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!
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment