Akita

Akita is the capital city of Akita Prefecture, just west of Kakunodata.  It is a really laid back place, good for relaxing but not much to see within the city center.  

The main tourist spot in Akita is Sensyu Park, just northwest of the Akita station.  It's a large park that has many gardens and other attractions.

Sings in the park are marked up in English too, almost providing to much information.  I was hoping to see the marble statue.

Above is the bronze statue of Yoshitaka Satake, he was the final leader of the Satake clan.

Me in one of the temples within the park.  I backed my head into the orange torii right before the photo snapped.

Akita castle is also in the park, but this is a reconstruction.  But for 100 yen, you can go up to the 4th floor and get a great view of the city.

I don't normally read menu's in Japan, I just sit down and order what I think the restaurant serves.  But at this small ramen shop in Akita, the menu was hard to avoid because it was posted right on the counter.  As I glanced at it the second menu item caught my eye, it says baka-negi-ramen.... 750yen.  When translated that means stupid onion ramen for $9.60.  You don't normally see the word baka printed anywhere in Japan, so when I read that I looked up at guy running the shop and said 'baka?"  He confirmed it was stupid.

I did order the stupid onion dish and was kind of disappointed, the amount of onion on top seemed reasonable.  I was thinking the onion would be falling over the side of the bowl. 

Here is the shop seen from across the street.