Why the hell does it cost so much to travel in Japan? It just blows my
mind, it really does. This weekend I went to Akita-ken for O-bon. A
time when most people will return home and remember their dead family
members and enjoy time with the living ones.
Now for a bit of background.. Akita is in northern honshu (the main
island,) on the Sea of Japan. Partially in the mountains and partially
flatlands, it offers a mix of tanbos(rice paddies) and mountains.
Along with some great beaches. I stayed in Mitane, which used to be called Hachiryu (八竜町 - 8 dragons village, how cool is that??) It is a bit north of the Oga peninsula, maybe 20km.
We spent Saturday sunning on the beach and enjoying a most fabulous weekend weather. After spending the day on the beach and teaching 桃子 how to drive a manual, we headed to the north to do some hiking and enjoy japanese nature at its finest. By this I mean, we arrived at the mountain, parked the car and started to hike only to get attacked by horseflies! I don’t mean 1 or 5, but a lot! Maybe 30 or more. So we get back in the car and go to another trailhead, get out, and same thing! One more time! Same thing! Later we found out it is common this time of year and these horseflies are everywhere in the mountains here. So in the end, we drove some of the roads and went to an onsen to relax and de-stress. We ended the night watching the sunset into the Sea of Japan from the beach followed up by watching the Perseid meteor showers from the middle of the rice fields.
When you are living in a city with an over abundance of light pollution and rarely see the stars, you can easily forget how beautiful a clear night sky is.
Sunday was spent at the beach again, in the morning, followed up with meeting some more family including 桃子’s aunt, cousin, older brother and sister in-law. Of course, followed up with a good-bye sushi dinner including some of the best Sanma and konpachi I have ever had.
Highlights of the Weekend include:
-Seeing where 桃子 grew up and teaching her to drive.
-Eating a lot of fresh sushi.. maguro, sanma, salmon, aburo and so much more.
-Experiencing Akita style food, very salty, but still delicious.
-Getting stung by jellyfish ( wow, what a weird sensation…)
-Conversing for 3 days almost entirely in Japanese..
-Watching the meteor showers from the tanbos
-Driving!
-Sneaking around like being in high school again!
I took a lot of photos, but all in RAW. So I have to process them and upload them.
And now back to the heat and bustle of the Tokyo desert.