I am glad to report that our second night in the tent was much warmer and we all managed to get a decent nights sleep. This was Ebi-kuns favourite spot, just behind the tent and he spent most of the time 'fishing'
and when he wasn't fishing he was becoming one with nature and being a tree.
Tomoe really wanted us to spend a night at her place so we packed up most of the camp gear in the morning then set off to find an onsen (hot spring), it was quite nice but the women's side was very busy, I gave up trying to get in the outside pool. I have a big love/hate thing with onsens, the I enjoy going in just not when there are other people in there! It is not as bad near to where we live because there are more foreigners but up in Iwate they are few and far between and I really don't enjoy being started at when I am fully clothed so imagine what it is like when you are butt naked!
After the bath we had some lunch the headed back to Kitakami to the folklore museum, it is a lovely little museum with traditional houses, this fella was making traditional slippers from rice straw.
The houses represent various periods of time, this is from way back when, caveman type of era, hence the ridiculous pose!
and this chap is the local fertility symbol, he doesn't look very happy about it.
After a good look round we headed back up the hill to pack up the tent and went back round to Tomoes house.
Where she fed us like kings, we had some dried
kaki (persimmon) which I have never tried before, they use the sour kaki to make it and leave it to dry outside over winter, it was really good, very sweet and of course Tomoe being the Japanese mom that she is packed us off home with a big pile of them.
I love reading about all of your adventures. I wish I had time to comment on all of them :) My grandmother used to make persimmon cookies every year when I was young. Living in Indiana you can find persimmon pudding everywhere, but never persimmon cookies. Even the pudding you usually have to buy locally. Now that she is in her nineties, she doesn't cook anymore, so I decided to learn how to make them as a gift for Christmas. They were just as delicious as I remembered and she was thrilled that I actually went into the kitchen!
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