Japan - Day 13 - Morioka

Angela and I woke up early and headed to the Kesennuma City Fish Market, one of the main reasons we picked this town to visit. The market is vast; unfortunately, only two small boats landed with a tiny amount of fish. It was underwhelming.

We returned to the hotel and had a lovely breakfast, and then we headed to Kesennuma City Memorial Museum (Ruins of Koyo High School). This junior high school was destroyed by the tsunami in 2011. Since then, it has been turned into a museum with movies, photographs, and you can tour the school. We all found it quite moving.

Then we drove to Geibikei Gorge, had a quick picnic, and then took a tour on a punt of the gorge for an hour and a half. It was lovely, even if it wasn’t the best time of year.

Finally, we headed to Morioka, walked around the old shopping streets, and saw unique cherry blossoms at Morioka-jo Castle Site Park (Iwate Park), the ancient castle ruins and ate at the home of Jaja Men ramen.

After dinner, we returned to the castle and sat under the illuminated cherries. So lovely.