Nagoya Birthday trip part 5

Nagoya 名古屋

When I arrived at Nagoya Station I headed straight over to my hostel, Glocal Nagoya Backpackers Hostel, where I would be staying for two nights. I had a bottom bunk bed with a curtain. The people working at the hostel's bar were friendly so I sat chatting with them and some of their regulars all evening. I hadn't really planned what to do in Nagoya, so I took their recommendations. They also had cider!! Something you don't see very often in Japan.

First I headed over to Atsuta Shrine, one of the most important Shinto shrines in the country. It holds one of the three sacred imperial regalia. There's also a big tree that's been there for more than 1000 years.

The people at the hostel recommended Inuyama Castle, close to Nagoya, but as I only had a day I visited Nagoya Castle. There was a Spring Festival going on, so I tried some local street food and watched a taiko drumming group perform in front of the castle. I had Nagoya tebasaki spicy chicken wings.














The people working and drinking at the hostel were running a bar at a market in Noritake Garden, so I headed over for a birthday drink. Then I was taken for another Nagoya speciality, misonikomi udon, udon noodles cooked in a miso broth.

After food I headed to the Osu shopping area to see Osu Kannon Temple and have a wander.


That last photo is in support of Kumamoto, an area that had recently been hit by a big earthquake. The bear is called Kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture. 
I finished my Birthday off with a walk around by the Nagoya TV Tower and trying some more local food, Hitsumabushi. At the restaurant there were instructions on how to eat this meal. First you divide the bowl of rice and eel into quarters. You eat the first serving normally. To the second serving you add the nori seaweed, spring onions, and wasabi. Then you pour the dashi broth over the remaining half. I loved the food in Nagoya, it might have been my favourite day of my birthday trip because of the food.

Hirosaki 2016

Hirosaki 弘前 (Part 2 of my weekend in Aomori)
Hirosaki is famous for its castle, which is beautiful during the cherry blossom season. However, in 2015 the castle was moved to a nearby site for construction to the castle walls. This happens every 100 years. It's particularly impressive because the castle is moved whilst it is fully intact!

 

On my way over to the castle park, I stumbled upon a Yosakoi dance festival. This is a traditional type of dance that you see at festivals all over Japan. There were lots of dance teams performing in different parts of the city.

After watching the dancing I went to see the castle and the surrounding gardens. Neaby the park, I visited Neputa Mura, another museum about the Neputa festival and other loacal specialities. Some staff members taught me a rhythm on the big festival taiko drums and then we played them together. Around the museum there were shamisen performances, craft corners where you could have a go at making some local crafts, and decorations from the Neputa Matsuri festival.
 I had a local set meal at the museum's restaurant. It included: kenoshiru - a miso based soup with carrots, radish, konnyaku, burdock and tofu; kaiyaki miso - white fish, scallops, tofu, onion and egg cooked in a scallop shell; rice; and pickles.

After dinner I walked around the Fujita Memorial Gardens. I stopped in a Japanese house for matcha tea and a sweet to enjoy while looking out over the gardens.

On my way back to Hirosaki Station I caught the end of the Yosakoi festival where someone from each dance group was lined up along a road, waving their giant team flags to music.

Aomori 2016

Aomori 青森 (Part 1 of my weekend in Aomori)
Rokkonsai is a festival started in 2011 after the earthquake and tsunami, as a way to lift the Tohoku region's spirits. The main parade at the festival features 6 of the region's festivals, one from each prefecture:

• Sendai Tanabata
• Fukushima Waraji Matsuri
• Yamagata Hanagasa Festival
• Akita Kanto Festival
• Aomori Nebuta Festival
• Morioka Sansa Odori

In 2016 the festival was held in Aomori City, so I decided to head up to visit.
When I arrived I picked up some apple pie from the festival street food stalls, as Aomori is famous for apples. I watched some live music in Aoiumi Park by the bay before heading to Nebuta Warase, a museum dedicated to Aomori's festival, the Nebuta Matsuri. The museum shows the atmosphere and history of the festival. It also shows the structure of some of the floats used during the parade.
During this festival, which happens in early August, enormous colourful floats are pulled along the streets. They are all built by local teams and businesses. Some of them can be about 5 metres tall. After seeing a smaller version of the Nebuta Matsuri at Rokkonsai, I hope I can go to see the full festival sometime.
I walked to one of the main streets for the festival where people were starting to sit along the side of the road to watch the festival. There were so many people, but I managed to find a space to sit where I would be able to see.

Akita Kanto Festival - The people holding up all of these lanterns were balancing them on their heads, noses and backs.

Morioka Sansa Odori - The largest taiko drum festival in the world.

Sendai Tanabata Festival - ...is hard to show in a parade, as it is made of big decorations throughout the city. Sendai had suzume odori dancers in this Rokkonsai parade. This is the city's traditional dance, using fans. One of the Sendai Assistant language teachers made it into the Sendai official dance group.

Fukushima Waraji Matsuri - They are carrying a huge waraji traditional straw sandal.

Yamagata Hanagasa Festival - Dances with conical hats with local flowers on. (This picture was taken earlier in the day, when I could get a better shot.)

And of course the Nebuta Matsuri!

After the festival, I joined the crowds heading back to the station, where I took the train over to Hirosaki. I then headed to my chosen manga cafe, called Super Freaks.

My booth at the manga cafe.

It had a soft flat floor which extended under the desk. On the desk, there is a computer and a TV.

More catch up

Namja Town
Before Christmas, I went with the I-Week japanese speaking group to Namja town. I had already been there before with high school but it was good to go again to see the Gyoza town this time.

Namja town is in Ikebukuro and has different things to do inside. There's Ice Cream City, a Gyoza town, little haunted houses, more dessert areas and a game that was running through the whole amusement park where children could use a device to find the ghosts and play mini games.
The Ice Cream City section had lots of fridges full of unusual flavours like wasabi, eel and garlic. We ate in the gyoza area, where it was just counter after counter selling different types of gyoza.

Kichijoji festivalIn September there was a small festival in Kichijoji, an area of Tokyo near ICU. I didn't manage to catch it all but I saw some performances there.

Midnight walkAt the end of September I went with 3 other global house friends to do the midnight walk with ICU. We started the walk next to Oshiage Station by the Sky Tree tower and walked back to ICU campus. It was a total of around 40km, which was a bit of a shock to be told at the start of the walk. We knew it would be a long way, but we had no idea it was that far. Some people started the walk a little bit late because of an event planned at ICU for the same time, but we wanted to start from the beginning. From the starting point we walked through Asakusa to Ueno, where we had a short break. Next we walked through Akihabara, Nihonbashi, Ginza and Shinbashi and stopped at Tokyo Tower for a short break and ice lollies- it might have been night but it was still humid. Next we passed through Roppongi and Shibuya and had a break in a small park before walking to Shinjuku. When we arrived at Shinjuku, the half way point, about half of the remaining people got the train home. The people that did carry on started breaking up into smaller groups and were following little arrows that had been drawn on the path for us. Some people who carried on started jogging the rest of the way back, even though most people were exhausted already at this point. There wasn't as much to see past Shinjuku because we were leaving the main area of Tokyo and heading towards ICU. Me and Hannah finished the walk at about 9am, so it took us around 12 hours to complete the whole thing. Once we reached ICU, we still had the long path to walk along from the entrance to the sports club house. The road seemed longer than normal because we were so tired, but when we got back they had some tonjiru (miso soup with pork and vegetables) waiting for us. The walk was a good way to see lots of Tokyo at night and I also found it a nice chance to speak Japanese as there weren't many exchange or foreign students on the walk. A couple of my friends from soul run were on the walk so I spent a lot of the first half of the walk walking with them and their friends.
After eating in the sports clubhouse me and Hannah hobbled back to global house (our legs were sore) where we slept until around 5pm.
Unfortunately my camera wasn't working very well in the dark so I couldn't get many pictures, but here are some of them, most of them are from Asakusa: