We stayed at an inn on Lake Towada. I took this photo from the tea room of the inn after sunset.

We took a walk early in the morning along the lake. It was not very hot and the air was crystal clear. This lake is a caldera lake. In the 10^th century there was a huge eruption. The eruption was so big that the ashes of the eruption reached as far as Kyoto which is about 800 Km away. A priest of Enryakuji temple kept a diary . According to his record, it suddenly got foggy and they couldn’t see the sun or the moon clearly. He was also worried about mulberry that the ashes would harm his mulberry leaves. Did you know Lake Towada’s eruption is the second biggest in Asia ? The biggest one is Baitoushan which lies on China and North Korea. Baitoushan also had a big eruption in the 10^th century.

A few decades ago, this lake’s transparency was about 20 meters but its visibility declined so they took great care not to dump used water in the lake, however visibility hasn’t improved yet and now it’s about 9 meters. They don’t know why. For me the lake is very beautiful and romantic.

When I first I saw this lake I was struck by the power of nature. The lake is so huge and natural forests grow strongly. In Aomori “ Osorezan “ is famous as a power spot and so is Towada shrine. No wonder it has a special atmosphere.

It is said the oracles of this shrine hit it. On weekends, fortune telling sessions are also available. If you go up this trail, you can reach a view point.

It has a nice view but it’s from a 30-meter high cliff. The fortune teller goes down the cliff using an iron ladders and below the cliff, he / she ( I haven’t seen the person ) sees the clients’ fortune. Then the fortune teller goes up and tells the clients their fortune. Clients can’t go down the cliff. It sounds interesting. Next time I’ll go there on a weekend and try it out.

I have been longing for kamakura since I was a child. By kamakura I mean small houses made of snow (and not the historical city in Kanagawa, which I love, too ). It’s summer and pretty hot now in Japan but you can experience what kamakura are like. You can find one in a certain building in Yokote city where a kamakura festival takes place every winter. The day we were there, the temperature was above 30 C ( 86F ) and inside the building where holding the kamakura it is minus 10 C. You have to wear a wataire (a cotton stuffed) jacket before going into the facility.And anyone who has a weak heart should refrain from going in. In fact it was an interesting experience but we couldn’t stay there for a long time. Inside the kamakura a water god is enshrined. They give thanks to the god and enjoy baking rice cakes and drinking something hot. They set candles and usher the people into the kamakura. I hope to go to the festival sometime.

I discovered another interesting place in Yokote. But my camera’s battery was flat and I couldn’t take photos of the inn. About 50 minutes drive from downtown Yokote will take you to the inn where we stayed. The area is called Mitsumata hot spring. The facility is kind of old and nothing special but it’s really quiet and relaxing. The hot spring is pretty good and the food they serve is excellent. I couldn’t take photos of them but I’m going back to that place again and then I’ll take photos of them. They serve homemade buckwheat noodles and they still use a windmill to grind the seeds.

We visited a temple at the foot of Mt. Fuji. That temple has 150 pots and 70 different kinds of lotuses. They are at their best in July and August. The flowers bloom in the morning and they close up again around noon. Some flowers stay open even in the afternoon and their petals will fall off the following day. Lotus flours bloom for four days. I like both the flowers and roots. We eat lotus roots, too. But edible lotuses are a different kind. I heard lotus roots will be good for people who want to be calm and steady. I think viewing this flower makes people calm, too.

They have an interesting kind of lotus called “ Ooga lotus “. Its name is from a scholar called Dr. Ooga. He discovered the seeds of lotus while he was uncovering the earth. Judging from the stratum, the seeds are as old as 2000 years old. Lotus seeds are covered with a very thick husk and as long as the inside stays dry they can come back and bloom again. It is such a mysterious and hardy plant. They use this plant in many different ways, for example for dying, making cloth from fiber- rich stems, lotus tea, lotus rice balls or making crafts.

After enjoying the tea festival, we hurried to my favorite buckwheat noodle restaurant in Asagiri .

That restaurant is far away from anywhere and doesn’t have any advertisement but as soon as the shop opens the place is occupied with avid soba eaters. On sunny clear days, it has a view of Mt. Fuji out of the windows. For some of my friends this place was new. In fact I want to keep this place secret and yet I ended up taking new people there again!

This shop serves good tempura but we have already had a lot of green tea tempura so we ordered only noodles. The reasons I like this place are :                                                  1. The food they serve is great. They use the best ingredients but the price is reasonable.

2. The shop is comfortable and makes me relaxed - I like the owners.

3. I like the furniture, cups, dishes, chopsticks. The toilet is always clean.

Only a five minute drive brought us to this flower field. It’s a part of “ Milk Land “ where you can enjoy shopping, dining, eating icecream, playing with animals or experience milking cows, churning butter etc.

We took a walk in the oilseed blossoms. I didn’t know these blossoms smell so good.

We went to a green tea festival. Shizuoka is famous for its delicious and abundant green tea. And April is the beginning of the new tea season. We enjoyed picking green tea leaves.

This lady and her assistant girls showed and told us how to harvest. It was a lot of fun !

They made tenpura with these new leaves fresh from the farm. It was very delicious.

By experiencing these kinds of things we can understand why tea is expensive. This lady is a great tea producer. She is young but has already won many prizes for making tea or tasting tea. She is always enthusiastic about growing and making delicious and chemical-free tea. I always feel strong energy when I see her. We can enjoy tasting green tea, learning how to make delicious tea or buying inexpensive but good tea at the festival. We all had great time. Let’s go to the festival next year together

This year the cherry blossoms started earlier than usual. Then we had a cold snap. Warm weather and cold weather alternated many times so the blossoms lasted longer than usual. In this place the flowers started coming out about 2 weeks ago but they took a long time to be in full bloom, and some flowers are still hanging on now. To me it seems very strange. I prefer it when cherry blossoms bloom and drop relatively quickly. That is their real beauty. This year’s situation is like when someone overstays at a drinks party and misses their chance of leaving. Complaining about the weather doesn’t help, however. Probably Mother Nature is trying to teach us something.

 Notice:

Green tea field tour  April 25^th ( Sun )

                  Start at 9:30 AM in Fujinomiya

                  You can experience green tea leaves picking, green tea leaves tempura, walking the tea field, enjoy shopping, etc.

                  If you are interested in it, please contact us.

This young man is from the U.S. Since Hanami (or Cherry blossom viewing) was a first experience for him, he was very excited to take part in Hanami. He studied history in the U.S. and is particularly interested in the Japanese toilet or sewage system of the Edo era and he even wrote paper on it !

This young lady is from Scotland. She is trying to fix her camera but it’s not easy for her. She has already had another Hanami party before so it’s not new for her but she is excited to find something new.

I took these photos in front of an old inn called Honjin where feudal lords called daimyo used to stay.?In those days feudal lords had to alternate their residence between Edo ( Tokyo ) and their local town. Their wives had to stay in Edo rather like hostages. For feudal lords it cost a lot of money to travel with their followers but on the other hand it must have stimulated economic activities. It is said that when their processions were going on commoners were not to look at them so they got down on the road with their heads down. When commoners were not around the processions the group of feudal lords moved very quickly so that they could save money.  

We visited another old house. It is said to have been built more than 120 years ago. This house is very unique since outside is western but inside it is in typical Japanese style.

After Meiji Restoration, Japan took in a lot of western culture. After a long period of international seclusion, many Japanese might have longed for something western. The owner of this house was a carpenter and his son became a dentist and then remodeled the house as a dental office.

As patients he had VIPs such as Count Tanaka who spent his retired life nearby. Or in the back of this house, we can see another old house. I heard some patients who came from?far away place used to stay for a month or so for their dental care. For example geisha from Atami. Thanks to bullet trains we can travel from Atami very quickly but it took a long time to travel then.

It must have been very luxurious to have dental care.  This is a waiting room for VIPs. It has an alcove and goldensliding doors with gorgeous painting on them.

   

 I went to Fujinomiya early in the morning. Fujinomiya is one of the gateways to Mt.Fuji. On the top of Mt. Fuji this shrine is enshrined. When Mt. Fuji was very active as a volcano, it was built to pacify the mountain. This morning it was kind of cloudy but the air was fresh and clear. I saw some shrine maidens preparing for some wedding ceremonies. The shrine, cherry blossoms and shrine maidens make a great combination. I wish I could have seen Mt. Fuji clearly. It was foggy in the high place. Probably it must have been snowing at the top.

      

As I kept going to the right side of the main shrine, I saw a water god’s shrine. We can get current water from Mt. Fuji there. I often see people bringing plastic containers to get this spring water. This is very good water to drink but it’s better to boil it before you drink it. In this area we take advantage of this spring water from Mt. Fuji to produce foods and drinks, for agriculture or industry. On the other hand, people are concerned about its depletion. At this shrine on 3^rd and 4^th of April, a festival will be held. They will have Noh and Gagaku performances. http://fuji-hongu.or.jp/sengen/festivals/04_09.html

I went to Kanbara. We had miserable weather the last few weeks but now it is getting sunny. I feel so happy. Kanbara used to be a town but it has been merged with Shizuoka City. Still Kanbara stays the same. It’s a quiet and peaceful place. Since this town functioned as one of the station towns of Tokaido in the old days it has many old houses which used to be inns for travelers.

We went to Gotenyama. “Goten” means castle and “ Yama” means mountain. It is such a nice place with many cherry trees. It was too early for cherryblossoms though. 

  I saw some cute stone statues. Aren’t they lovely  They stand there surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers. A long time ago commoners were not permitted to enter this mountain. They could collect wood and wild vegetables only for the castle’s use. But now during cherry blossom viewing time many people visit there to enjoy its nice view or go on a picnic.

I went to a Japanese style inn to have lunch with the ladies who come to my English class. One of my students knows the owner of the inn and arranged lunch for us.

Each room has great view of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately on that day we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji , though.

Every summer Fujinomiya City hosts students from Santa Monica since they are sister cities. The people from Santa Monica love this inn which commands one of the best views of Mt. Fuji.

We had lunch in one of the rooms. We had a variety of small dishes. Each one was little but we had many kinds and we ate them slowly. I felt really ful when I finished it. This inn prepares meals for vegetarians, too. The person who arranged it is a vegetarian so some of her dishes were different from the rest of us. For example, while we had griled fish, she had ” miso oden” or devil’s tongue with bean paste.

For kaiseki dishes, seasons are a very important factor in deciding what to cook. It was the end of Feb. the beginning of spring. In April or May we are in the middle of spring and enjoy eating bamboo shoots, ” fuki” a kind of wild vegetable ,  ” kinome ” a small green herb on top of the bamboo shoot can be seen in April and May. These kinds ingredients which are early in the season are called ” hashiri ” On the other hand ” nagori” is the ingredients behind the season. We can enjoy the changing of the seasons.

You might find more about this inn at http://www.tachibana-fuji.co.jp/