Beef and a temple on a mountain!

Konbanwa from Yamagata! Hopefully the posts will be a little more regular now that we have settled into a routine...which is mostly using Yosha's laptop since wifi is slightly sketchy!

Since the last post, we got settled into Yamagata and had tasty beef for dinner. Yamagata is known for its yummy marbled beef so we thought why not give it a shot? The hotel staff recommended a place across the street so we tried it out. Unfortunately neither of us thought to bring our Japanese phrasebooks, something that we haven`t gotten too much use out of at this point since we were travelling with English-speaking friends. So we sit down at this restaurant, to find the menu had minimal photos and no English, something we have sort of gotten used to but hadn`t really had to deal with till now. We ended up ordering a tasty plate of beef that we grilled ourselves...and nothing else. The beef itself was absolutely fantastic but it was slightly odd to just have beef. It was a great reminder to always pack the phrasebook!

Today we ventured out to Yamadera to see Risshaku-ji, a temple on top of a mountain. There are over 1,000 stairs to the top, with amazing statues along the way. The view at the top of the mountain was definitely worth the climb! Even though it was on and off rainy and cold the whole day I felt that the mountains, temples and experience were worth it! On the way home we planned out next few days in Nagano (we leave tomorrow morning) and had a spicy black bean tofu dish and ramen noodles on recommendation from the server (we aimed for two dishes just to be safe though we would have been fine with just the tofu dish!).

A few side notes for your entertainment:

- For all that finding people who speak English has been a challenge, one thing that has come back time and time again is how incredibly sweet and helpful we have found Japanese people to be. From our Japanese hosts Makiko, Nonaco and her family, servers, train conductors and the hotel staff, we have felt nothing but welcomed here. Yesterday when we checked into the hotel was a good example. We were greeted by two gentlemen: an older man and a younger man. The older man had a better command of English so he was the one giving the information, though the younger man understood enough that he was the retriever of information. By retriever it was like watching something in fast forward. When we asked for a recommendation for Yamagata beef, he scurried around for pamphlets like he was gathering his most precious possessions from a burning house. I had issues with the wifi and both of them bowed apologetically so many times and so low I thought they were either going to throw their back out or break their teeth on the counter. One thing that surprises me is the lack of non-Japanese tourists. Though we may find more foreigners along our travels as we continue, so far on the walk to the temple there were only two other white guys, one of them being a Japanese girl`s boyfriend.

- Yamagata is an incredibly clean city but for some reason it`s almost impossible to find a garbage. Anywhere. Today on the walk back from Yamadera we ventured to a grocery store to get some food. There were were eating random meats on a stick and huge chunks of battered octopus but unable to find a garbage. Maybe Japanese people bring their garbage home? It`s really quite impressive that the city is so incredibly clean!

I look forward to more adventures in the next couple of days. We are going to Nagano tomorrow, then to see snow monkeys bathing in hot water pools (apparently they walk right up to you!), check out some castles, some samurai mansions, some old post towns...it`ll be enough to keep us out of trouble! We just can`t forget the phrasebook!

Anyways, more action to be continued!

Photos below: a sample from the kimono shoot; photos and a video on top of Risshaku-ji. I was amazed at how incredibly peaceful it was! (and yes it was cold enough for a tuque and I was still cursing that I didn`t bring enough to stay warm!)