Tono Valley, Iwate

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Let's begin "get out of Sendai" weekend with the 1st first visit yesterday. I headed out to big and wide Tono Valley yesterday. Tono is famous for folklore and having a very easily accessible rural scene. There are wide ride fields here and many different places to ride a rented bike or car.

When I left Sendai yesterday morning it didn't look cloudy at all. By the time I got into Shin-Hanamaki station it was pouring a cold and bitter rain. I asked the lady at the information desk if she thought I should even try to go into Tono today and she told me that I should be ok if I stick to the museums. I got into Tono after about 2 hours and found myself in Kappa land. Kappa are a piece of japanese folklore. They are water spirits who sumo wrestle those who pass their pond and then pull their intestines out of their butt (I'm not kidding, it's what the book said!).

The whole town in covered in Kappa paintings and some statues that grace businesses and private houses. I started out toward the folklore village that had a restored ryokan and display of local folk art. Many pictures of Kappa can be seen there along with more interesting views of laborers in the fields and other legends that I didn't know. The ryokan is where the Japanese father of folklore stayed. He wrote a very popular book on Tono legends and all of Japan loved it. The ryokan is a beautiful house with small little exhibits. I enjoyed seeing all the finery and accents hanging around.

After the museum I headed up to the castle site. The site is much like the Sendai castle site: it has a great view of the city and surrounding mountains. It also has a guard tower (I'm not sure if it's a real one of rebuilt one). The guard tower over looks a shrine park and has a beautiful views of the town.

Then I was stuck with a problem. I didn't have a bike because it was raining when I got in and all the other things to see and do in Tono are all many kilometers away from the station. You can get rental bikes from the Tourist Information office or you can get rental cars from them too. I really advise anybody who comes here to get a bike. Many things are way out of town and if you want to see them in good daylight, you'll need it.

I started walking toward the Kappa bochi, or pool, which was 4.8 kilometers away from where I started. I walked for almost an 30 minutes before I started heading back. Now that winter is coming it gets dark at 4pm. I was nervous about getting back at a decent time AND being able to see anything when I got there. I made it back to the stating and caught the next train to Morioka; which was much faster then the train I rode in from Hanamaki.

On the train I started conversation with a lady sitting across from me. She was super sweet and we talked the whole way back. When I left she asked me my name and got this surprised look on her face. Apparently, she met another Kathryn once when a customer was looking for a tent. She then started studying me intently to figure out if I was the same one. After I assured her that it wasn't me I headed off the train with a parting gift of sweet cookies.

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