A beautiful day in northern Japan! The sun was shining and we had a wonderful day of exploring.
Everyone got in the car and we headed north toward the NE tip of the main island and Cape Shiriya. It was about a two hour drive away, a nice drive. A bit crowded in the back seat but nothing unmanageable. We got to the cape and soon saw what we'd come to see. Horses. "Wild" horses. Lots of them! This herd stays within the confines of the park but is not otherwise managed. They are deemed "wild" but they were tame enough to let people get up close and personal with them. We brought carrots which made us instant friends to them. The combination of horses and the background of the nearby lighthouse and the Pacific Ocean was magnificent. We all enjoyed the visit, but I think Trina enjoyed it the most. She spent quite a bit of time picking burrs out of several of the horses's manes. Scott, Steve, and I headed toward the lighthouse and it was open for visits. Scott said that it hadn't been open when he'd visited shortly after coming to Misawa. We climbed the 128 steps and had a great view of the ocean and of the horses, too. Came back down about the time that Eric and Trina finally made their way to the lighthouse. While we waited for them, we visited a nearby snack area where I bought a set of pink chopsticks with horses on them. We all bought drinks out of the vending machines - there are vending machines everywhere! Most of them sell hot and cold beverages but we also saw (while on the entire trip) machines that sold noodles, eggs, cigarettes, and rice.
When Eric and Trina joined us, we went over to the rocky shore near the lighthouse. Scott and Eric climbed the rocks for a bit while Steve watched and Trina and I did a little beach combing for shells. Soon it was time to move on and we walked back to the car and headed down the road.
There was a geocache a half mile down the road, and Scott said we could stop for it. It would be my first chance to cache in Japan. We found a place to pull over that had somewhat of a trail leading into the woods, and the cache was about 350 feet away. There was some standing water but nothing we couldn't handle. Scott started down the trail with me while the others stayed at the car. I was about 200 feet away from ground zero when Scott called me back to the car after the others had called to him. Seems a Japanese conservation officer didn't like the fact that we were walking back into the woods....so my first cache was a DNF before I could even get to it. I was in no way shape or form prepared to explain geocaching in Japanese so we just minded what we were told and went on down the road, out of the park.
Our next destination was Osorezan, otherwise known as the "Gates of Hell." To get there, we took a very nice mountain road complete with switchbacks. Just the kind of road we like to ride the motorcycles on. Soon, we arrived at our destination. Osorezan is one of the three holiest sites in Japan, founded in the ninth century by a Japanese Buddhist priest, En'nin.
At the center of the sacred area of Osorezan is Lake Usori, and next to it is a large tract covered with white sand. Surrounding them are eight peaks, and in the central area there are 108 ponds of boiling water and mud, which correspond with the 108 worldly desires and the hells linked to each of them.
To me, this was a very similar landscape to Yellowstone National Park. Similar sulfur smells, too. We paid our 500 yen each to enter the temple, Osorezan Bodaiji, and walked respectfully around the temple area where we were allowed. Once we'd seen that area, we were free to walk around the pathways and see all the shrines, statues, and sacred areas. The path led us to Lake Usori, and then eventually back to the beginning. We thought about having a meal at the teahouse, but it was already closed. We did a little souvenir shopping, and then bought more drinks out of the vending machines to tide us over until we could find something else. This was Steve's first experience buying HOT coffee in a can.
We had talked about driving further west on the peninsula to find the area where snow monkeys hung out, but realized we would not have much time in which to do so as it would be dark before we arrived there. Darkness fell by 6 pm while we were there, earlier than we are used to at home. So we reluctantly started heading back for Scott's home.
We did make one more stop along the way, and that was at an observatory on top of a mountain where we had a great view of the city below, as well as the coastline. Then back down the road we went. Once we were through the mountain area and headed south towards Misawa, Steve decided he wanted to drive. He had obtained an international drivers license before leaving so it was legal for him to drive in Japan - and he did pretty well overall, though Scott as the front passenger admitted to a few anxious moments when dad was a little closer to the middle than he perhaps should have been. Kudos to Steve for giving it a try though!
Dark by the time we arrived back in Misawa. We were all getting pretty hungry, Trina and I especially. Stopped at a sushi place for dinner where we sat at a table with an electronic screen, next to a conveyor belt which was circulating various sushi pieces around. You could also order from the electronic screen, and the sushi that you ordered would come on the belt on a different plate so you knew it was what you ordered. The other plates were color coded so the restaurant would know how much you'd eaten by the plates that you had used. I did try sushi for the first (and probably last) time - two pieces of tuna roll from a plate of Scott's. I survived. There is a great sequence of pictures that Scott took of me while I was eating the first piece, three were published on my facebook page. I also had burger cheese sushi (a mini cheeseburger on rice instead of a bun) and some other cooked sushi type things. Interesting meal!
Back to Scott's where Steve went to bed and the boys, Trina, and I played a long game of Monopoly. I eventually gave up my stuff to Scott when he had lost everything as I was too tired to stay awake any longer. We all have to get up early tomorrow to get Eric and Trina to the train station in Hachinohe as they will be heading for home. They came a week before we did as Trina starts back to school next Monday.
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