golden week…late, but updated

So about a month ago was Golden Week, which my previous post alluded to. Golden Week is a series of 4 holidays run back-to-back, which combined with paid leave can make for an excellent long vacation with minimal time off. So, as is common, if not obligatory, with English teachers, we took a trip. Most of our friends take their big out of Japan trips, but since we were saving for the trip that will ultimately start on Wednesday night(more on this in a few minutes with my double post), we kept it fairly local. We ended up hitting all of the sites my previous post mentioned but with a few unexpected delays.

So the morning started, as any truly great morning does, with a McDonald’s breakfast. I know that doesn’t sound special, but I have only experienced that maybe 2 other times in Aomori, so it was pretty epic. The decided path was down the coast to Matsushima(the pine tree island place) and then the night in a park in Sendai. I headed through the mountains on a warm and sunny day only to discover you didn’t have to climb high to see snow still towering over cars only a few feet on either side of the road. Also, contrary to most day drives through the mountains, there were BOATLOADS of people. Due to the large numbers of buses of vacationers, the inability of Japanese road planners to think larger than one lane, and the absence of any extra road beyond the solid white stripe(snow clear up to the line), the road took almost an extra hour on the regular time. Behind schedule already…

And it kept getting worse. Every deadline we were shooting for kept getting pushed back. I was told that Sendai was 4 hours or so by bus. The buses take the toll roads, but I thought the highways looked fairly direct while not quite as direct or fast paced as the toll roads. I planned on 6 hours or so and thought that was about right. We hoped to roll into Matsushima about 3 or 4 that afternoon.

Following a LONG day of windy roads behind the slowest drivers ever, we reached Matsushima well after dark. In fact, we just had to keep driving through to Sendai because our planned 6 hour drive turned into a 12 hour journey. So much for the first day. On a side note, it was super pretty with all of the sakura in full bloom and we did see over 400km of Pacific coastline(and I wasn’t nearly as “glass half full” that day). With everything closed and no plans on where to stay we totally lucked out on finding the perfect place to sleep that night.

Way in the middle of nowhere, no kidding, we found a pitch black rest area with barely any cars. After the day we had, I didn’t waste much time flopping down the back seats and through down the futon. I was out. We woke up to find that this pitch black place was amazing in the daylight. There was a huge pond with sakura all around and mountains completely surrounding us. Not bad to wake up to. Oh, and the weather was warm…something that hadn’t happened in Aomori yet.

The first full day was in Yamadera. We hit up a 1 hour drive to Yamagata prefecture through what we decided was one of the prettiest places we have seen. There were wonderful mountains and valleys filled with towns full of simple life. Yamadera, as big an attraction as it was(especially during GW), was in one of these towns.

We drove through neighborhoods as small as anything in rural Oklahoma and then…BAM! A line of cars. Some old local man, who I decided has to be the coolest in his town, came to us as we waited in line and told us to take this little road to get there faster. It made me wonder if he does that every day; his equivalent to knitting or watching Perry Mason. Anyways, he was totally right as we completely cirsumvented the entire line of cars.

Not much can be said of Yamadera other than it was really beautiful. You can see pictures on our flickr page(link on right) if you are interested.

After Yamadera we headed to Sendai for the first time for dinner. I had looked at Wikipedia and Sendai really didn’t impress me from what I saw. However, once we got there I realized it was awesome. It is a small, big city. I guess it kind of reminds me of Indianapolis a bit. It is big enough to have abundant entertainment and bustling crowds, but with all the people and size it is EXTREMELY clean and open. It is known as the city of trees or something. All of the sidewalks were much wider than most Japanese cities offer. People watching was pretty awesome too. All in all, going in with a bad mindset, I came away wishing I could live there. Given the opportunity, I would.

Our final day was more of the same. Wake up, take a shower in a sink(quick note – Japan is full of onsens[public baths]. That being said, it is easy to not have to shower in a sink if you go to one. We found a BIG sign near our sleep place, which as I said, way outside of town. We got to our place, followed the billboard to where the shower was, but it was not there. Thus, showering in a sink.), and get moving. We went to Sendai to see what the daytime had to offer. A few hours later we headed to Matsushima.

Coming into Japan, especially looking at what Tohoku had to offer, Matsushima was at the top of my list. Yamadera was second. So finally after 8 months, we get there, and honestly I was not that impressed. It was really pretty, but it just wasn’t as good as books made it seem. On the bright side, I have now seen 2 of the 3 ancient views of Japan(and the third looks lame and well off the beaten path, so I have accomplished as much as I wanted). Melissa will see her second next week. While I wasn’t really impressed with Matsushima as a site, the town was really cool. Also there was a temple, which while closed, had and amazing courtyard in front of it. That, while I didn’t know about it beforehand, was the highlight for me. Oh, and the famous flavored corn.

Headed back, I decided no more attempts at the sea route. I wanted the more direct route straight up the middle of the island. It didn’t shave off a ton of time, but it was a lot less wheel turning, and for that I was appreciative.

That is pretty much our trip in a nutshell(or coconut shell maybe). Hopefully the next trip won’t take me a month to update.

And speaking of our next trip…