Pacific Hotel Morioka

... later a prince drinks too much of the water and also is turned into a dragon.  It is said that the heat from their love making is what keeps the lake from never freezing during the bitter Akita winters but in all reality this is because it is a Caldera Lake.  Anywho that is about it for this part of the blog.  The next will be about Kakunodate the Samurai village we visited later that day. Stay Tuned...

... to craftwork to survive. Which means that a lot of the houses here are involved in brewing soy sauce or miso, or making things with cherry bark, or ceramics. All this was nice to see too, and bad for my wallet, but it was the houses themselves that were the best. Many of the families have these giant thick barn-like buildings that are used as storehouses for things like pickles or family treasures. During the festival, the families put their prized heirlooms in the vault for people ...

... d'eau tres chaude dans lequel on se plonge apres s'etre lave. L'eau n'est pas changee pendant une soiree. Le bain est prepare dans toutes les auberges types japonnaises ou nous allons. Nous avons meme eu un bain en plein air a Tono (en bois qui sentait bon le pin). Nous pouvons donc nous prelasser presque tous les soirs, a condition d'arriver a rentrer dans l'eau a plus de 50 degres !

... tous en costumes ! Tres interessants ! Dans une maison de Samurai on a eu la chance de tomber sur un mariage ou les maries revetaient des costumes traditionnels. On n'a pas manque de faire des photos dans tous les sens ! Gros bemol de ce village, la foule de Japonais et en consequence les centaines de boutiques de souvenirs dans tous les recoins... Heureusement il y avait quelques petites collines aux alentours qui nous ont permis de nous echaper quelques temps.

I stopped off here on the way to Hokkaido to break up the journey. It was actually a bit of a let down as I seemed to arrive on a holiday and there was nothing open and I couldnt find the temples and museums I was looking for! There were some nice ice sculptures though and I had a good hike up a very steep hill. It is very mountainous here and quite beautiful.

... shrine covered all over in gold and mother of pearl, quite a breath-taking sight. After seeing the Golden Hall, we followed the route around the complex and found a small shrine where we had a go at writing some Japanese characters on a wooden stick to leave there. The whole area had lots of trees whose leaves had turned red and orange, which made for some good photos. By this point, it was pretty darn cold, so we headed back to the station and on back to Morioka.

... out again to fin some food. After finding it a little tricky to find anywhere, we headed back to the station to find one of the restaurants under the station. We aimed for a place called Osaka Osho which had a nice point friendly looking menu and both tucked into some steaming bowls of ramen. Then back to the inn, putting the heater on full blast and snuggling under our huge duvets, surprisingly comfy on the tatami floor. Kate and Chris

jai oublier de dire dans mon autre message que ici, a morioka, la ville est jumelee avec une ville nomee morioka en colombie britanique. Alors par un pur hasard, en me promenant dans la ville , je suis arriver devant un epicerie et puis il y avais des biscuits feuille d`erables et du sirop d`erables de la beauce.. un peu plus de 16.00$ le 250ml. bon apres m'etre fait demander gentiment de sortir parce que je n'etais pas un resident de l'hotel ...

... etait grise et ponctue de petite averse, les photos sont pas tres belles. Ensuite je suis revenue sur mes pas, dans la ville de morioka, pour dormir dans auberge typique du japon (ryokan) dans une chambre avec un plancher en tatamis, et un futon au sol pour dormir. Il n`y a pas internet alors je suis dans un autre hotel en train de bummer leur ordinateur !

... of tuna (fast becoming our favourite fish), salmon etc, on our way to the train, Jon bought a custard fish (a sweet fish shaped waffle stuffed with custard) , it was easily the best sweet thing We had eaten in a long time, most Japanese prefer red bean stuffing, we have tried this but it is really not so nice especially when compared to the custard one. Then we hopped back on the Shinkansen before reading all the way until we arrived back in the metropolis.