Sakura Yabusame is the combination of traditional Japanese houseback archery with beautiful rows of cherry blossom trees in Towada City.
The sakura (cherry blossoms) are blooming right after Forrest is born. This was Forrest’s first outing, and he slept through the whole thing!
Finally, it’s time to take Forrest home.
Pior Forrest got a fever in the hospital. He needed antibiotics but he got through it like a champ.
We are learning the puzzle that is Forrest. I’ve been learning new skills like how to change a diaper, swaddling, keeping a baby warm, and how to console a baby.
Today is exhausting. Just so sleepy all day. Last night the crying woke me up. He’s not fussy but he does have a pretty loud cry and he is very expressive. It was very hard to wake up because I was so tired. Thank goodness for the nurse and Leanne.
My friends all came to celebrate my birthday and Amber Passey got me a birthday cake from Neeko Cakes. I feel so loved. Everyone really cares for us and our baby.
Leanne got the breastfeeding down, no problem. She’s a natural mom.
We went to the hospital for a check-up after work. Leanne was a bit nervous.
After the check up, they said you have the evening but come back within a couple hours for induction. It’s time for this baby to come out!
I tried to be cool and collected but I was freaking out. I thought we had more time! At least a week more! But the baby couldn’t wait. We quickly ate, packed our bags into the car, made sure the car-seat was installed and ready to go, and headed to the hospital.
Labor didn’t take nearly as long as we thought. Leanne was such a trooper through the whole thing and was tougher than I could ever imagine. After only 20 hours of labor, baby was born!
We knew almost right away when we saw him that his name was Forrest. Now time for his birth story! While Leanne was having contractions and pushing, we had a playlist ready to go with such hits as “I Want To Break Free” by Queen, “Push It” by Salt-N-Peppa, “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross, and “The Sweet Escape” by Gwen Stefani. We were all dancing to the music between pushes, even the midwife and her nurses! Baby Forrest was born to “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga.
I was on the right side of Leanne, a nurse was on the left, and the midwife was directly in front of Leanne being the only one fully gowned. When the baby came out, guess who got completely sprayed! Like a targeted missile, baby Forrest aimed everything directly at his dad! Leanne gave a giggle. The midwife’s gown remained completely spotless.
Forrest’s Dadimaa came all the way from Florida to Japan and made it just in time!
When Forrest was born, I couldn’t help but have a tear in my eyes when I first saw him. We made him, and he is so precious. I love him already. Leanne did skin to skin and breastfeeding during the golden hour and I did skin to skin too. I think it really helped with bonding. He has a full head of hair just like dad!
Every sound he makes is so beautiful and I love him so much. I can’t wait to get to know him. I can’t believe I’m his dad.
We went to the aquarium in Akita on the last day. Best parts were the penguins, the seals, the otters, and the polar bear!
So, we kicked off our day in Senshu Park, which is in Akita City, the biggest city in Akita Prefecture. It’s not exactly a bustling metropolis like Tokyo, but it’s got a certain charm to it. The park has this awesome castle perched on a massive hill, and from up there, you get this incredible view of the city and the sea.
After this, we went to the Oga peninsula to learn about the Namahage at the Namahage Museum. The Namahage are demonlike beings portrayed by men wearing hefty ogre masks and traditional straw capes during a New Year’s ritual in local northern Japanese folklore of the Oga Peninsula area of Akita Prefecture. (Source: Wikipedia). The Namahage come on New Years to people’s houses to scare the children (and sometimes adults too) into being good. The tradition may have started long ago in the past when everyone doing their part in farming, helping out, etc. was the difference between life and death.
We saw a Namahage show. These guys are kinda creepy.
In the museum was a hall of all the different kinds of Namahage throughout the Oga peninsula.
Enough learning, time to explore! I found a cave on Google Maps nearby, so we checked it out.
Afterwards we went to Godzilla Rock, so named because of the rock’s striking resemblance to the giant lizard that has repeatedly destroyed Tokyo.
Phew. Now we were hungry. Back at the ryokan we were made the largest meal I think we’ve ever eaten! The food just kept coming and coming!
After dinner we saw taiko drummers. Since this is Akita, we saw Namahage taiko drummers take the stage.
We started the day with a hearty, massive Edo-period style Japanese breakfast. I could get used to this!
Our first stop of the day was the Statue of Tatsuko. Tatsuko is the subject of one of the area’s best-known folktales.
According to legend, Tatsuko was a young woman of unsurpassed beauty, who yearned to preserve her good looks and youth for eternity. Every night she prayed to the Okura Kannon, a deity of mercy and compassion. After many nights of prayer, the goddess told her that drinking water from a nearby spring would make her wish come true. Unfortunately for Tatsuko, her great thirst led her to drink until the spring ran dry, and she transformed into a dragon, fated to prowl the lake’s great depths for eternity as its guardian.
The gleaming statue celebrates this legend, and in a way grants Tatsuko’s wish for her youthful beauty to be preserved in perpetuity. It was created by celebrated sculptor and painter Funakoshi Yasutake (1912–2002), and first unveiled on May 12, 1968.
Source: https://www.city.semboku.akita.jp/en/sightseeing/spot/04_tatsukozou.html
After seeing the statue, we made our way to Dakigaeri Valley, a beautiful gorge with suspension bridges.
All that hiking and exploring made us hungry! Time foe an Akita prefecture specialty, the kiritanpo pot. This is basically a hot pot filled with vegetables and a special type of chicken only raised in Akita.
Next up, the Kamakura Museum. Kamakura are igloos made by the locals in Akita prefecture during an annual winter festival. After they are made, children welcome guests inside and provide them rice wine and snacks, and the guests will make offerings to the Gods to pray for water for the year’s crops.
Enough learning, time for fun with the Japanese past time of manga! Manga is Japanese comic books, but more expansive and covers many genres rather than just focusing on comedy. It really is a modern-day Japanese art form. At the Manga Museum, they preserve and showcase thousands of manga, and this day, they showcased a manga artist who drew about his travels to over 50 countries.
After a long day of travel, we settled in for the night at our ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) in our yukatas.
The day started with a 3-hour drive to Akita prefecture, which is a large sparsely populated prefecture or state in Japan that has tons of culture, food, and hot springs.
The beauty of the scenery on the drive down reminded us of US national parks. Huge tree and snow-covered mountains were all around.
Our first stop was the Ando Jyozo soy sauce and most brewing factory. This was a small family operation that brewed excellent soy sauce and miso (soybean paste) that they ship around Akita prefecture. Most soy sauce is fermented for approximately 1 year. However, this ferments their soy sauce for up to 5 years, which significantly enhances the flavor. It turns out the soy sauce is pretty simple, and is just made of fermented soybeans, rice, wheat, water, and salt. After we got the factory tour, we got to try their soy sauce and it was soy delicious.
The best part of the Ando Jyozo factory was after the tour we got to try soy sauce ice cream and it was surprisingly delicious.
After visiting the soy sauce and miso factory, we proceeded to Kakunodatemachi, a samurai district established in the 1600s. This area was home to numerous samurai families, and their architectural legacy can still be seen today. Here is where we ate lunch fit for a samurai.
While in the samurai village, we came across two great Samurai museums. Here is where Leanne picked out her Samurai gear and started practicing Samurai moves in the middle of the museum. The staff were too afraid to ask her to leave, though.
After fighting off the Mongols and defending the honor of Japan, us two Samurai journeyed to the Tsurunoyu Onsen Ryokan for a well-deserved dinner and rest. This is a famous Japanese style hotel that is modeled from its roots in the Edo-period of Japan. The tatami mat covered room was decorated with an old-fashioned irori fireplace (fireplace within the tatami mat) where we were served a traditional Edo-period style dinner to our room.
After dinner (and about an hour to digest), we went out to the onsen, or hot spring. Onsens are highly regulated and are required to be geothermal heated springs with at least certain amounts of minerals. The onsens in Akita are special because some of them have certain minerals that make it milky white, and others have minerals that make the water change from black to light blue, depending on the weather. It is said that these onsens have healing properties for various diseases, and the different types of onsens heal different maladies, from infertility to diabetes to arthritis. The ryokan we stayed at has onsens of all these types, so we took a dip in all of them just to make sure we got all the benefits!
16″ of snow overnight led to the Misawa winters we were promised!
