An assortment of autumn

A third autumn and I find Japan no less amazing but the urge to race about the country collecting every maple leaf possible has faded a little. This year I mostly stayed close to home. One warm Saturday morning I circled Kawaguchiko to get the momiji tunnel shots of Fuji. It was just as glorious as last year. I took my time watching the fish in the lake and battling brambles to get the perfect shot. (It was a draw as I got the shot but they ripped my tights.) Then was on my way.

Next I went all the way around the lake to a shrine I visited in late spring. I was there alone last time too. Maybe it was actually closer to early summer because I remember praying for my Grandma’s health only a short while before going home to Canada. She passed away anyways but I’d like to think my wish made it so I got home in time to say goodbye. Small blessings. The reason I returned this time was because I’d seen the most beautiful charm of Mt. Fuji and the cherry blossoms. It turns out the shrine is famous for them and with a little imagination I could see the way the now hibernating trees would line the path between shrine and the torii gate in pink. As I was leaving I saw a sign that said this shrine was one of the first in the Fujigoko area and had been a pilgrimage spot for the Takeda clan. It was destroyed in the big eruption many of hundreds of years ago but rebuilt to its original beauty later on.

After I went to write a few hours. It’s Nanowrimo time. And then headed to Otsuki for iaido because my black belt test was coming up. Spoiler: I passed. Confession: I’m writing this post two months later.

A couple of weeks later—after kicking my shodan test’s butt (half of it was written meaning I wrote it in Japanese!)—I went to Ibaraki with Sheena and Laura to see some leaves. It took many many hours to get there but once we did we were greeted by a pretty blue sky, a slight chill and the momiji temple. It was really pretty I just wish we’d had some better light.

 

 

 

 After we went to what I only found out later was one of the top three waterfalls in Japan. (Another one of those lists of three apparently. Another one is in Nikko, which I’ve seen, and the last is in Wakayama which I still really want to go to. Maybe spring break before going home.) Again it was pretty but as winter was approaching and we were in a mountainous area, the sun just didn’t quite peak over to the tops of the hills leaving us mostly in shade. It was also REALLY busy so we couldn’t ride the elevator to the slightly better vantage point up higher, nor was it possible to hike through solid rock. Instead we opted to head back to the car for some more adventuring before we lost all the light. The sun sets at around four in Japan in winter. Before reaching Kei (the car) we stopped on a bridge and there was this cool shot of the surrounding hills and the three of our shadows stretched out before us.

Okay so more adventuring would have been good in theory except for one little problem. The highway on google maps through the mountains was less a highway and more a narrow, very windy, road at best, trail by Canadian standards AND there was a giant tour bus on the other side trying to navigate against the flow of traffic. This resulted in me turning my car off twice to just sit there in the growing darkness tied up by the traffic and getting over the mountain only after we’d lost the light…

It was an okay day though because of good company but we were all feeling a bit disappointed UNTIL the beautiful pink Aeon sign guided us to the mall and we spent the rest of the evening chowing down on 1300 yen yakiniku tabehodai! Best part!

The following week it got even colder taking away the rest of the autumn leaves in Fujiyoshida. However, there is always one place we can count on to find hints of autumn when its winter everywhere else: Shizuoka! So on a Friday evening after school, Sheena and I headed down to balmy Izu (where the cherry blossoms bloom a full two months before ours) to capture some really cool night photography. It was a great opportunity for my still somewhat new camera because it had a beautiful ISO settings and HD quality so as long as I find a level place to sit my camera I can get some sharp shots. And so I did in this quaint little park that had a Japanese garden with lanterns and momiji on the shores of a pond.

We stayed out well over an hour until we got too cold and headed for dinner and then home. It was a good start to a weekend where I ended up celebrating Thanksgiving and going to iaido but it also felt like the cold was really beginning to set in.

Let's study Halloween!

One thing I don’t have to miss about being away from home? Halloween parties. I get all my fun with my kids. And the best part this year was that I have an English room of my very own at Yoshidanishisho so I got to decorate with spider webs and pumpkins getting the kids all super excited. We played this fun janken game where they had to collect the parts for their team skeleton. But the real best BEST part was when the older grades asked if they could dress up for their parties. Who am I to deny a game of dress up so of course I said YES! The results were impressive and as I was still battling a terrible cold, they really cheered me up! Best dressed goes to newspaper mummy who couldn’t even sit down in his costume lol!

Happy Halloween!

And then the leaves began to fall

It’s time for my favourite season of all: autumn. After a couple of weeks of this miserable rain cloud that hung over Fujiyoshida chilling it to a premature 10 degrees, there was finally a beautiful sunny day. Not to waste it, I hurried outside to finally enjoy a bit of warmth if not the last before winter sets in. As Fujiyoshida is at a higher elevation than Otsuki (about 1000 meters above sea-level) that will come sooner than I’d like.

With a package of tissues stored safely in my back pocket (a cold was coming on) and my favourite notebook and pencil, I set out for a little park on the hillside. It’s famous for sakura but since I’d never made it there in time for the pink I thought I’d go for its red counterpart. I was not disappointed. After needing to consult google maps more times than I want to admit I found a little spot up a windy road that looked as if I was going, through someone’s property, and ended up in this lovely little park perched on the edge of the town overlooking the town. The day ended up surpassing me expectations when it became drastically hot and I was dressed in a sweater. Knowing I should be glad for the heat I persisted knowing I had come for a reason. I snapped a few pictures, prayed at the little shrine and settled down at a picnic table to write a short story about a priestess and a koi fish by hand. When I write it’s often on the computer but there is something so good about writing by hand. If only my hands could keep up with my mind then I’d do it more often but as it is I can punch out a few thousand words by keyboard in an hour I'll stick to that for my books. 

 

 

Regardless, it was a nice change to be outside while writing and I soaked up all I could from the inspiring place and headed home.

Of samurai, obi and festivals

Every town in Japan has a festival to call their own. There are most likely millions every year from little local ones celebrating minor gods and the community to huge ones which attract thousands with golden lanterns and portable shrines. Japan is also known for lists of threes. In this case the list of three is ‘three unusual festivals.’ On that list is the fire festival, which I’ve attended all three years I’ve been here, one where these crazies cut down a tree and ride it down a hill, and a third which only takes place every three years: the Shimada obi festival.

 

In the Shimada region of Shizuoka, women would take their obi belts to the shrine to pray for a good marriage, fertility and all those womanly things. However it is said they became embarrassed appearing to pray before so many people so the task of blessing their obi fell to the men. Their men would then take on the task, draping their beloved’s belt over their sword as they paraded to the shrine. Apparently this custom became so popular that during the festival there could be up to a three kilometer line of men bearing the obi of their women.

Anyways, fast forward four hundred years and you find me, Sheena and Kelly at a similar parade on a very hot day in October watching a line of pants-less men dancing to a low steady beat down the street to the shrine. It was really kinda beautiful as the procession went by, each of their movements perfectly timed with the samurai that marched before them. After three hundred meters of samurai passed by, next came a procession of daimyo, a horse and his handlers, a tengu, boys that danced with fans, several parade floats and a portable stage displaying a doll retelling of a local folktale.

Finished with the parade we went to the shrine which was in a lovely little park with koi fish, a red bridge, statues of the samurai and a wood cut-out so I too could be a dancing pants-less man of Shimada! 

 

It was hot, and I might have been a little sun-burned so after paying our respects at the shirne we headed back for Yamanashi.