Blue Forest Chronicles: Mom's 2019 Aomori Visit (Part 3) / 母の２０１９年、青森紀行（パート３）

Before my mother came to Aomori, I asked her what she wanted to do most this time. She said to eat delicious seafood. So my wife suggested taking her to a small restaurant located near Sai Village on the Shimokita Peninsula. They serve very fresh seafood. The only thing is, its a four and a half-hour drive one-way to get there. I asked my mother if she would be okay with that and she said, "No problem." That means we were going to turn in early and leave around 6:40am the following morning. My sister-in-law would also be joining us. Four and a half hours is a long time so we made a short stop at the Yokohama Town Roadside Station. We really wanted to take my mother to a very popular tofu shop that sells these awesome tofu donuts but they're closed on Mondays. So, instead of tofu donuts, we thought we treat my Mom to a rape blossom donut instead. Yokohama Town has a Rape Blossom Festival every year around the month of May so they sell a lot of rape seed oil and related products.

母あ青森来る前に僕がお母さんにお尋ねました、”今回青森に来て、一番やりたいかみたいことはなに？”母が素早く回答した、”美味しい海鮮料理が食べたい。” 妻が佐井村の近くにある「ぬいどう食堂」を提案して、良いと思った。だが、うちからぬいど食堂までは車で片道、四時間半くらいかかる。お母さんにそれでも大丈夫か？母はもちろん、”大丈夫だよ”と答えた。ってことで、早めに寝て、明日の出発時間は６：４０amにしました。義理の妹も同行する。本当は有名な豆腐屋の卯の花ドーナッツをお母さんに食べさせたかたけど、月曜日はその店の定休日です。ちなみに卯の花トーナッツはおからから作られてるドーナッツです。ぬいど食堂まで４時間半もあるので、横浜町の道の駅に寄って、母に菜の花ドーナッツを買ってあげた。横浜町は毎年の５月に菜の花祭りがあり、菜の花商品が多く販売してる。

Rape seed donuts / 菜の花ドーナッツ

Coffee and donut break, and a certain "dessert" you can puff!

コーヒーとドーナッツタイム。あと母が旅のときにエンジョイする”デザート”、それはなんだか吸える”デザート”です。

Whenever my wife and I stop here, we always buy this product as well. Deep fried scallops. They're so delicious!

私たちが横浜町の道の駅に寄ると必ずこれも購入する。これは揚げほたてです。とっても美味しい！

We finally reached our goal, [Nuido Shokudo] around 11am. Just in time for lunch. This restaurant is known for its sea urchin bowl but the shop owner said that no sea urchins were found in the last ten days. She recommended something called a kabuki-don which my wife, mother, and sister-in-law ordered. I decided on the kaisendon.

目的地の「ぬいどう食堂」に到着。時間は朝１１時くらい。この店のうに丼が超有名ですが、店の人がこの10日間うにが取れませんと言った。おすすめされたのは歌舞伎丼。女性３人がそれを注文。僕は海鮮丼のほうにした。

Nuido Shokudo / ぬいどう食堂

The restaurant had a very at-home atmosphere. As we were there right around opening time, the shop was not crowded.

店内はこじんまりとした雰囲気で、結構心地よい。丁度開店時に来たので、まだ込んでもなかった。

Waiting for our order.

頼んだものを待つ。

This was the set my wife, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law ordered. And it was only 1000yen!

これが女性陣が注文したセット。これは税込で１０００円でしたよ！

So, what is a kabuki-don? It was fresh squid which they had just brought in when we were seated, with salmon roe and maguro on top a bowl of rice. The set included miso soup, mozuku (a type of seaweed), yellow pickled radish, and some type of boiled fish.

歌舞伎丼はなにかというと、イカ、イクラとマグロが乗せたご飯。イクラは超新鮮。イカは生きたまま私たちと同時に店について、店の人がすぐ捌いた。セットは味噌汁、お新香、もずくと煮魚が付いてた。

The kaisendon or seafood bowl I ordered came with maguro, salmon roe, and some type of anadromous fish (yeah, I had to look that up), but I didn't catch the name of it. I think the shop owner said soi. My set included the same side dishes as the kabukidon.

僕が注文した海鮮丼はマグロ、イクラ、とソイと言った気がする。セットは同じく、味噌汁、お新香、もずくと煮魚付。

My mother was made even happier when our server said this plate of fresh squid was service.

お母さんが更に嬉しかったのは、新鮮なイカ刺しをサービスしてくれた。

We briefly thought about taking my mother to Hotokegaura which is pictured on the poster behind her, but she would have to climb down a steep set of steps to get there then climb back up. Thinking of my mother's age and health, we skipped it.

仏ヶ浦も一丁考えたかど、車で行くと、山の上から海岸まで階段を降りなきゃいけないし、またその階段を上らなきゃいけないし、母の年齢と健康を考えて、却下しました。母にポスターで我慢してくださいと言った。

My mother with my wife and her sister in front of Nuido Shokudo.

ぬいどう食堂の前に立つ母、妻と妻の妹。

We did make a short drive back to an observation area where you could look see Hotokegaura. Unfortunately, after I got out of the car, our black car was being attached by a swarm of wasps!! My wife sped around the road a couple of time and I could do nothing but watch the 8 or 10 wasps chased after our car. I finally did manage to slip back into the car though and sped away with the wasps still following us.

仏ヶ浦が見える展望台まで戻った、僕が車から降りた時点で、車に大量なスズメバチが現れた！妻が二回くらいスピードを出して、逃げようとしたんですが、８匹から１０匹のスズメバチがそのまま車を追いかけた。自分もなんとか車に入り、その場から去った。超大変でした。

We stopped along the ocean and me and my mother got out of the car. We thought we had ditched the wasps by now but they seemed to have returned. Once again my wife sped away to try to lose them and my mother and I could only watch the wasps chase the car. We were a little worried about how we would get back in the car without any of the wasps getting in. My mother got back in the car without any problem. I quickly opened the door to jump in only to find one wasp joined me! I immediate jumped out thinking only about myself and left the wasp with the women (terrible son and husband). I ran back to the car and opened the door. The wasp flew out and I jumped back in and we sped away. Yep, got a little bashing from the women for jumping out of the car so quickly!!

海岸のほうにおりて、凄い綺麗なところがあったので、僕と母が車から降りた。スズメバチが去ったと思ったらまた戻った。妻がまた車を走り出し、僕と母は車を追っかけてるスズメバチを見ることしか出来なかった。私たちはどうやって車に戻るのかも心配になったが、母は無事車の中に戻った。今度は僕の番だ。車のドアを明け、入って、ぼくと一匹のスズメバチが同時に入った！それでおれが素早く、車から降りたが、スズメバチはまだ車の中だ！女性たちと一緒！今度僕が車を追っかけてドアを開けたら、スズメバチが外に飛んだ。女性陣に”アーニー、ひどい！私たちをスズメバチと置いといて、一人で逃げ出すなんで！”ちょっとした間、３人にバッシングを受けた。ま、自分が悪かったので、仕方ありません。

I checked around the windows before rolling them down to take a few pictures. Nope, we weren't getting out of the car to have wasps chasing it again.

窓の周りをよく見て、開けて、海沿いの写真を撮った。や～、車がら折のを辞めて、またスズメバチが戻るのを恐れてたので。

My wife said she didn't want to drive back through the mountains so we drove along the coastal route which would take us to Oma, Shimofuro, and Kazamaura.

妻が山道にまた運転するのはやだと言い、海沿いのルートに変更。こっちに行くと、大間、下風呂と風間浦も通る。大間を通るならやっぱり大間崎も行ってみるべきだ。本州最北端でも知られてる場所だ。

Well, if we're going to pass through Oma, then we would make a brief stop at Cape Oma, the northernmost point of Honshu Island.

Just checking out some seafood snacks.

ちょっと海鮮スナックを見てみる。

As Oma is also known for its maguro, we had to eat a maguro skewer.

大間は大間マグロでも有名なので、やっぱりまぐろ串も食べてみた。

My mother's first bite of Oma maguro on a stick.

母、初のまぐろ串。

First bite!

最初の一口！

Here we are at Cape Oma.

大間崎に来ました。

The famous maguro monument at Cape Oma.

大間崎にあるまぐろの碑。

Mom and I and...Charlie Tuna??

母と僕と。。。まぐろのチャーリー？？

Mom checking out how big the tuna is.

母さんがまぐろの大きさにびっくり。

Cape Oma lighthouse. Beyond that is Hokkaido.

大間崎の灯台。海の向こうは北海道。

Standing in front of the sign that says we are at Honshu's northernmost point.

本州最北端の地と書いてある。

Ice cream break in front of a poster of a huge tuna fish.

デッカイマグロのポスターの前でアイスの時間だ。

As we were passing through Shimofuro, a hot spring area, we decided to make another short stop. A couple of weeks earlier my wife and I had come here and took a bath at the "Shinyu" which wasn't very hot so we thought my mother would enjoy it.

下風呂温泉郷も通るので、やっぱりここも寄り道をしました。二・三週間ほど前、僕と妻は下風呂の新湯に行き、結構ぬるかったんで、母だったら丁度良いかもと思った。

But for some reason, today, the bath was really hot. I could here my mother on the other side saying, "Oh! It's too hot! I can't take a bath here!" Fortunately, my wife and sister-in-law were able to add some cold water to the bath to make it comfortable enough for my mother to enjoy.

でもなぜか今日は非常に熱かった。壁の向こう側で母の声が聞こえて、”暑い！わたしここはいれません！”。よかったことに妻と義理の妹が風呂に水を足して、母がなんとかお風呂をエンジョイすることが出来た。

It's a very simple bath but it was very relaxing.

超シンプルなお風呂ですが、とってもリラックス出来ました。

After driving all day, my wife would probably be too tired to make dinner so we decided to stop at this small ramen shop in Hiranai. My wife and I had been wanting to go here for some time as we noticed it's always crowded. We figured if a small shop like that draws a large crowd, the ramen must be good.

妻はずーと車の運転してたので、帰ってまた夕飯作るのはちょっと面倒から平内町にある小さなラーメン屋で夕飯をとることにした。僕と妻は前々からこの店を気になってた。なぜかと言えば、いつもドライブに出かけてるとき、この店を通るといつも混んでる。そんなに混んでるなら、やっぱりラーメンは美味しいに間違いないと思った。