Local town

Welcome to Akita prefecture Friends !

After our adventure in Hokkaido we decided to make a short week stop in a lesser-known area of Japan. Actually local places are often more interesting as you get closer to the local culture. Akita is famous for having the most beautiful girls in Japan (that’s what we heard a few times) , one of the best rice quality (and sake  !). The air and water being so pure , the conditions are all ticked to create goodness.  (and godess ..? )
Let’s go to local Japan !

Akita city ,  a so called “small” city for Japanese standards. It has about 310 000 inhabitants. Akita is definitely an off the beaten track destination and we barely met any tourists (exept from us in the mirrors..!)

Starting this exploration in the sweet park nearby town center.

Old castle.

On the left public toilets , in the same style of the castle.

Glimpses of Akita town. The town center is fairly small but the residential area quite widespread.

Akita dog ? In fact Akita is famous for having a special dog (with thick fur) but this one wasn’t one but a Shiba inu.

Icy landscape in this early January. The park was beautifull.

The first sake of the year at the local Jinja (Shinto temple). This sake had a distinct aftertaste of Pine ! Delicious. It was probably matured in Pine wood Barrels. Sake is often used for offerings in Shintoism. Is also enjoyed during the early new year (even in the morning..)

Pick up a paper to get glimpses of your future. Mine was apparently okay.

If the predictions are okay you may tie the paper on a tree. Otherwise you can burn it in a fireplace next.

Kirei !

Akita town is pretty empty at first , they is not many attractions for tourists and it may feel a little boring at first. Once you get over that “craving for experiences” type of feeling , you come to realize that local places are actually more interesting to understand the culture. In fact there is much less “distractions” around so you can actually meet more people and also observe around you with a different eye. That’s how it felt to me. We actually stay 5 days here so It should be interesting.

You can find a good modern museum of Art in Akita.

The museum is designed by the famous architect Tadao Ando. You can clearly recognize is style when you see the concrete structure. The museum feature two exhibitions , one permanent , the other one temporary. There is also a Café with a pretty cool view I heard.

Tadao Ando style. Very futuristic structure. The lighting effect of the main hall was stunning.

Today temporary exhibition was a collection of Artists from the famous Ghibli studio. Some really nice drawings to see.

Princess Mononoke , anyone ? (i’m talking about the film , not about myself)

Museum’s café place.

In Akita we stayed the first two nights in a Airbnb Homestay which was a very old house. We got to experience the Japanese life back in the days , sleeping on futons , using sliding doors and tatamis. A good experience.

Our room for two nights. The house was very cold and obviously didn’t had central heating. Each room had external heating machines. It was a bit cold and I can understand that older houses are not as comfortable to live as the more modern ones (especially in cold temperature). Nevertheless theses houses are great and retain a Soul that should be preserved. So much history and treasures to find !

Are Japanese people superstitious ? Maybe. Just count with me.

3 , 5 , 6 , 7 …. wait a second. Where is the 4 number ?

This picture was taken in a parking. The reason behind this missing number lies in the sound of 4 in Japanese. Four is pronounced “Shi” in Japanese which also means “Die” … therefore it’s not a good idea to put such a number in Parking. This phenomenon could be observed in other places I’m thinking. Maybe in hotels. More on that in another article 😉

And what about Akita City as such? How does it look like ? Pictures sounds louder than words.

Moutain turtles. Yes !

How about Akita food scene ? It’s actually famous for his thin udon noodles. I have found a good restaurant to try this out.

The cold thin noodles served with a hot green curry soup.

Just dip the noodles in the curry and slurp ! Make a lot of noise because it means that you enjoy the food (and make the staff happy). It’s not considered rude to make noises while eating noodles in Japan. Cool no ?

Pumpkin latte in a nearby café. Yummy as well.

Traveling is great and I obviously love it. BUT and there is often a but. Travelling can make you feel pretty tired on the long run. When you move quite often your body never take the time to truly recharge. In fact you don’t really have a place to unwind , you don’t have a place you can call home. When you travel you relies a lot on others , for accommodation , transportation and food. You never have time to build routines and habits which may feel challenging on the long run. I have found a great way to balance this lack of stability , and this is a place. A moment of break to stop and enjoy where you are. This place is called “Cafe” or “Tea house”. Theses did became like a second home.

Cute little café along the river.

Ritual time. A moment of silence. A moment of introspection with a good drink and often , with a slice of cake.
I often take that time to write articles on the blog , plan the soon future , learn more Japanese , read / write a few mails. Theses moments are important when you travel. It’s a way to create healthy habit. For example , writing this blog is a good way for me to break things during my journey. I’m not writing this blog to get money or fame but rather to share some stories and insight about a place and to express and formulate feelings about a given experience. Which is teaching and help’s one’s to grow for his experiences.

When you travel and therefore move a lot , it’s easy to get carried away by the excitement feeling of discovery. It’s easy to get lost in that process by overdoing it. When you spend time in foreign countries you lose your references points. At first it’s amazing because you discover new ways of living life. Then when you stop , you learn to tune to this new place and this is a more challenging part because you need to let go about your past. To forget who you are (the past you) to become another person. You learn to adapt , to change color , like the Chameleon do . This process is super interesting and teaches you a lot. You can become a thousand versions of yourself. And you often come to realize theses while out of the confort zone , very true when you travel in foreign places. This is especially true in Japan where conventions , codes , customs , language and so on , are very different to what the Western world is accustomed to. I find this experience very good nevertheless exhausting on the long run.  This is where Café places are important to me. A place to reconnect and process the evergoing flow of outer informations. A place to come back to yourself , just like a cosy temple.

Night time.

For next article we will explore Kawabata , the nightlife disctrict of Akita city.
See you next time !