Categories
Murakami travel

Spring Riding in a Carriage

Last Sunday, the 9th of March, I dusted and oiled (off and up, respectively) my Air Friday and set off toward the Asahi Super Line. This is a winding, scenic mountain road that is closed due to snow in the winter. One of my dreams here in Japan is to go on a spring ride on a closed-off mountain road once it is passable with a bike but before the road has officially been opened to traffic. I read a Hokkaido ALT’s blog about a similar experience up there, and it sounded awesome. Well, there was still a ton of snow, even a guy taking his snowmachine down the road. It was a wonderful ride nonetheless, maybe 30km roundtrip in about 3 hours, with lots of stops, including one at the Jomon no Sato (縄文の里)which is sort of a history museum from the Jomon period (14,000 BC to 300 BC).  I tried to buy a coffee from the vending machine but it was shut off for the winter.  The guy at the front desk was very nice and made me coffee, even though I had no intention of paying the 400 yen to go look at a bunch of thatched huts and broken pots by myself while daylight was slipping away.  Apparently I was the first person to show up all day.  It made for a nice chat, and I learned a few things, including how most of the artifacts in the place were unearthed during excavation for the two giant dams on the Miomote River a kilometer or two back in the mountains.  Here’s a nicely staged shot of my bike and the enticing view back into the Miomote River valley.

Biking in Asahi

Ok, there was no carriage, but there was riding and it feels like spring to me.  That and an eagerness to flaunt my knowledge of Japanese literature led me to title my post after Yokomitsu Riichi’s depressing short story.

Categories
travel

Russia

There are a lot of words to describe the past 38 days. School mishaps, successful performances as a very late rabbit, ski trips, contracting decisions, snowstorms. For the sake of brevity, I will focus, briefly, on the important.

I went to Vladivostok last weekend. I flew Vladivostok Air from Toyama on a Jakovlev JAK-40 jet. I had a great weekend. I saw Katya, met her family, became ludicrously drunk with vodka, and experienced a tiny bit of Russia. I’ll probably go back this summer to help dig potatoes.

Plane

Categories
travel

Winter Break

I actually had a hard time teaching 6 year olds how to say “eyes, ears, mouth, nose” today. Over the past two weeks, I climbed so far out of the groove of work that I’m still settling back in.

Hawaii, Shanghai, Ferry

My winter vacation was excellent. I didn’t realize that much could be done in two weeks and still be called a vacation. I met my parents in Hawaii and relaxed for a few days, read a few books, went snorkeling with some spinner dolphins, hiked to a 1200 foot high waterfall, mucked around in the jungle with Sienna and her boyfriend and his brother looking for some nonexistent springs, went golfing, jumped off 70-foot cliffs into the ocean at the southernmost point in America, body-surfed on a green sand beach, drank good beer, and generally had a good time.

Categories
travel

Break Time

Two more days of school left before I hop on planes and boats through Hawaii, China, and back to Japan. If anyone is going to be on the big island of Hawaii from the 22nd to the 28th, Shanghai from the 29th to the 2nd, or Osaka, Kumamoto or Tokyo from the 4th to the 8th, let me know.

It may be a while before I update with anything interesting. In the meantime you can check out my photos from the past couple months, which I just finish putting up online: Photos.

Categories
car travel

Numajiri Onsen

After a very early Christmas Party and getting my snow tires changed, I set out from Sanjo on Saturday morning for Fukushima Prefecture. My goal was Numajiri Onsen, a natural hot spring in the mountains. I have been wanting to go ever since I found out about it here. The reason is that unlike most onsen in Japan, you can visit and bathe in the natural, unrefined source of the spring. Usually, when you go to an onsen, you pay an entrance fee into a specific bath that has water piped in from the nearby spring. While this is still a great experience, the source itself is usually inaccessible. So I was pretty jazzed about the chance to visit this place.

I took route 459 from Gosen in Niigata across Honshu to Fukushima, which sits on the eastern half of the island. Rather than spending money on the expressway, I opted for this route which parallels the expressway, but which is craaaaazy narrow and windy. I took me 4 1/2 hours to get from Sanjo in Niigata to Numajiri in Fukushima, arriving at 2 pm where I was to start out for the hike.

Numajiri Ski Area

Categories
Japan Murakami travel

本物

fall topbar

Fall Path最近の週末は快かった. 『日本国』(昔の漢字は日本國)という山に登った。『日本国』といわれている山はとても面白いと思った。『日本国やま』、『日本国さん』じゃなくて、『日本国』だけです。僕の理解は、数百年前将軍がこれこら日本だとおっしゃいましたから、今までも日本国と言われました。

それから、山の名前の面白さから、ほかのALTと登りにいきました。 555メートルだけだから、2時間以下ぐらいかかりました。粟島と日本海がよく見えて、紅葉を楽しみました。

with katrina on nihonkoku
最近女を触ったことの証.

shamisen dudeその夜、初めての三味線のコンサートへ見に行きました。このブログのタイトルは三味線という楽器より名前があるのに、僕は三味線を聞いたことがなかった。でも、とても喜んで感動してよかったです。津軽三味線を弾いた男は小林史佳でした。とてもかっこい男だと思ったよ。若いのに、とても上手そうでした。私は三味線にあまり詳しくないけど、とても喜んでびっくりしました。コンサートの所も雰囲をよくしました。関川村の渡邉邸で伝統的な感じがありました。いい経験でしたよ。あったかい炭火の近くに座ってから、服がなつかしいにおいになりました。とてもいいにおいだったので、そのを着ると寝ました。

chris shamisen fire

クリスと一緒に炭火で.

Categories
Japan travel

The Real Deal

fall topbar

Fall PathMy weekend was incredibly pleasant. I climbed a mountain called “nihonkoku” (日本国) which is interesting because it means “Japan.” It’s not “Japan Mountain” or “Mount Japan,” but just “Japan.” From what I understand, hundreds of years ago when the border of control by the shogun only extended to the north reaches of this prefecture, nihonkoku and the ridgeline separating its northern and southern watersheds was the dividing line. Hence, the tribes to the north referred to the single mountain as a landmark representing Japan, and the name stuck. This is a great example of synecdoche!

Anyway, intrigued by such an interesting name, I set out to climb it, taking another ALT in Murakami along with me. It’s only 555 meters tall, or about 1800 feet, so it only took us a little under two hours round trip (the mountain guide book I was using said 3 1/2!). We got some great views of the Japan Sea and Awashima Island and the quickly fading red and yellow leaves. Plus, now I have something interesting to bring up during awkward silences in conversation with Japanese friends.

Categories
car JET Murakami travel

このごろ

Awesome sunset

最近の大変なかぜがなくなってしまった。今日、仕事の後、日課の感じがしました。車を満タンしたり、灯油ももらったり、ペットボトルと缶を捨てたり、他の用事を終わりました。

最近の週末は新潟県チャリティーミュージカルの第二の練習でした。僕は、『不思議な国のアリス』のプレーに参加しています。実はプレーの名前は『Alice in Japan』です。僕は白いラビットに出ています。毎年、新潟県内のALTはミュージカルを発表して、売上金でパプアニューギニアの学校を手伝うようにしています。一月と二月に、9回ぐらい発表して、三月の末に一緒にパプアニューギニアに行って、学校を建てます。

三周前、第一の練習するため、他の村上市に住んでいるALTさんと一緒に上越市へ 運転しみした。私とクリスとリードとカトリーナは僕の車に入って、高速道路でズームしてしまいました。

sweettimes-2.jpg

行く途中柏崎にとうして、本当に面白いものが見られました。

Robot man

黄色いフラグを自動で振っている如何物の男です。アラスカの道路工事者、仕事を気をつけてください。

その夜、ジャスコの近くに、『Jacasse』というレストランに立ち寄った。英語の『Jackass』ということと同じ発音みたいだから、本当に笑われた。『Jackass』というのは『バカ』という意味ですから。スローガンもとても不思議な言葉がありました。

When you meet someone
you never dreamed you’d meet
you’re taken by surprise,
so you haven’t made up
any fantasies
and you’re not let down.

Jacasse

上越のテトラポット墓地にいる写真で終わりにします。テトラポットに死に行くところです。

Tetrayard

Categories
car JET Murakami travel

Sweet times

Awesome sunset

Kind of a meaningless title, but I guess it’s appropriate. I’ve finally kicked the cold I have been struggling with, and today after work I almost felt as if I was now in a recognizable routine. I filled up with gas, and bought fuel oil, and threw away some bottles and cans, and finished some other errands.

Last weekend was the second rehearsal for the Niigata Charity Musical. I am participating in a production of Alice in Wonderland (called Alice in Japan due to copyright issues) with about 25 other ALTs from the prefecture. I am playing the White Rabbit. Each year the ALT’s in the prefecture put on a musical and use the proceeds to help schools in Papua New Guinea. During January and February, we will put on about nine performances, then at the end of March, we will fly to Papua New Guinea for two weeks and help build a school, or something along those lines.

Three weeks ago, we drove down to Joetsu, toward the southern end of the Prefecture for our first rehearsal. Me, Chris, Reed, and Katrina hopped in my car and zoomed on the expressway.

Categories
festivals Murakami travel

Ketchup

You never get enough ketchup for your fries here.

I actually just have some catchup to do. Good thing I didn’t spell the post title ‘catsup.’ What a stupid spelling.

Back in August, I went to a festival in Sekikawa (25 minutes to the south by car) called the Taishitamonja Matsuri. The name is a pun – taishita means huge or significant, mon sort of means the thing that is huge or significant, and ja is a slangy negative sentence ending which sort of indicates disbelief. Cleverly, though ja also means snake. So the effective nuanced meaning is something like “The most unbelievably big snake I have ever seen Festival.” It holds the world record for the longest big huge snake that people carry around a town. Yes, people carry around a 300-foot long, 2-ton snake for several kilometers through the town, all the while chanting and drinking beer and trying to make the snake crash into bystanders. I finally put up the pictures from this interesting event.

Check them out: Big Huge Snake

css.php