Izushi Castle Matsuri

November 3rd is National Culture Day, so I had the day off. Yea!! And Izushi, a nearby town, was celebrating their Castle Festival, so we were determined to go. Now, as we don't have a car, we were going to have to learn the bus routes. But then, our fantastic friend/student Chika from our Kaiwa class invited us along with her and her friend, Uenobo. Hooray for not having to learn the bus route!

Uenobo is an English teacher at the JHS and can be a bit domineering, so we were a little worried. Despite our concerns, Uenobo seemed very relaxed, and watching her and Chika interact was really sweet-- you could see what good friends they are.



Izushi is absolutely adorable! A beautiful town, filled with cute shops and tons of soba restuarants. Soba, buckwheat noodles, are popular in Japan and an Izushi speciality. Izushi has only maybe 10,000 people, yet has over 30 soba restuarants. We ran into one of the Izushi ALTs, so we all went to lunch together. THe soba is served on many small plates-- each person is given about 7. You mix together raw egg, green onions, dashi [a stock made from fish], soy sauce, wasabi, and tororo [taro goop] in a cup, then dip each bite of noodles in the mixture. It's really fun and quite tasty. After eating, we ordered soba-yu, the hot water the noodles are boiled in. The noodles give some flavor and starch to the water. You add the flavoring mix to the soba-yu and drink it down. It's pretty tasty, but the egg white and the tororo are a bit too slimy for me to swill easily.

Then we went off and found dessert. Now, we love our ice cream place, Lilac, but the Izushi shop had a wider variety of flavors. Hello mangosteen, chestnut, soba!!, spicy [red pepper flakes, cinnamon, and black pepper], plus all the usual suspects. There were pics of the store's cows, so you could see which wonderful cow provided you with amazing ice cream!



Let's see, we also wandered around the castle walls, browsed the booths, pounded a bit of mochi, and then we settled in to wait for the main event. Izushi men slowly parade through town, carrying these tall poles. Every so often, they stop, take a few choreagraphed steps, then toss the poles to another man. Yes, they are "very adept at handling their poles." Ahem. I believe that's in their official brochure...





On our way to the car we found a soba making shop, and were treated to watching a man make the noodles. Looks like a lot of work. I know soba making clubs are pretty popular in Japan, and in Izushi in particular. I wish Wadayama was famous for something edible... all we're known for is furniture.