Adventure Day in Akita

What has a new camera, two thumbs and a lust for adventure? This girl! One of the best things about flying solo in a foreign country is you have the freedom to pursue your own interests without much regard for last-minute timing or fretting about dragging a less than enthused companion. You can let that Frontier Spirit fly high like your own personal sigil.


One of my New Year resolutions was to be a little more selfish, to take some time to abandon group-thinking and not worry about my obligations to the society. Instead, I'm trying to take care of myself first and part of that includes solo-ventures! Tuesday night, I was tingling with the need to get out of Kitakami and thought about where I'd like to go. It occurred to me that I was recently on the East coast at Goishi, and I realized that even though I've been here for an entire year, I hadn't made it to the Sea of Japan!

Naturally, this had to be rectified.

After a little researching I decided to head-west-young-woman and check out Yurihonjo and Nikaho. Never heard of them? I hadn't either. This was all shot in the dark, "I wonder what's in that city?" planning. I made note of a few promising sites, marked them on my phone's maps and hit the sack.

Kanman-ji Jizou

Under the roof of the giant bell at 1000 Jizo shrine

8 am, I was out the door and on my way. First stop, Yurihonjo and the 1,000 Jizo. Off the highway, tucked high in the foothills, about 1,012 small stone figures flank a small path in tiers on the western side of the hill. Jizou, or Ojizou-sama, is a form of the Buddha that traditionally protects the spirits of deceased children. It's one of the most commonly spotted divinities in Japan. You might see them in large temples or on the side of a country road, but in most cases, they'll be wearing a red cap and big and might have flowers or small children's toys at their feet.

It's a little sad to see so many Jizou in one place, but they're also comforting. They're protectors, after all. And each one has a small small on it's stony, slightly different face.

To see each statue, you have to start at one end of the path and work your way up and around, winding back and forth across the face of the hill, at times climbing stairs so steep, you might as well be climbing a ladder! Still, it's worth every next-day calf cramp.

After the 1,000 Jizou, the next stop was the Koufuen Sumo Ring in the city. Located on a hill in the city park, the ring is actually available for 200 yen an hour for public sumo practice! It's great for those who will participate in the Akita Prefecture Sumo Competition.The ring has been in use since 1907! Unfortunately, nobody was practicing on Wednesday, but you can feel the history if you stand on the blue tarp under the heavy wooden awning.

Next stop, Nikaho and the Kanman-ji Temple. Driving along the coast, I left the window open to feel the warm spring sun and smell the salty fishing ports just beyond the sloping tiled roofs. Hard to imagine half of those houses might not even have the land to stand on if nearby Mt. Chokai hadn't blown it's top 2500 years ago. The boulders blown into the ocean changed the nature of the coastline so drastically, that some "hills" in the area are actually former minor islands! It also explains why there's so much inland sandy soil, perfect for the local lettuce farms!

 At Kanman-ji, I wandered the temple grounds, taking pictures of the beautiful statues and temple carvings. I noticed an elderly man and woman chatting by the souvenir stand, but mostly kept to myself. My main reason for visiting Kanman-ji was to see a little more of the life of the great poet Bashou. He had heavy influence in Tohoku, so I want to learn a little more about the man and get a little insight.

So I took a few pictures of the temple and was heading back to my car when I heard a bicycle approaching from behind: it was the man! Using simple Japanese (how nice of him!) he said he saw my camera and asked if I enjoyed taking pictures. He then showed me some large photographs he carried in a file folder. They were all seasonal aerial shots his friend took of the rice fields behind the temple, formerly seabed. He even gave me one from the spring! We chatted about my teaching in Kitakami and his friends' photography, then bade each other "sayounara."

My last goal for the day was to get away from civilization and see Naso no Shirataki, one of the 100 Most Beautiful Waterfalls  in Japan, tucked away in the hills east of the coast of Kisakata. Driving up and down the hills, the docile Mt. Chokai looms like the dorsal fin of some albino leviathan, appearing and disappearing, glowing in the late afternoon sunlight.
 

All in all, it was a long and interesting day. Spring Break is drawing to close (I'll be back in the schools in two weeks) and I have enjoyed my onsen, sleeping, hiking and mini-ventures more than I would have enjoyed a week long, booze-soaked, high-speed Florida Spring Break that most college students lust after. To each her own.