A day in the mountains

Dave and I went for a lovely walk this morning along the river. It was a bit misty, but not really raining. After breakfast, we hopped on the bus for a full day of adventure in the mountains, which was an hour's ride from Kanazawa. Our first stop was to the village of Gokayama. In the olden days, this area was virtually inaccessible in the winter. It is nestled between the mountains and they generally get 6 to 12 feet of heavy snow from November to April. Now there are tunnels in the mountains so that people can more easily reach them. One of the tunnels was 8 miles long! This village is a UNESCO site. The village has many gassho-style houses which have steep and thickly thatched roofs (see photo). The living quarters are on the main floor and the tall 3 story attic was used for storage and as a workplace in the winter when they were confined. Some of the crafts that they did in the attic were storing and caring for silk cocoons and paper making. One part of the village was known for making gunpowder in the age of the Shogun. We visited one of the oldest gassho houses and the owner of the house explained the art of gunpowder production and then performed a traditional Kokiriko dance in native costume (see photo). The instrument he was using to accompany his dancing was very interesting - it made a unique sound. We also visited a paper making workshop and saw how the paper is made. The process is very labor intensive, but the finished product is lovely. We visited a local restaurant for a vegetarian lunch. The soba (homemade buckwheat noodle soup) is made of locally grown buckwheat. It was delicious! We added young bamboo shoots and fiddle head ferns to our list of new things in Japan. The cafe staff sang and danced for us - we really had a wonderful time. The owners and waitresses of the restaurant waved and smiled as we left This has happened at several places and even at the hotels. The staff comes out to wave us off and they continue to wave, bow and smile until the bus is out of sight. After lunch we traveled to a different mountain village - Shirakawa-go. At the Folklore Park, we had the opportunity to make mochitsuki or sticky rice cake. The process starts with sticky rice that has been steamed. You then pound the rice with a huge mallet and alternately pound and add water until all of the gluten has been drawn out of the rice and it makes a huge ball of rice paste. It looks like and has the consistency of white taffy or warm mozzarella cheese. This is formed into balls and rolled in sweetened soy powder. We each had a ball with a side of sweetened red beans. It was really yummy! We walked around a bit and then headed back to Kanazawa. It was too bad that again we had a bit of a wet day, but it was really just off and on. Junko keeps hanging a little "sunny boy" (this looks like a small ghost with a smiling face) in the bus as we travel to try and change the weather, but so far it hasn't worked. The good news is that the mist made for some interesting shots. Junko invited us all to go with her to a Japanese restaurant that is owned by a friend of hers. Kelly went, but Lana, John, Dave and I opted to go to the steak house in the basement of the department store. I'm glad we did. The steak was a very tender filet and the chef sliced it thin and sent it back to the table on a flat lave rock so the we could cook it to order. The meal came with soup, pickled vegetables (not like our pickles - they only pickle overnight so everything is very crisp), sprouts, sliced onion, and of course, a bowl of rice. Lana and John have been looking for a new table for their kitchen and the table in the restaurant was just perfect so we did some measuring and I came back later and took a picture so they can have one make back home. We wandered over to the dessert section of the department store and found a small cafe where we shared a piece of pumpkin cake and dark chocolate cake with cherries - delicious! The frosting on the chocolate cake was black so I went back to the room to brush my teeth! Dave downloaded the camera so I could blog when I got back and then Lana and I went back down to the basement to take a picture of the table and some of the desserts. I will try to include a photo of the desserts soon. Tomorrow we will go to visit our host families in the morning and then travel by train to Kyoto. I bought a scarf today to wrap our gift of maple syrup as that is how the Japanese present their gifts. It is very elegant.