Which it duly did, and rather tasty it was, too. We could go into details, but there are memory, space and tapping time issues that keep us moving relentlessly forward. Lunch was also punctuated by frequent updates on the score line from a soccer semifinal, where Our Host's school were battling the local equivalent of Argentina for a spot in the final. At two-nil down things did not look promising.
Back in the car we headed off in search of locations associated with former glories and frequent updates on the soccer score line, which moved from two-nil down to two-all by full time. an own goal had the opposition ahead, then came the equalizer before the team hero slotted in the penalty that won the game.
And there's a little story that goes with that. The star footballer, obviously not a scholastic type, had been looking at avenues of employment once he's finished his schooling and wasn't a candidate for tertiary education. He had, according to Our Host, already applied for a job as a fireman, and had been scheduled for the old job interview that very day. With a morning match against Morioka and a morning job interview it looked like something was going to have to give, and you'd probably assume that a career path would take precedence over temporary sporting glory.
At the same time the Japanese seem to take their school sport fairly seriously. The first full day of our last visit coincided with the Grand Final of a High School baseball competition significant enough to warrant nationwide TV coverage.
I know because I saw it, and we ended up sitting at a table next door to a bunch of celebrating Okinawans, chainsmoking and toasting their home town's national success later that evening.
A soccer semifinal in the Deep North might not be in quite the same territory, but was significant enough to have the Mayor, in his capacity as head honcho of the local authorities, order the Fire Brigade to reschedule the interview so the school's star striker could play.
They lost the Grand Final, but he subsequently got the job.
As far as the locations associated with former glories were concerned, the weather put paid to Hughesy's plan to wander around the place on foot, but we managed to find the ruins of Kanjizaiō-in which once boasted a 'Pure Land' style Jōdo Garden, built by Fujiwara Motohira's wife. That was destroyed by fire in the 16th century, and while many of the structures were rebuilt afterwards today, all that remains is a park and a pond.
Across the road from the park a sign on the edge of a cluster of contemporary houses represents all that's left of what amounted to the commercial sector of the section of the Frontier Way that effectively represented old Hiraizumi's main street, an area that included several tens of blocks of shops, storehouses and commercial premises,