I just came back from winter vacation but there was a three
day weekend the second week of January (Coming of Age Day). Took advantage of
this break to go somewhere, and PG (one of my friends) wanted to go somewhere
special for her birthday, so we went to Nagano.
Nagano is famous for hosting the Winter Olympics in 1998,
but there is also an area that is famous for onsens (especially one where
monkey’s enter). PG found a great ryokan
(Japanese style inn), great price and location. The area we were in was called
Shibu-Onsen. There are 9 different onsens that we could enter (we paid a fee
with our ryokan to get a key to go to all of the onsens). Each is supposed to
have different minerals and able to heal different sicknesses. Also each had a
stamp. So I also collected the stamps too.
Each onsen had information posted and it said that the water
temperatures ranged from 50-70.2 degrees Celsius (a normal bath water
temperature in Japan is about 42-44 degrees). So we got dressed up in yukata (Japanese cotton summer kimono,
but often worn when going to onsen and after baths) and set out to the
different onsens. Keep in mind that the temperature outside is about 2-4degrees
(in the 30s) and colder at night. So the first onsen was extremely hard to
enter. I had a hard time sticking even one foot in. But eventually we got into
the first onsen. Another lady came into the one we were in and said the other
ones were hotter….(but I swear that first ones we entered were the hottest,
probably because we weren’t used to it). But pretty much we were wennies at
first complaining about the temperature.
The next day it was much easier to enter the onsens. I could enter all of them easily. Our ryokan also
had an indoor and outdoor onsen as well. I really liked the outdoor one because
it had three separate pools with different temperatures.
We also hiked up to the area that monkeys enter an onesen.
They have a special park where you can see this (humans don’t enter with them).
The monkeys are very used to humans and just kind of sit there and do their own
thing while visitors are taking tons of pictures. There was snow on the ground
and it was a little slick. The last day we were there it snowed so we went to
see the monkeys again.
It snowed all day, and our bus back to Nagoya was cancelled.
We ended up taking the train (had to pay extra, and I need to get a bus refund
later too). Later I ended up getting the wrong change back at a convenience
store leaving me with pretty much no money….But overall, the trip was very
relaxing. I enjoyed the onsens a lot.
Lately whenever people see me they are a little confused.
Some can tell that I’m a foreigner but are confused as to why I can speak
Japanese, which leads to them asking if I’m half-Japanese; and some just plain
out assume I’m Japanese. I’ve been told that I’m starting to pick up a lot of
Japanese mannerisms. Anyway, I guess that’s a good (or maybe bad) thing. Feels
like I’m turning Japanese (I can even enter the same boiling hot onsens that
they can). I have a lot planned for the next coming months (I’m going to be
poor) so I’m excited!!!
Take a look the photos from this trip. I just uploaded the
photos in bulk (I didn’t edit or go through them).
Okay, so I’m going to make this as painless as possible because
there is just way too much to write and yeah So, I’ll just point out the main
points of what I wanted to write about originally. I think the cause of me
falling behind and behind on entries was that I wanted to put very detailed
update with lots of pictures which was very time consuming. So, I uploaded just
large batches of photos. Take a look through them. My entries here will mostly
written content with some photos. I’ll have links to photo batches correlating
to the content.
From recent to not so recent:
New Years (2013)
I am the year of the Dragon (Born in 1988). So in Japan the new “Chinese”
zodiac starts on January 1st. So in Japan, my year is over. But I’m
going to pretend, (well it still actually is my year), that it’s still my year.
I ended up coming back to Matsusaka a day later had to rush
to clean and get laundry done. Then on the eve, I went to Ise Shrine. It was
cold, but I think I’m getting used to it. It was also pretty crowded, but I
personally think that it was more crowded during the day of the 1st.
They had bon fire set up around the shrine grounds so it was pretty toasty in
those areas. I also stood in lines to get free mocha and sake (the girl was a
little stingy with me and didn’t give me that much sake compared to my other
friends). Oh yeah, so I went my friends VG ad VO to the shrine. They had extra
trains running so there wasn’t a problem getting home. We got into the fast
line that went to the side to pray instead of praying directly in front (seems
just as good to me). Anyway, this year that was much faster. Last year we stood
in line for two hours to pray directly in front, which then when I threw my
coin in, bounced back at me (that was tramatizing).
We went back to my place and ended up drinking till the sun
rose. We walked a little bit from my place to see the sun better. Maybe I’ll
watch the sun from someplace cool next year. But overall, it was a good New
Years. I had a good time.
Castle and Cycling
Trip 9 Castles/180km~/9 nights (originally planned 8 nights)/4 different
hostels/Seishun18 tickets
Okay, so I again went castle hunting. This time I brought my
bike along and thought I’d cycle across the Shimanami Kaido to get to Shikoku.
(Two of my favorite things; castles and cycling) I had a good time, but it was
a bit stressful carrying my bicycle around. I had to pick hostel that were
closer to stations and would let me take my bike. Oh, yeah, btw, so I had to
put my bike in bag (take the wheels apart) to bring it on the train. So taking
it apart and putting it back together took time. But, in Matsuyama, it was very
convenient. It was useful to have to my bicycle around so I could go places
easily without depending on trams and stuff. But this was also the first time I
rode a long distance with a backpack (actually these were my longest rides
ever! 80km and 105km). I’d prefer not to ride again with a backpack. So this is
making me rethink cycle touring.
Anyway, I saw some pretty lame castles, but also some pretty
cool ones. Same goes for hostels. The first hostel I stayed at on this trip was
pretty crappy. But my favorite on this trip and maybe one of my favorite hostels
out of all the hostels that I’ve stayed at (15~totally maybe), was the last
place I stayed at in Onomichi.
Okay, so I’d better tell you a little about the Shimanami
Kaido. It’s a road (for cars and bicycles) that connects Honshu (the main
island) and Shikoku through six islands. One of the bridges is the world’s
longest suspension bridges. The bicycle path is about 70~km. It has become more
and more popular. Some areas are very touristy. You can rent cycles for the day
and drop them off at certain cycling terminals. You literally can’t get lost. I
suck a lot at reading maps and get lost all the time, but I made it. To cross
the bridges (6 bridges) you have to pay a toll ranging from 50-200yen depending
on the length of the bridge (you can also buy this ticket book so you don’t
have to dig for change). But people of all ages and sorts of bicycles make the
trek. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but I’m in shape and cycle
all the time. From Onomichi to Imabari, the 1st day, I took the
regular course (roughly 70km, but my cycling computer added 80km from start to
finish that day), the 2nd day from Imabari back to Onomichi I rode
some of the intermediate course. I got a punk/flat tire and took me longer than
I had wanted to to fix it. I had to ride rushing back for 2 hours in the dark.
But I had a really good time. On one of the islands, I visited a shrine and got
this special/popular omamori for my helmet. I’ll definitely be coming back
again and during different seasons.
Oh and for this trip, I packed extra light, even lighter
than the other trip I made during the summer. Well that was summer and this is
winter so I had to pack different things, but it was pretty light.
Under armor,
Deuter cycling pack, Nikon COOLPIX P310 reviews
In a later entry. Detailed review of cool things.
Matsusaka One Day
Fun Day English
Well I don’t have any photos from this, but at the end of the program I played
my violin. Check out the video. Jounetsu Tairiku by Taro Hakase (this is a very
famous song in Japan that aired on NHK a few years ago)
JLPT (Japanese
Language Proficiency Test) December 2012
This is my third time taking the test and the first time that I didn’t have to
run to the test center. I was always late the other times. I took N2 again,
hopefully I passed…..but I might not have. I miss calculated the time, actually
having more time than I thought, but I rushed through the last readings. Since the
last test I took three practice tests and passed all of them, so hopefully it
went alright. If not, the next time for sure! I can tell that my Japanese is
getting better and better.
Yurusai Bike Ride
I went on a bike ride with some people in Matsusaka. The bike shop that I go to
organizes a few rides (more casual and also big cycling events). There is a
woman that organizes rides specifically for women, but there aren’t many women
that ride so sometimes the rides are mixed gendered. Anyway, rode with them, it
was fun. Look forward to riding with them again and making more cycling friends
here.
Kyoto in Autumn
Aunty Ana visited again and I went to see her. We travelled around Kyoto a
little, but it was soooo crowded. The first day we went to the East side,
Nanzenji, and somewhere else too…..and we had tempura for lunch. The next day
we went to the west side to Arashiyama and Tenryuji. It was sooo packed there
though.
iPhone 5
Okay, so I caved….I used to be very anti-Apple products…
What sparked my jump to a smart phone was that my neighbor’s wifi stopped
working for like two weeks leaving me without any sort of internet for that
time. The new iPhone just happened to come out at the time and sparked my
interest even more. It’s very useful thought. The apps are very cool, maps and
gps is very useful. I use it like a PDA. I’m glued to it.
Bunkasai (Culture Festival) Each of my schools puts on a bunkasai. The JHS B.S. tends to be a song
contest and the 3rd graders put on some dance or skit or something.
At the ES they tend to sing a few songs and also display work they’ve done. I’ve
uploaded videos, so take a look.
Yabusame (Archery on Horseback)
I went to a shrine in Kyoto (I can’t remember the name). Kyudo (Japanese
Archery), it’s pretty hard enough, I tried it in Hakodate. Add a horse and it
sounds even more impossible. If your soul is pure then the arrow should reach
it’s way to the target. From what I heard, it’s harder for women because
something with the stature and the way you have to keep your arm straight when
you pull the bow, yeah, it’s harder for women, and traditionally women didn’t
participate in yabusame? Maybe. But at this event they had a few female riders.
That day there were some importation international people so the whole event
was also translated in English. I can’t really remember much though. Check out
the video and pictures.
Matsusaka Stamp
Walk So there is a stamp walk in Matsusaka of famous places. The castle, the
place to get Matsusaka momen (cotton), Old merchant house, etc…. Check the
photos.
Hikone (Taki CC Day
Bus Trip) We were also supposed to go on boat ride in Lake Biwa, but the weather
was bad (a typhoon was coming). We ended up only driving (riding a bus) to see
the castle and eat lunch. Hikone-jo is one of four national treasure castles,
so I had high expectations for this castle. But I felt sort of disappointed.
Maybe because it was raining and I couldn’t really get good photos. I’ll go
back another day probably, maybe when I cycle around Biwa-ko
Undokai (Sports Festival)
Each school also does a sports festival. The JHS in Matsusaka do their sports
festival in July before summer vacation, and the ES do it in September right
after summer vacation, like a month after. But this is from one of my ES. They
do all sorts of relays and such. At this undokai, the 5th and 6th
graders also did kumitaiso (group
exercise; there really isn’t a good translation that I can think of). They sort
of did choreographed aerobics and pyramids. It was pretty cool. Check that
video out (3 parts). I was impressed that kids can do that kinds of stuff.
Two Week Castle
Trip
So I basically visited all sorts of castles for two weeks. I travelled all the way
up to Hokkaido, by train. One backpack. When I planned it, I bought the train
time schedule book and just straight out read the train times. Depending on the
castle and how long you spend at one area, it is possible to do three castles
in one day, but two is more reasonable. I always arrived at the first castle at
9am when they open (meaning I get up early, usually spend the night before in
that area so I can get an early start the next day) and then another castle in
the afternoon. The trip got cut one day short and two castles less because I
came back a day late from the Philippines.
Biwa Area Castles
Odani-jo, Kannonji-jo, Azuchi-jo
Philippines Trip
I wrote it prior so it is detailed.
A day or so before leaving for the trip, I was planning to
go to the Matsusaka-shrine to pray for safe travels. In Japan people do that
sort of thing for the weather, travel, exams, etc….. I do it sometimes when I
go for bike rides too, I’ll stop at the shrine first and pray for a save
journey. That being said, in the mist of packing, it somehow slipped my mind
and I forgot to go.
We planned this trip a little late, so we went in a
round-about way of getting to the Philippines. First we went from Osaka to Hong
Kong using a cheap Japanese airlines. Then we used another cheap airlines to
get from Hong Kong to Clark (2hrs from Manila), then another cheap airline to
get to Kalibo (Boracay is about a 2 hour drive from that airport).
Our flight from Clark to Kalibo was canceled. Strange thing,
it seems we were the only ones who didn’t know. That airport isn’t very big, so
they won’t let you check in early to wait by the gate. We almost thought we
missed the flight, but it was canceled. In other words we were stranded at that
airport. After a bit of complaining they hooked us up and got us to a van to
take us to Manila to get on another flight. (2hour drive)
Once we got to Boracay, it was rainy for the first few days.
The first day we got massages and walked around. We found a family tour
company-like group that set us up with activities. The next day we went “island
hopping” and jet skied. During the boat ride (island hopping) it was raining
and the water was choppy at first. We were going to go on a small boat, but we
joined up with other groups to go on a large boat instead. We got to snorkel a
little and we had lunch on an island. This was where I ate the best French
fries ever. I love French fries, and this, WAS THE BEST FRIES I HAVE EVER
EATEN!Then we went jet skiing. It was
fun, but I thought it was kind of scary at the same time. It was my first time
jet skiing.
The next day, the weather was crappy again, so we didn’t
really do anything. We also moved hostel/hotel/apartment, whatever you want to
call it. We just sort of relaxed that day. The following day, we went on an ATV
ride to Puka Beach and swam for a little bit. Then we did “fly fishing”. Fly
fishing, is sort of like Banana boats, except this is a big floaty thing pulled
by a boat that gets major air. Now that I think back on it, it is actually
pretty dangerous. But it was fun and scary again at the same time. We liked
Puka beach so much, we went back to swim more and see the sunset.
The next day me and S did parasailing in the morning. We
came back to the hotel, grabbed some food to take and we went to have a picnic
at Puka Beach again. One of the members from the family tour group met us at
Puka Beach and we went on a boat ride on White Beach to see the sun set. I also
got another massage that night. I can’t remember anymore, but the massage was
pretty cheap. We got another massage the next morning too (our last day). After
the morning massage we went back to Kalibo to catch our flight back to Clark
then to Hong Kong then back to KIX.
But…..along the way…..back at Clark, again our flight was
cancelled, again without us knowing, and we were rescheduled on another flight.
They probably just combined a few flights into a later flight. Anyway….that
flight was 5 hours later which would force us to miss our next flight from Hong
Kong back to Japan. We were trying to call Peach Airlines, but for some reason
we couldn’t get in touch with Peach to change our flight, forcing us to buy a
brand new ticket from HK to KIX. At the time we were all pretty pissed off,
calling all sorts of customer services through skype and what not. My iPod
Touch did come in handy thought. The ipod had better connection to the wifi
than S’s iPhone and we used skype to call G’s bf back in the states to call some
other stuff as well. Overall, the ipod saved us. Cheap airlines in the end will
make you spend more money because they cancel their flights. But me and G
decided to take the later flight back to KIX and we got to spend a day in Hong
Kong.
We went out to see the Victorian Peak, and while we were
riding the bus up the mountain, we ran into my high school math teacher “Mr.
Chan”. Super random! Of the 8 million people in Hong Kong, I run into him on
the one day I’m there. What are the chances of that. He was tutoring some kid
that lives there and later we had dim sum.
It was a good trip. I like the Philippines a lot, well the
area I was in. It still is very poor and the standard of living is low, but the
beaches were so beautiful! Even more so than in Hawaii. I liked China a lot
too, but I felt more depressed/bad for them. In the Philippines, I didn’t feel
that way so much. It felt very odd to me that everyone could tell that I have
some percentage Filipino heritage. Back in Hawaii, usually people can tell that
I’m of Chinese heritage, but not the other half. I’d go back to the Philippines
again someday. Maybe to Palawan, which I hear has even more beautiful beaches.
And that was a painfully long entry. Amazing if you read all of that in one go. Hopefully this won't happen again. This year I'm going to try to be better at updating entries promptly.
Hmmm....I'm sorry folks. I haven't gotten around to posting all the old posts that I've been wanting to post. I promise I'll get them up someday. It's already the end of November and things are going to be busier than ever. I'm taking the JLPT next weekend too so I'm trying to study during every spare moment. But hopefully I'll catch up on 5 months of posts during winter vacation.
Sorry folks ;P
I am getting worse and worse at updating. But I do want to
write proper entries so you all will just have to wait patiently for my entries
to slowly come out. Here are the titles of the entries that are to come out.
41. Philippines Trip
I went to the Philippines for one week in August.
Puka Beach (Boracay, Philippines)
42. Two Week castle Trip
Directly after the Philippines trip I travelled over Northern Japan for two
weeks.
Matsumoto Castle (Nagano Prefecture)
43. Cycle Training and
New Gear (Camera and Cycling stuff)
After coming back from my trips, I wanted to shop more. I bought a new camera
and some cycling stuff.
Nikon Coolpix P310
44. Sports Festival
In September my elementary schools had their sports festivals. I’ll post some
videos of their group exercise and some of the different races and games.
45. Taki International Day Trip (Hikone)
This year’s day trip was to Hikone. We were also supposed to go on a boat ride
on Lake Biwa, but there was a typhoon coming so the boat ride got cancelled and
we just had lunch and visited the castle.
Hikone Castle (Shiga Prefecture)
46. Okayama three day weekend castle trip
This year we got rooked a holiday because it fell on a weekend. Last year we
had way more three day weekends. But I travelled with my buddy Pi for three days
and we visited four castles.
I will
be on two consecutive trips from Sunday, August 12th till Sunday
September 2nd. On the 3rd I will go back to school. For
the 1st week I will be going to the Philippines with 3 other JETs to
relax and spend some time with them before one of them heads back to the US.
Then for the next two weeks, I will use the JR Seishun 18 tickets again and
travel all over Japan, from Matsusaka all the way up to Hokkaido, by train, By
the end of the summer I’ll have 21 new castle stamps.
Over the
year I have gotten a lot better at packing. When I went to China for Winter
Term, I brought one small suitcase and did pretty well. Lately I’ve been using
one of those bigger backpacks (35~L backpack) for trips, but I feel like it’s
starting to be too much stuff. For this trip, I’ll be spending one night here,
one night there, so one small backpack will be easier to travel with since I
have to have my backpack on me the whole time. So, I’ve come up with this list
after researching and watching youtube videos on minimalist packing.
Philippines and Castle trip
packing list (3 weeks)PhilippinesCastle
Northface
Backpack
Pink pouch to hold
clothes- on the bottom of backpack
2 sets of clothes (wear 1; 3 total): shirts, undershirts, shorts, panties,
bras, socks
PJS
Jacket swimsuit
Towel Slippers
Pouch to hold
toiletries-
Brush
toothbrush and paste
deodorant
moisturizer
sunscreen
first-aid kit (medicine)
eczema cream
shampoo and conditioner
body wash
Detergent
s-hooks or a drying line
Pouch for chargers-
Phone and charger
DSLR and charger
iPod Touch, charger and usb converter
Wrist
watch
sunglasses
flashlight
lock
water bottle
snacks, energy bars
Sam (Penguin)
Omamori
Passport Pouch-
Passport
Flight and hotel info, Contact Info Wallet and coin purse-
Gaijin card, credit cards, hyakugo cash card, insurance card, yen
Castle book
train time book small notebook
pen and highliter
I also
recently bought an iPod Touch (64gb) it take with me on these trips. After
refusing to use Apple products for so long, I’ve caved. I still prefer PC over
Mac, but this device is convenient. I plan to use it more as a PDA since the
apps and wifi are very convenient. Instead of having a notebook, I can use it
for notes, put my calendar on it; ebooks; screen shots of maps; internet when
there is wifi. I don’t want an iPhone because I don’t want to play over
8,000yen/month, but this seems like a close and practical option. Instead of
having 3G, I’ll have to search for wifi spots; and no GPS, but otherwise it has
pretty much the same features.
I went to another festival in Kuwana (a city in between
Matsusaka and Nagoya). Just wanted to post some photos of the food stalls and
stuff. I’m not quite sure what kind of festival this was, but they had this
float thing with lanterns and a drum on it so they just banged away at the drums
and these gongs too. It was interesting and much more enjoyable to not be seen
by my students all the time.
