A day in Hanamaki with Something to Do!
Andrea forced us to go to Hanamaki city. It cost over ¥2,000 in tickets, so about ¥5,000 both ways. We were supposed to be picking apples. We were supposed to go to Yamagata (another prefecture. I live in Miyagi), but for some reason we went to Iwate, to Hanamaki city. From Ishinomaki we went to Kogota, then from there we transfered to another train to Ishinoseki and from there we transfered to another train that went to Hanamaki. There were a lot of train transfers and if you didn’t get this earlier, it was ridiculously expensive. So, we didn’t go apple picking like we originally planned. In fact, when we arrived, the information booth was quite surprised to hear we wanted to go apple picking. Not only was it not quite the season yet, but we were in the comlete wrong area :oops:! There were a lot of onsens though…perhaps we should have gone to one of those…
There was, however, grape picking! So we did that instead :D! Yay! So, from the station we took a bus to the Target. Yes, there was a place called Target in Hanamaki, but don’t get excited, it wasn’t the real Target. 
Yes, the logo looked EXACTLY the same…well, almost the same, this logo was blue and the other one’s red, but the rest of it is the same! Well, it wasn’t a Target (or Targé as we sometimes call it), but something that just wasn’t Target…I dunno what it was, just a regular grocery store I think. Everything is different here in Japan, it’s tough to explain; it’s like we’re in a foreign country or something :shock:!!!
So after a really short walk, we finally arrived at the grape picking place! It cost us each ¥800 to get in (as if we hadn’t spent enough money as is) and that included admission, a flimsy plastic basket that fell apart if you tried to use it, and a pair of blunt pruning shears (yes, I know what they’re called! I’ve seen American Beauty a billion times…), so I knew it was up to me and my stomach to get my money’s worth! The grapes were all covered in these bags. I guess it was to protect them from insects, but they didn’t work that well, because we saw a gigantic hornet getting fat off the grapes inside this one bag. I can’t remembered who discovered it, but we were all glad that no one bothered it. We just weren’t in the mood for an additional adventure…to the hospital! There were, however, a variety of grapes available! There were:
- Small Green Death Grapes
- Fat, Juicy, Impossible-to-Peel Purple Grapes
- Fat, Juicy, Slightly Soured, Easy-to-Peel Red Grapes
- and Small, Red, Never-Tried-Them, Grapes
You see, we couldn’t just pop the grapes into our mouths, no, we had to peel each and every grape. The whole picking process took about 5 minutes. The following 2 hours were spent peeling each and every grape we picked. Had I known I would be peeling grapes, I would have just grabbed the easy-to-peel ones, had I known which ones they were that is… 
So why were we peeling grapes? Well, one of our friends remembered, “Hey, don’t the Japanese spray Mad Pesticide on their grapes? I think that’s why everyone has to peel their grapes.” Was he telling the truth, or was this just hearsay? I looked around and yep, everyone and their mother was peeling grapes. The small ones, the big ones, the impossible ones, and the deadly ones, they were all being peeled and consumed. None of us thought they were doing this for their health, so we joined in. The green ones tasted THE WORST! Despite being peeled, they all tasted like RAID. After just two grapes, I detested myself for grabbing to bunches of green grapes, which is when a lightbulb went off in my head: I can just throw these away! The Japanese are notorious for finishing everything on their platter, but I’m a Gaijin! Not just any Gaijin, a Sugoi Gaijin! So I just threw them away and played the Gaijin card (a fun card to play, but to be used in moderation. Remember, with great power, comes great responsibility!) Remember, culture’s not worth dying for; that’s the American Way!
The purple grapes, on the other hand, were amazing! The only drawback was that they were impossible to peel and the juice got all under your fingernails, so they turned purple and didn’t wash out. The red grapes were easiest to eat. They just slipped right off their skin, but they had seeds and had a sourish aftertaste. I didn’t try the mini red wine grapes. I stuck with the grapes I could peel. All in all, we had a pretty good time there. The locals were quite amazed to see Gaijin in their little area and not just any Gaijin, Gaijin from a freaking other prefecture coming to the middle of nowhere to pick grapes. I’m pretty sure they were all thinking: “How did you find out about this place???” I’m still wondering how we actually did.
Believe it or not, my most favorite times today were the times we were on the train, both coming and leaving Hanamaki. We would just sit around, chatting it up in our loud Gaijin voices. It was both chill and hilarious and at times we all wished the train ride didn’t end; that we could keep going and checking out the view and talking about our random conversations, which always led back to South Park for some reason. 
Today was also the day we learned (the hard way) that when one person makes a witty comment (David), it’s not exactly funny until it’s repeated (by me), which really pissed him off. But I explained to him that “American’s don’t understand your foreign language and need me to translate English English into American English.” Despite the fact that I repeated what he said verbatim. Mua ha ha ha! Oh man, Sunday was a good day and we actually made it home before the last train (and we were all very scared that we would miss a transfer somewere in the 100 transfers we made today!)
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