Super special 100th Japan post!

Well this is technically the 103rd post of this blog it is officially the 100th post I've written while living in Japan! This super special post will cover a few weeks in just the typical like of a gaijin living in Japan. A gaijin with a super special camera living in beautiful Fujiyoshida. It's strange to think this is my third summer in Japan when I only ever intended to be here for one. As is the way of Japan in summer it is a time of festivals, flowers and fireworks.

So every Saturday I go to Otsuki for iaido. This time I took my camera on a little adventure when I went. A long long time ago Rhee and I went searching for a waterfall in Tsuru. Back then I didn't know Japanese so I was looking for a sign in English and we failed. This time I knew the kanji and was able to follow signs into the very backwater community and then up a narrow road into the mountains to a place where the road abruptly ended. Thinking I was truly in the middle of nowhere I parked the car and carried on along this trail through a ravine, up a steep set of wood stairs and to a cliff face, which had their been rain recently, would have displayed a lovely waterfall. As it was, a tiny trickle of water merely dampened the rock but it was still a remote pretty place with some hydrangeas coming into bloom and a couple of little shrines tucked in the woods. I really liked the sacred rope across the waterfall up high which made it seem like something out of an old folk story.

 

After I went hunting for hydrangeas in full bloom and came across them at a shrine at the side of the road thus completing the 'get picture of ajisai and torii gate' quest! Then it was time for iaido and after Kevin and I went to Hachioji to write and have a fabulous time on the town at the Sherlock Holmes Pub.

A week later, it was the end of the month, which means Fuji officially opened for the climbing season. Not that I ever plan to climb it again. Point being is that a festival opens the mountain where a whole parade of people from priests to pilgrims march up from the first torii in city centre all the way up to Fujisengen along the long path of lanterns and tall evergreens to the shrine. Sheena, Stephanie and I went to go watch, take pictures, say 'hi' to our kids, get a little rained on and blessed. It was a neat experience to all bow to the mountain goddess and be part of the opening festivities. After everyone walked a figure eight through this wide straw rings and the event ended with cutting of the rope to the hiking trail leading up the mountain. We ditched the last bit in favour of McDonalds, and after I went to a coffee shop to finish writing the second draft of my latest novel. A very good weekend.

I have lots of free time in Fujiyoshida without a Kevin to bother so I spend lots of night going on long walks around town. In many ways I miss Otsuki and the inaka it provided but I do enjoy Fuji's love of lanterns. My favourite shrine, as mentioned and photographed hundreds of times in my blog already, and will be mentioned again later, is all lit up in lanterns at night and it's a place I really love to go. On one such excursion I took my camera. I hope I always remember the feeling of the place. It has it all: lanterns, a pond, koi fish, a red bridge, a horse! and I nice secluded area in the woods.

With July, the rainy season abruptly ended when I awoke to a magnificent blue sky and suddenly it was summer. Really summer this time. Hot, humid, wanna-stay-in-air-conditioning-all-day, summer. To celebrate the blue sky, Sheena, Ken and I went over to Kawaguchiko to take pictures of the lavender and Mt. Fuji. Well Sheena and I did. Ken just goofed off and did Kennish things. The smell was marvelous and the colours perfect. I spent way too long trying to capture a bee pollinating but my hard work paid off when I managed to get the perfect picture! It was a good outing.

After parting with Ken and Sheena I went down to my local shrine, wrote up my tanabata wish and hung it on the bamboo. I left it ambiguous: I wish for my dream to come true. But anyone who knows me and can recognize my little doodle to be a book knows what I wished for. Hopefully the star gods can forgive my modest vagueness.

Which brings me to now. The last long weekend before summer. In four days I'll be going to Canada for the last time before I head home for good. On Saturday, Kevin, Sheena, Ken and I went to the beach. It was super freaking fabulous awesome wonderful terrific! The water was perfect and the waves were huge. I could have swam forever had the ocean not been quite so salty this far south. I took Kevin exploring along my favourite path and we saw all sorts of fish that the kids had caught, a big crab and sea urchins. After, because the tide was out, we attempted to take the ocean back around the cliffs and at last I got to see the hidden beach I'd peaked at down through the rocks. It was like a sea cave with openings to the surface and a secret beach and it's kinda impossible to explain how cool it was. I felt like a real explorer until we got told off by the lifeguard.

On Sunday it was time for the local festival in Saruhashi so I went with Kevin, Lena and Stewart so I could catch up with some of my old kids and watch the festival floats get tossed about by drunken old men not quite marching to the beat of the drums. It was entertaining to say the least and Tami took us out for katsudon at a little local restaurant. As the festival came to a close for us, we all headed to Fujiyoshida for a going away part for the other Sarah. It's always hard to see people go but we had a good time with movies, snacks, and board games.

Thus concludes the 100th Japan post of Sarah Goes to Japan. Next time I suppose I'll either post about Canada or some other summer trip in Japan. In August there will only be sevenish months left here. Hopefully I go home for real this time. Three is a lucky number. I think three years of Japan is the way to go.

Adventures of a new camera

Back over golden week I wrote about this terrible  horrible no good very bad thing that happened to me: my lovely and beloved Nikon d3000 had a major heat attack and stopped working. I fiddled with the screws for a few days and eventually got it to function but it was no longer reliable and as my camera quickly became my most favourite inanimate possession I knew this just wouldn't do. After much research and a major amount of luck I found a Nikon d5100 and a brand new lens for a very great price. Not wanting to miss an opportunity I bought it (stopped eating for a month) and the shooting began a new.

On our first outing, or rather our honeymoon as I'm marrying this new wonder of a camera, we went on adventure around Fujiyoshida. First I went hunting for irises and a rice field and found some beautiful ones. Too bad it was cloudy but as we're neck-deep in rainy season it is rather to be expected. Inspired by the flowers and fields I made it me assignment to shoot some good rice field photos and thought I was rather successful with my favourite being a water skitter framed by a ripple and the reflection of the sun.

In Asumi, which is where I found the nicest rice fields, there is also a pond known for water lilies in late summer. While there were none today there was some fun wood steps across the water and a pretty sky over the mountains. And at school I'd often been distracted by this lovely torii gate out the window and so today felt like a good day to go there. The shrine was up a grassy slope and through the forest to a very charming little clearing in the woods protected by a pair of guardians. it was a very poetic little place right out of a story book where I found a bit of peace.

 

The last couple shots of the day were a very typical view of rural Japan and an awesome Mt. Fuji peaking out of the clouds for the first time in days all barren of snow.

All and all it was a perfect first adventure with Nikon d5100 and I hope for many many more~

Of cherries and roses

So now its summer which mean long hot humid days and intermittent rain because rainy season is on its way. So for the first sort of  day of summer we went to Kofu to do some cherry picking much like we did in Yamagata last year. It was as awesome and delicious for all-you-can eat cherries and I won the record of us four (me, Sheena, Laura and Kelly) with 51 cherries eaten in 40 minutes. But Sheena one the record for most in the mouth at 11 or maybe it was more... anyways I just made it to 10. It was awesome.

 

 

Next we went to this place past Nirasaki called Hiedi's village which was based on the folk story and a bit strange except the roses were gorgeous. We walked through the longest tunnel of roses in Japan apparent. My favourite were the pink ones and I wore the perfect outfit to blend in. The rest of the park was nice too with some irises, water lilies and I saw a lizard.

 

As the best thing to do after a trip in the Kofu basin is a trip to the Aeon mall. We finished off the day there with pizza and Subway!