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!

About 2 hours away is Mt. Hakkoda, where “snow monsters” guard the mountain. These are naturally formed by strong wind that blows water droplets onto the trees that freeze. The result are these crazy looking trees.

One of my bucket list items was to see a concert in Japan, and that has been realized! We went up to Sapporo, the largest city in the northern island Hokkaido, where the Snow Festival was. During this trip, we also went to see Queen, one of Leanne’s favorite bands.

While in Japan, I’ve picked up a new hobby: fishing! My friend Ryota is an expert amateur fisherman and has taught me the ropes. I’ve done what’s called “area trout fishing” here in Japan, which is where there is a fishery that grows the fish and then releases them into a pond in which we can fish in. You would think it might be easier than catching trout from a river, but these trout are used to fisherman and, as such, become little geniuses. They know to avoid most lures since they have fisherman trying to catch them every day. There are also strict rules: you cannot have bait on the lure, certain lures are not allowed, and the hooks on the lures cannot be barbed.

This was my catch, which I later gutted and made into a great Sole Muniere.

Fishing is my new hobby!