My Morioka Experience

This was not the plan.

The plan was to travel to Morioka, let myself be enchanted by the capital of Iwate, and try to replicate the Craig Mod experience once again – daily newsletters and all.

All this buildup painted a picture of Morioka in my mind as something like Japan’s version of Stars Hollow: a fairy-tale town full of quirky characters, where everyone knows each other; a place filled kindness, warmth, and small-town camaraderie.

To experience all of that was the plan.

I have struggled to sit down to write this blog post. It’s been over a month since the trip and only now I’ve found the motivation to write about it. Because I was kind of disappointed. All I can write is a single 500-word blog post — where are the daily newsletters, where is season two? It does feel like a defeat — like I’ve missed the point of Morioka, as if I did things wrong, somehow.

But all the ingredients were there!

• At Nagasawa Coffee we saw the Probat roasting machine in action and had decent coffee.
• At Kufuya we had a hearty lunch (only two sets on the menu!). Place looked more like an arts and crafts workshop rather than a restaurant, which was a charming vibe.
• At Clammbon I dared to name-drop Modo-san which made Takahashi-san (owner of the coffee shop) brighten up and compliment Craig profusely.
• At Tea House Riebe we had the classic morning set with pizza toast.
• Our visit at Johny’s felt like visiting my grandmother for tea. We were fed sweets we didn’t order and interrogated about what we’re up to.

Of course the people were kind, of course the food was delicious, of course the city was pleasantly walkable. All this (and more) was supposed to go into another daily newsletter, like last time. But I just didn’t feel it. Turns out, going through a checklist of things to do isn’t always fun.

There’s a lesson in that for me: to stop romanticizing someone else’s experience and stop trying to replicate it expecting the same results. Because, who am I kidding… I am not able to have the same experience, not even close. I don’t speak Japanese. I don’t have the personality to approach random people and ask them about their life story while arranging an impromptu photoshoot. And, if I dig really deep, I probably also don’t have a genuine interest in visiting (jazz) kissaten — it’s just this need to somehow connect, even through a proxy, with an internet person I kind of look up to.

So yeah — wrong expectations. That was the mistake. My trips should be my own.

Because, on the other hand — the best part of the trip for me was the 10K run around Lake Goshoko and dipping into onsen right afterwards — the best feeling! That was me at my happiest and most fulfilled. Eating pizza toast, drinking dark kissa coffee, and listening to vinyl records on exceptionally loud speakers at a jazz bar weren’t even close.