some signs that I can only imagine were the Japanese equivalent of bear warning signs. They showed a happy looking teddy bear-like bear. However, when we crossed into Aomori-ken the signs changed to show a nasty Polar Bear type bear that looked like he would eat our K-car with us still inside of it. Eventually, the GPS told us to exit and we then traveled along another road for what felt like a long time before we finally arrive at the Pony.
The Pony was supposed to have an onsen and we were told we could get there without exiting the ryokan, but we were both exhausted. However I did snap a few pictures of the room before we set up the futons and fell asleep.
We checked out and then got to walk to try to find the rental car company. It was somewhere on the same street as our hotel but neither of us was sure how far down it was since Japanese maps are only so good lol It turns out it was right near the Animate I had discovered the night before. We spent a little bit of time filling out forms and were given our small silver K-car, "Rolo." (It was small and had a weak "heart"/engine) We piled our bags into Rolo, typed our destination into his GPS and away we went...
The road to Kakunodate is actually pretty straight forward and just consists of taking Route 46. It's not an expressway and we kept expecting we would be getting on one at some point so did not go so fast the first part of the trip. lol
I took random pictures of sakura from the car lol
and snow covered mountains...
We passed a really interesting small dam and what looked like observation area and planned to go back there on the trip back but sadly it did not happen.
We were not so far from Kakunodate when we saw one place where cars were turning off and parking. Having plenty of time, we decided to join them and discovered...
Skunk cabbage!
I'd read a bit about walking in the skunk cabbage when looking into this trip, but had not been terribly interested because of the name. In the case of Japanese skunk cabbage, or perhaps because of the time of year, the name was definitely a misnomer. Instead it had this lovely light floral scent which just made the air seem fresher.
We were able to find a space and after checking out the small farmer's market for longer than we probably should have we set off this explore this free attraction. (Though I think I later donated money.)
The parking lot and above that the road we had been on lol
Erin!
Skunk cabbage grows in swampy areas so wooden paths are put down for people to walk on, I love walking on things like that lol We actually saw them repairing one while we were there.
A path to nowhere, to be distinguished from some of the roads we were on which seemed liked roads to nowhere lol
some sort of pretty wildflower
We went back to the farmer's market and bought things we did not need! I bought dried muscat grapes which do not taste like raisins as well as the best raspberry juice I have ever tasted. We both gave in and bought Limited Edition stamps and Erin bought some weird rice thing on a stake. We then watched 3 little girls do what I assume is a traditional dance. I thought they looked cold.
The official map!
We continued on to Kakunodate and paid quite a bit to park in the lot right next to the train station. Kakunodate is famous for having old samurai houses that are very well preserved, old samurai houses that in season are surrounded by sakura. And because of how far north it is, Kakunodate tends to get its sakura for GW, making it a hugely popular destination with tourists. Despite being on a shink line, it is mostly popular with Japanese tourists though and with a scattering of Western and other Asian tourists.
I'd gone once before in March 1999, but Kakunodate was still in the grips of Winter then and empty lol Fortunately, because it was the first week end of Golden Week, things were less crowded, that and the weather forecast.
The train station done up all cute and touristy
random street we walked down
The temple was being massively renovated
Another temple complete with playground
I'm pretty sure this is Momo
Erin's sakura flavored ice cream, complete with candied blossom
Samurai houses, complete with crowds. This was actually not as crowded as some of the other parts of town.
You couldn't go inside the houses, (at least not the free houses) but you could look in and of course take pictures
Brilliantly colored Camellia
A park I was enjoying taking pictures of sakura in... until Erin got surrounded by Chinese tourists who wanted her picture. And then they wanted my picture too, since how can you beat 2 foreigners! ~.~
Escape into the crowds!
I was so wishing I had gloves lol
Pink Camellia
Japan for hanami is not somewhere to visit if you're afraid of crowds
A wall of pink
We walked down to the river, which is of course lined with sakura
When I passed back over the river on Tuesday to get to Akita all the trees I saw were green instead
The back of the festival booths. The one with the straw type roofing was where the guy was who made puffed rice the traditional way. I wish I had filmed it but I just didn't think. We did get to watch it though! It consisted of heating the rice up in this container that was constantly turned so it would not burned. A whistle was then blown and the rice was then effectively shot out of the tube like it was a canon! I paid 300 yen for a bag and it was delicious! I ate it throughout the trip and still have some left.
We found a tiny cafe to eat in and ate a late lunch/early dinner. I had pasta and a yummy cup of coffee. By the time we were done it had started to rain more. We bought some souvenirs and walked back to the car. We then drove back to Morioka to pick up some supplies and the expressway. We spent too long at the mall and got a late start on our trip to the Pony Inn.
Erin had booked our night in Towada, thinking logically that Towada must be close to Towada-ko (Lake Towada) and so was quite surprised when the GPS told us to stay on the expressway towards Hachinohe and not to go on the split off towards Hirosaki. At this point it was raining very hard and it was quite dark. Japanese expressways do not have lights along them. So we drove along in the pouring rain, jet lag trying to make me fall asleep having no real idea where we were going or how long it would take. We soon passed some signs that I can only imagine were the Japanese equivalent of bear warning signs. They showed a happy looking teddy bear-like bear. However, when we crossed into Aomori-ken the signs changed to show a nasty Polar Bear type bear that looked like he would eat our K-car with us still inside of it. Eventually, the GPS told us to exit and we then traveled along another road for what felt like a long time before we finally arrive at the Pony.
The Pony was supposed to have an onsen and we were told we could get there without exiting the ryokan, but we were both exhausted. However I did snap a few pictures of the room before we set up the futons and fell asleep.
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Date: 2009-05-20 03:50 pm (UTC)The sakura was very pretty though and if I go to Japan for GW again I would definitely go back.