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Published: June 10th 2008
Lake Tazawako
Shrine - you make a wish and tie your wish to the shrine where is stays and hopefully comes true.We all hoped into the car and off we headed for a day at Lake Tazawako. It was about an hour drive across the boarder into the Akita Prefecture. The lake is one of the largest in Japan and is still an active volcano. Okasan and Otasan (mother & father) are like my adopted family and love to take Megs and me anywhere tourist to show us around. The drive there was beautiful with luscious scenery of mountains still some with snow was breath taking. We passed lots of farms along our way also, it really felt like we were going deep into the country side of Japan.
When we arrive Okasan took out a beautiful Japanese lunch which she had made at home. It had Onigiri (rice balls), vegetables with mayonnaise, fresh scallops, omelets, tomato and these really nice Onigiri wrapped in like a honey sauce delicious! After we ate ourselves stupid we went for a walk along the beach and admired or surroundings. The Lake was so BIG. One half was surrounded by sand and beaches and the other by rocks and trees. You could hire canoes and swans that you paddle in with your feet, but we
opted to skip rocks along the water instead. We drove around the lake and to the other side where there was a shrine and a golden statue of a girl in the water. The statue's name was Tatsukohime and the storey goes...
She was a beautiful woman. Tatsukohime knew she was beautiful and wanted to stay that way forever. So Tastukohime prayed to the gods every day and every night until one day they heard her prayers and said 'Tastukohime, drink from this lake and your beauty will last forever'. So she drank and drank and drank the water, she drank it every day and each day she would drink more and more. Eventually she drank so much - she turned in to a dragon and her beauty was loss forever because of her greed. She was so sad. She said to her mother 'Mother I have dishonored you and I am no longer your daughter, because of this I will give you many fish in this lake so you can eat and be healthy forever'. - It was a bit difficult to decipher when it was being translated from Japanese.
As we were on our way home
we stopped at the side of the road where Okasan and Chikako hopped out of the car and started pulling plants off the trees? Hmmm….we ate them tempura style for dinner the next night and they were yum. They also took us to a honey house where everything was honey - juices, jam, ice-cream and of course different flavors of natural honey and you could taste test everything. The ice-cream was the best of course! It was a great day!
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