ookamirinchan

[ookamirinchan]

Top 10 Things I Will/Won’t Miss

Living in a foreign country and culture is routinely both exciting and frustrating. There are many things about Japan that I love--so much so that I wish such things were more common in the west. But on the flip side, no matter how “used to” Japanese daily life I become, there will always be things that are beyond annoying--things that I absolutely will never miss once I leave. As my 10 week countdown begins, I realize I’ve started categorizing all of the things I see in my daily life as one or the other. Will I miss this?

Although most things I question get a “meh, probably,” there are a few things that get a resounding and definite “yes” or “no.” Here are the top 10 things I will miss and the top 10 things I won’t in no particular order.

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Top 10 Things I’m Not Going To Miss Even a Little Bit

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1. Lack of Appliances

One of the biggest frustrations of life in Japan is a lack of what I consider to be necessary appliances. Namely, a dryer, a dishwasher, and an oven. How is one meant to function without such luxuries? I’ve never understood it.

My time in Japan has been spent saving laundry, dishes, and cooking until the last possible minute because doing any of the above without the proper appliance is maddening. I’ve started driving to the coin laundry every week and using only paper utensils and plates because the alternatives are just so aggravating. For a society that’s so “high tech,” it’s amazing how little technology they use in their daily lives.

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2. The Language Barrier

I’ve studied Japanese for going on 7 years now, though I’m still not very good. I can blunder my way through standard conversations on the phone or at the store, but free conversations are still difficult. Add in the fact that I only understand about 50% of what people say to me and that students and many co-workers insist on speaking to me in Japanese as though I am capable of responding and you have my frustration with the language barrier.

I can’t even express to you how happy I will be to be able to read food labels, instructions for my new electronic, or the side-effects and ingredients in my cough medicine.

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3. My Job

Those who know me well know this one already--the number one reason I’m leaving Japan is that I absolutely can’t stand my job as an ALT. It’s boring, it’s frustrating, I have no control over anything I do, I’m treated like a child, and I have no responsibility whatsoever. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a class just to say a quick “hello” to the students and then stand in the corner for 50 minutes while the teacher explains grammar in Japanese. Such a waste of my time and skills.

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4. Being “The Gaijin”

Have you ever lived in a foreign country where you were so obviously “the foreigner”? If so, you know where I’m going with this one. Sometimes, being “gaikokujin” (foreign person) in Japan is a good thing. For example, you can get away with just about any social faux pas because you “don’t understand.” There’s even a term for it among foreigners in Japan--Gaijin Smash. And yet, when you walk into a restaurant and the staff automatically assumes you don’t know what you’re doing...when you’re sick and your supervisor has to go to the doctor with you to translate...when you’re treated with “kid gloves” whenever you try to do anything...it gets kind of annoying.

But there’s more to it than that. As a Gaijin, you’re recognizable. Everyone in your city knows who you are and where you work. People you’ve never seen before strike up a conversation with you at the convenience store. People constantly comment on your skin, hair, teeth, clothes, size, and anything else about you that’s different. And children you teach follow you like lost puppies when they see you in the grocery store. (Where are your parents, small child?)

I know some JETs really love this attention, but I really don’t. It’ll be nice to go back to a place where I’m not a town celebrity, thank you very much.

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5. Japanese Netflix

For those of you who don’t know, Netflix is region-locked. So U.S. Netflix is different from Netflix in the U.K. or in Australia or in Japan. Time was, you could use a proxy to trick Netflix into thinking you’re in the U.S. when really you’re not in order to access content in other countries. But Netflix, losers that they are, caught on to this and beefed up their security so much that proxies no longer work and if you live in Japan you have to watch Japanese Netflix.

Now, really, Netflix in Japan isn’t all that different from Netflix in the U.S., but a lot of the titles are different. Oh yeah, and all the anime/movies made in Japan are in Japanese with no subtitles. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read articles online about what Netflix is adding in the coming months, gotten super excited, and then been sad because it’s only American Netflix that got a cool new show or movie. Ugh. I will be plenty happy to return to my “real” Netflix and the shows I actually want to watch.

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6. Sick Culture

When you’re sick in Japan, you follow a very specific routine.

1. Put on a face mask.

2. Take your temperature.

3.A. If you don’t have a fever, you’re completely fine go to work.

3.B. If you do have a fever, you’re dying. You should go to the doctor immediately.

4. Tell the doctor you have a fever.

5. Take the flu test, even if you don’t have flu symptoms.

6.A. If the flu test is positive, go home and sleep for 3 days. Don’t touch another person until your 3 days are up.

6.B. If the flu test is negative, you’re fine. Take your medicine and go to work, it’s probably just stress.

7. Cry because Japanese people have NO CLUE how to be sick.

Now, the face masks are, of course, annoying. They’re uncomfortable and suffocating and MythBusters proved they don’t actually work anyway. But more frustrating than that is (a) the assertion that you must go to the doctor for every little ailment and (b) the assumption that you’re only “sick” if you have a fever (and on the flip side, the assumption that if you have a fever you must be contagious).

For example, last winter I had strep throat. Now, it’s pretty hard to have strep throat and not know you have strep throat. I went to the doctor because that’s what you do when you have strep throat--you have to go get antibiotics. My conversation with the doctor went something like this:

Doctor: “What’s wrong?”

Me: “I think I have strep throat.”

Doctor: “What are your symptoms?”

Me: “Well, I have a high fever, my throat hurts, and there are big white spots on it.”

Doctor: “Have you had a flu shot this year?”

Me: “No...?”

Doctor: “Let’s do a flu test.”

Me: “I don’t have the flu. I don’t even have any symptoms of the flu.”

Doctor: “You have a fever. So we should do a flu test.”

Me: “If you’d just look at my throat, you’d know I don’t have the flu.”

Doctor: “I’ll look at your throat after we do the flu test.”

Me: “Fine.”

(We do the flu test.)

Doctor: “You don’t have the flu.”

Me: “Yes, I know.”

(Doctor finally looks at my throat.)

Doctor: “You probably have strep throat.”

Me: “You don’t say...? Wow, I never would have thought of that.”

Then he proceeds to give me five different medications to cure the strep throat--one is an antibiotic, one is for fever, one is basically a painkiller, one is a Chinese herbal remedy for strep throat, and one is for nausea that I might or might not get from any of the previous medications.

Ugh.

And don’t even get me started on the argument I had with my vice principal, who thought I shouldn’t be able to use my sick leave for strep throat because it wasn’t the flu, even after I explained that (a) it’s super contagious and (b) I kind of can’t talk at all.

Seriously, never get sick in Japan. Just don’t do it.

But on the plus side, you can wear the face masks when you’re not sick for cool benefits:

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7. Narrow Roads

If you’ve ever been to Japan, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t...imagine a one-way street in your town. Narrow it by a foot. That’s a 2-way street in the Japanese countryside. If you meet another car along the road, one of you has to pull off the road for the other to pass. Sometimes there isn’t room to pull off. In which case one of you backs up until there is room to pull off.

Then there are the people who (understandably) are tired of people driving over their garden because of narrow roads. Those people erect cement walls around their property. So there’s quite literally nowhere to go. Those people are fun.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt like I was going to either destroy my car or die or both because of narrow roads in Japan. I will not miss them.  

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8. Politeness, Part 1

Everyone is so dang polite in Japan. You’d think this would be a good thing, and in some cases it is. I talk about the good aspects of this later, in the things I WILL miss section. But this aspect of Japanese culture definitely has its downsides, too.

Just because Japanese people are polite 98% of the time doesn’t mean they don’t get angry. It just means that (a) you don’t know they’re angry and (b) they’re going to passive-aggressively make your life a living hell while apologizing for it and totally not meaning it.

I am so, so, so tired of people who don’t say what they mean--people who agree with you not because they think it’s a good idea but because they feel like they have to. For example, I once taught a lesson that was absolute crap (and on parents’ day, no less). The students were confused, the JTE was confused, and everything was chaos. After the class, I asked my JTE how he thought the lesson went.

“It was good.” He said.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes.” He said.

“You didn’t think it was confusing?”

“Yes, it was confusing.”

“You don’t think it was too difficult for the students?”

“Yes, it was difficult.”

Me, internally, “Then why the heck did you tell me it was a good lesson?!?!?!?!?!”

But really, I said, “Okay, so what do you think I could do to make it better?”

“Nothing. It was good.”

Me, internally, “ WTH???????”

But really, I said, “Okay. Thanks for class.”

This kind of exchange is fairly normal--there’s never an explicit yes or no answer. It’s always this convoluted nonsense that you couldn’t possibly understand unless you read their body language.

In another example, I wanted to take 2 days of vacation time so I could go on a trip during Golden Week. I don’t have to ask anyone but the principal, but as a courtesy I asked the head of the English department first. Her response was something along the lines of, “We have a parent’s viewing class that day. So it’s not a good time for you to take off. No one can tell you that you can’t use your vacation time. So you could use it. But we’d be happy if you came to school on that day.”

The implication was a very heavy “No, you can’t take that day off.” But what she actually said was different. You better believe I still took that day off. And, as usual, although no words were exchanged about the matter, there have been a dozen little things over the last few weeks that make me certain she’s punishing me for going against her wishes.

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9. Lack of Cheese (And Other Nummy Foods)

I’ve missed cheese so much. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so much!

Also, bread, cottage cheese, popcorn cakes, Dr. Pepper, and so much more. Words cannot express how much I am looking forward to food upon my return. (Though I am going to miss sushi and Coco’s Curry.)

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10. Culture Shock (But...)

For those who don’t know, culture shock is a big, annoying roller coaster of pain and annoyance. You start off all happy, in your cute little honeymoon phase, and you’re like “Yay, this is going to be fun!” We call that part “Stage 1.”

Then, just when you think life is going to be awesome forever, you hit Stage 2, where suddenly your car bounces off track and everything is miserable. This is the part where you hate everyone and everything that is different from your normal way of life. Except you’re surrounded by things like that and life just pretty much sucks.

Next comes Stage 3 where you sorta-kinda get used to some things and life gets a little bit better. Like realizing that having a bathroom that’s solely a *bath* room is actually a pretty neat idea. And eventually, you have enough of these revelations that you reach Stage 4 where you magically accept your new life and everything is wonderful again.

Except...

Nothing is ever that pretty and perfect. Oh sure, you go from Stages 1 to 2 fairly regularly, but after that is anyone’s guess. My time in Japan has been something like this: 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 4 - 2. And on any given day, I really can’t tell which Stage I’m going to end on. It’s completely unpredictable and insane.

It’ll be nice to go back home where I don’t have to worry about Culture Shock ever again. Right?

Wrong. Because Reverse Culture Shock is totally a thing. A thing which I experienced in part last summer when I returned to the U.S. for a couple weeks.

I can leave my shoes on inside? What?????

I’m given a fork at a Chinese restaurant and have to request chopsticks. What?????

There’s no 5:00 song!

I want to take a real bath. :(  :(  :(  :(

All of the clothes fit me!!! But they’re so low-cut!

Walmart is a thing that exists again!

The house is so big!

Where’s the otohime? (Otohime = a button you push in the restroom that makes running water noises so no one can hear what you’re doing in the toilet)

My drink is so big! I can’t drink all that!

Oh my God it’s salt. There’s salt. On my table. At a restaurant. I didn’t have to request it.

Oh yeah, I have to tip people again.

And so on.

Granted, Reverse Culture Shock eventually goes away for good, so I have that to look forward to. But for all of you who will spend any considerable time with me for the next couple years, I apologize in advance for any statement which begins, “Well, in Japan...”

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Top 10 Things I Will Definitely Miss a Lot

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1. Bath Culture

Japanese people take their baths seriously. If you’ve been to Japan, you know this to be true. Bathrooms are just that--the room with the bathtub and shower and nothing else. The tub is deep enough to sit in comfortably for hours. And there’s a very specific way you’re supposed to bathe:

-Step 1: Scrub the tub Do this every night so you never have to scrub and scrub and scrub. Just spray the tub with water, coat it with cleaner, and run over once with your awesome tub scrubber that extends and pivots so you don’t have to bend down and kill your knees.

-Step 2: Draw a bath In some houses, you can even control the temperature of your bath with a remote control. You can also set a timer so the bath draws itself automatically every night.

-Step 3: Cover the bath with your nifty bathtub cover

-Step 4: Stand outside the tub and use your showerhead to take a shower

-Step 5: Remove bathtub cover and soak for the rest of your life

And because baths are super important, you can buy awesome bath products everywhere. Like that scrubber I mentioned above. Or a stool you can sit on while you shower because comfort. Body scrubbers, body soaps, an entire aisle of bath salts and bath bombs, buckets so you can rinse yourself off with actual bath water, shower caps (that actually work) for those times when you don’t want to wash your hair, and even sponges that make the mirror in your bathroom not fog up. (Don’t ask me why there’s a mirror in the bathroom...but there is.)

I’ll admit, when I first came to Japan I was completely baffled by all of this. But it’s super amazing, and I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do without my nightly bath now.

And don’t even get me started on the onsen (public open-air baths).

Want to relax with a beautiful view? Onsen.

Been out hiking all day and want to freshen up before your 3 hour drive home? Onsen.

Want to warm up after a day in the snow? Onsen.

Don’t have anything else to do? Onsen.

Onsen is always the answer. Onsen is life.

Why doesn’t the U.S. have onsen? I will be so sad to leave them behind...

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2. Random Products to Make Your Life Better

Cold? Don’t worry, just buy some disposable hot packs. They come in “sticky” and “unsticky” and in just about any size you can think of. Put them wherever you like. Pockets, shoes, or anywhere else that’s cold.

Hot? Don’t worry, we have hand fans, scarves that literally cool you off, and UV-protectant umbrellas.

Tired? Don’t worry, we have energy shots.

Hungover? There’s a drink for that too, conveniently available at any convenience store.

Tired of dusting your shelves? Just buy this super awesome sticky paper that goes on the bottom...when it gets dirty, just rip away and toss it.

Tired of your bookshelves falling over in those pesky earthquakes? We have super, super sticky pads to glue them to your floor.

Tired of your perfectly-rolled toothpaste tube unrolling when you let go of it? Toothpaste squeezer will fix that pesky problem.

Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up when you shower? We have a sponge for that.

Want to chop your leeks in perfect slices every time? There’s a kitchen tool for that.

Want to look like a samurai while your beautify? There’s a face mask for that.

Tired of your boring kitchen sponge, timer, hot water bottle, toilet brush, masking tape, file folder, calculator, toilet paper, etc.? Don’t worry--it comes in “cute.”

Seriously, Japan is like the never-ending land of slightly useful but mostly unnecessary products. A trip to the 100 Yen Store is never a dull trip. And when I return home, the lack of endlessly entertaining cheap crap will certainly leave me feeling sad.

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3. No Shoes Inside

I used to make fun of people in the States doing this. I used to roll my eyes at people who insisted I take my shoes off before entering their house. To those people--I am deeply sorry.

Japanese people change their shoes every time they enter a building. Instead, they wear indoor shoes that have never seen the outdoor world or just slippers that are adorable and can easily be folded up into a bag and carried around to various locations. But the point is, no indoor shoes go outside and no outside shoes go inside.

It makes the world so much cleaner.

I’m definitely doing this back in the States.

(Though Japan can keep the toilet slippers thing...I’m not that crazy!)

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4. Money and Free Time

Many people compare the JET Program to study abroad. A lot of people join the program for a “gap year” between college and their real jobs. And there’s a definite reason for this. I, as an ALT, have so much free time it’s ridiculous.

My first year, I had so much free time at work that I quite literally spent more time sitting at my desk studying Japanese than I did in the classroom.

My second year, I started taking random online classes to fill this time. That year I got TEFL-certified and I learned JavaScript.

My third year, I was both Block Leader and AJET President, the work for both of which took up all of my free time.

And the point remains that I’ve never actually done that much “work” at work.

But having few responsibilities in the office is good in other ways, too--mainly, I don’t have to stay late and I never have to do work on weekends. There are no papers to grade or lessons to make that I can’t do during my free time in the normal work day. This leaves my after-work schedule wide open for all kinds of cool things. Weeknights are filled with Dungeons and Dragons, board games, Japanese class, and TV nights, and weekends are filled with trips and events galore. It’s amazing all of the things I’ve done and all of the places I’ve gone since I moved to Japan--things I never would have considered in the States. And although some of that was simply the “adventure is out there” mindset that infects many JETs, a lot of it is made possible by a generous salary and A LOT of free time. Although there are many days where I wish I had more responsibility in my job, there’s a lot to be said for having free time to climb mountains, go skiing, and drive 3 hours to see some famous shrine because why not?

I know that freedom will change once I’m back in the U.S. with big girl responsibilities. I hope I’ll be able to make time for the things I enjoy, though I know my opportunities to enjoy them will become few and far between.

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5. Presents for Inconveniences

Japan gives presents for everything. It’s really funny most of the time. For example, when I first came to Japan, I went to get a cell phone and walked away with a cell phone and a free supermarket-sized bottle of laundry deodorant bead things (idk, they make your clothes smell good and you just dump them in the washer with your detergent...as far as I can tell they don’t do anything but make your clothes smell like flowers). This is fairly common...I also got presents for opening a bank account and for getting an apartment. It’s just a “thing” here to entice people into signing on with a certain company.

But even better than the presents for “new” accounts are the presents you get for being inconvenienced. Let me tell you a story.

Usually, when I pay for school lunch, I pay once a month and it’s just deducted from my bank account with no muss or fuss. But about a month ago, the payment for my school lunch changed from once every month to once every two months. No one thought it was important to tell me this, and so when bill-pay time rolled around I didn’t have enough in my account to cover the full amount. So they sent me a physical bill which can only be paid at the bank during bank hours.

Banks in Japan are both really cool and really frustrating. But in this case they were frustrating. Banks are only open until 3 p.m. and never on weekends. If you want to go to the bank to do anything, you have to go in the middle of the work day. Which is fine for people who can drive to the bank, but not so much for people who can’t drive to work and therefore don’t have a car to use to go to the bank and therefore have to walk for 50 minutes to get to the bank. So in order to go to the bank, I had to wait for an afternoon where I didn’t have any classes and take 2.5 hours of vacation time to walk to the bank to pay this bill. I went, I paid for it, end of story, right?

Wrong. Because the teller at the bank had made a mistake...she was supposed to give me 10 yen ( about 10 cents) in change and instead gave me 100 yen (about a dollar). Neither of us caught this mistake and I left without any more thought to my time at the bank. That is, until about an hour later (after the bank had closed and I’d finished walking home) when I got a phone call from a panicked bank teller who, in the midst of many “excuse me”s and “sorry to bother you”s explained to me that she had made a mistake and I would have to go back to the bank so I could give her 90 yen.

“Can’t you just deduct it from my account?” I asked, thinking this was the most reasonable solution to the problem. But the answer was many “excuse me”s and “sorry to trouble you”s with a “sorry, we can’t” message thrown in somewhere.

I explained my situation to her--that I had to take vacation time to go to the bank and I could only go on afternoons where I wouldn’t have class--days which are super rare, and the earliest I could return to the bank would be Friday of the following week, the bank teller came up with a solution. The following day, she would send a bank employee to my school to meet me, verify the mistake, and get the 90 yen. I was both amazed and amused...because only in Japan would a bank send an employee to collect the equivalent of less than a dollar in change from a client (and only in Japan would it (a) matter and (b) have been recorded in enough detail that the teller could have figured out that out of all the people she had given change to that day, it was me she had made the mistake with). But whatever, it meant I wouldn’t have to go back to the bank again, so I agreed and the following day at the specified time the guy came and took my 90 yen.

I’ll admit that even though the bank was coming to meet me, I was pretty aggravated by the whole ordeal, and had spent those 21 hours between the phone call and the guy’s visit mentally fussing about Japanese banks and their annoying habits.

But as the guy was leaving, in the midst of many “thank you”s, “excuse me”s, and “sorry to bother you”s, he gave me a pen with Arukuma on it (the Mascot character for Nagano prefecture) and three highlighters as presents for having inconvenienced me. Immediately I became un-annoyed. Because (a) Cool! Free stuff! And (b) OMG IT HAS ARUKUMA ON IT!!!!!

The moral of the story is, it might be a pain in the ass to deal with Japanese banks, but when they screw up you get cool free stuff. I think I can live with that.

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6. Politeness, Part 2

Politeness in Japan is cultural. It’s almost unheard of for any Japanese person to be anything but completely polite to anyone they meet in their daily lives. Frustration and fussing is reserved only for one’s family and extremely close friends, and as a result, it’s very rare to have any sort of argument with someone who is Japanese. Japanese people are so polite they have a whole extra language (called “keigo”) devoted to being polite--the idiosyncrasies of which are so complex that many Japanese people have to take classes on it in college so they can properly use it in their future business dealings.

As you can imagine, this has its down sides, which is why I talked about the flip side to this element of Japanese culture in the previous section. But in all honesty, it’s really nice a lot of the time, too.

For example, have you ever walked into a store and the clerk has been in a bad mood? You haven’t done anything wrong, but they’ve had a sucky day and their smile is just a little forced...their thank you just a little sarcastic...maybe they huff a little when they have to stop what they’re working on to ring you up or you hear them gossiping with another employee about “this one really horrible customer” who left 30 minutes ago. It’s kind of off-putting, right? Except, while this is common in the U.S. (I know because I’ve worked retail and I know I’m guilty of behaving that way), this would absolutely never, ever, ever happen in Japan. Because no matter how much your day has sucked in Japan, you just don’t show it. Sure, maybe you go home and complain to your family, but it is expressed and stays for eternity within that close-knit group. I know for a fact that as a foreigner, I’ve done some stupid things in stores in Japan. And I know that employees I’ve dealt with go home and tell their families about “this one time when the crazy foreigner came into my store.” But the point is...no matter how frustrated I’m making them in the store, they never, ever stop smiling and treating me with respect.

It’s been a nice change of pace from the U.S. where people swear at you for bumping into them on the street, you know? And also, it kind of rubs off on you...

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7. My Students

In the U.S., classroom management is an art form. It must be developed for years and years before any new teacher is even remotely good at it. And during my student teaching, I learned that lesson hard (as do most student teachers, I imagine). Don’t get me wrong--I loved teaching in the U.S. and I certainly plan to continue in the future. And a lot of my students were really good kids. But any 8th grade class in the States in chaos incarnate, and nothing any teacher does ever will change that.

After my first week teaching in Japan, one of my JTEs asked me, “What do you think is the biggest difference between Japanese and American schools?”

She probably expected me to talk about the daily cleaning time or the teachers’ instructional habits, but what popped out of my mouth was, “The students.”

“How so?” she asked, and I proceeded to explain how completely amazed I was that the students would just sit there in class. There was no talking, no getting up to go to the bathroom, no paper airplanes, no loud noises, no class clowns, no students dropping their books or sneezing every 5 minutes...they were all completely, 100% compliant with the teacher. They were content to sit there and take notes for hours on end with no misbehavior or rebellion to be seen. I was completely and utterly astounded.

Over time, I’ve learned that not all classes in my schools are free of behavior problems, and that, of course, the kids are still kids and are completely crazy during break times and after school. And yet the fact remains that almost no classroom management is necessary in any of my classrooms.

Of course, the ease of classroom management isn’t the only thing I’ll miss about my students. They’re all great kids, and I’ve taught them all for three years now. I’ve come to know a lot of them very well, and I’ll miss them very much when I leave, but that’s nothing new. I have students from my student teaching that I miss, and I’ve known students in the past 3 years who have graduated and who I miss quite a bit--the girls I cleaned with my first year who taught me about ARASHI while I taught them how to sing Disney songs in English; the boy and girl the next year who studied abroad during summer vacation and hunted me down every day to have a conversation; the girls last year who couldn’t speak English very well but who always tried in such loud and excited voices; the boys who think it’s funny that I say “hello” to them and will run up and down the stairs or the hallway over and over again, saying “hello” to me every time they pass me; the girl who is afraid to speak but who smiles at me in the hallway now; the girl who says “yoh-hoh” to me instead of “hello” and who loves pine cones enough to bring them to school whenever she finds them to show to all her friends...there are so many, and I’ll be sorry to leave them behind. But the classroom management, though...that’s definitely an added bonus.

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8. Public Transportation

My friends and I all agree--the number one way in which the U.S. is inferior to Japan is public transportation. Local trains, express trains, bullet trains, city busses, highway trams, subways, monorails, taxis, planes, and more--Japan has it down pat, that’s for sure. Getting from Point A to Point B is always easy, comfortable, usually convenient, and roughly the same price as (if not cheaper than) driving.

Granted, Japan is not the only country with awesome public transportation systems--in fact most places I’ve visited in Asia have some kind of modern rail and bus system in place. It seems only the U.S. is behind the times on this point, with transport systems few and far between and not at all clean or comfortable. Maybe one day that will change, but for the time being, I’ll certainly miss the trains.

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9. Tea...Tea Everywhere

I never really liked tea before I came to Japan. Now I love it. Tea is everywhere (so is coffee too, but it’s more respectable to drink tea in Japan than it is in the west). You can buy tea leaves and bags pretty much anywhere, from supermarkets to convenience stores. Any place that will sell you coffee on tap will sell you tea as well. And you can find pretty much any flavor of tea you want. Not to mention that, because everyone loves tea so much, staff rooms are always stocked with hot water and tea bags and co-workers routinely make large pots of tea to share with everyone. Having a mug at your desk is practically a necessity. But if you don’t have one don’t worry, you can use one of the school’s fancy china tea cups instead!

But tea isn’t available as only tea. No, you can also buy tea-flavored ice cream, tea-flavored cake...even tea “flavored” bath bombs. And somewhere along the line, I’ve grown to love the tea. I’m going to have to find out where I can buy the good stuff in the States...

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10. My Friends

The thing I’ll probably miss most of all are the people I’ve met over the last three years.

Back in the U.S. I never had that many friends...but when I did make friends with people I’d stay close with them forever. I can count the number of people I’ve considered “friends” before Japan on two hands, and most of them I’m still friends with. This is mostly because I’ve never had much time for “other people” in my life, and I prefer to spend most of my free time alone and recharging after a day spent with too many people. But in coming to Japan with the JET Program, I joined a massive network of people from all over the world who mostly consider each other friendly and trustworthy.

Communities are everywhere in JET--I have just under 10 communities which I routinely participate in, either online or in person. But the people who live in my prefecture and in my block have become some amazing friends. Will they ever top the love I feel for the friends I’ve known my whole life? Probably not. But all the same, they mean a lot to me. These are people I meet with to play board games or people who come to NagaYes events or people who come to AJET parties and trips or people who just happen to live near me and work in my city. There are people I call when I want to go to the movies, people I call when I want to play board games, people I call when I want to go hiking, and people I call when I want to drop everything at the last minute and go on an adventure. And usually, these people are more than up for the task at hand. I am connected to this community, and knowing I’m about to return home, to be away from them by several thousand miles, and to know that I can’t go to Chushin’s NagaYes next year (or the Ski Trip or the hanami party or that big camping trip everyone decided would be a cool thing to do) is really sad. I know I’ll be with my other friends and family, but I also know that things in the U.S. will never be what they were here.

Leaving is a lonely thing, and although I know it’s what I have to do, I’ll still miss all of my wonderful fellow-Naganites. Maybe we’ll meet again someday.

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Credits:

I did not draw any of the above comics. They come from the talents of...

Life After the BOE

Texan in Tokyo

Fried Chicken and Sushi

Mary Cagle

[ookamirinchan]

Golden Week Adventures

Remember how I said spring break was going to be my last trip for a while?

Well, I lied. Because even though I had no money, I found myself physically incapable of sitting at home for 5 days in a row with nowhere to go while everyone else was traveling. Such is life in Japan. 

And so, only a month after my spring break trip, for the first time since coming to Japan, I decided to really get out and enjoy all of the chaos that traveling during Golden Week entails. Together, a friend and I set out to explore southern Honshu (confusingly called “Chugoku”--a word which also means “China”) and tick a few more prefectures off each of our lists.

On Friday night, I met my friend at her place and we walked the quick journey to the Matsumoto bus terminal, where we caught the dreaded night bus to Osaka. We left around 10:30, and, after 7 and a half completely sleepless hours, we arrived at Osaka Station. We stopped at a bakery for breakfast and caffeine before we quickly hopped on a train headed to our first stop, Himeji City in Hyogo Prefecture, only about an hour from Osaka by local train. From Himeji Station, it only took about 20 minutes on foot to reach the main attraction of the city--Himeji Castle.

Himeji Castle (also called the White Heron Castle) is the most famous and most visited castle in Japan. It’s also the largest, one of the oldest, and (along with only 11 other castles) has never been destroyed in any way. It has survived extensive bombing during World War II and the great Hanshin earthquake (Kobe earthquake). It’s both a national treasure of Japan and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And it has ties to both Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Two years ago, a 7-year-long renovation on Himeji Castle was completed, and since then, more than 2 million people a year have visited the castle.

In short, this is one castle that you can’t miss according to anyone who has been to see it ever.

With all that hype, I’ve got to say I was a little skeptical. I mean, it’s just another castle, right? Japanese people always get so excited over little castle things--oh, it’s over 400 years old! Cool! Or it’s the largest castle in Japan! Cool! In all honesty, every castle I’ve been to in Japan has something that makes it “super special, omg, you can’t miss it.” But usually, the little details that are oh so important are never really that fascinating.

So you should believe me when I say that Himeji Castle was 100% worth the visit. The grounds and the castle are beautiful and large, and the architecture is stunning. The white exterior stands out when compared to most other castles, and is reminiscent of Osaka Castle without the modern museum inside. It’s definitely the best castle I’ve been to in Japan.

We arrived around 9 a.m., just as the doors opened. We bought our tickets and were lucky enough to get inside before the mass crowds that generally accompany Golden Week could come. We explored the inside of the castle for a while, marveling at the many weapons racks--this was clearly a castle built for war, although it never saw a single battle in its 400 years. As we left the main keep, we stopped to have our photo taken with a woman dressed like Princess Sen, the castle’s most famous inhabitant. Finally, we explored the large hallway and living quarters on the outskirts of the castle grounds before stopping at the gift shop and leaving the castle itself. It was only about 10:30, but the castle had already reached maximum capacity and people were lined up outside waiting for their chance to enter.

After we left the castle grounds, we had planned to visit the nearby gardens, but we got distracted by a boat ride, which was taking people on a short cruise around the castle’s moat. 

We enjoyed what little of the history talk we could understand, and were amazed as, during out 30-minute tour, the clear skies turned pitch black.

We decided to visit the garden despite the change in weather, and managed to enjoy a short walk before the skies let loose. With nothing else to do, we retreated to the classy Japanese restaurant on the grounds, where we both enjoyed grilled eel and tempura while waiting for the weather to clear up.

Luckily it did just as we finished lunch, and we spent a couple more hours exploring the nearly-empty garden before we finished the area. 

We stopped at a few souvenir shops, bought some festival food (yay Golden Week!) and headed back to the station to catch a train to our next destination: Okayama.

Now, in our massively crazy Seven-Prefectures-in-Nine-Days Master Plan, we had decided to only spend half the day at Himeji and the other half exploring Okayama Prefecture. But Himeji Castle was just so amazing, we couldn’t help but spend much longer there. By the time we were leaving, we knew we wouldn’t have any time to visit Okayama City that day, and so we simply caught the train straight to our hostel, which was about 20 minutes outside Okayama City, about an hour and a half from Himeji.

Our hostel may have been in the middle of nowhere, but it was a lovely building. We unpacked our things and went in search of food with another girl staying in our room. Eventually we decided on sushi at a lovely (and cheap) little sushi shop that served us literal mugs of green tea.

Being in the countryside, things closed pretty early of course, and so we retreated back to the hostel around 8:30 for showers and a couple episodes of Bones before bed.

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The next morning, we woke around 8, packed up our things, and headed for the station where we caught the local train into Okayama City.

Okayama is also a castle city (there are a lot of those on this trip), but it’s much more famous for a completely unrelated thing--a fairy tale called Momotaro.

Momotaro is probably the most famous Japanese fairy tale--quite literally everyone knows the story. An old woman was washing clothes by the river one day when she saw a large peach float down in the water. Curious, she fished it out, split it open, and inside, she found a baby boy. She and her husband creatively named him “Momotaro” (Japanese for “Peach Boy”) and raised him to be strong and brave. One day, Momotaro heard a story about how some ogres from Onigashima (Ogre Island) were terrorizing innocent people, and he decided that he would go and stop the ogres. The old woman made him a sack full of a traditional Japanese snack called kibidango (dumplings made from pounded rice and covered in roasted soy bean powder) and sent him on his journey. Along the way, Momotaro met a dog, a monkey, and a bird. He shares his kibidango with each of them and they decide to accompany him to Onigashima. When they arrive, they fight and defeat the demons and everyone lived happily ever after the end.

Amusingly enough, this story is retold in the Hi Friends textbooks, which are used to teach English in elementary schools all over the country. The horrendous version in its entirety has become a massive inside joke among ALTs in Japan, and many ALTs frequently quote it. 

(Obviously some of the dialogue is missing because you’re supposed to listen to the audio with it...which, if you can believe it, is even better than the pictures). So if you’re ever in Japan and happen to hear a foreigner say “We are strong. We are brave. We are good friends.” and then proceed to fall over laughing, this is why.

Both my friend and I teach using this textbook. And so, although we enjoyed Okayama Castle, the vast majority of our time in this prefecture was spend spoofing Momotaro.

As you exit Okayama Station, your eyes are immediately drawn to this statue of Momotaro and his friends.

We made some silly poses with it and went on our way. On our trek to the castle, we also found a Momotaro manhole cover and quite a few souvenir stalls selling kibidango and other Momotaro products.

We did manage to make it to the castle, which was right next to an island park. The park was instantly named Onigashima by us, and many jokes were made about “Let’s go to...Onigashima!” The castle itself was interesting but uneventful, although it was covered in oddly-colored tape, which apparently is supposed to represent the 3 famous products of Okayama--jeans, peaches, and muscat grapes. Whatever, we thought it looked a bit strange.

We explored the inside of the castle for a little while, bought some cheap kibidango from the souvenir shop, and retreated to the front lawn where we proceeded to take selfies while eating kibidango at Okayama Castle.

After the castle, we walked across a bridge to Korakuen Gardens Onigashima. Once there, we rented a swan boat for 20 minutes to enjoy the view of the castle from the river. Because nothing says “Japanese Culture” like swan boats in masking tape...?

The gardens came after, which we explored for about 30 minutes before we wandered back toward the station to buy more kibidango and catch a train to our second destination of the day, a small town called Kurashiki.

Kurashiki is a historic town about 20 minutes south of Okayama City, most famous for its lovely canal and old buildings. We went to see those things, of course. Our decision to visit Kurashiki didn’t have anything at all to do with the Momotaro Museum that was there. Nope. Nothing to do with that at all.

After a lengthy search for some coin lockers, we walked the 20 minutes out to the Momotaro Museum, which was, of course, our first stop. We were suitably impressed with the displays, which were a mix between weird optical illusions, party tricks, animatronic ogres, and interesting merchandise. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.

After the museum, we walked along the historic streets, exploring the cute little shops and looking for some interesting soft serve ice cream, which you can always find in Japan no matter where you are. We were expecting to find peach flavor, because usually you find flavors that match things that are famous in that area. We did not expect to find alcoholic ice cream. But that is exactly what we did find. We were both quite amused to see brandy and sake flavors, and even more amused when we discovered the ice cream wasn’t just alcohol flavored--it had a legit alcohol content. We got one of each and had a good time.

We shopped around a bit more after the ice cream before we hired a rickshaw to run us around for 10 minutes. It was expensive but fun, and our guide spoke really good English (he was also really cute when he tried to speak it).

Finally, around 4 in the afternoon, we headed back to the station and settled in for the long ride down to Hiroshima--about 3 hours on the local trains. We checked in to our hostel for the night, made our plans for the following day, and headed to bed.

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On the third day, we caught a cable car from the station near our hostel to Miyajimaguchi, where we boarded a cheap 10-minute ferry to Miyajima Island. Think you don’t know what that is? I pretty much guarantee that you do.

Miyajima Island is home to Itsukushima Shrine and one of the three most famous views in Japan--the “floating” Torii gate. A Torii gate is the Japanese name for the large (usually red) gateways that mark the entrance to shrines and supposedly keep evil spirits out of the shrine grounds. Famous Torii gates in Japan include the massive one at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo and the tunnel to Torii gates at Fushimi-Inari Shrine in Kyoto. And right up there at the top with those is the gate at Itsukushima Shrine.

The gate, which is 16 meters (52 feet) tall, was built on the beach of the island right next to the shore line. During high tide, the water rises and covers the base of the gate, which makes it look as though it’s floating on the water. The tide does the same for the rest of the shrine, which was built on stilts to protect it from the water and to make it appear separate from the island, as a place where only the devout could enter. During high tide, you can charter a boat to get up close and personal with the gate, which, of course, we did.

Although the gate and shrine are certainly the most famous things to see on Miyajima, we also enjoyed some other sights as well.

Miyajima, it turns out, has a well-known deer population. Thankfully, unlike in Nara Park, the deer weren’t spoiled and aggressive. But they were quite interesting. While my friend and I were enjoying our “deer poop” ice cream (unique to Miyajima), we witnessed a tourist accidentally drop her map, which was on letter-sized paper. Before she could collect it, it was devoured by a deer. The same deer came over to us and ate the papers that had been on our ice cream cones. I guess they don’t have to worry about trash on Miyajima with walking garbage disposals hanging around all day.

We also visited a couple temples, an owl and cat café, and several souvenir stores before we caught a boat back to the mainland. From there, we caught the cable car back into the city and made the short walk over to the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum.

The museum was nice, though half of it was closed for renovation while we were there. We also only had about an hour to explore before they closed, and so we didn’t get to fully explore all of the exhibits. Although it was an interesting museum, I found I enjoyed the one in Nagasaki better, and I wasn’t too upset to have a time limit inside the museum.

After the museum closed, we walked over to the Atomic Bomb Dome--a famous building which survived the bomb despite being only a few meters from the hypocenter.

Finally, with the sun setting, we ventured into a covered arcade market in search of some famous Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. We found some, and it was delicious. Definitely better than traditional okonomiyaki, that’s for sure.

We also found some Obama buttons. People in Hiroshima were really proud of his visit.

And after dinner, we stopped by a convenience store to pick up some drinks and retreated to the hostel, where we watched many episodes of Bones before bed.

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On Day 4, we woke ready for a long day. We checked out of the hostel and caught the cable car to Hiroshima Castle--a beautiful dark-colored castle that was completely levelled and rebuilt after the bombing. We enjoyed the exhibits in the castle, just barely making it inside and through ahead of the many school groups that were also visiting that day.

As we left, we found a tree on the grounds that survived the bomb.

On the outskirts of the castle, we also found a shrine. It turns out this shrine is one of the locations of Japan’s well-known “crying baby” festivals (in which sumo wrestlers hold babies and try to make them cry...the baby which cries first is said to be the healthiest and most fortunate). We were 2 days too early to see the festival, but we were still amused to be standing in the arena.

When we finished at the castle, we headed to Hiroshima Station, where we planned to make the long journey from Hiroshima to Hagi in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

It just so happens that Hagi, while lovely and popular among tourists, is in the middle of nowhere and takes ages to get to. Originally we had planned to take local trains the whole way...a trip which would have taken us 6 hours and 5 transfers. But instead we decided to bit the bullet and pay the extra 2500 yen to take the bullet train to Asa, which wound up saving us about two and a half hours. So. Worth. It.

We arrived in Hagi around 5 p.m., walked the 30 minutes from the station to our hostel, checked in, learned the excellent news that our hostel could accommodate us for two nights (saving us the hassle of trying to find an internet café the following night) and then set out to find dinner. We also tried to find an onsen, but it turns out that all of the hotels with public baths had closed them to the public for the holidays since they were so busy with their guests. Who knew? So we returned to our odd little hostel for the night and watched Bones.

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We could actually sleep in a little on the fifth day, since the bus we needed to catch didn’t leave untill about 10:30. We walked to the station, caught the bus we needed, and rode for an hour toward central Yamaguchi and a small town called Mine (pronounced “me-neh”) which is home to the largest limestone cave in Japan. It’s called Akiyoshidai in Japanese but it was dubbed “secret tunnel” by my friend and me. That’s definitely an Avatar: The Last Airbender reference, and we definitely didn’t visit this cave just so we could walk through it while singing “Secret Tunnel.” Of course not.

We spent a couple hours walking around the cave, and we split up for a bit as well so I could go up to the plateau above the caves for some light hiking. We had a good time, and caught the last bus back to Hagi, which left at the late hour of 3:30 p.m.

Upon returning to Hagi Station, we caught another bus almost immediately out to Mt. Kasayama, Japan’s smallest volcano. It was about 5 when we reached the base of the short little mountain, and we paused for a moment at Myojin Pond, where you could buy bread to feed to the hawks. (Who know hawks eat bread?)

After feeding some hawks, we began the short hike to the top of the mountain, where we had the opportunity to climb down into the crater and then climb up into the observatory. We got lovely views of the sun setting over the water, and then we walked back down, hoping to find an onsen at the hotel at the base of the mountain.

But as was our luck with Golden Week, we weren’t able to enter there, either, and we returned to the bus stop an hour before the next bus would arrive.

We debated what to do for a while before finally deciding that we should just walk back to the hostel. Although it was an hour walk, it wouldn’t take any longer than waiting for and taking the bus would. And so we took a long but lovely walk along the coast, stopped at a family restaurant for dinner, and finally, finally got lucky with an onsen that would let us in. Yay!

We returned to the hostel completely exhausted and fell into bed, not looking forward to another long journey the next morning.

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Day 6 started with another long stretch of travel. We caught a train at 8 and transferred an hour later to an express train that would take us to Izumo City in Shimane Prefecture, home of Izumo Grand Shrine, the oldest shrine in Japan.

Surprise! Everyone else was there too. Because Golden Week. 

We arrived by train, which was lucky, since the traffic was backed up for what looked like miles. We wandered around the shops for a while, bought some “rice burgers” for lunch, and meandered up to the shrine itself. 

We enjoyed it immensely, but we only spent a couple hours there before hitting the souvenir shops where we both bought some Magatama charms from the shop that makes them for the emperor. We got some ice cream too before taking the train for another hour, up to Matsue City, the capital of Shimane.

We checked in at our hostel which gave us a private room (yay!), hit up the convenience store for dinner and drinks, and turned in for several hours of Bones.

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The next morning, we checked out and wandered over to Matsue Castle, yet another lovely building filled with interesting artifacts. It was completely crawling with Chinese and Korean tourists, and we pushed and shoved our way to the top and back down before ducking around the back of the castle grounds to visit the lovely little Inari shrine.

But our Matsue adventure didn’t last long, and soon we were at the station, chilling in Starbucks and waiting for our train to Tottori.

We travelled for another 2 hours to Tottori Station, where we walked about 30 minutes to visit Jinpukaku and the Tottori Castle Ruins. Jinpukaku is a large Western-style mansion that was built by the Ikeda clan to house Emperor Taisho in the early 1900s. It’s quite an interesting house nestled at the foot of the castle ruins, which go up and up and up the nearby mountain.

When we finished, we caught a bus back to the station, shopped around for a bit in this amazing little store we found filled with foreign foods (why doesn’t Nagano have one of those???)  and caught a train about 20 minutes out of the city to our hostel.

We were happy to discover that we pretty much had the entire upper floor of the hostel to ourselves, including the large-screen TV. So what did we do? Bought dinner at the conbini across the street, hooked a computer into the TV, and watched Bones all night.

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The next day was the last full day of our trip, and we woke up to pouring rain. Of course. But we ganbatte’d and caught a train and bus out to the main attraction of Tottori, the sand dunes.

If you have never thought about the words “Japan” and “desert” in relation to one another, you’re not alone. And really, the Tottori sand dunes aren’t really a desert. Really, it’s just like a beach. The sand stretches a little under a kilometer from the shore, and continues for about 16 kilometers along the coast. But this is not just a beach. This is a beach with giant mountains of sand. And if you get down in the middle of it, you kind of feel for a second like you might be in a desert. It’s pretty cool.

But like I said, it was raining when we arrived. And so we first visited the Sand Sculpture Museum, which was probably the highlight of our day. The theme of the museum changes every year, and this year it just so happened to be the U.S.

Just look at these things. I mean really. They’re 3, 4, or 5 meter high sculptures made entirely out of sand. Like, wow.

We had a good time in the museum before we finally headed over to the chair lift that would take us down into the actual sand. Then we had fun running around in the sand, climbing dunes, and taking lots, and lots of pictures. We also tried to ride the camels, but it turns out you can’t ride a camel there unless you’re a kid. Lame.

But we spent about an hour there anyway before heading back to the main strip for souvenir shopping and lunch. 

We returned to the dunes for a short time then, and eventually took the chair lift back up, did some more shopping, and took the bus back to Tottori Station. From there, we went in search of an onsen and had about as much luck as we did in Hagi. But a nice hotel worker pointed us in the direction of a good sento (a generic public bath house), and, while not an onsen, we figured it would do. We enjoyed the bath, grabbed dinner at MOS Burger, and returned to the hostel for more Bones after realizing there’s literally nothing to do in Tottori City besides see the sand.

We enjoyed the night and went to bed, not at all ready for our long trek home the next day.

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Our final day, we woke up early and caught a train into Tottori City and, from there, we caught a 2.5 hour express train to Osaka. We visited Krispy Kreme in Osaka before we caught a 3 hour bus from Osaka to Nagoya. And in Nagoya, we caught a 4 hour bus to Matsumoto. And finally, after almost 15 hours, we arrived back in Matsumoto. I drove home, slept, and went to work the next morning. Yay!

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All in all, this trip was a lot of fun, despite the craziness of planning it so last minute. The hardest thing about it was the transportation, which was pretty long and complicated on the second leg of our journey, once we got off the beaten “foreigner tourist” path. When we decided to go on this trip, neither of us had considered 1) how big Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane, and Tottori are, and 2) that there were no busses to any of these locations. The train fares wound up being really expensive, especially after we gave in and paid extra for express trains in a couple cases. We also spent a lot on boat rides, rickshaw rides, and kibidango. Oops.

But we did have a good time, and it was nice to cross another 6 prefectures off my list. Now I’ve been to 31 of 47, which isn’t too bad considering how many places I’ve been to outside of Japan as well. I might be able to hit a couple more on the weekends in the next couple of months, but we’ll see about that. For the most part, I’m just glad we survived this trip.

Now, my big trips are over for the most part, and I’ll be spending my remaining weekends hopefully checking some last-minute things off my Japan bucket list. I plan to hit to Kurobe Alpine Route, the Ghibli Museum, Kamikochi (yes, again), the Shinetsu Trail, Mt. Ontake, and Achi Village before I head back to the States. These things may or may not happen, we I’m going to try.

And in the meantime, I get to focus on boring things like job hunting, cleaning, and packing. Yay.

I can’t believe it’s almost time to leave Japan. And I also can’t believe I’ve been here for 3 years now. Time flies, that’s for sure. But I’m ready for my next adventure.

[ookamirinchan]

Spring Break Part 3: Cambodia

(Don’t forget to read Parts 1 & 2)

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We left for the airport the next morning and flew to Siem Reap without any difficulty. We arrived around 3 and made it through customs at the very small airport in record time.

We were in Siem Reap, a small but popular city in northern Cambodia, to visit Angkor Wat. The Angkor Archaeological Park is a huge area which holds the remains of several large cities and temples built during the Khmer Empire from the 9th to 15th centuries. When they were found, they were mostly ruins, but many of the temples have been or are being reconstructed. Although temples with similar architecture exist in both Thailand (Ayutthaya, etc.) and Vietnam (My Son, etc.), the Angkor Wat complex is by far the largest and most famous. Many tourist sites recommend spending at least a week in Siem Reap in order to fully explore this massive World Heritage Site, but we would only have two days. Well...two and a half days I guess.

We arrived at our hotel around 3:45, checked in, and made plans for the evening. It turns out we’d have a personal Tuk Tuk driver for the duration of our stay in Siem Reap. Cool! He picked us up around 4:30 and we first drove out to a building on the outskirts of town where we bought our 3-day passes to the temple complex. We then asked our Tuk Tuk driver to take us into the park, which usually closes at 5, to show us one of the best sunsets in the complex--the one from the top of Wat Phnom Bakheng.

Our driver took us first around the main Angkor Wat temple, where we got lovely views of the afternoon sun on the moat surrounding the temple before dropping us off at our destination.

We walked up a long dirt path, enjoying the many lookout points and old structures, before we finally arrived at the main attraction of the temple. There was a line to go up to the top, as we would learn is typical in the more popular temples. To protect the structures, only a certain number of people are allowed up top at a time. Luckily most people didn’t stay up for too long, and we managed to get our passes and climb to the top just as the sun was about to set. We got some great views.

After the sunset we returned to our Tuk Tuk driver, who was waiting patiently just where we’d left him. He took us to a buffet restaurant next, where we got some really cheap food and drinks while watching some traditional Cambodian dancing.

And finally, after dinner, we headed out to the Night Market. We were both tired and we only spent an hour or so walking around looking at the souvenirs before we went back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. We’d have to be up early the next morning.

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Probably the most famous thing to do at Angkor Wat is to watch the sunrise over the temple. And so, at 4:30 the next morning, we woke, dressed, and headed down to the street where we woke up our Tuk Tuk driver who was sleeping in a hammock strung up inside the vehicle. He drove us the 15 minutes to the temple and we made plans to meet up in 3 hours, giving us ample time to watch the sunrise and to explore the large temple.

We followed dozens of tourists into the temple, all of whom were pushing and shoving to the front of the stampede to get the best views of the one of the most famous sunrises in the world. We were early enough that we managed to get a front row view, and we got some lovely shots of the early sunrise without any other tourists blocking our view.

After a few minutes, we decided to leave our perfect spot to get some different angles of the sunrise. We weren’t as lucky to avoid the tourists then, of course.

We split up not long after that, each of us heading out to explore the temple in our own way. The temple was absolutely gorgeous, and definitely worth the trip! I explored for every minute of my remaining 2 hours, and marveled at the structures and carvings in and around the temple.

My friend and I were pretty tired already by the time we met up with Tuk Tuk Friend (as he called himself when he put his phone number into our phones), but we hopped into our ride not knowing which temple would be next.

We wound up at Wat Banteay Kdei, right across from Srah Srang. Banteay Kdei is a smaller temple East of Angkor Wat, that looks similar to the more famous nearby Bayon Temple. You can see the face carved into each of the 4 sides of the towers (gopuras) in the temple, a feature common during the 12th century structures.

Srah Srang is a manmade lake across the street from this temple, which was constructed around the same time. It was a reservoir at the time, and at one point might have had a temple built in the center.

We only spent an hour or so at this temple before we met up with Tuk Tuk Friend and headed onwards again.

Our third temple of the day is another very large and famous one, called Ta Prohm. Or as it’s more commonly known, “The Indiana Jones Temple” or “The Tomb Raider Temple,” since both Indiana Jones Temple of Doom and Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider were partially filmed in this temple. If you go to the temple you can see why.

When the ruins of the Angor Wat complex were discovered, most temples in the area were reconstructed. But Ta Prohm was chosen as one of the few which would deliberately remain in its original state of disarray, so visitors could really see what a 1000-year-old temple looks like.

Ta Prohm is filled with broken walls, crumbling gorupas, dark corners, and plant life. But the most iconic features of the temple are the several large trees which have completely grown over some of the structures.

It really is just like the movie.

We spent about an hour and a half at Ta Prohm before we headed off to lunch at a nearby restaurant, which was soon followed by temple #4, Ta Keo.

Another smaller temple, this one is often called “the unfinished temple” for rather obvious reasons. Although in modern times the temple looks as though it could have been complete, work on the temple was halted in the 11th century and many of the carvings and decorative work found in other temples remain unfinished. An inscription in the temple claims that the temple was abandoned after it was struck by lightning (which was, understandably, taken as a bad omen). However historians think it was really because the king who commissioned the temple died before its completion and the following king didn’t want to continue it.

This temple was quite interesting because the climb to the top of the mountain temple was extremely treacherous. The stairs, narrow and steep to begin with, had eroded even further and in some cases had holes in them. As if that weren’t enough, the stones that lined the stairs, which ordinarily would have made a good bracing point during the climb, were scorching from the afternoon sun. But despite all this, most people who visited the temple were climbing to the top, so I did as well (though my friend decided to err on the cautious side). The view was definitely worth the climb, and I didn’t almost die, so yay.

The temple was small and we only spent about an hour there before riding off with Tuk Tuk Friend to the final of the three most famous areas in the park--Angkor Thom and Bayon Temple.

Up until that point, everywhere we’d been in the park had been an ancient temple, but the archaeological site also includes the ancient city of Angkor Thom, a 9km squared enclosed city in the heart of the complex. There are four gates into the city, and we entered through the east gate, or the death gate. Cheery, right? The gate was lined with statues with missing heads, some of which may have been stolen during past wars (similar to Ayutthaya in Thailand) and by the Khmer Rouge. We stopped at the gate just long enough to take pictures before entering the city.

Our guide dropped us off in front of Bayon Temple, a famous temple built around the same time as Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei. Unlike Bantea Kdei, however, this temple is fairly large, and unlike Ta Prohm, it has been restored to show the original architectural features and carvings. Similar to those two, you can see the faces carved into the gorupas.

We spent about an hour in Bayon Temple itself, and then wandered around the rest of Angkor Thom, where we visited the Terrace of Elephants, Phimeanakas and the former royal palace grounds, and Baphuon Temple. By 4:00 we were completely exhausted, and we woke up Tuk Tuk Friend who was napping in his Tuk Tuk again and headed back to the hotel, passing through the south gate on our return.

When we arrived, we enjoyed our evening plans, which included a cooking class offered y our hotel. We made Khmer sour soup, Khmer fish amok, stir fried sweet and sour veggies, some kind of greens mixed with chicken, and sweet potato coconut cream soup for dessert. 

The teacher didn’t actually let us help too much after finding out we were both pretty much kitchen incompetent, but we still enjoyed the meal on the roof of our hotel as the sun set.

-----------------

Our second day in Siem Reap we both woke up sore and exhausted, but ready for another exciting, but shorter, day of temple exploring. We ate breakfast at our hotel and headed out with Tuk Tuk Friend, who planned to take us to some smaller temples on the outer circuit of the park.

We started at Preah-Khan, a temple and temple city just north of Angkor Thom, which we explored for about an hour and a half.

We followed it up with Neak Pean, a small temple and monument in a lake, believed to have been consecrated to Buddha reaching Nirvana.

After Neak Pean, we headed to Ta Som, another temple in semi-ruins with some really cool trees growing along the gates.

East Mebon followed Ta Som, a temple which used to be surrounded by water in the East Baray but now is dry. The temple had some cool elephant statues in each of the four corners of every floor.

Next we visited Pre Rup, the last official stop on our tour.

By this time we were exhausted and pretty much templed out, so we spent very little time there before returning to Tuk Tuk Friend. He drove us to one more small stop at a small temple called Bat Chum.

And finally, we headed back to the hotel for lunch and rest. The plan was to head out again in the afternoon to what we thought was another temple sunset, but by the time we returned to the hotel I was exhausted and a bit sick from the heat. So I opted to stay in the hotel for the afternoon and rest, while my friend met up with Tuk Tuk Friend and went on an adventure without me.

So I read a bit and watched the 2-part series finale of Bones because the last episode came out that day and I swear I didn’t decide to skip the afternoon just so I could watch it, really. And when my friend came back, she told me a tale of Tuk Tuk Friend taking her to a floating market out of town where she spent quite a bit of money and I was doubly glad I’d skipped it.

I went to bed early that night, trying to recover as much as possible before we would depart Siem Reap.

--------------

The next day we packed up our things and caught a bus to Phnom Penh, another 6-ish hour ride. More, really, because we got a flat tire at one point and had to wait while the driver fixed it. Otherwise it was an uneventful ride, and we got the added bonus of enjoying the beautiful Cambodian countryside.

We got to Phnom Penh around 5, got dinner, showered, and slept.

---------------

In an interesting turn of events, it seems there’s not actually that much to do in Phnom Penh. We hit the Independence Monument first, snapped a few pictures.

Next, we headed to a temple called Wat Botum Vathey. It was a very quick visit.

We had planned to do the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda next, but it was closed until 2:00. (For real, not like in Thailand where the Tuk Tuk drivers just tell you it’s closed to try and get you to pay to go somewhere else.) So we went to the National Museum and enjoyed some old art.

Next was Wat Ounalom, a highly recommended temple online which again, we spent all of 5 minutes at.

Next we took a Tuk Tuk (and made a new Tuk Tuk Friend in the process) to Wat Phnom, which is supposedly the most splendid temple in Phnom Penh. Again, very underwhelming in the long run.

We sat on a bench and ate lunch and tried to figure out what else we’d do for the rest of the day before we called Tuk Tuk Friend and rode off to the Royal Palace, hoping to arrive around 2:00 when it opened.

We arrived just in time, and we bought our tickets and paid for an English speaker to guide us around the complex. We spent about 2 hours there all together, looking inside both the Palace and the Silver Pagoda. Our guide was very enthusiastic and often repeated himself about things that he probably thought surprising. For example, he told us at least 10 times that the current king of Cambodia is still a “bachelor” even though he’s in his 60s. He used that word exactly each time. “As you know, the King is a bachelor...” “Right now the King is a bachelor, but if he gets married...” “There is no prince or princess now because the King is a bachelor...” and so on. It was quite amusing.

After the Palace, we rode out to Central Market where we walked around for a couple hours until it closed. And finally, at a complete loss for what to do, we just went back to the hotel around 6. We made plans to meet up with Tuk Tuk Friend the next morning to go to Phnom Penh’s main attractions, and we retired for the night to pack and sleep.

--------------

Our last morning in Cambodia started with rain. A lot of rain. It was April 1st, which meant the “dry season” was officially over, and the weather seemed to see fit to remind us.

Nonetheless, we checked out of our hotel, left our bags at the counter, and met Tuk Tuk Friend outside to head off to the somber but important main attraction in Phnom Penh, the Choeung Ek Killing Fields.

If you don’t know much Cambodian history, you’re not alone. In fact most of what happened there during the 70s and 80s were covered up at the time, especially when the Khmer Rouge are concerned, and Cambodia is doing its part to rectify that.

And now, time for a brief (and depressing) history lesson.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, a Communist organization which had existed since the 40s, succeeded in overrunning and taking over Phnom Penh and the Cambodian government, which was already in shambles following the World and Vietnam Wars. They destroyed much of the city, leaded all the citizens into vans, and shipped them off in waves to rural parts of the country. Their aim was to completely obliterate the class system and turn Cambodia into a rural, agrarian utopia. They shut down schools and offices and destroyed cultural properties, banks, churches, and shops all over the country. The major cities turned into ghost towns as families were separated from each other and sent to live in gendered communities, which were dedicated to farming and expected to harvest large quantities of rice and other foods. But not everybody who left went to the communities. And not everyone who went to the communities stayed there.

The organization’s goal was to abolish class, and they felt the best way to do that was to kill anyone who might stand in their way of that--intellectuals, foreigners, professionals, and even ordinary citizens who seemed to share qualities with these people (i.e. wearing glasses or having smooth hands) were taken instead to makeshift prisons in old school and office buildings. They were tortured, forced to write and sign lengthy confessions incriminating friends and family, and then taken to a killing field like Choeung Ek to be executed. During this time, the Cambodian people were cut off from the rest of the world, and the organization ran the country outside its borders. The most amazing this was, even with foreign diplomats visiting the country, the Khmer Rouge managed to convince the rest of the world that nothing remotely unjust was happening.

The Khmer Rouge was only in power until 1979, but in just 4 years they managed to wipe out about a fourth of the Cambodian population. It wasn’t until 2007 that trials for the leaders of the organization began.

So now, when you go to Phnom Penh, you don’t go for cultural stuff. The capital city is still being rebuilt, and while it’s come a long way, it’s nowhere near the splendor of other cities in SE Asia. Now, when you go to Phnom Penh, you go to the killing fields and the torture prisons. And you learn a lot about genocide.

I won’t go into too much detail about any of these pictures but still, if you don’t want to read sad things you should probably skip most of this part.

***

We were completely soaked when we arrived at Choeung Ek, after a Tuk Tuk ride in the pouring rain. We stopped for breakfast and talked with Tuk Tuk Friend for a while, hoping it would let up.

It didn’t.

About an hour after arriving we gave up and went inside despite the rain. For $6 we got to go inside and we got an audio tour player, which gave an excellent tour of the grounds, including background about the Khmer Rouge and even some personal accounts from people who survived imprisonment.

When you walk in, the first thing you see is a large stupa (like a tomb monument). The walls are made of glass, so you can see inside. And inside are skulls of many of the victims who had been uncovered at Choeung Ek. You can go inside the stupa and look at them up close if you want, and see the classifications made by the forensic anthropologists who worked there detailing the ages, races, sexes, and causes of death on each one. Most of the victims in the stupa will never be identified.

As you walk along the tour path, you see many signs where there used to be buildings. The buildings were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge when they were overthrown so as to disguise what had happened at the site. For example, you see the spot where prisoners were dropped off when they arrived at the compound, the area that housed the building where they waited until nightfall, and the warden’s office, where the execution orders were signed.

The ground is covered in large holes where mass burial sites were uncovered. The largest held over 450 bodies. Of the 129 graves discovered, 86 have been excavated, and almost 9000 victims have been discovered. 43 of the grades have been left alone to rest in peace, so no one know exactly how many bodies were buried at Choeung Ek. In some cases, you can still see bones, pieces of cloth, and other artifacts that have been brought to the surface by rain lying in the graves.

You can see an interesting tree with odd holes in it here. There were speakers hidden inside the tree which would blast revolutionary anthems and the sounds of running machinery were blasted through the speakers to cover the sounds of the screaming each night so the people living nearby wouldn’t be suspicious.

The victims included people of all ages, even babies. One grave, next to a large tree covered in bracelets and toys, held nothing but mothers and infants. The babies were killed against the tree, and the bracelets are offerings in memory of the victims.

There were killing fields all over Cambodia, but Choeung Ek is considered to be the largest.

We left the killing fields around noon and returned to the city, where we visited another location related to the Khmer Rouge, the Tuol Sleng Museum.

Before Phnom Penh fell, Tuol Sleng had been a normal high school. But when the Khmer Rouge took over, instead of destroying it, they turned it into a prison and torture camp. I won’t go into too much detail about what went on there (as you can imagine, it’s not pretty). But if you go, you can take another audio tour around the grounds and see how the Khmer Rouge treated the people who were “not pure” before they were executed.

***

Both museums were very sad, but they were still great places to visit. It was quite a trip from Siem Reap just to visit these two places, but I’m glad we went. If you ever go to Cambodia, you should go to those museums, even though they’re upsetting. But maybe you should do Phnom Penh before Siem Reap, so you don’t end your trip on so depressingly like we did.

We got back to the hotel around 4:30 and hung out for a while, waiting for our taxi to the airport. We caught our overnight flight back to Tokyo and went our separate ways--our friend to a rather interesting and famous festival, and me back home to rest before work the next day. And thus ended our insane, 3-country vacation.

-----------------

Despite having to travel with a friend, this trip was a lot of fun in many ways. A good time was had by both of us, and I brought home a record number of souvenirs. I’d definitely recommend both Malaysia and Cambodia to anyone (Singapore not so much, unless you’re rich). I’m glad I pinched pennies for three months to make this trip possible, and I’m definitely a little sad that my international travel has come to an end. Still...it’s good to be back home.

I’m in the process of planning one last budget trip in Japan with a different friend, this one a month from now during Golden Week. Whether it actually comes together or not remains to be seen, but I’m going to try. And if I don’t get a job before I leave Japan, you can bet August will be filled with a trip before home, too. But we’ll see on that one, too.

Until next time. :)

[ookamirinchan]

Spring Break Part 2: Kuala Lumpur

(Don’t forget to read Part 1)

---------------

The third day of our trip--our last in Singapore--was fairly uneventful. We woke up mid-morning, ate breakfast at our hotel, and headed out to a huge complex near the highway called Golden Mile Complex, where we caught a bus bound for Kuala Lumpur.

Ordinarily the bus ride would take about 4-5 hours. But we failed to factor in a major thing--immigration. It took us an hour to get to the bridge between Singapore and Malaysia, and we sat in traffic there for another hour, just waiting for our bus to pull up close enough to let us out. Then we stood in line for another hour to get our departure stamps. We filed back into the bus, crossed the bridge, and immediately pulled off again to wait in the (thankfully) less crowded Malaysian immigration line. We were through there in about 30 minutes, and finally, finally we were on our way.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 7 and the bus dropped us off in front of a huge shopping center called Berjaya Times Square. After a bit of confusion with the complex public transit system, we boarded a monorail bound for KL Sentral Station, where we caught the LRT to our hotel. We checked in, visited 7-11 for dinner, and went to bed.

Our first morning in Kuala Lumpur, we woke up early and headed back to KL Sentral to catch a train up to Batu Caves. These caves are essentially the #1 thing to do in Kuala Lumpur according to the internet, and we were both pretty excited to go.

The Batu area, which is about 45 minutes from KL, is known for the many caves that can be found in its massive rock faces. Most of the caves have religious artifacts and stories in them, and the main one has a proper temple as well.

When we first arrived, we paid to enter a smaller cave first. This one had dozens of statues depicting a hindu myth, and we spent quite a while walking around and reading the descriptions about all of the statues. We climbed some steps to the top of the cave and then returned to the entrance, ready to head to the main attraction.

On our way, we got distracted by monkeys. Turns out, there are monkeys everywhere in Malaysia. There was some kind of celebration or worship service happening at a temple near the cave we had been in, and there were people with food everywhere. And where there is food in Malaysia, there are always, always monkeys. Most of the Hindu people were feeding fruit to the monkeys, particularly bananas. They were so cute we had to stop and take a few pictures.

When we finally made it through the monkeys, we walked for a little while and soon came to the main cave in Batu. The main cave is pretty hard to miss...out front there is a 43-meter tall statue of Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war. And beside him there are 272 stairs leading up to the cave’s entrance.

We stopped for selfies and a water break before heading toward the base of the stairs. We had both dressed modestly and passed the dress code check all the foreigners were going through, but as we bypassed the line where foreigners could pay to rent proper clothing we were accosted by a local who handed us each a bucket of sand.

“What do we do with this?” We wondered.

The man who gave them to us gestured up the stairs. “Take. Take.” He said.

So we took the buckets. And then we climbed 272 stairs while carrying large buckets of sand. 

We still don’t know why...?

When we got to the top, there was a big pile of sand and a bunch of buckets sitting next to it still filled with sand. There weren’t any people there, though. So we just kind of awkwardly dropped the buckets and went to the temple.

The temple was pretty cool, but we didn’t stay there very long. Instead, we went back down about half way before stopping off at a third cave, called Dark Cave. You could pay a small amount to take a tour inside the cave to see some cool bats and insects and stuff, so we did that to pass the time.

After the cave, we finished our descent, bought a few souvenirs, and had lunch at a nearby restaurant before catching the train back to KL.

Then we began part two of our day, which was supposed to be us touring the cultural buildings around the city. We visited Jamek Mosque, but it was closed for construction.

Then we went to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Also closed for construction.

And as we walked past the textiles museum that was also closed, we gave up on the culture stuff and visited Central Market--aka souvenir heaven--instead.

Really we were just going to walk around for a little, maybe get some ice cream, and then move on. But while we were there, we decided we might as well do some souvenir shopping for our coworkers since there were so many cheap food souvenir stalls. That took a while, and then we went upstairs to buy some clothes because those skirts and Aladdin pants are really cheap and comfortable. And then we went in search of a money exchange place because my friend hadn’t anticipated so much shopping. And then we got something to drink. And then we finally decided we’d spent enough time and money at Central Market, walked toward the exit, and discovered that it was pouring rain. (Welcome to the tropics, the sequel.)

So we wandered around a bit more and stopped to get our feet nibbled on by some fish.

Then it was still pouring, and we got dinner and discussed what we’d do the next day if our afternoon plans got rained out.

Then it was still raining, but not too much, so we went out and headed toward Chinatown.

We only walked around in Chinatown for a bit, both of us full already and completely shopped out. We walked back to our hotel, passing a nearby durian cart and promising to return the next night to try it. We dropped off our many purchases and then went back to the station. It was night, and time to visit the Petronas Towers.

So I guess these towers are a symbol of Malaysia or something. You couldn’t hardly move in Kuala Lumpur without seeing *something* that had a picture of the Petronas Towers on it. So we took a 20 minute LRT ride out to the towers, wandered around aimlessly for a while trying to figure out how to get out of the towers, and finally discovered the park near them. While we were there, there was a lovely light show happening on the pond, so we watched that for a little while. 

Then we took some pictures of the towers and headed back to the hotel only 20 minutes after we’d arrived.

Thus ended our first day in Kuala Lumpur.

---------------

The second day was equally as interesting as the first.

We walked from our hotel through old Kuala Lumpur Station and past the National Mosque (also closed, go figure) before heading out to the day’s main attraction, the Lake Gardens.

The KL Lake Gardens are the place to be if you like the outdoors. The garden is massive and filled to the brim with parks for your enjoyment. Our first stop was the Butterfly Park, where we spent about an hour and a half wandering through a large enclosure filled with over 5000 butterflies. We got some really good pictures, including one of Malaysia’s national butterfly.

Next we went to the Deer Park. Which wasn’t so much a deer park. Because it only had 3 deer. And a bunch of enclosures with  A LOT of chickens. For some reason. We don’t know why. And we didn’t spend long there.

And next was the main attraction at Lake Gardens, the Bird Park. This is the world’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary. That means all the birds are just kind of hanging out on the sidewalk with you instead of in cages. It was a lot of fun. We spent almost 3 hours there, and ate lunch at the extremely overpriced restaurant, too.

When we finished the bird park, we noticed the clouds were rolling in, and so we decided to skip the orchid garden, the botanic garden, and the actual lake in favor of our rainy day plan. We took a taxi out to Berjaya Times Square and went up to the fifth floor where we paid to enter the largest indoor amusement park in Malaysia, where we spent the afternoon riding tacky carnival rides to our heart’s content.

Once our stomachs couldn’t take any more abuse, we left the park and headed back to KL Sentral for dinner. And we stopped at the durian cart on our way back to the hotel, where we both tried the fruit for the first time. It was quite the interesting experience. Didn’t notice the infamous smell so much. The taste wasn’t bad. But the texture was like eating a mushy banana. Weird. But I could see how people might grow to enjoy it.

It was early, but we went back to the hotel. I stayed there, Skyped Mom for a bit, and read. And my friend probably went back out to Chinatown or something, I don’t know. All in all, it was a really nice last day in Malaysia.

--------------------

In all honesty, when I threw Malaysia out there as a destination for our trip, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it. I figured I might as well check it off the map since it was so close to Singapore and Cambodia, but really, I’d never heard anyone say Malaysia was a nice place to visit. 

But amazingly, it wound up being one of my favorite places I’ve been to. I could definitely see myself going back one day and really exploring the countryside and rain forests. Honestly, Kuala Lumpur was beautiful, modern, and cheap with tons of stuff to do, and we had an amazing time.I was sorry to leave, but happy to head on to the second half of our trip--Cambodia.

(Don’t forget to read Part 3!)

[ookamirinchan]

Spring Break Part 1: Singapore

Spring has arrived, and with it came spring vacation, during which I was able to take one last big trip in Japan. I wanted to hit as many countries as possible in my limited remaining vacation time, and so I decided to visit Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia all in one go. This time, I travelled with another JET in my city, and somehow we managed not to claw each other’s eyes out and even made it through the trip without any major arguments (a small miracle, let me tell you).

We began planning the trip back in February, after the exhaustion from my Vietnam trip wore off, and we chose the three countries for four reasons:

1. They’re close together.

2. They’re cheap and easy to access from each other.

3. They’re places I’d definitely never make a long and expensive trip from the U.S. to visit in the future.

4. There must be cool stuff to do in these places, right?

We did our research, planned our itinerary, bought our plane tickets, and hit the road on March 21 after work.

Our first stop would be Singapore, a popular and high tech city state metropolis, which, at 2 degrees north of the Equator, happens to be (debatably) the southernmost country in Continental Asia. (Technically it’s connected to Malaysia by a bridge which means it’s “technically” connected to the mainland apparently). But regardless, Singapore is regularly considered “paradise” by Japanese people, and my announcement that I was visiting the island received many, many jealous comments. But amazingly, none of my coworkers had any idea what there was to do in Singapore, despite their inherent love of it.

It turns out, Singapore really is the “land of fun.” That is, if you can afford it.

Honestly, my friend and I were least impressed with Singapore despite it’s clean, bright, and high-tech appearance. It’s a little like a less awesome version of Disneyland--the kind of place you take your kids and then instantly regret having taken them there because everything is so appealing yet so expensive. There are all kinds of things to do in Singapore. If you can afford it.

My friend and I took an overnight flight and landed in Singapore at about 7 in the morning. We made it through immigration easily enough, bought our tourist metro passes (for $30 each...still cheaper than it would have been without them!) and headed off to find our hotel and drop our bags. After that, we took a train down to Bayside Station, where we wandered around for a while trying to find the “Sentosa Express,” a monorail train that would take us to Sentosa, “The State of Fun.”

There’s plenty to do on Sentosa Island, and we had planned to spend the whole day there. Sentosa has beaches, waterfront shows, several major resorts, a zipline, a luge, a Merlion, a ropes course, an insect park, dozens of walking trails, an aquarium, a waterpark, a Madame Tussauds, an indoor skydiving arena, a digital world adventure park, a nature park, a cable car, a sky tower, a trick eye museum, and even a Universal Studios. All of which are just waiting for you to come and spend all of your money at.

Guess how many of those things we actually did?

The answer is one. And a half.

Oh, if money were no object, Sentosa would be the coolest place in the universe. But as it is, it’s way too expensive for two teachers on a budget vacation.

When we arrived, of course we went to the Merlion. If you don’t know, a Merlion is a half-fish, half-lion creature that it the icon of Singapore. There are several of them scattered around the city, and one of the most visited is the 37 meter tall Sentosa Merlion. We took our obligatory photos with it, and then laughed as we noticed people up on top of it. “We should go up!” we thought...guess how much it was. To climb maybe 60 steps to go to the top of a 37 meter Merlion and look out on Sentosa Island. Go ahead. Guess.

The answer is twelve dollars. Twelve dollars. And honestly, it’s the cheapest thing to do on the island (except the free stuff, of course). No, we did not pay twelve dollars to climb the Merlion. This is the “half” of the one and a half attractions we went to. Sorry to disappoint. No doubt the view of Universal Studios would have been amazing but yeah no.

Next, we did something my friend really wanted to do, called Sky Luge Sentosa. A luge is kind of like a go-cart without a motor. You can speed up, slow down, and turn, all using the steering wheel, while you ride down a hill. It’s pretty cool, I guess. So we paid the $25 for three rides, took the sky lift to the top of the hill, and rode back down. It was fun, but it would have been nicer if the whole ride down hadn’t been filled with construction sites and fences. When we finished, it was only 11:30.

After we finished the luge attraction, we started questioning the actual value of the attractions we had wanted to do. 450 meter zipline for $47? No way. $16 for a butterfly park? Eh, the one in Kuala Lumpur is like, a sixth of that price. Trick eye museum? Those are usually really hokey anyway. $33 for a cable car ride? Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No. Universal Studios? Well, that’s a money pit waiting to happen. The free crane dance show sounds cool...but at this rate we definitely won’t be here until 8:00.  

We decided to eat lunch at this strange 50s diner-like restaurant that served Singapore food while we figured out our plan. We were both tired already and feeling very poor after our one attraction of the morning and our discovery that food and transportation were also ridiculously expensive. So we decided to skip all of the paid attractions and just focus on the free stuff.

After lunch, we wandered down toward one of the beaches. Neither of us had brought beach wear, so we just kind of looked at the sub-par tourist traps before moving on. 

We wandered down the path, looking for the “Southernmost Point in Continental Asia.” We found it and had a nice discussion about how this could be cindered the southernmost part of Asia in any sense. It’s not landlocked and by most people’s definitions Indonesia is also part of Asia, not Oceania. But I guess if bridges connecting a small unnamed island to Sentosa, Sentosa to Singapore, and Singapore to Malaysia count as being “Continental Asia” then sure, let’s go with that.

We had fun wandering around that bit of land for a little while and we definitely enjoyed the views and the rain forest foliage on the island before we turned back and walked the way we came. We wandered in to a 7-11 where we found some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (for $17!) that we didn’t buy (for obvious reasons) before we walked down to the other beach on the island. 

We walked along the path following the sand until we reached a pathway leading to Fort Siloso, the only remaining fort in Singapore. We didn’t actually explore the fort, we just walked to it and back. Then we returned to the monorail and looked at the souvenirs before returning to Singapore proper.

It was only about 3:30.

There was a big, fancy mall under the Sentosa Express that we walked around for a while, and then we took the metro up to Clarke Quay for dinner.

Clarke Quay is a quaint little village area near the river with lots of overpriced restaurants. When we arrived, despite having been sunny 20 minutes earlier, it was pouring rain. Welcome to the tropics, indeed. We ran across the bridge from the station to the main dining area, looked around at the restaurants, and ate decent but expensive Mexican food overlooking the river.

The rain, thankfully, departed not long after we sat down, and we enjoyed beautiful weather again for our metro ride and walk back to our hotel. We collapsed into bed, exhausted from a long day of trying to figure out what to do.

-----------

Our second day in Singapore was slightly more interesting. We started the day at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a massive (and free!) park about 20 minutes away from downtown on the metro. The entrance to the park was right next to the metro station, and we began a long journey wandering through the many walkways and enjoying the foliage and tropical flowers. There were quite a few interesting segments to the park, the best of which were the “Evolution Garden,” which claimed to recreate the evolution of plant life starting several billion years ago, and the Orchid Garden which, although not free, was worth every penny of our $5. It turns out that orchids are the national flower of Singapore, and there were A LOT of orchids in the orchid garden.

We also saw a water monitor just chilling by a lake, which was pretty cool I guess.

We finished in the Botanic Gardens around noon, and, completely exhausted after walking probably 5+ kilometers already, we took the metro back into town to Marina Bay Sands.

The station spit us out directly into the famous shopping center, but a quick search of the information map told us there would be no affordable food. So we did what any expats living in Japan would do...we went to 7-11, walked outside, and ate on a bench in a park overlooking Gardens by the Bay which, incidentally, was our next stop.

After lunch, we crossed a lovely bridge over a busy street, got some cool views of the Singapore Flyer and the massive man-made flower-tree-things in the gardens before heading inside.

The gardens themselves were free, but they were nothing special either. For all the hype about Gardens by the Bay, we were severely disappointed. It seemed like the main attractions were the “pavilions” (the metal tree things and a huge greenhouse that was supposed to look kind of like a cloud), but you of course had to pay $30 to get inside both of them...not worth it.

We walked around a little more, but we were both tired of walking after the morning, and there was nothing interesting in the park that we hadn’t already seen, so we started our long journey along the bay to the opposite side from Marina Bay Sands where we knew we would find Merlion Park.

If you look up “Singapore Merlion” on Google, this is probably the one you’ll see. It’s quite small compared to the Sentosa one, but much less tourist-trappy and it has a water fountain which is cool I guess.

We took our obligatory selfies with the Merlion, shopped around for souvenirs, and searched for dinner. It took us a while to find things, and even then we decided to split up--my friend wanted to try hawker food and I, naturally, went to Burger King.

After enjoying our respective dinners and meeting back up in front of the closest metro station, we gave up on trying to find other entertainment and decided to begin our long trek out to our final stop in Singapore--the Night Safari.

Some of you may know that I’m not really a fan of zoos--most are all the same, and it’s just depressing to look at the animals in such tiny enclosures. So while Singapore has many different kinds of zoos and animal parks that come highly recommended, their price and the fact that they’re zoos kept me from being interested.

But the Night Safari was, by all accounts, a must do thing in Singapore, and there wasn’t a single negative review of it anywhere on the internet that we could find. And so we made the long journey out to the park after a long day of walking everywhere to visit the world’s first and only Night Safari zoo.

The concept of the zoo was pretty interesting, really. It’s only open at night, after the sun sets--the attraction being you can actually see the nocturnal animals out and about (rather than asleep, as they would be in a normal zoo). You pay a small fee and go inside, and first thing you do is get on a huge tram that drives you around the exhibits, many of which have massive boundaries, while a recorded voice tells you interesting facts about all the animals. Once you’re done with the tram, you can then walk along a winding path yourself to see all the other animals.

All in all, it was a really cool experience and I’m glad we decided to pay a ridiculous amount of money to go. We spent about 2 hours there before heading back to the hotel to sleep.

-------------

Mostly, Singapore was a pretty big disappointment. I imagine it’s a decent place to live, and nice enough to vacation for a few days if money is no object, but for two budget travelers it was a little frustrating. 

When we left, we were glad we’d decided to make Singapore our first trip rather than our last. And thankfully, the rest of our vacation was much, much more interesting.

(Don’t forget to read Part 2!)

[ookamirinchan]

Winter Vacation Pt. 2- Vietnam

Don’t forget to read Part 1 first. :) 

---

On the fourth day of my trip, the day I would leave Taipei, I slept in as late as I could, passing up yet another opportunity to visit Taipei 101. I never did make it to that building...oh well. I finished packing, checked out of the hotel, and found myself on a bus to the airport by noon. I checked in as soon as I could, and still just barely made my flight thanks yet again to Taipei Airport’s long lines. But I did make the flight, and all was well. Another three hours later, I was landing in Hanoi.

The first stop in Hanoi was the money exchange booth to add yet another kind of currency to my wallet. Also, it should be noted that Vietnam’s money is the most confusing currency ever. It was even worse than Korea’s, which is really saying something.

(For real, who in their right mind thought, let’s make our currency in 10,000s? And it’s not even equal, so 10,000 dong is like, I don’t know, 30 cents or something. So you’re forever confused, throwing around 500,000 money like it’s nothing (because it is) and feeling equally rich and broke. Also, the 10,000 bills and the 100,000 bills look exactly the same. And so do the 20,000 bills and 200,000 bills. The only difference is that last 0 and the size. Oh my gosh, what the heck? And to make matters even more confusing, everywhere in Vietnam accepts US dollars, too. Even though it’s technically illegal for them to accept it as currency. But they still always ask for USD first. Weird.)

But anyway, after I changed money I found a private taxi to take me to the city, which I paid way more for than I should have, as is typical in Southeast Asia. I made it to the tiny hole-in-the-wall hotel around 6:30. I checked in, marveled at the size of the room despite the outside appearance of the place, fussed about the poor Wi-Fi signal for a bit, and left to go find some food.

If you’ve never been to Southeast Asia, you can’t possibly understand the controlled chaos of Hanoi. There are people, cars, and motorbikes everywhere. The rules of the road are pretty much non-existent, with smaller cars and bikes making room for busses and trucks, weaving in and out with no care in the world, often even pulling over curbs or into the opposite flow of traffic to avoid the bigger vehicles. 

And the noise. Busses honk to tell cars to get out of the way. Cars honk to tell bikes to get out of the way. Bikes honk to tell cars that they’re next to them or pulling out in front of them or stopping or...you know what, they’re pretty much just honking indefinitely. And the noise in the city just keeps going 24/7 because every vehicle is doing this always. And then you put pedestrians into the mix.

On streets that never have crosswalks, cars and bikes don’t stop for people to cross. You just have to blindly step out into the street and hope the oncoming traffic swerves out of your way. Which they do. Because somehow, all of this traffic chaos is completely understood by the local people.

And now imagine this scene on New Year’s Eve. Haha, yeah. Um, about that.

So I walked two stores down the street, bought some kind of pork and rice dinner and a drink, enjoyed the atmosphere for about 30 minutes. 

I then decided the New Year’s Parties weren’t  worth it and so I retreated back into my hotel room to enjoy the insanity from above. 

I read for a little while, Skyped with Mom, and then went to bed well before midnight, not regretting my lack of party in the least.

---

The next morning, I joined a tour out to Halong Bay, about 3.5 hours east of Hanoi. It’s one of the most popular tour options from Hanoi, and, after the previous night’s insanity (which hadn’t abated at all by morning), it was easy for me to see why most people who visit Hanoi prefer to take tours out of Hanoi.

The ride was long and I enjoyed napping on the bus a little, amazed at how tired I still was (but happy to be feeling almost 100% otherwise). About half-way there, we stopped for a rather interesting break.

Along the highways all over Vietnam (and in Thailand, too), there are shops that sell stone statues and sculptures. Now, these shops are everywhere. And I mean everywhere. And you would never know it were it not for the tours, but these shops are actually rest stops. Inside the plain building is a massive souvenir store that I guarantee you is larger than any souvenir store you’ve ever been in (unless you’ve been to Vietnam, of course). It’s huge, and would take way longer than our allotted 10 minutes to shop through it all (which was clearly the intention, since we were all dropped off on one end and picked up on the other). There were also food stalls and bathrooms and such of course, but seriously, you would have no idea that this place was a rest stop. At all. And it was quite funny.

But of course we didn’t spend long there, and we all piled back into the bus for another couple hours’ drive. We arrived at the harbor around 12, bought our tickets, and immediately walked out to board our quaint little yacht, just one among dozens.

We were seated in the boat’s cabin first and served an amazing seafood lunch, which I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures of (it was so good, though!) And of course, being by myself, I was awkwardly sat at a table with two other groups--a boyfriend and girlfriend from Singapore and a family from Australia with a pre-teen girl who was picky and self-absorbed and quite reminded me of me.

Once we’d finished eating, we could go outside the cabin and climb up on top of the deck to watch the stunning scenery. Of course I was visiting in January, so the weather was overcast and gloomy, but the views were still spectacular. We passed through many rock formations with our guide pointing out various interesting shapes and designs in them as we went. And about 30 minutes in to our voyage, we stopped, disembarked, and got into tiny little rowboats to explore some of the caves and formations up close.

We spent quite a while there before boarding out boat once again and sailing for a little longer. And finally, we came to Thien Cung (Heavenly Palace) Cave. We got off again, walked through the large cave, with our guide again pointing out dozens of interesting shapes and images in the rocks.

It was very interesting, but by the time we left the cave I was happy it was our last stop for the day. We returned to the harbor, boarded our bus again, and headed back to Hanoi, which we arrived at around 8:30. It had been a long day, so I went to my room immediately to just relax and make my plan for the next day.

---

The sixth day was my last in Hanoi, and I was actually leaving that afternoon. But I was eager to explore at least a little of the city before I left, and so I departed my hotel around 7:30 for some of the larger attractions in Hanoi.

My first stop was the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, which came highly recommended by Trip Advisor. The Citadel was a residence and workplace for kings and royal families for about 700 years, starting around the 11th century, and was added to many times throughout the course of its use. Most of the buildings no longer exist today, but there are excavation teams hard at work to help uncover and restore many of the buildings.

When I arrived, it was exactly 8:00, and so I was the first one through the ticket gate. It was nice to see the ruins without too many people around, and I enjoyed walking around the citadel despite the lack of English descriptions. I still don’t know much about this area, since even online the information is very vague. But the buildings were beautiful, and it was a nice way to spend a couple hours that morning.

From the citadel, I walked to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, which of course, had to be a stop on this trip. Unfortunately the building itself was closed, so I couldn’t go inside. But I looked at the building briefly before accidentally stumbling upon Ho Chi Minh’s presidential palace. I entered that, which was completely huge, and so that (rather than the Ho Chi Minh Museum), took up most of the morning.

From there, I walked a few more minutes to the Temple of Literature. Which, despite the name, had not a single piece of literature on display. But the temple was certainly impressive, and I could see why it was so high on Hanoi’s recommended attractions. I could definitely see the Chinese influence on the temple, which was a beautiful contrast to the French architecture of Hanoi.

After I’d thoroughly explored the temple, I walked a while back to the hotel, enjoying the buildings and the chaos of the city (kind of). I got back to the hotel around noon, checked out, and took an Uber out to the airport. (Who knew Uber was in Hanoi? Lucky!) I got there super early thanks to my hotel’s check out time, and so I ate while I waited for the check-in counter to open, made it through security quickly, and sat down for the long haul.

Thankfully my plane was on time, and I arrived in rainy Hue around 6:00. From there, I took a taxi to my hotel (quite the interesting place!) and went out to find a restaurant for dinner. I found one easily enough and enjoyed the much less crazy atmosphere of the smaller, historic city. I went to bed early again so I could be up bright and early for my DMZ tour the next morning.

***

Of course, there is no DMZ in Vietnam anymore. But I guess “DMZ Tour” has more of a ring to it than “Former DMZ Tour” does. Whatever.

We all crammed into a bus the next morning and drove for about an hour before picking up our guide. From there, it was another hour or so to our first attraction, the Rock Pile, which was a US army observation post and artillery base during the war. Of course there’s not much to see beside the rock, so we all pushed out of the van, took a couple pictures, and piled back in.

Our next stop was the start of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a path which was used during the war to get supplies from North Vietnam to the Vietcong in the South during the war. Of course, there are many entrances to the Trail, and this one isn’t particularly special among them, I don’t think, but still...pretty cool.

And next, we visited our main stop of the morning, the Khe Sanh Combat Base. If you know anything about the war, this area is supposedly pretty famous. There was quite a bit of fighting on the base in 1967-8, and some people consider part of the Khe Sanh defense the climactic phase of the Tet Offensive.

Now, this little base off the highway that’s barely even marked is home to a small museum and a coffee plantation. But you can still see a lot of bombs, tanks, and other weapons used by the U.S. during the war there. And the best part? You can go down in the bunkers. That was pretty cool.

We walked around the Base for a little while before loading up again and heading out for a quick lunch. In the afternoon, we drove up in the opposite direction, passing (but not stopping at) the Ben Hai River and the Hien Luong Bridge, the official divider of the North and South, positioned at exactly 17 degrees latitude. (The more you know.) 

The bridge is painted to reflect the true dividing point, with the yellow being the South and the blue the North. On either side of the river, you can see monuments as well. The South’s is a statue of a mother and child looking to the North, symbolizing all of the families that were torn apart by the border. And the North’s, unsurprisingly, is the Vietnam flag on a huge pedestal. If you stop to look at the pedestal (which we didn’t), you can also see an impressive mosaic which depicts life during the war.

About 30 minutes past the river, we came to the afternoon’s main attraction, the Vinh Moc Tunnels. During the war, the U.S. believed that the people who lived in Vinh Moc were supplying food and weapons to the North, which was keeping the U.S. from moving farther north toward Hanoi. So the U.S., in typical fashion, dropped a lot of bombs to scare the people of Vinh Moc away. But instead of running from their homes, they built some very impressive tunnels to help them wait out the war.

The tunnels formed a village some 30 meters below ground, which was used between 1966 and 1972. The complex is massive, and includes wells, kitchens, rooms for each family, a doctor’s office, and even a birthing room. As many locals will proudly tell you if you visit the area, at least 17 babies were born in the tunnels.

We spent most of the afternoon exploring the tunnels before we headed off to our final destination, a cemetery on the side of the road for unidentified soldiers. We paid our respects and loaded up again for the long ride back to Hue.

That night I wandered around the city for a while, looking for something interesting, but I didn’t find much. So I ate a quick dinner and returned to my creepy hotel room for my last night in Hue.

---

The next day, I was following a similar schedule to my last day in Hanoi. I woke up early and headed out into Hue for the sights of the inner city and its main attraction, the Forbidden Purple City.

Similar to the Forbidden City in China, this area was once reserved strictly for the emperor. It was built in 1804. Inside the fortress there were once many buildings which were used by the emperor and his family for generations. Its buried within the Royal Citadel, a larger area which encompassed all of the royal family’s court buildings, temples, gardens, and pavilions. You could easily spend an entire day exploring the Royal Citadel, despite there being very few buildings left standing today (thanks to the war).

Because of its vast space, I spent most of the morning at the Citadel and didn’t make it to many of the other places of interest in the Main Citadel (yes, Hue is essentially a citadel within a citadel within a citadel). But I definitely enjoyed the Forbidden City.

I returned to the hotel around 11, packed up, and caught my bus to Hoi An. This included about 20 people being crammed into a mini-van (plus luggage), which was very skillfully (crazily?) organized by our driver. We drove about 10 minutes to the bus station and then transferred to a larger highway bus which, despite it being the middle of the day, was a full sleeper bus. It was actually quite comfortable, and very different from Japan’s sleeper busses. Each seat was essentially a bed which would be sat up to make a reclining chair if you were lucky and your seat wasn’t broken (I think all of them were). You have to take your shoes off when you get on the bus and keep them in a plastic bag so you don’t make the seats dirty.

The bus was cheap and uneventful, and we arrived in Hoi An around 5, just as the rain started up again. I dug my umbrella out of my luggage (happy once again that I’d brought one from home) and walked about 10 minutes to my hotel. I checked in and set out to explore beautiful Hoi An, my favorite place on this trip.

Hoi An is a small little town by the ocean that’s not really famous for any reason outside of its genuine beauty. The town is quaint and easy-going, and is mostly made up of a World Herritage Site called Hoi An Old Town. You have to buy a ticket to enter the town (which can be used for your whole trip), and the area is absolutely worth it. The buildings are done in old-fashioned European architecture, reminiscent of the French occupation in Vietnam in the 1800s. But there are other structures like temples and bridges that are done up in Chinese and Japanese style as well, including a very famous Japanese covered bridge with a shrine inside.

And from all of the buildings are hung lanterns.

There are no cars or bikes in the Old Town, just people, which makes the atmosphere very peaceful. You can walk along the overpriced tourist shops for hours, eat at any number of restaurants with river views, take a boat down the river, buy a candle to set sail, and visit a night market in the town. It’s no wonder Hoi An is supposedly the most popular tourist destination in Vietnam. I was certainly glad I went.

Things were a little crowded that first night thanks to the rain and everyone’s umbrellas, but I still managed to enjoy window shopping and relaxing by the river, glad to be somewhere that seemed free of Vietnam’s general chaos and noise. I returned to my room that night happy and ready for an adventure the next day.

---

I’ve mentioned it a little before now, but in Vietnam, almost everyone travels by motorbike. And so one of the most popular things to do is take a motorbike tour into the countryside, especially to visit some of the beautiful scenes nearby. And so, in the spirit of adventure, I hired a guide who took me on a private motorbike tour out of Hoi An and into the rice fields, with a final stop at My Son Sanctuary.

My Son is another World Heritage Site--ruins of a religious sanctuary from the 4th through 13th centuries in a similar style to that of Ayutthaya in Thailand and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It’s much smaller than either of those places, but the similarities are easily seen. I was lucky enough to get there right as they opened (thanks to my amazing guide), and so I enjoyed the sanctuary with very few people around. 

It took a couple hours to go around the entire area, and finally I met my guide at the entrance again and we were off again, weaving in and out of the rice fields and just enjoying the scenery.

About 11:00 my guide dropped me off at the hotel again, and I readied myself for a day at the nearby beach to enjoy the beautiful weather that had magically appeared overnight. But as I was leaving the hotel, the owner of the company I’d used for the morning’s tour was waiting outside, clearly expecting to pick up someone else for a tour. She offered a couple other packages and, having nothing better to do and really wanting to see some more of the area, I decided to hop back on the bike and head off with her for an action-packed afternoon.

We rode up to the nearby city of Da Nang to visit the stunning Marble Mountains. These are five mountains made of limestone and marble which offer stunning views of the ocean and surrounding areas. The mountains are also dotted with temples, shrines, caves, and monuments, which, of course, make them a very over-priced tourist destination. But whatever, I wanted to see them and I enjoyed it a lot. My guide was extremely friendly and spoke very good English, and she spent most of the afternoon leading me through caves and taking my picture over and over again.

When we finally finished there, we rode back down the highway to Hoi An, where we did stop at the beach for a bit, just long enough to take some pictures. After the beach we went through some more ride fields, and stopped at a local market. 

And then, we finally made our way over to the biggest tourist trap of all, the coconut boat tours.

If you don’t know, a coconut boat is a large, round, brown boat which looks kind of like a coconut cut in half. It’s popular to take an “eco” tour in them through the water coconut trees. 

Mostly it’s a lot of goofing off, and throughout the tour the guide pulls up to trees many times, rips some of the leaves from the plants, and fashions them into interesting items such as crowns and necklaces for the customers. Interesting...but a bit overpriced.

Not to mention... what the heck am I supposed to do with this thing?

And at last, we had dinner and she dropped me off at the hotel again, where I changed (again) and headed out for another enjoyable night in the Old Town. The rain was nowhere to be found, and I was able to really appreciate the lanterns and the atmosphere. 

I bought a couple of over-priced souvenirs and wandered back to the hotel again to wash off the bike exhaust and go to bed.

---

My last day in Hoi An came lazily, and I didn’t wake up until around 10. I wandered into the Old Town one last time to enjoy breakfast and finally take in a couple of the temples and old buildings in the daylight.

Finally I packed up and hopped in a bus to the airport. Where I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally, my 5 hour delayed plane arrived and whisked me off to Ho Chi Minh City.

I arrived around 8 and took a bus to my downtown hotel, marveling at the chic and modern city, completely different from the grunge of Hanoi. I was exhausted that night, and just managed to eat a little before I went to sleep. For the most part, it was a short and uneventful day.

---

And finally, my last day in Vietnam arrived. I woke early, checked out, dropped my stuff off at the front desk for the day, and hopped into my final tour which would take me out to the well-known Cu Chi Tunnels.

This tour in particular, I paid a lot more for than I should have. I booked it online in advance so I wouldn’t have to fuss with navigating the city on my own. And despite the cost, I would up really lucking out. There were only three of us on the tour, me and a couple from Australia who were touring around Southeast Asia together for their anniversary. And we had the most amazing guide, a man who had actually lived in Cu Chi and fought in the tunnels during the war. He knew so much about the area and he had all of the best insider information.

We got to the tunnels early, before most of the other tour busses arrived, and we bypassed the introductory video for the time being, heading straight out into the (heavily landscaped) jungle to avoid the crowds. We passed along the pathways, stopping at all the exhibits to learn about the guerilla warfare tactics and weapons used during the war. It was very interesting!

And last, we stopped in the tunnels themselves, and were able to explore the inside with a guide (not our guide, unfortunately). They were dark and narrow enough that no pictures turned out and they were so low it was hard to imagine anyone running around inside them. Not to mention the tunnels had been widened for tourists...the original tunnels would have been much narrower.

We took a break after the tunnels for some boiled tapioca and green tea...a surprisingly delicious snack. And finally, we popped back around to watch the video which, as our guide had promised us, was made during the war and was nothing but propaganda.

We got back into the bus around 11 and headed back to the City, where we stopped for some delicious pho. After lunch, we drove around Chinatown for a while (it’s massive!) and finally arrived at our next stop, the War Remnants Museum. The museum was massive and extremely interesting, if a bit confusing at times. But it was even more interesting to see how much propaganda was still around in the museum--how much the outcome of the war colors what really happened during that time (in favor of the North, of course). We spent most of the afternoon in the museum before heading off to our next stop, Reunification Palace.

This beautiful building was the home and workplace of the president of South Vietnam during the war. In it, you can see many beautiful rooms and items, similar to what you might expect to see in any other major political figure’s residence. The most interesting part of this building was its underground bunker, which was made, of course, to protect the president in case of attack. It was only used for one day, on the last day of the war.

And one more interesting fact about the palace--at one time, a bomb was dropped on the building while the president was inside. The bomb was supposed to kill the president. But someone messed up, because the president was on the opposite side of the building. The building was, of course, reconstructed, but there’s a target printed on the roof of the building where the bomb hit.

Finally, after the palace, we headed to our final stop, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which is right next to the Ho Chi Minh City train station. Both buildings were very beautiful and interesting, but because the cathedral was closed, we only spent a little time there.

I was dropped off at my hotel around 5:00, and, having already checked out, I grabbed my bag and called an Uber to the airport. Where I sat around and read/napped until my 2 AM flight.

Thus ended my long trip in Vietnam.

---

I actually managed to sleep well enough on the plane, and I took the train home from Tokyo, arriving in Shiojiri with a small blizzard. Quite the contrast to the hot sunny weather of Saigon. I enjoyed a day off to rest up at home before work, happy that I allowed myself that time to relax.

Although I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam, it was not my favorite trip outside of Japan (that’s still Thailand, although Taiwan hit a close second). I probably won’t ever go back, so I was glad I planned to hit most of the major tourist spots on this trip. I’m also glad I was able to learn a little more about the war up close. It’s definitely a country I’d recommend to others (despite the ridiculous visa costs!)

When I finished this trip I thought I’d be done with SE Asia for a while, but not it seems like I lied to myself. I’m planning a trip to Singapore and Cambodia for spring break, with maybe Malaysia thrown in just because why not (if money and vacation time, of course). If I go, I’ll probably be traveling with a friend, which will definitely be an adventure. (Yes, she has been warned, and, even though I think she’s crazy, we’re still going to try. Please wish her luck...she’ll need it.)

And after spring vacation, I’ll hopefully have one more trip over Golden Week in May, when I still hope to hit the Philippines, even if it’s only for a couple days. And that will likely be my last trip before I leave Japan. If I succeed, I’ll have hit all of the countries I really want to go to while I’m here, which is great. There are, of course, many more places in Japan I want to visit, but that way I see it, those are just excuses for me to come back and visit everyone in the future. ;)

[ookamirinchan]

Winter Vacation Pt. 1- Taipei

So...hi. It’s been a long time since I wrote anything for this blog...almost a year! Yikes!  Partly, that’s because I haven’t taken any really cool trips lately (well, except back to the States for a bit, but that, while fun, isn’t really something I needed to write about). But it was mostly due to simple lack of time. This year I took on what should have been a doable amount of work, which turned into insanity for many reasons and has left me equal parts too busy to even think about writing and free enough to want nothing more than a book or TV show without interruption. And so, even though I’ve had cool things I could have written about, good old RL has gotten in the way despite my best efforts. Oh well. Maybe I’ll play catch-up in a while and start writing about some of the cool stuff that’s happened over the last year(!), but for the time being, I’ll focus on my most recent trip over winter vacation.

This trip was a long time coming, as I’d been saying for over a year that I wanted to hit Vietnam before I leave Japan. Of course a quick Google search taught me that I needed a long time to spend in Vietnam, so I could hit all of the interesting areas in the very long country. And, you know, while I’m at it, I might as well hit Cambodia, too.

So initially, a pinball tour of Vietnam was planned with a follow-up of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. But it turns out I’d need a long time to visit those places too (they’re surprisingly far apart), and I wound up deciding that I’d rather hit Ho Chi Minh City than visit Cambodia. So the trip became just Vietnam.

But then, when booking flights, I learned that pretty much all of the discount airliners en route to Hanoi have a layover somewhere. And one of these layovers was in Taipei. Taiwan is half-way between Japan and Vietnam...so why not stop there for a couple days? A quick search confirmed that I wouldn’t need a visa for Taiwan, and so that settled that. A twelve-day trip with 3 planned travel days, 2 days in Taipei, and 7 in Vietnam.

With so much travel involved (not to mention the general chaos of SE Asia), I knew it would be a stressful trip. But I hoped I could enjoy it anyway. And by the time winter vacation rolled around, after three months of non-stop stress and problems, I was so ready for some time away from everyone I didn’t even care where I was going or what I was going to do, just so long as I had an excuse to NOT respond to people’s messages for a couple weeks.

But, of course, my luck for the year was still against me, and I wound up with a monster case of strep throat two days before leaving. So that was fun. And by the time Tuesday night rolled around, I was still sick enough to heavily consider just not going. But I’d been to the doctor and I’d gotten my medicine, so against my better judgment I walked the 40 minutes to the station so I could take a train so I could catch a night bus headed to Osaka.

I didn’t feel much better that morning, and while I hung out in Osaka Station to pass the time before my mid-afternoon flight, I again contemplated just finding a hotel somewhere in Osaka, just skipping Taipei, and booking another flight to Hanoi for a couple days later. The decision was backed by a friend of mine questioning whether I’d make it through quarantine/customs with a 102 fever. She probably had a point. But thankfully, the fever broke later that morning while I was poking around the Pokemon Center and, though my throat still hurt, I figured the medicine was actually working and I should at least try to go.  

And so I went out to the airport and caught my 3-hour flight to Taipei.

The plane arrived around 7, but it was another hour before I’d gotten through the insane line at immigration. And then it was almost 8 before I could catch a bus to the city, and about 9 when I finally arrived.

I ate dinner from the supermarket under my hostel and went to bed.

---

My second day, I felt a little better, and I was glad to see the fever was still gone. And I was determined to make the day worth it.

I planned to take the metro out to Taipei 101 first, go up to the top and enjoy the views, and then head down to the south tip of the city. But as I was sitting on the metro, I decided it made more sense (because fewer transfers) if I just went south first and then went to Taipei 101 after. So down I went, near Taipei Zoo, which actually looked quite nice, though I wasn’t there for it. Instead, I walked just past the Zoo to the Maokong Gondola.

The Maokong Gondola runs up a mountain near the Zoo, and is popular with tourists for great views of the city and some quaint little teahouses at the top. I got there early, as soon as they opened, and so there wasn’t much of a line. I decided to try to the “Crystal Cabins,” which came highly recommended by the tourist sites.

Now, my first mistake was assuming that the wait would be short. There were only about 7 people in front of me for the crystal cabin (with no wait for the other cabins), but I waited for about 30 minutes. And on top of that, the crystal cabins aren’t actually see-through. Well, the bottoms are see-through, but what’s the point of that? Anyway, I wound up sharing a cabin with a young couple and their baby who spent half of the trip screaming and the other half sleeping. But despite the overcast weather of Taiwan in December, I still got some great views. And 20 minutes later, we pulled into the station at the top of the mountain.

Now, the thing to do at Maokong is to visit a teahouse. But the tea is so expensive. So forget that, I thought, and decided to explore the massive mountaintop a bit first. I passed a lot of teahouses of course, and some walking paths, and many, many cat statues.

I learned later that Maokong means “no cats.” Nobody’s really sure why the mountain was named this, except that maybe, at one time long ago, no cats lived on the mountain. So now, of course, they’ve fixed such a problem(?) with the statues. The more you know.

Anyway, I kept kidding myself into thinking I’d eventually stop at a teahouse, but I just kept walking. I followed a couple of the leisurely little walking paths off the main road and got some stunning views of the city (and what would be my only glimpse of Taipei 101).

When I made it back to the gondola finally, it was nearing noon and I was starting to get hungry. And so I looked at the teahouses again which, of course, only served tea. There were some street food stalls, but a quick glance there proved there wouldn’t be anything soft enough for my still-sore throat, and so I bought some dried fruit from the convenience store and rode back down the mountain.

I was eager to get on to the next attraction because I wanted to make sure I could visit everywhere I wanted to see (and Maokong had taken a lot longer than expected). I knew I could have gone out to Taipei 101 like I had planned (and I probably could have had a proper lunch there, too), but I decided against the out-of-the-way trip, instead heading directly to  the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

I was in a hurry to get there because I had no idea how long it would take to explore. And the pictures online made it look huge. So I figured I’d spend at least an hour there, probably more. But the memorial is just that--a memorial building, with not much to do in the area. There is a nice garden, but the two large buildings on either side are performance halls, neither of which were open during the day. I took a few pictures and left within 30 minutes, suddenly putting me way ahead of schedule.

I decided to stop by the Ximending shopping street for a while to pass the time before my next attraction. I walked for over an hour, but apart from some interesting advertisements, nothing really caught my attention.

I walked back over to the station, where I stopped by another highly recommended attraction, the Red House. This building was built about a century ago, and today is a center for cultural and performing arts. It’s the kind of place where you can go see traditional art being made (and probably pay to try making it yourself). It sounded like a lot of fun, but as I walked up to it, I noticed the face of the building was covered by a huge tarp, which had the picture of the building on it. “Under renovation,” it said, and I was sad.

Luckily, the art market under the building was still open, and I enjoyed shopping there for a little while before I gave up and took the train out to the next destination.

It was only about 3:30 when I got to Lungshan Temple, probably the most famous temple in Taiwan. When I arrived, it was overflowing with visitors (possibly because of the new year?) who were praying and waving incense around. I pushed my way around them through the temple a little, but gave up quickly, sure I was probably disturbing them by walking around and taking pictures.

And so ended the “daylight” part of my day’s plan, with still 2 hours of sun left. Now what?

I went into the metro for a little while to explore the shopping mall in the station which was pretty much non-existent. And then I decided to just walk around for a while until the sun set.

Luckily, I ran into Bopiliao Old Quarter, which is a nice historic district that’s famous for filmmakers and photographers. There are a lot of interesting old buildings there, as well as a deceptively huge museum where you can learn a lot about the district’s history.

I spent about an hour in the museum and then decided that, even though the sun hadn’t quite set yet, it was past 4:30, which meant the night markets should technically be open. I found the one near the station and walked for a few minutes, decided there wasn’t much of interest there, and chose to go try and find dinner somewhere else.

I went to Taipei Main Station, where I was sure I could find some restaurants. And after wandering the labyrinth of underground shops for another hour (mostly giving up on food and enjoying all the cool character merch I was finding), I finally found some food. However, none of it was Taipei food. I walked up and down the restaurant hallway passing Korean, Japanese, Chinese, frozen yogurt, Italian, and, of course, McDonald’s, before I finally found somewhere that looked promising. I went inside, played point to the picture and hope it’s good, and wound up with this:

It was hot and sour soup. Which would have been frustrating on a normal day since I absolutely can’t tolerate spicy, but it was even worse with my throat. I downed about half of it, trying to not seem too rude, and then ran down the hall to the frozen yogurt place. Then I gave up and stopped at the 7-11 down the street from my hostel for some take-out cup noodles (where I learned a fun fact--in Taipei, you have to request a plastic bag at the convenience store and pay for it. Which explained why everyone was eating in the convenience store. Who knew?).

That night, as I was eating my noodles in the hostel common room and planning the next day’s itinerary, I met a couple from Japan and a man who had lived in a bunch of different foreign countries. We talked for a long time, and by the time I escaped back to my room and finished my plan it was past midnight. Oops? I went to bed.

---

Day 3 was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment adventure. Kind of.

When I was first planning this day, way back before December even started, I planned to head out to a national park near Taipei. It was easily accessible from the city and looked like it had some amazing sights and great hiking, which sounded like a lot of fun. I figured, if the weather was nice, I’d try to go up and enjoy it.

But then I got sick and I decided before I got on the plane that I probably wasn’t going to do any hiking. I’d just have to find something else to do instead.

But then I felt mostly better. And so I decided to still visit the park, just without all of the hiking I’d originally planned to do. Although it’s common to visit this park and hike from one side to the other (which I’d originally wanted to do), it was also possible to buy a shuttle bus ticket to hop-on-hop-off all day long and still see all the recommended sights.

And so, on day 3, I woke up super early and caught a bus from Taipei Main Station up to Yangmingshan National Park Bus Center, where I bought a ticket and caught the loop bus.

I first stopped at the Visitor’s Center, the first stop. Which was fine, except the visitor’s center was under renovation. So it was closed. And the shop was closed because it wasn’t 8:00 yet. So I sat at the bus stop for a while and tried to plan out the most event-filled tour of the park I could come up with while still finishing by about 2 in the afternoon (to leave time for my next plan, of course). While I waited, I started to regret not dressing more warmly for the cloudy, chilly mountain area. The springlike warm weather of Taipei didn’t quite stretch up to Yangmingshan.

Finally, the bus came and I rode it up to Erziping, a valley between two of the mountains with a couple ponds, a lovely view of one of the mountains, and a few hiking trails, about a 30-minute walk from the bus stop.

I walked there quickly, eager to see it and move on, but once I arrived, I decided I really wanted to hike around a bit. So despite not having any gear, I took a short hike out to a mountain peak, which I never actually reached because 600 meters worth of stairs. Still, I saw some interesting scenes and I was glad I went, despite the cold and my lack of food and water.

On the way back down, I met a local man who spoke a little English and probably came to the park all the time. The poor man was clearly trying to be helpful, and he asked me where I was going. I said I was going back to the bus stop, and he didn’t quite seem to understand that I intended to catch the bus to my next destination, which I had showed him on my map. “It’s too far,” he kept saying, and despite my clearly not having any sort of provisions or gear, kept trying to talk me into hiking to the other side of the park. It took about 10 minutes for me to convince him that I did intend to take the bus and that I knew exactly where I was going, and he conceded that it was doable. Then I ran away, back to the bus stop, before he could change his mind.

When I arrived at the bus stop, it was raining and was even colder than it had been that morning. I was glad when the bus came and we all crammed into the small space to ride off to the next destination, Xiaoyoukeng.

Xiaoyoukeng is a post-volcanic landscape on the side of the tallest mountain in the park. There you can see fumaroles and sulfur crystals on the mountainside.

It’s interesting, but it doesn’t take up the 30 minutes between busses, so I stopped for some warm food for lunch (and to buy gloves!), followed by a walk through a short bamboo trail and finishing off in the visitor’s center, which quite conveniently told me when the next bus would come. I caught it around 12:30, so cold and exhausted that I was quite certain I was just going to head back into the city.

I changed my mind on the bus, and, in a spur of the moment decision, hopped off at Quintiangang, a large grassland area on the mountain where settlers lived once upon a time. Now you can walk along a (surprisingly long) trail to see some of their settlement and, supposedly, some wild cows.

I didn’t see any cows or many buildings (though I walked for over an hour). But I did see quite a lot of cow poop, which proved they must have been hiding in the tall grass somewhere. And I also saw at least 3 brides, who were out having probably wedding photos taken, in their dresses, in the mud and rain. I sincerely hoped they’d already had the wedding.

I also climbed to the top of a small mountain while there, before heading back down to the visitor’s center to wait for the bus. It was here I learned that a bus would leave from Quintiangang that would go directly to Taipei Main Station, without me having to transfer at the Yangmingshan bus center. It was a lucky find, though everyone else had the same idea. I stood in the queue for almost 30 minutes so I could make sure to get on the bus and get a seat. And I was glad I had, because we must have piled about 50 people onto that bus. It was completely packed, so much so that we couldn’t pick anyone else up at any of the other stops we made. And we rode like that for an hour back into the city, where I got off near a station from where I could take the metro to Tamsui, my next destination. It was around 3:00 when I caught the train--right on schedule--and just before 4 when I arrived at Tamsui, a district on the northern tip of Taiwan that’s famous for its historic buildings, shopping, and gorgeous sunset on the ocean.

I walked around for a long time, weaving in and out of the shops and finally letting myself stop and buy some souvenirs. And some Totoro merch because the Totoro merch was everywhere and just so cute!

And, just as the sun was setting, I caught a boat from Tamsui to an island off the coast called Bali.

There, I shopped for a little while longer and got some street food for dinner, before taking the boat back to Tamsui and shopping some more. And once I was completely exhausted, I took the train back to the hostel (bypassing another plan I’d had to visit Taipei 101), showered, and slept.

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And thus ended (most of) my time in Taipei. It was definitely a fun visit, and I was really glad I’d decided to stop and enjoy it. Honestly it was a lot more fun than Vietnam was, and I hope I can go back some day. With money. Because seriously. So. Much. Merch. But it would also be cool to explore more of Taiwan. It looks like a beautiful little country. 

Next will be the very long post about Vietnam. So, um, stay tuned I guess.

[ookamirinchan]

Return to Kyushu, 2016

It’s spring time in Japan (finally), which meant all kinds of fun things, like graduation and teachers leaving and new teachers coming and lots of expensive parties that I’m obligated to attend…but it also meant spring break. But due to many unexpected expenses such as getting a car, I had very little money to actually do anything. So I gave up on the idea of Vietnam (as fun as that would have been) and decided to hit up the south of Japan one more time and finish off the island of Kyushu.

Kyushu means “nine provinces” because once upon a time there were nine of them. Now, there’s only seven, four of which (Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, and Saga) I visited on a rather stressful trip last spring break. But it seems I’d missed the best half, and so I decided to make the long trek down again and visit the remaining three prefectures--Oita, Miyazaki, and Kagoshima.

***

Day 1: Travel

The first day of my trip, as usual, was marked with various forms of travel. Between the express train, the plane, and the bus, it took most of the day to get down to Beppu in Oita prefecture. I was pretty tired once I checked into my guest house, and was ready to just find food and an onsen before going to bed.

But there was this cute little Japanese girl and her mother who checked in at the same time as me, and the girl’s face just lit up when she saw her first foreigner. And as tired as I was, she was just so cute and excited and I just couldn’t pretend that I didn’t understand all the questions she was asking me. And once her mother found out that I could actually half-way understand what they were saying, I found myself invited on a search for dinner and onsen with the two of them.

We had a good time together, and I was introduced to one of the local specialties (something called Tentori, which seems to be fried chicken in tempura style) which the woman was nice enough to pay for. Then we visited a really, really old onsen called Takegawara. So old that they didn’t have running showers at all, and you had to do things the old-fashioned way of washing yourself with a bucket of water pulled from the bath (this option was not made for foreigners with thick hair, let me tell you). The bath water was extremely hot, and we could only stay in for about 10 minutes, but we had a good time. And after our fun late-night Beppu adventure, we said good night and parted ways.

 ***

Day 2: Beppu Onsen

When people in Japan think of Oita prefecture, they think of Beppu, which is why I chose to spend my time here instead of in Oita City. Beppu is very famous for its hot springs. There are many, many hot springs in Beppu (thus the name, Beppu Onsen)--in fact, Beppu has the second largest number of hot springs in the world, next to Yellowstone.

Because of the number of hot springs, visiting said hot springs is what you do in Beppu. But because the natural temperature of the hot springs is so hot, you can’t actually bathe in most of them. And so they’ve become tourist attractions that the Japanese people call “jigoku” or “hells.”

On my first morning in Beppu, I boarded a tour bus for an all-Japanese tour to visit all 8 of the Beppu Hells. This was a really good idea (even though I couldn’t really understand much of what the tour guide said) because it was efficient and fast.

We first visited Umi Jigoku, or “sea hell,” a beautiful pit of boiling blue water. And steam. Lots, and lots of steam.

We walked around the spring quickly, enjoying the steam and bypassing the gift shop completely (definitely a good thing, in my case) and then made our way up to Oniishibozu Jogoku or “shaved demon stone hell.” This hell is made up of several small pools of mud which bubble, looking like rocks or demon heads or something to that extent, I guess…? There was also a foot bath and a public bath, but we didn’t stop for those either.

The third stop was Yama Jigoku or “mountain hell.” There wasn’t much special here, just a smoking pool and a run-down zoo with hippos and such in it. Next!

Fourth was Kamado Jigoku or “cooking pot hell,” named because it was once used as such before tourism was a thing. There was a silly statue of a demon on top of the main pool, and you could buy various foods here like eggs and sweet potatoes that had been cooked using the water/steam from the pool. You could also drink the water (provided you could stand the heat), have a foot bath, and there was this funny little station where you could breathe in the steam. There was a sign claiming that if you had the flu, the steam would cure you. I guess it was pretty strong… And then there was another large smoking pool, where an employee was showing how you could hold a cigarette over the pool and blow on it and it would light. Pretty interesting!

The fifth stop was Oniyama Jigoku, “demon mountain hell.” There wasn’t much to see here either, though you could once again buy hot spring-cooked foods. They also had a rather extensive crocodile farm going here, since the temperature of the water is apparently good for crocodile breeding.

And sixth was Shiraike Jigoku, “white pond hell.” It was another smoking blue pool, larger than the first we saw, and with a lovely little garden surrounding it. There was also a run-down aquarium here, with some scary-looking fish.

All of these hells were within easy walking distance of each other, though the last two were a bit farther along. So we loaded up into the bus and headed off to see them. We then visited the seventh hell, Chinoike Jigoku, or “blood pool hell.” This one certainly lived up to its name, and featured a bright red pool of smoking water. Pretty cool, though again there wasn’t much to see. I spent most of the time here in the gift shop, though I didn’t buy anything. I did see one of the most common Beppu souvenirs, though--T-shirts, hats, towels, etc. all with the phrase “Every day is hell” written in Japanese. Too funny!

And finally, we visited the final hell, Tatsumaki Jigoku, or “spout hell” which is basically a geyser which erupts every half hour or so.

We got there just in time to see it, and then we headed off, back to the station. The whole tour only took about 2.5 hours, so I still had most of the day left to spend. And although the day had started out fairly cloudy, it had cleared up by lunch, and so I decided to stick to my original plan and visit Mt. Tsurumi and the Beppu Ropeway.

Mt. Tsurumi is an icon of Beppu, and the ropeway is very famous. From the top of the mountain you can even see Osaka City and Shikoku (another of the major Japanese islands). You can, of course, take the quick and easy way to the top, with a 10-minute ropeway ride that costs roughly $15 round trip, or you can spend about 2 hours climbing up. Since I had nothing better to do and the weather seemed fine, I decided I might as well climb. So I did. It took right at 2 hours to climb, despite the fact that 30 minutes in the weather changed and the clouds rolled in. It was even raining for a time, but I kept going, spending the whole 2 hours mentally whining about how out of shape I clearly became over winter. I made it to the ropeway and then climbed the last few meters to the top, freezing cold, soaking wet, and absolutely covered in mud. And there was no view, of course, because of the clouds. Oh well.

I was too cold and rainy for me to want to climb back down, so I took the easy way out and paid the $8 for the ropeway ticket back down. It only took a couple minutes to bypass the clouds and get a decent view of the city, which was nice. When I got down to the bottom I caught the bus back to the hostel, grabbed a bag of clean clothes, and headed off to a different onsen, this one very close to the hostel. And despite the “newer” feel of this onsen, the showers only had cold water, so you could use the freezing cold showerhead, or you could do it the old fashioned way. So I used the buckets again, and though I managed to get all my hair wet, I never quite felt like I washed all that shampoo out. But I was too tired to care, and just got into the bath.

After another quick soak I got out, redressed, and, since I still had a little time left in the day, I headed down to Beppu Tower, a pitiful little tower that’s only about 100 meters tall. I still got some nice views of the city, though, and then ate a quick dinner before going back to the hostel and passing out around 8.

 ***

Day 3: Yufuin and the Long Journey to Miyazaki

The next day I got up early again, and quietly checked out of the hostel without waking anyone up. From there I headed to Beppu Station, where I caught a bus to a nearby onsen town called Yufuin.

Now, originally, I had planned to climb Mt. Yufu and then visit the nearby lake before heading to Miyazaki City. But this was before a problem with my car rental came up and I had to rely on public transportation to get me to Miyazaki City.

But that was okay, because I found something I thought I would rather do in Yufuin on this day. It turns out that Yufuin has a cute little shopping district. And in this shopping district there is a small little shopping area called Yufuin Floral Village. And in this shopping area is a theme bakery called “Kiki’s Bakery,” which is loosely based on an anime movie called Kiki’s Delivery Service.  And so I happily gave up on climbing a mountain in exchange for visiting Kiki’s Bakery.

Yes, I went to a shopping district solely so that I could visit a theme bakery. And, it turns out, not a very good theme bakery, either, despite the cute name plate with the broom and the Jiji-in-a-bird-cage hanging outside the door.

Turns out Yufuin Floral Village is actually really, really small. And all of the shops are really, really small. Seriously, Kiki’s Bakery could only have been about 10 square feet. (They did have some really good scones, though). And so I left the bakery quickly and headed back though the shopping district, stopping at the Ghibli store and (finally) buying the expensive Kodama plush that I’d been eyeing for ages, simply because I knew he’d come in handy later in my trip.

I made it back to the station well before the next train, and so I ate some yummy French toast in a cute little café nearby before hopping on the old train and riding the hour to Oita City. There I waited another hour and caught the expensive and long (5-hours!) express train down to Miyazaki. Luckily the ride was beautiful, and we followed to coastline the whole way down. I got to Miyazaki City, walked the 10 minutes to my hotel, checked in, and went off in search of a conbini for dinner and laundry soap so I could fix my muddy jeans. Then I returned to the hotel, did some laundry, Skyped Mom, and went to bed after a long and relatively uneventful day.

 ***

Day 4: Takachiho

Miyazaki prefecture is one of those few prefectures that you research online and it looks like there is absolutely nothing to do. And that’s true, for the most part…at least not in Miyazaki City. There’s a pretty beach, but it was still a bit too cold to do anything there, and so I was left with plan B, aka- tour the entire prefecture to do cool things.

Miyazaki prefecture, as it turns out, is the birthplace of Japanese mythology which, if you don’t know much about it, is quite extensive and interesting. And although no one in Japan really believes these myths anymore, everyone knows them.So I set out to do what I very rarely do on vacation in Japan these days--shrine touring.

(The story of the gods and a convenient little family tree)

I picked up a rental car near the station first, since many of the famous shrines are outside the city, and headed off to the first one, nearby Miyazaki Shrine. This shrine is one of the oldest still standing in Japan, with the main shrine building having been erected in 1197. It’s dedicated to the first Emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu, who himself is kind of a mythological figure, having supposedly been born from the gods Ugayafukiaezu-no-mikoto and Tamayori-hime (try saying those 5 times fast…or, you know, even once…) Nearby you can also visit the Emperor’s birthplace and residence.

I got there early and the place was nearly deserted, which was nice. It was a beautiful shrine, with lots of gardens and walking paths, but I didn’t stay long before heading to my second destination, Eda Shrine, where the mythology actually starts to get interesting.

Japan has two “founding” gods, Izanagi and Izanami, who created the many islands of Japan. Here is their story if you care, courtesy of mythencyclopedia.com:

According to legend, after their birth Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of heaven and stirred the primeval ocean with a jeweled spear. When they lifted the spear, the drops that fell back into the water formed the first solid land, an island called Onogoro. Izanagi and Izanami descended to the island and became husband and wife. Their first child was deformed, and the other gods said it was because Izanami spoke before her husband at their marriage ceremony.

The couple performed another wedding ceremony, this time correctly. Izanami soon gave birth to eight lovely children, who became the islands of Japan. Izanagi and Izanami then created many gods and goddesses to represent the mountains, valleys, waterfalls, streams, winds, and other natural features of Japan. However, during the birth of Kagutsuchi, the fire god, Izanami was badly burned. As she lay dying, she continued to create gods and goddesses, and still other deities emerged from the tears of the grief-stricken Izanagi.

When Izanami died, she went to Yomi-tsu Kuni. Izanagi decided to go there and bring his beloved back from the land of darkness and death. Izanami greeted Izanagi from the shadows as he approached the entrance to Yomi. She warned him not to look at her and said that she would try to arrange for her release from the gods of Yomi. Full of desire for his wife, Izanagi lit a torch and looked into Yomi. Horrified to see that Izanami was a rotting corpse, Izanagi fled.

Angry that Izanagi had not respected her wishes, Izanami sent hideous female spirits, eight thunder gods, and an army of fierce warriors to chase him. Izanagi managed to escape and blocked the pass between Yomi and the land of the living with a huge boulder. Izanami met him there, and they broke off their marriage.

Izanagi felt unclean because of his contact with the dead, and he took a bath to purify himself. A number of gods and goddesses, both good and evil, emerged from his discarded clothing as Izanagi bathed. The sun goddess Amaterasu appeared from his left eye, the moon god Tsuki-yomi appeared from his right eye, and Susano-ô came from his nose. Proud of these three noble children, Izanagi divided his kingdom among them.

And so, many centuries later, Eda Shrine was built near Misogi Pond in Miyazaki Prefecture, the place where Izanagi took a bath, to honor the two creators of Japan.

Eda Shrine was beautiful and clean, just like Miyazaki Shrine, and again I was early enough to avoid the crowds. It’s also connected to a large forested park with dozens of different walking trails, one of which leads over to Misogi Pond.

But again, I didn’t stay long, as I had a rather long day trip ahead of me to visit a little city called Takachiho, which is most famous for its stunning gorge, but also famous for its mythology. It’s also a 2 hour drive North of Miyazaki City, hence the rental car.

Takachiho has two major myths surrounding it. The first, is that Takachiho is the place where Amaterasu (the sun goddess) sent her grandson Ninigi from the heavens to live on Earth and plant rice. Takachiho is supposedly the place that she sent him. Ninigi is the great grandfather of Emperor Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan, so it’s a fairly significant place. It’s also where Amaterasu gifted Ninigi with the mirror (Yata no Kagami), the jewel (Yasakani no Magatama), and the sword (Kusanagi no Tsurugi). All three of these objects play important roles in various myths, and today remain the imperial symbols of Japan.

But the primary mythology here surrounds the Amano Iwato Shrine, which was my first stop and is the location of a very famous cave, said to be the cave where the sun goddess Amaterasu hid after a feud with her brother, thereby ridding the world of the sun. She stayed there until Amenouzume, goddess of dawn and mirth, tricked her back out by dancing and stripping in front of the cave’s entrance. The sight caused so much laugher from the other gods that Amaterasu peaked around the boulder she had used to seal the cave to see what was going on, and Amenouzume pulled her out.

You can visit this cave at the shrine, which is covered (I mean absolutely covered) in stacks of stones which serve as alters made by the people who pray at the cave. You can see the cave here, which is much more stunning than the shrine itself.

If you stay late enough at the shrine (which I didn’t, unfortunately), you can also see the Kagura Dance which is a rendition of the dance that Amenousume performed to lure the sun goddess out of the cave.

After visiting Amano Iwato, I walked a bit and found another, smaller shrine back behind the main area, which had a cute(?) statue of Amenousume and some really beautiful trees. I didn’t stay here long, and instead headed off to the gorge for the rest of the afternoon. There isn’t much mythological about the gorge itself. It was created when the waters of the Gokase River eroded away at lava left behind from nearby Mt. Aso. It does have some stunning views, though, including the Manai Waterfall, one of Japan’s Top 100 Waterfalls. You can easily walk along the upper edge of the gorge, which is what I did, but there’s also an option to rent a rowboat (for a hefty fee, of course) and row down the gorge to get up close and personal with the waterfall. The wait was over 2 hours, though, so I didn’t do it.

After I reached the end of the gorge I turned around and walked back, bypassing the parking lot and climbing a couple hundred stairs to reach Takachiho Shrine, which, while famous, isn’t really all that important. And finally, I returned to my car and drove up the mountain a bit further to reach a place called Kunimigaoka, which means something like “the hill where you can see the country.” Legend says that the grandson of Emperor Jimmu was sent to survey the country. On his journey from Takachiho to Mt. Aso, he looked out on the country from Kunimigaoka, from which you can see Oita, Kumamoto, and Miyazaki prefectures. It’s also famous for a cloud formation that you can see in autumn called Unkai, or the sea of clouds. Obviously I didn’t see the clouds, but I did see a stunning view.

I wandered around Kunimigaoka for about an hour before finally driving all the way back to Miyazaki City. I walked around my hotel for a while looking for food, but I didn’t find much that was open, so I wound up just eating at MOS Burger and calling it a night.

 ***

Day 5: Costal Miyazaki and Kirishima

On the fifth day of my trip, I decided to hit the second half of the mythological places in Miyazaki. First stop, Aoshima Island.

Aoshima itself is a small little island, not even a mile in circumference. It’s connected to the mainland by a small strip of land and is surrounded by interesting rock formations called “the devil’s washboard.” On this island, there is a small but beautiful shrine dedicated to the story of two of Ninigi’s sons, Umisachi (god of the sea) who was a fisherman and Yamasachi (god of the mountains) who was a hunter. One day, Yamasachi convinced his brother to trade jobs for a day, but accidentally lost his brother’s  special fishing hook. In an effort to get it back, he traveled under the sea to visit the Sea King, whose palace is near Aoshima Island. Yamasachi spent three years there searching for the hook, and eventually he found it, but not without before he fell in love with the Sea King’s daughter. She followed him to land when he returned for a short time to give birth to their son, Ugayafukiaezu-no-mikoto, who eventually became Emperor Jimmu’s father.

The island was stunning, and I easily walked around the whole thing, stopping of in the shrine for a bit, of course, before heading on to the final shrine on my list, Udo Shrine, which is about 30 minutes south of Aoshima. This shrine was built inside of a cave by the sea, where Ugayafukiaezu was born and raised. It’s said that he survived by drinking milk that dripped from the roof of the cave, after his mother turned into a dragon and fled into the sea shortly after his birth.

Although the shrine was beautiful, I didn’t spend much time here, either.  I was in a bit of a rush to get on the road to my next destination, hoping to still have a couple hours left for hiking there. And so I took a few pictures and left, saying goodbye to the ocean for the time being and driving the 2 hours into the mountains to the Miyazaki-Kagoshima prefectural border and a little place called Kirishima National Park.

This park is both a National Park and a Geopark, which is basically a fancy term for a volcanic area that’s dedicated to educating people about volcanic activity. Half of the park is in Miyazaki prefecture (called Ebino Kogen) and half is in Kagoshima prefecture (called Kirishima). The Kirishima mountain range is made up of more than 20 active volcanoes (including Mt. Shinmoedake, which had a major eruption in 2011) and about a dozen crater lakes all located within the 30 kilometer park. It’s popular for hiking and mountain climbing, is famous for some lovely hot springs in both prefectures, and is one of the major areas for harnessing geothermal energy. Pretty cool…but we all know I was there for the hiking.

When I finally arrived at the Ebino Kogen Eco Museum, the basis for many of the easier hikes in the area, it was well after noon. I didn’t have too much time, but I still got a couple hours’ worth of hiking in. I took an easy nature trail from behind the center, up and around two of the more prominent crater lakes, Byakushi and Rokkannon-Miike. During this hike, I managed to climb a small mountain (though I started at a pretty high eleveation…) Mt. Shiratori, and got a spectacular view of the park from the pathway.

(The view of Mt. Karakunidake and Lake Onami from the trail. This is the mountain I climbed the next day.)

I wanted to continue around Rokkannon-Miike and visit a third lake, Fudou, but the area just past the Rokkannon observatory was blocked off, as part of a 1 km no-entry zone surrounding Mt. Ioyama. This was unfortunate, but it was late enough that I didn’t really care that much, and I turned around. Finally, I visited the Eco Museum for a bit just before it closed. There was a foreigner who worked there who told me about all the different trails and then convinced me that I really wanted to climb Mt. Karakunidake, the tallest mountain in the range, at 1700 meters (which I did, it was true. After seeing this mountain I really, really wanted to climb it, even though I certainly hadn’t planned to). From the top, he claimed, you could see the entire mountain range, as well as Kagoshima City and Sakurajima. Cool, I thought, and, given the excellent weather of that day, decided I’d climb it the next morning instead of climbing the mountain in Ibusuki that I had planned on climbing.

Then I drove partly down the mountain, into Kagoshima prefecture, where I checked in at my very fancy onsen hotel. I ventured out for a bit to walk down to a nearby waterfall, then got dinner, had a lovely bath in the super fancy onsen, and returned to the room to reevaluate the next day’s plans before bed.

***

Day 6: Kirishima and Ibusuki

But the next day, I woke to clouds and light rain. Great.

I checked the weather for Ibusuki and saw more rain. And I knew I’d rather climb a mountain in the mountains and miss a spectacular view than I would climb a mountain by the ocean and miss a ridiculously famous view. And so, despite the fact that Karakunidake would take much longer and be much more difficult to climb, I decided that was the better course of action. (Plus the rain was supposed to let up in Kirishima, so I thought I might wind up with a decent view after all).

Being the tallest mountain in the Kirishima range, Karakunidake is, of course, one of the most popular climbs. This means there are three trails that lead to the top. The easiest and most popular path began on the other side of the highway from the end of the trail I had hiked the day before. But because it crossed over Mt. Ioyama, that path was blocked due to the no-entry zone. The second most popular trail is a panoramic trail which leads up and over several of the surrounding mountains, including Mt. Shinmoedake, which was also blocked off due to volcanic activity. And that left one trail, a short little hike up from the Eco Museum and around Lake Onami, the crater lake at the highest elevation in Kyushu, at 1,412 meters above sea level. The trip to the peak and back should, in theory, take about 4 hours.

When I arrived at the Eco Center again, it was about 9:30 and the place was deserted. No one was hiking in this weather, that’s for sure. But nonetheless I put on all my rain gear, minus rain pants because I didn’t bring my rain pants because it was supposed to be pretty dang it (aka-I wore jeans) and started the trek from the Center, down the highway to just before the prefectural border where one of the trailheads to Lake Onami was located. This climb was fairly easy, only gaining about 250 meters in elevation from the highway. It was a relatively uneventful trek through the mud and rain. When I got to the lake trail, though, I couldn’t see the lake because of all the trees. So instead of continuing up to the mountain trail, I instead spent another 45 minutes or so walking around the lake’s nature trail, trying to find an observation point. I did find a couple (and I even passed one other hiker, proving I wasn’t the only one crazy enough to hike in the rain) but the fog was so thick I couldn’t see the lake at all.

You’d think, then, that I would have just turned around and gone back down, gone to Ibusuki and put up with the rain on the beach instead. But no, I kept climbing. And climbing. And climbing. And although I knew that the hike to the top would only take another hour, I also knew that in that hour I’d climb another 350-or-so meters. And knowing Japan and hiking, that meant stairs. So many stairs. 1,138 stairs actually (I didn’t count them on the way down, what are you talking about?) That’s a lot of stairs. Just for reference, the Statue of Liberty only has 354 stairs… So many stairs...

(The whole trail looked like this. Nothing but stairs for over an hour.)

But eventually I reached the end of the stairs and found a bunch of boulders and rocks waiting for me, and I played a fun game of ‘where the heck is the trail?’ up the rest of the mountainside.

When I finally arrived, I couldn’t see anything but clouds, of course. I couldn’t even see the really cool crater of the mountain, just the drop off into it. And I also couldn’t find the marker for the true summit of the mountain, although I did follow this sign in the pointed direction until I got to the crater. 

So maybe I actually hit the 1700 meters. Chances are the marker was at one of the other, more popular trail heads (after nearly 1200 stairs I knew why the other trails were more popular), but I wasn’t about to going trekking around the crater with more than half of it being a no-entry zone, so I just accepted the fact that I got as far as I was going and turned around the begin the long descent down. Obviously I counted stairs between the summit and the crater lake to pass the time, and did pass a few more hikers on the way, so I felt reassured that I wasn’t completely crazy.

I got to the bottom around 1, which wasn’t too bad considering the rain and all the extra time I spent walking around Lake Onami. I happily changed out of my extremely muddy and waterlogged jeans, attempted to rinse off my boots so I wouldn’t muck up the rental car too badly, and finally set off for Ibusuki, opting to skip the toll road and take the longer, 3 hour road instead for certainty that there would be nothing to do at the seaside in the pouring rain either.

I got to Ibusuki at around 5 and stayed in the hotel for the rest of the night. I took a quick bath, ate a wonderful Japanese-style dinner at the hotel, bought a couple souvenirs from the store, and went to bed.

***

Day 7: Kagoshima Road Trip

The next morning I ate a late breakfast before checking out of the hotel and setting out for a road trip around Ibusuki.

If you look at Kagoshima prefecture on a map, it’s shaped kind of like a horseshoe, with two different peninsulas jutting out into the ocean. Ibusuki is the southernmost city on the western peninsula, and is super famous in Japan for one thing, which they call Sunamushi, or “sand bath.” It turns out a lot of places in Kyushu do the sand bath thing, but the Natural Sand Bath Center in Ibusuki boasts the only “natural” sand bath in the world. The sand bath is one of the two reasons I traveled to Ibusuki in the first place (the other being that mountain I didn’t climb in favor of climbing Karakunidake instead), and it’s one of those “you absolutely must do this if you go to Kagoshima prefecture” things.

Essentially, the sand in Ibusuki is naturally heated and moisturized due to volcanic activity in the surrounding area. So it’s become sort of a “thing” to go to the beach and allow yourself to be buried in the piping hot sand for about 10-15 minutes which, as with most hot springs in Japan, supposedly has a large number of health benefits. The price is rather high for a hot spring, so I only did it once, but it was quite the experience being buried under sand. It was surprisingly hot but not unbearable, and I could feel the sand shifting and moving around underneath me, possibly due to the moisture from the hot spring. I managed to stay in for about 15 minutes before crawling out of the sand and washing off, popping into the proper bath for a couple minutes and leaving.

But apart from relaxing in sand baths, there isn’t much to do in Ibusuki proper, so I hopped in the car and took off on a bit of a road trip to the various nearby attractions. Stop number one was Cape Nagasakibana, the southernmost point of Ibusuki. From this cape, you can see a lovely view of Mt. Kaimon, which is the mountain I really wanted to climb but didn’t. It’s also famous because of a Japanese folk tale called Urashima Tarou about a boy who catches and releases a turtle who then carries the boy on his back to the sea kingdom. I guess the cape is where he met the turtle…? I wasn’t quite sure. But there was a statue and a bunch of signs about it, so it’s famous there for some reason.

I only spent a few minutes at the cape before heading out to the next destination, Lake Ikeda. This is a nice little lake with some nice flowers and another lovely view of Mt. Kaimon. It’s well known for giant eels that live in the lake, which can grow to be about 2 meters in length. You can see some on display in the visitor’s center. There’s also supposedly a lake monster, similar to Loch Ness, that’s become kind of a mascot for the lake.

(Despite this photo, you can’t actually get up close and personal with the eels. You can barely even see them in their pitiful little tanks. But you get the jist. They’re long and creepy.)

(Isshi-kun, the lake monster)

After the lake I drove back toward Ibusuki City to visit Chiringashima, a near little island that is connected to the mainland by a sandbank that is only accessible at low tide. I managed to make it just at the start of low tide, and I spent a good deal of time walking to the island and back.

By the time I returned to the car it was almost 2:00, so I drove off into Kagoshima City, about an hour away, where I briefly visited Shiroyama Park, got some lovely views of Sakurajima, and returned to the station to drop off my rental car and make my way by cable car to my hotel in Tenmonkan, the major shopping district.

After checking in and dropping off my things I walked around the streets of Tenmonkan for a while, got some dinner, and returned to the hotel for bed.

 ***

Day 8: Sakurajima

It turns out that Kagoshima City has a lot of cool things to do. But it’s most famous for Sakurajima, a large volcanic island that spews smoke and ash from its south crater a couple times a day. It erupted pretty spectacularly about a month ago, and is finally returning to its normal activity level. As you would expect, it’s probably Kagoshima’s biggest tourist attraction. So of course I caught a ferry around 9:00 that morning so I could visit the volcano.

When I arrived, I set out to do visit all of the points of interest within walking distance of the port. This included Tsukiyomi Shrine, the largest shrine on the island, which was rebuilt near the port after the Taisho eruption in 1914, a nice little rest area, a foot bath, a welcome center with some really interesting exhibits about the volcano, and the Yogan Nagisa walking trail, which follows the coastline for about 3 kilometers between the visitor’s center and the Karasujima Observatory and offered some great views of the city, the sea, and the volcano.

After I reached the observatory, I turned around and walked back the way I came. Then I stopped for lunch and bought a ticket for a bus tour of the island for the afternoon. The tour was in Japanese, but the guide was super nice and gave me a booklet filled with translations of everything she would say during the tour. It was neat to learn some little tidbits of information about the volcano that I otherwise would have missed, and it let me see all of the points of interest on the island. I learned that the island got its name (which oddly means “Cherry blossom island,” despite the lack of Cherry trees because, you know, volcano) because people once referred to it by the name of a goddess they believed lived on the island, called Sakuya-hime.

We first stopped at the Yunohira Observatory. At 373 meters above sea level, it’s the highest you can travel up the mountain before you hit the no-entry zone.

From there, we headed out to the opposite side of the island, passing many points of interest along the way, including a cemetery which had roofs over the graves to keep them clean of ash and schoolchildren who wear helmets and masks on the way to school every day to protect them from falling rock.

Eventually, we arrived at the Kurokami Shrine gate, which was buried under 2 meters of mud and lava in the 1914 eruption.

After that brief stop, we visited the Tabinosato Observatory, which gave us some great views of the volcano smoking a bit. 

Here we also got to see and try some of the famous Sakurajima giant daikon radishes (seriously, they’re bigger than basketballs). The largest daikon on Sakurajima was 50 centimeters in diameter and weighed 40 kilograms.

(A replica of the biggest raddish ever grown. It was 31.1kg)

(Some radishes growing at the center. It’s hard to tell how big they are when they’re still underground!)

Then finally we visited the Arimura Lava Observatory, where we could see lava from both the Taisho and Showa eruptions with some pretty cool rock formations as well.

Back in the bus, we passed a couple more points of interest before making it back to the port, where I caught the next ship back to the City. From there I took the train to Kagoshima Chuo Station, had dinner, rode the wheel on top of the building, did a bit of souvenir shopping, and returned to the hotel, more than ready to start the next day’s adventures.

Other cool facts about Sakurajima:

An eruption of Sakurajima about 30,000 years ago created the Aira Caldera, which caused the land to form a 200 meter deep dent. Because this put the land below sea level, water from the ocean came in and flooded the caldera, creating the bay and making Sakurajima an island.

There are roadside stands with yellow bags all over Sakurajima and Kagoshima. These are for collecting volcanic ash. The ash is then recycled and used to make pottery and stonework. Most of the sidewalks and stone stairs in Kagoshima were made with Sakurajima ash.

Sakurajima is actually two volcanos, the North Peak and the South Peak. The North Peak hasn’t erupted in over 5,000 years, but the South Peak releases smoke and ash several times a day. It erupted over 700 times in 2015 alone.

The Taisho eruption released over 3 billion tons of lava and sent smoke and ash more than 8000 meters into the sky. Supposedly the ash was carried as far North as Russia. Past eruptions have also caused well water to boil and the sea in the bay to change colors due to sulfur levels.

***

Day 9: Let’s Go To Yakushima

First, before I say anything else, let me say that Yakushima was the reason for this trip. Seriously, I planned to just visit Yakushima. This island has been number one on my Japan bucket list since I learned of its existence. If I traveled to nowhere else in Japan, I had to go to Yakushima. The rest of the trip spiraled out of control from there because to get to Yakushima you have to go through Kagoshima, and while in Kagoshima I should probably go to Sakurajima. But you can’t go to Kagoshima without going to Ibusuki. And since I’m doing Kagoshima I might as well do Miyazaki and Oita too so I don’t have to come back to Kyushu later. But seriously, Yakushima was endgame. And at this point, I was really hoping that I actually had saved the best for last.

Yakushima is an island about 120 kilometers south of the mainland, and is still technically part of Kagoshima prefecture. It’s a relatively small island, and it only takes about 2.5 hours to drive the entire perimeter. 

It’s got a lot of attractions, including some nice beaches where sea turtles visit to lay eggs in summer, and it’s ridiculously famous in Japan for Jomon-sugi, quite possibly the oldest and certainly the largest Yakusugi (Japanese Cedar tree) in the world (not to mention the nearly 10-hour hiking trip you have to take in order to see it.)

But for me, this island was a must-visit for a completely different reason. Because almost 20 years ago, Hayao Miyazaki came to the island. And he stayed in the town of Anbo near the Shiratani Ravine. And he was so inspired by the forest and the dichotomy between man and nature on this island that he decided to make a movie about it. And he made dozens of trips to this island with his crew and eventually created the anime movie Princess Mononoke, which doesn’t technically take place in any “real” area of Japan, but was sure as all get out inspired by the forests of Yakushima. And this movie is, in my opinion, the greatest movie in existence (not to mention the probable reason why I became so interested in Japan in the first place), which explains my deep desire to visit this island.

(Select screenshots from the movie for reference)

Now, remember way back up in Yufuin, where I went to the Ghibli store and finally spent $15 on a tiny little Kodama* plush? 

(These are kodama. Kodama (or Kotodama) are small, white tree spirits that live in forests. They’ve been worshiped at shrines on Yakushima for over a century, but Miyazaki made them popular in Princess Mononoke)

I bought him so we could have the adventures of Kodama-kun on Yakushima Island. Here he is, on the ferry from Kagoshima, setting sail to his homeland for the first time:

Isn’t he cute? He’s very excited.

Kodama-kun and I spent 4 hours on the ferry from Kagoshima. When we arrived, we picked up another rental car and drove the island’s perimeter, stopping at a beach and getting some nice views of the coast. After that, we drove down a part of the highway that’s technically in the national park area of the island, and we stopped a few more times to take pictures of the forest. We also got stuck in a monkey-in-the-road traffic jam and saw a couple baby deer. (It was on this trip that I learned Kodama-kun isn’t very photogenic, so I stopped trying for the most part).

After the highway I went to the Ookono waterfall for a short time, and finally completed my loop and checked into my hotel in Anbo. It was a pretty cool hotel, since the owner had 4 pictures hand-drawn and autographed by Miyazaki himself. These two are characters from Princess Mononoke. The other two were Totoros.

I got a cheap dinner at a nearby supermarket and then went to bed. I knew the next morning would come too early…

 ***

Day 10: The Jomon Sugi

So as I’ve mentioned, Japanese people love Yakushima. And they love it so much because of this big, old, maybe 7,000 year old tree in the middle of the forest. And whenever you tell a Japanese person you’re going to Yakushima, the first (and only) thing they care about is whether or not you’re going to make a ridiculously long trek through the woods to see a really old tree. So fine, whatever, I figured I could hike to the tree just so I could say I did it.

But unfortunately, way back when someone decided to make a hiking trail to the really old tree, they didn’t really expect tourists to come visit it. And they certainly didn’t expect hundreds and hundreds of people to visit every day. Which is the only excuse I can think of why the trailhead only has 7 parking spaces. And so, in peak season (most of the year), you can’t actually drive to the trailhead, you have to take a bus. The bus costs about $15 round trip, and only runs between 5-7:00 in the morning and 3-6:00 in the afternoon. And people hike to this tree. I mean there are pictures online of people in a standstill two kilometers back from the actual tree waiting to see it. Which is why, when you’re going on a 10-hour hike to see a tree, you take the first bus, at 5 AM, before the sun even rises. Here’s Kodama-kun, waiting patiently as I pack for the hike, thinking that it’s way too early and this had better be one heck of a tree.

I parked my car at the Yakusugi Museum and waited in line with about a hundred other people who had the same idea. We packed like sardines into a massive bus and rode up the mountain for about 30 minutes. Once there, everyone rushed off to the bathroom--last chance before you finish the hike--and then, while all the tour groups crowded into the little waiting area to have breakfast and regroup, I set off along the path in the dark at 5:30, one of the first ones on the trail for the day.

If you read English guides online about this hike, most people conclude that it’s not really worth all the fuss. The hike is long, about 11 kilometers from the trailhead to the tree, and the first 8 kilometers of that are along a deserted railroad from an old logging village that used to exist along the Arakawa River. 

Most claim it’s not particularly scenic and, well, as cool as a 7,000 year old tree is, it’s just a tree (and not even the neatest tree on the trail). But I’m not entirely sure I agree with them.

For most Japanese people, the tree seems to be the endgame. The tree is the most important. Everything else is 10 hours of nonsense. And I’ll admit that on the way to the tree, I felt the same. But, more than anything, this was born from a desire to reach the tree ahead of the hundreds of people behind me so I wouldn’t have to wait in line for it. And so I walked at breakneck pack ahead of everyone, barely stopping for anything, though I did manage to enjoy the scenery a bit. I loved the aesthetic of the old railroad track, and the forests surrounding it certainly looked like it popped out of my favorite movie. But I didn’t stop to take too many pictures, and I finished the railroad portion of the hike at about 7:30. From there, the real work began--a 2-hour-long hike up the side of a mountain to reach the tree at about 1,300 meters above sea level. Along the way I passed Wilson’s Stump--an old hollow stump with a small shrine, a spring, and a heart-shaped hole inside of it--and several other really cool trees. But I kept going.

A couple people passed me going up the mountain, but not enough to matter, and when I reached the Jomon Sugi at about 9:30, I was one of the first ones on the observatory for the day. And look at that. It’s a big tree.

Cool, I guess…? But not even close to the most beautiful thing I saw on this hike. I took a couple pictures and left, stopping a few hundred meters down for food before taking off down the mountainside. On the way down I passed a few hundred people, and I was ridiculously glad that I’d managed to avoid the crowd for the most part. I had to stop a lot to let others pass, but that wasn’t such a big deal.

I also passed a man on the way down who was with a school group of some kind. Everyone was at a standstill because “oh look a deer, everyone take pictures!” and he pulled out a little Kodama figurine. “This…Mononoke.” He said. And so I pulled Kodama-kun out of my pocket. He was really surprised, and then he pulled out another Kodama figurine, and our Kodamas had a little party until the crowd started moving again. It was pretty funny.

When I got down the mountain and back to the railroad, it was only about 11:30. It was at this time that I pulled out that handy bus schedule and realized that the first bus back wouldn’t actually come until 3. Fun. I knew it wouldn’t take me 4 hours to walk back to the trailhead, especially downhill, so I stopped for lunch and then tried to walk as slowly as I could, enjoying the scenery and the once-again deserted path now that everyone was on the mountain. I stopped to take a lot of pictures of the scenery, and even went off course a little to trek on a couple trails that wound through the forest.

I also stopped for a while at the ruins of the logging village and tried to make out what the Japanese said. I feel like I got the gist of it, and it was a nice little break.

But even with all my dilly-dallying, I was still one of the first back, and I was still an hour early for the bus. Oh well. It was cold, so I waited with a couple others who finished early inside the little hut. Then the bus finally came, and I rode the 30 minutes down the mountain, got in my car, and drove another 30 minutes to one of the only onsens on the island. After a long bath, I drove back to Anbo, got dinner at the supermarket again, and waited for a few hours until I could Skype Mom, before collapsing into bed.

***

Day 11: Mononoke Forest

On my last day of vacation, I woke up late and didn’t leave the hotel until almost 10. From there, I drove toward Miyanoura City and looped around, up another mountain, to Shiratani Unsuikyo, the only virgin forest on the island you can hike, and the place that inspired Princess Mononoke.

Now supposedly there’s an actual sign in the park somewhere that says “Mononoke-hime no Mori” (Princess Mononoke Forest), but I didn’t actually find it. Which is fine, because that part of the park was created after the film was made to look exactly like a screenshot from the movie. I’d rather see the forest that actually inspired it, thanks, and so I took a 3.5 hour hike through the park in a loop, stopping to enjoy the view every now and then.

I mean look at this forest. That’s gorgeous, that is. And the clouds and mist in some areas just make it seem even more ethereal.

I even ran into Kodama-man from the previous day’s hike. “Hisashiburi!” (Long time no see) he said. I didn’t really recognize him until he pulled out his Kodama. “Mononoke!” he said. I pulled out Kodama-kun. “Mononoke!” he said. Then pulled out his other Kodama. “Mononoke!” Then they had another short dancing party while the kids he was with just rolled their eyes and laughed.

All joking aside, though I kept expecting to see some real Kodama, or maybe the Great Forest Spirit pop out of the trees and mossy rocks. And as tired as I was from the previous day’s hike, I just didn’t want to leave. It was definitely worth the trip.

But eventually I finished all the hiking trails in the park and I had to leave. It was just a little too late to go to the other hiking park (called Yakusugi Land, which just screams “tourist trap” to me), I headed into Miyanoura City to buy a ferry ticket for the next day and some souvenirs, stopped at a nice little seaside park for a very late lunch, and then drove down south of Anbo to visit some of the other waterfalls.

After the waterfalls it was still pretty early, so I parked near my hotel and went to dinner at the only cheap fast food place on the island before taking a nice long walk around Anbo and heading back to the hotel just as it got dark.

 ***

Day 12: Homeward

On the last day, I checked out of my hotel around 8, returned my rental car, and headed for the express boat terminal. At twice the price, it gets you to Kagoshima City in half the time. So I went from rental car to express boat to airport highway bus to airplane to express train and after arriving in Shiojiri, I finally walked home. This whole process took almost 12 hours. No wonder people in Nagano never go to Yakushima! I got home at about 10 at night, and went to bed, getting ready for work the next morning. Yuck!

***

And thus ended my second spring break in Japan. This trip was just as crazy and action-packed and as last years, with only a little less stress and a lot more money (thank you, necessary rental cars and ferry boats). But I did enjoy the trip, and it was completely worth it for Yakushima. Plus I enjoyed other places like Kirishima a lot more than I thought I would, and found myself wishing I could stay in each place for just a little longer.

Still, this may very well have been my last major vacation in Japan before I return home. I might be able to go somewhere during Golden Week (in May) this year, but if I do, it’ll be a short trip to the prefectures that border Nagano, (now that I finally have a car and can access them without the bullet train!) But come summer vacation, I’ll be heading home for a visit. After that, I’d still like to hit Vietnam and the Philippines next winter/spring vacations, and since year three will probably be the last, I’m guessing that’s it, sadly. Still, it was a good trip, and I’m glad I got to go! Now, let the new school year begin.

[ookamirinchan]

Thailand

(And once again, a horribly delayed post. Honestly I wrote it that day after I got home...and then it just never got posted. Oops?)

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So lately I haven’t had many new adventures. Mostly because of lack of money, but also because of boring real life. Yuck! But when I realized that a trip to Thailand was actually really affordable (even more so than saying in my prefecture and going skiing) I decided to give it a shot. And so, between Dec. 23 and Jan 1 I traveled to the Land of Smiles for Christmas and New Year’s in hopes of some warm, relaxing weather and understated festivities to cheer me up.

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Days 0.5 & 1: Travel

If I’ve learned anything the last few years, the worst part of traveling is actually traveling, and Thailand was no exception. In fact, I was dreading it, knowing how long the flight would be and that I was flying out of Tokyo (which I’d learned a year previously is not fun). But I probably dug my own grave on this one by not taking the Tuesday before my trip off from work, certain that I’d have plenty of time to get to Tokyo that night. I’ve done that plenty of times in the past, of course, and usually I’d be right, it is no problem.

Except that I wasn’t going to Tokyo. I was going to Narita. Which is about 1.5 hours outside of Tokyo. And I had to go to Narita that night, because my flight left at 6 AM the next morning, meaning I wouldn’t have time to catch a train or bus in the morning. So I was left trying to get to Tokyo and catch the last set of trains out to Narita Airport. If you’ve ever been to Tokyo, you know this is much easier said than done, especially if you miss the direct busses and trains.

Which I did. Because I missed my first train, because I realized once I got to the station that I left my phone at home. So I had to go home and get it and then bike back to the station. Where I caught a train leaving an hour and a half after the one I had planned to take. A train which was then delayed, meaning that not only did I miss the last direct bus and train to the airport, but I missed my second option, which only required 1 transfer. So I got on another train, and transferred to another train, where I was supposed to catch another train, but missed it because the train timetables guide only gave me 2 minutes to catch it. Ugh. So then I had to wait for another hour to catch literally the last train going to the airport, where I got off, caught a taxi to my hotel, where I checked in at 1 AM. I might as well have just slept in the terminal for the three hours of sleep I got, as I was awake and walking back to the terminal at 4:30 the next morning. I managed to make that flight in time, but I almost missed my connecting flight because the first flight was delayed.

By the time we finally landed in Bangkok and I got through security and found my luggage, I was so done with public transportation that I opted to take a taxi from the airport to my hotel. Good thing taxis in Bangkok are cheap!

I was exhausted when I checked in, despite it being only 5:00 or so, but I still spent a few hours figuring out the map and deciding what places I wanted to visit the next day and in what order. I finally passed out around 9:00, ready to begin a hopefully stress-free vacation.

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Day 2: Touring Bangkok

So what does one do in Bangkok? Apparently the same thing you’d do in Japan—temple touring. Luckily, my hotel, though sparse, was in the “old city,” so I didn’t have to look far (or take a taxi) to any of the major tourist areas. I had planned to do a sort of impromptu walking tour of the old city, starting with the Golden Mount, which was right near my hotel, and then slowly making my way towards the Grand Palace and Wat Pho by the afternoon. But, of course, this didn’t go exactly to plan.

Between the three different maps of Bangkok I had, the Golden Mount apparently had 3 different locations, and I had no idea where it actually was. So when I got to the supposed location on my first map and I didn’t see it, I pulled out the second map. Which is definitely the wrong thing to do in Bangkok (or anywhere in Thailand for that matter) as it seems the scammers can just intuitively sense when a foreigner pulls out a map.

Unfortunately scamming is very common in Bangkok (and contrary to apparent popular belief, you’re much more likely to have your pocket picked in Thailand than you are to be sold into slavery), and it’s the one thing you’ve really got to look out for. That, and people trying to get you to pay more for something than it’s actually worth. As a result, it’s very common to be approached by an extremely friendly, smiley Thai person who makes polite conversation and offers to help you get to your destination. Then you show them where you’re going and they try and convince you that the attraction you want to visit is closed at this time of day, so you’ll have to come back in the afternoon/tomorrow to do them. Here, let me recommend this other temple that you should go to instead. Then they try to put you in a Tuk Tuk* going to that area, which will then stop several times on the way at various locations trying to sell you “rare and expensive” gems, fabrics, etc. that you can supposedly sell for big bucks in your home country. This is probably Thailand’s most common scam (seriously, it’s everywhere) because apparently the Tuk Tuk drivers get commission for every foreigner they bring to these shops, whether or not you actually buy anything there (aka- every Tuk Tuk driver in the city wants you to go to these two temples so they can get their commission). The good news is, because it’s so common, the tourist blogs and guide books are full of it, so you’d have to be a really dumb tourist to fall for it.

I wasn’t looking at my map for 2 minutes before the first one approached me. He tried to convince me that all the temples in the old city were closed that morning because the King was giving a speech at the Grand Palace (he was pointing at the pictures of the King** lining the streets as though to prove his point), so I’d have to go in the afternoon. Instead, I should go see the “Tall Buddha” Temple and the “Happy Buddha” Temple, just a short Tuk Tuk ride away. And look, a convenient Tuk Tuk driver just appeared out of nowhere and has offered to take you to both for only 40 Baht! Lucky you!

Of course I didn’t go with them, because I’m not a complete idiot. And thankfully, while they might get upset and act kind of offended, none of these scammers are actually going to try and force you to go with them, so I got away pretty easily. I crossed the street to the park and again pulled out the map. And another appeared. Ugh.

After the third scam artist, I decided to give up on the Golden Mount and just go to the Grand Palace instead. Along the way, I did manage to find the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat.

The Giant Swing is no longer a swing…now it’s just a frame. But many years ago there was a swing, and Thai men used to try and swing high enough to grab bags of silver with their teeth.

And Wat Suthat is a smaller temple than most, but still a popular attraction due to its architecture and the many golden Buddha statues surrounding it.

But I didn’t spend too long at either of these attractions, and moved on quickly, still heading toward the Grand Palace, which I found relatively easily (it’s kind of hard to miss, actually). But I didn’t know which end of the wall the entrance was on, and I wound up turning the wrong way towards, Wat Pho. So I went to Wat Pho first. Fine with me!

When you Google “things to do in Bangkok,” Wat Pho is probably the highest recommended attraction. More commonly known in English as The Temple of the Reclining Buddha, this temple certainly lives up to its name and fame.

The major attraction, of course, is the massive Reclining Buddha statue inside one of the main halls of the temple. No seriously, it’s 46 meters long. And pretty tall, too. In fact, it takes up almost the entire building. You just take off your shoes, walk in one hall, all the way down the length of the Buddha, turn around, go in another hall and walk all the way down its backside. Still, it’s very impressive and definitely worth seeing.

But the giant Buddha isn’t the only reason to visit Wat Pho…the temple itself is huge, practically overflowing with various Buddha statues, gardens, and chedi. And finally, there’s one of the other most famous things to do at Wat Pho—the traditional medical school, where you can pay a slight fee (about $7 for 30 minutes) for a traditional Thai massage. The experience came highly recommended by TripAdvisior and a dozen other tourism sites and guide books, so I felt the money was well worth it.

I’d never had a Thai massage before, “traditional” or otherwise, so it was quite the experience. They basically just squeeze pressure points for a really long time and then twist you up like a pretzel…kind of like yoga but with someone else moving you into the different positions. It did feel really good, though.

After the massage I wandered around the temple a bit more and stopped off in the Reclining Buddha museum for a bit before leaving the temple and immediately being accosted by the street vendors, all trying to sell me stuff. One thing’s for sure, Thailand doesn’t have a shortage of pushy salespeople.

I escaped without buying anything and walked the long way back to the proper entrance of the Grand Palace, passing several Tuk Tuk drivers who were still trying to convince me the Grand Palace was closed (despite all the tourists I could see going in and out and the giant signs posted everywhere assuring foreigners that they are indeed open every day).

Now, the Grand Palace itself isn’t all that interesting, despite being the tourist attraction to see in Bangkok. It’s ridiculously expensive to go inside, and there isn’t really much to see or do besides some really fancy-looking Western-style buildings. BUT, your admission also gets you into Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), so at least something good came out of my $15 ticket.

Of course, the Emerald Buddha isn’t really worth $15 either, but it’s still worth a look. Granted, it’s not actually emerald—it’s made of jade. And it’s pretty small, too, not even a meter tall. Still, it’s considered the holiest Buddha statue in Thailand, and it’s placed on a mountain of other golden and jeweled relics, which still makes it an impressive sight. Unfortunately there were no pictures allowed inside the room with the Buddha, but here you can see the rest of the temple, which was impressive (if a bit too crowded for my taste). The buildings are lined with gold and jeweled glass, making the temple gleam in the sunlight—a major contrast to the plain wooden buildings at the temples in Japan.

I went into the palace proper after the temple, but I didn’t stay long, bored with the view and the tourists, so I left the palace and went to find lunch. I managed to find a nice little hole-in-the-wall restaurant with some really good Pad Thai and a nice frozen coconut drink that was lovely on such a hot day. After that I browsed the tourist shops around the palace for a few minutes and bought some tacky tourist pants with elephants on them, and then I went to find the pier.

In the last couple decades, Bangkok has developed several major ways for tourists to travel the river, the most popular of which is a shuttle boat which runs up and down the river stopping at various points of interest. And luckily, this shuttle includes a shuttle across the river as well, to the slightly less-famous Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn).

Now Wat Arun is clearly not as popular of a tourist destination, as it’s on the “poor” side of the river. It’s not as fancy and golden as Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew, but it has several gigantic chedi which make it a famous landmark from the river. It’s also right next to the housing for Buddhist monks, so if you go to Wat Arun you can see the famous Thai monks in their bright orange robes everywhere. But don’t point your toes at them or (if you’re a woman) touch them or hand them things directly.

I left Wat Arun around 2:00, and still felt fine, so I decided to continue walking around that side of the river, following a walking tour that I found online. Although the tour was easy enough to follow, most of the places of interest on it were closed due to damage from the flood several years ago. As the stops on the tour were supposed to be lesser-known areas, it was clear no one had really made an effort to try and fix them up, so I managed to only see a couple on my river walk before I found myself at the bridge over the river and decided to call it quits.

From there, I caught another shuttle boat from the bridge area down to the sky train station on the river and took a train out to the National Stadium, where I visited the Jim Thompson House.

Do you know who Jim Thompson was? Because I sure didn’t. But his house was one of the top 10 things to do in Bangkok in my guide book and on several websites, so I figured I’d go check it out. Turns out he was an American who moved to Thailand after WW2 and helped revive the Thai silk industry. He got really famous because he made the silk used in the movie The King and I.

His house was quite fancy, and worth the visit and the small fee for the tour. It was actually really interesting. Of course I couldn’t take pictures inside the house, but you can see his garden, shrine, and some of the outside of the house.

But after the tour I was exhausted from walking all day. So rather than taking the sky train back to the river and then taking the boat and then walking for 30 minutes to get back to the hotel I decided to just take a taxi. Easy enough, and fairly cheap. I got back early, around 5:30, and spent the time planning out the next day before I went to the hotel restaurant for dinner and then went to bed.

*Tuk Tuk- A tuk tuk is a type of taxi you can take in Thailand, especially in Bangkok. It’s basically an open-air cart attached to a motorbike. It’s more convenient for short distances in the city than a proper taxi because like a bike, it can weave in and out of all the traffic. Although the drivers are all scammers, they speak better English than the taxi drivers, and they’re usually cheaper as well.

**Pictures of the King- Thai people adore their King. Seriously, they probably love their King more than British people love the Queen. His picture is everywhere in Thailand, and he’s essentially part of their religion (because if you’ve been reincarnated as the king you must be pretty special) so people have shrines to him in their homes pictures of him in their car, etc. His face is also on all of their currency (and it’s illegal to step on the coins or bills because it means you’re disrespecting the King). Seriously, though, you can’t walk outside in Thailand without seeing some sort of homage to the King.

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Day 3: Backwaters of Bangkok

On my second day in Bangkok, I had my first tour. Only a half-day tour, but still one of interest. I woke early and walked for nearly 40 minutes to get to the guesthouse that the tour would depart from. There I met the tour guide and a bunch of other tourists from Denmark and we walked a short distance to the pier and hopped into a long-tail boat, quite famous in Thailand. We rode down the river to the edge of the city proper and then turned into the canals which would weave around the poorer side of the city.

We passed many houses and temples, and even a couple small floating markets before arriving at our first stop, Wat Khun Chan. The temple itself was a bit run down in most places, clearly off the beaten path of most tourists, but it was a good example of a typical temple in Thailand—one which hasn’t had the support of kings and tourists over the years.

Our guide talked a lot about the symbolism of the temple and the statues, and explained each of the different items used in meditation and prayer in the temple. It was very insightful, and a lot more information than I got just wandering around by myself the day before.

We didn’t stay too long, though, and hopped back into our little boat to weave through more canals, just enjoying the scenery. Our next stop was a little strip of markets that sold these puffy rainbow things that looked like Cheetos that we would feed to the catfish in the canals. But as we continued walking down the strip, we came to our next real destination, The Artist’s House—a quaint little shop that’s hard to access on foot with some cute little statues and plenty of nice postcards and drawings on sale. Cool!

After shopping there for a bit, we got back in the boat. We did make a couple more stops along the way—one of which was at another boat with a woman who was selling friend bananas and fried potatoes. The bananas were so good!

But all too soon the tour finished, and the boat dropped us off at the pier next to the Grand Palace, and I was left on my own again. I left the pier and found the Tuk Tuks, knowing that I had to ride in one at least once before I left Bangkok. After explaining where I wanted to go and fielding all the nonsense about “What about the Happy Buddha? What about the Tall Buddha? Much better temples! We’ll take you there cheap!” and then bartering the cost down to a reasonable amount (seriously, they don’t make it easy), I was off to Wat Traimit, the Temple of the Golden Buddha.

After slinking passed all the tourist shops and paying a small fee to see the Buddha statue, I climbed the many stairs and went inside.

It was nice, and the temple was beautiful, but I didn’t stay long. After the temple, I headed over to Chinatown, which I knew would lead me back in the direction of my hotel. I spent a couple hours weaving in and out of the streets, marveling at all the gold shops and the not-gold shops. I found an entire street filled with shops welling designer shoes, and another whole street filled with shops selling giant stuffed toys. It’s a good thing I didn’t have much money in my budget for souvenirs!

But after Chinatown it was still rather early, and so I spent some time wandering around the weird little mall across the street from my hotel, which was full of model and gaming shops (seriously, I felt like I was in Akihabara), and eventually stopped for a lovely Christmas dinner at McDonald’s before going back to the hotel and to figure out the details for the next day’s tour and to Skype with family.  

It was a much less busy day than the first, but was still fun, and I finished out the day feeling as though I’d done about all there was to do in Bangkok. Though I never did see the Tall Buddha or the Happy Buddha. Darn.

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Day 4: The Floating Market, The Tiger Temple, and The Kwai River

The 4th day started my all-day tours in Bangkok, which would actually take me outside of the city. I was picked up from my hotel by a van at 6:30 in the morning, and we left immediately for the highway, where we drove for about an hour to get to Damnoen Saduak and the most famous floating market in Thailand.

Basically, a floating market is a market along the canals. Some stores are on boats, and some are in buildings that just open up and look out at the canal. You pay a small fee to get in a boat and ride around the canals, stopping at various shops and bartering for what you want. Of course, being the most famous, Damneon Saduak is also the most touristy, and pretty much all you can buy there is souvenirs. Still, it was a cool experience, and even after the boat ride it was a neat sight just watching all the boats weave in and out of each other. And luckily, we got there early enough to beat the crowd.

Then, after the boat ride and some cheap souvenir shopping, I and a couple other people on my tour hopped back into the van and drove to the nearby elephant village, where we paid a ridiculous amount of money to ride an elephant for like, 20 minutes. Oh well, it was fun. Though the elephants were very small (maybe teenager elephants?) and I felt really bad for them just walking in circles all day every day. Still, the seemed to be well taken care of, so that’s something. After the initial tour, the guide hopped off and I paid him a little extra to let me get on the elephant’s neck and take my picture a few hundred times.

Then we wandered back to the start, got back into the van, went back to the market to pick everyone else up, and then went to a meeting area where I got passed on to another tour guide for the second half of the day. We got a bit of a late start from the meeting area because some people were still riding the elephants (go figure), but about 1:00 we set out for another 2 hour drive to the Tiger Temple.

Unfortunately, by the time we arrived we only had about an hour at the temple before it closed, but that’s okay since it didn’t seem like there was much to do anyway. Instead, all together we walked over to “Tiger Canyon” to do what you do at Tiger Temple—take your picture petting tigers.

Of course, the line was insane, and it took the whole hour to even get in to see the tigers, and then I just felt really bad for them because they all looked so sad and fed up with tourists (I can’t say I blame them). Plus they were chained down (for obvious reasons). They were pretty cute, though, and I got to pet several.

But as cute as they were, the Tiger Temple is definitely one to skip. I don’t even want to know how much of the cost of my tour went to the admission, but it was pretty barren and sad. Oh well.

After we all got through the line, though, we set off for the next and final part of our tour, the Kwai River Bridge.

Now this bridge…is a bridge. And there’s not really anything special about it except for a bit of interesting history and a museum about it during WW2. But as average as it is, Thailand sure likes to build it up as a major tourist destination, and I guess the history is pretty interesting.

Inside the museum, you learn that the bridge (but more importantly, the railway going over the bridge) was constructed by Thai, Cambodian, and Burmese prisoners of war during WW2. The Japanese worked many of them to death forcing them to build this massive railroad which would connect the three countries, only to blow up the bridge over the Kwai River when it was completed so no one could actually use it. Inside the museum you can see the remains of the original bridge, though they obviously rebuilt it and reconnected the railroad.

After the museum I walked on the bride a little and took some selfies with it before browsing the food stalls nearby. I was amused to hear them playing some “Daddy Music” in the market area. I wound up eating some simple street food for dinner before hopping back on the van for the long ride back to Bangkok and my hotel.

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Day 5: Ayutthaya

The next morning, I had another 6:30 pick-up for my next tour. We drove out to the river, where I then boarded a proper tour bus, before hitting the highway once again, this time bound for the old capital city of Thailand, Ayutthaya.

Hundreds of years ago, Ayutthaya was destroyed by the Burmese, leaving behind many ruined temples and buildings. Now, it’s one of the most famous things to do in Thailand, and for good reason.

Our first stop was Wat Phra Mahathat, a rather large temple grounds with some chedi and building outlines still standing. The most famous thing at this temple, though, are the many, many headless Buddha statues. They’re falling apart but still standing (or, er, sitting), despite missing their heads, which were apparently taken as victory souvenirs by the Burmese.

But one head remains—a very famous head which fell and has since grown into the roots of a tree.

We got pushed around the temple fairly quickly, and then headed off to our second destination, Wat Phra Si Sanphet and Viharn Phra Mongkol Bophid. Wat Phra Si Sanphet is another ruins, this time of a temple that was part of the former royal palace and was only used for royal religious ceremonies. The temple is famous for several of the restored chedis, the three largest of which hold the remains of three former kings.

The temple also, at one point in time, had a 16 meter tall Buddha statue covered in gold, but when the palace was ransacked the Burmese set the statue on fire and melted all the gold. Happily (kind of), though, many years after the war, the Burmese rebuilt the Buddha statue and gave it to Thailand as a gift. The king then build a new temple, Viharn Phra Mongkol Bophid, right next to the ruins to house the replacement statue.

We didn’t spend too much time at these temples either, though, before we were rushing off to our next area, Bang Pa-In Summer Palace, about an hour away. This palace is not in ruins…it\s just a summer palace. The grounds are huge and lovely, but like the Grand Palace, there isn’t much to see or do.

We wandered the palace for a bit before getting back on the bus and finally heading out to the part I was looking forward to, a lunch cruise down the river back to Bangkok.

We ate a decent buffet lunch, which I spent talking to a man from Austria who claimed he was very good friends with the King of Thailand and that he’d just recently spent Christmas with the royal family. Interesting…he seemed pretty serious, though, in which case, cool.

After lunch, I went up on the deck and enjoyed the lovely warm weather and the nice scenery down the river in peace.

I arrived back at my hotel around 5:00 and, not wanting to finish out my last night in Bangkok by sleeping, I decided to walk down the pier and catch a shuttle down to Asiatique, a touristy little market village place in the south of the city. 

There I ate some street food and ride their Ferris wheel and wandered around in the stores before paying for an hour-long Thai massage to relax and then heading back to the hotel for the night to pack and rest.

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Day 6: Bye Bye Bangkok

The next morning I checked out of my hotel and took a taxi to Victory Monument, where I was told I could catch a van going to my next destination, Hua Hin. It was easy enough to find one, and by 9:00 I was on my way, plenty happy to be leaving the dirty and chaotic streets of Bangkok behind.

Hua Hin is a lesser-known beach town about 3 hours south of Bangkok, stretching along the Gulf of Thailand. It’s lesser-known because it lacks the water sports and famous diving and snorkeling locations of Thailand’s more southern beaches like Phuket. But it’s famous in Thailand because it’s the beach area that the Royal Family visits when they want a beach holiday.

If you know me at all, you know it doesn’t take me long to find a beach somewhere when I travel during warm weather, and, not wanting to spend 12 hours and quite a bit more money just to wind up on a party beach, I decided Hua Hin was a much better alternative. I arrived around 12:30, quickly found my hotel, changed, and immediately set off to find the beach.

It didn’t take long to find, but it was late enough when I got there that I didn’t feel like paying for a chair. Instead, I just walked up and down the beach for a while, stopping occasionally for a drink and just admitting the view.

Soon, though, I went back to the hotel to wash the sand off my feet before heading back down near the beach to eat a peaceful dinner on a pier restaurant, where the squid in my meal was fresh, my margarita tasted like a margarita, and the bug spray was complimentary.

After a short and pleasantly uneventful day, I returned to my hotel for the night.

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Day 7: Beach

I slept in the next morning, enjoying the comfy bed in my hotel, before waking up, practically taking a bath in my sunscreen, and heading back down to the beach. I did make a brief stop at a book exchange store to buy some beach reading first, which didn’t take too long. And before 11:00 I was on the beach, paying a nice little old lady to use a lounge chair and umbrella for the day. It even came with two free drinks. Score!

So that’s what I did. For pretty much the whole day. Just sat in my beach chair and read and occasionally went in the fun and wavy water.

Around 5:30 I packed up and went down the beach a ways where I had seen a group of restaurants the day before that were quite literally on the beach. I sat down in their lounge chair and ate a grilled fish while reading and enjoying the early sunset.

And, of course, the restaurant was right next to the horses.

Apparently Hua Hin beach is famous for horse rides at sunset. Eh, why not? So, dressed completely inappropriately for horse riding in my dress and flip flops, I hopped on the horse for about 20 minutes. Definitely a gimmick, but definitely fun, too.

By the time that finished the sun was pretty much down, and so I headed over to the night market, one of Hua Hin’s most famous attractions. I browsed the souvenir shops and food stalls for a while before heading back to the hotel for the night.

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Day 8: Kho Talu and Diving

One of my major reasons (read: excuses) for going to the beach in Thailand was the supposedly excellent diving. But of course, those places are mostly in the very south of the country—a place Hua Hin most certainly is not. But I was lucky enough to find a diving school in the area, and I booked a day with them just to head out on the water and experience diving.

We drove about an hour and a half south of Hua Hin, where we then took a speed boat to the island of Koh Talu or “Hole Island.” We sailed around the island a bit before dropping off at our first dive area, suiting up, and getting in.

The other divers on the tour had done this before, so they went off with a guide while I stayed with the instructor and we swam around the reef for about 30 minutes at about 8 meters. We saw some nice sea life and stuff, and then went back up and docked on the shore of Koh Talu for a beach picnic of friend rice and chicken. Yum! 

Then we went to another dive spot and went down again for about the same time and depth. I did enjoy the experience, although the diving spot wasn’t great and the visibility was pretty low, especially on the second dive. Still, it was fun and I would do it again.

I returned to Hua Hin around 5:30, and immediately set out to find the bus station and buy a ticket for the airport on Friday. It didn’t take too long, and I stopped at a huge mall on the way back for a cheap dinner and some shopping before heading back to the hotel.

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Day 9: Beach, Take 2 (Oh yeah, and New Year’s Eve)

The 9th day was my last day in Hua Hin, so I spent it just as you would expect—in a chair at the beach with my book. But it turned out that the hotel I rented the chair from for the day was having a beach party for New Year’s Eve that night. Sure, why not? I thought, and paid a small fortune for a reservation at their buffet dinner.

So around 5:00 I packed up and went back to my hotel to get cleaned up and such before heading back down to the beach for the party. I arrived fairly early, but that was okay, and I enjoyed my Thai buffet dinner and my 3 complimentary drinks (one of which was a pina colada in an actual coconut…I love Thailand!)

From up on the deck I could watch the other New Year’s parties hosted by other hotels going on, and right when I finished my dinner, they started setting off floating lanterns.

Now, if you’ve seen Tangled you know what floating lanterns are. You light them on fire from below and like a hot air balloon they float up into the air and just disappear into the night. In Thailand, they actually have a floating lantern festival in November to celebrate the end of the rainy season. Of course, I figured I’d missed the fun because it wasn’t November. But it seems like the Thai fireworks salespeople know what’s up, because they brought them out and started selling them to tourists on the beach. Cool! So of course I went down and bought one (mine looked like Mickey Mouse, although you can’t tell from the picture) and set it off over the ocean like everyone else was. After, I just watched for a while before realizing that my expensive beach party wasn’t actually going to offer anything but food and deciding that I wanted to skip out. So I did, just walking down the beach and admiring all the other parties and their music choices for a while, before finally making my way back into the park in town, where I knew there was a free New Year’s countdown party.

It was a good decision, since the music, food, and eventual fireworks were much more fun than my beach party.

After ringing in the new year, I went back to the hotel with the knowledge that I’d have to get up early and catch a bus in the morning. It was a great end to a great vacation!

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Days 10 & 11: Homeward

On New Year’s Day I woke early, checked out of the hotel, and walked to the bus station to catch my bus to the Bangkok airport, 3.5 hours away. We made great time with it being New Year’s, and we didn’t hit any traffic, which meant I had about 3 hours to kill before my flight. I ate cheap at Burger King and checked in before buying some souvenir candies for all my co-workers and waiting for my flight.

I actually splurged on the way back for a flight with a proper airline (rather than a discount airline) and it was well worth the money. We left almost an hour late, but still made it back at our scheduled time. Plus, I got a 3-course meal, and free wine, tea, and soft drinks through the whole flight. And a blanket and pillow. And it took half the time that the discount airline took to fly from Bangkok to Tokyo.

We arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, which I’d never been to before. I made it through customs before my luggage even started coming through baggage claim, and after grabbing it, I went up to the departures area, where my hotel was. Before the trip, I knew my plane would land at about 11 PM, so I decided to splurge and stay at the (really fancy) hotel actually in the airport, rather than having to deal with shuttle busses and taxis to where I was staying. It was worth it, and I slept in the next day before checking out at the last second and catching a train to Shinjuku and then another train back to Shiojiri. I got home around 3:00, which wasn’t bad, and it’s probably the least stressful travel I’ve ever planned. Happy!

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And so, my time in Thailand came to an end. It was enjoyed immensely. Seriously, Thailand, would recommend, would go back, 10/10. Everything is cheap, everyone is friendly, and there’re so many cool things to see and do. Oh, and the weather was perfect. And beaches! Did I mention beaches? All in all, it was a great trip, and it really has me wanting to pop back in to SE Asia sometime soon.

Now I’m back in Japan in the cold of winter (yuck), and hoping the snow will come soon so I can actually go skiing. I’ll stay Japan-bound for spring break and hit up the second half of Kyushu, visiting Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and, yes, Yakushima! And then I’ll head back to the States during summer vacation for a nice long visit with everyone. And maybe Vietnam or the Philippines for Christmas next year? Who knows. But regardless, I’m looking forward to another great year! 

[ookamirinchan]

South Korea

Within a year of coming to Japan, I’ve managed to see most everything in the country that I really wanted to see. Not meaning I won’t travel to other places in Japan…course I will! But I decided that I wanted to start seeing some other Asian countries, too. And so, for summer vacation, I decided it would be a good idea to head over to South Korea as a reward trip to myself for climbing Fuji (that and I refused to take a whole extra week of vacation time if I wasn’t going to be able to do something awesome). I chose South Korea mainly because it’s super close to Japan and relatively easy and cheap to get to from Osaka. Not to mention practically every JET goes to S.Korea at least once, and they all had nothing but good things to say. And I may have been swayed a bit by a recent bout of obsession with House Hunters International on Netflix. But hey, whatever.

Anyway, in the first week of July I cancelled my trip to Miyagi and booked two hostels in Korea for a 9-day super vacation (which later became 8 days due to budget). This is the (once again ridiculously long) story of Korea time and all the stress and awesome that came from it.

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Preparing for Korea: Language

First, I should say I’m one of those people who believes that when you travel to a foreign country you should either be able to communicate with the language yourself or be with someone who can. As such, immediately following my decision to travel to South Korea, I decided that I would learn the basics of the language, so at the very least I’d be able to say “hello” and understand when the next subway is coming.

This was a good idea in theory.

For one thing, the Korean alphabet, Hangul, claims to be the easiest alphabet in the world to memorize. After learning it, I’m not sure it’s really any easier to learn than say the English alphabet (or Spanish, Latin, etc.) but it’s certainly easier than, say, Kanji. However, it was pretty easy to learn in general. The unfortunate side is that knowing the alphabet in any language doesn’t help you AT ALL unless you understand the word you’re reading, and I don’t care what crack language learning service you pay a few hundred dollars for, you will never learn to speak a language in a month. And so, I decided to be rather selective in what I chose to learn.

Unfortunately, the internet failed me on two counts. The first is that very few resources online offer simple Korean travel phrases for free. And the second was, for those that did, they used Romanized spelling. Which I guess makes sense a bit if you didn’t take the time to learn Hangul, except for the fact that the Romanized spelling is not necessarily congruent with the way you pronounce the word. For example, this character ㄱ is romanized with a “G”. But when you pronounce a word with this character, more often than not the sound you speak is closer to a short “K.” So sometimes you see it written as “K” and sometimes you see it written as “G.” Then add this character ㅋ into the mix…it’s spoken with a hard “K” sound. It’s usually written as “K,” but sometimes as “G.” If you’re looking at a romanized version of the word, you don’t know which sound to make, so maybe you’re not really saying it right. For another example, Busan is written 부산 in Hangul. Because B and P sound similar (the same way G and K do), Busan is spelled “Pusan” on the world map above my bed.

Perhaps because of this same fact, I actually consider Korean to be more difficult than Japanese. It’s partially because I’m less familiar with Korean than I was with Japanese when I started studying, but mostly it’s because Korean is a tonal language at times (not quite as bad as Chinese, but it has its moments), which makes is extremely difficult to learn to speak without at the very least a verbal guide (though it would probably be best with an actual tutor or class). And honestly, give me a ridiculously complex alphabet over tonal changes and awkward-to-say (for an English speaker, at least) phrases like “yonggung” and “gyeong” any day.

But anyway. Eventually, I gave up on trying to memorize words and phrases without a base for the language, and so I turned to a free (remarkably thorough) website that would teach me Korean. Or as much Korean as I could memorize in a month. Which probably wouldn’t be very much, but what the heck, I’d give it a shot anyway.

As it turned out, I didn’t memorize much at all, and I certainly couldn’t use any of it in a conversation with someone. But, I did enjoy studying the language, and it turns out the structure is very similar to Japanese. The knowledge of the Korean version of particles and です saved me quite a bit of confusion, for which I am glad that I tried.

Plus, it turns out there was very little English in most places, so even though I was embarrassingly slow at it, I was glad I could read Hangul! Perhaps I will even continue learning the written language, even though I’ll probably never use it again and have no hope of learning how to pronounce any of it without a teacher. But I’m a language geek, so it’ll be fun anyway.

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Preparing for Korea: Money

From Japan, Korea is one of the easiest places to get to. In theory. So know that when I initially booked this trip, I was shocked and amazed by how cheap the airfare was. Granted, I looked around the time of the MERS outbreak, so that probably helped. But even still, the equivalent of $180 or so round trip? You can't beat that! Unfortunately, at the time I was gearing up for Fuji and had just dropped almost $500 on climbing gear and another $300 on the tour package. So I couldn't afford the plane tickets just yet without stretching my money thin. I decided to wait until I got paid again, just before Fuji. This decision would be my downfall.

The day after Fuji, I counted down to the last penny of my bank account to see if I could still afford Korea at all. I hadn't made any reservations yet, thinking I might not have enough after Tokyo. But, when I realized I had to pay for my plane tickets via credit card, things seemed like they would be okay. I took out a loan from Mom bank and said I'd buy the tickets when the money was in my account. This took all of two days, but by the time I had confirmation and went to book the tickets, the prices had almost doubled. So I split the cost, paying the returning flight via card and the flight to Korea (the only one I could do this with) in cash.

I was getting a little anxious at this point, but I was pretty determined to go so I then looked in to the most annoying part of the planning process--getting to the airport all the way in Osaka. And I probably got the last ticket available, period (from Suwa, of all places)...a day before my flight. Which meant an extra night at a hostel I hadn't planned on, and an extra day of takeout lunch and dinner. Great. From here, I probably should have given up and waited until my next week off...but dang it I had just bought the stupid non-refundable plane tickets and I already had my vacation time approved and it was just going to have to work out somehow because I was going to Korea come hell or high water dang it.

As it stands, everything did work out, despite my expected budget almost tripling (and spending way more money on a cheap whim than I have in a while) and then loosing almost 4000 yen to the exchange rate on top of that. Then came other expenses that I didn’t count on, like having to buy an adapter plug (Korea, you’re not even two hours from Japan why are your outlets different!?) and shampoo (because apparently Korean hostels don’t offer things like that in their showers the way Japanese hostels do). I also had to torture myself with no nice food or souvenirs all week. Thankfully food, transportation, and entry fees in Seoul turned out to be really cheap, and somehow everything turned out okay. Barely.

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And Now, The Actual Trip:

Days 0.5 and 1—Travel

As previously mentioned, I wound up having to take a bus the day before my flight actually left because all the other buses were full (somehow it slipped my mind that Obon and Kyoto go hand in hand...oops...) And so, I took off work at noon, ran home, packed my bag, ran to the station, ran to Suwa bus stop, and finally managed to get on the bus...and get stuck in the very back seat next to a kind Japanese woman who has her hands full with the 4 children in the seats in front of us, all of whom were completely amazed that there was a foreigner in the seat behind them, sneaking glances at me like Scout Finch spying on Boo Radley the entire 6 hour ride. What fun. We also must have made at least 6 pit stops on our 6 hour journey, and despite very little traffic we still arrived in Osaka over an hour late--at 9:30 PM. That means I missed the check in time for my hostel and had to stand outside until some nice person let me in.

At this point, I was exhausted and starting to feel a bit sick on top of everything, mostly wondering how much money I'd be tossing down the drain if I just turned around and went home instead. Ultimately, though, I decided I'd come this far and I might as well just go for it.

So on the first real day of my trip, I woke up late, checked out of the hotel, and sadly dilly-dallied around Osaka Station while trying to keep myself from spending money on real food. Eventually I gave up and took the train to the airport super early. And then sat in the waiting room for almost 5 hours before my flight. But finally, just before 6, we boarded the plane and took off...and I spent most of the flight silently laughing at the Koreans' apparent disregard for in flight rules (I mean it, like every single Korean on this plane broke at least one rule and the poor flight attendants were going crazy trying to stop it all. At one point the two next to me started watching TV. On their phone. With no headphones. Others took to wandering around the plane during takeoff and/or forcing the flight attendants to manually put their seat upright for them before landing. It was quite interesting to watch. I guess Japanese and Korean airlines aren't nearly as strict as American airlines (obviously, given the joke that was airport security), but it was still pretty funny I thought.

Anyway, we landed around 8:30, I spent an hour waiting to get through customs, then another hour on the train into Seoul after I realized that everything in the airport was closed and so I couldn't buy the tourist day pass for the subway/buses (only available at the airport, too). Great. By the time I got to Seoul station I was exhausted, and didn't feel like messing with no GPS and trying to find the hostel. So against my better judgement, I decided to take a taxi...probably faster and they'd drop me off right at the door.

Or so I thought.

Turns out Itaewon (the area I was staying in) is a huge nightlife area, completely overrun by people on a Saturday night, and the roads are too small for cars normally. So after paying way too much for a taxi that just dropped me off at Itaewon station, I still had to wander around looking for the place. I got checked in (finally!) around 11:30, and promptly collapsed into bed.

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Day 2- Obligatory Sightseeing and City Orientation Day

As it turns out, Seoul has a fantastic bus tour company. For only 12,000 won (idk, like $12?) you can hop on and off the two sightseeing courses all day long. I woke up early, bought my ticket, and managed to get on the first bus no problem. The entirety of the day was spent using this bus to hop around the city. Here are some of the places I managed to get to:

Deoksugung Palace (덕수궁), a lovely palace grounds complete with a Western-style museum and a “changing of the guards” ceremony out front.

Namdaemun Market (남대문 시장), a shopping area where you can buy pretty much anything you can think of for ridiculously cheap prices.

Namsangol Hanok Village (남산골 한옥 마을), kind of like Okinawa World. A place filled with traditional Korean building from Seoul and with various opportunities to partake in traditional Korean crafts (if you have money, which I didn’t).

Changgyeonggung Palace (창경궁), a massive palace and garden with all kinds of cool stuff, including a statue marking the burial of a former king’s umbilical cord…? Ew.

Insadong Shopping Street (인사동 시장), the obligatory touristy arts and crafts/souvenir street.

Gwangjang Market (광장 시장), an international market with a bunch of Korean food vendors inside selling spicy pork, kimchi, the Korean version of tempura, and various other popular foods.

Seoul City Hall event thing, where there were hundreds of chairs set up and the entire street was blocked off. I have no idea what they were saying, but it seemed to be some kind of prayer meeting or sermon to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of WW2 and Korea’s freedom from Japan.

Because of traffic caused by the City Hall event and waiting on the bus, I wound up not getting to see all the sights on my list, but I wasn't too disappointed. Unfortunately, I had the other 2 days planned out already, so I wouldn't be able to make any other tourist spots. Still, though, I was happy with what I saw.

And then, because it was night and everything but shopping and food was closed, I decided to book one more cheap tour...a city lights and bridges tour through the same company in an awesome double decker bus with actual explanations in actual decent English. My phone of course fails at taking night photos, especially from a moving vehicle. But you get the idea, and the cityscape on both sides on the Han River was fantastic.

After the tour, I managed to make it back to the hostel without incident, only to look in the mirror and discover how ridiculously sunburned I was. Oops. But oh well. It's not a vacation until I look like a lobster (especially a wonky tan-lined lobster because my purse covered one side of my neck...)

Back at the hostel, I counted my left over money (and fussed over budget and swore I'd eat nothing but cup noodles and rice balls the whole rest of the trip), then planned a bit for the next day...and went to bed.

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Day 3-- Hiking in Bukhansan National Park

Seoul has 4 Cardinal mountains surrounding it. The northernmost is called Bukhansan. It a massive mountain with several different peaks close to the city, easily accessible, and (according to the Internet, at least) feasible to climb in a couple hours with little technical skill involved. And thus, on the Monday of my trip, having anticipated that all the tourist traps would be closed (Monday in Korea is like Sunday in the States I guess) I woke early and boarded a train to Gireum Station, and then caught the bus to the park just like the Korea guide told me to. It was around 10 when I arrived at the information center, only to find it closed. Monday, indeed. 

I metaphorically shook my fist at the universe and wandered over to the posted map (all in Korean, of course) and tried to make heads or tails of the Hangul posted all over the park map. I failed, apparently, as I started climbing one trail only to eventually find a map with English on it and realize I was not on the path I wanted to be on. I wanted to climb the highest peak, which the internet (the actual Seoul tourist information website) called Baegunbong (박온봉). Well, there was no Baegunbong on the map, though I was definitely on Bukhansan. Although I was looking straight at the mountain from my path, I couldn't find the actual mountain on the map and had no idea how to get there. And with no conversational Korean skills whatsoever, my only choice was to turn around go back to start. Eventually I gave up on the map all together and just started walking along the main path, following the climbing tour group I happened upon and looking for signs pointing toward Begun-anything (which there were none).

The path was pretty steep, and after about 15 minutes of climbing I came across a lovely little temple.

I passed the tour group, only to stop and rest a few minutes later, at which time they passed me. This pattern continued several times. I kept stopping at junctions, trying to find the landmarks the signs were pointing to on the picture of the map I took, but with no luck. Oh well. I figured I'd just climb a bit until I got tired, rest, and go back down the way I'd come. So much for pretty views of Seoul, but whatever.

It was at this point that one of the members of the climbing group I was inadvertently racing to the top started talking to me. He spoke barely passable English. Claimed his American friends called him Bruce. He asked where I was climbing to. I pulled out the map and tried to decipher it one last time before giving up and claiming "I'm just walking." He then invited me to climb with him and the rest of his group.

At first I was a bit skeptical, but he was very nice. I felt a bit bad since he was obviously a much more experienced hiker than I was, and was much more used to the jagged, rocky terrain. Still, he paused often to let me catch up, and even though no one else in his group could speak English, they somehow welcomed me into their midst in this weird sort of awkward bonding climb thing.

After a while of walking, though, I started to get tired, and was just about to break and claim I would turn back and go home, when we came to a nearly straight wall of rock with no chains or anything. We were a bit bottle necked, so I couldn't turn around...and there was only one way forward (and I was NOT going back down those rocks, thank you). Still, the area looked like some of the pictures I'd seen of the Bukhansan trail, and so I convinced myself I was indeed climbing the mountain with these people.

Bruce was very patient, and showed me exactly where to put my feet and hands when I was unsure. I certainly couldn't have climbed it without him. And eventually we reached a rocky peak that overlooked all of Seoul. 

Absolutely beautiful! But whatever we had just climbed, I was still pretty sure it wasn't Baegunbong. We descended almost immediately down a different trail and soon came to the obvious goal of Bruce's hike, a large stone wall connecting several gates.

Quite the tour guide, Bruce explained that the wall once surrounded all of Seoul, and only the king could open the gates. He also explained that the holes in the wall were for shooting arrows down the mountainside.

Not long after arriving at the wall, we caught up with the group, and he invited me to have lunch with them all. I only brought a sandwich, not planning to be hiking this long, and I was just about to pull it out sadly when Bruce handed me a bowl and some chopsticks.

Everyone was very generous and shared all of their foods with me. I got to try some Korean food after all, and it was in the Korean hiking style I’d read about online, too. At the destination of the climb, everyone pulls out a tarp and some food. Then, just like a potluck, they pass the containers around and everyone shares a little of what everyone else brought. And the bowl, it turns out, was not for food, but for alcohol.

Another Korean hiking tradition--drinking before the descent.

Although I'd heard of this practice before my climb, I was still a bit wary. But not wanting to be rude, I accepted a little of each of the different drinks offered to me. First was a kind of sweet rice wine called Yakju (약주). It was very good. Second, a more bitter rice wine, similar to sake, called Soju (소주). And third, Korean brand beer mixed with the Yakju. It was all very interesting, if a bit awkward, and I was thankful they all shared with me.

Finally, after I finished pretending to like all the spicy Korean foods they kept feeding me, we packed everything up and headed down a different path. We did see one of the gates and then we headed back to the bottom down a thankfully much less steep trail.

Then, about half way we stopped again near a stream...for swimming. Man, Japanese people would not go swimming in a stream if you paid them, but this group just hopped right in, hiking clothes and all. And again, out came the beer and some fresh fruits and veggies from who knows where, and we parked down and had a good time.

After almost an hour we dried off and headed back down the trail, coming out at a different visitor's center from where we started. I was just about to thank the group for all their help and try to find a bus station when they loaded me up into their bus and drove me to dinner with them and, you guessed it, more drinking. 

Dinner was filled with more spicy foods, especially pork and kimchi, and I was amazed when Bruce paid for my share. And finally, we loaded into the bus and everyone was dropped off at the nearest station to the restaurant, where apparently, Bruce and co. were going to an after-after hiking party, and then an after-after-after hiking party.

Good grief, I thought, I did not sign up for this, and while I was thankful for their help, it was starting to get a little weird, so I begged off, claiming that I was meeting my "friends" because we had tickets for a show. There was very little fuss involved, as I just thanked everyone again and ran off to catch a train before anyone could decide the poor, lost, broke, illiterate foreigner needed more food. Or beer. Yuck.

Despite the awkward level of things, I really enjoyed becoming part of this group. We had a good time together, and I was able to experience some Korean culture first hand. I also got to try some of their famous foods and drinks for free. It was such a nice experience, and I was only saddened by the paranoid American in me, thinking no one is this nice and there must be some kind of catch (especially Bruce, who tried to make conversation by asking me things like how old I was and if I had a boyfriend, even though those questions were probably the limit of his English ability. Plus, I know people in Japan ask the same questions with no ill will or malicious intent all the time because they’re just genuinely curious.) Regardless, though, it turned out to be some harmless fun, and I learned a lot of cool things about Korea from Bruce. All in all, it was a day well spent, even if I didn't make it to the top of whatever peak I was actually climbing towards.

I knew I had an early morning the next day, and so I showered almost immediately upon returning to the hostel. It was still a bit early, so I pulled out the map of Bukhansan one more time and tried to make sense of it…and I think I might have finally gotten everything straightened out.

There might not have been a Baegunbong on the map, but there was a Baegundae (박온대) hiding at the top part of the map. The height is similar to what I saw online, so I’m assuming that’s the name of the peak I wanted to climb. If that’s the base, I was definitely on my way toward the peak despite the lack of signs, but I did not reach it. The temple I passed is called Naewonsa (내원사). The large rock I mentioned standing on looks like it’s called Kalbawi (칼바위). The map doesn’t show a name for the stone wall, but the gate that was our destination is called Daedongmun (대동문). I’m also relatively certain that we ended our hike at the Pyeongchang Park Ranger’s Office (평창공원지킴터).

But although I had a good time, I was exhausted. As a result, I decided to nix the other 2 climbing trips I had planned for Korea and just focus on the touristy aspect of things. And up next was the number 1 touristy thing to do in Seoul--the DMZ.

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Day 4--The DMZ and various other things

The DMZ is probably the one obligatory thing to do while in Seoul. Advertisements for it are everywhere, and when you google things to do in Seoul, the DMZ is pretty much the first thing to pop up. But, of course, you can't go without a tour group. And for a small fee, the group will pick you up and cart you an hour north to the very famous "off limits" stretch of land between North and South Korea.

I should probably mention first off that my knowledge of world history is laughable at best, and I knew next to nothing about Korean history or the circumstances of the Korean War before this trip (thank you, lovely public school education). As a result, I didn't quite know what to expect at this area, and I only sort of knew what I was actually visiting.

Thankfully, I wound up with probably the coolest tour guide in existence. His name was CK which is a nickname from his friends in Hawaii where he went to college. It stands for Crazy Korean. And he pretty much lived up to his name. All joking aside, though, he was very knowledgable, and had actually worked at the DMZ before becoming a tour guide. As a result, he knew pretty much all the secrets, and he knew everyone at all of the locations, so we got to see and do cool things that other tours didn't get to see.

CK gave a running commentary on the history of North and South Korea the entire way to the DMZ. It was very informative, and I learned a ton of cool factoids, as well as a lot of what is probably considered common knowledge by anyone with a decent education on the last century of world history (aka- not me).

Of course, Korea was liberated from Japan after WW2 in 1945, and it was only 3 years after that that the North Koreans attacked the south. They thought they could storm into Korea and take over in only two weeks, because the South was not expecting or prepared for the attack. But even though they weren't prepared, the fighting lasted several years. At one point, the South's territory was pushed all the way down to Busan before they were able to win back enough land to retake Seoul. Now, of course, the DMZ exists to act as a buffer between the two nations, as well as to offer a bit of warning just in case North Korea ever tries to attack again.

CK also showed us these massive concrete blocks above the old road between the two Koreas. There are about a dozen of them, and they're designed to fall into the highway and block the path so the North Koreans can't drive tanks into Seoul without considerable advance notice. And he also pointed out a couple areas along the river where there are guard towers. He said it was because North Koreans used to send soldiers down the river in wetsuits, and so the South Koreans built shallow walls under the water. The walls were low enough so the river could still flow freely past but high enough that anyone in the water would have to surface to jump over the top.

Anyway, the whole journey was filled with nifty little war factoids like that, keeping all of us entertained until we reached the checkpoint. A soldier came on board and checked our passports and our clothes before waving our bus through to the first stop on any DMZ tour, the 3rd infiltration tunnel.

This tunnel was one of several dug from the North underneath what is now the DMZ in order to invade the South. It's the only one open for public visitation, and there are absolutely no photos allowed inside. Unless you know CK, who can show you all of the CCTV blind spots.

It must have worked alright, since no one in our group was escorted off DMZ property. And we heard another cool story about the lining. The tunnel itself has granite walls, obviously, since it was made by blowing holes in the mountainside. But when you get farther into the tunnel, the rock looks black. This is because when the North lost the war, they came back into the tunnels and painted it all black, so they could claim it was a coal mine if the South ever discovered it. By the way, it's pretty obvious these weren't coal mines, so it's kind of funny. After going as far into the tunnel as we could, we turned and backtracked out and wandered over the the famous DMZ sign.

From there, we went inside a museum where CK explained about the different parts of the DMZ. Obviously there's the infiltration tunnels and military bases. Then there's the JSA, up on the actual boarder between the two countries where they have official meetings and things. Then there's an observation deck, a road between the two countries, a group of South Korean factories that are actually on North Korean land, Dorasan Station,which was supposed to run from South Korea through the North, and two civilian farming towns, one north of the boarder and one south.

We then watched a very informative video on the war and loaded up into the bus to go to the observation deck. It was a bit cloudy, so we couldn't see all the cool things, but I still got to peak into North Korea, which was pretty awesome. 

After the observation deck, we hit Dorasan Station, where we got to see the actual DMZ train that was supposed to run between the two countries for supplies and such. The project was abandoned several years ago, so the train doesn't actually run anymore, but the South Koreans hope to use it again in the future.

And finally, we drove through a little known road leading through Unification Village (that's what CK called the South Korean town in the DMZ). He explained that this village is probably the safest place in Korea. Everyone who lives there signed a contract saying they can only be farmers, and if they ever do something else they can't go back inside the village. The town produces various specialty products like soybeans, kimchi, and ginseng, and it's all really famous and expensive. We stopped in the gift shop near the village so people who had money could buy fancy famous foods, and then we headed back to the DMZ entrance. We passed off half the group so they could go up to the JSA area, but I joined the group that went back to Seoul.

We finished around 2:30, and everyone went their separate ways. It was definitely an amazing trip, and if you're ever in South Korea, you should definitely go to the DMZ. Totally worth it.

Other fun factoids from CK:

In Both South and North Korea military time is mandatory. In South Korea, men have to serve 21 months. And in North Korea, men have to serve 11 years and women have to serve 7. The minimum in North Korea used to be much higher, and men had to serve for 16 years.

In North Korea, there are more than 35,000 statues of Kim Il-sung. That's a lot of statues for such a small country. Just saying.

The abandoned U.S. Army base in the DMZ, Camp Greaves, is now a summer camp for South Korean children.

Ginseng is very expensive because you only get one crop every 21 years. Ginseng takes 6 years to grow, and then after it is picked, it takes 15 years for the soil to be ready for another crop.

There were many more, but those were the most interesting, I think.

After the tour, I tried to go to Jongmyo Shrine (종묘), one of the places I tried to go a couple days before. But it was closed. Apparently everything BUT Jongmyo is closed on Monday. Jongmyo is closed on Tuesday. Who knew? But oh well. I found lunch and then went south of the river to Noryangjin Station (노량진 역), right next to Seoul's most famous fish market. 

I wandered inside for a bit, taking in the fishy smell and marveling at the still living sea creatures about to become someone's dinner. I wanted to try an octopus but didn't want to spend the money for (probably) one bite. Then, I just went for a very long walk in the city. I wound up in Yeouido, "the Manhattan of Seoul." There were many tall buildings, and it was right next to a park on the river, where I relaxed for about an hour.

Then I took the train back to Itaewon for my last (and relatively uneventful) night in the city.

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Day 5: Traveling…

I stayed in bed late on the fifth day, knowing I had until noon to check out of my hostel in Seoul. I could have always gotten up and explored a bit more, but I didn’t quite feel like dealing with the stress, opting instead to get a bit more rest in and assuming that I’d have a lot to do in Busan that night.

I eventually rolled out of bed, grabbed my already-packed things, and headed out into Seoul for the last time. I made it to the express bus terminal pretty easily and managed to catch the next (ridiculously cheap) bus to Busan and buy some donuts for the road.

The ride was relatively uneventful and took about 4 and a half hours. Then came the fun part—trying to find my hostel. Of course I had no idea where it was (as was becoming the norm in Korea). My only instructions from the website were “a 7 minute walk from Mora Station.” Well gee, that’s helpful. I managed to make it to Mora Station okay, though it took another hour. And then I somehow managed to put the address into Google Maps. After walking out all 4 exits (because Google doesn’t understand subway stations), finally managed to find the right one to take me to my destination. It took a good 20 minutes at least to walk the distance to the hostel, and took another half hour before I could check in, because the owner decided to take a nap, so I had to buy phone credit and call him to come check me in.

When I finally got settled, it was nearing 7:00, and I was in the middle of who-knows-where Busan. I pulled out the map I was able to track down and circled the hostel…a good hour away from everything worth doing. Wonderful. So instead of exploring, I bummed some food off another guest (no restaurants or convenience stores nearby either) and spent the night planning the next day.

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Day 6: Busan City Tour

When I first decided to come to Busan, all I knew about it was that it was the second largest city in South Korea. I had to do quite a bit of research to find anything to do apart from the beach, but I still managed to find quite a few things I wanted to do. The good news was, much like Seoul, Busan also had a hop-on/hop-off city bus tour. I was excited, and after sorely underestimating the time it would take me to get to Busan station (and then not realizing that their instructions meant “outside Busan train station” rather than the subway station by the same name) I managed to catch the second bus out for the day.

My first stop involved a bus transfer near the ocean, and took me up and around to the edge of Busan to the scenic Oryukdo Islets (오륙도 독도). The weather was lovely, and I was more than happy to finally be near the ocean. 

I spent quite a bit of time pushing past tourists to take pictures, and debated taking the coastal walk for the rest of the day, eventually deciding against it since I’d just paid $15 for a city tour bus. Then I loaded back up onto the next bus. Although the islets were beautiful, they looked like the million other rocky islets I’d already seen in Japan, so I was anxious to get to something new.

The next stop was Gwangalli Beach (광안리 해수욕장), famous for its view of the most famous bridge in Busan, as well as the fireworks festival they hold every October. But I didn’t care about any of that because there was finally a beach. And unlike beaches in Japan, this beach actually had a strip. With, you know, like food and alcohol and touristy shops and stuff. Upon this realization, I mostly decided to forget the tour. I ordered lunch at an American-y looking place, walked up and down the street, and then wandered over to the beach to finally put my feet in the water.

But Gwangalli wasn’t the beach I wanted to hang out at, if I was going to spend all day there. So I hopped on the next bus, bypassed the fancy Marine City and Centum City complexes, and hopped off at Haeundae Beach (해운대 해수욕장), Busan’s largest and most popular area.

But before I got too comfortable, the day was getting late and I decided I wanted to make one more stop on the tour bus before they finished running for the day. So I transferred to another line, wound past various other touristy destinations, and made for Haedong Yonggungsa Temple  (해동 용궁사 사원) on the rocky coast. This temple is particularly famous and absolutely stunning, and the ocean landscape combined with the bright colors of Korean traditional architecture made it stand out after all of my Japan temple visits.

I made my way around the complex quickly and then grabbed the next bus around, heading back to the Haeundae area.

After seeing this beach, I’m pretty sure Haeundae is the Korean equivalent of Myrtle Beach. It’s not nearly as big, but it was absolutely packed with vacationers and locals alike, all excited to be on summer vacation and gearing up for some major independence day festivities later that night. The streets were lined with shopkeepers who had set up booths selling various beach items like sunglasses, towels, and swimsuits, mixing together with the typical South Korean food venders. Everyone was eating and drinking and shopping, and then you got to the beach and, somehow, the vast number of umbrellas had all been cleared away, leaving only people wandering around in the sand. Plus a ton of radio stations and boating rental places trying to get your attention.

And there was also a massive arena set up:

Apparently Psy* was in town. I actually considered hanging around popping my head into his part of the concert until I noticed that tickets were almost $40. I probably could have stayed around and listened anyway, but meh, I was tired and I don’t even like Psy that much, so whatever.

I ate dinner and then hopped on a subway for the long trip back to my hostel, arriving just before dark. Then I pulled out the map and wondered over my plans for the next day. I had originally planned to go hiking at a mountain fortress in the morning, but I was feeling both too broke for that bus and ridiculously lazy. And that coupled with how ridiculously far my hostel was from the area, I decided to forget that plan and do the one thing everyone else was doing—go to the beach.

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Day 7: The Beach (AKA- I Give Up On Being a Tourist Day)

The next morning I slept in, threw on my beachwear, and headed out to the next beach, Songjeong Beach (송정 해변). This beach is known for its quieter atmosphere, as it’s slightly outside the city center. Which is exactly why I chose it.

Of course, it was still overrun by people, but it was quieter than Haeundae would have been. I managed to get there early though, and rent a place under a nice parasol. Then I plopped down, and did absolutely nothing of interest. I didn’t even feel guilty that I was passing up all the cool Korean culture to lie on the beach.

Around 4, I caught a bus back to Haeundae, ready to spend the night eating good food and relaxing. I got there a bit early, though, so I tracked down a curiosity of mine, a Korean spa. Unfortunately, after walking for ages, the one I came across did not have a **Jjimjilbang (찜질방), and I was too meh about it to care. So I took a Korean style onsen, which was pretty similar to a Japanese onsen except they have these tables where your friends can scrub you down if you want. Interesting.

Of course it was only after I’d left the spa that I came across the Jjimjilbang. But I was already clean and I’d just had a bath dang it, and I didn’t really want another one. So I went for dinner instead, making up my mind that I would trek all the way back to Haeundae or Centum City the next day to go to one of the really famous Jjimjilbangs in Busan before my late flight out of the city. For the time being, I went to TGI Fridays for some good American food (and the only place I could find with a Margarita on the menu) and just enjoyed the scenery of looking out on the beach.

After dinner I went back out onto the sand and relaxed a bit more before realizing that I was ridiculously tired for someone who spent all day napping on the beach and decided to wander back to the hostel. I packed all my things and headed to bed with good intentions to get up and go to the Jjimjilbang in the morning.

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Day 8: Homeward

I gave up on the Jjimjilbang. I knew I would, and I did it anyway. I didn’t want to get up early and deal with hauling my luggage for an extra 2 hours on the subway, or pay for coin locker while I relaxed. Instead, I checked out and went directly to the airport, the one thing my hostel was near.

Of course I got there ridiculously early anyway, and had to wait around for ages. I managed to find some Korean food, finally, since I had all the money left in my wallet left to spend, figuring 20,000 won wasn’t really worth the 1,000 yen I’d probably get out of it.

And everything else was relatively uneventful. I got on the plane, then took the train to Osaka and the night bus back to Shiojiri. And then I crawled into bed for a couple hours because let’s be real, who actually sleeps well on a bus?

And that, finally, marked the end of the trip.

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Various thoughts on Korea:

First and foremost, I like Japan better. Much better, in fact, for a variety of reasons. I couldn’t believe how happy I was to get home after this trip, where people spoke a language I could understand and the trains went at reasonable speeds and everyone was super polite.

Korea was an adventure, but it was very high energy. You could tell there weren’t many people who wanted to help, and almost no one spoke English (seriously, even the tourist information booth people couldn’t speak English, which really surprised me). It was also different to find directions to anything, with most places just saying “go to Seoul station and take exit 6” with absolutely no follow-up information to that (except for the implied “and then walk straight for an indeterminable amount of time until you find it” that it took me several days to figure out). And there was also very little (informative) English information at tourist destinations, leaving me a bit disappointed with all the palaces and temples I visited. I still don’t know hardly anything about many of the places I visited in Seoul and Busan simply because there was no information about it, even online. Nonetheless, it was interesting to compare the Korean lifestyle with the Japanese, since the two are so close together.

Korean architecture reminded me a lot of Okinawan style. The roofs had the same design, only differing in color (Korean roofs were brown, while Okinawan roofs were red):

 They also shared a similar bright patterning around the edges of the roofs, windows, and ceilings—a stark contrast to the Japanese style, which is very plain, intricate only in the carvings you’ll see on the wooden edges. 

(The left picture is Wakayama Castle in Japan. The Right is Changyeonggung Palace in Korea.)

There was also a lot more Western-style architecture actually inside palace and temple grounds in Korea, which was very surprising.

But more than the style, I was able to really see the differences in culture. I knew, of course, from my time in Japan that Japanese people don’t really like Korea. Sure, they like the culture and the food, and it’s close enough to be a good foreign travel destination, but the typical reaction to my desire to go was a mix between “why would you want to go there of all places?” and “you’d better wear a mask (because of MERS)” And then there’s the third reaction—“oh, Korean food is delicious” (which is always a bit awkward, since now I have to explain to them that I didn’t eat much Korean food because I had no money, not to mention I’m not exactly interested in culinary adventures).

Even after all that, I’m not sure what I expected the Koreans’ response to Japan would be, but I do know I was shocked by how overt the Korean dislike of Japan was. Which I guess makes sense when you consider that Japan basically burst into their country during WW2 and turned all their palaces and traditional buildings into tourist trash. But somehow that slipped my mind. Still, I wasn’t expecting that hate to be so obvious. Foreigners in Korea were all too happy to tell me how much they love Japan, but Koreans were much less enthusiastic. And it was obvious. Almost every sign I looked at in a tourist destination had to make some subtle (or not so subtle) jab at Japan’s role in devaluing their cultural property.

But the differences were much more stark than simple history, and it was obvious that Korean culture is very different from Japanese culture in various ways. For example, in Japan, you bring the plate up near your mouth while you eat so if something falls off your chopsticks it’s not wasted. In Korea, only idiots bring their plates up because only an idiot can’t use chopsticks without spilling their food.

Another example is subway etiquette. In Japan, it’s polite to be quiet on the trains and subways. No one talks on their phone…no one even talks loudly to the person next to them (unless you happen to be on the drunk train). In Korea, everyone is on their phones in the subway, talking, laughing, and just generally being obnoxious (in my Japan-brainwashed opinion, at least). In Japan, it’s also polite to get up and offer your seat to someone who looks like they need to sit down (an elderly person or someone with a small child, etc.) In Korea this is also polite. But in Japan, if you don’t do the nice thing and give up your seat, nothing happens except maybe the little old lady with the walking stick shoots passive aggressive glares at the young people sitting down. In Korea, I saw an elderly lady decide she was going to sit down, dang it, and she literally grabbed a teen out of the nearest seat so she could sit in it. Wow. Just wow. It’s no wonder these two countries both think the other is barbaric.

One thing I did enjoy about Korea, though, was how cheap everything was. In any of the markets, you could easily find street foods for only a couple thousand won (maybe $1-2), and clothing was ridiculously cheap. I saw decent work slacks for $10, and a ride on the subway was only a dollar. Not to mention the bus to Busan only cost $9 (in Japan, it would have been at least $40). These cheap prices were the only things that made my minuscule budget possible, although I often found myself wishing I had a bit of extra cash for shopping, so I could buy all the insanely cheap duty free work clothing I came across. But don’t even get me started on how ridiculous it is to have your currency based in thousands.

I did manage to enjoy this trip, despite the budget issues and stress of the language barrier, though, so I am glad I went. Still, I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to South Korea, even though there are things I wanted to do (like the Jjimjilbang and that fortress I mentioned) that I was either too lazy or to aggravated to do. Maybe I’ll go back to Busan just because it seems like the closest place to find a decent beach, but I wouldn’t count on it. Still, I managed to cross South Korea off my list of places to visit, and I was able to have some good experiences while I was there.

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Now, summer vacation is almost over, and I’ve pretty much managed to milk the time off for all it’s worth, so I’m happy. Now, I get to spend a couple months saving money for winter vacation (Thailand and the Philippines, anyone?) with nothing really exciting happening before Mom and Dad come in mid-October. For now, anyway (though there is another long holiday coming up in September, so who knows, maybe I’ll find somewhere close by to have an adventure on the cheap). But I’m looking forward to it all, as always. One year down…who knows how long to go?

——

*Psy is a singer most famous for his song “Gangnam Style” which was popular a couple years ago. You can watch the video here. Be warned, it’s insanely obnoxious yet catchy. Alas, I did not make it to Gangnam district while I was in Seoul, but oh well. I couldn’t have afforded anything in such a posh neighborhood anyway. (Honestly, I don’t even like Psy that much, but I was so excited that I actually knew who the signer was and that him being in Busan was a BIG DEAL I debated going to the concert anyway.)

**Jjimjilbangs are Korean spas. Japan is famous for onsen (open air baths), and while Korea has public baths similar to Japan’s, they’re more famous for their jjimjilbangs. Basically, a jjimjilbang is a common area where people gather while they relax. You can eat snacks and even spend the night there. Adjacent to the room there are multiple sauna rooms with varying themes and temperatures. They’re very famous, and I was a bit disappointed that I missed out on the experience.

[ookamirinchan]

And Finally, Mt. Fuji

**Both this climb and blog post were completed almost a month ago. I’ve just been busy and forgot about uploading. Sorry. 

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The rainy season is officially over, and summer in Japan has arrived, full of humidity, sun, little to no air conditioning, and constant complaints of あついいい (aka- “it’s hooooooooooot”) from my co-workers. And finally, summer vacation came as well. Which meant one thing—after three months of preparations, it was time for the Fuji climb. Granted, by this past Tuesday morning I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the trip. I’d had much less practice than I anticipated before the climb due to weather and social obligations, and I was anticipating a very difficult and frustrating hike to the top. But nonetheless, I stuffed my hiking pack to the brim and caught the bus to Tokyo after work, and, realizing I was as ready as I was going to be for the climb, praying that I wouldn’t be the one person in the group to hold everyone else up.

On Wednesday morning, after a restless night in the hostel, I made my way to Shinjuku to catch the bus for my tour outside of a posh hotel I probably should have splurged for and stayed at. But oh well. There, I met my two guides (one of whom was a former JET…how cool!) and 7 of my twelve group members from all over the world. We crammed all our gear into the small bus and took off toward the mountain.

About half way through this ride, I realized I lied in my earlier Fuji post. We were not going to take the Yoshida trail in Yamanashi. Instead, we would take the Fujinomiya trail on the other side of the mountain. Great. But whatever. On our way to the Fujinomiya 5th station, we stopped and picked up 4 more climbers—a family from Norway—and then finally, after 2 and a half hours, we arrived at the station.

Once there, we unloaded our gear and split up, with instructions to do whatever we wanted for the next hour and a half. I spent the time eating lunch, buying some last minute supplies and a souvenir hiking stick at the shop, and researching about the unexpected trail.

(I had never heard of canned air before coming to Japan. Apparently, it’s a staple for Fuji climbing.)

The Fujinomiya trail is the second most popular trail. It is the shortest route to the top both in time (about 5-7 hours up) and distance (starting at 2380 meters), but it is also the steepest and therefore (in my inexpert opinion, at least) probably the most difficult trail (I’d choose length over constant stair climbing any day, but maybe that’s just me). These facts are the main reasons why, way back when I was researching paths up the mountain, I immediately claimed “nope, not that one” for Fujinomiya. It turns out in the long run I didn’t get much choice in the matter. Oh well.

After lunch, I sat around outside for a bit, just getting used to the air pressure at 2380 meters and admiring the view...

As you can see, it was very cloudy. There’s a mountain there, I promise. And finally, we all gathered back together for some stretching, a happy group photo, and determining our order for the climb. I would up partnered with another solo traveler from Portugal, and we got to hike right behind the guide.

To start, we climbed a set of stairs at the base of the trail and started the long trek to the top. The route to the 6th station was ridiculously easy. It only took about 15 minutes, had very few stairs and rocks, and we only gained about 100 meters in elevation. Still, our guide walked extremely slowly, setting the pace for the rest of the climb and explaining to my partner and I how he kept pace, by taking a step and then bringing his other foot up to touch his heel before taking another step. At this point, the pace seemed a bit silly, but we were all glad for it later. At the 6th station we stopped for a water break, and I got my first stamp on my mini hiking stick, proudly proclaiming that I’d made it through the warm-up without breaking a sweat, unlike the three Hawaiian group members, who were already a bit winded. It was at the 6th station that we were supposed to meet our final group member, who had stayed the night there the night before. But it turns out she started hiking without us at a very slow but efficient pace. We didn’t run into her until much, much later.

Then, after our brief rest, we took off toward the next leg of the climb. It took another hour of climbing to reach the 7th station, and the climb became a bit more intense. The path itself was much, much steeper, and we started having to climb up larger steps and rocks to make progress. But although I was a bit winded by the time we arrived, I was still okay and slightly more optimistic about my odds of completing the hike. The 7th station was at 2780 meters, meaning we climbed almost 300 meters in elevation from the 6th. Although it was the segment of the trail with the steepest elevation gain, the back and forth between steep path and steps made it seem like less. I rested at the station, got my stick stamped, ate a bit, and got ready for the next leg of the climb.

(One of the employees at the 7th station branding my mini hiking stick)

One would think that, after the 7th station would be the 8th station. But it doesn’t work like that on Fuji. Instead, the next segment led to the “old” 7th station, aka station 7.5. From here, the journey became much more difficult and steep. It took another 50 minutes to reach 7.5, and we climbed another 250-or-so meters. The trail became much more jagged, with plenty of large rocks to climb on and volcanic stones to lose traction on. I started to get out of breath toward the end of the trail, but I was still alright for a bit. We also passed this sign, which made me very happy, just before arriving at the next station.

I got my stamp and had a lengthy water break, resting quite a bit longer than at other stations to get used to the altitude again. We were past the 3000 meter mark, and so our guides were on the lookout for altitude sickness. At this point also, the clouds had returned full force, and we once again couldn’t see much of anything, up or down the mountain. It was also at this point that it started to rain a bit, so we all scrambled into our waterproof gear and hiking gloves. The next leg of the climb would be difficult, according to our guide, with plenty of large rocks to climb and a lot more altitude to climb in a short distance.

(The view from 7.5 looking down the mountain. Such a lovely view)

The actual length of the trail between the 7.5 and 8th stations wasn’t very long at all, but it still took our group over an hour to get there, having to slow down and/or rest every few steps. I had been right in my earlier assessment that the high leg lifts were much more difficult than the steep path had been, and the high altitude didn’t help. But we eventually reached the 8th station at 3250 meters, and I got the opportunity to catch my breath a bit more and eat something. It was also at this station that I realized I still had cell service, and started posting pictures on Facebook, pretty amazed that I had almost accomplished the day’s goal, while very nearly matching my guide’s pace.

We only had one more station to go before we could rest for the night, and we were doing pretty good on time, too. We rested for quite a while, until the chilly air finally caught up to us and we all started pulling on jackets and warmer hats. Then, we continued onto the last leg of the day’s journey, and climbed for another hour plus another 200 meters. We were all exhausted upon arrival, but amused to see the employees of the mountain hut at the 9th station cheering us on. Then they gave us all high fives as we practically crawled into the station level, and plenty of **お疲れ様でした’s were heard all around. 

We all collapsed onto the benches and waited for the poor exhausted Hawaiians and our second guide to catch up with us. At 3460 meters, we were only a little over 200 meters from the summit, and although we all wanted to hurry up and make it, we were exhausted enough to be glad that the day’s climb was over. We found our beds (and our final group member), changed, threw on our warmer clothes, and ate a lovely hot dinner of curry and rice. 

Then, we all headed outside to admire the view and all that we’d accomplished that day. We were even able to see the famous 影富士 (Shadow of Mt. Fuji) as the sun set and enjoy the feeling of being above the clouds.

Finally, around 7:00 we all collapsed into our futons, hoping to get at least a little rest before out bright and early wake up call.

Day 1 Summary:

Elevation Gain: 1100 meters

Trail Distance: roughly 3km

Start Time: 11:40 AM

9th Station Arrival Time: 4:30 PM

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The next morning, the lights came on at 2 AM. None of us had gotten much sleep, despite the early bed time, and we all grumbled a bit as we rolled out of bed and dressed for the day. We ate breakfast silently, wrapped up in our winter gear, and turned on our head lamps to begin the remaining trek to the summit.

Our exhaustion made the remaining 200 meter elevation climb much more difficult, and we all piddled along at a very slow pace, only made slightly better by the slow pace of all the other climbers ahead of us. We reached station 9.5 about 45 minutes later and rested for just a bit before continuing up to the summit. After a very steep climb, we finally arrived at around 4:15 AM, a good 30 minutes before the scheduled sunrise, though you could see the first bit of light rising up over the horizon.

Although we were technically at the summit, out guide recommended that we complete the hike by reaching the true highest point of the mountain, at 3776 meters. It turns out this is the main benefit to climbing the Fujinomiya trail, as it is the closest trail to the “true” summit.

After a short but treacherously steep climb up pure volcanic rock and dirt, we made it to the weather station and the monument dedicated to the highest point of the mountain. The lighting was a bit awkward for selfies, but I managed alright in the end. 

And finally, we climbed just a bit of the way down from the weather station to a lovely little plateau area at the edge of the crater, where we all plopped down on the edge to watch the mostly clear sky light up with the most famous sunrise in Japan, called 御来光 (Goraikou).

We all relaxed a bit after the sunrise, and sat down inside the hut at the summit to warm our frozen fingers and buy some overpriced souvenirs available only at the top of Fuji. I would have also liked to hike the crater and mail a post card from the top of the mountain, but neither happened. The crater hike would have taken an extra 2 hours—unfortunately, not part of our tour—and the summit post office wasn’t open yet to buy stamps (lame). But oh well. I was still very excited to have reached the top along with everyone else in my group (a rarity, according to our guides), even the Hawaiians who had difficulty the whole way up. I managed to get my stick stamped at the top—the last one—and around 5:30 we began out descent.

My phone died just after the sunrise, so I didn’t get to take pictures of other places on the summit, the group “we did it” picture, or on the trip down, but that was okay. We stopped for a lengthy food and water break back at the 9th station, before each of us split up to make it back down the mountain at our own pace. I took a steady pace, but barely stopped for rest at each station, eager to get to the bottom and knowing that I wouldn’t get up again if I rested for too long. I made it back to the 5th station by 10:15, and thanked the powers that be for the existence of hiking stocks the whole way down.

Back at the 5th station, I hobbled down the stairs to the cafeteria, popped my phone into an outlet, had a lovely bowl of sub-par ramen, and chatted with a couple other group members who beat me down. I waited on my phone to charge, took the obligatory “after” picture on my own, and dropped my stuff off at the bus while we all waited for the rest of the group to trickle down from the trail. 

It was after 12:30 by the time everyone was accounted for. We piled into the bus, dropped the Norwegian family, who opted out of the onsen due to their understandably exhausted 12-year-old, off at the train station, and drove to the onsen where I got the happy job of educating everyone on onsen etiquette. It wasn’t even close to the best I’ve been to, but there were showers, several hot baths (one even with jets!), and a clean atmosphere that was probably good for a group of foreigners. We all felt loads better after scraping all the sweat and volcanic dust off our skin, and then we ambled back to the bus and fell asleep on the way back to Tokyo.

Once there I managed to find my hotel with ease thanks to my guide’s helpful advice. I had planned to drop my things off and head over to Shibuya to try the new Taco Bell, but I could barely bring myself to walk out of the hotel. As a result, I wound up wolfing down some Burger King instead, and the crawling into bed where I actually got my first restful sleep since before work on Tuesday.

Day 2 Summary:

Elevation Gain: 316 meters Elevation Descent: 1396 meters

Trail Distance: roughly 4km

Start Time: 2:30 AM

5th Station Arrival Time: 10:15 AM

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Just over 2 years ago, I stood at the Subaru 5th Station at the start of the most touristy Fuji trail with Mom and laughed at the groups of people lined up to climb the tallest mountain in Japan. I never thought I’d actually want to attempt the climb myself, and I certainly never thought I’d try. Today, I am happy that I changed my mind, and very happy that I succeeded. And despite the fact that I can’t move my legs right now, I did it. Fuji may not even come close to being the tallest mountain in the world, or even in Asia, but it’s definitely one of the most famous. I was able to climb to the top and back at a decent pace without having to turn around and go home, and I also got to see the sunrise despite the cloudy weather of the first day. The photos don’t even come close to doing the experience justice, and I can't even begin to describe how amazing it felt to stand at the summit of that mountain and see what is surely one of the most beautiful and famous sunrises in the world in the Land of the Rising Sun.

I’m not sure I’ll ever climb another famous mountain again, but I guess the possibility exists now, which makes me very happy. I am glad I was able to climb Fuji, though, and I’m looking forward to many more (though much less famous) hikes and (baby) mountains in the future. For now, though, it’s time to look ahead to more traveling—next week is Korea already, I can’t believe it!

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**お疲れ様でした

Otsukaresama deshita. A very common Japanese phrase which means something along the lines of “thanks for your hard work.” It’s said many times throughout the day to thank someone for doing something.

[ookamirinchan]

11 Months and Counting

As I sit here and write this, I have been in Japan for exactly 11 months. It’s hard to believe that within the next month the new JETs will be arriving and I will officially be beginning my second year in Japan. The last year has both flown by and dragged on in different ways, but so far this experience has been the best thing I’ve ever done with my life. In this post, I’d like to take the time to reflect on the last 11 months and some of the important things I’ve learned since coming to Japan—the good, the bad, and the weird.

1. “When in Rome…”

…or Japan, as the case may be. When going abroad, even just for a week, the important thing to remember is that you’re entering a different culture. And it’s important to experience that culture as much as you can (without seriously offending anyone in the process). You don’t have to try everything. But it doesn’t hurt to try the language, eat the fried octopus balls and the green tea flavored ice cream, and get lost in the subway station at least once. You’re in Japan. Things are different. Try them before you say “never ever.” And in the long run, “I did it once and never have to do it again” is so much better than “no way in hell.”

The takoyaki (fried octopus balls) that Mom thinks look disgusting.

2. Speaking and learning a foreign language is hard.

Yes, this sounds obvious. But I remember last year at orientation, how many people seemed to think they were just going to “absorb” Japanese because they were living in Japan. FYI, it doesn’t work like that. You still have to pay attention and study your butt off. And even now, my conversational skills are complete crap (though I can read the pants off anything after studying at least 2 hours a day every day at my desk). That’s okay, though, because…

3. Grammar is not important in communication.

It’s honestly not. 99% of my Japanese conversations include me pointing and/or saying a noun. This is primarily because most people assume you don’t know the grammar and cut you off before you can finish. But the point is, when I’m lost and confused in the grocery store and I say 塩 (salt) or 塩はどこ (salt where) they understand me just as well as if I’d said 塩をさがしているんが。。。ちょっとたすけてくれませんか。(I’m looking for the salt…could you please help me?) And chances are, if they were in America doing that in English, you’d understand them, too.

(By the way, this is NOT salt. A lesson I learned the hard way, at least 3 times. Inconveniently, it is located exactly where you think the salt should be located, next to the pepper in the spices aisle. The actual salt is located by the vinegar.)

4. Don’t trust the stereotypes.

This goes for anything, and I knew it before coming to Japan of course. But it’s been drilled into my head even more so these past few months. And I don’t just mean “all Japanese people are short” or “ all Japanese people are smart” kind of stereotypes…it’s especially true in all things. Just earlier today, I was walking home from school and watched an old man of maybe 80 years old fall down. I was in the process of running over to help when he literally jumped up and continued on his way as though nothing had happened. And this kind of thing happens rather frequently in Japan. And by the way, the chances of that grumpy old man who doesn’t talk to anybody actually being a grumpy old man are roughly 0%. More than likely, he’s shy, likes gardening, and really wants to learn English.

5. Always read the labels.

Some times, I’m in the grocery store and I’m shopping along minding my own business, finding the things I want to buy. I realize I need shampoo and walk down the aisle. I see something in a bottle that looks like a shampoo bottle and so I grab it without even thinking. It looks like shampoo, it’s in the shampoo aisle, it’s logically where the shampoo should be, so it must be shampoo. I pick it up, buy it, go home, and shower, only to realize I’ve actually purchased lotion. Which I would have known if I’d taken the minute extra in the store to sound out the katakana on an item I’d never bought before. This happened remarkably frequently when I first came to Japan, just out of sheer laziness and stupidity on my part. And it never occurred to me before how often in America I relied on brand names and bottle designs to tell me what I was buying without every actually looking for the word “shampoo.” Point is, it never hurts to check, even if you can’t read the name quickly or don’t know what 漂白像 (bleach) means.

6. Japanese people eat everything with chopsticks.

Well, almost everything. Bread and jelly are the only exceptions. If you don’t eat everything else with chopsticks, foreigner or not, you are a barbarian. Just FYI.

7. There is nothing wrong with traveling alone.

In fact, I prefer it. I’ve always worked better on my own, and while I enjoy spending time with friends, even those I’m closest to get on my nerves after a week or so. Not to mention traveling alone allows you the opportunity to do what you want to do, with no compromises and no unexpected budget shifts. Win-Win? I think so.

8. The world is a lot more accessible than you think it is.

In the states, everything always seemed so far away. And to an extent, I suppose it was. I certainly didn’t have the vacation time or the budget freedom that I have in Japan. But even a weekend off in the states could turn into a cheap road trip to New England if you want it to. And from a small country like Japan, this is amplified. It’s easy to get around Japan, sure…but there are at least 10 countries in Asia within cheap (and short) flying distance from Japan. And they’re all gorgeous. All you need is a bit of time and some budgeting compromises and you’re set.

9. In an Asian country, you will always be “the foreigner.”

You have a weird name. Your hair is weird. It’s the wrong color and it’s soft and thick. You’re tall or a bit big around the middle or you have a tattoo or your ears are pierced. You probably only speak English, and all foreigners are from America didn’t you know? This kind of thing is an eye opener for someone like me, who came from probably the second highest privileged group of people in America (below white men). Granted, I expected it, so it doesn’t really bother me. But having small children call you “scary” and knowing that a police officer could stop you and ask for identification at any time (and probably will stop you more often than they would an Asian-looking person for traffic violations and such) is an odd concept to wrap your head around. Also, all the little old ladies in the onsen get up and walk out when the foreigner comes in. It’s just a little strange. 

(Obviously that’s not me, it’s a friend of mine, but my point is made regardless.)

10. I don’t know anything important about my own language.

Seriously, I majored in English. And I still don’t know anything. I don’t understand phonics, dipthongs, or any kind of linguistic marking. I usually can’t explain the difference between two similar words. Until a couple weeks ago, I didn’t know the grammatical explanation for when we use “a” instead of “the.” And generally speaking, my answer to 90% of the questions I’m asked is “it just is.” But that’s okay, because they can’t explain Japanese to me either.

11. The majority of the language you use everyday is difficult.

You don’t realize it, but as a native speaker, you talk quickly. Sometimes you slur words. You do have an accent, no matter where you’re from. And most non-native speakers don’t understand slang, irony, or sarcasm. No one will understand your inflection when you say “well that was fun” accompanied with an eye roll, and you have to learn quickly to adjust your everyday usage to make up for it. Sometimes, you’ll even think a word is “easy,” but no one will know it. For example, I always say something is “hard” to say it’s “difficult.” To me, “hard” is the simpler word, so it’s easier. But none of my students know the word in that context. Because they learn that “hard” means a tough surface, so it’s easier for them to learn a new word than it is to get confused by a word that has two different meanings. This is true in many cases, and I often have Japanese people use a long, slightly uncommon English word in place of a slang word or simpler word.

12. That being said, your own speech patterns change remarkably quickly.

If you think you’re pretty set in your ways where language is concerned, you’re wrong. And even if you don’t use a term regularly yourself, just being around other people will cause you to use it unexpectedly. My best example of this is “favorite.” When I first came to Japan, none of my students understood the word “favorite,” even though they learn it in their textbook. “What’s your favorite color?” I’d ask, only to be met with blank stares. And if they were to ask you the same question, they’d instead say “What color do you like?” Which always sounded really unnatural to me, since in English, just because you “like” something doesn’t mean it’s your favorite. But Japanese students don’t understand this. Why? Because their language doesn't have a word for “favorite.” Instead, they say 一番好き which means “like best.” In Japanese, you wouldn’t say “My favorite color is blue,” you’d say, “The color I like best is blue.” Which, while technically correct in English, sounds really weird, and it always used to make me cringe. No, no, no, use “favorite,” I’d complain. But here I am, a year later, having to physically stop myself from asking my native English speaking friends “What food do you like best?” You change grammar and word usage often, and without even realizing it. And it won’t go back until you spend every day surrounded by native English speakers once again.

13. Knowing how to use chopsticks is praise-worthy in Japan.

Japanese people are always surprised when foreigners know anything about Japanese culture. “Do you know sushi?” they ask. “Of course I know sushi.” “Oh! Amazing!” This is regular. Probably the most common, though, and most heavily made fun of by foreigners, is “You can use chopsticks! Amazing!” “Why yes. Yes I can.” Ummm…what do you even say to that? It’s a utensil. And not a hard one to use, either. It doesn’t bother me the way it does others, but I know some people who respond with something like “You too” or “You can use a fork! Amazing!”

Sushi and chopsticks. Because what else would I put here after that?

14. “All is one, One is all.”

Or, as Edward kindly elaborates, “The world is the all, and I am the one.” It’s a bit cliche, but probably one of the most profound quotes from Fullmetal Alchemist (and that’s saying something). Essentially, it means that to the world we are both infinitely important and not important at all. And it’s all too easy to be ignorant of this fact, or even to forget it once you’ve learned it. You don’t realize just how small and unimportant you really are until you leave your comfort zone. But at the same time, you also don’t realize how much you are loved. Ed and Al had to be abandoned on a small desert island with a potential homicidal maniac to learn this lesson. Thankfully, I only had to change first-world countries.

Ed and Al discussing profound things like the universe and stuff.

15. Don’t take technology for granted.

Back in America, I always hated laundry. With the exception of perhaps washing dishes, laundry was probably the worst necessary chore an adult is subject to (and on a regular basis at that).  Laundry just stinks. It’s dirty and you have to separate it and get it in the washer without the dog eating it and figure out the right setting and not use too much or too little detergent and figure out when to use fabric softener and then put it in the dryer except the things that can’t go in the dryer because they’ll shrink or cover all of your other clothes in hair. And then you have to iron it and fold it or hang it and put it away. If I was lucky, maybe 3 of those steps actually happened in my laundry routine on a regular basis. And I still hated it. Until I moved to Japan. Where I don’t have a dryer. Thank the Lord I have a washing machine. But I don’t have a dryer. I also have one pole I can hang in my bathroom and one I can hang outside my window for drying purposes. But if you hang it inside, it takes forever to dry, everything wrinkles, and I can’t take a shower for at least 6 hours after hanging anything. Or, you can hang it outside, hope it’s sunny, and put up with having to pin everything down individually while precariously hanging over the suicide prevention bar. Then take it all down when it inevitably starts raining. By the way, this also means I can only do one load of laundry every 6 or so hours. And don’t even get me started on the whole “hanging the futon outside to dry” thing. When I move back to the States, I will never complain about laundry again.

The laundry at a typical apartment complex in Japan.

15.5. Other things to appreciate: dishwashers, air conditioners, and computers made within the last 10 years.

16. American Pride?

America is the butt of every foreigner’s jokes, and it’s appalling. There’s really no way to cushion that, or make it funny. You don’t really “get it” though, until you’ve seen it from an outsider's point of view, or at least heard non-Americans talking about Americans. America is ridiculous. It just is. We’re all ridiculously patriotic and self-obsessed, and many of us refuse to go out of our way to understand another way of doing things or seeing the world. And whether you agree with that statement or not, the rest of the world is certain it’s true. You don’t actually realize this until you’re on a trip to Nagasaki with a Canadian and an Australian and find yourself at the butt of every “stupid Americans, tee hee hee” kind of joke you can imagine. Americans changed the spelling of half the English words so they could be different from England. Americans drive on the wrong side of the road. Americans think they’re better than everybody else. Americans are obsessed with guns. Americans are loud, obnoxious, and fat. Americans are still complaining about free healthcare. Americans think everyone else should act like Americans. And the list goes on. But they’re right. And if you don’t believe that literally everyone else in the world thinks these things, take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM8dfF7eGqY

America, as illustrated by anime.

17. Homesickness and Culture Shock are two sides of the same coin.

Most people assume that culture shock is instantaneous—that it’s the thing that happens when you’re on vacation and are walking down the street and are shocked when you see someone eating a still-wiggling octopus or a cricket. But that’s not culture shock. Not even close. In all honesty, it’s not even necessarily something that you’re surprised by. It’s just something that’s different. And you’ve been in a foreign country for months and suddenly it just becomes an issue. It doesn’t matter what “it” is. Culture shock is that feeling you get when you’re walking through the grocery store and find taco seasoning and then you get really excited because “omg I didn’t know I could make tacos in Japan” and then spend the next hour walking up and down every single isle of the store trying to find taco shells because you don’t know that Japanese word for “taco shells” and all the while the ground beef in your basket is going bad because what kind of stupid place sells taco meat and taco seasoning but no taco shells? And at the end of it all you’re having some kind of strange identity crisis by the pizzas and wondering how weird the tacos would taste if you just used a pizza crust instead.

(The answer to my earlier, slightly rhetorical, question by the way, is that Japanese people eat this thing called “taco rice” that is essentially taco seasoned beef on rice. I vaguely knew this and yet did not care while freaking out over the no taco shells thing.)

Culture shock moments come in spurts, but they didn’t start until the homesickness did (or, more likely, the homesickness started because of them). They get fewer and farther between as time goes on, which is nice, though I doubt they’ll ever go away completely.

Taco rice. Enough said.

18. And finally, it’s not about the goal—it’s about the journey.

And doesn’t that sound sappy. I spent a very long time trying to get to Japan. And it’s wonderful and fantastic and I’m so glad I came. But however much I love it, it’s not a permanent place for me, and it never has been. That being said, however, I wouldn’t rush or change a second of it. It’s strange for me, even now a year later, to think that I don’t have a plan for “after JET.” I think about it often. Maybe I’ll do this or that, or something else really crazy. Or maybe I’ll just move back to the States and live a normal boring life like everyone else. But what I’ll do in the future, for once, isn’t even remotely important to me. Because I’m here, in Japan, living my dream, and I have the ability to do so many other things after. Earlier, I quoted Fullmetal Alchemist, and here I’ll quote my other favorite anime in the spirit of Japan… “experiences of all kinds,” a phrase which is used by the two main characters as both a wake up call, and later a motto. The message? You’re a better person for having tried something and hated it than having never tried it at all. You benefit from these experiences, and learn things about yourself and those around you. Some of them are good things, and some will make you angry or sad or frustrated. But they’re important, nonetheless, and it’s always important to try.

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I’ve been in Japan for almost a year now, and in most ways I’ve gotten used to the way things are here. Japan is starting to feel like home, and America is starting to feel so far away. And because I’m nearing my comfort zone, I’ve decided it’s time to branch out a bit. Next month, to mark the end of my first year in Japan, I will take my first solo trip to a completely foreign country for 8 days with nothing but a backpack, a passport, and a very shoddy understanding of basic Korean phrases. I’ve spent a year traveling around Japan. And while I love this country, there’s so much else out there to see. And I intend to see it—and learn from it—while I can.

[ookamirinchan]

Kansai 2015, Part 3: USJ and Osaka

This post is Part 3 of my Kansai adventures with Sarah. If you haven’t already done so, go read Part 1 and Part 2 first!

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The 7th day of our adventures was probably the best of the trip for both of us, thanks to a little schedule tweaking the night before. We were headed to Universal Studios Japan, home of the Attack on Titan exhibit and the brand spanking new Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

We woke early and headed out, hoping to get there before the gates actually opened so we wouldn’t be in line forever. Sarah had never been to a major amusement park before, so she was very excited, and I was excited to step out of the train station and see the boardwalk area (called City Walk in Japan) filled with Western-style store fronts and American food. Hallelujah!

(You can’t really see them, but there’s a TGIFriday’s and a Bubba Gump’s)

We did manage to make it before the gates opened, and took a few goofy pictures in front of the Globe before getting in line for tickets. We elected to skip the fast passes, assuming we wouldn’t actually need them for anything, and entered the park ready to go.

Our first stop was the Attack on Titan exhibit, to get timed entry tickets into the attraction—the one I was sure would be the most popular, this being Japan and all. (For those who don’t know, Attack on Titan is a majorly popular anime right now, about humans fighting giant and extremely disturbing creatures that like to eat people.  It is, of course, a very grotesque show, but very interesting and enjoyable as well.)

Our tickets would let us in the gate at 11:00, so we had just enough time to kill in the area. First, we took pictures of the food cart selling “Survey Corp lunch sets” to get you ready for your “fight” against the Titans. How exciting! (We didn’t eat it because it was way too hot for soup, but whatever.)

Then, we took pictures of the statues of Eren in titan form fighting the Female Titan from the show. They’re life sized, over 15 meters tall!

And finally, we found the real photo op… the giant titan head eating you! We had to wait in line, but it was so much fun. And we loved our photo so much we each bought one.

After that, we still had a while until our time slot, so we wandered into the Universal gift shop to goof around, and immediately got distracted by the massive Harry Potter section, though we didn’t buy anything yet. And then, with just enough time to spare, we managed to get entry tickets for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, at the perfect time slot to follow the Attack on Titan exhibit.

We returned to Attack on Titan right at 11, and were let in almost immediately. The attraction was more of an exhibit than a ride, comprised of a walkthrough of several rooms, which played videos from the anime to help explain what was going on. The main attraction were the life-sized dolls made to look completely realistic. They were fun to take pictures of, but most of them had been eaten by titans, so they’re a little grotesque. We did get to see Armin and Levi and Mikasa though, which makes sense since they might be the only 3 characters besides Eren to have made it through season 1 alive. 

On the way out we stopped at the gift stand, where I found a hat that looks like a titan eating me. It was funny.

At that point, it was around 11:30, and so we headed over to the entrance to Harry Potter. We had assumed that our entry tickets were for the ride portion, but they wound up being for the entire area! Oops! Oh well, though. We got in soon enough, and had a few hundred fangirl moments, taking pictures with the flying Ford Anglia, the Hogwarts Express, and Hogsmeade. 

It really was like stepping into Harry Potter, and we went into Zonko’s and Honeydukes before we happened across the Three Broomsticks, just in time for lunch. We waited for an obscenely long time, but finally got a plate of fish and chips, a butterbeer, and a treacle tart each. Yummy!

After lunch we found Olivander’s, and went through their little wand choosing ceremony thing. The guy who played Olivander was hilarious and perfect, and the poor girl he chose to pick a wand for was absolutely stunned. It was adorable!

And finally, after Olivander’s, we turned the corner and there was Hogwarts. It was perfect, and we took a few hundred pictures, before running to get in line for the ride. The wait was insane (and by the end we were both wishing we’d given up the extra $30 for the fast pass) but we enjoyed it a lot. It was also really funny to hear the characters speaking Japanese.

The ride itself was amazing, though it stopped just before the end because “a safety device had been activated.” So we got to ride it again! It was so much fun, but even after two hours of waiting in line, I still felt a bit motion sick from two rides in a row. The ride was so intense but fun. Granted I had absolutely no idea what was happening because we were playing Quidditch and then there was a dragon and then you were in the Forbidden Forest with the acromantulas and then more Quidditch and then dementors showed up and then you were in the Chamber of Secrets and there were more dementors and then everything was okay and everyone was applauding and thanking you. It was strange. But fun!

After the ride we wandered a few more shops and then left Harry Potter world behind for some other areas. We found a fun dancing performance on the streets and then rode the Spiderman ride, which was amazing even in Japanese. Then we did Back to the Future, which still exists in Japan, and finally we went shopping for souvenirs. I bought a chocolate frog the size of my hand, a T-shirt, and a cute little notepad with the Marauder’s Map design on it that came with a pen that has a rolly stamp that makes the footprints. Ugh.

We left the park, I stopped and bought some omiyage for my coworkers, and then we went to TGIFridays for dinner and Margaritas. Score!

(Look at that gorgeous American food. Look at it! And real bacon too OMG...)

It was a brilliant day, and we returned to the hostel super happy.

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The next day was our last full day of our trip, and involved sort of a whirlwind of Osaka goodness.

First, we went to Osaka Station again for breakfast and then to find the Pokemon Center so we could get some souvenirs for people. (I have such a love-hate relationship with that store…everything is so perfect and happy but it just seems to sucks my money away whenever I go inside). Then, we found a Krispy Kreme, so of course we had to stop and eat some real donuts (I was very happy). 

(More real American food...what am I going to do without real bacon and donuts?)

Then, we took a train out to the Tempozan area in Osaka Bay. Tempozan, much like Odaiba in Tokyo, is a man-made island full of touristy nonsense and shopping. Their biggest attractions are an aquarium that we did not go to, and a giant Ferris wheel which claims to be the tallest in the world (along with every other tourist Ferris wheel in existence). We rode the wheel and took pictures of Osaka. We could even see Universal from the way up, especially Hogwarts!

After the wheel, we wandered over to a little park area called Mount Tempozan. This park is officially Japan’s smallest mountain, at only 4.63 meters tall. Of course we climbed it. Here’s the view of Mt. Tempozan from the giant wheel:

Then we rewarded ourselves with Takoyaki, the most famous Osakan food.

Basically is chunks of octopus in dough that’s been fried and the covered in bar-b-que sauce, mayonnaise, and fish flakes. It was soooo good (and surprisingly filling).

Finally, after lunch, we returned to the area of our hostel, intending to visit the area that caused our schedule shift in the first place, a massive building called Spa World which has several different styles of baths and all kinds of pampering for reasonable prices. We were both really excited about it, but were disappointed when we saw the “no tattoos” sign at the front. It’s the only place I’ve been to in Japan to actually uphold such a rule. But needless to say, we couldn’t go to Spa World and had to fall back on plan B—walk around until you find something interesting.

We visited the Janjan Yokocho shopping street and Tsutenkaku Tower:

And then found our way over to Tennoji Zoo, Japan’s oldest (and probably most run down) zoo. But when the zoo closed at 5, we were forced to embrace the non-food aspect of Osakan culture, shopping.

Osaka is filled with shopping streets, but we happened upon this one on our way to Amerikamura and got distracted:

That’s Shinsaibashi shopping center, and it is huge! It’s also got just about everything you could ever dream of, including a Hello Kitty store and a Disney store. It was so much fun, and we walked it for ages before we came to Namba station and the other big shopping area, Namba Parks. We had a great time wandering the floors of Namba and spending the last bit of our money on nonsense. It was great. But finally, we got tired and took the train back to the hostel, got a conbini dinner, repacked, and went to bed.

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The following day finished our trip, and we took a bus to Nagoya and then a train to Shiojiri before walking to my apartment. Sarah stayed at my place that night, and we had another conbini dinner while watching the new Miyazaki movie, When Marnie Was There, which was really strange. We had fun laughing at it, though. And the next morning, I walked Sarah to the station for the next leg of her trip, working at a temple for 2 weeks in Suzaka, Nagano. And I was free to spend my weekend re-watching Attack on Titan. Of course.

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All in all, this was a wonderful trip, and I had so much fun. It was wonderful to see Sarah after so long, and we were able to enjoy so many unique and amazing places. I will definitely return to USJ eventually, though probably not until they change their anime exhibit to something else equally awesome, and I hope to return to Wakayama as well, to walk the entirety of the Kumano pilgrimage trails. I’m hoping to hit Mie prefecture after, since I kind of boxed around it…maybe this fall I will make my way back down there during my time off. But I think I’ve completely worn Kyoto out, and I’ve done about all there is to do in Nara, so those two are over and done with finally, and my coworkers can stop fussing about how horrible it is that I’ve never been to Nara.

Now I feel much more energized to get back to work, and I have nothing else major planned until my Fuji trip, apart from mountain climbing training, which I probably can’t afford now. Oops. But it was worth it. And now…only 2 months until summer vacation!

[ookamirinchan]

Kansai Trip, Part 2: Wakayama Prefecture

This post is Part 2 of my Kansai adventures with Sarah. If you haven’t already done so, go read Part 1 first.

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The morning of our 4th day, we awoke to the second leg of our trip, namely the places I knew next to nothing about. When I told my co-workers we were going to Kyoto and Nara, I was immediately cut off by “that’s wonderful!”s and “how exciting!”s. If I managed to make it to “Wakayama,” I’d get a blank stare, followed by “Why…?” It was actually kind of funny. But I was much more excited for our trip to Wakayama, and I wound up enjoying it more than almost anything (except USJ because Harry Potter, but we’ll get to that later).

We only stayed in the capitol city for half a day, during which time we visited Wakayama Castle, early enough to beat the crowds, thank goodness! The park was lovely, and we actually found some interesting things inside the castle, with English names, which was very helpful. Despite the fact that the castle has been rebuilt, it’s one of the most authentic-looking Japanese castles I’ve been to. I enjoyed walking the rooms and looking at all of the artifacts. And the views from the top weren’t bad either!

After the castle, we visited a little known park called Bandoko, which was absolutely gorgeous. The park is small, but it’s a peninsula that jets out into the ocean, offering great views of parts of the city and some amazing rock formations. We were even given sunbrellas to carry around by the nice people who own it. We had to return them, but we really enjoyed the shade they offered! As many know, I may live in the mountains, but I love the ocean. As a result, Bandoko was one of my favorite stops on this trip!

After the park, we popped back to the car and drove off toward our next destination, still in Wakayama prefecture, but almost 3 hours away from the city. The area we were headed for was Koyasan, a very famous little town on a sacred mountain that has many temples and is said to be the Buddhist headquarters of the world. It took ages to get to, but there were tons of people. We managed to find parking easily enough, though, got a late lunch, and then visited the major temple before it closed. It was huge and definitely worth the drive and the crowds.

We didn’t stay long, however, since our next destination was another couple hours away (turns out Wakayama is a deceptively large prefecture).

Our next destination was remote, but very famous. And had we been coming from Wakayama City, we would have had no trouble getting to it at all. But we were coming from Koyasan, which apparently is difficult to get to regardless of which direction you come from. Our trusty GPS took us down the other side of the mountain, and into the unknown world of Japanese countryside driving.

Japan is a very small country. Obviously. But what a lot of people don’t expect is that everything here is smaller. Especially the roads. If you’re travelling anywhere that’s not a major city, you’re likely to run into some narrow roads with barely enough space for two cars to pass each other. And now, whatever mental image you have of that road, shrink it by half and you have the roads we were twisting down for almost an hour. Anyone from America would look at these roads and think they couldn’t possibly be two-lane roads. They MUST be one way. But no, they’re not. (And yes, Sarah took these photos while I attempted to not kill us).

To help combat insane accidents, Japan posts long, red mirrors at every curve in the road so you can see if someone else is coming around the bend. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, there will be a small little area where you can pull over and let the other car pass without any danger. But, if you’re traveling down a mountain like we were, good luck with that.

Luckily, we managed to make it down the narrow mountain road and only met two cars along the way (plus a couple dozen runners who kept looking at us like “why is there a car on this road?”) Then, we were able to graduate to a slightly wider but definitely busier road, still with no center lines, and with barely enough space for two cars to pass each other, especially when the cars in the other lane have no concept of “stay on your side of the road.”

As a result, getting to the next area was an ordeal in and of itself. It was ridiculously stressful, and I began to wonder why on Earth I’d ever want to drive in this insane country on a regular basis. But we finally made it to our hotel, Yunomine Onsen Ryokan in the Kumano area of the prefecture.

We were definitely happy to have made it in one piece, and we began spoiling ourselves immediately. Our dinner came very quickly, and we enjoyed a full service, private ryokan dinner, filled with many yummy (and several interesting) foods. 

The highlight of the dinner was both of us attempting to eat a whole grilled fish off a stick. We took many pictures. They’re best if you look at them all in order.

After dinner we changed and headed down to the onsen area, where we stayed for quite some time. We went back up to our room, had a couple drinks, wandered out to the roof where we had a brilliant view of the night sky, and then back to the onsen to check out the other bath area before bed.

The onsen area was extremely beautiful and peaceful. It was so quiet, and it’s easy to see why it’s one of the most sacred areas in Japan. No wonder so many people come here to worship at the nearby shrines, and I found myself wanting to never leave. It was just what we needed after the stress of driving on those roads all day!

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The next day was our second in Wakayama. We ate a lovely ryokan breakfast before checking out and heading on our way for about 20 minutes (down a thankfully less crazy road) to Dorokyo Gorge on the Kumano River. There, we boarded a jet boat and set off on a 2 hour sightseeing cruise from the river. We both enjoyed the ride immensely, and got a few billion pictures of the beautiful scenery, including water that was a lovely aqua-green color.The boat stopped half-way through the journey, and we were able to goof off and take some photos along the rock formations.

After the tour we drove a bit farther, down to Nachi Waterfall, which is along the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trails, probably the most famous part of Wakayama. The trails lead all over the prefecture, but we bypassed most of them due to lack of time. We did, however, stop at one of the most famous areas. We hiked the Daimonzaka stairway trail up to a lovely shrine and temple, and then followed it over to Nachi Waterfall, the tallest waterfall in Japan. It’s 133 meters tall—almost 3 times the size of Ruby Falls—and is completely out in the open. Once there, I paid a small fee to get closer to the famous and drink some of the water, which is supposed to make you healthy or something.

After the falls, we walked back down Daimonzaka and returned to the car to drive to our final destination in Wakayama, Kushimoto Town.

Kushimoto is a lovely and slightly famous town on the coast of Wakayama, best known for the Hashigui rock formations, what are said to look like the posts of a bridge going out to a nearby island. Many of them have eroded away, but they’re still lovely to look at.

When we arrived, we checked into our (very cheap bus amazingly fancy) hotel and then drove out to the rocks. We took a few million pictures, grabbed a snack, goofed off at the nearby beach for a bit, and then went back to the hotel for an onsen overlooking the ocean followed by dinner and bed.

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In some ways, the next day was the most boring of our trip, and in others it was amazing. To start, we woke at the not-so-bright and early hour of 4:30 (me with much complaining and grumbling) in order to go down to the onsen, where we could see, from the comfort of an open air bath, the sunrise over the Hashigui rocks. It was beautiful, and well worth the early hour.

Because, for obvious reasons, I couldn’t take my camera with me, here are the “before” and “after” pictures from our hotel room window.

But because it was still way too early for me, I went back to bed for a couple hours, and woke fresh around 8:30. We repacked all of our stuff again, checked out of our hotel, and headed down to the car for our last day of driving.

Unfortunately, because we were in Kushimoto and were headed toward Osaka, the last day of driving would be a long one. We drove for almost 5 hours before finally arriving at Osaka Castle, and I was reminded yet again why I absolutely hate driving in cities and why I was very glad I could give the car back.

We enjoyed our time at the castle, which was more of a museum set up than most castles in Japan—a bit of a disappointment for us, though informative and enjoyable (and at least there were English descriptions). It’s clearly one of the most famous castles in Japan (and rightfully so, since two of the most famous and respected Japanese lords lived there).

We left the castle a couple hours after arriving, watched a street magician perform on the grounds, and then got a small but expensive cup of Baskin Robbins ice cream. Yummy!

Then, we returned for our car, paid an insane amount for the whole 2 hours we were parked there, and then returned the car to the dealer. Good riddance!

From there, we headed to Osaka Station and dropped our stuff off in a locker, and walked about 5 minutes north to the Umeda Sky Building.

In Japan, there are many large buildings filled with offices in big cities, and many of them have observation decks on their upper floors. The Umeda building is one such building, though it’s substantially more famous than most. We rode a glass elevator up to the top and enjoyed looking at the city view from both inside and outside. We ate a quick snack at their café, and then headed up to the roof garden to watch the sun set over the mountains. It was beautiful, and well worth the lengthy drive into the city.

Once the sunset was over, we gathered our things and went to our hostel, which, luckily, offered us a private room. There, we looked over our schedule, mad a couple changes, and went to bed, ready to begin the final leg of our journey.

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Wakayama is one of the lesser-known prefectures of Japan, and, being so close to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka, it’s often overlooked. Nonetheless, it’s one of the most beautiful prefectures I’ve been to so far, and I definitely want to return some day. The Kumano Kodo trails have officially been added to my Japan Bucket List, and hopefully next summer I can make it my goal to hike them in their entirety. It’s definitely rare to find a place with both beautiful mountains and oceans, and I’m glad we had the chance to experience them both on this trip. 

Still to come, the final part of the Kansai trip... Osaka.

[ookamirinchan]

Kansai Trip, Part 1: Kyoto and Nara

Several months ago, my best friend Sarah decided to come visit Japan and spend two weeks with me at the end of May. The result was a 9-day vacation in the Kansai region of the country, and my longest and most complex trip to date. It was a lot of fun, but it was long. In fact, it was so ridiculously long that I must break it into 3 parts. Mostly because I took too many pictures, but who’s counting? And so, my obligatory vacation blog post will be posted in 3 parts instead of 1. This is the first, explaining days 1-3, Kyoto and Nara.

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As many of you know, despite the fact that I can (and will) plan the pants off any vacation, I very rarely do so several months in advance. Usually my trips are last minute decisions, with only a couple weeks or so to prepare. This one was much different.

Back in January, when Sarah told me she was actually buying tickets, I kind of hijacked our itinerary and forced the plans on her. I really wanted to return to the Kansai region and do all of the things I hadn’t gotten a chance to do on my first trip. And she, not really knowing much about what she wanted to do, willingly went along with it. And after all, Kyoto is pretty much THE place to go when you visit Japan. But because I planned everything so far in advance, the time until the trip passed very slowly, and by the time the day before the trip arrived, I was ready to run out the doors at work.

That day, I stayed at my elementary school until 4:30 as usual. Then I ran home and packed, cleaned my apartment up a bit, and caught a train to Matsumoto. From there, I waited several hours before I could catch my bus—a night bus, which left at 10:30. 

The objective of the night bus is slightly genius: to let you sleep on it while you ride the 8 hours from Matsumoto to Kyoto. Or it would be slightly genius, were it not for the fact that even on a bus with a fully reclinable chair and blanket, I cannot sleep on public transportation. And unfortunately, I’d gotten next to no sleep by the time we arrived at Kyoto Station around 5:30.

Sarah knew I would arrive that early, but since she couldn’t check out of her hostel until 8, I was on my own in the station with nothing open yet and nothing to do but sit on a bench and wish I had a pillow. I managed to get my things in a locker, though, and then staked out the Starbucks until it opened (what kind of Starbucks doesn’t open until 7:30 I mean really).

But finally, after much waiting, I was able to meet up with Sarah, get her a breakfast at Mister Donut, and head out to start the first leg of our trip in Kyoto.

It should be said that I had been to Kyoto once before, back when Mom and I came on vacation. We hit quite a few major areas at that time, so some of the attractions we went to I had already seen. But, I did make sure to add a few that I had not seen before, just to make things interesting. Our first stop was Ginkakuji, one such area.

Ginkakuji is also known as the Silver Pavilion. It is one of two famous pavilions in Kyoto (the other being Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion). Although The Golden Pavilion is actually gold in color, the silver pavilion is not silver. It’s just sort of brown. Still, it’s one of the major places to visit, and many of my students tell me they like the Silver Pavilion better than the Golden. It was indeed a beautiful building, and the grounds were very well kept, giving it better scenery than the Golden Pavilion had. We wandered along the path and tried to stay ahead of all the school kids on their school trips, and finished right on schedule.

From Ginkakuji, we followed a walkway known as the Philosopher’s Path all the way down to Eikando Zenriji Temple. This temple is most famous for its fall leaf viewing, but it was still gorgeous in the summer (and not nearly as crowded as our other stops). It also had phenomenal views of the city and surrounding mountains in you’re willing to climb the stairs to the pagoda, which Sarah complained about the whole way. To be fair, there were a lot of stairs. But the view was worth it, I think.

After the temple, we headed down farther into the city to see Yasaka Shrine, our first stop that I had already seen. It’s a beautiful, large Shrine between a lovely Japanese garden and the main street of Gion, the Geisha district of Kyoto. Mom and I found it on accident when we came before, but it’s beautiful (and famous) enough to warrant a second visit.

We only spent a couple minutes at Yasaka before heading out to my favorite temple in Kyoto, Kiyomizu-dera. I had visited Kiyomizu with Mom as well, but it was one of the few areas that I thought necessary to revisit, seeing as we didn’t get nearly as much time there as I would have liked, and it’s the most beautiful temple in all of Kyoto (I think, at least). The highlights of the temple include a massive stage built on stilts over the mountain, a beautiful red pagoda towering above the trees, and pure water flowing from a river. People line up to drink from one of three waterfalls stemming from that river, which are said to grant health, longevity, and intelligence. Sarah and I both drank from the “health” waterfall, so hopefully we’ll be healthy in the future!

Kiyomizu Temple also has a very famous shopping street with a Totoro store, so of course we stopped and shopped a bit. It was also, however, completely overrun by middle school kids on their school trips. We were even stopped twice to be interviewed for English classes. I had to lie and pretend I was a tourist since they might not have gotten credit if I said I lived in Japan.

After Kiyomizu, we walked over to yet another Temple I’d already visited, Sanjusangendo. This is a massive temple, primarily famous for its 1001 gold statues of Kannon. The statues are beautiful, and every single one of them looks exactly the same, but is unique in some small way.

We didn’t stay for long though, since there’s not much to do but see the statues and leave. We did, however, buy ourselves some English Omikuji (fortunes) from the temple and had a great laugh at the wording. According to mine, “if you drink too much alcohol you will be sick” and “there will be a delay in your love life.” Oh well… haha.

Finally, we took the train down to Fushimi Inari Shrine, one of my Japan Bucket List places and almost the entire reason why I added Kyoto to our trip at all. The Shrine is known for having tons of fox statues, and also for having a very famous long pathway of Torii gates. 

We walked the path for a while, but it was deceptively long. Apparently, it goes all the way up the mountain and back down. And because we had been walking all day, we only went part of the way up. Oh well…I guess I’ll just have to return and climb the mountain again some other time.

It was almost dark when we left Fushimi Inari, so we went back to Kyoto Station, ate dinner, got our things, and found our hostel. And I was finally able to get some sleep!

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On the second day, I slept in just a bit later than normal, but Sarah was up bright and early. We left the hostel around 9:30 and made our way to Nijo Castle, another revisit for me. Nijo is one of the most famous castles in Japan for several reasons, and it’s unique because it doesn’t look like your typical Japanese castle. It also has a large garden area, which was mostly under construction the last time I went, and a massive, single story interior covered in beautiful paintings. But it’s mostly famous because of the flooring, which squeaks lightly when you walk on it. The squeaks were included in the castle design on purpose to alert guards of intruders in the night. And because the light squeaking sounds like birds chirping, the castle is nicknamed the Nightingale Castle.

After Nijo, we managed to cram ourselves into an overcrowded bus heading towards Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. There were a lot of people there, so we didn’t stay long, and it was cloudy, so the pavilion wasn’t as splendid looking as it was last time I came. Oh well. It was still pretty, though.

After winding our way through the grounds, we stopped to cool down with some ice cream, and then headed toward our next destination, Arashiyama. It took a while to figure out the public transportation to Arashiyama, because there were no train or subway stations around. But we eventually managed to catch the correct bus and then a streetcar out to a laid back but famous area of Kyoto.

Arashiyama is most famous for this bridge:

I don’t know why, but it is. It also has several large temples, the Iwatayama Monkey Park, and the famous bamboo pathway. The monkeys were our main goal, though, so we bypassed all the major areas and started our hike up the short mountain to see the fuzzy monkeys. It was well worth the trip, and we got a great view of the city besides. 

Then we headed down, ate a very late lunch, and stopped in a kimono store to goof off for a bit. We both tried on yukata. I bought mine and wound up wearing it around the area.

It was late, though, so all of the temples were closed. We kept walking and eventually found another Japan Bucket List famous place, the bamboo pathway. 

We walked it for quite some time, but when it started to get dark, we headed back to the train station and returned to the hostel. Day 2, finish.

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On the 3rd day, we woke early, packed, and checked out of the hostel as soon as we were able to. We then walked about 30 minutes over to the car rental place, got us some wheels, and moved to our next destination, Nara.

Nara is a smaller city just East of Kyoto, but is probably just as famous. It’s main attraction is the massive Todaiji Temple, which holds both the world’s largest wooden building and one of the largest Buddha statues in the world, 15 meters (almost 50 feet) tall. But lucky for us, the temple is in the most well-developed area of Nara, and therefore there’re plenty of other things to do.

The second biggest attraction would be Nara Park, right next to Todaiji. This was our first stop.

Nara Park is not just a large park. It is a large park filled with deer. When we arrived, we figured the deer would be very cute and we would essentially be walking into a massive petting zoo. We were excited to see the cute animals. And pet them and hug them. Deer are nice, right?

Wrong. The deer in Nara are demonic, as we soon came to learn.

When we first entered, we immediately saw a small cart selling senbei, or rice cookies, that you could feed to the deer. That’s nice, we thought, so we bought a pack with the intent to share it. But we misjudged. The deer within viewing distance of the cart suddenly turned and ran towards us, biting and pushing and chasing me until I finally dropped the whole pack. They devoured it in seconds, and then wandered back to stake their beady little eyes on the cookie cart again. Sarah decided she did not want to try feeding the deer, after that.

We walked through the park, stopping to pose with the only nice-looking deer we could find:

And then entered the Todaiji Temple area, all the while laughing at the school kids (and everyone, really) getting attacked by crazed, hungry deer. Apparently, you have not been to Nara until you’ve been bitten in the ass by a deer at least once. We also found this sign, which could have been much more helpfully placed.

Finally, we made it through the crowd of people while simultaneously avoiding any and all demon deer, and arrived at the temple. We entered quickly where there were, thankfully, no deer, and pushed our way inside the main hall. The photos do not nearly do the size of this place justice. That Buddha is nearly 10 people tall…sitting down!

We enjoyed exploring the large building, but eventually we ran out of things to look at, and so we ventured back into the throng of people and deer. We stopped for lunch just off the main park strip, had a crepe for desert, and then made our way up to Kasuga Grand Shrine, the other super famous part of Nara. Kasuga has hundreds of stone lanterns lining pathways throughout several mountains and a forest. We didn’t walk most of them, but it was still beautiful.

Finally, we returned to the car and drove across the city to the Heijo Palace ruins, which took ages to find and even longer to find parking for. The ruins were actually pretty boring, but we did enjoy strolling around the park, even if it was a bit overgrown and unkempt.

Around 5, we hopped back into our lovely car and hit the highway again, this time headed to Wakayama City, about an hour and a half away. We checked into our hostel when we arrived, found dinner, and went to bed.

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And so ended the first leg of our trip. I’ve now had my fill of Kyoto for the long haul, think, and no one needs more than a couple hours in Nara. See the Buddha, get bit by a deer... there, you’ve done it all. Next, we moved on to Wakayama, the relaxing part of the trip.

[ookamirinchan]

Golden Week

Every year in early May in Japan, there is a three-day long string of national holidays called Golden Week. And because these three days almost always connect to a weekend, it’s one of the most famous and popular vacation times in Japan’s calendar year. That being said, as with Obon in early August and Silver Week in September, the catch is that pretty much everyone has these days off. And the vast majority of them go on vacation.

It sounds like a great idea until you realize just how many people will flock to pretty much any remotely popular vacation area in Japan. The nearly-doubled hotel prices and stations so crowded you have to shove your way through made Golden Week my least looked-forward-to holiday in Japan.

And, although I have a less than stellar track record for being able to sit at home and do nothing during my long vacations in Japan, I swore to myself that I would absolutely not go anywhere for Golden Week. Absolutely not. No way. 

And by the end of March I pretty much thought I’d succeeded, seeing as most vacation worthy spots in Japan would have been booked long before for the insane week.

But, as seems to be the case more often than not recently, I, of course, changed my mind last minute.

The resulting vacation was hastily thrown together and much more expensive than I would have hoped, in an area that’s not exactly full of tourist fun, but whatever. I enjoyed the trip anyway, filling it with tons of hiking and Fuji training awesomeness.

The area I chose was Lake Haruna, a small but very famous lake in Gunma Prefecture, right next to Nagano. It’s mostly famous because of a volcano called Haruna-Fuji, which looks like a pint-sized Mt. Fuji, but the area is surrounded by almost a dozen tiny mountains, all easily accessible and ready for climbing.

Or, they would have been if I could have stayed in one of the hotels near Lake Haruna. Unfortunately, deciding on this trip so last minute meant that there were no hotels left anywhere near Haruna, which left Takasaki, one of Gunma’s major cities, about 90 minutes away from Haruna.

So, on Friday night after work (as is often the case these days), I rushed home, grabbed my bag, and ran off to the train station for a very expensive 3 hour commute into Gunma. The good news is, I got to take the shinkansen for the first time since my move. The bad news is, I had to go all the way to Nagano City to catch it and pay over $50 for the 35 minute ride.

I arrived in Takasaki around 9:00, tracked down my hotel, made my plan for the next day, and went to bed.

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On Saturday morning, I woke early, packed up my fancy new hiking backpack from last weekend, and headed out to the bus terminal in order to catch the first bus out to Lake Haruna. I was glad I got to the stop early, as nearly 40 people must have pushed their way onto the bus. But I got a window seat, take that Golden Week. The bus took roughly 90 minutes to get to Haruna, and cost about $13 one way. At this point, I started to realize that maybe 3 days of Haruna wasn’t actually going to happen. So I decided to make the most of day 1.

I arrived at about 10:00, and the shops were just opening. I looked around from the bus stop to orient myself and figure out which mountains I would climb. And there, right across the lake, was Haruna-Fuji. It looked closer than the other mountains, and I wanted to hit it before all the other tourists did, so I wandered in that direction. It took about 20 minutes to walk from the bus stop to the trail head, and then I began my climb.

The trail was well-marked and there weren’t many people yet, so I was able to make the steep climb in about 50 minutes, just as my climbing guide said. The top of the mountain was much more crowded with tourists who had opted to take the easy way up and pay for the ropeway. The view from the peak wasn’t all that great, and the shrine wasn’t very impressive at all… it’s probably the most anti-climactic famous mountain I’ve ever seen, and I was almost upset that I took the time to climb it instead of another mountain. But whatever. I took a short water and food break and headed down the other side.

The second path was much steeper than the first, and the trail was lined with dust and little else. Despite it being a shorter path than the ascent, it took me longer to walk down just because of how steep and slick the path was. Still, I managed to make it down eventually, and as soon as I stepped out of the woods, I saw mountain number 2 right in front of me.

#2 was Mt. Eboshi, a strange, knobby little peak right next to the famous mountain, and it looked really out of place. I made my way over to the trail head, passed through the Torii gates leading to the small shrine at the base, took pictures of all the cute fox statuettes at the shrine, and then started the climb.

Despite my guides claims, I found Eboshi to be a much easier climb than Haruna, probably because of all the obstacles and stairs along the path, which meant I actually had to slow down and go at a normal pace. Eboshi was much steeper though, and I was very happy that the powers that be provided handy railings up the steepest parts of the mountain.

Eventually, I reached another small shrine, this one in front of a large rock. According to my guide, this is where the god of the mountain lives. I’m guessing he’s a fox. I felt a little bad crawling up around his home, but he must have understood since he didn’t come out to trick me.

After the big rock, I finally reached the peak. The highest area was covered in trees and had no view at all, but there was another small trail leading a bit further that came out to a lovely little clearing with perfect views of the lake and surrounding mountains.

I managed to rest a bit and then wandered back down the same path I’d just come from, again very thankful for those handy railings (the fox? god must really like all of the tourists on his mountain). It only took about 30 minutes for me to reach the fork in the road I’d bypassed earlier just after the start of the trail. According to my guide, the path would lead to another mountain. And, sure enough, there was a small white sign hiding on a tree pointing the way to Mt. Bingushi.

Clearly this trail isn’t very popular, as it was very small and hard to follow at times. It was also insanely steep (probably a 50+ degree angle the whole way up). It took about 40 minutes to reach the top, which was completely tree-covered and offered no view at all. I wasn’t really surprised. The peak sign was broken and hard to read, but I still managed to take a picture. The elevation is 1350m.

I stayed at the top almost no time at all, and wandered precariously back down the steep, dusty path to the junction, and from there to the base of both mountains. By the time I reached the bottom, I really regretted not bringing my climbing poles, as my knees hurt like crazy. It was about 1:30 and I’d been climbing mountains for roughly 4 hours with very few breaks. I was super tired and just wanted to get back to the hotel, so I looked around for the bus stop...

Oh that’s right, I walked half way around the 6km lake today too.  Haha, oops. And so, the end of my 3 mountain climbing insanity was followed immediately by a 3.5 km hike around the lake as I tried to find the bus stop. It took another hour and a half, but I made it, and managed to find some ice cream on the way. And although I wanted to do a bit of omiyage shopping, get some lunch, and take a boat out on the lake for a bit, I decided not to in favor of taking the long bus back to Takasaki for dinner and a nice lone bath.

By the end of the day, I had walked over 25,000 steps and hiked over 15km. I was also broke and exhausted, and I decided right then and there that I would not be returning to Haruna, even though I wanted to, as the one other mountain I really wanted to climb wasn’t worth 3 more hours on a bus and almost $30 fare.

And so, I made a new plan for the second day of my trip, ate dinner, and crashed after skyping with mom and dad.

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I let myself sleep in just a bit on day 2, and then, once again, quickly wandered out to the bus stop. It turns out that Takasaki has all of 1 major tourist attraction—a 43m tall Kannon statue—and that’s what I was going to do to start my day, gosh darn it. So I took the 30 minute ride up to the statue, walked up, took a couple pictures, climbed the stairs to the uneventful top, took some more pictures, wandered down by the souvenir shops, bought a very small Daruma doll (a popular statue that is said to grant wishes, very famous in Takasaki), and made it back in time to catch the next bus back to the station.

Well that was fun…now what?

Thankfully, there’s a fun little program in Nagano and its surrounding prefectures called 駅からハイキング or “Hiking from the station.” This is an awesome idea for people like me who have no car, and I’d been debating doing one of the tracks since last fall. Luckily, one of the tracks was in a small city called Fujioka, about 20 minutes by train from Takasaki, and the path would lead me through a park which was currently holding a Wisteria festival. Score!

I got to Fujioka around 12:00, and wandered over a couple streets to the actual start point of the hike. There, I was given a helpful map, a button to wear, a point card to use each time I participate in a hike, and a promise of a prize if I succeeded in getting a stamp from the checkpoint in the park. This idea just kept getting better and better.

I turned left out of the store just like the guy told me to, and then noticed this cute little arrow pointing me onward. How useful! I am definitely a fan of this hiking thing.

After a few more signs I figured that they’d easily guide me through the entire 10km course, and shoved the map in my bag. I stopped for lunch early on, and then continued. It took me about 30 minutes to get from the start point to the park, where there were actually people, probably because of the festival (the rest of the city was a ghost town…I guess everyone was on vacation elsewhere).

I spent a little time wandering around the festival, got my stamp, took a few pictures of the pretty wisteria trees, found my arrow, and continued on. The path led me to an actual hiking trail around the park, and up a very long and steep hill. At the top, there was an open little area with a sign that calls the hill I just walked up a mountain…at only 189m tall. Ummm… okay…? Whatever, Japan.

The path continued in an up and down manner for several more kilometers, and then I finally found myself back on the streets of the city. Another 20 minutes of walking and I came to a small temple, which was the second “checkpoint” area. It was completely deserted.

Not long after the temple was the final checkpoint, the community center, which was, of course, closed. And then, after another kilometer, I finally found myself back at the starting point. My prize wound up being a tenugui (head scarf) from a nearby tourist attraction. Which is actually a pretty cool prize, even if I was kind of just hoping for a sticker.

I wandered back to the station and waited almost an hour for the next train bound for Takasaki. I dropped my things off at the hotel as soon as I was able, and then walked back over to the station to do a bit of clothes shopping (which, as usual, was pretty much a bust). By the end of the day I’d walked about 22,000 steps and 13 km. I went to bed fairly early again, ready for my final day, and hoping I could take a rest from hiking for a bit.

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On Monday, my last day in Takasaki, I woke up as late as I possibly could, packed my things, checked out of the hotel, threw my bag into a coin locker, and, once again, headed to the bus stop. This time, I’d take a bus bound for Ikaho Onsen, which is only about 30 minutes away from Lake Haruna.

The first thing you learn when looking for tourist things to do in Gunma is that there aren’t any. Or, well, there aren’t a lot. The major appeal seems to be onsens, which can be found all over the prefecture. Ikaho Onsen is one of the most famous, and is the second closest to Takasaki. I felt I deserved it after the last 2 days.

The bus ride took about an hour, and dropped me off at the foot of the Ikaho stairway. The stairway is lined with restaurants and omiyage shops, and climbs for about 300 meters. At the top is a shrine and, if you walk a bit farther, a famous bridge and onsen. Ikaho is famous for this shrine and it’s onsen, which boast gold waters, due to the amount of iron in the springs, which is oxidized when it hits open air. It was pretty cool to look at and to sit in.

I walked up the stairs, hung around the shrine for a bit (with yet more fox statues…must be an area thing…) and then found the bridge and onsen. Of course I took a bath, and then I drank some of the water from a spout near the onsen…it tasted nasty of course, but it’s apparently really good for you to drink it.

After that, I still had a while before the bus back, and so I found a ropeway and took it up Mt. Uenohara. The views were nice even though it was very cloudy, and from the top, I walked down the mountain, right into the shrine again. I ate a quick katsudon lunch, bought about a hundred packets of Ikaho Onsen bath salts, and then went back to the bus stop to wait.

I got back to Takasaki Station around 4:30, bought a shinkansen ticket with my last bit of money, and headed back to Nagano City and then to Shiojiri. To top it off, I biked the last 2km to my apartment from the station, and went to bed.

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Despite coming back from Takasaki on Monday, I still had 2 more days of vacation left. So I spent Tuesday holed up in my apartment reading fanfic and laughing at my pedometer count for the day, which remained a whopping 0 all day long (I did walk around my apartment, but I didn’t have my pedometer in my pocket, and I might as well have not walked anything…)

And then on Wednesday, it was back to the trails. I went with a friend down to Narai-Juku, a post town not far from central Shiojiri. The area is famous because of its spot on the Nakasendo highway, which was used by various people several hundred years ago to get from Kyoto up into Nagano and back. We only walked a small portion of the trail, about 7 km and 3 hours along a very hilly path, down into the next town, Yabuhara. From there we took a train back to Narai and then drove back to Shiojiri.

And then, unfortunately, I had to return to work. My legs really hurt today, but it was worth it. Unfortunately as well, I’m also too broke to do the hike I planned for this weekend, but I’ll still probably walk around Shiojiri some. Maybe. And, since I’m officially broke until payday, this is my last trip (anywhere, even to the mall) until Sarah comes at the end of the month. I am so ready for our trip it’s not even funny. Bring it on, Kansai!

[ookamirinchan]

Karuizawa

Every couple months, the JETs in my area hold an event we call NagaYes (get it?). Each event is hosted by one of the 4 blocks, in that block, and usually involves some kind of wacky competitive activity. I’ve been to all of them this year except (ironically) my own block’s, and so when Toushin, the east-Nagano block, brought up their idea, of course I wanted to go.

Good news is, Toushin block has Karuizawa, a famous small town area that is heavily visited in summer because of the cooler temperatures and relaxing atmosphere the town offers. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a straight shot from Tokyo on the Shink. I always wanted to visit Karuizawa, ever since I saw those two Host Club episodes.

(They all look so relaxed, right? Of course they don’t, this is Host Club.)

The bad news is, Nagano prefecture itself sucks where trains are concerned. And if you want to get from Shiojiri to Karuizawa, you have to take a train all the way up north to Shinonoi before changing trains and going all the way back south to Karuizawa. The trip cost me almost $30 one way, and it took about 2.5 hours (to get somewhere that I could have driven to in under an hour probably).

But, because I actually wanted to spend some time in Karuizawa, I decided not to ask for a ride to the event and instead planned to take the train Friday night after work and stay until Sunday at a hotel before making the long journey home. Was it expensive? Heck yeah. But it was worth it.

The following details my Karuizawa experience.

First, I should say that Karuizawa’s charm and fame lies in the beautiful scenery and fresh air. I kind of assume it’s what people think they’re getting when they visit the Great Smoky Mountains, before they arrive and wind up blinded by the lights and gagged by the exhaust from the traffic.

Thankfully, Karuizawa had neither flashing lights nor traffic.

It also was indeed cooler than Shiojiri, and the fresh air was very refreshing. And even though the trees weren’t quite full of green leaves yet, I decided to take in as many sights as I could, knowing it would be insanely packed when summer really rolled around.

My first stop was the Shiraito Waterfall, about 25 minutes away from the station by bus. I assumed, being such a short distance away, that the bus would be a rickety city bus, but I was wrong. I got a full-out charter bus, and I got it all to myself so early in the morning. Score! Then, I got to ride said large bus all the way up a long, winding mountain road to the waterfall bus stop.

Now, I should probably mention that, as convenient and awesome as this bus may seem, it only comes once an hour or so. The waterfall is literally 5 minutes from the bus stop. You show up, you take pictures, and then sit around wondering “now what?”

And so, seeing as how this trip was supposed to be my “warm up” trip before my Fuji training begins, I decided to do a quick hike. There was a convenient hiking trail that went from the waterfall area up to Mine no Ochaya (Mine Teahouse), which just so happened to be the next bus stop, up the mountain, I decided to try the hike, assuming that if I couldn’t make the 2.5 km hike within the 45 minutes I had until the next bus, I could have some tea while I waited for the next one. Luckily, I was able to make it in 40 minutes, and I found the bus stop just in time. Alas, there was no famous tea. Maybe next time.

I made it back to the station just before 10, and so I wandered over to the other side of the station, which just so happens to belong to the upscale Prince Resort Hotel and all their many facilities, including a massive international store outlet mall.

I’ll admit that this mall is one of the reasons I decided to stay for the weekend, as I’d recently complained to a coworker that I have to buy new pants again, but that I had trouble finding my size. She happened to mention Karuizawa’s outlet malls, claiming that the many American stores there would have larger sizes on hand. And so, with the intent of finding a pair of pants that would fit me and maybe some hiking gear (Northface and L.L. Bean outlets, anyone?) I wandered the malls for a couple hours.

Unfortunately, most of the stores were leisure clothes rather than work clothes. And then I’d find work pants and they’d be like, $200. And then I’d finally find some decently priced ones and they wouldn’t have my size. Needless to say, I got aggravated very quickly. The only store that redeemed itself was Gap which not only had sized that fit me, they had the American sizes still on their tags (none of this waist-hip-length sizing Japan likes so much, or the strange sizing of other stores (What the heck is a size 38 where does it come from why can you not tell me Japan size equivalent idek)). AND, Gap had everything half off. Score!

So I didn’t find work pants, but whatever, I found Gap instead. And then I wandered towards the sports and outdoor stores for hiking gear and managed to buy a decently priced hiking pack from North Face. This wonderful backpack fit my old backpack, all of my luggage, and the majority of my purchases inside of it. I’m in love with my new backpack. Totally worth the price.

But around 12, I had a train to catch to get to the next station over, where the actual event I was there for would take place. So I shoved all of my purchases into a coin locker, hopped on the train, and headed to the park.

Nagayes itself was pretty fun. We had a Noh theater theme, so Toushin called it NagaNoh (even worse of a pun than NagaYes). We played a bunch of goofy games and improve theater stuff, which had the Japanese people in the park thinking we were crazy I’m sure.

After the event, I went back to Karuizawa proper, dropped off my stuff in the hotel, and headed up to the next major area, Kyuu Karuizawa, which has a bunch of restaurants and souvenir shopping. I took the bus but got off at the wrong stop and had to walk 1 km to the actual area. Then I walked around the shops and had dinner at this amazing little Italian place that actually had real pizza and stuff. I also found the Totoro store, which made me happy because it had some Princess Mononoke stuff (which is so rare in Japan you don’t even understand). And then I realized I still had 30 minutes till the next bus, said forget the bus, and walked the 2km back to my hotel.

Where I checked my pedometer and realized that between the waterfall hike, the outlet malls, running around in the park, and walking to Kyuu Karuizawa and back, I had walked well over 10 km. Not a bad start to my Fuji training, even if most of it was just around town.

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The next morning, I woke up and threw all my stuff into my awesome new backpack, checked out of my hotel, threw said backpack into a coin locker, and wandered over the the bus stop for the final thing on my weekend itinerary, Onioshidashi Park (which translates to something like “The Park the Ogre Pushed Out”).

This park is actually in Gunma prefecture, at the foot of the famous volcano Mt. Asama, about 45 minutes away from Karuizawa. The park includes several walking trails that weave in between jagged lava rock formations, created when the volcano erupted some couple hundred years ago.

And the touristy draw of the park, apart from just being awesome lava rock stuff and great views of Asama, is the folk tale about the oni (demon/ogre) who lives on Mt. Asama. It’s actually quite a funny story (and played a part in our Noh improv thing the day before) involving a red oni who lives near Mt. Asama and a blue oni who lives near Mt. Fuji getting into a mountain building contest. It’s all very “The Tortoise and the Hare,” as the red oni falls asleep because he’s so far ahead and then winds up losing (obviously, because Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan, not Asama). So all of the merchandise involves red onis and blue onis glaring at each other and it’s hilarious. I also think the name of the park probably comes from the same story, which claims that the puffs of gas that sometimes rise from Asama are because the red oni gets gassy when he eats nothing but rice.

But anyway, despite the rather questionable origin story, the park was beautiful. There weren’t many people there, and it was very quiet. The rock formations were also really cool-looking, and I got great views of Asama the whole way around.

I caught the next bus back, which happened to come over 3 hours after I was dropped off, (leaving me more than enough time to get bored out of my mind after walking all of the paths and gift shops) and managed to catch a decently timed train back home.

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I really enjoyed Karuizawa, despite running myself all over the place, and I hope I can go back later in the summer to see it when the trees are full and the “cool” appeal will mean something. There’s also plenty more hikes in the area, so I think I will return many times.

Still, now I look forward to next weekend, which begins actual Fuji training. It’s golden week, and I’m going to Lake Haruna in Gunma prefecture to climb 3 easy mountains, hike around the lake, and maybe do some touristy things in the nearby town, too. It’s not exactly an awesome Golden Week trip, but it will do. I’ll come home on Monday, and then on Wednesday I’ll go with a friend to hike park of the Nakasendo trail near Shiojiri, which will be fun. And then, Sarah will come and life will be awesome.