Back in Shimogo

After my travels to the Philippines and around Japan, I was really looking forward to returning to my life in Shimogo. I missed my regular cycling trips and am starting to get excited about the skiing season (in another 4 months time). I still have a few days holiday before my next job begins and so I decided to take my camera with me on some short cycle trips and try and capture some images which are typical of Shimogo at this time of year. I'm also really looking forward to September and October - the weather will be much cooler and should let me complete some long cycle trips which I have been thinking about. Watch this space!

The top picture shows a rice field which appears ready for harvesting - that means Shimogo will become a hive of activity in the near future. I'll have plenty is look at and photograph during my after work and weekend cycling trips. Shimogo rice is very nice to eat and we have been lucky enough to have been given several large sacks during the course of our 3 year stay. It's amazing how long a sack of rice lasts. Whilst taking some pictures of the rice fields, I noticed that a little friend had slithered near to my feet. I'm not sure if the snake is poisonous, but I kept my distance, just in case.
It has been quite a long time (1 month) since I have done any serious exercise, so I found cycling really tiring this week. It has also been very hot during the day and I found myself running out of water before I had even reached the half way point on my cycling routes. As a result, I decided to shorten the distance cycled and do a bit of sightseeing. I cycled away from the main road and found some delightful and interesting little settlements. Whenever I cycle down small country roads for the first time, I am always pleasantly surprised at what I find and I will make a mental note to myself to explore as many nooks and crannies in Shimogo as possible. I viewed many lovely rice fields, trees, vegetable fields, and fields of Cosmos flowers. The Cosmos flower can be seen in many parts of Japan - Cosmos is a Greek word which means harmony or ordered universe.

I start my new job on Friday the 1st of September. I'll work in two Junior High Schools for 8 months. I'm not really looking forward to it to be honest - I get the feeling the job will be little different from what I've done over the last few years. However, it will only be for 8 months so I'll bite the bullet and get on with it. I'll try and give you an update on my thoughts next week.

Road Trip

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our planned trip to Nagasaki at the last minute because of a typhoon. It was a shame but I will visit Nagasaki one day - I really wanted visit the old house of Thomas Glover, a famous Scot who once lived in Japan and who was instrumental in making his adopted country one of the world's leading industrial powers.

Instead of Nagasaki, we drove to many places to the North West of Tokyo (around the area marked with the blue arrow). We saw so many places, but only for a very short time - it feels like I never actually went to these places at all. I have to say that my patience was wearing slightly thin at being in the car for between 8 and 10 hours each day. Clara was well behaved though and never complained, although she did ask if we could make more stops to the many beaches we passed during our epic journey. Still, I am lucky to have seen more of Japan, however brief our stops were.

We stayed in a very nice hotel at a place called Hida Takayama. Hida Takayama has some old style Japanese streets which have wooden houses and shops. The area was quite charming and Clara really enjoyed her 15 minute rickshaw ride. The area seems to be famous for selling wooden goods - I was quite tempted to pick up a few nice pairs of chopsticks but some were quite expensive. After our tour of the 'old town', we retreated back to the hotel and Clara decided she wanted to paddle in a small stream outside our hotel (while Yuki was doing more shopping).

The next day, we drove to an extremely famous town in Japan called Shirakawa Go. This town is also a World Heritage Site and makes frequent appearances in calendars on sale in Japan. It was lovely to see, but the weather was scorching and there were so many tourists around. I would love to visit the town again in winter - I'm sure the houses would look fantastic when they are covered in a layer of snow. After Shirakawa Go, we travelled up the Noto Peninsula and stopped off at more picturesque places. Senmaida was lovely and it was interesting to see all the tiny rice fields (terraced) there. Terracing is said to exist so that the local people (for many generations) could make most efficient use of their land. It is said that the smallest rice field can fit under one farmer's hat. The other main highlight of the trip was visiting the seaside and looking at an island called Mitsukejima. This island has the nickname Gunkanjima - Warship Island in English (for obvious reasons). Our final destination was Nagano (the place which held the 1998 Winter Olympics). Nagano seemed nice enough and I hope to go skiing there one day in the future. Nagano is famous in Japan for the wine produced there. I also noticed another local product which is not as appetising - honey with a massive bee (which looks like a wasp) floating in the jar!!

After our short visit to Nagano, it was time to make the relatively short journey back to Tokyo. In Tokyo, I went to Ochanomizu Station to look at the many ski shops there and I also met a couple of Japanese friends who I knew in Scotland. It was time to return to Shimogo.

The Philippines

I went to the Philippines between the 3rd and the 10th of August and spent the first couple of nights in Manila (though I never actually left the hotel). After my brother arrived, we took a car up to a city in the north (about 2 hours drive). I spent a lot of my time drinking San Miguel beer which is a famous product of the Philippines. I have to say that it was an extremely nice beer that never quite got me drunk even though it has a 5% strength. I can understand why so much beer is drunk by foreigners in the Philippines - the place can be very hot and each bottle only costs about 50 pesos i.e about 50p or ¥100.

I visited the airstrip a few times to watch the planes taking off and landing and I even went up once in a Cessna and practiced some takes offs and landings myself. It was a good experience flying the Cessna although I don't think I'd ever consider flying as a serious hobby - it seems far too expensive. I'll stick to mountain biking and skiing, at least until I make my first million. Do you recognise the pilot in the plane taking off? Nevertheless, it was pretty good to fly the plane but also quite scary at times. I think the scariest moment was looking out the thin aircraft door and seeing people walking about on the roads below. All good fun, even when the instructor showed me a power off landing!The airfield can look pretty small when your gliding towards it with no power. Maybe I'll try flying again one day.....

Another thing I did was go to the firing range to use a pistol (Beretta 9mm) which belonged to the Chief of Police. I was trained by their very own SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) trainer. I was pretty nervous to be holding a loaded pistol to be honest but I was with experienced professionals so there was minimal risk. After a firing demonstration by the SWAT trainer, he loaded the pistol with one bullet and let me fire the weapon at a distant target on the firing range. On the target, he stuck a bottle top in the very centre (which he did not manage to hit with his first 3 bullets). I took a shot and hit the bottle top first time - talk about beginners luck!! Needless to say, I did not hit the bottle top again for the rest of the evening. Again, firing the pistol was an interesting experience but not something that I will ever do again. However, the Chief told me that next time he'll arrange for me to fire an M16 Armalite - hmmm.

The Philippines was an extremely interesting place to visit and I have many good memories. Perhaps the most enduring memory was that of the Philippinos themselves - it is rare to meet such friendly and welcoming people. A big thank you to Shirley for the sauerkraut.