Good morning guys, it's 5:00 a.m.. There's nobody out here in the lobby but my group and we're about to go see the swans hopefully at Lake Inawashiro, so wish us luck I hope there are swans there but if there isn't there's actually some other really pretty stuff to see there The waves crashing on the shoreline make some really pretty ice formations So we're gonna trek out to the coast of the lake to see that, but I'm hoping for swans So let's hope we find some swans. Let's go! It's really snowing Oh my god! I have a feeling that swans don't like this kind of weather, but we might get lucky Feels really nice to walk in :D We can hear something, but we can't tell what it is Maybe just ducks? Kind of looks like ducks It's so dark, the Sun isn't up at all yet, so the only light we have are the street lights here It's kinda hard to see the lake But it's really pretty We have light! The sun has, I guess, risen? It's very cloudy, so I can't see a pretty sunrise or anything, but it's quite bright now, so you can see the gorgeous backdrop behind me It's so pretty here. We have yet to find a swan I do see one white thing out in the lake, but I'm not sure if it's a swan It's a little too far away to tell. Let's just pretend It's a swan, so we can say we saw one. Okay, so now that the Sun is up Let me tell you a little bit about where we are, we're at Inawashiro Lake Which is the largest lake in the Tohoku area, northern Japan area And I have a guest from Koriyama City.
Joost: Hi!
Sharla: Please introduce yourself. J:Hi, I'm Joost and I work for Koriyama City Hall
S: So I heard that you can see swans here It's a famous Swan seeing spot. J: Yeah, it's true, yeah. They come over from Siberia every summ- every winter There's a few places where they tend to show up, but you know they've got a will of their own, so- S: You never know when they're going to be here!
J: Yeah We haven't had any luck today, yet, but maybe one will show up, we still have hope.
J: Yeah So what happens in this lake in the summer? What's it like in the summer here? J: In the summer? It's great It's a great place for swimming. S:Oh really?
J: Yeah, actually right at this spot I've been swimming a couple of times and there's places where you can go jet skiing, wakeboarding S: That's exciting!
J: It's beautiful S: Because in general Japanese people don't swim in lakes That's much more like an ocean activity here, and I always miss the lake swimming from Canada. J: Yeah, yeah, but generally in this area There's a beautiful lake like this so you're definitely gonna swim here. S: Oh, that's so cool I'm gonna have to come back here in the summer but the snowy background is just gorgeous today. J: Oh, look at that! S: WOW, THE SWANS, THE SWANS JUST ARRIVED Oh my god! Such good timing! They just flew in behind us! Twelve swans! I was starting to lose hope I feel so lucky! J: Yeah, so Lake Inawashiro, it's a really big part of the Japan heritage of the region It's a program by the Japanese government's it's kind of like UNESCO's World Heritage But it's not about heritage sites, but more about like historical stories And the story for Koriyama is that Koriyama used to be this really tiny little town with like a few thousand people Because they couldn't really do agriculture, because they lacked a water source it was a really big government program where they drew water through a big canal from Lake Inawashiro to Koriyama And that caused the city to just like expand really rapidly, and it's Three hundred and thirty thousand people right now So we have completed our first goal of finding swans. Goal number two is to see the shibukigoori. What is shibukigoori? Can you explain that? J: So shibukigoori is like a natural phenomenon here? The wind usually comes from the west side here, and blows over the lake. S: Lots of wind today! J: Plenty of wind And what happens is that the water is blown onto the tree branches And it kind of freezes on to those tree branches, and it forms these beautiful big natural ice sculptures S: Oh, that sounds cool. Okay, so we're gonna head over to the other side of the lake to find some shibukigoori, let's go! So we are trekking through the woods on the way to the shibukigoori area It's really pretty here It's about a 1 kilometer walk. They said it would take about 15 minutes There's a path here. It looks like lots of people have been walking along here To go see the ice formations, so it's not too difficult of a walk But you definitely want to have some boots. The hotel was very kind and loaned us all some nice rubber boots to wear so It's not too hard to walk in Okay so after this morning's chilly trip at the lake I think it's time to go inside and do something warm so we are gonna go inside to this building right here Which is called Dekoyashiki, and they have some paper crafts that I can paint. It looks really fun! I love painting and stuff like this, so let's go inside and make something cute! So this is the kind of crafts that I'm gonna be making Look at the little Totoro! Oh that's so cute. As far as I know they're kind of like a paper mache, so they should be very light At first I thought they were ceramic, but they're made out of Japanese paper So this is how his face turned out, it's not the best. I think it's pretty good for a first try It's so hard to do the small details in black, you need to keep your hands so steady But move it in a perfect circle to outline the eyes. You really need extreme talent to do this nicely He's amazing I can't even handle doing these big eyes on the Totoro But he's done so much small detail Okay, so what we just watched was Hyottoko Odori. Alright, I think my adventure here in Fukushima is almost over unfortunately. I had such an amazing time Alright guys, it's time for me to go home. I'm back at Koriyama station. I'm about to hop on the Shinkansen And take a ride back to Tokyo. I really hope you enjoyed these two days with me in Koriyama City I really really enjoyed it. I had lots of fun I met lots of really great people, ate lots of delicious food and saw some beautiful winter scenes So if you guys are interested in coming to visit here I will link all the places that I visited down below So if you want some more information, check out the description box or leave me a question in the comments And I will reply to you. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you guys again soon Bye! :)
