Mount Onodake

2 weeks ago, a member of the local Board of Education asked me whether I would like to hike up Mount Onodake. I accepted the offer and looked forward to another day out in the mountains around Shimogo. Japan is full of surprises - and yesterday was no different.

Upon arriving at the foot of the mountain, I was surprised to see my old supervisor driving past in a large bus. My initial thought was that he had some kind of weekend part time job as a bus driver. Next I saw the town mayor driving down the mountain track in his official work car!!! Obviously something was happening which I had not been told about (not an unusual situation in Japan).

I soon discovered that Sunday 28th May was the official opening day for Mount Onodake. A Shinto priest performed some sort of ceremony and then myself and 125 others started to hike up the mountain. Everyone I met seemed extremely concerned that I was wearing shorts. They were all kitted out in expensive looking rain jackets and rain trousers. My theory was that a little rain does not do anyone any harm and I still stand by that theory.

Once we reached the top of the mountain, we all had lunch and waited for a short speech and some presentations to be made. I was surprised to be awarded the gold medal for the longest distance traveled to attend the event. Despite the fact that I currently live only a few kilometers away in Shimogo, they calculated the distance from my home in Scotland. Very decent of them!

After the presentations, some sake was drunk and then we headed down the mountain for an onsen and a party. The men who attended the party managed to drink an amazing amount of sake and a couple of them fell asleep towards the end of the evening.

I think I have an average week ahead of me with no overly exciting activities planned. My main goal for this week is to complete a World Cup 2006 display to be put in a corridor of Shimogo JHS. Bye for now.

Ouchi Juku (Shimogo)

On Friday, I decided to cycle to the feudal village called Ouchi Juku which falls into the boundary of Shimogo Town. Ouchi Juku can be extremely busy at times, but today, it was relatively quiet. I've only visited Ouchi Juku about 6 times during my 3 year stay in Shimogo, usually when showing first time visitors around Shimogo. In February, Ouchi Juku holds an annual 2 day snow festival.

The shops along the main street sell a selection of local crafts and delicacies. I have managed to train myself to be able to eat most local delicacies but have so far been unable to try the grasshoppers on sale. Maybe next year.........

Kaneyama

I decided to take a holiday today as I didn't have any classes at Primary School. The forecast was excellent so I decided it was a good idea to go for a long cycle (about 200km in total). I decided to try and reach Kaneyama, mainly because of the name. Kaneyama has a population of about 3,000 people and is situated in a picturesque and heavily forested valley.
I got some fairly bad sunburn on my arms and neck, but was lucky that the temperature was only 24 C today. I need to watch out for heatstroke when the temperatures rise further, and I certainly don't think I'll be able to cycle the same route during August.

The next image shows a river passing through a village called Showa. Next to the river is a cemetery and temple. Quite a nice picture, only slightly spoilt by the concrete river bank on the right.

When I took this picture, I was starting to get concerned about the sunburn to my arms and was worried about the possibility of heatstroke. I'll have to take extra care as the summer gets warmer.

I got back to Shimogo after 7 hours of cycling. After a quick shower, I picked Clara up at nursery school and then we went for a very nice walk amongst the rice fields next to our apartment. A very tiring day!

Mount Kashitoge

One of my goals this year was to cycle to the top of Mount Kashitoge. I'm happy to have achieved this goal so early in the year and now I can think about my next challenge. The first picture shows the construction of a road next to the route I take up the mountain. New roads (and other concrete behemoths) are constantly being built in Japan, with little or no regard to the environment. Japanese government debt is the highest in the world, yet the government still pours money into these projects. Personally I think the money would be much better invested in new high tech schools for the 21st Century.

I am fairly confident that I am the first person to visit the top of the mountain road this year as I had to push my bike over large piles of snow which are still blocking the road - I can't imagine anyone else in Shimogo being crazy enough to cycle to the top. The best thing about the cycle was the peace and quiet. When I reached the top of the road, I left my bike and started to hike further up the mountain, but had to turn back because of the snow.

Towards Kaneyama and Showa

I decided to try a new cycling route on Friday afternoon, and I was extremely happy to do so. The route I took was very picturesque and the road was very quiet. I felt I had seen the first 'real' Japanese countryside since I arrived nearly 3 years ago. The weather was also very pleasant, despite the forecast for rain. All in all, a perfect afternoons cycling. I plan to return to this route sometime next week in order to reach the town of Showa (about 30km from Shimogo).

My favourite kind of building in the Japanese countryside is the traditional style storehouse. These are constructed of stone. In the past, most old houses were constructed of wood, and as a result, very few remain. However, the stone storehouses are much sturdier due to their stone construction. On the gable end of these storehouses, you can often see the family crest of the family which owns it.

I believe that these storehouses are primarily used to store the rice harvest, but are also used to store precious or rarely used household objects.

Perhaps I should also explain why the storehouses are made of stone. The main reason is the risk of fire in Japan has always been high. Obviously a store built largely of stone does not burn as easily, thus protecting the rice and any precious objects stored within. Another positive spin off is that the stone storehouses are cooler inside than the more traditional wooden structures. Therefore, the rice stored within stays fresher for longer.
The picture above shows a fairly charming little hamlet (though technically part of Shimogo) surrounded by rice fields and tree covered mountains.

Rice

It is a busy time of year for many people in Shimogo. This is the time of year when the fields are flooded and rice is planted. On my regular cycling trips, I see a lot of activity in the fields.

I really like this time of year in Japan. The flooded fields are very pretty make me feel at ease.

Tokyo DisneySea

We all went to Tokyo for Golden Week. The Japanese call this time Golden Week because there are a series of national holidays which are held in the space of one week. We took an extra couple of days off and traveled down to Tokyo for a bit f fun, shopping, and relaxation.

On Monday 1st May, we went to DisneySea which is basically an aquatic version of Disney Land. Clara was very excited about this trip although I found it VERY hard to wake up at 5.30am. The drive to DisneySea took about 90 minutes, and we were there nice and early, along with every other person in Tokyo.


We bought our souvenirs when we entered the park to avoid the end of day queues and then placed them in a locker so we could pick them up later. We all had a pretty good time and saw most of the attractions that were on offer. The first attraction which we went on was a gondola tour around a Disney version of Venice. After that, we gradually covered the rest of the attractions. Although DisneySea was busy, we didn't have to queue for very long which was a nice surprise. Of course, the person who had the best time of all was Clara.