Going To Be Santa

Going To Be Santa

Okay, good morning. Good morning, “Wakya Now”. I’m just leaving the town office. The Wakuya town office and I’m going to go be Santa for Santa. I consider myself kind of a Santa’s assistant… for the real Santa. He can’t be everywhere at once So we help out where we can.

So this is the town office behind me, and I’m going to take a walk through town. Right over here is Takahe It says “Con Derica,” which I think means “With a Delicatessen”, or “With a Deli”, maybe. But there’s no deli in there, and that shop has been there for a long time.

I’m not sure how long it’s going to be there, though, but it can’t be there forever. Wow, a lot of people out this morning. This is the 77 Bank right here. We’ve got a ski shop over on the right side. We’re not close to a ski area But the shop is there.

They have skateboards also and snowboards. This is a little grocery store, a mom-and-pop grocery store. Hey, Ohayo Gozaimasu Ganbatte This is a bicycle shop right there. Hello. Hey, Ohayo Gozaimasu That was a tea shop A very cute little tea shop right there. Soudan. So if you have some problems in your life

Or in your company…. I don’t know… family maybe, Maybe you need help in getting papers done for selling your house or keeping your house. Let’s cross. All right. This is Kiyomacha Chaiya right here. It’s a famous noodle shop in Wakuya. It’s been here for a really long time. Hmm, wow.

So this is the main street of Wakuya There’s a coffee shop there. That’s a shirt printing place. There’s a drugstore right across the street. Okay. How exciting. Hmm. Just talking. Yeah, not so many shops left in Wakuya It used to be a super popular town, but most of the shops are shuttered now.

This is a medicine shop. This is a meat shop. Across the way is a dentist. Very nice family. Here’s a clothing shop. Most of these shops are closed now. I think that’s a toy shop, but I’ve never seen it open. Okay, we’re coming down to Wakuya bridge. It’s the main bridge in Wakuya

The railing is painted red. It’s very pretty. Yeah, and over there is Wakuya Castle, which is a museum. It’s a museum built to look like a castle. They light it up at night sometimes, and they have light-up festivals. Ohayo Gozaimasu Yeah. That way is Ishinomaki, which is a city on the coast.

That way is Furukawa and Naruko Onsen and mountains. You see here is a teibou It’s on both sides. It’s an embankment built so that if the river floods, the water won’t go into the towns. Actually, that seems to work, but this area here, it often floods. I don’t think it floods

From the water from the river, but drainage with heavy rains, it has some trouble with drainage. So there’s been flooding in that area several times. They built a water retention pond. It wasn’t very deep. I don’t think it’s deep enough. We’ve just crossed the river. Over on this side, long ago,

There were gates for samurai to man the gates so that people couldn’t go up to the old castle. We did have a, I’m going to say we had a castle. It was a one-story structure that the ruling family lived in. It was also used as a town office, which is common for castles,

The main part of government of the town. It was fortified by samurai guarding guards. I don’t know if the samurai guarded it, but there were guards there. Here’s a new shop, Total Construction Reform. Maybe it’s a housing rebuilding kind of company. Here it says JA, which I think…. Is a farming co-op.

It used to be a supermarket before I came several years ago. I don’t like walking on this main road, so I’m going to go on a little side road right over here. There we go. Here’s an old tatami shop, but it’s closed now. I met the gentleman who ran it.

He was older and could no longer continue doing that business. I don’t think there’s anybody here. This house, this is a house that’s leaning. During the earthquake, this was of 2011, this was condemned, and nobody could live in this house anymore. It’s quite common for houses to just kind of lean over.

Houses in Japan are not made to last forever. I think 40 years is probably the limit of most Japanese houses, at least until now. This house looks really nice. I don’t know if it will last beyond 40 years. Maybe it was made to a higher standard. It’s hard to tell. I’m sure.

Well, but if they’re always tearing down the house after about 40 years, there’s continual business in house building. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s fixed obsolescence, which means when they build a house, they make it so that it will fail in 40 years so that you’ll have to build another house.

I know they used to do that with light bulbs and maybe refrigerators. I know they do it with printers now. They make them so that they’ll die after only a set amount of uses. It’s kind of sad. It doesn’t have to be like that, but it gives them continual business.

Okay, across from the street. This is one of the few traffic lights in town. I’m going to go right here past the new gym that was made called Orange Body Make Studio. It’s kind of interesting. I’ve not been in here, but orange. I just want to show you this. Sorry we’re closed,

Which is pretty interesting. Closed with the ED, which is correct. But most store signs you’ll see close, not closed. It’s just a common mistake. I think they sell signs with that. I’m not sure it’s the store owner’s fault, but whoever made the sign. There are several ways to get where I’m going today.

I’m going to go through the temple. Then behind the temple, beyond the temple, there’s a graveyard walk. That’s beautiful. I’ve shown it before in videos, but I’ll do it again. Yeah, right here. This is the road at the base of the temple. If I went straight, I’d run into some

Steps that go up to the temple. I’m going to turn here. Here’s the graveyard starting. I think this temple is “Ken Ryu Ji” Going up the hill. Now at Ken Ryu Ji, there’s a special walled-off cemetery right here. Several famous Wakuya people are buried in this grave area. It’s closed off.

The Date Watari family is buried here, or several members of the Date Watari family. I think starting with the fourth Date Watari family members, husband and wife. I think they’re the main. Then the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth. I see all the way to 11, 12, 13, 13? Fifteenth? Sixteenth?

I think to the 16th generation after the fourth. The third, the second, and the first are not buried here. The fourth, I think his name was Date Watari Date Aki. He was killed in a…some say it was an assassination. Some say it was just a fight that was maybe fixed.

It’s called the Date Aki Sodo, the Aki Sodo, the Date Sodo. I’ll try and look that up and give you a link to it. This is just a regular graveyard. It’s kind of expensive to be in this graveyard. I think a lot of the samurai class from long ago, those

Families, are in this graveyard. Ken-Dyu-Ji, right there. This is what it looks like. Beautiful temple. Ji is temple. We’re going to go past the temple and into the graveyard. Here’s a kind of washing station. If you’re visiting a grave, then you can get water into a bucket to clean the grave.

There’s some scrub brushes, too. But where we’re going, a lot of families don’t visit them anymore. I guess I’ll just talk to you as I go through it. Going up a hill. This is a quiet area with bamboo on the right side. Looks like some cedar trees on the left. It’s a narrow,

Overgrown trail, but it’s quiet. Coming to another temple here. I don’t know the name of this temple. I’ll put it down at the bottom. I just don’t remember it. Hello! How are you? I’m hungry. I’m hungry? Okay, good. I’m walking to Tempyo No Yu. Tempyo No Yu Yeah, it’s very nice.

I love walking this. It’s quiet. Quiet. Shizuka, this walk. Okay, see you. See you. Bye-bye. Have a nice day. I think I just saw a young couple. I just talked to them. They’re very nice. Kind of a romantic spot. Good for them. Yeah. They didn’t expect to see a foreigner with a camera,

So I tried not to take their picture. Okay, down there is Waukea High School. So if you’re ever assigned to Wakuya High School, know that there’s this path here that you could take. This path actually goes all the way to the Ilan Shopping Center, which is a big supermarket.

It also has a few smaller shops, a restaurant, a game center. Yeah, you can go down there. That meets a road. Okay. I can’t remember which way to go here. I don’t think it matters. Oh, yeah. So we’re starting to hit, as we get farther and farther out, older and older graves that

May or may not be cared for. Kind of beautiful. Here’s a grave that’s… Well, there’s some flowers there. Ah, I think they’re plastic flowers. Takamori family. A lot of them are…markers are knocked down. Okay. So there’s no one buried in these graves. Japanese usually burn… What do they call that?

They burn their bodies, and then they put the ash in a little container near the grave or under the grave. Here’s a…it’s totally forgotten. There’s a marker here. I don’t know who that is. Several markers here. Here’s a Sasaki family. Hmm. My wife’s family name is Sasaki. It’s quite common in Miyagi Prefecture.

There’s some graves back there in the woods. Nobody goes to anymore. I can see the stone markers, several. All right. Ah, pretty area. I’ll give you a front view. Okay. Going uphill again. I just…I love walking places without cars. [footsteps] Yeah, very…the path is overgrown back here. Well, there’s some Takahashi.

It looks like there’s a tea. I’ll show you that. Somebody left some tea there on the grave. Usually they leave it for the family. I think somebody not too long ago came here. Yep. [footsteps] Okay, some tree fell. This is exciting. [footsteps] Wow. Very dark. These are young bamboo

Trees on the right here. Bamboo. They’ll just get thicker and… [footsteps] Bamboo is kind of an invasive species. I don’t think it’s allowed everywhere because it grows so well, and it’s hard to take out. I think my… If you have it, you often have to have a retaining wall,

Some wall that goes down into the ground, deep enough and strong enough to stop roots from going out laterally. Hmm. Little open area. That’s pretty nice. [footsteps] [footsteps] So I’m looking forward to being Santa. The kids are always cute, and if I can make them feel happy to have met Santa,

Be kind to them. Make… I don’t know. It’s just a nice feeling to… They met Santa today, but they will meet Santa today, and I can help with that. I feel like maybe Santa gives me some power to be part of the tradition. [laughs] Why not? Okay.

All right, so the trail has ended here. Now I could go… Let’s see. I want to go up there. Usually I think there’s a path right here. Yeah. So there’s a road right here, and if you take that down, you’ll come to the gas station by Aeon Station, Aeon Center, Shopping Center.

But I’m going to turn left here and go back up to continue the graveyard walk. Going uphill again. Okay. This is a little brighter area here. Oh, this is cute. Some fresher flowers. Ono family. Honda family, I think. And I don’t know how to read that. It’s not Mon and Tambo.

It’s not Mon-da. I don’t think it’s Mon-da. It might be, but okay. There’s some steps over here. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, okay. So this area here, when I first lived in Wakuya, this was a housing for firemen and policemen, I think. So town officials, town workers, they had an apartment here,

Which is no longer here. So I hope they have an inexpensive place to stay, but the police station is, I think there used to be an active, bigger police station in Wakuya, or more members. Now I think there’s only a couple permanent people here. And the fire station, I think the fire

Station is mostly volunteers. And that’s pretty big here. Training volunteers get together and they train a couple times a year, I think. Okay. So over there is where I’m going. You can see Wakuya High School still over there. And this is the Ishiyama Company Limited, Ishiyama. I don’t know what they make,

But we’re going to go right on the side of their property. The walk down takes us right on the side of their property. This is kind of fun. Oh, there’s a big, it looks like a mausoleum. I think that’s for Christians. Yep. I’ll get you a front view of this.

So that’s the hospital right over there. And I’m going to go to a place over on that side. But this is kind of a secret walkway. It’s not secret, but I doubt very many people know about it. Mmm. Coming to a road, if I made a right,

I’ll go down to the back side of the Aeon Shopping Center. And lots of Wakuya High School students use this road here. This way is Wakuya High School. And that way back there is the Aeon Shopping Center. So lots of students after school, they come up over this hill

And down to the Aeon Shopping Center and buy snacks or play with friends. Maybe they go to the game center. I don’t know. So here’s kind of a shortcut of this little hill right here. I made a right off the main road. This will take me right to the hospital,

Through the hospital parking lot. Looks like I’m still recording. Okay. Coming over the hill is the hospital, Wakuya Hospital. Looks like it’s under construction there. [breathing heavily] On the left here is some sort of center. I don’t know what that is. The main hospital is– the main entrance that I

Usually take is off to the right. Oh, I’m sorry. This is another town office here. It’s connected to the hospital. And many of the office workers I work with at the town office, they switch every year to a different section. Not everybody, and not every year, but sometimes they’re assigned to this

Building right here. And if I look through the window, I can see lots of office workers there. This here behind me is the main entrance to the hospital. So I’ve been there several times. It’s, what, socialized medicine. So whenever I go to get a check, a checkup, usually it’s with lots of

Other people at the same time. And there’s doctors checking their stations you go to, and the doctors check only one thing at each station. So it’s efficient, I suppose. But if you have something really wrong with you, sometimes you have to go to the main checkup, and then if it’s

Flagged at the main checkup, it’ll give you a recommendation to go to a different doctor. Back through that little cutout in the trees is a small little jinja, a shrine. There’s also houses on the left, but I’m not exactly sure what that jinja is for.

And if you follow the path, it comes to a spot where you can’t continue. Although it’s a path and it just stops behind somebody’s house. There aren’t any steps down. And if I went further, I think I would be intruding into somebody’s backyard, which I don’t want to do.

Okay, the hospital’s back here, and I’m approaching this structure. On the right is a, what do I call it, a ryokan, a hotel. It’s a place to stay, kind of like a hostel, perhaps. I’m not sure if you can just go, and there’s somebody at the desk all the time.

On the left is a exercise center, the town’s exercise center. I’ve never been there. Maybe I have a long, long time ago. I don’t really remember. Yeah, so it’s the training room. There are people in there now. Yeah, some people on bicycles. Let’s see if I can get,

Looks like it’s a, not a, kind of a stair machine that looks more like a bicycle. Got some, a weight machine, some bicycles. And right ahead of me is a bridge over the main road that goes to Aeon and Wakuya High School that way. Right ahead of me is the Tempyo No Yu,

Which is a public bath, and right next to it, the circular top of that building is a children’s, children’s school, I think maybe for babies mostly, but that’s where I’m going today. Pazamos! Yeah, Tempyo No Yu. I’m on a bridge above the road right now. So I’m supposed to be

Here between 9.30 and 9.45. Right now it’s 9.22. Not bad. So this says, Kodomo no… Hmm, I’m not sure what it says. But it’s a place for watching kids. Wakuya High School’s there, the hospital’s there, the workout center’s there, Aeon Shopping Center is down the hill. Behind me, behind this building, are fields,

And that’s where the corn maze was, if you saw my corn maze video. That way is Nonadake Mountain. It’s kind of hard to, it’s not giant, we call it a mountain, but it’s really a big hill. But it goes all the way for maybe two miles that way, I think. Probably about two

Miles. Maybe more. Maybe less. There are several roads up, and if you’re interested in running, not trail running, there aren’t many trails up there. But if you’re living in Wakuya, it’s an interesting place to explore. You go past this mountain, and you can go to Tome City and north.

It’s good cycling, and also the hometown of Ishinomori Shotaro, who is the creator of Cyborg 009 and Go Ranger. Cyborg 009-1. I’m missing a big group there. Mostly I think of Cyborg 009. There’s another. What else did he do? I used to have a whole bunch of his comic books.

“Kyoryu No Ryu” Was that right? It wasn’t about a dinosaur named Ryu. It was about some guy from the future who traveled back in time and had to survive in the time of the dinosaurs. It’s a good manga. What else is he famous for? Cyborg 009 is a pretty big one.

Gosh, Ishinomori Shotaro. He’s written lots of manga, but he’s from this area. Not Wakuya, but Tome, over the mountain. That way is Kagobo Yama. It’s kind of the same mountain, but there’s a valley in between Nonadake Mountain and Kagobo Yama, and so it’s got a different name. All right, that’s it.

I’m going to say goodbye. I’m going to go be Santa for some kids. Wish me luck.

This video is Part 1 of two parts.

In this video I am on my way to an event to play Santa. I think it is an important job, so I always do my very best. I’m standing in for Santa because it is hard for him to be everywhere at once. Being Santa is a sacred responsibility.

Part 2 of this video is “Santa Comes To Town” at the following link: