<Aug. 12, Sun: Departure>
I left home at 11:40 p.m. The first destination is Kinshuko SA in Akita. I was planning to take a nap when I felt sleepy somewhere along the road. But that time came way earlier that I thought. In less than two hours from departure my eyes started getting heavy, so I pulled into Sekimoto PA and slept there until 5:00 a.m. next morning. As soon as I woke up, I hit the road again and drove northbound along the Johban Highway. In the Sendai area the highway merges with the Tohoku Highway, and from the junction between them, I went up the Tohoku Highway. At Chojahara SA I had breakfast with my company, my bilingual companion. I had the extra-large beef tongue combo and she had the spicy beef tongue noodles. Both were satisfying.
<Aug.13, Mon: Roadside Station Tennoh>
Although I was originally planning to stop by Kinshuko SA to take a hot spring bath, I skipped it and went straight to Roadside Station Tennoh in Katagami City, Akita Prefecture. It's worth visiting for two reasons. One, there is a tower next to the station. It has a viewpoint on the top floor where you can enjoy a magnificent view of the surrounding areas. Two, there is a store that sells local produce and specialties. Many are surprisingly delicious and affordable. We got there around 3:30 p.m. There we enjoyed grocery shopping for the night and the following day. We also went up the tower and took some photos both from the top floor and also on the floor below where there is a small museum displaying photos and fishing tools of local fishermen from the past who lost their jobs when the former 2nd largest lake of Japan called Hachirogata Lake was reclaimed to make rice paddies. That night we took a hot spring bath at a spa inside the roadside station. It only cost 400 yen per person.
Fisherman in Hachirogata Lake （八郎潟）
<Aug.14, Mon: Cape Nyudosaki in the Oga Peninsula>
I woke up at at 5:00 a.m. the following morning. Thanks to a pleasant night temperature and mosquito nets from Amazon, I had a sound sleep in the car. The destination for today is Cape Nyudosaki in the Oga Peninsula. It's well-known for a lighthouse, restaurants that serve local seafood, and a large green field spreading from the restaurant area all the way to the edge of the coast line. I have my personal reason to visit this place. There is a restaurant called "Ryugukan". The owner is a local fisherman. Three years ago when I visited the restaurant, he offered me a grilled fish, saying it's on the house. He liked it when I told him I was from Chiba which is almost 700 km away. He said he had once worked in Chiba as a seasonal worker, and his daughter, who now lives in Meguro, Tokyo, used to live in Chiba also, so when he heard that I was from that area, he felt some special fellowship with me. Later on when I was back home from the trip, I sent him a bottle of locally brewed sake and assorted sweets. Three years later when I took a seat in his restaurant, no sooner had I asked one of the female waitresses there if he was in than the man appeared from the back of the staff room. The moment he saw my face, he cried with a surprised smile on his face, "Yamagata san!" I was touched by his warm welcome. Considering the large number of visitors that he has to deal with day in and day out, I didn't expect him to remember me, not to mention remember my name! We had some fun conversation not only about each other's recent up-dates, but also his early childhood which coincides with the occupation period by the US Occupation Force. I was surprised to hear for the first time in my life that the road and parking lot in front of this restaurant was once a runway for the Occupation Force, because Cape Nyudosaki was so close from the former Soviet Union, and for that reason the US regarded it as a strategically important point of defense.
Restaurant Ryugukan（龍宮館）in the Oga Peninsula
After filling out stomachs at his restaurant with tremendously satisfying local dishes, I went down to the beach with my bilingual companion, and I enjoyed snorkeling, and she enjoyed fossicking along the rocks. I caught some fish, which she grilled over charcoal. There was a little more than she and I could eat, so I shared the biggest fish, a black snapper, with a large family that were picnicking nearby. They were wildly excited because there were a few children in the group and they loved grilled fish!
<Aug.15, Wed: Takanosaki Promontory in the Tsugaru Peninsula>
Leaving the Oga Peninsula behind, our next destination was originally Tsubakiyama, Aomori Prefecture. However, our arrival was later than originally scheduled. Plus, there was no public restroom and tap water available there. So we drove on to a roadside station in Fukaura in the south-western part of Aomori Prefecture. It drizzled that night, with intermittent heavy rains. By the following morning, the rain had stopped. But the sky was largely covered with clouds, and the temperature was not very high. As I climbed out of my seat and got out the car, I noticed that the driver of a station wagon parked next to me was an elderly gentleman. His car carried a license plate from Sasebo. I said to him in a friendly tone, "You came all the way from Kyushu!?" (Kyushu is one of the four main islands of Japan. It's the south-most one.) He replied with a big smile on his face, "Yep. And We are going all the way to Hokkaido." He seemed particularly interested in the mosquito nets that I had on my car windows. When I told him they were from Amazon, he said he might want to get one someday. He and I wished each other a safe drive, and parted.The destination for the day is Takanosaki, to the east of Tappimisaki, the northern tip of the Tsugaru Peninsula, Aomori Prefecture. First my bilingual companion and I stopped by another roadside station along the way in Goshogawara City called Roadside Station Morita. I'd been there three years before, and I had a reason to go there again. It had a good selection of local produce and specialties then. I looked forward to shopping some good food there. And the place didn't disappoint me this time either. I got a ripe melon sold for a nominal 250 yen. I also bought okuras, tomatoes, and home-made sweets like melon cake that actually had real melon in it instead of some kind of artificial flavoring!
Leaving the roadside station behind with our stomachs full, my bilingual companion and I decided to head for Aomori Museum of Art in Central Aomori instead of going straight to Takanosaki because we had an early start and there was still plenty of time.
Aomori Museum of Art is located across from Sannaimaruyama Historical Site. When I went there, there was Marc Shagall Exhibition going on, but it wasn't free, and I wasn't particularly in a mood for surrealism, so I opted to see the "Aomori Dog" for free which my bilingual companion strongly recommended me to see. I followed a series of directions through shaded corridors surrounded with boring grey concrete walls finally to reach a clearing. There filling a vast open space surrounded with three tall concrete walls and one glass wall was a giant statue of a solid white dog with its eyes gently closed. I gaped at the sight, dumbfounded.
After a while of fun photo shooting at the museum, my bilingual companion and I left for Takanosaki. It's about 50 km to the north from the museum. A new road was constructed several years ago, so the connection between Central Aomori and there is a lot better now than it was when I first visited the place with a friend of my from my college days. There is a camp site there, with tap water and bathrooms available. There is a grill made of concrete that visitors can have free access to. Geographically, it is a promontory that commands a great view of Tappimisaki in the west, of Hokkaido in the north, and the Shimokita Peninsula in the east. When you walk a few hundreds of steps down, there is a quiet cove, where you can enjoy snorkeling. Compared with the water off the Oga Peninsula, the temperature is a little low for swimming, but with a wet suit on snorkeling is no problem. Because the place is far from everything, there are not many visitors, so the beach is quiet, and the water is clear. Unfortunately, because of the rain on the previous night and also in the morning, visibility was not as good as it was last time I was here because of some muddy water flowing into the sea from nearby rivers. But the deeper down into the sea I dove, the clearer the water was. I held my breath and enjoyed diving at the depth where visibility was not so badly affected. However, shortly after I took a dip in the sea, the weather deteriorated, and it started raining rather heavily, with thunders heard from time to time. With little sun light reaching the depth where I was diving, the activity was not so enjoyable. I soon got out of the sea and got changed.
There are two restaurants in Takanosaki. One is Shinkohmaru, run by a local fisherman and his wife and their relatives. They've been in business for many years, and I've enjoyed dining there many times before. The other is a ramen restaurant. It wasn't there when I visited the place for the first time. When I came here three years ago, it was there, but I didn't checked it out. This year both restaurants were closed. Naturally! Who would come here on a stormy day like today? I gave up my hope that the weather would turn better, and booked a hotel to spend a night in Central Aomori and recuperate.
<Aug.16, Thurs: Sannaimaruyama Special Historical Site（三内丸山遺跡）>
The following morning saw another rainy day. My bilingual companion and I decided to spend a day in Central Aomori, checking out a couple of museums, instead of going to the sea. The first place we chose was "Warasse Nebuta Museum" where gorgeous floats from the famous Nebuta Festival were displayed. We left the hotel fairly early to get to the museum early, but there was already a long line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot. We changed our plan, and opted for Plan B, that is to go to Sannnaimaruyama Historical Site. I'd been there three years before, but each visit is a renewed pleasure, especially because the site allows us to see excavations from an old age of early hunters & gatherers whose ecologically harmonious life style I most respect. I enjoyed strolling around the site, enjoying taking photos and wondering what life was like for people who lived there some thousands of years ago, hunting wild animals, catching fish, collecting edible plants, and growing plants that bore nuts and fruits...
Sannaimaruyama Historical Site （三内丸山遺跡）
That night my bilingual companion and I dined at Restaurant Osanai a minute from JR Aomori Station, and enjoyed taking a walk around the station after dinner that was already filled with an air of early fall. The food was superb at Osanai's. I had a bowl of steamed rice with fresh sea urchin on top. My bilingual companion enjoyed having a soup with locally grown veggies and some small pieces of noodles made from some primitive kinds of grains. She said it's good. I tried a small piece. It was a bit sticky, and tasted like something very very healthy. Other than the dishes just mentioned we had fresh sea pine apple, fringes of fresh oysters, a boiled mountain veggie called "mizu", and locally grown oysters boiled in miso soup with poached egg over it.
<Aug.17, Fri: Takanosaki Promontory in the Tsugaru Peninsula>
The following morning saw better weather. But expected daytime highs were much lower than the previous day. Should I hit the sea to enjoy snorkeling? Or will it not be so much fun to take a dip in the sea when it's not so warm? I decided to go to the sea anyway, because when I went there two days before, I misplaced a baseball cap I got from an American friend of mine, and I wanted to search the beach for it. My bilingual companion and I stopped by a supermarket for grocery shopping. We looked for a good source of animal protein to keep us warm in cold weather. We found grilled chicken bought some.
When we reached Takanosaki, the sky had partially cleared, and the sun shone through clouds. It felt much much warmer than what the weather forecast said. I immediately changed into my snorkeling gear and walked down to the beach from the top of the promontory. My bilingual companion made a fire with pieces of wood collected on the beach so that I could warm myself when I got back from snorkeling.
The water was murkier than it had been two days before. And waves were rougher. But as time passed, the sun got stronger, and that increased visibility in the sea. Also the sea got calmer. It helped me keep a comfortable posture in the sea. I enjoyed watching a diverse array of ocean fauna and flora. I dove several times between noon and 15:30 p.m. That was more than enough. We put out the fire with salt water and headed back to the car and got changed.
You don't know how hungry snorkeling makes you. You also don't know how much you crave for salty soup. That's where ramen comes in. Ordinarily, I am not such a big fan of ramen, but today is an exception. I went to a ramen shop next to the parking lot and enjoyed having a bowl of ramen with small oysters and locally collected seaweeds like "wakame" and "funori". My bilingual companion ordered soy sauce flavroed one. It had ground dried sardine mixed in the noodles, and was quite tasteful.
I had a small chat with the couple who were running the restaurant. Surprisingly the husband is not a local fisherman, but a Tokyo-ite. He was born in Shibuya and later moved to Hodogaya, Kanagawa. His wife, on the other hand, though, is originally from Imabatsu where Takanosaki is. She spent most of her life in Asakusa as a nurse. But the idea was always in their minds that someday when they got older, that they would move to her birth place to live happily without the hustle and bustle of a large city. They got that right! And now they live their dream. How happy they must be everyday!
Another interesting fact about this couple is that they are not doing their business mainly for tourists. The restaurant is there for local people. And they are not lying. It's obvious when you see the prices of the ramen they are selling. My ramen, which is not only super delicious, but has 5 or 6 baby oysters, ans still only costs 600 yen. The one my bilingual companion tried, does not have any artificial flavoring. The broth is made from seven different natural flavorings such as kelp, chicken, pork, shiitaka mushroom, to name a few. Plus, the noodles have ground dried sardine mixed in as I already mentioned. Now that's some piece of work. And yet, the couple only charges you 600 yen for it! Why? Because they are not after money. They are there mainly because they want to provide local retired people a community where they can get together on a daily basis and enjoy having a meal without spending much out of their pockets as most of them are on pension. What a beautiful mind!
As I paid for the food, the wife asked me if I was interested in buying a bottle of sea urchin. I said, "For how much, may I ask?" She said, "1200 yen." Now that's insanely low a price. It didn't take a second for me to say, "Yes." She said she only bought ten bottles from a local fisherman, and it's one of them. I was so honored that she offered such a rare piece of commodity for such a nominal price to a visitor she met for the first time. Two days later that went into my mother's stomach. She loved it so much that she asked me to buy three more bottles next time I visited there. I was appalled by her greediness.
After enjoying dining and talking at the ramen shop, my bilingual companion and I enjoyed some photo shooting in the green field on top of the promontory. And around 4:40 p.m. we said goodbye to the beautiful sea and the friendly local couple.
<Aug.17, Sat: Going Home>
The total mileage had reached well beyond 1000 km when I left Takanosaki. But to my surprise I was so tired from driving, mainly because I drove slowly. My average speed was around 80 km/h. Only occasionally did I drive at speeds beyond 100 km/h. When you drive safely, you worry little. When you worry little, you don't waste energy. Therefore, I wasn't so tired. I stuck to the same policy on my way home. Another important policy is to take enough rests. Whenever my eyes got heavy, I pulled into a parking area and rested. And I rested well. But at the same time, I didn't just drive for the sake of going home. It's a long drive. And there are many exciting so-called Service Areas, or rest areas along the way. So my bilingual companion and I opted to take a different route so that we could make a few stops at some of those rest areas. One is Iwatesan SA, where I enjoyed a magnificent view of Mt. Iwatesan. Another is Maesawa SA in Iwate Prefecture. We also make a stop at Kunimi SA in Fukushima, where I bought a box of locally grown peaches. Finally we stopped by Adatara SA, and bought a bag of wall nuts pies made by Sanmangoku Fujiya, a local confectionery company.
The drive remained comfortable for the rest of the way, mainly thanks to smooth traffic and safe driving. Only once was there a brief jam before crossing the Tone River at the boundary between Chiba Pref. and Ibaraki Pref., but there's always a jam there and it cannot be helped...
At 5:28 p.m. I reached home after driving 1822.6 km. My bilingual companion and I immediately started unloading the car, and at 7:30 p.m. We celebrated our safe return with home-made dishes with Madam Fumiko who kindly let me rent her car for almost for one week for a nominal 30,000 yen.
That night with a full stomach, and so many fun memories from the trip I slept like a baby.
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