赤兎山 Akausagi yama

On Sunday we went to a mountain near Katsuyama called Akausagi yama. That directly translates to Red Rabbit Mountain. It was a beautifully sunny day, and perfect for hiking. We had about 15 people in our group. As you can see below, most of them thought it was necessary to cover every inch of skin that would be exposed to either the sun, bugs, or strange mountain plants. Despite the hot weather they had about a million layers on, however Lesley and I showed up in a tank top and a t-shirt, and of course politely declined their offer for thin white gloves. They thought the gloves were absolutely necessary, and insisted we at least put them in our bags in case the need should arise while on the mountain. It never did.
At the top!! :)

1626 m high (although I'm pretty sure we drove up for most of that)

My students and our trusty walking sticks, which i must say came in handy when we were scaling up steep muddy inclines. We also passed little sections of snow that were still layered on the mountain.

After successfully making it to the top. We had a lovely picnic. And then made our way down the treacherous path. Somehow down was much scarier and dangerous than going up.

On Monday I had a great, but extremely tough yoga class. Sometimes I feel like the teacher is punishing me just because I CAN do almost every move, doesn't mean that i WANT to do them to there fullest intensity. Now i hurt, but it is a good hurt.

Today was perfectly sunny. I spent the morning tanning and reading my book outside. And definitely took a long lunch to enjoy the outdoors.

So apparently Fukui has a new baseball team that is pretty popular. But it doesn't have a normal name like 'The Tigers' or some other fast/tough animal...no,no, they are called the 'Miracle Elephants', hahaha.
Tomorrow, I am climbing a serious mountain about two hours away from here. So today i decided to go to the gym and mentally prepare myself for it on the treadmill. I've seen pictures of said mountain, and it was above the clouds. My students and I are doing the climb in preparation for climbing Mt. Fuji in a months time. I love my students at the moment, they are so friggin cute. Even the little 4 year old who never ceases to not notice when i haven't shaved my legs, or missed a spot. So the trip to the gym this morning was great.......but what was even greater was the fact that it is 80 cent movie day at my video store, so i popped in to grab a few cheap movies. And today is ridiculously sunny, and the perfect temperature. So i think i will take an extended lunch and go home and tan/read my book outside. Man i love living 4 mins away from work.

Tojinbo in the news

So I was watching CNN today when the words 'suicide' and 'Japan' were spoken in the same sentence. So naturally I stayed tuned because I knew exactly what they were going to be talking about. And so I was right, they were doing a story on the amount of suicides that occur at Tojinbo every year, and about one guy who is a retired cop who patrols the cliffs twice a day. If you have read my beginning posts you will see pictures of the cliffs. Tojinbo is only 40 mins away from where I live. They say 25 people a year jump off the cliffs to their watery deaths. One suicide happens every 15 mins in Japan, the same rate as the United States except Japan is an exceedingly smaller country. The Suicides are directly related to workplace failure. In Japan a persons life successes are based upon their career successes. The shame associated with acknowledging you have a mental illness is also a cause of the high suicide rates.
Yesterday I had the most annoying work day. Too many classes back to back, and it appears the job is getting old. Even though I usually genuinely like every student, i definitely did NOT yesterday. I couldn't wait to get home and make food. But don't worry there will be no jumping off Tojinbo for me.
Today is much better.

Afro-Cuban NIght

Just had some days off. On saturday night i dusted the cob-webs from my heels and headed into town for a night of Afro-Cuban music, bongos, and dancing.

We popped a little champagne in the bathroom (thanks to meena's birthday present for me last week). For my birthday i got a bottle of champagne, a bottle of wine, and a green necklace made from the glass of a wine bottle. Are people trying to tell me something??

Today i had a great yoga class with Marie-sensei. And was also able to sit outside in the sun all morning. When the sun is out in Fukui i must take advantage of it!!

Hat plays catch-up...

Dear diary, I have been very bad at writing updates lately. Geezz, I mean seriously, having a blog means constantly feeling guilty. I am always thinking to myself that I should update this thing. Not that I know of anybody specifically who reads it, but it’s also like a dairy for myself. So here goes. In no correct order what-so-ever. I haven’t written since cherry blossom season, no wait, before that.

Spring was an incredibly beautiful time in Japan. Everything that was once barren and leafless turns into picturesque pinks, whites, and greens. The sakura, or cherry blossoms last on average ten days. So during these ten days, people spend as much time outside as possible to take in their transient beauty. I took the time to ride around my city and really explore all the great spots. I also went up the mountain with one of my students and his friends to see the sakura all lit up at night. It is actually indescribable. When it gets dark they line the paths with lanterns and candles and put spot lights all over the trees, superb. I think if I come back to Japan again I will definitely come during this time of year.

Then during Golden Week I had my parents come to visit. They were here for about 9 days, and when they were leaving it was a mighty tearful goodbye. I had been looking forward to their visit for months. I was a little stressed having to pretend to be an expert guide in a country I frequently got lost in myself, but I gave it my best shot.

I took the bus to Osaka the night before I had to meet them. When I was dropped off at the bus station I totally went though culture shock. Osaka is such a big and busy city with tons of people walking around, and lights and action. I felt lost in the middle of it all clutching my little subway line map hoping I was in the right place. Turns out I was definitely not where I wanted to be and had no idea how to get there. Soooooo picking the right person to ask for help is an art, and art I feel I have now mastered, I have also mastered the look of lost distress without freaking people out. I targeted a couple, and being the lovely people they were, they personally walked me though the underground shopping arcades for 15 minutes to the station where I needed to be. I finally made it to my hotel and thanked my lucky stars I finished learning all the katakana symbols before this trip because the hotel sign was only in Japanese, good old Super Hotel (スパホテル). I went out wondering that night through the busy entertainment districts looking for some place to eat.
The next morning I took several subways and trains taking just over an hour to meet my parents at 8:30am at the airport. I got there a couple minutes late, and my mom asks me if I slept in? Hahaha PLEASE, that was the first time I had woken up at 6:30 in about 8 months. It is strange seeing parents after a long separation, they actually age, and they looked soooo different. Ingies had a cute hip and new haircut. That day, after some rest at the hotel, we ventured out to see Osaka Castle. Beautiful weather, perfectly sunny, actually it was like that for their whole trip. (As I am writing this now it is dark and rainy outside) That night I took them to the lively and entertaining Dotombori district. This is where Osaka’s fashionistas get to show off their finest concoctions, men with long luscious hair and pointy boots, and women with amazon heels, big hair, and more makeup on than a Mary-K sales person. Of course Frank needed to go home at like 11 pm. One thing about traveling with parents is defiantly no night life fun, only early to bed, early to rise. But that was fine by me, just a totally different way of traveling than what I’m used to.

Osaka- jo

Okonomiyaki in Dotonbori

The next day we headed for Kyoto. We stayed in Kyoto for three days, and also visited Japans original capital Nara. We stayed in Ks House Kyoto, a very famous hostel in Japan.
Some highlights (in no real order) were:
- Frank hitting the emergency SOS button in the train station handicap bathroom in his frantic attempt to flush the toilet. About 3 very worried Japanese men showed up asking if he was okay, all the while a huge alarm was going off. They probably thought he had fallen and broken a hip or something. I was in tears laughing so hard, and Taya happened to have called while all this was happening getting the play by play of how funny it all was. Frank, however was mortified, but did eventually find the flush button, it is one of those really sophisticated ones that you just wave your hand in front of.
- Seeing the oldest wooden building in the world, with a huge Buddha inside. I was about the size of the Buddha’s eye.
- sharing my favorite Japanese food with them
- drinking far too much sake at dinner because we kept ordering it from different waiters thinking they had all forgotten when about three big bottle showed up to our table at once
- laughing with my mom about how ridiculous Frank can be sometimes
- staying in a hostel with my parents (Frank liked it because “he liked being around all the backpackers”) Yeah, easy for him to say, he got to go back to a nice private room, while I shared with these three other asshole people who decided 5 am was a good time to wake up, THREE days in a row. Sometimes you get lucky with hostels, other times not the case.
Then I took them to my home city for four days. Good old Fukui。They got to see where I lived, worked, shopped etc. I had a couple days where just Ingies and I explored the area, we left Frank at home. All three of us slept in my tiny apartment, so funny. I also took them out one night with a bunch of my friends here. And they even did Karaoke. It was a fun night with lots of food and singing. But then came the day when they had to leave me all alone here. I was water-works central at the train station. I think it is always harder being the one being left behind.

Fushimi-Inari, Kyoto

Walking around, Frank in Wonderland

Nanzenji, Aqua-duct

Michiyo's house

Kenrokuen, Kanazawa

Karaoke at Bears Bar

Two weekends ago I went on another road trip with my boss and 11 students. We drove 6 hours across Japan to a place called Hakone. This time we rented an even bigger bus. My boss got his bus license specifically for this trip and others we plan to take in the future. The weather wasn’t the best on the day that we left, but it cleared up nicely at night. We went up this mountain in the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park that was supposed to have a great view of Mount Fuji, but it was so foggy that you couldn’t even see 10 feet in front of you. Once we came down the mountain it was beautifully sunny. So we had an awesome Japanese barbeque at this house we rented overlooking the ocean and Atami beach. It was also up a mountain. I have come to LOVE the mountains here, big and small. Canada needs more mountains. I guess I’ll have to visit the West coast when I get home. That night I didn’t have the best sleep. I was not only being eaten alive by mosquitoes, but also apparently had set my futon up near an ant infestation and was constantly feeling little bastard ants crawling all over me. I don’t get the whole Japanese custom of sleeping on the floor on a mattress the width of a duvet, I mean seriously people lets invest in some decent beds. The next day was nice and sunny. We drove around Izu-hanto peninsula. During our drive we were passing many many splendid beaches. All I wanted to do was stop at one of them and wade out into the blue water. The students I was with barely looked twice and the sandy beaches. We clearly had different vacation objectives. BUT, there is a but here, we DID stop at a beach called ‘Sand-ski beach’ It had a huge sand doom with people going down on toboggans. At last, I got to put my feet into the water and feel the beautiful sun on my face. We also did some serious, and fast tobogganing down these dooms.

Good times. Then on the way home we passed Mount Fuji!! Finally, a good look at the beloved Fuji-san. We’ve started to plan our next road trip already. We are going to climb Mount Fuji, and I am soooooooo pumped. It takes about 5 hours. It is best to start climbing at midnight and get to the top for the sunrise. My boss in planning to buy Oxygen and head lights. I think the Oxygen is a bit extreme, but as always I’ll probably just go along with whatever is decided. Ahhh Japan, always a mystery.

Last weekend was my birthday weekend!!!!!! On the day before my birthday I taught my classes like usual, and then at 10pm I went home. You know, being the usual Friday night I cracked a bottle of shiraz, got in pajamas and popped in an episode of ‘Sex and the City’ and began eating all the junk food in my house. At around 12 pm I hear the doorbell ring. I must preface this with the fact that I was half a bottle of wine in, wearing my skanky pajamas that consist of an old t-shirt and green baggy bottoms, not wearing a bra, and surrounded my kit-kat wrappers. I see through the peep hole that it is my co-teacher, Grace. So feeling safe that it is just her, I open the door to her saying happy birthday AND about ten of my students and my boss yelling SURPRISE!!!!!!! And surprise indeed. So although it was a very nice gesture, and would seem like a good idea to surprise a gal at midnight on her birthday, it was in fact very invasive. And of course they all wanted to come in. So not thinking properly I invited them all into my semi-messy imperfect apartment. I mean if I know people are coming over I put away all the things they aren’t supposed to see. But being as it was the end of my work week, it was a tad messy, ie. Sports bras drying on my bookshelf, dirty dishes, you know general PRIVATE mess. But they had cake, and good intentions, so bring it on. They thought it was very funny that I was watching tv alone in the dark with my wine. Some even took videos of my apartment, hahaha, I felt like they were capturing where the strange creature lives. Ah, being a foreigner in Japan has many deficits, feeling like an alien is sometimes one of them. I got some cards and some preserved flowers as a gift. Preserved flowers are real flowers that stay fresh looking for about 3 years, kind of strange, but common here.

The next day I had to work. Yes, that’s right. Work on my birthday. It wasn’t so bad, AND one of my students told me she might be pregnant. Very very exciting news for her. I finished at 9 pm and was able to make it to Lesley’s house to catch the last bus into town. We had a mini party at one of my favorite bars called Bears Bar. Lot’s of people came, and we sang many Karaoke songs and ate lots of food. I did miss my lovely friends on the other side of the world, but it wasn’t as hard as Christmas. I also got to talk to Ky, Chlo, Care, and Caley that morning, which made me very very happy. It was a good night, and like usual I was out late enough to see the blue of morning and walk home at around 5 am. I really have to stop doing that, but this time was my birthday, so I forgave myself. The next day I went to the beach with Lesley and one of my students. We had a great day in the sun and surf drinking Sangria.

Mikuni Burger, YUM!! oishi!!

However, something awful also happened that day after the beach. One of my students, the same one that took us to the beach, wrote me a text message professing his love to me in Japanese (and told me not to show it to anyone, especially other Japanese people). He gave me no credit at all, or maybe too much credit. First of all, I could read 75% of it, and second of all. He is a dumbass not to think I wasn’t going to figure out what the one word I didn’t know meant. And it meant ‘to fall in love’ horemashita ほれました. So, this puts me in an incredibly awkward position. I not only have to teach him twice a week, but also find some way to tell him that now because he sent that message, that we can never hang out. Geeez. I don’t care if I know a student kind of likes me, but as soon as it is said, game over, right? So there goes my free ride to the beach and occasional gifts for no reason. Oh well, the train has its benefits too, haha.
Which FINALLY brings me up to date with my blog. I feel so guilt free, phewf. It is apparently the rainy season right now. It’s supposed to last a month, but hopefully there will be some sunny days in between so I can go to the beach and make new friends who surf. That is my new goal, make surfer friends. That, and I need to study Japanese harder. I went through a phase of about two months of not caring, but I am back on the study train.
AND the hat and I have made the decision to head to the land down under in November. That was always the plan, but now it feels real since I have told my boss that I won’t be signing another contract. I am REALLY excited. So in 5 months I fly into Sydney and start an entirely new and unplanned adventure. All I have to do is get a one year work visa and book my plane ticket. I plan to find work wherever there is some, and either stay in one place or travel around. It’s a play it by ear game plan, but I have made some plans already. Plans involving a certain family farm, and many trips to various beaches. I might work in Sydney, or go travel around and find fruit picking jobs. And after that I plan to travel to South East Asia, and maybe India. But that isn’t for a long time and a lot could happen before then, but plans plans plans!!! Or should I say dreams!!

So that’s all for now I guess.

Sakura in Fukui

Shikoku Road Trip!!! すごい!!

I’ve been horrible at keeping up to date. So I want to go back in time a little to a road trip that I took with my boss and a bunch of students. We rented a camper van and headed south to the sunny and warm island of Shikoku. We journeyed into a prefecture called Kagawa-ken. Kagawa is famous for its sanuki Udon. This is a type of thick noodle that is famous in Japan. We started this kick-ass road trip at 5 am, yes that’s right, the sun had yet to come up and I had to look photo worthy. Once everyone was in we headed on our way. It was a 5-6 hour drive to get there. We passed over the famous Seto-Ohashi bridge which links Okayama to Shikoku. And of course went straight to a famous Udon shop for our first of many Udonya’s. After that...well, then we went to another Udon shop. My students were really serious about the Udon. They had pre-researched all the best places to go. Thank Buddha for the GPS system that gave us directions to all the shops. Then we went to a famous shrine and mountain in Kotohira, called Kompira-san. The shrine is located on the top of a mountain. The only way up is to climb the 1368 steps to the top. And well, of course those 1368 steps are the only way down as well. My calves were definitely feeling the trek, that and the 5am wake-up call were making me chotto nemui (little sleepy). The temple is dedicated to the Gardian or Mariners. The picture below is the large Asahino Yashiro (Shrine of the Rising Sun) built in 1837. The climb was not easy, but totally worth the view at the top. And it was a beautiful and sunny day.

Then we took the fairy across to a smaller island called Shodo-Shima, where we would be staying in a youth hostel for the night. The hostel was a traditional type. Which means your bed is inconveniently hidden in the closet and you have to pull it out and dress it and then sleep uncomfortably on the hard floor all night. I put a duvet and blankets under me just to try to add some extra cushioning. And of course you have to love the team bath. There weren’t any showers, but only a “bath room” where you are expected to bath with others, taking turns using the room (and bath water) with the men. It isn’t as bad as I just described, in fact it is lovely. You shower first and then climb into hot hot water. A nice end to a long day.

The next day we headed for adventures on the island. First we went to see a traditional Kabuki play house. It was all closed up, but we could peep between the windows and saw a cool scene, and a revolving stage. It would be quite the sight to see a play in person. Then we headed to a huge standing up Buddha. We were able to go inside and get the royal tour. A monk blessed us and then we listened to him chant for a while. Then he let us take the elevator up to the Buddha’s chest. The whole while commenting on the random foreigner (me) who was traveling with a group of Japanese people.

Next we headed for this sight on the shore called ‘Lovers Road’. During low tide a curved road is created, but at high tide it was covered. That’s the group shot below.

Then we took the fairy back to the main island and headed for yet another Udonya for a brilliant lunch with Udon, and sushi, and tempura. Oishi!! おいし!! Then we went to a Temple called Zensuji. It is one of the sacred 88 temples that people doing pilgrimages will pass through. It is also basically the largest one. One temple on the ground was very special because it had sand from all the other temples scattered around it, there by visiting this one temple, you can spiritually visit them all.

The drive home was a very long one. My students and boss tried to speak English when they could, but most of the time it was quick Japanese. This can be isolating at times. But it also gave me an opportunity I don’t have in class, which is to learn Japanese from my students. So it was a really good trip, tiring and packed with Udon, but great. It is very convenient to travel with people who actually speak the language, they aren’t strangers in a strange land like me.