Golden Week! I Miss You Already!

…Yep, I’m a terrible blogger. I said Saturdays would be a post day and here we are at Wednesday. At the risk of sounding like I’m making excuses, Saturdays are just too busy: So let’s go with Sundays and Wednesdays instead and see if I’m able to actually keep up with that. 
 

Anyway, at least I have plenty to tell about my oh-so-busy-that-I-couldn’t-be-bothered-to-write weekend. As I mentioned before, this past week and a half has been Golden Week here in Japan! Every year, a series of festivals and holidays align: schools are closed, most companies go on holiday and the campaigns! (campaign = sale) This is the essence of Golden Week: days off from work, one colorful festival after another and shopping shopping shopping!!! This year, Golden Week was actually split in half because of the way it falls on the calendar, so there were classes for about 4 days before a nice 4 day weekend…enough time to sober up from hanami just in time to gear up for a trip!

On the road to Ninohe!

My Golden Week took me up to Ninohe, about a three hour drive on Route 4 (ie the scenic/local/how many freaking stop lights can they put within 300 meters??? Route). As soon as I was out of school, and had driven back to my apartment and thrown myself consecutively into a shower, some comfy driving digs and my little K-car, I was on my way! Three hours and a throbbing headache later, I was in Ninohe with my friends Patrick, Scott, Hoi Ming and Kelly. Our first stop of the night was “Mama-san’s.”

Yakitori and cow tongue = oishii!

Oh, Mama-san. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, think of your best friend’s mother who greets you with the sweetest smile and insists you need fattening up so she brings you drinks and hot, delicious foodstuffs one after another while doting on you like you’re the prodigal child. That is a Mama-san. And the best part? She calls me “Haru-chan.” That itself is closely followed by her cooking. While we all sat there chatting away, she was throwing chicken and cow tongue on the hibachi for us.

I declare this with the utmost sincerity and a slight trace of drool on my chin: I love cow tongue!

After saying goodnight to Mama-san, we ducked into a karaoke bar for some good times. And yes, I sang. Kind of. Not really. Mostly, I enjoyed singing along with everyone and watching a very enthusiastic salary-man (and his secretary?) sing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” We head-banged to “Bohemian Rhapsody” as per tradition and I collected a wonderfully insightful quote from Kelly:

“You know it’s a ballad when there are stars.” (Upon studying the stock video on the t.v. screen)

And that was just Thursday night!

So, Ninohe. It’s one of a collection of –nohe’s: Ichinohe, Hachinohe…Ninohe is probably the more far removed of the –nohe’s. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. Some might dispute that it’s “not a real city” since it only gained that status, reportedly, after it absorbed some smaller towns like an amoeba. In all honesty, the population is probably the same if not smaller than Chesapeake City…so my fellow Chesapeakians, you tell me: city or no? 

Regardless, Ninohe is nice. There’s a beautiful river flowing through town, a few restaurants, some shopping, an onsen and a train station (even Elkton doesn’t have that! The station, not the onsen.). It’s a quiet city…except for the “all clear” mobile signal that drives the streets every night...in a valley, closely surrounded by beautiful mountains. Let me amend that: the IT’S OKAY! EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE! WE PROMISE! IT’S GONNA BE OKAY! mobile siren. Still, a very nice town. I liked it anyway!

Friday started around 10am with a trip to the local onsen, Kintaichi Onsen. The baths are mostly inside, but it’s still a nice facility. There’s just something about being in Japan that makes you want to ignore everything the little voice in your head:

“You think anyone wants to see that? 

You shower with your eyes closed and you’re going in there?”

And just step into the water without inhibitions or any regard for discretion. Looking at the other women, they certainly don’t think a whit of it! Liberation is beauty! Modesty is for sissies!

I’ve also gotten better at watching the time so I don’t turn into an eggplant-face monster from the heat. That first time was really embarrassing.

Let’s see, then there was some shopping…

Oh, what? You want me to elaborate. *flex* Well, if you insist.

Remember what I said about Golden Week campaigns? And remember I’m a chick with a very chick-like weakness for deals and steals? Well, Morioka, being a mere hour and a half south of Ninohe has two enormous Aeon Malls…one of which now has a new sports store, Murasaki Sports. Part of Murasaki’s Grand Opening was to unload a ton of great equipment at mind-boggling prices…including snowboards! You read that right: as the Starks say, 

“Winter is coming.” And I could use a new hobby for the reportedly flourishing snowy season here.

Who looks more awkward? Me? The Colonel? The clerk?

There was also some shameless spending on clothes and photo ops aplenty but SNOWBOARD! I’ve got a lead on a boarding suit and I’ll worry about minor details like boots and other such equipment come autumn. These things are barely blips on my radar. SNOWBOARD!

Tasty and yet not so much

Oh yes, and the food! I don’t think anyone remembers the video of Big Bird in Japan where he goes to a restaurant and orders lunch from the window display and ends up trying to eat the fake display food. But I can understand how easy that would be: put the real deal next to its mate from the display case and it’s like comparing apples and apples…except one of the apples is a decorative soap from the guest bathroom. 

Saturday (yes, we’re only on Saturday. Fine, go get a coffee or something. I’ll wait…)

Welcome back.

Since Friday consisted of a trip south, Saturday was for the birds…literally! Hachinohe was the destination. On the itinerary: a huge second-hand store and Kambushima. First stop, the huge second-hand store. This isn’t your grandma’s Goodwill. Not that your obaasan doesn’t know her thrift stores, but this place was 1/3 otaku* paradise, 1/3 decent quality home goods, 1/3 trendalicious clothes!

*anime/manga fanatic…to put it lightly.

Calm down: I'm pretty sure they work there

So, walking through the store, with an 800 yen handheld steamer in hand, I noticed I was not the only white person. Actually, there were a lot of gaijin in the store! At first, I thought I was imagining hearing snippets of conversation, but I realized quickly that I was actually in the presence of other English speakers…Americans, at that!

The bear works there too

And of course, I avoided them. Call me an awkward penguin, but I was actually so shocked to find Americans other than my Interac fellows that I didn’t know how to react. So instinct kicked in and I kept my mouth shut. In hindsight, I would have been interested to know what they were doing in Hachinohe other than pawing through the discount fashion two feet from where I too was pawing away.

Photo-bombing bastards

They certainly weren’t going to Kambushima, which was our next stop. Here’s the scoop: Kambushima is an uninhabited island where every year around this time, huge numbers of sea gulls migrate to breed, next and raise a new generation of squawking, crapping beneficiaries of the local fishermen. 

Hachinohe is well-known for its seafood markets, so of course the presence of roughly a gazillion seagulls is a good sign for the area. A shrine sits on top of a hill on the beach. At the base of the stairs is the fun part: for a few yen, you can buy a bag of prawn flavored crackers. That’s the fun part. The scary part come next when ten thousand pairs of eyes turn your way and you’re suddenly Dory and Marlin stranded on the pier, out of the water and gasping between onslaught after onslaught of wings and beaks. It’s all so delightfully Hitchcockian, really. Who doesn’t like guiltily slipping the squirrels or pigeons a little tidbit here and there? Just imagine that with greedy frickin’ seagulls! In a word: fantastic!

Mineminemineminemineminemine

As you climb the stairs to the shrine, if you look at the base of each lantern, you’ll see gulls huddled against the wind, each protecting its own nest complete with egg. At the top of the hill is the shrine and even more seagulls! It’s noisy and messy, but it’s pretty cool to see what a significance seagulls hold in Japan. In America, they’re just “sea rats with wings” that steal your boardwalk fries and dive bomb your ice cream cone!

That night, Kelly, Hoi Ming, Patrick, Scott and I decided that Sunday we would all journey to Tendaiji for a festival at a shrine there. The game was officially afoot.

Sunday morning, with all of us piled into Kelly’s poor little car, we were on our way! We had to park and ride a shuttle bus up part of the mountain to the drop-off point. At the base of a wide, winding trail, there is a spring at the roots of a large tree and a covered fountain where you can sip the water and cleanse your hands before grabbing a walking stick and heading up the hill. Flanking the trail are little stone Buddahs.

Because of the chilly weather, some wear scarlet coats and hats. They smiled quietly as we passed. I could see why too: the entire hillside is covered in pine trees and all you hear are the conversations around you and the stream that runs beside the trail to the town below.

At the top of the hill are a collection of shrines with a large central temple. Gravel paths connect everything. We watched a dancer and walked the paths a little, enjoying the shrines and seeing just how high up the hill we could climb. Eventually, you get to a sheltered place and can go no higher unless you climb a tree. At that point, you’re staring out at the world, looking down on other hills and far away at the still-white mountains in the distance.

The elephant in question

The highlight for us was back down at the large temple for a ceremonial procession. Men marched slowly around the temple wearing traditional monk clothes or ritual costumes. At each corner of the building, a man would beat a drum. Other men carried conch shells, masks and a bunch of bananas. At the end of the line, about 12 children wearing bright costumes and carrying silk flowers pulled a figure of a white elephant decorated with spring flowers! Definitely the sweetest part of the procession…especially since they circled the temple four times! What good little troopers.

At that point, we were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to head back to Ninohe for some yakiniku…beef you grill yourself: sort of a take on barbeque. Before we left, though, I stopped at a vendor at the temple and bought a few local goodies including a bag of walnuts, a huge bag of miniscule grapes, local honey and the guy even threw in what looked like thick white crackers for free. At first, I was grateful, but after tasting one…I’m pretty sure they’re not meant for human consumption and are probably better as offerings. If you ever need good diet food that doesn’t taste like anything and makes you want to stop eating right away, I’ll hook you up.

My weekend ended on a nice note. Monday morning, I walked around Ninohe with Patrick, my personal tour guide. We stopped at a craft store so I could pick up a bit of silk for some pillow cases, then we jogged across the street for foods at a place called 8 Beat Burger. The Japanese make an interesting burger. Take everything you know about McDonald’s or Burger King and just throw that jank out the window. First of all, the taste? Yeah, a Japanese burger is more teriyaki than salty-by-producty…and it is delicious! 

Oh, and melon soda. Yeah, that’s not Ooze: that is melon soda and believe it or not, this iridescent miracle actually tastes like honeydew! The place itself is pretty cool. A woman makes your food right behind the counter and meanwhile, you sit on a comfy chair and can read manga or fashion magazines which actually are more like couture manuals!

After food, we did some temple hunting. 

I love how temples, shrines and just little water gardens quietly reside in each town, between offices, gas stands, old houses and old apartments. It’s the contrast between tradition and progression. You can physically see where this country’s culture began and how far some parts of it have come while other aspects never change.

So there it is: my Golden Week! Festivals, food, adventures and shopping aplenty! I had a great time, and I’m going to miss the cherry blossoms. But I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I’m so ready for the warm weather to arrive! Shut up, Tokyo, we all know it’s beautiful and warm down there. Keep it to yourself! Our time will come and with it, the arrival of open apartment windows, warm, breezy evenings and Cool Biz!