The are many fantastic perks to being an International Student at AIU. One of these is that the school offers many field trips and culture trips to see the local sights and take in the local flavor. Last week we had a trip into Akita City where we made 4 stops. First, we went to Senshu Park, a beautiful walking park that escalates up a series of gardens and stairways, up to Kubota Castle, the family compound of the Satake Family. The Castle was set high atop a hill with several gates along the way as to not need a normal wall close to the Castle to protect it. The park was beautiful with a lot of crafty waterways and sculptures.
This is the front gate to Kubota Castle, the castle that once stood in Akita. If I was an invading army, even if I had well strategized battle plans, I could easily get lost in the labyrinth that leads up to the castle.
A waterfall, a great example of the once natural waterworks that were on display. Lots of peaceful alcoves and pools where the streams would congregate…
…such as this. Some of the areas had recent embellishments such as the small fountain in the center of this picture. There always seems to be tension between the old and new in Japan, between preserving the old culture and embracing the last 150 years of modernization.
Here is the front gate, but on the way out. You can see a cross section of a tree on the left. Akita is famous for their Cedar trees and on warm days you can smell it. It very interesting.
This is Kubota Castle’s Osumiyagura Turret which served as both a lookout and weapons depot. It was very difficult to capture the whole Turret in one picture, but I hope this angle give a good perspective into how tall it was. And this wasn’t even the actual castle! Again, it was originally built without nails, using the Buddhist architecture brought over through Korea from China and India. Just alternating slats of wood with proper support. My Norwegian friend Magnus tells me its very similar to ancient Scandinavian building methods. Hmmm….
Here is a sculpture of Satake Yoshitaka, whose family ruled Akita for many generations. The family name, Satake, appears on street signs, monuments and many of the museum names.
Here is the Akita City skyline as seen from one of the lookouts in the Senshu Park. Notice the 711 off to the right. Again, 711 is the most convenient convenience store ever. EVER.
Next, we took a short walk to the Hirano Masakichi Museum of Fine Art. It was a smaller building but it housed many excellent works. It showcased many masterpieces including painter Tsugouharu Foujita’s “Events of Akita” which is one of the world’s largest oil canvas paintings in the world. We were not allowed to take pictures but I hope to go back there to see the exhibit again, as we only had a limited amount of time to spend there. There was a great series of etchings by Goya, and also a few minor paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Van Gogh.
After the Museum we got back on the bus and headed to the Akita Market. It’s like an indoor farmer’s market kind of like the ones in the Northeast and Northwestern US. I’ve been to Pike’s Place Market in Seattle though not on the busiest days, so I didn’t really get to see the flying fish, but I think we were at the Akita Market on a pretty slow day too, a Tuesday. But, anyways, lots of vendors selling anything you can imagine. Radishes the size of your arm, apples the size of softballs, grapes the size of golf balls, and some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet. The always give you a sample before you buy it, like when I asked for two apples, she gave me a slice and then gave all my friends slices, maybe its just good salesmanship, but I took it as kindness.
Fish! They have a restaurant in the vicinity where you can take what you just bought and they will cook it for you. If it is still alive they will fix that and then prepare it however you order it. We didn’t have time, but it sounds really cool.
More Fish! I tried to get a couple guys to go in on a whole fish with me, but we had no way to keep it cold till after the basketball game.
Melons, potatoes, kiwis, squash, almost anything that grows in the ground or above it, you can find it here. The apple I had was soooooooooo good.
Friends become guides and translators when they join us on our outings. The Akita accent is very deep and a bit hard for us to understand, even the native Japanese from the South think its kind of cute or funny. I’ve picked up a few of the local dialect colloquialisms though, and its kind of cool.
After the Market we finished off our day with a Japanese Basketball League game. Definitely not the NBA, it was still fun to watch, and especially to see how excited the fans got. The Japanese are in general pretty quiet and reserved, so it was neat to see them get rowdy. As gaijin we would just pick one of the teams and cheer for them. There was the visiting Sendai Tigers vs. the local Niigata Albirex. Did you know that an Albirex is a kind of bird? I didn’t until I went to the basketball game.
The game started off with a pregame performance. There was a drummer and flute player and they played some wild traditional music with a modern flair to it.
A bit blurry, but this is how the game was. We had pretty good seats, just behind one of the baskets. The teams were mostly Japanese with some Americans on each team.
This is for my sister, Kailee. During halftime they had a small dance troupe of little girls dancing with the older cheerleaders. There was also this weird tree mascot which I still don’t really understand. Maybe its the Akita Cedar?
And what Japanese Culture Excursion would be complete without some Engrish. For those of you who are unfamiliar with “Engrish” it is the term used to describe English being used poorly or translated improperly onto T-shirts, billboards, signs, etc. This usually comes up in Asia quite often. And it is called Engrish because it is difficult for many Asians to pronounce ‘L’ sounds especially when they are first learning. Japanese doesn’t have an ‘L’ consonant, so when transcribing it is often pronounced as an ‘R’, thus giving us Engrish. Visit here for more details.
So the sign says “We’re Always” and thats it. There’s not another one next to it. Just “We’re Always”. “We’re Always What?” you might ask. Nobody knows. People think that Asian cultures are so wise because they speak in metaphors and riddles but sometimes I think its just poor grammar or translation.
It was a great trip, had tons of fun, got to meet some great locals, and eat the largest apple I’ve ever seen in my life. Dad asked me to put up a few pictures of my accommodations and I’ve been meaning to for the last two weeks but just haven’t gotten around to it. I just took a series of photos of how I make coffee here because it is so amazing, I have to share. So. It should be up soon. Midterms are coming up, so I’m glad I got the coffee making down to a science now, before the textbooks hit the fan. Cheers!
