An end to May and beginning of rain

The Japanese word for rainy season is 'tsuyu,' which roughly translates into 'the time of the year in which foreigners are always wet,' or 'plum rains,' if you'd prefer. I better get some delicious plums out of this deal! Although I can't complain too much. At least it's warm and it's not like the rain really stopped this weekend adventures! After a lovely dinner on Friday with Tommy-san out for yakiniku (a restaurant where you barbeque your own food!) and dessert at my favourite cafe in Otsuki, it was off to Kofu with intention of taking in some sights along the ways but with the ultimate goal of seeing Pirates of the Caribbean! The drive to Kofu is usually an hour, we did it in three, but stopped to taking photos of some rice fields and drove up a mountain so we could go inside a tree (it's one of Otsuki's great sights apparently, I've seen almost all of them, there is a giant drum alluding me still) and then we stopped at a temple and a shrine. The temple is said to have been the place where the very first grape in Japan was grown and the shrine was really cool because tucked into a corner in a little patch of woods were the twelve zodiac animals cut from stone. I've never seen anything like that in a shrine before!




 

 

 
















Then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the movie! It was really good and as it was in English with Japanese subtitles, I think we enjoyed it best. Rhee and I just about killed ourselves trying not too laugh but when we did we were awkwardly the only ones. Oh poor movie watchers missing all those great jokes! XD! The movie really was awesome! We did some shopping in the mall and had some pizza and then went out for curry for dinner. it was a great day. I spent the night at Rhee's for the first time in Nirasaki so we could explore her town. 

We had another late start to the day, and the sound of rain pounding on the roof didn't help matters. It poured all day! After only he first shrine I gave up trying to avoid puddles! Nirasaki was quite lovely though. Rhee showed me to the Takeda Hachimangu Shrine which was cut into the woods and was really quite atmospheric in the rain. Then we went to central Nirasaki and parked the car and wandered about her temples and shrines. She has this really cool one that has a rock tunnel carved into the wall to get to it and then the actual shrine itself is set in the rock face, it was really unique and beautiful. Then we hiked up a little hill to see the statue of the goddess of mercy, Kannon, who looks over the city. By that time we'd sloshed through the rain so it was back to down the hill for a lunch of gyoza and ramen and then crepes for dessert!



 







  


Oh and school is great! I adore my students and have lots of fun everyday! I'm starting to think that I could actually do this for the rest of my life... hmmm back to school next year? They run up and hug me all the time and the teacher's are starting to warm up to me. Funny story: a couple of weeks ago we had a fire drill. Kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) was all like "Hey Sarah sensei, something, something, something else in Japanese ne?" and I was all like "hai!" even though I had no idea what he was talking about. He must have sensed my confusion because he looked around the teacher's lounge but no one had the answer so he stood up ran on the spot and shouted "Fire!" I just about died laughing! "A Wakata!" I got it. So then he hands me a helmet and we wait for the que. Yes I helmet, but wait it gets better. A little back story: so the kids all have cushions on there chairs to sit on. Well it turns our their chair cushions can be pulled out of their pillow cased and can be strapped to their heads in case of fire or earthquake!!! XD! So out run 300 kids with metallic fire-resistant pillow hoods strapped to their heads. Just about died a second time! XD How no one else was giggling I have no idea, I had to turn away to stay serious.

A weekend of getting lost and found

So in preperation for rafting, Rhee and I headed out Friday night to Southern Yamanashi. (I live kinda in Eastern Yamanashi.) We took out time and skipped the expressway opting for windy hilly roads that did sharp turns as they winded down from the mountains through an almost junglesque forest. I live in an absolutely gorgeous part of the country! We caught a couple of the five Fuji lakes at sunset as we made our way to Nanbu, the furthest south town in my prefecture.



We spent the night with another English sensei who had organized the rafting and had to wake up early to hit the river. It was spectacular!!! We parked our cars and drove up river and launched two boats for fourteen of us. Then we hit the rapids! There were at least five major sets. And in between them we got to get out of the boat and swim around rocky areas with little half caves in the rock, and we stopped at this natural spring and saw almost a hundred black and blue butterflies the size of my hand drinking the water. After we climbed a few rocks and jumped into the rapids and let them carry us to the boat. We played balancing games on the edge of the raft (and fell off) and then went cliff jumping near the end. It was all so exciting and fun and I wasn`t scared at all! We ended the trip at a beautiful park. Some of the rafters did have water proof cameras so hopefully pictures are to come.


 


So after rafting Rhee and I decided that there was lots in the area to explore. The night before, as we were searching for Nanbu, we stumbled upon this little village with a big temple and lots of people wearing yukata. By that time it was dark so we decided to come back the following day which we did. Along the way though I stopped and saw a rickety old bridge so of course I wanted to cross it to the shrine on the other side. The shrine wasn`t much but the bridge was entertaining.



 Minobu, the small village, is built on the slopes of Minobusan, a mountain, and is talked into a really gorgeous valley. We found a gigantic temple there, Kuon-ji, with a big gate and a ton of stairs that reach the top. Not really knowing where I was going, I continued up through the town and it turn out we avoided the stairs all together and took this weird outdoor elevator to the temple ground a little ways up the mountain. It might be the most impressive temple I've seen yet and the only thing that could have made it better would have been some good weather for it was a cloudy nearly all weekend and then later the rain fell for three days. I really want to go back on a clear day! Regardless, it was a beautiful place! I`d love to see it in sakura season because the trees were everywhere. When we went for dinner at this cute little curry cafe in town, the owner showed us books called the 'Four Seasons of Minobu,' and the sakura looked amazing but so did Autumn so maybe that`s when I`ll return.

 





 







 

 

  







After Minobu it was off to find an onsen and a place to park the car for the night. Want to know how to do Japan luxurious but cheap? Go pay 1000 yen (about ten dollars) to use a four star resort`s bathing facility, complete with two indoor tubs and three outdoor and spend a couple hours there and then sneak around the hotel checking it out before heading out into the cool mountain car to find a nice place to park your car and camp out in the back seat. It was awesome and I slept actually really well! I had brought a little futon with me and after putting down the back seats and laying down the futon I slept like a log. Rhee got the front seat.



 


The next morning was heading back up into the mountains (I live near Mt. Fuji and the base is 1000 meters above sea level) to explore the Fuji region some more. We stopped at Lake Motosuko again in hopes of seeing the view that was photographes for the 1000 yen bill, but Fuji was hiding in the clouds. I did find pancakes for breakfast though! Then we just wound our way back into town. We stopped at an old village overlooking Mt. Fuji and went to the bat and ice caves that were formed from past Fuji eruptions. They were really cool. The bat cave was pretty long and required us to crawl through parts and the ice cave was really deep and cold!







 

 







 



 We ended yet another weekend with a return trip to the parfait place for sundaes the size of our heads. I got chocolate custard!