Japan's Countryside

The place I've always wanted to visit I have finally gone! Ignore the bad grammar in that last sentence. Okaasan took me to her hometown to bring obaasan back to her home. She has recovered from her cancer surgery and is very 'genki', energetic, healthy. Her home town's name is Ako and is about 3-4 hours drive from Hirakata. It is such a small town, very Berlin, CT-esque... but MUCH better. It sits in a valley along side a chain of mountains that hug the coast-line. We went to the beach and had lunch at this restaurant overlooking the pretty view, (Pics will come soon). But back to the beginning of the story. We arrive and within two minutes of parking there were 20+ neighbors come to pay their respects, bring presents, food, or just to gawk at us. Obaasan's house is extreeeemely old style and I LOVED IT! The layout was very wicked cool. Unfortunately dumb me didn't take a pic of the house. But basically there was the front door, and the front room had a ginormous window that we opened and was practically another door.

Later we visited the Ako Castle, which is famous in Japan. This is where the story of the 47 ronin that took revenge on their Lord's death happened. We went to the shrine there and there were statues of these 47 samurai everywhere. We also visited the Salt factory. Which isn't a factory at all. Ako, is known for it's sea salt production. They maintained these old ways of making salt from sea water and we got to watch and make some ourselves. Fresh sea salt is amazingly good!

Finally to end this wonderful trip my host mom brought me to an onsen. A hot springs. And for those of you who know little about Japanese culture, essentially I went skinny dipping with a bunch of strangers. The actual experience was amazing! They provide all these luxury shampoos and bath salts for you. And it wasn't too bad, since I had to remove my glasses and could barely see, honestly. Also, whoever says all Japanese girls are skinny, are just fooling themselves. They just have small frames, they still pack flab. :) (Personal feelings on this experience is that I would never do this again, but I'm glad I did it once).