On this weekend I had a friend of mine, Cormac, come out to Minamisoma to volunteer with us for our monthly Odaka volunteer Day. On Saturday, February 4th we went out to someone’s house and cut down a part of a large bamboo forest on the property of an old woman. She was recently widowed and needed some help clearing the land. It was really fun cutting down the bamboo and then cutting the tree into manageable pieces. I had always heard that bamboo was really light because the insides are hollow, but I was still surprised.
After a whole day of cutting down bamboo we went to the local onsen and relaxed in the tub for an hour. After that we went to my favorite food spot in town: Bar Wizard. I loe bar wizard because of their Anchovy Fries. They are heavenly and I think they may just be the best fries in the whole world. They also offer other kinds of food, like pasta and pizza. They also have a great selection of alcohol behind the bar, 'tis truly impressive. Plus the atmosphere of the restaurant is cozy and relaxing.
The next day I wanted to show the rest of my town, We started with the horse grounds and park near my apartment. These are the fields and the track they use for the Minamisoma Horse Festival every year. Hundreds of men and horses dress up in the old Samurai style and there are various games and races that are done on horseback. I hear it is quite a sight but I arrived just a few days after the festival ended last year, so I will be able to see it this upcoming July. Stay tuned for that post.
After that I showed him the Yamanote Park and another nearby park without a name that has this large baby headstone pyramid. (To learn more about that custom, please see my post Aomori and Akita Trip: Day 1.)
After that we went to the ocean. It was a little windy and chilly but it was fun to see the ocean. There were a couple of pretty shells along the beach, I found the perfect one and then promptly broke it in my palm. There were a bunch of shells that were white and purple.
There is also a park right next to the ocean that has a large roller-slide! We went down it a few times because it was so much fun. I found that going down on your butt is pretty slow, and not a whole lot of fun, and going down on your stomach, face first is a little more fun and fast, but not by much. But the third time I realized that by going down on the soles of your shoes you could go really fast! It for some reason also wants to turn you sideways so I had to use my arms to keep straight in the slide. It looks ridiculous, but it’s pretty fun!
Here is a video I shot while on this slide.
The next few clusterfucks of misadventures came next. I have a cartoon area map of my town hanging on my wall. I took it down so we could check out some of the different things around town. There was a figure of what appeared to be a pyramid-like mound drawn on the map, I had never seen it before, so I was curious to go check it out.
It turned out to be this small Shinto Shrine in the middle of a field named Terusaki Shrine. Why they illustrated it as a mound on the map is beyond me.
You would think that by this time I would have realized that this illustrated map could not be trusted, and my friend, you would be wrong. I had heard of a great stone Buddha statue in my town, and I was under the impression that it was in Odaka, to the south. This was in-my-mind confirmed because there was an illustration of some stone Buddhas on my map down in the Odaka area. So I found its approximate location on Google maps and we drove to find the stone Buddhas. We drove around for a long time. We drove past farms and houses, past rice fields and forests. There were some forests that were so dense, it looked like black under the canopy, even though it was daytime (albeit cloudy.) A lot of the houses and farms are abandoned because a lot of people have not moved back in yet. But to be fair, I was surprised to see that there were a lot of houses with cars in the driveway and yards that seem to have been up kept. It was nice seeing people moving back into their homes. In a few of the rice fields we saw a few packs of monkeys. These were not like the monkeys in Nagano, those monkeys were used to being around people. These monkeys got scared and ran for the hills as my car drove past them on the road. I think that was a cooler sight than any of the monkeys in Nagano.
We drove all around and never found the stone Buddhas. I found out that the illustration on my map was completely imaginary. There is nothing there in that part of the map to warrant such an illustration! I have no idea why it was included. (Update: The stone Buddhas do exist. I was able to talk to a friend who knew where they are. Upcoming post about the stone statues of Buddhas and Kannon-sama.) I found out a couple of weeks later that the stone Buddha is to the north in Kashima, and there is only one. I have the location pinned on google maps, so I can go there at a later date.
I showed Mac a few of the smaller temples and shrines around Minamisoma, Namely the Jonouchi Haramachiku Temple and the Nissai Shrine (see Minamisoma post for more details.)
By this time the sun was on its way down and we had enough time for one more destination before I had to take Cormac to the bus station.
We drove north for a while and up a mountain before we got to the Yokokawa Dam. It’s not much, but it has a beautiful view.
By this time the sun was just above the horizon and the sky was getting dark. It was also starting to rain.
We decided to go get some food before saying goodbye. It was a calm and laid-back kind of day with a lot of looking at scenery, and we had fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment