Pension Pamplemousse Hachimantai

I'm going to do this entry in 2 parts since there are so many pictures and it was a very long day.  We started out at 8:30 and headed to Dakikaeri Gorge.  This was very beautiful since the river that runs through the gorge is the most lovely shade of blue that is offset wonderfully by the lush green trees that surround it.  It seemed like we had a lot of time here but after trying to reach the waterfall ...

... exhibition of Rene Lalique. You've probably seen his work, even if the name doesn't ring a bell. He did primarily cast glass, hood ornaments for REALLY expensive cars (maybe Rolls Royce?) in the 1930's, vases, lamps.... Just gorgeous work. It turns out that the pieces on display were all from the collection of one Japanese man, and his son was the person hosting this exhibition! He was very kind and spoke decent English, so he and Chuck chatted a bit ...

... 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 ...

A Morioka on a loge dans une vieille ryokan (auberge niponne) tenu par une grand-mere, de style bien japonais avec tatamis, futons, portes coulissante en papier, service a the, bain bien chaud ; tout y est ! Morioka est connu notamment pour un cerisier qui a pousse au milieu d'un bloc de granite. On dit qu'il aurait brise le bloc en grandissant... Encore une fois on a de la chance de voir plein d'arbres en fleur, notamment autour de nombreux temples de la ville (d ...

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.

... arrived in Morioka, we headed for Kumagai Ryokan again as we had enjoyed staying there before. We got a much larger room this time, with a sofa and enough space for at least 4 to bed down, maybe a reward as return customers! Kate also got 2 massive Morioka apples which she promptly tucked into. Then went out for dinner to Hot Jaja, where they serve the local speciality Jajamen, ramen (noodles) with a spicy meat sauce. Verdict - very odd, wouldn't choose it again ...

... inn) as the map in lonely planet was missing a bridge, and I almost walked into someones back garden! We were welcomed into the inn, dumped our bags, slipped into some slippers, and given green tea and Japanese sweets (more like biscuits) whilst settling our bill. It was a lovely house, your image of a traditional Japanese house; paper sliding doors, tatami mats etc. We then headed out towards Morioka's temple and shrine are ...

... suis partie faire le tour de la ville a la recherhce d'un starbuck cofee. entre temps je suis arriver par hasard au ruines de l'ancien chateau de morioka. la ville a transformer les fondations en un mega parc. Avec l'eclairage et les feuilles de toutes les couleurs, c'etait beau, mais encore une fois, les photos ne sont pas terrible. J'ai finalement trouver le starbuck coffee de morioka, je suis venu dejeuner ici pour profiter du wifi gratuit.

My Japanese class went on a field trip on Sunday. To where, I don't know, but after our bus was swallowed by a few tunnels and a lot of evergreens passed by, we ended up at a noodle factory somewhere. We couldn't talk to any of the workers, but that didn't stop me from tapping on the panes of glass separating us from them with the same impulse that makes me want to spook the sharks at an aquarium. After we -- me, another American named ...

... inflexible Japanese rules, so we found another that said it would be a minimum of 480 yen for anything up to an hour. So what we did was just use for 5 minutes, then told the staff that the computer did not work and they then said we didnt have to pay anything. There is a way around most inflexible rules. Before boarding our train we wanted to grab a bite to eat, there was a food court luckily beneath the station. We found a Kaiten Zushi for a few fishy ...