Morioka - and I ain’t moving

I have found my new home, Morioka in northern Honshu. I am not moving from here. Morioka is a small functional and distinctly sweet and pretty city with a population of some 288,000. It’s the capital of the Iwate ken region and famous for nothing in particular, which is nice because it’s not run with tourists, though it has a good range of things to do.

The people are exceptionally friendly - maybe I was a bit short with the man who come rushing to help me at 730 am when I wasn’t actually lost but just looking at a rack of leaflets. But they escort you unsolicited to anywhere you might not want to go.

The streets are clean and tidy, even more so than other parts of Japan. Flower boxes line the roads, and hang from street lights (which are old fashioned style). The town has a sense of identity which runs through it, flowers, buddhas and cool retro style. Yes retro style. Only two and a half hours away from Tokyo, with a decidedly rural feel - but this little town has one hip young population. Nearly all the boutiques off the main street are vintage, retro second hand stores. Truckers hats, cowboy boots and 50’s Americana stock the shop windows and no one, no one under 30 would be seen riding a normal bicycle - it’s all low to the floor chopper style bikes. Only silver or bright yellow if you please.

I stayed in the sweetest of ryokan which was chock a block with Japanese trinkets in contrast to the usually spartan decoration. Sure the owner made me shuffle into three pairs of different slippers for different floor coverings while I still had my bag on, and gave me something that tasted like dandelion wee to drink, but it was one of the cosiest homely places I’ve poked around it. The double doors to my room were tricky to navigate (the opened so they hit each other!) and there was a constant snoring noise which turned out to be a pampered Pekinese which only stuck his head out of his room once, when I came home in the evening - and then he bizarrely had a sliced carrot sticking out of his mouth, like a cigarette. But I liked best the bright warrior print on the walls and the hand towel which illustrations of cats and chickens which read “mother, marriage, naughty, nature”. An interesting selection of words.

I trekked out to the temple area, with sunset racing me and felt like a bit of a tourist. But Morioka is easy to get around, just hesitate for a second and some kind soul will whisk you to where you want to go. The 500 buddhas - all wearing different facial expressions - some scary, some sweet, was an amazing sight. The hands of the devil less so, mostly because I could not find his actual hand prints, allegedly on one of the three rocks that give the region its name. A bit of improvisation was needed.

I learned the importance of good translation. In the temple area, I followed the signs to the burial ground of Okan. Ah I thought, Okan must be the name of one of the great Shinto followers and - sunset falling - jumped in, camera poised. I quickly learned by the sombre folk bearing flowers that what the English translation meant to say was Okan cemetery.

Morioka has a big expat community due to an exchange program with Canada, but what I liked here was that you didn’t bump into them, not once did I see or hear one. There is a centre for international assistance, where I picked up newsletters with such tips as “do not apply fire direct to water pipes” (when stopping your pipes from freezing in winter), how to leave messages on your phone that can be recovered in an emergency (earthquake preparation tips), and “when moving house, sort your garbage as per the leaflet entitled ‘How to separate and put out garbage’ for your region.”

Morioka has some great cafes, bars and restaurants and the best 100 Yen shop ever - three floors! I could have spent hundreds of euros on pottery, bamboo dinner settings, wooden utensils and the like but settled for the most terrible selection of Hello Kitty style merchandise and knee braces!

But the best thing about Morioka is wanko soba. Yes, wanko soba. If I lived here, I’d do it every night....

Morioka happy snaps.