And then it was the end of summer

Last time on ‘Sarah Goes to Japan,’ I was in a terrible typhoon. But it passed and left a morning of crystal blue skies in its wake, only to sweep hose away and drench us again in the afternoon and take summer with it. So now I suppose, unannounced and all-of-a-sudden, it is autumn. That being said, as I live in the most beauty oriented country I’ve ever experienced, we get a day off just because it was the autumn equinox. Japan really knows how to appreciate the seasons.

My big plans for the long weekend was my last undoukai and then a trip to the beach as only a day before the typhoon I was sweltering the heat. Well, it rained Friday so the undoukai was postponed in favour of me doing math homework and the weekend dawn cold and rainy.

In lieu of the cancellation, I took a walk down to Saruhashi and to my sickening amazement I saw something drastic that typhoon had also taken: the platform where I used to look out over the river and up at the bridge. It is perched high enough off the river that I could have never imagined the water reaching it, at least five or more meters above, but not only did it reach it, it swept most of it away. It is unimaginable to think the water got that high and worse did such destruction from a seemingly unreachable distance.

The next morning was bright and blue but colder than normal but still perfect undoukai weather! The Hatsukari undoukai was the very best! Because it was scheduled on a day all by itself I got to spend the whole day there and the kids were so happy to have me around. And to make it even more fun, another English teacher, who used to teach at my schools two years ago, came along so we got to have fun and talk in English when I got tired of trying to speak Japanese. It was such a great day, I really adore this school and the students are so great!

They played all sorts of fun games, but the best was this free-for-all war where there were tires piled in the middle of this square and four teams ran for them all at once and dragged them off to the corners. Except even when safe in their respective corners, other teams could come steal them away until the timer went off! It was hilarious, kids were getting dragged about and rolled around in tires and the game would definitely be banned from Canada within minutes it looked so dangerous but the kids loved it and so did I. The other best part was when the fifth and sixth years put on their routine which involved this awesome dance, (which I had practiced with them) where they flicked about this straw hat in really cool movements, and then an acrobatic performance that puts some circus performers to shame. The stood on one another and their partners up onto their shoulders and all sorts of things leading up to their grand finale: the pyramid of over thirty students!

 

 

And I need to mention that the teacher’s bought me a bento for lunch and it was the most amazing bento ever! With tonkatsu, shrimp tempura, rice, sweet egg, rice noodle salad and miso soup! It was a great day and then in the evening we went out to my favourite restaurant and then to karaoke. Also this following picture is one of my favourite views of Otsuki, it's taken from the upstairs window at the school. Sometimes after class I just stare out the window, it's always beautiful regardless of the weather. The rice is just being harvested now.

The next morning Rhee and I woke up really early so we could drive down to the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka prefecture. Izu is famous for its wild boars, (I bought the cutest little stuffy of one) wasabi, (I had wasabi tea, it was disgusting) and beaches! It took about three hours to get there but when we did we drove through little rustic town and beautiful green hills to a massive water fall where the river flowed crystal blue and green. A little further down the road we went to the famous seven waterfalls except the area had been hit extensively by the typhoon and most of them were inaccessible. When I say most, I mean all of them but we were just a couple of gaijin who couldn’t read Japanese so we snuck under the rope to see the most famous one. It has a statue before it which is monument to a short novel that takes place in the area called ‘The Izu Dancer.’ Just a little ways downstream was a wishing rock where one takes three rocks and makes their greatest rock and tosses them out to this boulder with a little shrine on top. If one of the three rocks stays on the boulder your wish will come true but then you need to return and give thanks. Oh and there was this really cool part of the highway leading down out of the mountains towards the ocean that looped around twice in the sky so it felt like I was driving a track out of Mario kart!

At last halfway through the day we made it to the tip of the peninsula and consequently the beach! Shirahama was gorgeous and had huge waves where surfers frolicked about in the waves and on the far side were some low cliffs with a torii. The torii led to a very attractive shrine that had all my favourite elements: a red bridge, forest, gardens, multiply little shrines and a secret path that led up the hill to a peaceful little grove. There was also this tall hollowed out tree stump where somehow, someone must have climbed up and then down into it to place a little shrine. It was really neat! Another torii led us to another secret path that cut through sea grasses and low trees to a secret beach. I collected the prettiest shells I’ve ever seen and then noticed some stairs were cut into the rocks. Unable to avoid climbing them I led Rhee again on adventure that belonged out of a pirate tale. This was where the treasure was hidden. We had to climb up the stairs and across this platform over the crashing waves and then a bridge that was built over a large crevasse where certain death lay in the fierce surf against the lava rock cliffs below. I felt like I had walked into a setting from a book because then rising from the cliffs was a little V shaped passage with a wooden gate. Beyond the gate was a round hollow between the cliffs and the hill where an underwater passage made the tide reach the area. It was a steep drop so I didn’t get close enough to dare take a picture but then again a picture couldn’t do it justice. In what seemed a disconnected part of the land the ocean was swelling, it seemed impossible but so cool!

 

Now that it was afternoon we began heading back north but this time along the coast. We stopped at another section of the coastline that was more rugged and where lava had once flowed all the way to the sea to create black cliffs against the sharp blue water. A suspension bridge led us over the ocean and then my curiosity carried me up one of the cliffs that jutted out over the water. It was really fun climbing up the lava rocks but it was a shame the white sky in the pictures didn’t merit the landscape what it deserved.

We finished the evening with dinner at a café overlooking luscious palm trees and the last bit of twilight before the sun slipped away and ended the last weekend of summer. Now, Monday, it is chilly and I have unpacked my sweaters. Maybe it will warm up a little but with typhoon season over, so is the heat.

A tale of undoukai, vistas and horses

It was a busy weekend but it felt so good to stretch the old travel muscles again! Saturday was a blue or undoukai activities at the three of my schools. Sunday I got my extra on Mt. Mitake. And as an added bonus, on Monday, we went to an equestrian archery festival in Fujiyoshida!

Undoukai is like the Japanese version of sports day. If sports day was an extreme sport that involved drilling discipline. The students had class time to practice more than two weeks in advance in order for them to all march in correct timing and order in colour coordination about the grounds for all the ceremonies in between the events. It was quite elaborate, but when they did get to play, it was crazy fun to watch! They did everything normal from tug-a-war to relays but then pulled out some events like racing in wheel barrows, four-legged races, stilt runs and chariot races with the higher grades as horses and the chariot a tire! It was lots of fun and the only down side was that of four school three of them were on the same day. So it was a bit of a squeeze to get everything in and as a result I missed the pyramid ;_; but did get to see the traditional dances! At lunch I got to go around and meet the parents and that was a lot of fun as the students were eager to show me off! Then I downed a bento box with my favourite teachers and was reminded of the party that night! 

To celebrate a successful undoukai (and because the teachers work their butts off all the time and deserve it) traditionally after he undoukai is an enkai or nomikai which is really an exscuse to get really tipsykai XD! So Saturday night I found my way by train into Otsuki and had an awesome evening with my teachers as I drank too many lemon sours and snaked on gyoza, sashimi, fried chicken, yakisoba, vegetables, salad and takoyaki! It turns out when you can’t really add to the conversation because they aren’t speaking your language you have a tendency to sip away at the alcohol like water (‘you’ as in me… -_-;)So you can use chopsticks, but a true master can use them after three drinks! Anyways, then we went to my favourite café and I had a chocolate parfait and a father from one of my other schools bought us all a bottle of red wine. By this time, I had definitely had enough and wandered back to the station, nearly fell asleep, and clumsily walked home where I proceeded to grace Rhee and Kevin with a beautiful drunken rendition of ‘A whole new world,’ on the violin. It was only slightly worse than the actual version XD.

Lucky Lucky, I woke with no repercussions! The weather was beautiful but the weather report said that a typhoon was threatening to blow in at anytime, so instead of the beach, we went to another attraction that had been begging my attention for some time: Mitakesan! Mt. Mitake is a two hour windy drive north through the mountains around Otsuki and past a bright green lake and over a narrow mountain pass to an amazing view of the Kanto region. The option for climbing up the 1,200 meter mountain was there but so was a fairly inexpensive cable car that took us almost to the top. It was hot and we were sweating buckets so the choice was an obvious one. At the top it was instantly cooler and we had a fabulous view of the plateau that rests just over my mountains, and Tokyo! It was amazing!

Many trails can be accessed from the top of the mountain, and the most popular one is the trail that winds through a precariously perched village to a shrine at the very top! I’m not quite sure what the shrine was for but there were a remarkable amount of dog statues and every other family and group seemed to have a dog with them, so I wonder if it has something to do with the shrine. 

 After the shrine Rhee and I hiked down (I hate hiking down… it means you have to hike back up…) into a deep ravine with tall trees that filtered warm golden light onto out steep path. We were rewarded however with a very pretty water fall tucked into the rocks with cool water that I splashed about in. The rocks were all mossy and damp and deep in the shade I finally felt like I wasn’t drowning in the heat! We also met some guys who were from Australia and New Zeland and when Rhee told them we were from Britain and Canada they laughed and said together we formed the British Empire! XD Even though I would have rather just stayed at the waterfall all day we eventually had to climb back up. After an even steeper climb in another direction we found ourselves at this giant rock that I had to scale with a chain to climb. At the top were a little shrine and two statues; one which overlooked another steep valley against a deep blue sky. 

 

 

Back at the cable car station I took a few late afternoon photos than we descended and prepared for a long drive home, taking a different route that took me the closest to Tokyo I ever plan to drive. We enjoyed doriya and hot chocolate for dinner and an early night to bed.

Darn weather! The next day was another sunny one and we could have gone to the beach but in the end I’m kinda glad we couldn’t as a special festival I had been dying to see was happening! First we went to my favourite shrine in Fujiyoshida where the second prettiest torii frames Fujisan perfectly, if Fujisan wasn’t hiding in his blanket of clouds -_-; but it was pretty none-the-less and Kevin and Rhee lounged in the shade as I collected acorns.

The festival was stunning and took place as this adorable shrine. Yabusame is a festival that involves men on horseback riding a course and shooting three arrows and then the placement of the arrows and the hoof prints are regarded to predict the future. The rest was lost on me but it was amazing all the same! The main hall of the shrine was open and two horses, a little black and a little grey, stood in stalls on either side to be worshipped by the crowds. There was also a little pond with a cute red bridge and pretty calico koi and a stage where performances took place most of the event. We had met up with Sheena and some of her students, dressed in traditional red and white robes, did some dancing and then showed us around. The best part is that the shrine was enclosed in a little wooded area as if trapped in a little bubble. It was beautiful.

For the main event we stood at the side of a dirt track and watched as priests purified the area with salts and a shide wand and then the horses went down one at a time at incredible speeds for their small statures and the archer managed to string his bow and shoot three times as he carried one arrow on the bow another between his pinky and ring finger and the third between his teeth. It was awesome!

 

 

Later while the horses were on parade I accidentally found myself in the middle of it all and staring right up at a television camera like a deer in the headlights. I tried to smile as it was trained right on me and later at school Kocho-sensei told me that my little clip had appeared on the news. How embarrassing! Although I wish I could find it online, which would be really cool!

A late lunch found the four of us at Moose Hill for Canadian bacon and cheese burgers and Oreo milkshakes and to work it off we went looking for Fuji’s lava molds. Not knowing much what to expect we eventually found this deserted attraction where they were and it turned out they were just deep holes in the ground. After a little speculation and research on Sheena’s translation we discovered they were cooler than they looked. These deep holed in the ground were where trees used to be before an eruption sometime 1,200 years ago. The lava had poured down the mountain and surrounded the trees and cooled but had burnt away the wood leaving imprints of where the tree had once been. It’s hard to imagine that the lava was that high! It was pretty neat and the new growth forest was pretty too if not for the monstrous mosquitoes. (Have I ever mentioned that Japan is horrible for bugs? As I type I’m trying not to scratch at least five bits…)

It was a pleasant evening and we got home in time for me to have an early night in preparation for yet another day off on Tuesday because of the undoukai on Saturday. But by then the rains had rolled in and I did no more than some grocery shopping and math homework. By Wednesday the predicted typhoon had hit our area and cancelled classes so I just hung out with the teacher’s and cleaned the school and did some lesson planning. It rained so much that the river doubled by the time I drove home (early for the teacher’s caught me staring at the storm with amazement and assumed I was frightened and told me to take care and get home safe and sound.) All evening there were warnings to be careful as Typhoon Roke swept the area but by morning it had passed and the blue sky had returned! So now all I have left is one day of classes and then my last undoukai tomorrow and then hopefully the beach this weekend for sure!