Hanami

Day 22

Early morning. Yes, 6.30am! Breakfast with the family.

I offered help to do breakfast. I was shown eggs. I asked if it was to beat the eggs, half in english half in gestures. I was given a whisk. Definetely scrambled eggs! Our friend's wife added sugar to the eggs. Sugar?!? Ahhh, that explains why the omelettes in this country are so sweet! 

Our friend's job every morning is to do coffee but he does it the proper way. There is a manual coffee mill involved. I was impressed! I have left my manual coffee mill more than a year ago and I am now a Nespresso addict.

The wife bakes bread and we had a delicious cranberry and cheese bread for breakfast. Yummy!

The kids were very quiet at breakfast. Language and cultural barrier are creeping in. The scrambled eggs weren't popular, a chunck of it was left behind. Our friend told us later that they usually have fried eggs. Something was clearly lost in translation.

We spent the day at the Zao mountains, in Yamagata prefecture. Our friend drove us and was our tour guide for the day. There was plenty of driving today, a mix of motorways and mountain roads. Yes, I slept all the way as usual. There are only two things I can do in a car: drive or sleep. Sometimes both at the same time...

His daughter came along but she's only had a year of english at school and although she undestands a little, 'thank you' was the only thing I've heard her say. 

Risshaku Temple in Yamadera was our first destination. Stairs up the mountain to reach the temple and several shrines on the way. One of them was to the God of money, and I left a little prayer and a coin. Rubbing his statue brings good luck hence his belly is so shiny.

There were several groups of teenagers in what looked like sportive uniform with teachers/trainers coming down the mountain. They all said 'good morning', no exception. Amazing japanese education!

The plus of the temple is that it has beautiful views to the nearby valley and mountains.

Lunch was at a local noodle shop where we had noodles with a local speciality: konnyaku, a type of potato gelly. We also saw it being sold as 3 balls in a stick with some kind of hot topping. It is more solid than normal gelly but it is quite tasteless, it really needs added topping or sauce.

Next stop was Zao onsen, a small village.

I believe we went to the public baths. I went in with the daughter and it only had indoor baths. I must say this was one of the hottest baths I have tried. I took my time to go in and I couldn't believe she went in so quickly. At one point I felt like a pig in a hot pot. There was a stop half way for a cold shower. Ahhh! What a bliss! Dip in again but my skin was cooler so it felt better. I was so relieved when she finally signaled to leave! 

There is a refreshing feeling after the bath and you feel really energised. The bath has a sign saying the temperature was 41-42C but our friend says it is usually hotter. Bloody hell!

Although the rules say you should cover yourself with a small towel when not in the water, men and women follow this rule very differently. The boys tell me the majority of men do cover themselves. The women however are not really fussed. You do see one or another trying to cover but the majority use the towel to cover the hair an that's it! Hair is not supposed to go in the water. We are all the same! What's there to be fussed about?

We waited for the boys at the free foot spa, just outside the public baths. 

We were told that the tofu produced in Zao is one of the best. I believe the quality of the tofu is directly related with the spring water used. We went around the best shops to buy tofu for dinner. Our friend and Jorge also bought soy milk to drink. It is better than the ones in Europe. The highlight however was the soy ice-cream. I had my doubts but it was absolutely delicious! It is true, the mountain's water makes good quality soy milk.

On the way home we went past Sendai market. It was at full steam with an hour to spare for closing time. There was plenty of shopping for dinner. As we missed the fish market in Tokyo, it was a good experience to see how one works. Fish was in it's majority already gutted, cut and packed, you barely saw a whole fish for sale. The variety is huge! Nothing compared with the UK were there isn't really much choice but very similar to Portugal with it's big fish counters at the supermarkets.

On the way to the car we saw a women setting off in her car and leaving her shoes behind. She clearly took them off to drive and forgot about then. Our friend called out to her and returned her shoes whilst we laughed out load. She was also amused.

Back at home the wife was preparing picnic for dinner and I offered help. I worked with the daughter to make the onigiri (rice balls). Reviews were positive!

Their youngest son (8 years old) is very keen on Uno so we ended up playing quite a bit with the three kids. It's an easy game and you don't have to understand a specific language. Let me just point out that I thought I was a bad looser. Alas, I found someone worst than me! The little one is REALLY not keen on loosing! He is absolutely hilarious, which upsets him more, in turn making him even more hilarious. We had a laugh!

Today was the estimated best viewing day for cherry blossoms in Sendai so we joined the family in a very traditional and popular activity in Japan: hanami. This is an outdoor party underneath a cherry tree to enjoy hte transient beauty of the flowers.

We set off with the packed picnic and went looking for a cherry tree in full bloom.

We arrived close to sunset and as it was Saturday the local park was packed.

However we managed to find a beautiful cherry tree in full bloom. Food was setup underneath and we enjoyed it at the same time we appreciated the flowers and soaked in the general good mood. It was fantastic! Happy!