Japan Trip – Akita

After an easy and quick morning bullet train ride to Yokohama, we boarded our ship. We were scheduled to depart port at 5:00, but there were gale force winds out at sea so we ended up stuck in Yokohama for 2 days. It was super disappointing missing 3 ports, but we were at the mercy of the weather. We finally got out at 3:00am as soon as the port authority cleared us and made our way to Akita. Akita is a small place, so we rented a car and made our way out to the Oga Peninsula. It was daunting to drive on the other side of the road, but Cory was a rockstar. We drove along the coastline and stopped for a hike up to the Akagami Shrine Goshado Yohaiden. We climbed the 999 stone steps. The shine is associated with the Namahage folklore of the region. There is a legend about the ogres building these steps and having to flee due to a bargain they made with the villagers to build 1000 before sunrise. By making the rooster crow early the villagers tricked the ogres into believing it was dawn and they only built 999 steps, so they did in fact leave. We had the place to ourselves. It started to rain so we decided to go back down through the forest instead of the slippy rocks and that was an adventure.

We stopped at all the Namahage statues we saw on the drive and then at the Namahage museum. It was a small museum, but really cool. I even dressed up as a Namahage. We also went to the demonstration and learned about the lore. The legend of the Namahage centers on frightening beings who descend from the mountains on New Year’s Eve to search for lazy people and disobedient children. Despite their terrifying appearance and threats to carry off bad children, they are considered benevolent messengers of the gods who ultimately scare people into working hard and behaving well, bringing good fortune for the new year. Then with a stop at the 7-11 for my favourite ice cream treat, our cab driver met us at the car rental shop and got us back to the ship with 20 minutes to spare.