A year and a month after Mom came to visit by Dad got to come. It was really cool because I think my parents have no idea what Japan is really like and it's wonderful being able to show them my world and see why I love it so much. Also, I get to show off my Japanese, which probably seems good to someone who doesn't speak it but really it's awful and some of my favourite places.
I made him get the train to Ueno all by himself, because I had school until late and just barely managed to get there in time to meet him, and met him at the station. I only panicked for a few seconds when I didn't see him right away but he showed up and all was well. We wandered around Ueno a bit looking for a place to grab a bite to eat and settled on this little tempuradon place where we ate deep friend shrimp and vegetables on a bed of rice. Then we took the train home which took forever... we were supposed to catch the express but my phone lied and such a thing didn't exist so we were stuck on local trains and didn't home until after midnight which made it a very long day for dad.
The next day was kinda clear so I took him to see Mt. Fuji which was actually not in hiding. In fact, it had a nice little cloud hat on it. I've never seen the clouds do that even though I've heard of it before. It's called kasafuji 'umbrella Fuji'. We climbed up the pagoda that over looks Fujiyoshida via the hill instead of the stairs and the view was quite nice. A couple more weeks and I'll live there and there will be sakura! The roller coaster of Fuji-Q caught his eye but when we went to check out the prices they were far too expensive. Instead we went to Sengon shrine and then the little village out by Lake Saiko. It's always fun going into the little huts and I showed him where I like the paintings printed on hand made paper. He and I also thought it would be fun to dress up as a samurai and his daughter. We had plenty of admirers and I got to wear a pretty kimono. Oh, before that we checked out the bat cave! Hungry by this point we met up with Sheena at Kappa Sushi and partook in the Japanese past time of catching your sushi as it goes by on a conveyor belt. The best part was when we ordered something from the screen, it came by a separate belt on the sushi shinkansen!
The next day I had to work but I asked super nicely and Kowaze agreed that Dad could come for lunch. luckily it was a fairly good one and came complete with happy graduation cake for the sixth years. I think he impressed my school with his gaijiness and it was pretty fun but it was also my last day there so it was clouded in a bit of sadness. When we got home it was still a beautiful day so he, Kevin and I climbed Iwadono san and after I made curry for dinner.
Friday was the graduation ceremony at Torisawa which took up the morning but in the afternoon I got to go home early and Dad and I went to Tokyo for the weekend. On the way I ran into some of my Torisawa graduates on the train and they wanted a picture with me. It was a good way to say good bye. Wanting to take him somewhere unique to Tokyo I picked the sky tree because I hadn't been there yet. it seemed like a good idea but there was a crazy system for getting to go. You have to get a ticket that says to come back later so then you go at your allotted time just to buy an actual ticket and wait in line to go up. I really ended up liking it and it was really really high. By the time we got to go (after a super yummy dinner at an Indian curry place) it was dark but that was cool because of all the lights and in the distance was Tokyo Tower. I really enjoyed it. But the hotel was a bit further away than I anticipated and it seemed to take forever before we got there and then to bed.
The next day was sunny but swiftly clouding over as we journeyed south to Odawara. It nailed a couple of things on my list: I wanted to see sakura and heard that was already in bloom, I wanted to take dad to see a Japanese castle and Odawara was one of those I hadn't seen yet. It was well worth it and we had a lovely morning wandering the castle ground, looking through the museum, feeding the koi fish at a shrine pond, watching a heron stalk his prey and hanamiing under the trees with beer, yakisoba and fried sweet potato in sugar.
On the way back Dad spotted he Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, statue from the train and we got off to go check it out. It took a while to find the route up the hill to the monument but we did eventually (it was down a narrow alley and then up a steep slope.) It turned out to be a temple for peace and had a symbol of the atomic bombings in the form of a flame that is said to have been taken from the atomic fires by a relative of a victim, thousands of colourful paper cranes and some rubble from the war. It was very moving and a bit surprising to find that one could go inside the giant statue. I was very taken by it and closed my eyes for a few moments of prayer. Afterwards we grabbed a coffee and headed to Kamakura but the day was getting on and we only had time to go visit the main shrine down a lane of sakura and see a bit of a wedding. The end of the day found us in an izakaya close to the hotel where we ate plenty of delicious food and drank chilled red wine.
I had purchased these amazing JR tickets just for the occasion (they allowed us to get on all trains in Kanto for only 8000 yen!) and on Sunday I had meant us to go to Nikko but the weather was really gloomy and we were a bit tired so we agreed on an alternative. We'd ride the trains in a giant circle of Kanto and see what we could see from the train. First we woke up early to catch a shinkansen from Tokyo (and while we waited I took dad to see the Imperial Palace and the newly renovated station front) and then we took it as far north as we could to Nasushiobara, we had lunch at a little restaurant before heading as far west as we could to some random place in Nagano. From there we caught a tiny two trained car that went the speed of a horse and carriage through the mountains and back to Yamanashi. At last we were back to civilization and from Kobuchizawa we caught the limited express to Otsuki where Kevin picked us up and drove us home. Yay kevin! It was cool that Dad got a chance to see rural Japan and not just the cities and especially the section in Nagano was neat for there were all these tiny shrines and grave markers hidden in the hills and cut into the rocks.
Monday I had to work and the only point of mention is to say dad went and did some crazy mountain hiking and after we went for more conveyor belt sushi. Tuesday was finally the fist day of spring break (kinda) that I had. To celebrate we hiked the Nishizawa valley although we were pretty much the only ones there. Except we ran into this one guy who said that the path was blocked off up ahead and he had to turn back. Not to be daunted we continued and found that indeed a chunk of the steep bath was covered in snow but we scrambled over and continued on. It wasn't until we found ropes blocking our path did we consider turning back ourselves but I convinced Dad we were almost to the top and through the ropes we persisted. The five waterfalls were every bit as beautiful as I remembered. At the top we had views of the surrounding mountains but it was too cold to stay long and eat lunch so we continued down the gentler sloping route. Along the way there were signs of a deer and before long I heard a noise, I turned around and there was the little doe eyeing us from the hill. Now where near the size of a Canadian deer it watched us a little bit and hurried off. After that it was back to the car, grabbed some coffee and then home. For dinner, Kevin and I took dad to our favourite chicken cheese katsu restaurant and it was delicious!
Wednesday was Dad's last day. We set off for Tokyo early on a fiercely cold and rainy day. I had really wanted to take him to Senkoji in Asakusa because we hadn't really seen a good representation of a Buddhist temple together. While we did make it, and it was pretty all dressed up in sakura. It was really really wet and cold and we ended up passing the remaining time until his trains at Saizeriya's sipping wine and eating Italian foods.
On the way to the station we wandered through Ueno park but all the hanamiers were in hiding and the tarps were bare. I couldn't blame them as I wanted nothing more than to head home to my not-very-warm house and curl up for a good night sleep. I said good bye to Dad and saw him off to the train. Then I headed home to pack up my life in otsuki.
