Rokkasho Salmon Festival

It blows my mind that it's already been a year since the last salmon festival. WHAT?! When did that happen? One way or another it did, and once again the annual event came around.

I didn't end up participating this year (I had several dreams in which I was doing the salmon catch, caught one, and then was so horrified and guilt-ridden as it flailed around dying in my grasp that I decided my conscience was telling me to skip it this time). Anyway, I went along for fun and to play photographer (any excuse to take pictures, right?).

This one was thrown by a different town, and I have to say I prefer Oirase's version (which will be held in a couple weeks for those peeps who won't be in CHINA!!). The pools were much smaller, there was A LOT more waiting around, and it was sort of just a bit more... boring. That doesn't mean that WE were bored since we got to spend the time playing with the cutest kids known to man, but without that entertainment- yeah, kinda boring.

Before the catch (all 3 hours we were waiting since we didn't buy advanced tickets and had to get there early), we ate some food, walked around booths, and watched the staged events. There was some girl singing group (who the girls thought were princesses because of their costumes) and a couple of silly little competitions. There was one poor little American boy who participated in the chopstick dexterity contest and was sorely out of his league. It makes me laugh, but good for him for giving it a shot! Seriously, how funny/cute is this?

Anyway... on to the salmon catch! Corey and some of our friends got all set to catch their fish. Everyone got one (some faster than others). Corey's fish didn't go down without a fight. He has the salmon-bite scar to prove it.

Here's a video of the catching of the salmon:

I know what we'll be eating for the next few weeks...

Hakkoda Ropeway

Going further up into the mountains after passing Oirase Gorge, we left the land of crazy color behind and got into the vegetation zone that has already been-there/done-that as far as fall is concerned and is gearing up for winter. The Hakkoda mountains get covered in snow up to the tippy-tops of the trees (Corey knows- he went snowboarding there last winter), but we wanted to see it before that happened.

They have a gondola that takes sightseers up to the top of one of the peaks for a little mini-hiking trail and (on a clearer day than we had) grandiose views of Aomori City and Mutsu Bay.

A gondola ride sounds kind of lovely, doesn't it? Get lifted over beautiful, serene mountain views, a nice relaxing trip up the mountain... yeah, no. You get shoved into a box with a hundred other people at a time standing squished like sardines with elbows jabbing into your stomach for the 10 minute ride, and unless you happen to be "lucky" enough to get jammed against the glass of the gondola on the outside ring of cattle passengers, the only views you're going to see will be of some man's neck mole. Oh yeah, and you wait in line for a half hour on each side to do it.

Aside from the gondola ride, the mountain experience was nice. We hiked around for maybe an hour, and it was definitely pretty up there. It smelled wonderful- like Christmas! Definitely my favorite smelling mountain. Click here for more Hakkoda and Oirase Gorge pics.

By the way, October is DEFINITELY the month to be in Japan. So you know, if you want to see any of these sights yourself, there's a nice warm guest bed waiting for you at Casa de Garson... :D

GORGEous!

Man, I'm sooo punny!

This weekend we GORGEd ourselves on some fall scenery. At Oirase Gorge. I'm fairly certain this is basically the prettiest place in the entire Tohoku region, so on this particularly perfect Sunday afternoon at the peak of color-brilliance, the place was enGORGEd with a gazillion sightseers. It was actually really annoying. We sat (not moving) in traffic for a long time. We only got half way down the gorge before we got too annoyed and found a spot to turn around (and then sat in the same traffic on the way out). We never even got out of the car.

Here's a smattering of pics (taken from the car, so pardon the quality). Even with all the crowds, there was no arguing that the beauty was worth it.

Corey points out how it seems like half the population of Japan is super serious about photography. I think there were more tripods than tourists perched along the gorge yesterday. I like it!

We also went to Mt. Hakkoda this weekend, but I'll post about that later...

Miroku Falls

Since we were already in the area for the Beef and Garlic festival last weekend, we took the opportunity to check out some waterfalls before going home. Pretty, but not a ton of water. It would probably be a more spectacular sight in the spring. (Does the top half of the rock look like George Washington's head to anyone else?)

We saw a cool frog too.

Takko Town Beef and Garlic Festival

This weekend we went to the mini Japanese version of the Gilroy Garlic Festival. In fact, Takko (an hour and a half south of Misawa) is the leading producer of garlic in Japan, and is a "sister city" to Gilroy (aww, home...). This festival is not nearly as large or extensive in garlic use as its U.S. counterpart, but it was kinda cool nonetheless.

You can buy advanced tickets to participate in the BBQ where you grill your own beef and veggies, but Corey and I went last-minute and just bought a slice of the big beef slab they had roasting over a pit (and prepared with surgical-like attention... only in Japan is a BBQ slab of beef treated by immaculate workers with spotless white jackets and face masks).

The garlic sauce available to drench it in was absolutely delicious, but I couldn't stomach more than a bite of the fatty meat and had to give my slice to Corey (who had no problem gobbling it up).

We went, we tasted the beef, we bought some garlic, we made a couple loops amongst the BBQ-ers, and we left. Short and sweet. And maybe not really worth the 2+ hours each way it took to get there and back thanks to highway closures.