Welcome to Sonokotchi World
Air is getting colder and crispier.
Town is decorated for Christmas.
Year End is approaching in Tokyo…
I found this 3D Christmas Art @ Tokyo Midtown Roppongi.
The picture is flat on the floor so that we can walk on it.
From the one floor above, it looks like as if these are displayed.
I had a nice Pork Shabu Shabu at Butagumi, Roppongi.
I highly recommend to try Kagua Beer.
Japanese company requested Belgium Brewery to produce a beer according to Japanese company’s recipe.
Kagua Blanc and Rouge.
I was shocked when I had a sip of Rouge; I had a Rouge first.
If you want to surprise twice, please start with Blanc.
However, Rouge is knock-out and I was knocked-out. hahaha
A bottle of wine is reasonable there; a French Bordeaux wine for JPY 3900 for a bottle.
Food is also nice.
Would I go back again..? Absolutely!
On the way back home, I saw night illumination from the park.
I quickly went back and went to the park with Choco.
Press people were there to take photos and video.
I believe those are for promotion and meant for announcement for Christmas event at Tokyo Midtown Roppongi.
I watched a whole three minutes show selfishly to myself and Choco before the event starts.
It’s so beautiful….
I joined the Design Tour to be with my colleague for a day.
First, we visited Good Design Marunouchi.
Currently, 50 juries are introducing their best G-Mark winner products here.
Yes, I spotted Haku Accessories.
I can wear gold plated jewelry like a sticker.
First, cut the tape to suitable length, then remove the plastic film, place the jewelry on my skin, wet the paper so that it will stick.
We can buy some of these G-Mark winners’ product at Good Design Store Tokyo by Nohara at KITTE
We continue our trip to Ueno Station, Hard Rock Ueno Station.
Then walked AmeYoko (American Street).
I had a Kebab for lunch.
We stretched to Akihabara to visit Hobby Building, Radio-Kan (Radio House).
We returned to Roppongi to visit Design Hub.
We could get information on other G-Mark winners that is difficult to display the actual product such as urban development.
We did enough exercise for a day.
My friend wants to eat Unagi (eel) for dinner so I took her to my favorite eel shop, Shojikiya, Roppongi.
We continued our coffee, Starbucks Christmas Drink Strawberry Shortcake Frappuccino, at her room.
We often communicate via emails and WhatsApp; it was nice spending time together!
Hope to see you soon again!
I had a bad week at work.
I’m glad that I applied for a trial lesson for boxing fitness programme at B-Monster Ginza this morning.
We boxercise in dark.
The loud EDM kept me going; otherwise, I won’t be able to finish the whole programme.
Well, technically I took a break in between so I may not able to say a WHOLE programme, but I could still stand when we finished the lesson.
It was fun!
I was seriously considering to become a member, but currently, the membership is full so I couldn’t.
I will check other studio.
After boxercise, I went to lunch at Din Tai Fung Ginza at Kirarito Ginza.
I love their dim sum.
I also enjoyed their famous Taiwanese Mango Shaved Ice!
I hope I didn’t cancelled out my exercise with these lunch. hahaha
At evening, I took Choco-chan for a walk for the first time.
He is small so he can get enough exercise at home, but it would be nice to get fresh air and fun.
We went to the Light and Mist Digital Art @ Tokyo Midtown Roppongi.
It is beautiful.
I hope Choco-chan also enjoyed the evening.
Unfortunately, it is raining today, but I already watched all three festivals so rain doesn’t affect my day or mood.
I went for the morning dip; the bath was switched with men’s over night.
I had a buffet breakfast and I enjoyed their croissant waffles very much.
It’s dangerously delicious!
I didn’t have much time to use their facilities, but hotel prepares many activities for guests to enjoy during their stay.
We departed for Hiraizumi, Iwate.
We reached to Hiraizumi, Iwate where the town is recognized as UNESCO World Heritage.
We visited Chusonji (Chuson Temple) and the temple is famous for Konjikido (Golden Hall).
Today, Konjikido stands inside of a building to be protected.
Everything including the hall structure is made by gold.
We cannot take any photos inside so you need to visit to see how golden it is!
At the premise, there are many places to visit and to pray.
I had limited time so I could not visit all; nonetheless, I visited here before and I explained in details in my previous blog.
Hopefully, you would enjoy reading other days of my blog.
Shakado
Benzaiten
Amidado
Sankozo (Museum)
Dainichido
Mine Yakushido Hall
Hondo (Main Hall)
Benkeido
Tsukimizaka (Tsukimi Slope)
The rain was hard so my pants and shoes are wet.
But again, I didn’t mind because I watched and enjoyed all festivals in okay conditions.
These festivals continues for few days and many people planned to visit today.
Due to the weather (heavy rain), some festivals might get cancelled and there is no replacement day.
So I consider myself very lucky.
I had lunch at Sake Brewer: Seki no Ichi, Ichinoseki, Iwate.
Today, factory moved to a new place; original Kura (Storage) became a restaurant and shop.
Under the paper, there are many flavors of mochi (glutenous rice cakes).
Mochi is served to Gods and local people eat Mochi on important days for goods (celebration) and bads (sad).
From top left, zunda (edamame: young soy bean), goma (sesame), daikon oroshi for refreshment (ground white radish), anko (red bean) and kawaebi (river shrimp).
The pot dish is called Oshu Hatto.
This is made by flour and water; same ingredients with Udon (flour noodle).
It’s in a piece before cut.
We break it in pieces by our hands to put them in the pot.
We put them in a boiling pot together with all vegetables.
The restaurant offered a lucky draw by mochi (oh, no! More mochi! These are basically rice so very filling) ; I lost.
The winner get a sake bottle, how lucky!
This Sake Brewer also brew beer: Kura Beer.
I like their beer which has unique bitterness similar to dark beer though it’s in gold.
I bought Sake bottles for the next home party to enjoy them with friends. hahaha
We arrived Sendai Station to catch our Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo.
Sendai Station is already decorated for Sendai Tanabata which will start tomorrow.
Sendai Tanabata is also known as one of greatest festivals in Northern Japan.
These represents various wishes: health, wisdom, wealth, etc.
We took Shinkansen Yamabiko 152 back to Tokyo.
This was a fun trip!
It’s cloudy today.
I went for morning Onsen (hot spring).
There is a Rotenburo (open-air bath) to overlook ocean.
I had Japanese breakfast.
These look old fashioned but food is very delicious.
I enjoy their food very much; very local and very fresh.
Their Onsen is nice and food is delicious.
It sands in front of ocean to enjoy ocean view from a room.
I departed Aomori for Morioka, Iwate.
Yes, the station that I arrived by Shinkansen yesterday.
I look at Iwate-yama (Mt. Iwate) again, the same mountain that I was looking yesterday.
We returned to Aomori Station, Iwate to watch Sansa Odori (Sansa Dance).
Sansa Odori is a combination of odori (dance), taiko (Japanese drum) and flute (Japanese flute).
This dance is dancing for appreciation and celebration of Kamisama (Gods) defeating Oni (evils).
There is a rock with Oni no Te (Evil’s Hand Print).
Evils promised not to return again by making a hand print.
This myth is the origin of name of Iwate Prefecture: Stone Hand Prefecture.
There are many groups and style of Sansa Odori.
The actual performance will be at night, however, to increase the awareness of Sansa Odori, many groups performance during day time at few places such as in front of Morioka Station, Malios, etc.
We went up to the observation room of Malios to overlook Morioka City, Iwate.
We departed for Akita for the last Summer Festival of the tour: Akita Kanto Matsuri (direct translation is Akita Lantern Bamboo Festival).
We reached Akita City.
This road named Akita Kanto Odori will be the street for the performance.
Again, we took early dinner, this time at Akita Castle Hotel.
Hotel banquet rooms became huge buffet dinner place for tourists.
It was like a zoo. hahaha
After dinner, I took a photo with a famous guy in Akita: Namahage.
He looks fierce, but a nice guy.
He scares away evils to being good lucks!
We went to the street to watch the performance.
This is again originated from Lantern Festival; many of us are Buddhist.
It’s an amazing festival with sound of taiko, fue and Kanto (Lanterns on Bamboos).
A person to hold Kanto extends bamboo and it bents greatly with weight of lanterns, making difficult to hold it.
Furthermore, they balance it on their palm, forehead, shoulder and hip.
They start from small.
They are small, but already a great performer!
I enjoy it very much.
About at 9 pm, we left Akita for Oshuku Onsen (Oshuku Hot Spring).
We reached Hotel Mori no Kaze Oshuku at 11 pm.
I found our supper, onigiri (rice balls) in our room; however, I’m still full from dinner.
We quickly went to take a bath because a public bath, Onsen, will close at 25 o’clock.
It was nice.
There is a Rotenburo (open-air bath) and special lemon bath to remove our tiredness.
Oyasuminasai (Good Night)
I took a Tohoku Shinkansen, Yamabiko 43, operated by JR Higashi Nihon (JR East Japan) for Morioka this morning.
There is a train map.
It is common that two Shinkansen runs till Sendai Station then disconnected to become two Shinkansen lines.
Shinkansen is heading north; the place for Japan’s major rice production.
I had a lunch box on the Shinkansen.
Ta-dah
More rice field.
We arrived Morioka Station and look!
There are many buses for tourists!
We headed for Aomori by bus.
We stopped at Tsugaru Service Area for a break.
We can take a good view of Iwaki-san (Mt. Iwaki) that is also called: Tsugaru (Tsugaru is old name of this area) Fuji.
Isn’t it look beautiful as Mt. Fuji!
First, we checked in at Ryokan (Japanese Inn), Asamushi Sakura Kanko Hotel because Nebuta Matsui (Nabuta Festival) starts 7 pm so that we have to have an early dinner at 4 pm.
The room is in old fashioned.
There is a Fusuma (Sliding Door), I opened then…
A view from a room is also nice.
We relaxed at the room, then had a dinner at 4 pm so that we could leave at 4:50 pm.
I also had a Wakame Men (seaweed noodle)
And dessert: coffee jelly.
Dinner was very delicious.
These food are made of fresh ingredients!
Then we left Ryokan for Aomori: Nebuta Matsuri.
There are bankers for Nebuta at ASPM (Aomori Sightseeing Products Mansion).
Then we moved to our seats for watching the Nebuta Matsuri.
The parade started.
The origin of Nebuta is the lantern festival.
The decoration became unique so craftspeople started to present.
That’s how this Summer Festival began.
They will turn it, spin it and bow it!
There is a group of Hayashi (musicians), making rhythm.
Haneto (Jumpers) – anybody can rent a formal wear to join jumping.
There are cute ones.
Chocobo…? Final Fantasy…?
Even from small, they turn Nebuta.
There are so many people to enjoy the moment together.
After enjoying it for about an hour and half to returned to Ryokan.
Futon is ready.
And I found a supper on the table…?
Onigiri (rice balls) for supper.
After satisfying my stomach, then I took Onsen (hot Spring) for my relaxation.
We are staying at Asamushi Onsen (Asamushi Hot Spring).
Water is cleared and nice.
My skin is smooth and moist!
