Author Topic: Tohoku Japan 日本東北 (Read 111107 times)

hangchoi · « **Reply #40 on:** 23 May 2019, 20:28:07 »

The ryoken is old but our stay was comfortable. Not a big onsen bath but adequate, one of the bath is built underground. Maybe this is the reason that this ryoken is a member of secret onsen association 秘湯會員.

Dinner was served in the room but breakfast in a dining area. Foods are delicious and made by local produces.

hangchoi · « **Reply #41 on:** 23 May 2019, 20:36:47 »

Next morning we left the ryoken and headed to another city Yonezawa 米沢. The beef of this city 米沢牛 is very famous so we were going to have it for lunch and dinner.

Our first stop was a restaurant called Yoshitei 吉亭. This restaurant is not only famous in the beef they served, but also the landscape and decoration of the shop.

Yonezawa beef can be done by grill, shabu shabu or sukiyaki. We went for sukiyaki for lunch and grilled for dinner.

hangchoi · « **Reply #42 on:** 23 May 2019, 20:41:54 »

We were too full after this tasty lunch. Then we started our sightseeing. The core location for visitors is the area around Uesugi-jinja 上杉神社. This group of buildings includes the jinja 上杉神社 and some memorial museum. The origin of this place is the old castle of Yonezawa. So there are still moat, garden, etc.

hangchoi · « **Reply #43 on:** 23 May 2019, 20:53:46 »

This place are mainly for a few persons: Uesugi Kenshin 上杉謙信, Uesugi Yōzan上杉鷹山 and Date Masamune 伊達政宗.

Date Masamune was born here so there was a stone recording this.

Uesugi Kenshin originally had nothing to do with this city. When he marched to war with other generals, he passed away suddenly (some says that was due to heart attack) and he was buried in this castle. Therefore, his tomb was here and the people set up a shrine for worshiping this god of war. There is a statue of him too. (2nd and 3rd pictures)

Before I came to here, I know nothing about Uesugi Yōzan. Now I know that this guy is really something. He was the mayor of this city and he governed this city so well that JFK once said that he respected this guy most.

hangchoi · « **Reply #44 on:** 23 May 2019, 20:58:07 »

Before we went for dinner, we still had an hour or so. Therefore, we added a sightseeing spot which is a sake factory Toko Sake Museum 酒造資料館東光の酒蔵.

Not many to see actually, especially if you have already known how to make sake. But there are some interesting tastings. You can taste their sake for free. Besides, you can taste the water used for sake and the residue of the rice water after fermentation.

hangchoi · « **Reply #45 on:** 23 May 2019, 21:01:46 »

Our dinner ws at Tokiwa 登起波, a hundred year old shop offering Yonezawa beef. We got to select the menu when making the booking. For grilled beef, they offer 3 types of menu and we ordered them all.........

See if you can distinguish which one is the most expensive and which one is the cheapest......

hangchoi · « **Reply #46 on:** 23 May 2019, 21:07:04 »

After that, we finished our tour at Yamagata area. The next morning we went to our third stop Utsunomiya 宇都宮, the capital of Gyoza 餃子.

The date was 1 May and the era was changed to Heisei 平成 to Reiwa 令和. You can see Reiwa everywhere.

hangchoi · « **Reply #47 on:** 23 May 2019, 21:14:10 »

After we settled down our bags in hotel, we went to Ashigaka Flower Park 足利花卉公園 to see Wisteria 紫藤花. This park holds an exhibition of Wisteria every year in May.

hangchoi · « **Reply #48 on:** 23 May 2019, 21:17:02 »

In fact this is just a flower show with lots of different species of Wisteria. They put them and prune them in different shapes.

hangchoi · « **Reply #49 on:** 23 May 2019, 21:20:26 »

Too much flower will make me feel boring. So after I took a few more pictures, I started to find something fun, like shooting the tiny bugs and bees......