Tohoku: 東北

Single, white male looking for serenity, beauty, and openness that other parts of Japan fail to even acknowledge. I am looking for that all-natural Japan--a place where the only things in my periphery are plush horizons, virgin forests, and sunsets so beautiful you store it in your memory bank, not your digital memory card (hypocrisy to follow). In my opinion, natural beauty trumps cosmopolitan aesthetics like queens over jacks. Where can I find such a place? The answer: Tohoku.

Tohoku is the northernmost region of the island of Honshu in Japan. Tohoku is the Japanese equivalent of the scandinavian upper midwest states like Nort' Dakota and Minneso-tah. It's a place where the locals' intellects are questioned based on their speech patterns and strange verbal idiosyncrasies. Of course, I wouldn't really know anything about that due to my Minnesota upbringing and poor Japanese skills. I did, however, have an English-speaking Japanese buddy along with me to enlighten me. His name: Kaz.

Doogie Howser is to medical science as Kaz is to English. To put it a different way: Bobby Fisher is to chess as Kaz is to English. Or, if analogies just aren't your thing: Kaz is the best English speaker I have ever met. But as most of you know, most English speakers aren't very good. The best speakers are made in Japan, like Sony and Panasonic (rim shot! Thank you...thank you very much). Anyway, he is simply a phenom. In fact, his English are more better than mine English.

Kaz and I road tripped throughout the Tohoku region for about a week. We hit the big stops along the way, ate the local specialty dishes, and took in some of the most amazing nature I could have asked for. We saw a pagoda in the middle of the woods that had more stories than The Lord of the Rings series--five to be exact. We explored a couple castles, took in a sumo museum, and followed the ancient trails of the famous haiku writer Matsuo Basho. I had the pleasure of taking an oceanside outdoor bath on the edge of the Pacific, and swimming in the clearest lake in Japan.

Kaz taught me Japanese, and I taught him slang. I now have a favorite Japanese song, and he knows some ebonics. It was a good old-fashioned road trip--taking in the sights and sounds, exchanging ideas, and getting out on the open road. Just substitute the beef jerky for some seaweed, and trade that coke for some green tea.