Murata town

Today we visited the small town called Murata, a town I had been dreading to visit because I thought it was going to be really boring. I WAS TOTALLY WRONG!!! I had one of the best sightseeing days in Japan that I've ever had. On our way to Murata we stopped at this big water-wheel. It's used to help in the process of making soba japanese noodles. Next to the big wheel was an old straw-roofed Japanese style house.

After seeing the water-wheel and straw house we went into Murata town. One of the first things to impress me was the small alley's, doorways and OLD houses. I rarely see that in Sendai city. One interesting thing was that this town was one of the first few places to get telephones long ago. We saw numbers on the outside of houses like #10. #25, meaning that house was the tenth or twenty-fifth house to get a telephone in all of Japan. It was so cool! Also, this town of Murata, now has one of the largest populations of artists in the area because the mayor is making it so easy for artist to have exhibitions and to move into the area.

One of the most stunning places we visited was a huge old Japanese house that used to be own by a very wealthy family. The home and property was modeled after the homes built in Kyoto, so when we were walking through, our friends kept on saying, "Oh, it's just like Kyoto!" The house and property has since been donated to the city because the family all lives in Tokyo. The pit in the middle of the floor was litterally the kitchen stove. The room on the bottom right was really interesting, it was used as a birthing room for women. The doors were made out of stone, so no one could hear anything. Crazy! And the picture on the bottom right was the staircase that went to the second floor. The staircase had drawers in it. Cool idea!

The last thing we did was get lunch at this great family owned resturant. The women who owns it is a great fan of Yumiko's paintings (the lady in pink). These three people have become really good friends of ours.