Omiyage Shop, Lake Tazawa, and Kakunodate

So, I realize it has been a long time since I had updated this with my trip and adventures. For that, ごめんね (go-men-nay) or in English, "I'm sorry." I have been busy with classwork and socializing. Anyway... let's try to play catch up?

Okay, so my school had organized a trip to Lake Tazawa and Kakunodate. Background information on both places first then pictures? Okay, sounds good. :)

Lake Tazawa is home to Japan's deepest lake, 423.4 meters or 1389.1076 feet for those in the United States who are too lazy to do the conversions themselves. It is a very beautiful lake. When looking at it, you could perfectly see the reflection of area surrounding it; plus the coloring of the blue in it was simply gorgeous. Yes, you might be thinking, "aren't most lakes like that" to which I would respond with, "not like that." I have seen lakes before in the States, and even though I love the States, the ones in Japan are much nicer looking to be honest. I am going to compare a picture I got from Lake Tazawa versus lakes I have personally visited back home. (Now remember, some of these meaning the middle two were found online, so they might have been used as a promotional thing.

Lake Tazawa

Newton Lake

Merli Sarnoski Park

One of the Pennsylvania State Parks
Now, look at the scenery in each one. Which one is the most breath-taking? Which one makes you want to call an ambulance just in case your breath is literally taken away from you due to the beauty of the lake? Which one would you rather be at?

So Kakunodate is an old, preserved samurai town. For the day, we got free tickets to visit traditional samurai houses that were available to the public viewing-pleasures. It was founded in 1620 and hasn't changed its ways since then... expect for plumbing and electricity and ice cream. But other than that...

So yeah, let's get on with the trip. We first started off by boarding our assigned buses. Our first stop was to an omiyage shop. For those of you who do not know what "omiyage" is, let me tell you. Omiyage is in one word "souvenirs." You buy these for going over someone's house, when you go somewhere outside of our normal place, on trips, etc. While there, I bought some post cards... still need to find somewhere to buy stamps. The shop that we were in specialized in something that I love dearly... miso soup and something else that I don't really care about. Also, it sold soy-sauce flavored. Yes, Japan really just went there. It is supposedly really delicious, but being lactose intolerant and greedy with my Lactaid pills, I did not try any.

We stayed there for about one hour before heading off to Lake Tazawa. The bus ride was fun. Thomas sat in the seat across from me and Gustav was sitting behind me. Sadly, Heather was not on our bus with us. Sara and Rebecca was on a completely different bus than all of us. Either way, all of us were having a great time to talking to each other.

Once we got there, we pulled the tourist-y thing by taking photos of any and everything! Myself included ;p. There was a shrine there (very Japanese-like) and water and nature and prettiness and gaijin (foreigners). It was truly a beautiful sight though. I wish I can describe how gorgeous it is, but sadly, no words can live up to it. Because a picture is suppose to say a thousand words, I'll just show you a group of pictures and let them do the talking for me. :) Better pictures at available on my facebook. If you are some random person that happened to come to my page and are interested in seeing more, the only advice I would have for you is to google it. I'm sorry but I don't want to add strangers. Sorry if it is an incoveince for you~

After we visited the "main" section of Lake Tazawa, we visited the other side of it. Yeah, I know. We're that hardcore. :p While we were there, we had to pass through another omiyage store. This one specialized in Akita items... most of those items included the Akita Inu/dog <3 It was super duper cute~!! Ano (a-no), I mean "kawaii~" (ka-why-e).

After passing through that, we all took pictures with the famous statue like before... but this one was a cut-out face thing one. And by "we all," I mean Heather, Yuzu, Gustav, Sara, and myself.

Anyway, you probably want to see more pictures of nature, ne? :p Well, if that is what you want, I shall give the people want they desire~!! ^_^ (I don't have that many, so pictures of what I do have)

After eating and playing at the other side of the lake, we hopped back on the bus and rode off into the sunset. Lol, no. That did not really happen. We then rode off to Kakunodate (Ka-coo-no-daa-tae). I love the scenery of Japan so I will be posting a few of the mountains here, but I'll try not to clog up the blog with just photos of nature.

So, we got to Kakunodate safe and sound (obviously). It was very humid and hot when we went, like most of the days here in Japan, but the town itself is very cool. See what I did there? It's a play on words. :p Yes, I know. I am very lame... -_-;;

Like I had mentioned above, we received free admission tickets to samurai houses, but before that, we went for some ice cream~! :9 The ice cream in Kakunodate is very delicious tasting. The place we went to for ice cream was famous for their skaura ice cream. Yes, you heard right, sakura ice cream. What is sakura? It is the Japanese word for what we Americans call the "cherry blossom." Yes, it makes ice cream using cherry blossoms flavoring(?). It is suppose to be really delicious, but they were sold out of that flavor the day we went. That just shows how popular that treat can be. I am hoping to try some before I leave Japan though. *fingers crossed* Instead of the sakura ice cream, I ordered the Apple Mango ice cream. It was very delicious. Let me just say this now, in America, I hate ice cream cones. They are disgusting. They have no taste to me. However, in Japan, the cones tastes so good. Like, they actually have flavor!

Yes, I did just write a whole paragraph dedicated to ice cream. Surprising, right?

I am going to apologize now. I would like to show pictures of the actual samurai houses, but I do not have any photos of the outer of the houses, which were gorgeous and what Americans tend to think the Japanese people live in. So instead, as much as I would like to post those pictures, I am going to post pictures of me with friends outside of the houses and some of the outside photos I do have.

Map of one of the houses we received tickets for

Hanging out at the almost round table of Kakunodate... doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

Hi, Rebecca from Taiwan!

We practiced the sitting down on cushions thing. It wasn't that bad, but it was only for a few minutes.

Doing the Japanese thing by taking off your shoes before entering

Omiyage shop

Shrine outside one of the houses

One of the few outside photos I could find of the building. This is the outside of a samurai' house front entrance for honorable guests. We weren't honorable enough to go through that way though :/

Yes, Japan still has some of these guys around... I wasn't kidding when I said nothing much changed since the town was founded

The water moat separating the parking lot and street

So, I hope you enjoyed the adventure so far~! It was a hot/humid/tiring day, but there was something beautiful around the corner that made everything seem okay. I had a great time with friends and got to see the culture of the samurai first-hand. It was definitely a wonderful chance to do something.