Yabusame and the Golden Temple

So, I survived my first few days in Japan and successfully reached my first weekend!  Anne had already planned a trip for us to visit some of the other JETs around the area and to go and see a yabusame competition in Iwate prefecture.  Yabusame combines horseback riding and archery with competitors attempting to hit three targets in a time limit of just 13 seconds.  But the first thing we did over the weekend was go shopping in the "nearby" city of Tome.  Since we don't have a car yet Anne has been relying on Suzuki-san to bring her to Tome to get essential things… like food.  She said that she thought it was starting to wear down on him though because he kept asking her if any of her friends could drive instead.  But, on the night we had dinner with Suzuki-san and Kachou, Anne asked Suzuki-san if driving to Tome on Saturday morning would be alright (when Kachou was right in front of them so basically Suzuki-san couldn't refuse).  Though in Japan people rarely ever outright refuse anything... so there can be a lot of beating around the bush.

Later on Saturday night Natalie, one of the JETs from Kesennuma, came to pick us up in her little car and we drove to her apartment which was about an hour and a half away.  We planned to sleep over at Natalie's place so I brought along my futon and pajamas.  Seeing another apartment made me appreciate how spacious mine is; Natalie's kitchen is only really large enough for one person to stand in and her living room also serves as her bedroom.  Though Natalie's apartment does have other things like a couch and desk which she inherited from her predecessor.  In the morning I saw what else the apartment has: a view.

The view from Natalie's place

Natalie made Anne and me some amazing Swedish pancakes with real maple syrup (Natalie is from Canada so she was really happy when she discovered that one of the international food stores in Sendai had Canadian maple syrup).  Around noon we headed into the city of Kesennuma to meet up with another JET, Drew (who was nice and can read kanji really well so getting to the yabusame competition was a bit easier).  I left my futon at Drew's apartment so that there would be more space in Natalie's car and then the four of us headed out.  The drive to Iwate prefecture was really pretty with golden rice paddies, a few villages and towns, and mountains always in the background.  It probably took about two hours to get to the general location of the competition but we got a bit lost as well.  Poor Natalie was getting very hungry by the end of the drive and so I gave her some peanut butter crackers from my bag (thank you Grammy!).  We caught the end of the yabusame competition but were too late to see Erin perform (Erin is a 5th year JET from Iwate, she became interested in yabusame since she already knew how to ride a horse).  Erin and Anne actually went to the same college in the US (small world, right?).  So we got to see some team yabusame runs where three competitors gallop past (and try to hit) the targets all in a row!  We also got to sample some of the delicious festival food from the various food stands.

Here are some of the yabusame competitors in traditional clothes

On the way back to Kesennuma we stopped by a World Heritage Site - Chusonji temple in the town of Hiraizumi.  It was almost closing time so we had to rush a bit but we saw the golden hall (built in the 12th century!) which is basically a gold covered, hand crafted, mother-of-pearl inlaid mausoleum.  It was really amazing and incredibly detailed, but we weren't allowed to take pictures since it is inside a Buddhist temple.  All I can say is… you have to see it with your own eyes!

Here's a view from outside of the temple, at this time of the year the rice fields turn golden so it's know as the "golden time"

So, it was a fun and productive weekend!