..and then we almost died!
May. 20th, 2009 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rkoldI know everyone is looking forward to pictures of our visit to Jesus' grave as well as our snow storm lol
Sunday morning was incredibly rainy.. like in that sort of buckets from heaven way. It seemed a dumb idea to go to Hirosaki since that would just consist of walking around in pouring rain trying to get pictures and generally being miserable. So instead since it was not so far away and slightly on the way to our next ryokan we decided to first visit Jesus' grave. For those who missed the story, the village of Shingo in Aomori-ken decided that Jesus did not die on the cross it was his identical twin brother Isukiri. Instead Jesus made it to Aomori-ken where he became a rice farmer. And now you too can visit his grave as well as that for Isukiri.. so long as you are willing to drive in Japan and risk blizzards.
But first there was our morning at Pony and Towada City. We decided to check out the baths which turned out to be... a huge public sento. We got to use them for free since we were staying there, but this sento was *THE PLACE* to be in Towada and chock full of local residents. It was sort of cool in that respect and we got a few curious stares from small children, but the baths did feel nice. There was something outdoors, I am not sure if it was natural or not, but it was sort of rainy and miserable so I only looked and did not actually go in.
We got a free breakfast with our room, Japanese style of course, so I mostly picked at things until the kind people serving us offered to cook my egg. I got mine scrambled and wow... it was really.. really yummy. lol
We then set off to drive around Towada city to look for some horse statues Erin wanted to see and to see the "Road of sakura." I am sure the sakura would have been gorgeous and I would have taken hundreds of pictures and made Erin park, but it was pouring rain and it just did not make me want to take pictures lol
We did pull over to take a picture of these houses. I got really wet in the process lol
Inaka! (on the way to Shingo which we were trying to get to with the help of our GPS)
The map of the Shingo area at Jesus' grave. As should be sort of obvious, Shingo was not much of city lol The large blue area is Towadako. We are of course near the red. We were thinking of going to the farm, that red dot near where the road is curving and then on up to the lake. The museum said they didn't open until late April, but was this late April, it was unclear lol
The view from the walking path to Jesus' grave
The road we had just taken going back towards Towada, this is the BIG road in the area.
The story as only the Japanese can tell it. I wonder if he got quarantined for fear of the flu...Jesus/Isukiri slash >>;;;;
Jesus' grave
Isukiri's and the little museum dedicated to explaining how this story has to be true
The cross garden?
Map of the premises
Look, I'm Jesus!
So we went into the museum which was open and bought Dracula ice cream and enjoyed the exhibits.
This was my personal favorite. lol
"Proof" that the story is true! Nanyadoyara doesn't sound like any Hebrew I ever heard....
Another "Proof" ... cause it looks just like a Jewish Star.. uhhh.. yeah. >>;
a map of other "mysterious" places in the world including Stonehenge, Atlantis and Muu
The famous Dracula ice cream. It was supposed to be garlic+mint, but I only tasted the mint. It tasted a lot better than it sounds lol
while enjoying the museum the weather had changed...
Me and my homie Jesus, the only two Jews in Shingo lol
Erin and I were tempted to have our taken picture in the middle of the cross, but it was all muddy and wet.
Me and Rolo!
And so we got into Rolo and left... I should have taken more pictures as we drove but I didn't. I think the pictures speak for themselves. Suffice it to say we did not go to the farm and instead of turning to go to the lake at the fork we headed straight to the ryokan. It was right after we passed the farm we passed what looked like a gate that probably closes the road in Winter. We also went past a lot of danger falling rock signs and lost cell phone reception. It was about 25-40 kms total from Shingo to where we passed to the other side of the gate and the weather changed back.
This is Oyu Onsen, where we were trying to get to and staying that night. By the time we got there, the weather had turned back to drizzle.
Rolo and all that remained of the snow
The front of our ryokan.
We'd gotten there early, so went across the street to a coffee shop and got cake and drinks. They gave us a discount and the coffee was amazing. I seriously felt like i had stepped into that episode of Detective Loki and the Coffee Shop though, the tea cups even looked the same o_O
The garden at the ryokan
The ryokan was everything you expect in a true ryokan experience. They came out and helped us with our shoes and wiped down our suitcases! They then helped carry everything up to our room for us.. and the room...
SO BIG!
Since there was no rain inside, Lelouch, Suzaku and Gino came out of the bag
Suzaku and Lelouch showing off their wings
And me showing off my yukata lol
So in our yukatas we headed down to try out the baths. The ryokan had two outdoor baths and 2 indoor baths and they rotated between being male only and female only. When we first got there, the newly built baths were women only. The indoor bath was nice but the outdoor one was just amazing. It was well enclosed, but through small "windows" in the siding you could look out on the river flowing behind the ryokan. It was so cool! I wanted to spend the rest of my night there. However we were due back to our room, since our rate included dinner. On our arrival Erin had explained I was a vegetarian and that I totally understood if there was nothing I could eat or could be done about it, I just didn't want to insult them if I didn't eat things lol
However... wow did they surprise me...
This was my vegetarian feast!
My favorites were the greens in the dish on the side, and the 4 dishes in the middle. I also had tempura!
Erin's meatful feast
Best meal in Japan ♥
After eating we went to bed early knowing the next day would be busy since we wanted to go to Hirosaki and Erin was going to be returning to Tokyo and I was going on to further Tohoku adventures.
Sunday morning was incredibly rainy.. like in that sort of buckets from heaven way. It seemed a dumb idea to go to Hirosaki since that would just consist of walking around in pouring rain trying to get pictures and generally being miserable. So instead since it was not so far away and slightly on the way to our next ryokan we decided to first visit Jesus' grave. For those who missed the story, the village of Shingo in Aomori-ken decided that Jesus did not die on the cross it was his identical twin brother Isukiri. Instead Jesus made it to Aomori-ken where he became a rice farmer. And now you too can visit his grave as well as that for Isukiri.. so long as you are willing to drive in Japan and risk blizzards.
But first there was our morning at Pony and Towada City. We decided to check out the baths which turned out to be... a huge public sento. We got to use them for free since we were staying there, but this sento was *THE PLACE* to be in Towada and chock full of local residents. It was sort of cool in that respect and we got a few curious stares from small children, but the baths did feel nice. There was something outdoors, I am not sure if it was natural or not, but it was sort of rainy and miserable so I only looked and did not actually go in.
We got a free breakfast with our room, Japanese style of course, so I mostly picked at things until the kind people serving us offered to cook my egg. I got mine scrambled and wow... it was really.. really yummy. lol
We then set off to drive around Towada city to look for some horse statues Erin wanted to see and to see the "Road of sakura." I am sure the sakura would have been gorgeous and I would have taken hundreds of pictures and made Erin park, but it was pouring rain and it just did not make me want to take pictures lol
We did pull over to take a picture of these houses. I got really wet in the process lol
Inaka! (on the way to Shingo which we were trying to get to with the help of our GPS)
The map of the Shingo area at Jesus' grave. As should be sort of obvious, Shingo was not much of city lol The large blue area is Towadako. We are of course near the red. We were thinking of going to the farm, that red dot near where the road is curving and then on up to the lake. The museum said they didn't open until late April, but was this late April, it was unclear lol
The view from the walking path to Jesus' grave
The road we had just taken going back towards Towada, this is the BIG road in the area.
The story as only the Japanese can tell it. I wonder if he got quarantined for fear of the flu...
Jesus' grave
Isukiri's and the little museum dedicated to explaining how this story has to be true
The cross garden?
Map of the premises
Look, I'm Jesus!
So we went into the museum which was open and bought Dracula ice cream and enjoyed the exhibits.
This was my personal favorite. lol
"Proof" that the story is true! Nanyadoyara doesn't sound like any Hebrew I ever heard....
Another "Proof" ... cause it looks just like a Jewish Star.. uhhh.. yeah. >>;
a map of other "mysterious" places in the world including Stonehenge, Atlantis and Muu
The famous Dracula ice cream. It was supposed to be garlic+mint, but I only tasted the mint. It tasted a lot better than it sounds lol
while enjoying the museum the weather had changed...
Me and my homie Jesus, the only two Jews in Shingo lol
Erin and I were tempted to have our taken picture in the middle of the cross, but it was all muddy and wet.
Me and Rolo!
And so we got into Rolo and left... I should have taken more pictures as we drove but I didn't. I think the pictures speak for themselves. Suffice it to say we did not go to the farm and instead of turning to go to the lake at the fork we headed straight to the ryokan. It was right after we passed the farm we passed what looked like a gate that probably closes the road in Winter. We also went past a lot of danger falling rock signs and lost cell phone reception. It was about 25-40 kms total from Shingo to where we passed to the other side of the gate and the weather changed back.
This is Oyu Onsen, where we were trying to get to and staying that night. By the time we got there, the weather had turned back to drizzle.
Rolo and all that remained of the snow
The front of our ryokan.
We'd gotten there early, so went across the street to a coffee shop and got cake and drinks. They gave us a discount and the coffee was amazing. I seriously felt like i had stepped into that episode of Detective Loki and the Coffee Shop though, the tea cups even looked the same o_O
The garden at the ryokan
The ryokan was everything you expect in a true ryokan experience. They came out and helped us with our shoes and wiped down our suitcases! They then helped carry everything up to our room for us.. and the room...
SO BIG!
Since there was no rain inside, Lelouch, Suzaku and Gino came out of the bag
Suzaku and Lelouch showing off their wings
And me showing off my yukata lol
So in our yukatas we headed down to try out the baths. The ryokan had two outdoor baths and 2 indoor baths and they rotated between being male only and female only. When we first got there, the newly built baths were women only. The indoor bath was nice but the outdoor one was just amazing. It was well enclosed, but through small "windows" in the siding you could look out on the river flowing behind the ryokan. It was so cool! I wanted to spend the rest of my night there. However we were due back to our room, since our rate included dinner. On our arrival Erin had explained I was a vegetarian and that I totally understood if there was nothing I could eat or could be done about it, I just didn't want to insult them if I didn't eat things lol
However... wow did they surprise me...
This was my vegetarian feast!
My favorites were the greens in the dish on the side, and the 4 dishes in the middle. I also had tempura!
Erin's meatful feast
Best meal in Japan ♥
After eating we went to bed early knowing the next day would be busy since we wanted to go to Hirosaki and Erin was going to be returning to Tokyo and I was going on to further Tohoku adventures.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-20 05:15 pm (UTC)I actually laughed out loud at "Dracula The Cool", although the legend of how Isukiri "casually" took Jesus's place on the cross was pretty funny too. Oh Japan...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-20 10:15 pm (UTC)After a day like that, what could have been better than a hot bath and a good meal?!
Pretty incredible stuff!
~Bruce
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-20 11:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-21 01:14 am (UTC)The question is does this make Isukiri God's other son? lol
I feel like I need a LJ icon of my ice cream.
BTW I thought of you, when we went out to get someone their bicycle just now I saw the first firefly of the summer!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-21 01:15 am (UTC)The bath was pretty amazing at the ryokan, it's one of the things I miss most here in the US.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-21 01:18 am (UTC)The food was incredibly at Oyu. Breakfast the next morning was so good and the onsen... the onsen.... ♥
I forgot did you make it to SpaWorld in Osaka or no? I'm such an onsen addict now, I went to Zao just for the onsen and would happily go back.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-21 01:24 am (UTC)Was wonderful fun!
If you have time and haven't been I highly recommend the onsen at Kurama. Kurama is still my favorite place in Japan but the outdoor onsen they have is the perfect way to end a hike!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-21 01:30 am (UTC)Damn it, Emily took me to Kurama and we did the hike but we didn't get to do an onsen ;;_;;
My favorite outdoor one was Zao's DaiOnsen (http://www.yamagatakanko.com/english/hotspring/). That was the men's half, the woman's half was on the back side of the building. I have some official pictures but that is it lol
I didn't overnight it but Erin and Janet I spent from 11-20:00 at SpaWorld in January when we tried Comic City there. It was soooooo nice, though we had the Europe side and I would have preferred Asia. The three of us then did Yunessun in March.
Onsen..... I so regret not making Jenn take me to the ones in Shirahama now. ;;_;;
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-26 04:17 pm (UTC)It's so nice to know that you you can get such a great vegetarian feast at a ryokan. We also had one in Kyoto that I'll post pictures of later on this week.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 10:44 pm (UTC)I am not sure you can usually get just a feast it helps that the ryokan was very small. It was probably the nicest place I have ever stayed in Japan.