Travels

Ah-ah....  Another month gone.  I must be keeping busy if I can't even find time to blog...

Tetsu and I did get away for a couple of days when we went for our annual trip to Morioka.  The city of Morioka is Tetsu's hometown and it was the city I was assigned to when I first came to Japan as a missionary.  47 years ago there was no Bullet Train and the only foreigners there, the only ones teaching English, were the missionaries.  I met Tetsu in the first few months of arrival and we married two years later... and then his job transferred us to other parts of northeastern Japan.  Still, even for me, Morioka is our hometown and along with good friends from Tetsu's high school days, we also have our eldest daughter's and Tetsu's mother's grave there.  Thus our annual trip. 

It is a six hour drive from Nikko to Morioka on the expressway, but the drive is easy and we made numerous stops along the way at Service Areas to stretch our legs, take advantage of restroom facilities, eat, and buy coffee and snacks.  The Service Areas in Japan are practically tourist attractions in themselves!  They often have restaurants, dog runs, gasoline stations, playgrounds etc.  There are also Parking Areas which usually only have small convenience stores, lots of vending machines and restrooms but anyway, it is easy to drive long distances and I noticed some small camping cars with curtains closed so maybe people even take naps in the parking lots while traveling.  

Tetsu enjoying a ramen breakfast at our first Service Area stop.

I know this is a strange photo but both Tetsu and I took a picture of the pretty flower arrangements that were adorning the restroom sink areas.  Japanese Service Area bathrooms are extremely clean!

Tetsu did all the driving this day, with us leaving at 3:30 AM from Nikko and arriving in Morioka around 10:30.  The first thing we did was stop at a home and hardware store to buy flowers to take to the cemetery.

As always, our gravesite was overrun with weeds and as the weather forecast heavy rain for the next day, Tetsu and I spent about three hours weeding and scrubbing and decorating the site before the weather changed   A job well done!

We stayed in a hotel in downtown Morioka the first night and once there we went exploring in the city looking for things that we remember from when we lived and worked there.  We found an old restaruant that we had often gone to when we were dating and whether because it was really tasty or because of nostalgia, the hamburger steak dinner was delicious!

The next morning we took a quick jaunt to an old Japanese house that is open to the public and we enjoyed the beautiful garden and polished floors and interior.

The rain made the garden all the more beautiful!

How would you like to wax THAT floor?!

Here and there in nooks and crannies were these colorful little pinecones...  The little balls are just colorful scraps of kimono fabric but aren't they cute!  I should be able to make something like that...

One more garden photo.

We went to our friends' house after our bit of sightseeing and we spent the whole day there, chatting and EATING!  Tetsu and the husband have been friends from high school and Iku-chan (wife) and I became close after we were married.  One topic of conversation that came up was "What are we going to do with all the STUFF we have?!"  As we age, this topic comes to mind a lot.  In Tetsu and my case, our kids are in the States and neither of them are going to want or have use for any of the paraphenalia that we have accumulated over the years.  Iku-chan was bemoaning the fact that she has all of her mother's kimono and she started bringing out things from her closet to show me.  She says that taking them to the recycle shop is depressing but she has no use for them and is on ther verge of throwing most of them out!  I started pawing through them and claimed a couple of kimono coats for myself and some scraps of kimono fabric, but I don't have any use for the beautiful kimono and obi either!  "Take MORE!" Iku-chan kept saying...

A sketch of me in one of Iku-chan's mother's kimono coats.  I can see myself wearing it over jeans and sweaters.

And once I got home I wore a dark blue one on a cold day.

Another high school friend of Tetsu's stopped by while we were visiting.

Sunday we worshipped at our home church and were happy to see that there were more people there than in previous years.  

After church we headed to the home of MY first friend when I arrived in Morioka.  Nobuko-san and her husband live in an old farmhouse in the mountains of the prefecture.  It is pretty rugged but so beautiful!

My sketch of Nobuko-san's house.

The entryway with original dirt floors.

Nobuko-san's husband is a somewhat famous potter in Japan and he showed us around his workshop and explained passionately about digging up clay from the mountainous areas that no one knows about.  

He showed us blueprints of a stove he is building to heat his workshop and took us out to see the kiln that he recently rebuilt so that his larger pieces could be placed inside and taken out again.

One of Ito-san's larger pieces.

Nobuko-san served tea from the hibachi that was warming the living room.  I was most impressed that she can still sit on her knees!

I, on the other hand, could hardly get up from the floor!

It was such a wonderful weekend with friends.  The last night we stayed at an onsen.  (Of course!)

The next day, on our way home, Tetsu wanted to make a stop in a town that makes ironware which Morioka and the prefecture is famous for.  We went to a little museum but the real draw for Tetsu, was a display of Shohei Ohtani's things!

This was the town where Ohtani-san grew up!

"Shaking hands" with Ohtani-san was a highlight for Tetsu on this trip!

My happy husband.

I guess that's enough of a photo cascade for this blog post!