Month: July 2007

i’m not sure what happened to my original post….i had a million photos up with long stories and informative links and now it has magically disappeared into cyberspace. makes a good case for keeping a backup copy of everything even after you think it’s “safely” posted… anyway. i’m reposting just the photos at the moment and will hopefully put the stories and stuff back in sometime soon.

so apparently the page disappears after putting too many photos on it? guess it’s a bit heavy..too much info and too many megabytes. so the next parts will be at the top of the page… (a little out of sequence, but oh well)

I’m finally to my Hokkaido trip!!!� Woohoo!� Hokkaido was one of my favorite trips (definitely). It was a really beautiful place, people were a little more friendly, the food was delicious, I saw a lot of stunning nature scenes, and I made some great friends! What more could you ask for?!?!?� So I hope you’re ready for a lot of photos of flowers that I don’t know the names of…� I bought a little guidebook but of course that’s already packed in a box on the way back to the states so we’ll just have to make do for now.

On June 24th I got on the ferry (more like a cruise ship) from Nagoya heading to Tomakomai port in Hokkaido. I wanted to travel to Hokkaido, but flights were kind of expensive. I had time to spare but not money! The ferry takes 38 hours from Nagoya and costs about $100US each way so that was definitely the best option for me. I was a little nervous as English is minimal to non-existent as far as the ferry was concerned, but it turned out ok. A few people talked to me in English and a few people attempted Japanese. Overall, it was fun! A little disorienting feeling the ocean for so long, but there was a break in the middle at Sendai port (quite a bit North of Tokyo) where we could get out and walk to a shopping center for about 2 hours.

And after 38 hours on the boat, I arrived in Tomakomai Port on Tuesday, June 26th in the morning. I had to take a train to get to Sapporo, the first stop on my schedule. I took a taxi from the port to the train station which was quite a bit further away than I expected. I definitely don’t recommend trying to walk to the train station. It was a good 10 minutes in the taxi. Anyway. Trains don’t run too frequently between the port and Sapporo so I had to wait about 40 minutes. Did a lot of reading.� :-) Arrived in Sapporo and went to a Botanical Garden near the University (west of Sapporo station). There was also an Ainu (the indigenous peoples of Hokkaido) museum and a building filled with stuffed animals from Japan, many of which are endangered now. Interesting…..

And then it was on to the Sapporo Beer Factory!!!!!!!!!!!!� YAY!!! It was the very first Sapporo factory and now it’s a museum where you can learn all about the history and making process (if you speak Japanese). And you can taste some of their different beers at the end. Really fun. Plus I love their beer.� :-) There’s also a beer hall/restaurant where you can try out one of Hokkaido’s famous dishes:� “Jinjisu kan” (also know as “genghis khan”) which is fresh lamb and veggies that you cook on a dome shaped hot plate thingie on your table. Delicious!

After the beer garden I headed to the hostel I was staying at:� Ino’s Place. It’s not right in the center of Sapporo, but a quick train ride away. And they were really friendly and nice there. Definitely one of the nicer places that I’ve stayed in in Japan! I had an early start the next day as I was going to take a train all the way to the northern reaches of Hokkaido….

On June 20th I went to Okazaki (a city a ways outside of Nagoya) with a friend of mine, Yousuke. He wanted to show me some interesting things about traditional Japanese culture so we went to the Hatcho Miso Factory. It was actually pretty interesting! Plus, we got to try two different kinds of miso at the end of the tour. We also had miso udon before the tour started, which was delicious.

After the fun at the factory we went to Okazaki Castle and the Tokugawa Ieyasu museum. In case you didn’t know, Tokugawa Ieyasu was kind of a big deal.� :-)� He became shogun in the early 1600s and the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan for about 250 years!!� Okazaki was his hometown. The museum was really cool and thanks to Yousuke’s translations I could actually understand a lot of the information since just about everything was only in Japanese.

There are also some pretty grounds around the castle and sure enough, there was an interesting Japanese sign waiting for me to take a picture of it…

On June 16th, my roommate Lisa and I were picked up by our lovely friend Fumie!! We were going to spend the day together as Lisa was heading back to Australia soon. We started off the day with some coffee and waiting at the apartment for Lisa’s luggage to get picked up by the airport delivery service. Fumie and I made a trip to the local recycling center to drop off a few bags of junk before we vacated the apartment for good.

After Lisa’s bags were picked up we loaded my junk into Fumie’s car and drove to Nagoya city. My ex-roommate Kerry was kind enough to offer to let me crash at her place for my last bit of time in Japan and Fumie was kind enough to help us lug my stuff there. After that was taken care of, we went to lunch at”Bikkuri Donki” which translates as “Surprise Donkey”. But the biggest surprise was that there was no donkey on the menu…

We then went on a lovely drive past Toyota City towards Asuke/Koranke arriving at Toyota Gorge. It was really nice to see that there was such an abundance of nature right outside of the rather industrialized Toyota city area.

After we hiked around for a while and took in all the clean air we jumped back in Fumie’s car and she drove us to a lovely botanical garden somewhere near Sanage. I have no idea where we really were or what the name of the garden was, but it was really nice!! I got to take pictures of lots of flowers (my favorite) and we saw a neato bug!!!!!

So we had an absolutely lovely day filled with nature, interesting bugs, and great friends!!! I finally remembered at an opportune moment that my camera can take video and took a video of the weirdo bug – you can click here (� Kami Mushi Video ) to download it and watch it on your computer.

My last working day at Nova was on June 5th!!� Woohoo!!!!!� I was happy to leave that job, but I was sad to leave a lot of the students. I met some really fantastic and intelligent people there. There quite a few people who I was always really excited to see on my schedule for the day. And of course there were some people that I cringed and tried to trade!� Ha hahahaaa..� Anyway. Nova is goofy. It’s not a difficult job but it’s terribly draining. You’re constantly “on” and performing in one way or another. It was a relief to finish. And I hope that the students who I enjoyed talking with will continue to be my friends now that I’m no longer their teacher.

Back to my bloggery……. I snuck in a quick trip to Hiroshima and nearby Miyajima island on June 9th through the 11th. Took the shinkansen down to Hiroshima late morning on the 9th – it takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes. After arriving I went in search of the hotel. After checking in, I hopped on the streetcar and went towards the Peace Park, A-Bomb museum area. Wow. It was depressing. Powerful. Moving. Gripping. Atrocious.

There were strings of origami paper cranes hanging all over the place. Thousands and thousands of them. Apparently it’s an old Japanese belief that if you can fold 1000 paper cranes you will be cured from any illness. I guess it’s a way of focusing your brain’s energy on your problem. There was a girl named Sadako Sasaki who was struggling with leukemia as a result of the A-bomb. She folded paper cranes so small they fit on a dime no problem, using needles to help make the creases. But after an 8 month struggle, she passed away. Now many people bring their cranes to Hiroshima in the same tradition, hoping to be cured or just as a symbol to abolish nuclear weapons.

The Peace Park is expansive, with many sculptures and plaques and benches to sit and contemplate the world we live in and our place in it. There is also a large museum with a lot of grotesque photos, mementos, maps, etc. It’s difficult to remember to breathe when you’re inside as it’s just so unbelievable to think that you are standing in the exact location where all of these horrific things happened. And that it did not happen long ago. And, worse yet, that it is your very own government which gave the OK for these things to occur. Really makes you think about how futile and ridiculous war is.

After that, it was definitely time for a little lightening up….time for a walk through the streets and some dinner!!

After a night of rest it was off for another day of adventure!! I went to the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art which was interesting but not all that amazing or fantastic. They are supposed to have Dali’s “Dreams of Venus” but it was on loan to another museum when I was there.� :-(� And then went on to the Hiroshima Museum of Art which was pretty much all impressionist French art. Pretty good but not inspiring. I think I liked the architecture of the building more than the paintings. But there was a lot to see there. A big basement crammed full of Japanese impressionist paintings in addition to the Frenchies upstairs. Walked past the teeny-tiny Hiroshima Castle and didn’t bother to go in….

After that it was another streetcar ride down to the port to catch the ferry to Miyajima Island!! It was a really pretty ride with a nice view of the Seto Inland sea.� Miyajima is famous for Itsukushima Shrine which is built in the sea. There is a huge red tori (gate) that stands in the sea. When the tide goes out you can walk up to it, but when the tide is in it looks like it’s floating in the water. This is one of Japan’s three most scenic sights!! I took a million pictures but don’t worry, I’ll only post a few….

After a bit of basking in the beauty of Itsukushima Jinja (shrine) it was off to Daishoin Temple!! It’s built at the foot of Mt. Misen and seems to enjoy showing off how much money their followers have donated to them. There are a billion buddhas, lanterns, jizos, prayer wheels, and other Buddhist-i-don’t-know-whats. They also had some of the plumpest monks I’ve seen yet.

And then it was a little walk back towards the shrine to hang around and wait for sunset. It was kinda chilly and breezy though so I didn’t stick around too long….

In between the last two pictures I had some dinner. A bowl of udon with tempura stuff on top. A big shrimp and some anago (related to eel). It was tasty!!� And so was the beer of course…� Went to sleep and was attacked by mosquitoes so didn’t exactly feel well rested the next day but I didn’t let that stop me from climbing a mountain (a little one)!!!!

And then it was a ferry ride back to Hiroshima and a ride on the shinkansen back to Nagoya….. I went to a restaurant in Nagoya called Yamachan for dinner. They make a Nagoya area specialty – chicken wings!!!� I’ve never been a fan of chicken wings but these are absolutely delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And thus concludes the Hiroshima/Miyajima post!!� Only 800 more posts to make and I’ll be all caught up and up to date!!

Argh!!!!!� I’m so far behind on my blog!!� This happened ages ago and I feel like I have another billion photos that I’ve taken since then. Which I actually do. Maybe I’ll be able to get up to date after I leave Japan??� � Anyways. I went to Mt Fuji area May 30 & 31st with my roommate Lisa. We took a bus from Nagoya at the crack of dawn and arrived at the entrance gate to Fuji-kyu Highland – an amusement park famous for it’s world record breaking roller coasters and great views of Mt Fuji (weather permitting). We planned to ride the coasters and try to give ourselves heart attacks all day, then go to Kawaguchi-ko area (one of the five lakes around Mt Fuji), relax, and then try to climb a bit of the ole mount the next day! and then of course take the bus back to Nagoya in the evening so that we could return to our glorious job the next day. So it was a two day trip. Are you with me so far? I don’t know why this sounds confusing as I type it…� Anyways. Read the pictures!!

I must interrupt the photos to plug the fabulous onsen we went to after dinner. Here’s their website. We got a discount coupon from K’s House and checked it out. It was a little late at night so it was pretty much deserted. There is an indoor pool, a bubbly spa, an outdoor pool, three outdoor ceramic tubs, plus a dry sauna upstairs!!� Nice and toasty water – the perfect way to warm up and relax after wandering around in the rain or climbing a mountain. And back to the photos: