guest post for oasis, tokyo, and mt. fuji

since im basically the king of laziness, i missed writing the tokyo/fuji post vacation email after i got back from vacation. i did it for kanazawa and takayama but they were rather dull, and i started doing one for tokyo but it was also painstakingly dull. a word of advice: write about a vacation immediately after you get back from it otherwise you wont be able to do it justice when you write about it. i still remember every detail vividly but it doesnt really come through on the computer.

luckily, amanda wrote a group email to her friends back home in australia about the second week away from ecc and it was far superior to anything i could produce. so im not even going to paraphrase it...im just going to post it in its entirety and let it speak for the second week of summer vacation.

without further delay, here it is:

"Im sorry this is a group email but i thought all you wonderful ppl in aus might like to hear about my summer vacation? it is a tad lenghty and i wont be offended at all if you skim! I had an absolutely lovely time - the best time i have had yet! i felt like a kid again on the last day of school on the last day of work! i couldnt shove my last lot of students out quick enough! Yes Yes have a great vacation - get out!!! Ahhh two weeks of speaking at a regular pace and two weeks of freedom from the children. I love the children but as my roommate J would say they are little petri dishes! I dont have a class where there isnt some little one coughing and sneezing over me! I have certainly cemented the idea that a career in early chid care is not on the cards! Japanese kids are slow and meticulous at everthing they do. cutting, sticking, colouring - everything its painful at times! anyway - the holiday!!!!

We had a day off in nagoya where me and Steve hung around and went shopping for the vacation. Then it was early to bed though i couldnt sleep cos i wass so excited about the holiday - sad little thing arent i? so i showed up at steves 2 hours early in my excitement and we headed off. We bought a ticket that let us use all the JR trains for 5 days. We are a bit too frugal to be taking the bullet train so it means 6hr stints on local rattlers of trains! Poor steve - he made our itinerary so all vacation me and claire were constantly at him - Steve - whens the next train? steve how long is this one for? steve can we have an icecream?

Our first destination was Kanazawa - we fell in love with this place and both agreed that it would be wonderful to live and teach up there. It was quiet and beautifully set out and a whole lot cooler than nagoya - the big grey sweatbox! We visited a lot of gorguseous temples and shrines and went for a wander around the city. The Geisha district was interesting - though we walked there at night cos we were slow tourists! we visited kenrokuen - my favourite spot so far in Japan. i think i have sent some postcards from kenrokuen. It is the traditional Japanese garden next to the Kanazawa palace. It was beautiful and just as i imagined Japan to be. We looked at old samurai houses and went shopping in the city - we had to buy 100 yen umbrellas due to the unexpected typhoon! The typhoon caused our trains to be cancelled so Takayama was delayed and we stayed one more night at the Hotel Econo in kanazawa. I have been thoroughly impressed with the standard of business hotels in Japan. They are really nice - sure they have vending machines with porn movies and have a bit of a seedy reputation but they give you slippers and and a yukata and there are always toiletries provided for the busy salaryman on the go.

So We took a bus to Takayama the next day - takayama is famous for its traditional streets and the Hida snow villiage. The bus ride through the mountains was just incredible- i can only imagine what it would be like to visit nagano and gifu in winter! takayama was great fun - we were dutiful tourists and visited every traditional house they had to offer. A highlight for me was tasting Hida beef! not too bad - all my students always ask me - do you like aussie beef? odd eh? to which i reply - of course!!! We had a sukyaki bbq - and accidentally ate tongue!

So after a beautiful couple of days in the countryside we returned to nagoya for a bit of R and R before the Tokyo campaign, And by R and R i mean Rock and Roll - We saw oasis at Summer Sonic Eve - a festival they put on for Nagoyans. It was awesome - we were so close to the front and centre it was ridiculous. i think Liam waved at me! we were no joke about 20mtr from the front! The Japanese crowd were adorable calling out Riam and Noeru! ( there is no L in Japanese). Between songs it was really quiet and Noel goes ( thats why we love you ppl 0 you are so polite!!) hehe!

So Big vacation in Little Tokyo - essch the train ride there was an effort 0 6 hours a couple of them standing up, but when we got there it was worth it! i dont think you can help but be overwhelmed by the size of the place - it is enormous and the crowds crossing intersections and such are incredible. We walked around the Ginza - a swish shopping area with every brand name under the sun- i felt very underdressed in my travelling pants and joggers! Then we went to Akihabara - a place for video games and electronics. Dinner this nite was an event. we went to an all you can drink all you can eat place. it was ridiculous - beer on the tap -s steve hd about 6, the all you can eat won out with me and i went nuts getting a pile of meat on my plate and barbequing it on our table! There was myo waffles and a sushi bar and everything you can imagine! It was 3000 yen wihch is really reasonable but the waiter goes - youve got 1 hour and a half!!! so you can imagine the eat and drink fest that ensued! there was not much conversation during this meal it was all eat eat drink eat! I think more than one table of ppl were thinking - crazy westerners as i brought aother plate of meat back to the table and steve went for his 8th beer.

The next day we picked up Claire!!1!!! i was so excited at Tokyo station and when i saw her i was so happy! We stuffed up the subways on the way to our inn so poor claire got a whirlwind tour of the tokyo subway system with her huge suitcase which we named Nimotsu - san by the end of the vacation. We got to our inn eventually - a traditional place with lovely warm staff and communal bathing. We dressed up in our newly bought yukatas and took photos of ourselves in our room in a mock tea ceremony arrangement. When i show my students these photos they think we are a little odd! We looked around Ikebukuro this night and retired early with a few coldies and conveneice store treats! it was wonderful to see claire - she got along really well with stve and i think he found it amusing to have 2 australian girls constanlty in his ear!

The next day we looked around some more and visited Asakusa - a very popular and famous shrine and we had some pleasant and not so pleasant encounters with Japanese ppl wanting to practise their english - i will let claire explain! Then we went to the Ginza again and had a drink at a big German beer hall. Sunday nite was awesome - we went to an amusement park right next to our inn and rode the thunder dolphin. this was seriously the biggest craziest roller coaster i have ever o make it to been on! it was amazing to whizz around in the Tokyo skyline! we finished today off with a trip to Roppongi - the skeazy skeaze capital of Japan. We got adequately touted and returned home to rest for the day ahead with the best of intentions to rise early to make i to the Tsukiji Fish market by 6am.

Monday - Tokyo disneyland day - not a fish in sight! we got up late and headed straight to the happiest place on earth. It was wonderful -we had a wow of a time and spent the whole day there. we were all feeling a little overstimulated by the end of the day!!

Tuesday - i was awoken at 5 and sent out by my companions claire and steve to seek out the opening hours of the aforementioned fish market - once again we decided to forgoe it! suprise suprise!!! Instead we headed to the imperial palace and had a squizz around. Then it was off to Shinjuku and to the scariest experience of my life thus far. We thought we would go up the Skytower to have a look at Tokyo - up on the 51st floor of this skyscraper ^ the veiw was impressive. So we are about to get in the elevator when the sendai earthquake happens! what a joke - only our little trio could be so unlucky to be 51 floors up when the earthquake hits!!!
I cried - obviously cos im a big wuss as the tower rocked back and forth like a jenga tower. Claire was classically claire and remarked ( well im not underwhelmed!!!). it felt like it went on forever ut alls well that ends well as they say - having decided we hate shinjuku we left promptly!

Back to nagoya - i got to show claire around my new hometown. i really felt Nagoya turned it on for Claire! the weather was pleasant enough and the ppl were friendly!! So we had a day of respite before the big Climb!

Ahh Fuji san! Claire and i were a little bit hyperactive on the way to Mt Fuji! but we quietened down a bit and got a bit shy as our taxi winded its way up the mountain and we realised what was ahead!

6ish Wed night - we arrived at fuji
9ish - i ate a whole lot of chocolate - we stocked up on water and supplies and took happy ( before) photos at the 5th station of the bright eyed troupe!
after 9ish - we started the climb! - I tell you the first length was the hardest - claire and i were both suprised! with out enthusiasm we started out far too quickly! i thought crikey what have we signed up for here?? luckiky the weather was awesome otherwise the boys would have had some unhappy australian campers on their hands!
3ish - we reached the 9th station - the terrain was rocky, stressful and difficult! i was really cold and stupidly thought it would be best to save some layers for the summit! so it was chilly to say the least.
4am - reached the summit! what a climb - it was incredible to look out and see all the lights of the city and then see a stream of lights coming up the mountain as the crowds of ppl made their way up. its the closest thing i think ill see to a pilgrmaage and it was pretty spectacular. The ppl on the trail were all very friendly and everyone was greeting everyone on the way up and down.

we rested a bit on the top - im gunna leave out the description og the hike dwn as i dont want to revisit that part of my life! needless to say it was a trial - a steep track of slippery sliding gravel!
We slept on the train on the way home with our dirty and blisterd feet up.
I am definately glad i did it - i was a lot of fun going up. Theres a Japanese saying that was bounced around a lot on our trip - ( a wise man climbs fuji once, only a fool climbs it twice)"

i agree with basically everything said there.

hoshigaoka

hoshigaoka is one of the 3 ecc schools i work at...i work there on tuesdays and saturdays so its basically my "home" school. every ecc school has a website with photos of staff and students...so...copy and paste the link below into the address bar for a shot of me with some students and staff at the hosh:

http://www.ecc.jp/school/chubu_area/hoshigaoka/hoshigaoka.php

takayama

went to takayama on the morning of monday august 8th and left the evening of tuesday, august 9th, both by bus. takayama is a small, old japanese town nestled in the japan alps in central honshu. its well known amongst japanese people as a place to visit and as a result tourism has become the biggest industry there. its definately a small town that shuts down at night but during the day theres lots of things to see and do. amongst those are visiting takayama jinyu (an old japanese administrative building where samurais lived), an old hida village with traditional japanese snow houses, visiting old japanese residences, and shopping for japanese sweets and souvenirs. some thoughts:

- the bus trip from kanazawa to takayama was one of the most pleasurable ive ever been on. bus trips are funny in japan because we need to stop for a 15 minute rest for every 1 hour of driving...as a result going anywhere either in a japanese bus or travelling with a japanese person driving in a car takes forever. anyways...one of the rest stops was in a beautiful hida village in the mountains and the scenery and weather were breathtaking.

- we stayed at the cheapest business hotel near the station, the orion, and while it wasnt bad by western standards, lets just say that you get what you pay for in life sometimes

- for dinner on monday we went to try a local takayama speciality...hida beef. basically its barbeque style where you get the barbeque in the middle of the table, and fry raw beef and vegetables until theyre ready. it was great...except we found out the next day that one of the meat dishes we ordered was actually cows tongue.

- one great japanese icon was born in takayama: sarubobo, a hello kitty-like creature that in english means "happy monkey". some souvenir shops seemed to sell nothing but surabobo in every form imaginable. amanda and i both got caught up in the sarubobo hysteria and purchased some sarubobo souvenirs...for myself, i got a sarubobo cell phone clip and a sarubobo sweat rag (trust me, thats needed as badly as undershirts in nagoya)

- i bought some cookie boxes for my schools because in japan youre not allowed to go on vacation unless you bring some sort of gift back to the workplace as a token of gratitude. the amount of choices available in different looking gift boxes all selling arguably the same type of japanese sweet were staggering.

- beautiful weather over the two days that only stopped once we got on the bus at 7pm for nagoya on tuesday night...it started raining then but before that it was blisteringly hot but alright with the humidity less than nagoya

all in all, takayama was a great end to 4 great days. there was alot of walking and trekking involved so the legs are a little tired right now but it wasnt all work...lots of time for relaxation as well. japan truly is a lovely country to travel in and live in. up now is rest and relaxation in nagoya for today and tomorrow (oasis concert tomorrow!) before heading for tokyo for 5 days and climbing mt. fuji for 2 days. should be awesome.

kanazawa

went to kanazawa the morning of saturday august 6th and left the morning of monday august 8th. kanazawa is a beautiful city that is a little what youd imagine a japanese city to look like. its got about 500,000 people, is close to the japan sea, has all of the modern japanese amenities that one would expect (ie: kareoke bars, business hotels, shopping arcades, manga internet stops, ect...) with all of the old world japanese charm as well (ie: samurai house district, old gardens and castle grounds, numerous shrines and temples, ect...). some thoughts:

- amanda and i went from nagoya to kanazawa on a seishun juu-hachi kippu, literally an under 18 years old ticket that allows cheap travel on local trains. it took about 4 transfers and 5 hours to get from nagoya to kanazawa but due to extreme japanese train efficiency it went well. additionally, the kanazawa train station is one of the most beautiful ive ever seen...a big wooden shrine covers the entranceway and theres lots of very un-japanese public seating out in front.

- we stayed at a business hotel called the econo which was not bad in location, price, and general niceness

- there was major rainfall when we got there and apparently there was a typhoon happening closeby

- kanazawa is home to kenroku-en, one of japans most famous gardens. japanese gardens are just beautiful and theres so much beautiful scenery in such a small space that you know its something only the japanese could master

- they had an izakaya (japanese pub) district that beats the pants off of any food district ive seen in japan so far...there was great yaki soba, sashimi, stew, and beer to be had there

- there was a tremendous fireworks show in the rain on the first night there that showed why the japanese are the kings and queens of fireworks

- the weather was great on sunday and monday, really hot but lacking the oppressive humidity of nagoya

overall, a great few days in kanazawa and its a city id recommend to anybody who ever visited japan. i know that ecc doesnt have any schools there but if they ever opened one up there id definately like to get transferred to that city.

lets trade

id love to trade just one day of beautiful vancouver summer weather for one day of nagoya summer weather at this point. its averaging about 35 degrees with humidity through the roof. i walk 2 minutes to the subway station from my apartment and im already dripping with sweat. im seriously looking forward to escaping to tokyo where its only 30 degrees every day.

nagoya has a reputation as having the worst summer weather in japan and now i know why. that said, this is the last im going to complain about it because im getting used to it and, to be perfectly honest, im tired of talking about the weather.