Yamagata somehow ended up on our list of places to see, originally I think in hopes of seeing Cherry blossoms and because I've been here about 10 yrs or so ago and I wanted to check out the differences. Yamagata is nothing like I remember, this is very much a city not the quaint little town on top of the mountain of my memories. Though we may not be in the same place I stayed at last time...I remember taking a bullet train but beyond that not much so we may have ended up some where on the country side. Our first night we walked around looking for dinner and on our hotel concierge's recommendation (check out Michelle's blog for details, the whole interaction seemed like a comedy sketch!) we stepped across the street for one of Yamagata's specialties - beef, I expected a menu with pictures, but alas it was not to be. On the waiter's recommendation (we asked for a beef dish, he pointed, we ordered) we had grilled beef. Just beef. Well and a green pepper! So yeah the language barrier hit us a bit hard. The beef was delicious but my stomach was not thrilled with just a dish of meat! Michelle and I wondered how visitors to Canada with very little or no English deal with restaurants. Unless it's a fast food or chain restaurant, we rarely have pics in our menu
The next day we took the local train to Yamadera to visit a temple on to of mountain. I love the train system here! Bullet or local the train is on time. There was a couple of times where we said oh wait not that train, not because we knew where the train was heading but just because it was a minute or two off the expected arrival time.
The temple, Rissihaku-ji (literally meaning "mountain temple" is a 1000 step climb, established by a budhist monk in year 860 as a seminary to "nurture the development of cheerful and honest individuals"
Initially I thought this might end up being an Adam's peak part II, but really the trail was quite gentle and we made it up in about 45 mins even with many stops for pictures. The area was gorgeous with the light green on new leaves and dark greens of the pine like trees.
Half way up we stopped at this rock where people stashed coins along the wall. No real explanation as to why. Oh yes this was toque (go Sens!) weather! In some ways Beijing part II as it was so cold! It was a mix of clouds, wind, some sun and splattering of rain. Luckily the heavy rain fall wasn't till we got to the bottom but again only lasted about 5 mins.
I don't have an explanation for the figures, a picture I sneaked in through rails...
One of the shrines on the way to top...pretty eh?
How great are the mountains?!
I think the main cluster of buildings up top. There were supposed to be trails to hike along the top but I am guessing it's too early in the season to open the trails.
As with most places like this you exit the area through the gift shop and the mountain foot hills had a slew of little shops, mostly food, but trinkets but also surprisingly 60-100 dollar bags. One of the best trinkets that I totally would have grabbed had we not been travelling for 20 more days would have been this laughing...he's battery driven, twists around laughing maniacally I hope to find one in Tokyo...people be aware this maybe one of your presents!
One of the things I really wanted to try were these balls on a stick in some kind of warm liquid! I was sure they would be sweet but I settled for savoury when the lady asked if we'd like mustard on it. What I didn't expect was a glutinous ball that tasted like...well nothing! It was just chewy and the tiny speck of mustard added a teeny bit of flavour but that's it!
That night for dinner we were totally going for burgers but of course we turned on a dime and headed to another restaurant, this time a menu with pics. The waiter had a enough English Michelle had enough Japanese that he recommended this dish and ramon noodles. This dish was good, though I am not a huge fan of black bean paste and it was bit bit glutinous too...best eaten hot I think! The noodles were delicious and probably would have been enough but oh well.
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