Parent Invasion Part 5: To Oigen and Beyond

Nambu tekki day! Nambu tekki refers to the style of making iron teapots that are famous in Iwate. The lords who settled in this area noticed the sand was naturally loaded with iron ore and became very good at extracting it. Then the possibilities were endless.

Sounds very "Mononoke," no?

But fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The iron teapot has become very popular in America thanks to companies like Teavana which specializes in the teapots and all kinds of blends of dried teas...and those really cool tea flowers that bloom in hot water.

Heavy Metal Dancing

The traditional style is really famous close to Kitakami in the town of Misawa. Mom was really excited to see a factory if there was time, so of course, I made time. On Monday, we drove to Misawa to find a foundry. One of the most famous is the Oigen company. I had a general idea of the location, but nothing was definite. The plan was get to town, look for signs, case closed.

Well, we saw one sign pointing to a culture center, then nothing. We got to the station which led us to the nambu tekki museum. Warmer, but not quite. Then we found a map of what looked like either shops or maybe factories. We decided on an area and headed out. Just down the road, we drove past a large building that looked like a store house. Through the smokey windows, we saw shelves of teapots and decided to have a quick peek.

Turns out, this was the Oigen company's factory!!! We just stumbled upon it! Upstairs was a beautiful (and well-air conditioned) show room and store. When a short woman greeted us, we spoke in a little English asking about touring the factory. She got across that the crew was on lunch for the next 10 minutes. Another employee came over to talk in fluent English. She confirmed the ironworkers were having lunch but a tour would take place at 1. Perfect! we said.

We chilled and strolled through the store. A few more people came in including a couple journalists judging by the size of their cameras. When we were gathered, we were given green baseball caps and led downstairs.

The factory was in full swing, hot, noisy and hella dangerous. Molten iron was pouring out of a huge flaming furnace at one end and a giant tumbler was buffing the cast iron pots in progress. We saw the sand extracting process and employees polishing and etching some pots.

Everyone was very friendly and hands on about showing us around the factory. When it was all done, we went back upstairs and did a little shopping. I got a bell shaped like a fish.

Time for more culture! We journeyed back up the road to the Michinoku Folklore Village. Dad walked all the way from the station to the open air museum last year when he needed something to do while I was still working. So he and I tag-teamed on this one and showed Mom our favorite houses.

 He was especially interested in the wall of family crests. He carves a little as a hobby and is always looking for something new and interesting. Japanese family crests have the kind of natural beauty and geometry he looks for.

Checking out the coffee plants

Towards the end, it started raining pretty heavily, so we wrapped up the tour and headed back into town. There was one more thing of Mom's list for Kitakami: visit a 100 yen store. I took her to Seria and Daiso in the Sakurano to show her the difference. Biggest difference: one has cake mix, crackers, tea and curry.

For dinner, we ate Japanese style in the mall in a restaurant with low tables and tatami mats. We ordered some nice set meals and my parents got to try chawan-mushi. Dad compared it to chicken dumpling soup if the dumplings soaked up all the broth, and my mother discovered she doesn't hate okra the way she used to.

Dinner complete, laundry retrieved from my apartment, (bow in reverence: I washed my parents' clothes!) we drove back to the hotel. After we confirmed meeting dates, we parted ways. On Tuesday morning, they were taking the shinkansen to Tokyo  and would take a bus part of the way up Fuji. Yep. My intrepid parents were off to climb Mt. Fuji. I was worried but excited, just like them. The weather had me worried, but I knew they'd be fine.

*Recent update: they made the climb and descent just fine. And the weather was actually perfect!