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We have spent a lot of time along the east coast of Japan so we thought we should visit the other side as well!
Akita - Kanto Matsuri Museum
Once again we started our next travels by taking the train to New Chitose Airport, this time flying to Akita. Since it was a small flight, we were on a prop plane which is always fun. We took a bus into the downtown and went to visit a local festival museum. Many Japanese cities and towns have local and unique customs for each of their summer festivals, and in Akita folks balance paper lanterns hung on bamboo frames.
The festival is called Kanto Matsuri, and if you look up the individual characters that make up "kanto" (竿燈) they mean "pole", and "lamp", while "matsuri" means "festival". Preparations start months in advance, as the materials to make the frames are blessed by Shinto Priests. After that, each team assembles their frames themselves.
There are three sizes of frames. The smallest ones are about 5 m long with 24 mini lanterns, and weigh about 5 kg. Kids as young as kindergarten use them, and practice balancing them as they grow through elementary school. In the upper years of elementary school the kids transition to the next size up which is a little longer at 7 m with larger lanterns, and weighs about 15 kg. The frames adults use are about 9 m tall with 46 full size lanterns. They weigh about 30 kg.
During the festival, the lantern covered frames feature are part of parades after it gets dark, and during the day there are performances and competitions among teams to balance their frames on hands, shoulders, hips, and even heads. There is also an event where teams work together to add extra lengths to the main pole, all while balancing it with one hand, until they are so long they curve around into a C shape, and the longest ones have their tops nearly pointing towards the ground. If you want to see pictures from the festival, a Google image search for "Kanto Matsuri" brings up lots of photos.
A diorama with all 3 sizes of frames and lanterns.
Akita Food
Apparently chicken (and eggs) is a specialty in Akita, so Jesse found a restaurant nearby for supper that specialized in chicken and egg dishes. While I don't know that it's particularly spectacular, it was still good. (on the left)
As a unique thing, our hotel offered small complementary bowls of ramen until 11 pm! (shown on the right) It was also quite tasty, and popular. The woman preparing the bowls was always cooking another serving until 11!
Akita Castle
The next morning we toured around Akita Castle before leaving. There wasn't too much that stood out and it was similar to many of the other castles we have visited. Most of the buildings are gone, while the space inside the walls and moat have been transformed into green spaces. In Akita, there is a small japanese garden, walking paths, and a small museum in the only rebuilt building. Jesse also got another local specialty, babahera ice cream. It is banana flavoured ice cream in pink and yellow that is scooped into the shape of a flower. (below from left to right: the castle gate, Jesse's ice cream, and the moat filled with lotus plants in bloom)
Travel to Niigata
After picking up our bags and checking out of our hotel, we headed to the station to get a one-man-train to Sakata. A one-man-train is a small one or two car train that typically services rural stations. Because the stations often don't have attendants, electronic gates, or ticket machines, you either buy a ticket before leaving, or you pay the driver. Hence the "one-man" portion of the name because the conductor takes on the responsibilities of multiple people. We messed up our tap cards a bit because we tapped in at the Akita station, but when we transferred in Sakata (which has a population of approximately 100 000 people), the station didn't have the option to tap out. So we paid the attendant, and bought our ticket to Niigata from a machine, but then when we wanted to use our cards in Niigata the system was confused, because it thought we should still be somewhere near Akita. It was a lovely day to watch the countryside go by and admire the lush green rice fields that wave in the wind. (Unfortunately the windows were a bit dirty so I didn't bother to take photos, but here are some other rice field photos from around the same time). I think part of what makes rice fields so nice to look at is the vibrant colours and that the plants are short enough and the fields are low enough that you can see across multiple fields. Corn is too tall!
Niigata
We spent the next day in Niigata. For the morning we took a train a little ways out of town to a blacksmith factory because they had a workshop where you could transform a nail into a letter opener. Unfortunately for us, they were hosting something on that day, so their workshop area wasn't open. There wasn't too much else to do nearby so after a quick walk through a farmer's market, we returned to our hotel to cool off.
After some time to chat with friends (thank goodness for the internet!), we took a bus the other direction out to a senbei factory. Senbei are toasted rice crackers, and at this paricular factory you could toast and decorate your own cracker. The plain crackers are brushed with soya sauce for flavour, but if you add some sauce before cooking them, the places you added the sauce toasts a deep brown or even black which lets you make designs.
While I'm sure the factory is lovely and warm in the winter, it was sweltering in the summer. The grills are so strong I genuinely felt like my face was getting sunburned as we flipped our senbei. To start off our crackers were pale white and quite thin, but as we cooked them on the grills, flipping every 5 seconds, they went soft and floppy, and then started puffing up and going rock hard. Overall it was fun, although the flavour of our mega senbei were not as good as the small ones you can buy at the grocery or corner stores.
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