Autumn View of Kata Bunko, Former Elementary School Building Near Lake Tazawa

The Foliages are now at its peak at Dakigaeri Gorge and near Lake Tazawa. If you are taking a bicycle ride around Lake Tazawa, Kata Bunko is a place you must stop by - especially now that the front tree is in beautiful, bright red!

The school building is, as we have introduced before, used to serve as a branch of Obonai Elementary School. As the number of children declined and the transportation was improved decades ago, schooling here has shut down so that the pupils in the area now attends to Obonai Elementary School near JR Tazawako Station.

Anyway, the school is known as a nostalgic atmosphere where you can time-travel back to your childhood! We can't stress enough how important this place is - this building has been visited by many people and serving as a community gathering place as well!

The building stands about 10 munites away from the lake shore. The bicycle roads are available to access there, and runs through anthentic rural scenery - houses with thatched roofs, rice paddies, etc.

Once you visit there, you would understand why this place is often exemplified as a symbol of preservance of regional and cultural building.

The Akita Iwate Grand Sports Day for the Adults Held to Unite the Residents from Both Prefectures

Grand Sports Day was held last weekend. The event turned out to be a great success!

Kata Bunko was a star of the day!

The small gym was packed with people of various generations!

It was an event called Dai-Undokai, or “Grand Sports Day” (大運動会). An undokai is a common event held at schools, in which pupils and students play recreational activities and compete in teams. However, this one was dubbed as “Otona-No”, as in “for adults”, taking traditional, conventional games but was re-designed with additional rules to make it more fun for the adults.

Although it was announced and spread by word of mouth through a few local newspaper articles and social networking services. The event ended up gathering more than 150 participants from both Akita and Iwate prefectures!

Here are some photos of the exciting event you've just missed!

Opening Ceremony

The teams were divided by colors: Iwate Team in Red and Akita Team in White.

Warming-Up exercises instructed by local pre-school teachers. We danced to the song of Kin'niku-man.

The opening ceremony with  quick and humorous speeches by mayors from both teams was followed by a warm-up excersise instructed by a local pre-school teacher. We danced to the famous cartoon song of an old anime, Kinniku Man (筋肉マン).

We were already having a great time being a child again! 

The first game is Borrowing Game in which a participant picks a card with a description, find a person from the opposing team that fits the description, and take this person and together run  for the goal.

 

"A man with a ponny tail!?"

"You come with me!! Hurry!!"

Look how neatly they line up. These students behave very well..

Pan-kui Kyoso （パン食い競争）

More difficult than it seems!

Next up is Balloon Game, in which a pair carries a ballon to the goal in the manner as is written in the instruction.

Carry the ballon in between the heads!

Like this MC from Iwate team, people showed up in various costumes!

The next game is Dialect Guessing Game. It was the most rumored about before the event. Each team came up with a paragraph in their own dialect and challenge the opponents. Although Akita and Iwate are adjacent to each other, our dialect and intonation vary greatly! In a nutshell, each team competed in the unintelligiblity of the dialects!

We challenged the Iwate residents in our most complicated Akita dialect:

"When I was grafting a tree in the garden, a worm fell on my back. It startled me greatly!"

Our Akita Team led by our very own Mayor took up the Iwate team's challenge!

Our guess was "When I was about to feed a cow early in the morning, I was poked with his horn."

The Iwate Team

The young Akita team takes up the challenge of Iwate Team. It was hard!

The blowing game in which they blow a pool of flour to find a candy!

The winners!

Tug of War with the ropes crossed!

Pulling while balancing is not easy!! Iwates beat us completely..

Lunch time was a show time! Each team showed off their entertaining skills. Iwate Team had performed hula dance, framenco, and a local folkdance. From Akita side, a local group in Kata Area performed Obonai Bushi, a traditional folkdance from Tazawako Area. Look at their costumes!

Fukuwarai, or "Lucky Laugh"

A blind-folded Akita man trying to place the face parts.

The games were all well-organized so that every person participated at least 2 or 3 games. By the end of the day, we were all happily exhausted!

The event was concluded with an awarding ceremony. Although Iwate Team won over Akita by the score, both teams cheered and rooted for each other so that the scores didn't matter!

An organizer summarized at the closing ceremony, Kata Bunko played a significant role in this event. After all, this place was what brought us together - from two different prefectures - to meet, connect, and remember how historically important it is!

This old lady received a Special Recognition Award, because she was the oldest partcipant -- 88 years old!

We all hope this event served just as the beginning of everlasting friendship between Akita and Iwate prefectures. We are already looking forward to having it next year!

Kata Bunko: A Memorabilia of Showa Era

Kata Bunko (潟分校） is a former branch of Obonai Elementary School in Tazawako Area.

Kata Bunko

"Open Today"

Kata Bunko is located about 4km south of Lake Tazawa. Takko-No-Ki(田子の木） and Osawa(大沢） areas were once dubbed as “Solitary islands on land,” because of its remote location from nearby villages. A Proposal of an elementary school was long awaited by villagers there and celebrated when finally carried out in 1882. Since then, the school had been a home to hundreds of pupils until it was closed down in 1974, due to the decrease of student population.

After its closure, the site was being used for a community center at one point; however, in recent years, the decrepit building was even suggested to be torn down.

Mr. Kazushi Sato, CEO of Tsurunoyu Onsen, had provided an endowment for the restoration; for he insisted that the building would serve as an important role in preserving cultural and historical scenery. After two years of reconstruction, Kata Bunko was finally revived with photos and school supplies collected from former students. As Mr. Sato believed, this building certainly has been a valuable memorabilia for us to remember the Showa era.

A hallway leads to a gym.

Open for any recreational activities

A classroom for 3rd and 4th graders.

Wonder if Organs are being used nowadays..

Feels so great that makes you want to stay in class!

Schools supllies collected from foremer students.

They are very fragile--- please handle with care!

The Story of Alibaba in an English textbook

Works of local elementary students

Photos of the old days..

Did they sneak comic books under desks? Nowadays they are cellphones..

200 yen for entrance fee. You can leave your domestic address here so they can send you seasonal greeting cards.

Today the building hosts Kata Bunka Center (Kata Cultural Center) and shelters artifacts from which we could learn the unique tradition of fishery and agriculture at the lake. It is open to the public throughout the year, except for some days in winter (possibly closed due to the snow condition). The gym and field are also available for any recreational activities.

Cherry blossoms in the field

Entrance Fee: 200 yen per person (Collected for the maintenance)

ACCESS:
Bus     From JR Tazawako Station; take Isshu-Sen (Circuit Line) bound to Lake Tazawa; get off “Takko-No-Ki” or “Osawa” Stop. It is about 10 minutes walk.

Taxi    20 minutes from JR Tazawako Station.

CONTACT:
Address   〒014-1203  秋田県仙北市田沢湖潟字一の渡２２６　
                 226 Ichi-no-watari, Tazawako, Semboku-shi, Akita, 014-1203
TEL/FAX   0187-43-0766

Que? Ke? New Tazawako Posters!

“Ke” (け) is a common dialect of Tohoku region, which has various meanings depending on the context of conversation. In our region, “Ke” can be used as a second person imperative form with two meanings of “to eat” and also “to come”, as in “Kore ke” meaning “(You) eat this” and “(Koko) sa ke” meaning “You come here.”


I know. It’s so easy, isn’t it? This is only one of the many examples of one-word expression in our Akita dialect. Try this classic example: “Ne ne ne ne” (We have to go to sleep, don’t we?) Lol

Here, in the latest version of Tazawako's posters, the meanings of “Ke” are explained with photos of what you can “come” to see and “eat” in Tazawako!

Left: “Ke” (Come) and see the beautiful alpine flowers in Mt.Komagatake!

Right: “Ke” (Eat) these delicious specialties from Tazawako Area!

Mt. Komagatake is dubbed as Hana-No-Meisan, Great Mountain of Flowers.There you can enjoy a wide variety of alpine flowers! Green season is still a bit away, but be prepared! June 1st is the opening day ;)

This second one was shot at Kata-Bunko, a former elementary school branch in Kata Area.

Takko-chan, our local character  and Ms. Yuko Chiba, the keeper of Kata-Bunko. The building is open for public for free, but 300 yen donation is greatly welcomed! The site is 2-3 minutes drive from the lakeside. The wooden building looks as if it was a film set. In the moment you step in, the building will evoke the sense of nostalgia!

Scanning down..

An array of delicious food on the table:

Tazawako Beer

Kohan-No-Mori Beer

Yama-No-Imo Nabe

Ajara Nabe

Hanjuro's Mochi (Rice Cakes)

Tazawako B-Men (Thick Rice Noodle)

Miso-Tanpo (Broiled Rice Paste on Cedar Skewer with Sweet Miso)

Pickles of Various Kinds

Soba-Goro's Cold Soba (Buckwheat Noodle)

Jindai Curry

Bee Skep's Honey Pudding, Cream Puffs, and Castella

Zengoro-Dofu's Tofu

Kawauo-No-Chaya's Yaki-Iwana-No-Sakura-Zushi 

(Pressed Sushi with Japanese Char garnished with Cherry Blossoms)

Niji-No-Buta (Rainbow Pork)

Iwana (Japanese Char) Simmered in Sweet Soy Sauce

Tazawako Nijimasu (Raibow Trout) Chips

The posters are distributed to be displayed in Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures. The posters (especially the second one) have unique looks, so hopefully they will catch many people's attention!