Kokeshi Dolls and Tanbo Rice Art
The base offers tours (called ITT tours) to various locations in the area for a great price. Each tour includes transportation (on a bus), an English speaking tour guide, admission to whatever sites you are visiting, and lodging if it is an overnight tour. We decided it is a great way to see the area while we are new and still getting accustomed to traveling around in Japan. Maybe next year we can be a little more adventuresome on our own.
Our first stop - the Kokeshi Doll Museum in Kuroishi:
We loved everything about our first stop. We loved the atmosphere. We loved the Kokeshi statues and lanterns everywhere. We loved making our very own Kokeshi dolls.
Next we boarded the bus and headed off to the Tanbo Rice art. These designs are made by planting different types of rice. Each color is a different type of rice. It's pretty amazing.
You can't hear Mr F at all in this video, but you get a great view of the rice art.
We were able to spend about half an hour at a really neat park after viewing the art. Unfortunately you had to pay to play on the playground, and we didn't think 30 minutes justified the cost. Our kids were able to take a train ride though.
Our last stop on this very busy day was to the Seibien House. This is a famous house in the area because of it's beautiful gardens and it's blend of both Eastern and Western styles in it's design. The bottom floor is a traditional Japanese style house, while the second floor has more of a western style (inside and out). The house in the Studio Ghibli film The Secret World of Arriety (which we watched on the bus) is based on the Seibien House. It really was beautiful.
We were definitely all exhausted at the end of the day. It was a lot of fun and we are so glad that we were able to have this experience. It definitely made us look forward to lots more adventures to come.
For our first tour we visited the Tsugaru Kokeshi Doll Museum, Tanbo Rice art, and the Seibien house and gardens.
Our first stop - the Kokeshi Doll Museum in Kuroishi:
We loved everything about our first stop. We loved the atmosphere. We loved the Kokeshi statues and lanterns everywhere. We loved making our very own Kokeshi dolls.
Everything is hand painted.
Aren't these lanterns incredible?
This area apparently specializes in it's own style of yakisoba, made with a wider noodle. They also make a yakisoba soup. It's like yakisoba meets ramen. How could you go wrong?
We were able to do some hand painting of our own when we made our very own kokeshi dolls.
Before leaving we were able to soak our feet in the foot onset. So nice.
You can't hear Mr F at all in this video, but you get a great view of the rice art.
We were able to spend about half an hour at a really neat park after viewing the art. Unfortunately you had to pay to play on the playground, and we didn't think 30 minutes justified the cost. Our kids were able to take a train ride though.
Our last stop on this very busy day was to the Seibien House. This is a famous house in the area because of it's beautiful gardens and it's blend of both Eastern and Western styles in it's design. The bottom floor is a traditional Japanese style house, while the second floor has more of a western style (inside and out). The house in the Studio Ghibli film The Secret World of Arriety (which we watched on the bus) is based on the Seibien House. It really was beautiful.
Oh my gosh, I totally saw a picture of the Star Wars rice paddy, but I hesitated to share it with you and tell you that you HAD to go see it for me because I was like, "Dude, I can't send them pictures of ALL OF THE THINGS in Japan that *I* think are cool, it's THEIR experience there."
ReplyDeleteBUT. STILL. I'm so excited that you saw it!! This whole day looks really cool! When I saw the picture of the dolls, I didn't think they were very big, the size of my thumb or so, but they are much larger! And I didn't realize you guys did then yourselves. Awesome!
And is it just me, or does some older Japanese Grandma type fawn over your baby everywhere you go....? It's really sweet to see pictures of it. He's so young he probably doesn't understand very much about what's just happened to your lives, but he totally gets when people are loving on him. :)
Anyway. I think it ALL looks awesome! What a fun, colorful, yummy day!
This has seriously been my favorite thing so far. I'm completely been obsessed with Kokeshi dolls ever since!
DeleteAnd yes, Caleb gets fawned over a lot. Teen girls love him too. But of course what's not to love right ;)