Akita

It was quite a busy day today having woken up early to finish my application to visit Turkey, and having to navigate a morning meeting that was pushed to afternoon while Arvin and Roy stopped by my place. The two of them joined me while I visited the snow monkeys in Nagano as well as Shirakawago. This time around we were going to Akita.

Realizing that there won't be enough time for lunch anymore, I decided to just head straight to the airport. They left their things at my place and after a long journey, we finally touched down at Akita. We rode the bus heading into town and put our things inside the locker where the two got their first look at the mascots of Akita, the Akita Inu and the Namahage. Little did they know that I had a little something prepared for them that night for a much better cultural immersion.

Our first stop was the nearby Senshu Park where they were holding a cherry blossom festival. It seemed like it was rainy that day so there wasn't much people or stalls open. We saw the traditional fishing game as well as some karaage and other food but the main draw here was of course, the sakura. And we had an abundance of them all around, having the park to ourselves was also a major win. We got to visit the shrine as well as the castle at the top. Having a bit more time, we visited the original Akita Castle ruins site which was even more abandoned. A huge field with just the remnants of walls and gates but it was really quiet and a good place to unwind and feel the nature all around us.

We got on a bus that took us back to the town center where the highlight of the day waited: Akita Nagaya Sakaba. This was an izakaya that I had my eye on ever since reading about it for the first time. The two had never had an izakaya experience before and this one blew everything out of the water, including all of my own experiences. The quality of service was simply impeccable, the atmosphere so immersive, and the interior design gave off such a traditional vibe that we were sold just by the entrance alone. We were given amazing seats and tables and were pleasantly surprised to see traditional performances through dancing and instruments such as the shamisen and wadaiko. The food we got was good in volume and in taste, the price was on the higher side. However this wasn't the climax, what the restaurant was known for was the nightly visits by the famous and legendary Namahage. It was quite theatrical as they had dimmed down the lights and had created an atmosphere of suspense and even perhaps horror with the red lighting. Then came the knocking, the stomping, and suddenly the barging in of the Namahage! Clad in all of its garb and wear, the mask, the staff, and the horrible loud and growling voice. So this was the Namahage. The Namahage then visited each table, exchanging pleasantries. He spoke in a very strange and archaic Japanese or maybe it was the Namahage way of speaking as even other guests didn't understand it. We had to have a staff translate it to normal Japanese as for us too.

When we left, they even had to do a send-off for us, by casting a special rock salt of thing behind our backs as a form of blessing for good health. It was such an awesome experience, I couldn't stop lavishing about it even after we had walked far. Arvin and Roy commented that it was going to be all downhill from here as far as their izakaya experiences would go. We walked back to our place which was an entire apartment for ourselves, I had a whole room to myself and after taking a bath, I was just about ready to sleep because tomorrow was going to be one epic day cycling around Oga.Read more