Saturday, September 05, 2009

Shiriya Lighthouse - The most North Eastern point of Honshu

We set out to find an adventure today; and we did. Maps around here are fairly useless....90% of our roads have no names. We'd heard of a beach, Shipwreck Beach, that is fun to explore. We headed to the Veedol Memorial and thought we'd keep heading up the beach until we found Shipwreck Beach.

It was a great drive. We went through some picturesque towns. We drove through the mountains. We saw some great waves.....Eventually we found a roadside map.... We decided we were very close to the North East corner of Honshu and we should aim for THAT instead of Shipwreck Beach, which we somehow missed.

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This perplexed me....The writing isn't in Kanji and I know the sign for bathroom...and the figure seems to have a beard..but it IS pink and the one on the other door was blue....I took a chance that this was for bearded women.

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We also found a fun looking building. Unfortunately, no one inside spoke English. They did have a sheet of paper with English/Kanji on it and we TRIED. I wanted to know if their building was open to the public. They said it was an "energy plant" and then they pointed to the phrase, "public relay station".....but that didn't really answer my question.....and they had mean looking guards all over the spot.

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Who would have guessed the Travelocity gnome gets way out here? ::snort::

We kept driving. We arrived at Shiriya Lighthouse and jumped out...

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...to discover wild horses. There were signs and photos of horses in winter. We surmise these are somehow special horses and they winter over at the lighthouse. We imagine they are from the Tonomi Samurai stock...but we are imaginative. We'll have to do some research and maybe make this trip again in the near future.
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We headed out to the farthest point to take a photo of the clan on the NE Tip of Honshu...


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I heard a motorcycle and a man was desperately motioning that it was time to close and the gates would be locked. At least that is what I guessed. It was sad. We'll have to do this again. We were robbed of really looking around and exploring this location. LOL

We stopped at the beach on the way home. Wonderfully loud waves, a full moon.....


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Then we drove and drove and drove. Poor Mike. It was dark and there are few street lights. The vending machines were helpful as provided splashes of light in the dark landscape. ::snort:: The roads were INCREDIBLY windy and NARROW in the tiny towns we passed through.....eventually we found our way back home.

The Garmin Etrex receives mixed grades for this trip. On the way up it continually told us we were in the middle of the ocean. On the way back it got us home....that and the blown up photos of the map we'd snapped earlier in the day. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

13 comments:

Deja said...

What beauty all around you! What a change from the flatness and brownness and hotness of West Texas!

Darshia said...

It looks more beautiful than I imagined. I respect your adventurous spirit.

Can your children get credit for map making? With the pictures of signs and a general sense of direction you could make your own scrapbook of maps and write the sign translations in later.

Janette said...

A family adventure- my favorite type!

Anonymous said...

Hey mom I think your beirded lady is actually a lady with 2 pony tails hanging past her head. It sounds like you are having a lot of fun.

Linda said...

I was thinking along the same lines as Krista - your bearded woman is wearing a pointy hat (like the gnome!), and the rounded ends are her "long bob", curled under!!!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Yes, I think the bearded lady has pony tails....and the man (whose picture I did not take) must have had pointed hair and not rounded.....but I was in a HURRY to determine where to go. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Deja and Darshia - It IS gorgeous....and map making is a good idea.

At this point I've thought to begin a notebook with written directions....and we are marking each spot in our Garmin Etrex....Jared says I should start a spot on the blog that says, "Misawa Directions" and that way I won't lose them....all good ideas.

Kim said...

I want to go see those places too!

BTW, the pink gnome has toire written in katakana under it. This is GREAT katakana to remember for future reference!!! SMILE!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

GREAT - and I'm still trying to figure out if we should focus on Kanji or Katakana...most road signs seem to be in kanji.

COME see us. I wish we had the ETC on one of our cars and we'd come your way. In fact...if we can swing it before winter....or in the spring....we will. I think I could do it....yeah...well if MIKE will drive it for us. LOL

We do have a train that comes in to Hachinohe.....

You get out here and we'll take you wherever you want to go.

Yvonne said...

Wow...that's my kind of adventure. I love going out there to find whatever we can find! : )

Kudos to you for snapping a picture of the roadside map!

Anonymous said...

Sis:

So much fun to see and learn about Japan thru your eyes. KEEP IT UP!

So beautiful, so much fun, so humbling, so everything..... How wonderful you all have the spirit of adventure for fun.

Did you get the note from Heather with internet spots you can view foto's of all they are seeing etc.? Going to try to open it all up.

love/prayers --- Mom T

Cynthia said...

Wonderful photos! Glad you didn't get locked in or that would have certainly added another element to your adventure!

Wild Homeschool Family said...

looks like a beautiful place and how kind that they have restrooms for bearded women. LOL