Misawa exploring

I guess the benefit of sleeping in the van in the land of the rising sun, is that you are up and ready to go by 5:30 am.  Being that far north it was pretty chilly that night so I was very thankful to turn on the heat in the van and get going.  We were in the Lake Towada area by 6:30 and we basically had this very popular area to ourselves.  Lake Towada is a lovely caldera lake, the largest in fact in Japan.  Its water was incredibly clear and we hiked through the Oirase Gorge to the east of the lake and enjoyed beautiful foliage that was just beginning to turn.

Oirase Gorge

I loved the old wooden bridges crisscrossing the stream

Lake Towada gems

the ladies

We started to head along the lake up toward the top of one of 3 volcanoes in this area.  The drive was spectacular as the leaves were at their peak along the way.

beautiful views

Lake Towada from above

lookout from the top

bedhead hair and smiles at the top

This is how we roll, forts for all while we drive

in their fort

The must for me on this trip was the Hirosaki castle.  Very famous for its hundreds of cherry trees in the spring, the castle is scheduled to be under renovation for 10 YEARS!  They are draining the moat, and the building will be under scaffolding.  It wasn't spring, but it was easy to see it would be breathtaking in the spring.  Scaffolding goes up November 1, so we went.

Forget the castle.  They wanted to do this all day

Exploring the grounds

Weeping cherry trees were everywhere!

Samurai armor inside the castle

Tommy was wearing his east coast apparel shirt, but unfortunately you can't tell!

Heading up to the city of Aomori next, our last stop for the day was Sannai Maruyama, a Joman period (300 BC) site.  Just recently found, the site has yielded relics some 4000 yrs old, and they have rebuilt the village to what they envision it looked like.  The children loved this, but they seemed to think living this way might not appeal to them.

This is some of what they have discovered.  The building with the children above is what they think these massive holes were for.

I did get us a room at Misawa that night, and we all happily crawled into warm beds after a nice hot bath.  We were tired, but had had a great day.

Misawa

Northern Honshu Road Trip Day 1

Last weekend I packed up the kids and hit the road.  This is my kind of trip, wherever the road leads.  There is a fighter jet base in Misawa and that was my planned home base to explore from.
Early on a Friday morning we headed out with only 1 planned stop en route to Misawa.  Yamadera is a famous cliffside temple that has beautiful views over the valley below.  About halfway to Misawa, it seemed like a good resting place.

The hike to the top was very beautiful, but involved about 1500 steps.

In the peak of fall it would have been breathtaking

Main entrance gate at the top of the mountain

Enjoying the view

Valley below

Not sure what all these said, but were very interesting to everyone else.

Yamadera shrine

Shrine at the base of the mountain

posing

The boys were not anxious to get back in the van, so we played in this stream for a long time.

Very clear and refreshing, it was hard to say no

We finally arrived at Misawa at about 8, only to not have a room at the inn.  We had a campout in the van all night, and were ready to go bright and early the next day.

Kinchakuda

Anyone who knows me well knows I love flowers.  In early October spider lilies are blooming everywhere and last weekend we went to a park not too far from the base to enjoy them in abundance.

The highlight for Stanley was feeding several ponies they had out for the children to enjoy.

As we made our way back to the car we came across this fisherman as the children were throwing stones in the stream.

Fishing for bait

This picture makes me laugh.  The kids didn't bat an eyelash to his attire, but were far more interested in throwing rocks or how many fish he had caught!

Life in Japan is never dull.