Tokyo and Iwate trip December 28 to January 4 - Part 3

On my second full day in northern Japan, I was to head off from Tokyo to Kitakami, Iwate, to visit my friend K and her family. Since JR had his first day off work for the New Year holiday, he made me lunch to send me off, and then I was on my way to Tokyo station to catch the Shinkansen. It was quite a luxurious ride, and I even passed through a town that shares my last name! I was pretty pleased about that.

Me with K and Mama K

Upon my arrival in Kitakami, K and her mom greeted me at the turnstiles, and snapped a photo. I had finally gotten there after three hours! They took me in the car to the house, and we caught up a little bit. While we were driving, it started to snow lightly! At the house, which is super ひろい (spacious), we sat in the living room just talking and eating snacks. I presented my Oita omiyage to the family: kabosu lime salad dressing, yuzu-type salad dressing, and senbei rice crackers shaped like \10,000. The guy on the \10,000 yen note was from Nakatsu! You can even go to his old residence and everything, which I haven't done yet.

Then, when K's dad got home from work, we had a truly Japanese-style winter dinner of nabe (hot pot) with meat and vegetables. I struggled through with English and my poor Japanese. K's mom speaks some English, but her dad doesn't speak any, so I had to rely a lot on K to translate. Sometimes, K's younger sister N, a college student, would help translate too.

That night after dinner we watched a musical variety show (which is different from the one watched on New Year's Eve, mind you) and then in true Japanese fashion we each took turns taking a shower and bath. Never have I taken more baths than in Japan!

Me with Papa K at the temple

The next day, K and I woke up early to find that it had snowed in the night! We got ready to go with her dad to Chuson-ji temple in a nearby town. It's a world heritage site, and contains a Buddhist altar made (almost?) entirely out of gold, with mummies of monks buried underneath. We did the traditional temple prayer with incense and bowing (no clapping at a temple, though! That's for shrines, which you can tell apart by their red torii gates at the entrance). Then we went through the museum and finally went back to Kitakami.

K's dad took us to the mall where he works, and left us to our own devices. In that time, I managed to secure some local omiyage to take back to my coworkers. It's like little mochi with walnuts, which are famous in Iwate. Imagine that, walnuts just like my hometown! After a while looking around the mall, which had its fukubukuro (surprise discount New Year's bags full of mystery stuff) all prepped, we met with K's mom, who had been shopping for the evening's dinner. She took us back to the house to get N, then the four of us went to lunch. We wanted to go to an okonomiyaki place, but it was closed. :( So we went to a tiny ramen place instead. It was really good actually! I had Hokkaido-style spicy miso ramen with butter, an interesting touch.

Mama K, N and I at ramen

That evening, we had temaki sushi (hand-roll sushi) with homemade karaage (fried chicken) and soba noodles for long life. It was delicious!!! I don't know when I'll next have such a great meal. After dinner, it was time for Kohaku, a long-running musical competition show where musical groups of men and women face off. It was a good opportunity for me to learn which songs are popular in Japan. Some of them I had already heard at my schools' cultural and sports festivals, so I recognized them. Partway through Kohaku, we stopped to eat the brownie-cookie dessert we had made before dinner, which came from my best friend E's mom back in California. (K had studied abroad in E's and my high school and stayed with E's family.) It was so good! Finally, it was midnight and we counted down! I was a little surprised that the family didn't go to the first shrine visit of the year at midnight, like many people do, but in fact I was glad, because I was super tired! We were saving that for the next day, anyway.

Osechi breakfast

In the morning, we woke up a bit later than the day before and had osechi breakfast. This includes lots of traditional foods with various meanings. Back in the day, stores were closed for several days after New Year's, so the cook of the household had to make food that could keep for several days. I don't know all the names or meanings of the food we had, but it included shrimp (shaped like old people's hunched backs, signifying long life), crunchy herring roe (hoping for many children), black beans, sweet potato/chestnut mash (looks like gold so symbolizes fortune), konnyaku noodles, sweet rolled omelette, candied sardines, ozoni (dashi-based soup with mochi inside), and of course mochi itself, baked (?) and served with different pastes like walnut, black sesame and another one that's like a green bean paste. I forget the name! You can learn more about osechi foods at Just One Cookbook.

After breakfast, we went to our first shrine visit of the year, also known as hatsumode. The two sisters and I went together, and it was N's first time in all her 21 years! According to her, she always sleeps in too late to do hatsumode. >_< We waited in line (typical of Japanese things I suppose) and then went up to throw in coins, ring a bell, bow twice, clap twice, and bow again. I think that's the right order! Then we paid 100 yen for new year's fortunes. You can get big good luck, medium, small, or bad luck. If you get bad luck, you're supposed to tie it to a tree to make it go away. Luckily, K and I both got big good luck, and N got medium.

Me with N at hatsumode

While waiting for Mama K, we stopped inside the mall for hot cocoa and just chatted a bit. We checked out more fukubukuro but didn't buy anything. And by then it was time to get packed up to go back to Tokyo! Mama K gave me tons of gifts to go away with, including a beautiful iron paper crane wind chime, a specialty good from Iwate. What a beautiful souvenir from a beautiful trip.