Rikuzentakata

I spent Saturday going to visit my friend Sarah, who just got to Japan to teach English for a year. I had to take the train for four hours north of Tokyo to get to where she lives in Rikuzentakata. I had to transfer from the Shinkansen to the local train about half way and the local train, despite being named the Rapid Dragon, was neither rapid or dragonlike. It was basically a glorified trolley. The ride was pretty nice and I got to see more of rural Japan.

The weather in the north was about 100x nicer than in Tokyo. Cool breezes and sunshine. Less haze in the air from humidity (and smog probably). I had to wait a few minutes for Sarah, but the nice weather made the wait okay.

Sarah finally came and we headed back to her apartment, which is much bigger than mine and cheaper. She also has one of few apartments in her town that has a heat in the winter (I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think that's what she said). I dropped off my bags and we headed back out to Lawson, the only convenience store in town and I don't mean the only chain in town, I mean the only store. There was also a grocery store, etc., but this was the only convenience store. Coming from Tokyo, where convenience stores are on every corner, this was a big change. We got some lunch and got some supplies for the hike we were going to take that afternoon.

We ate lunch at her apartment after spending way too much time trying to figure out how her microwave works (the buttons are all in Japanese). The plan was to hike to the top of the mountain behind her apartment. She had a map that showed some trails, one of which went to the top of the mountain.

We set out with the mountain in the distance as our goal. I learned that day that when you see a mountain in the distance and you want to get to the top, you should plan better. I also learned that mountains are called mountains for a reason, they're freaking tall.

After an hour and a half of climbing up a gravel path, we finally reached the trail head. Once we had gotten up to certain point on the mountain, we at least got a view of the valley where the city is. You could see the sea and the mountains on the other side of the city. The place is in a terrible position from an earthquake standpoint. On one side you have the sea and its potential for tsunamis and on the other you have mountains and the potential for land and rock slides.

We headed back down so that we could be sure to get back before dark. Those provisions we had bought for the trip never got used. I had actually forgotten to bring mine. We got back with plenty of sunlight to spare and went to find a restaurant.

The entire day we had been navigating using a photocopied, handmade map that had been given to Sarah. We went to where we thought the restaurants were and picked one. We went in, sat down and realized how difficult it would be to order without any English or pictures. The waitress/owner informed us that one of the dishes was meat. It ended up being yakitori (chicken meat). It seems assumed that foreigners tend to prefer meat to fish, or at least that's what they assumed for us.

I, for some reason, decided to order something that I knew would be in a bowl, because I recognized the Kanji. This was a mistake. Our food came and Sarah's looked really good. Mine had the customary egg on top that gets put on most bowl meals. I also have no idea what the contents of the bowl were other than rice. It might have been mushrooms. It might have been oysters. I have no idea. I decided that had I at least known what it was I wouldn't have cared, but not knowing whether it was oyster, clam or mushroom made it harder. I did okay though and ate most of it. It was part of the adventure of being in a town in the middle of nowhere.

I left early the next morning to head to Kyoto. So I got to here the chime that Sarah said they play every morning at 7 am. Every morning, in the streets of the entire town, they play a chime that sounds sort of like a grandfather clock. Glad I don't live there.