A weekend of volcanic activity

For as long as I can remember Sheena and I have talked of going to Kusatsu in Gunma prefecture. She had already been the year before I came to Japan but it had been cold and wet and they never made it up Mt. Shirane to see the caldera lake, presumably the source of such a wonderful onsen town. So on a bright Saturday morning we packed up, drank lots of coffee and headed north with Stephanie and Laura to the perfect weekend.

Most of Saturday was dedicated to just getting there. Once we got off the expressway in Gunma the drive was really pretty along the local roads past these beautiful forested hills with precarious stony cliffs that looked like they came straight from water-coloured paintings of ancient Asian scrolls. Very pretty. By the time we got to our hotel it was late in the afternoon so we just checked in to this lovely resort, complete with people that carried our bags and escorted us to our room and everything! A little refreshed we caught a shuttle bus and road it into town centre. Kusatsu’s central plaza must be like none other I’ve ever seen, or that even exist, for right in the middle of a quaint iconically old-fashion Japanese village is the main hot spring source: Yubatake. The basin of natural hot spring water is said to the most productive hot spring source in Japan and at the very least is the most dramatic in my opinion. The air was filled with the smell of sulfur and puffs of white steam as the water pumped from the ground was far too hot to touch. It brought with it a beautiful array of minerals that settled down into the wooden water ducts and little stone pool turning everything it touch to a soft milky green colour.

 

 

After circling the water field a few times, it was time for the yumomi performance. I’m not sure how it’s done in modern time but in the old days, in order to cool the 90 degree water, the hot spring would be stirred with large paddles before being distributed to the various bathhouses and ryokan in the area. Apparently if cold water is simply added, it ruins the benefits of the minerals. The water in Kusatsu is said to cure everything but heartache. Off the narrow streets now, the four of us filed into an atmospheric little bathhouse and sat before a wooden bath of baby blue water awaiting the dance to begin. Before long several older women wearing traditional kimono came in and performed the ritual of cooling the water to a rhythmic song in time to the beats of the paddles. They took a break for the audience to give it a try, I stuck to my picture taking, and then continued on at a greater frenzy. This time without any warning the slammed the paddles down and using old-lady muscles that put my young body to shame they beat the water sending it soaring into the air in great surprising splashes. Now I understood how playing with a giant wooden spoon in some hot water might cool it down.

Back in the cool night air we did a bit of shopping, exploring the narrow lantern lit alleyways with the dramatic backdrop of the surrounding mountains at the end of the lanes. The sun was setting and for the first time this year I began to feel a bit chilly. It was a good feeling to know a hot bath of our own would await us at the end of our adventure. We returned to the hot spring field to find it lit up in gold and blue lights as night quickly approached. I could not get enough of the charming old buildings, puffs of foggy steam and beautiful water source in my viewfinder. It all came together so atmospherically and the best part was we’d been down there long enough to no longer notice that the place smelled of rotten eggs. Or maybe that was how charmed we were that it no longer mattered. It was with a content heart I cast a final gaze over the now dark scene and rode the bus with my friends back up the hill to our hotel.

 

The rest of the evening was dedicated to food, drink and bathing. The wash, rinse and repeat way. Dressed in our yukata and fresh from a bath, we feasted like queens on tabehodai of steak, gratin, pasta, prawns, tempura, sashimi and potato fries and nomihodai of plum wine and tropical cocktails. Returning to the room I thought I’d sleep forever but we opted for a late night bath and sunk into the mineral rich waters of the outdoor pool a little longer. The pool was lovely in the evening with a hot waterfall cascaded a jade mineral over the rock face and various stones to lounge about on. I slept so well that night, if even for a short time as we had a schedule the next morning. We woke around eight, bathed again, oh how nice it is to lay about in a hot spring whenever one feels like it, and had another tabehodai at breakfast: French toast, every type of egg, bacon, croissants, fresh fruits and coffee. To the average Canadian that sounds like a shrug-worthy meal but in Japan it’s rare to find what I constitute as a ‘proper’ breakfast.

 

After check-out we piled into the car, still a little comatose from our luxury, and headed further up into the hills beneath an overcast sky. I was excited for the day’s excursion, a trip up to the crater lake on Mt. Shirane, but was a little put out by the clouds. As it turned out, I had nothing to fear for we broke high above the clouds at an altitude of 2000 meters-above-sea level. Up there it was nearly alpine with little shrubberies and highland grasses instead of intimidating trees and on the horizon the over cast sky was nothing more than a sea of clouds beneath us. It was quite breathtaking. We stopped often for more pictures and finally found ourselves at the top of Mt. Shirane.

From the parking lot it was another twenty minutes up a stone path under the purest blue sky I’ve seen in ages along a landscape of scorched rocks from a long forgotten eruption. The sky! My gods the sky was magnificent! The rocks so red, the plants so green and the crater lake so spectacularly milky blue! It was blue like turquoise cut with cream. The red ridges surrounding it were amazing and in the distance the sea of clouds did magnificent things to the lower mountains painting them all shades of blue.

 

After quite a while of shooting pictures we headed back down to the parking lot and across the road to a second volcanic lake the made up for a lack of drama with a sense of peace. The air tasted of autumn and the leaves were frosted in red. Each of us found a little place that called out to us and found a seat to contemplate the beauty from a different perspective around the water. It was kinda cool that despite not communicating our intentions, we each settled down to a state of meditation. We must have looked like some sort of gaijin checkpoints each on a different spot on the boardwalk nearly perfectly spaced apart.

It’s always hard to say goodbye but the day was waning and we still had to return all the way to Yamanashi. We stopped only a few times, once for pictures of a quaint stone bridge all ready for autumn and twice for coffee and then it was home.

With my list of prefectures completed I hope to spend most of winter lounging about in baths and doing little weekend trips such as this one. Thanks Sheena, Steph and Laura for an awesome time!

And Hokkaido makes it 47

That’s it! In just over two years I have been to every one of Japan’s 47 prefectures from Okinawa in the south, Kyushu and Shikoku, Honshu, the island on which I live, and now finally Hokkaido. It was rather fitting that Hokkaido be my last prefecture. It’s the farthest north and thus most like my lovely homeland of Canada. It’s isolated like its own little country in the northern reaches. It was the place of the shinsengumi’s last stand at the end of the samurai era. And because no one else was interested in going I went alone which seemed suddenly important that I make this last big exploration by myself and reflect on who I’ve become in the last two years. For all these reasons and more Hokkaido had been one of my favourite journeys.

The fun started the moment I touched down at the Chitose Airport for as we were taxiing into our gate I looked out the window and a little red fox was playing around in the grass by the runway. He wasn't even bothered by the gigantic airplane from Tokyo that cast him in shadows, he was just sniffing about looking for bugs or flowers or whatever it is foxes look for in the grass. The point is, he was really cute! And then the airport was awesome. I had two hours to kill until my train but it hardly felt like it as there was so much to do at the airport. It had a shopping mall, an animate, a Hello Kitty gallery, a Starbucks, omiyage shops galore and a viewing platform. I was able to make the first 'X' on my Hokkaido bingo quite early as I found the one and only mameshiba I found on my entire trip, I wasted no time buying him. So cute! He's riding a bear and waving a Hokkaido flag. Anyways, after some breakfast and a coffee it was time to catch the train.

It's very rare that I get to ride special trains and even more rare that I reserve a seat but in the interest of time, and the fact that I hadn't really slept the night before, I purchased both an express ticket and a seat reservation. The Super Hokuto whisked me three hours south, past the ocean, wilderness, Shin Showazan, Japan's newest mountain at only 70 years young, the twin Onuma lakes and then finally to the peninsula of Hakodate.

It was a marvelously blue afternoon as I stepped off the train and reached the city I'd been hoping to go to for nearly two years. I stopped only long enough to grab a map before boarding a street car that drove me through the quaint little city to Goryokaku and here I will diverge.

I hope one day when I look back on this blog I can make sense of the spattering of history I've imparted on my journal for this is the greatest climax of it all: the last stand of the Shinsengumi. Technically the last battle of the samurai would come ten years later on the opposite side of the country during the Satsuma rebellion where Saigo Takamori would become the true last samurai (not Tom Cruise but the story lines are very similar.) However, as the samurai era drew to a close, those loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate (which ruled over a reasonably peaceful Japan for over 200 years), were chased up Japan by the those once considered rebels who became the Imperialists when they retook Japan in the name of the emperor. The shinsengumi began their career in Edo, modern day Tokyo and capital of the shogun. I like them because they were not born samurai like most of the class, they were farmers and merchants who saw an opportunity to make a difference and rose higher than any farmer or merchant imaginable at the time. When conflict began to rise up in Kyoto, capital of the emperor, they moved south to be a special division of samurai to the shogun and bring an end to the rebels terrorism. They were mostly successful for a few years until the Imperialists formed alliances with foreigners which gave them weapons and the political strength they needed to reveal the weaknesses in the shogunate. Before long their rule in Kyoto was over and they were forced to flee to Edo to protect the shogun there. But the battle followed them and without the shogun's will to fight Edo fell to the Imperialists. This is where they get really cool because they could have surrendered alongside the shogun but they had a belief system they wanted to fight for to preserve the ideals of a samurai so they didn't give up. Farther and farther north they were drive: through Utsunomiya, up to Sendai, where they boarded a ship and sailed north to Hokkaido. In Hokkaido they realized the battle in central Japan was over. So they built a new country to reflect their samurai values: the Republic of Ezo. It was even recognized as a country by the foreigners even if not by the Imperialists. Using Fort Goryokaku as their base they elected their own president, Enomoto Takeaki, and their commanding officer was Hijikata Toshizou, once second but now first leader of the Shinsengumi. For a single year they could enjoy their freedom until the Imperialists eventually followed them their too. By this time the Imperialists, due to their foreign alliances, had upgraded their technology beyond what the shogunate army possessed and after several ill-fated naval battles the last stand of the Shinsengumi began in Hakodate. It was there that Hijikata died, a week before the republic of Ezo fell: "Though my body may decay on the island of Ezo, My spirit guards my lord in the east." And so was the end of the shinsengumi, the samurai era and ancient Japan. Within a few decades Japan had plowed forward into the modern world joining the western countries in the fight for colonization as a worthy nation of power.

So here I was at last. It was like this entire time I've been reading a book and now I was at the end. I rode the elevator up to the top of Goryokaku tower to see the star for from above. It was really beautiful, all dressed in late summer green, perfect star-shaped, bordered by a moat and surrounded by the urban landscape . It's hard to imagine war on pretty days like that. There was a little display about the Battle of Hakodate and I feigned interest for a little though nothing it could tell me I didn't already know so I headed back down to explore the actual fort. By this time I was happy but tired and when I saw a sign offering coffee ice cream I happily took them up on the offer. I also found a nice book in both English and Japanese about the area and took that and my coffee up a little secret stairway, over the fort's grassy wall, and down to the moat to sit under the green cherry trees and daydream on the point of a star. Time escaped me there. It was the happiest I can remember being in a long time. The breeze was soft and warm and the grass springy and fresh at my back. My ice cream tasted like everything sweet one wants on their tongue and the moat pleasantly reflected the beauty surrounding back at me. That is one of those little pockets of time I'll revisit again and again in my life when I need a breathe of happiness.

The sun was sinking into the horizon, the only thing that marked the time in my little world, so I sad goodbye to my little piece of paradise and got back on the street car headed for Mt. Hakodate. It was twilight by the time I climbed a little hill, bought a ticket and rode the ropeway up to the top. This suited me just fine as Mt. Hakodate is known for it's famous night view in Japan. There are three, of which I've visited one other: Nagisaki. Not sure if I'll ever make it to Kobe and that's kinda alright with me. Anyway, it was very pretty and the sunset behind me was stunning. I had a battle of my own searching for a spot to take a picture and in the end I dropped my suitcase on the ground (my ever present pet luggage which I affectionately name Kasey) and stood on my soap box to snap a few shots. It was getting cold and windy so I battled more crowds for a spot on the ropeway to take me back down to sea level. Thoroughly pleased with my day but exhausted the only thing left to do was find the guest house I was staying and sleep. It was a very pleasant tatami room that overlooked the sea with probably the comfiest futon I've ever slept on. And the owner was a very nice man who was impressed by my Japanese and didn't treat me like a foreigner, it was very welcoming. In my room, I turned off the lights and sat by the window watching the not-quite-full moon rise over the waves.

The next morning I was up early and greeted by another breath-taking view of the water and another lovely blue sky. What luck I had with the weather! I showered, packed up Kasey and off we were again. This time the street car took us to the old-district of Hakodate: a pretty area populated with old-fashion Western buildings that mark the area as an International port at the turn of the century. A 100 year-old post office and a statue of Sakamoto Ryoma greeted me before I turned the corner on to a lane of old brick warehouses lining the ocean's edge. Just when I thought I might starve, for no shops were open this early and I had yet to find a konbini, I came across a Starbucks in disguise! It looked just like the other historic buildings if not for the green siren on the side. Elated I skipped in, ordered an egg muffin and a caramel machiatto and wheeled Kasey upstairs to sit by this tall bay window in the sun to eat and finish a very good book I was reading.

 

Following this, well fed and caffeinated now, I walked along the ocean side, stopping to marvel at little brown spotted fish and starfish, to the place where the Imperial Emperor first disembarked following the fall of Ezo. As part of Team Shogun I scowled a bit but took a picture of the neat phoenix, his symbol, all the same. Then another slope, there are plenty to go around in that area of Hakodate, took me to the Motomachi area where old foreign embassies and churches dot the pretty lower slopes of Mt. Hakodate. The area was one of the first, along with Shimoda and Nagisaki, to accept foreigners and the internationality of it showed in the beautiful architecture. It was a pleasant walk on one of those warm days that cusps summer and autumn. It was easy to forget I was in Japan at all and not in some European port town.

Hakodate was such a peaceful and lovely place I was reluctant to leave but I had a train to catch. (A very crowded train where Kasey came in handy again as a portable chair.) In Oshamanbe, I did some sneaky train switching and instead of retracing my steps entirely I took a cheaper, cute little two-car train along the west side instead plunging into the middle of nowhere where tiny towns appeared and then fell away in the blink of the eye. In some ways Hokkaido is a lot like Canada. It's not very populated and there is far more green than civilization. Every few minutes there was a new river or mountain to see and my only regret was I didn't see a famous Hokkaido bear. We stopped briefly at a few of the bigger stop and at one I got off to stretch my legs and see this grand old black steam engine in working order. The train ride was a long time and what felt like many hours later we made it back to the ocean. I looked out over the water and tried to imagine I saw Russia out there across the waves. The world is both such a big and small place when I think about it.

Finally, after five hours on the train, I made it to the day's destination, Otaru. With Otaru it was not the history that drew me there, although it holds its roots in being a port town with a past in foreign trade and fishing, but rather the canal district. It was a short walk from the station to this stunning lane of water where well-preserved old warehouse perched on the edge dressed in ivy and the most flattering late-afternoon golden sunlight. One would not expect to find such beauty in a couple of old buildings, a bit of water and the sun but as a whole it was really an atmospheric area. I dragged Kasey over the cobblestones, making a very offensive sound, and then through this little dining area of lanterns and old-fashion restaurants. I had my heart set on some Otaru ramen however the shop remained closed my entire time there. Next, I walked along this lane of shops and was captivated by this nostalgic sound. It drew me into the shop where I discovered Otaru is famous for music boxes. I never expected myself to be interested in music boxes but I spent more time than I care to admit wandering around the shop and winding up different tunes and holding them to my ear. I would have loved to buy one but I was being both sensible with my money and the practicality of what does one do with a music box. So I carried on. I stopped in a few jewelry shops and bought a magatama gem for Nikki, watched some gold fish in a pond of lilies outside an old store house and did some reluctant window-shopping for apparently I was not into the whole shopping thing this time. Again the sun set on me bringing in the cold so I made my way for the train station and took a short ride to Sapporo where my hotel was. In Sapporo it was late so I didn't pay much attention to the city as I found my hotel, bought a simple konbini dinner, had a bath and went to bed.

 

On the third day my good fortune with the weather had worn itself thin. The sky over Sapporo was a stormy one but it rather suited the nature of the day and managed to never rain on me so I can't quite complain. If the first day was for samurai history and the second for ports and historic buildings than the third was for the modern world and city life. I am a big fan of Sapporo's proper grid streets, as it's a very new city it was built to resemble a western city more than the winding streets of ancient Japan, and the way they place little park in the middle of streets is admirable. Of the most famous of these is Odori park. On one side is the TV tower made to look like Tokyo Tower which was made to look like the Eifel Tower; eliminating all real need to go to Paris I suppose. It looked rather epic beneath the clouds and around the base I saw the first of the leaves beginning to turn red in the colder climate. I spent the day wandering the park through a sort of random Octoberfest, for Sapporo is famous for beer, and since I wasn't a fan of beer I settled for deer. Okay so that was rather an accident involving a food stand advertising 'grilled meat rice bowl' when I went to buy a ticket the girl asked if shika was okay. I thought about it a moment and shrugged, 'sure, why not.' So that is the story of how I ended up eating deer next to a fountain in Sapporo contemplating the wrongness of the little flag they poked through the meat that showed a cartoon deer proudly presenting me with my lunch which could or could not have previously have been a good friend of his. Dessert was this cute little caramel pudding I had to assemble myself. At the end of the long park in the middle of the street was a poetic old-fashion building that was some sort of archives gallery. I chased the pigeons about and took some picture before heading north. Two more stops to complete Hokkaido bingo: the Sapporo clock tower, the significance of it is lost on me other than it was built in the 1800s, and the old Hakkaido prefecture building which has a lovely garden surrounding it and made for a good place to have a warm coffee and be warned about pooping birds. I picked up some postcards at the post office nearby where the nicest ladies in the world were very patient as I corresponded with Sheena about which ones she liked and in the end presented me with a small collectable set of my own for free! Then I headed for the station.

 

With Sapporo I had never had a plan for sightseeing so it was no surprise I finished up early. I found myself a seat perched up high in the 7th floor in a Tully's coffee where I watched the world go by beneath me and accomplished my 50,000 word count on my most recent novel. It was a very rewarding and pleasant end to an extremely rewarding and pleasant trip. By sunset it was time to take the train to the airport, pick up the last of my omiyage and use Kasey as a dining table where I ate my chicken katsu for dinner before boarding for Tokyo.

It was a very long trip home but the entire weekend was so well worth it. Even though there are still six months left to my contract I feel like my travel time has rather come to a good conclusion. Anything from here on out will be rather like an extended epilogue to the lovely time which has been my travels in Japan.