Caitlyn and I took the Yamagata Shinkansen (bullet train) to Yamagata City from Tokyo. Traveling at 186 miles per hour, it is a 2 1/2 hour ride on the speedy train to the city of Yamagata which is home of the largest festival for the “flower hat song”, Hanagasa Ondo. The song originated in a town not too far away called Obanazawa, on the banks of Lake Tokura. Yamagata city hosts this massive festival in August. There are many of these festivals all over Yamagata Prefecture (think of the 8 regions of Japan as states and the prefectures as counties with various cities in each prefecture) The dancers wear straw hats laced with synthetic safflowers and dance to show gratitude for the crop of rice, produce and fruits grown in that area. Yamagata is known for cherries (sakuranbo) and European pears

We were fortunate to be in Yamagata at the height of the cherry season. Cherries were being sold everywhere, and we can tell you firsthand that they are delicious!!

The first day in Yamagata we traveled to Yamadera, which tranlates literally to Mountain temple. It was a 20 minute train ride from Yamagata. The city is nestled at the base of the mountain, and there is a 1000 step climb to the top of the temple. It is a breathtaking view and fortunately we were there on a beautiful sunny day. The steps were a bit daunting, but we made it to the top and were thrilled to see the surrounding area from those heights. We added 3 stamps to our stamps collection, one at the bottom and 2 at the top!

After our long climb up and down the temple stairs, we stopped for cherry ice cream at a local stop. The shopkeeper was delightful and gave us a bag of cherries for free as she had more than she needed. She told us to enjoy them since they would go bad by the next day. Yum!

I saw a sign for Frisch’s Big Boy in Yamagata City when first coming to Yamagata city. When I was growing up in Kentucky, we had those restaurants everywhere. Feeling nostalgic, we decided to eat at Frisch’s for supper. I knew it would be slightly different, but I wasn’t expecting it to be a steakhouse.

Caitlyn and I ordered what we thought was a big juicy hamburger. We also got salad bar and drinks with free refills, which is not common in Japan. The salad bar had rice, curry, various veggies, cherry and almond pudding, fruit, and soup. When our burgers came, we started to eat them only to discover they were raw in the center. Our waitress brought a small, black grill that was very hot. We watched other patrons, and discovered that you cook bits of meat to your satisfaction before eating it. The food was delicious, but there were no “big boy double decker burgers” or onion rings!

Caitlyn and I are quite fond of the Japanese hotels. We stayed at a hotel in Yamagata that was attached to the train station and mall. It was so convenient with a skywalk that it wasn’t necessary to go outside if you wanted to go the to train station, movie theater, sweet shop, or restaurant. Our hotel provided pajamas, slippers, toothbrush/toothpaste, a brush, razors, shampoo and conditioner. There is a hot pot, tea bags, cups and all you needed for tea or coffee. While the skywalk wasn’t common, all of the other amenities are usually found at Japanese hotels. The rooms are small, but very clean and comfortable. There was a glorious view of the mountains right outside our hotel room. We are getting spoiled!!

While we were in Kyoto at Fushimi Inari, Caitlyn bought an umbrella that has a katana handle, which has all of the family signs around the outside. June is the rainy season, so you always want to have an umbrella in hand – either for rain or blazing sunshine! Everywhere we went, people would stop and comment about her umbrella. It is definitely unique and a great conversation starter!

Wednesday had been such a beautiful, sunny day, so we were disappointed when we woke up to a rainy, foggy morning. Our plan had been to travel to Obanazawa for more research which was about an hour away in the mountains, but with all the rain and fog, we knew it would not be a good day to sightsee and film. We had an early check out – 10 a.m., so we filmed a puppet video in the hotel room, and then decided to get the 300 yen bus pass to tour the city.

When we got our pass, there were small children everywhere – school trips! We asked permission to take pictures with the children, and my puppets Wormie and Merlock the Mouse. The puppets caused a lot of excitement from children and adults! We boarded the city bus with the children and enjoyed hearing their enthusiastic questions, giggles, and pointing at the “strange foreigners”, meaning me and Caitlyn. There was lots of smiling and high fives in spite of our language barrier. We saw many different groups of children on excursions all day! It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, children are children! That is something I look forward to showing and sharing with my students in Indiana!

The bus driver graciously let Caitlyn stand by him to film our tour of the city through the front window of the bus. It was nice to see the layout of the town so we rode around the town several times.

Our next stop was the museum of history. As we were walking toward the museum, a gentleman stopped us and tried to tell us in Japanese to go see the museum. Caitlyn knows some Japanese after taking 2 years in college. I, however, have the vocabulary of a 3 year old, so it took a lot of guessing and hand gestures to get through our conversation.

When we walked in the museum, the staff’s eyes got really big. You could tell they were thinking, “Oh no, we have to talk in English”. All Japanese students are required to take some English, but not many speak fluently. I know I took 2 years of Spanish and 2 years of French, and I can’t even carry on a conversation in either language, so I can relate to their dilemma.

One of the staff members, Katsumi-Sugai, did an excellent job of explaining the history of Yamagata. He spoke some English, but it was still difficult to keep a conversation going. Our conversations turned into a game of charades, hand gestures, and pointing. Caitlyn knows more Japanese than me, so she would get the gist of what he was saying and once I showed I understood, we moved to the next point of interest. Caitlyn opened the google translate app on her phone and we used that sometimes, but Sugai-San mostly wanted to carry on a normal conversation. Several times we had the whole staff involved in figuring out our conversation only to end in laughing hysterically! Talk about total immersion!!

We learned a lot about the local history of Yamagata and bought several souvenirs. Caitlyn and I left the museum feeling that we had made new friends and appreciated getting acquainted with some local people!

Sugai-San showed us how to the get to the Yamagata Castle and we toured the castle grounds. It is surrounded by a lovely park and moat with HUGE fish!

Next it was time to eat a late lunch. Soba noodles are a local specialty so we went to a highly recommended restaurant owned by a mother and daughter. The restaurant was celebrating its 100th anniversary! We chose to sit Japanese style at a low table, and soon were served delicious soba. I chose chicken and egg and Caitlyn had chicken. The noodles are made of buckwheat and are thick and long. Soba is served in a very large, deep bowl with broth, noodles and veggies. You eat the noodles with chopsticks and slurp the noodles. It is okay to make a slurpy sound. In fact, it is expected.

After enjoying our lunch, we took pictures of the owners. They gave us lovely hand towels with the name of their restaurant. They were such kind, gracious people!

Next was a stop at the local shrine which was small, but was elaborately-filled, and had careful attention given to the grounds One of the monks added another calligraphy/stamp to our stamp book. It is getting quite full. Caitlyn took a few pictures and we started back for the train station.

We decided to go back to Tokyo on an earlier train since we would be leaving for Kyushu the next morning. The hotel where we stayed kept our luggage for us, so we picked up our luggage, bought some cherries to take home and share and boarded the train back to Tokyo. It took 3 train transfers to get back to the area where Bethany lives. We were back by 9 pm, but it had been a long 4 hours of travel.

Yamagata might not be one of the most famous areas in Japan, but we love the city and surrounding area. The local people did their best to make sure language wasn’t a barrier or dividing factor. We will always have fond memories of the people and the beautiful mountainous area!