Kouyou-mi in Naruko

This weekend I hung out with my friends who live in Ishinomaki, a city about an hour north of me. Nathan and I drove up to Ishinomaki on Friday and we went out to celebrate a birthday. On Saturday, we took a day trip to Naruko.

The Japanese have an appreciation for nature and certain seasonal events are a call for spending time outdoors, observing and enjoying them. In the spring everyone likes to look at the cherry blossoms. In the fall, the turning leaves turning red (called kouyou) is the big thing. So we went to Naruko to walk around and look at the autumn colors. We planned to hike through a gorge, but found out that it was closed, apparently due to dangers of falling boulders. So we walked along the road instead. There were tons of people because it was apparently the best day of the year to watch the kouyou in Naruko. Except for a bit of drizzle during part of our walk, the weather was wonderful. I took quite a lot of scenic pictures (and had trouble picking which to put here).

Naruko is a city famous for kokeshi dolls. All along the road, there were craft stores selling dolls. And you could watch the artists working on them. We stopped at some stores to look at them and some people bought presents. (I just bought postcards!)

At the main lookout point, there were food-stalls set up. The Japanese always enjoy nature with food. It was very hard toe decide on what to eat. I eventually settled on some traditional autumn soup. Although the very friendly and entertaining man making takoyaki made me want to get some just to patronize his stand. WARNING: DON'T READ THIS NEXT BIT IF YOU DON'T LIKE EATING ANIMALS OR THINKING ABOUT WHERE YOUR FOOD COMES FROM There were fish on sticks being cooked over coals. There was also a tank where there were fish swimming around. The man working at that food stall would grab a fish, spear it, and stick it over the coals. You could see some of the fish still moving as they were being cooked. I tried a piece of Jane's fish and it was delicious.

On our way back down the hill, we stopped in a restaurant for hot cocoa. As we were sitting, in came some more people. I turned to look at them, and it turned out to be other JETs that we know! It was quite a random run-in. So we chatted with them for a few minutes but they left pretty quickly to be outside before it got dark.

It was a very good little trip. We wanted to go to onsen (hot springs/baths) but didn't have time before we had to catch our train back to Ishinomaki. But aside from that, we had a great walk and plenty of fresh air.