Day 3: Nature, Tea, Soba

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I'm not really sure how I missed this day, but upon reviewing some of the earlier blog posts, I realized that I never talked about our trip with the Koseki family to a nearby dam.

Its been almost a week since this day, so my memory isn't the greatest, but I believe we began the day fairly late. Me and Sean had mentioned that we wanted to see the country side, and Yumiko wanted to take us to a hotspring. However, seeing as it was a weekend and the last day of summer vacation for the students of Japan, she didn't know if we would be able to get in. So, we packed some towels just in case we were able to get in.

We drove along one of the train lines through a very scenic mountain area with mountainsides so thick with trees that there appeared to be no break in the foliage. Several small towns/villages were tucked away in the valleys of the mountains, and each was interesting to look at as we drove by. We passed the hotsprings entrance along the way, the a massive line of cars prevented us from going in.

After driving for a solid amount of time, we got out at a beautiful lake created by a nearby dam. We walked around the lake a bit before stopping to try and climb one of the nearby mountain paths. As we started up the path, Kenichi spotted something and began to take pictures. There were two serow sitting on a small cliff edge directly above the path. Me and Sean had no idea what they were, but Sean said it looked like a capybara. Its cry was very strange, and I thought it looked like a hyena.

When we had finished looking around the lake area, we began to drive back through the countryside. It was about lunch time, and Yumiko seemed to know a place she wanted to take us to for lunch. I think we missed the turn for it, so we kept on going and ended up at another place. Inside we were served a variety of foods including: jellyfish (very "fizzy" tasting), small fish (as in sardine small), wonton soup, some sort of pickled vegetable, a fishy tasting substance cut into the shape of a small mushroom (Yumiko told us what it was, but I don't remember), and a few other things.

I believe this was also the day that the nearby Air Force Base was open to everyone, so it was quite crowded when we returned home. Earlier in the week I had expressed an interest in the different kinds of tea common in Japan, after having drank ocha almost everywhere we had gone. Yumiko explained that ocha was the most common, kocha is a dark tea (similar or perhaps equal to the "traditional" american/british tea), and matcha is a special tea which looks like green dust and is used in the Japanese tea ceremony. Yumiko offered to show us the proper way to brew and pour the tea, and of course, we accepted.

Later that evening, she got out her tea "supplies", a variety of tea storage and serving containers, and brewed the tea with just the right temperature of water (according to her) to make it taste its best. There were many little things she did that I don't quite remember the order or specifics of. Once she had brewed the tea, she began to fill the 3 cups, not filling one and then moving onto the next, but instead filling a small amount in each cup in a line, then filling a small amount in each cup in a line going the other way. For example, naming the cups 1, 2, and 3, the order would be:
1 2 3 - 3 2 1 - 1 2 3

She did this until each of the cups were full.

Later that night, after making a quick run to the store, we were treated to a delicious meal of soba and tempura cooked by Yumiko. We had a little difficulty maneuvering the chopsticks around the larger pieces of vegetable and shrimp, but for the most part we did fairly well and it tasted excellent.

Being American, we were not used to eating soba in the "proper" manner, and it took some getting used to. You take a stick full of noodles, dip it into the soup/broth, then slurp them up (as loudly as possible it seems.) The first few times, I couldn't help but laugh at the sounds, thinking about how dad would probably be having a fit from all the noise. We eventually got used to it and enjoyed the experience.

Some of the events mentioned in this blog post may have happened during some of the other days we spent with the Koseki family, but rest assured, they happened all the same.

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Photos

A Pair-o Serow
Two serow hanging out on the bank above us.

Dam Lake
It's the Lake above the dam. Turtle island in the middle. Well, not really, but it looks cool and sounds good.

Lunch Time
Sean and Masahiro pictured chowing down.

The Food
Here we have, from left to right.
Ocha (the tea), rice with chestnuts, uhhhhh... and on the far right wonton soup.