Golden Week - Takayama and Kamikochi (Days 3 and 4)

Day Three

We woke up to this:

There had been a lot more on the ground but we laid in the tent for a while since we didn't have to get up early to catch a bus. We did get up in time to try the hot spring though.

Our first hot spring experience was a good one. There were separate baths for males and females so we agreed to meet in the lobby after the non-guest hours were over. So we had a little over an hour to soak. After stripping off all of your clothing (there's even a sign that says not to bathe in your underwear or swimsuit) you must clean yourself in the outdoor showers. These pump water from the hot spring through regular plumbing so you can shower/bathe. You sit on a little stool and lather up and then rinse yourself off. Now clean you are free to enter the various pools.

At this point I forget all the temperatures of the pool, but the only indoor pool was probably the medium temperature pool. I sat in this one for about 10 minutes with no problems. I then ventured to the outdoor pools. There were two wooden tubs and two pools. The upper pool was, as expected, warmer than the lower pool into which it flowed. The first tub was warmer than both the indoor and outdoor pools and the second tub was the hottest of all. When I got out of the hottest tub after sitting in it for 2 or 3 minutes I felt light headed. I staggered back inside and got into the indoor pool again before I fell over. Passing out, cracking your skull and spilling your blood into the pools is a major faux pas.

After 10 more minutes soaking in the indoor pool I got out and showered myself again on my little stool. It felt very cleansing and relaxing the first time so I wanted to do it again. After meeting Aimee in the lobby we both agreed that this would be a fantastic way to start and end every day.

After our hot spring baths we broke camp and headed back to Takayama and began what Aimee called “eating our way through Takayama.”

Aimee had been told by the staff at one of her schools that we had to try Hida beef. What was our first meal? Hida beef stew:

The meal was expensive – 8000 yen for both of us – but nothing compared to what the high-roller at the sushi bar must have spent. While we were waiting he and his lady friend dined on champagne and 3 appetizer plates. While we were eating they had 2 plates of sashimi which was prepared right in front of them. Even though we couldn't afford to eat what he was eating, we were not disappointed. The beef was fantastic - well marbled, well aged, well cooked. The vegetables were excellent too.

We ended the night with Haagen Dazs ice cream sandwiches from the convenience store and then headed back to our accommodations for the evening. We stayed in one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan - the Zenkoji temple. The one in Takayama is a branch of the Zenkoji temple in Nagano. We slept in traditional Japanese beds – on tatami mats on futons with blankets. The blankets were electric since it was quite cold, so the experience wasn't entirely authentic.

Day Four

We got up early to head to the morning markets. Aimee and I are both huge fans of farmers' markets back home so we were excited to see the Japanese version. We were a little disappointed. Every vendor has pretty much the same vegetables and a few spices. All of them also sell silly knick-knacks. We did have a good breakfast though.

First course:

These were little rice balls coated in a soy-type sauce and then grilled. Basically an appetizer; not filling at all. They were pretty tasty, but not something you could eat 5 or 6 skewers of to feel full.

Second course:

Owara tamaten is basically a fried marshmallow. But sooooo much better than what you're thinking. The inside is marshmallowy, but not like the marshmallows in North America. They're not just high fructose corn syrup and preservatives. The guy who makes them does so himself using some kind of gum syrup. Once they're made into cubes he dips them into an egg mixture: beaten eggs, sake, mirin (sweet cooking sake) and honey. Then they're placed on a giant table-top-sized electric frying pan and fried golden brown. They're amazing. We had one and then went back for 4 more in the afternoon.

Third course:

Hida gyuman (Hida beef bun) are made from ground up Hida beef which is fried with onions, wrapped in dough and then steamed. They're also much tastier than they look. They weren't as good as the Hida beef stew though.

After the beef bun we went back to the temple to check out. We were allowed to leave our bags at the front of the temple so we could continue exploring (and eating our way through) the city.

From the temple we went to Hida Folk Village. It was created in the 1960s by moving houses from traditional Japanse villages to Takayama. A lot of traditional villages were flooded during the creation of hydroelectric dams in the late 1950s and early 60s. People had started to leave traditional villages for the city in the 1940s and 50s so they were becoming less and less populated. However, a group of people wanted to preserve that way of life so they created an open air museum – Hida no Sato. It was a really cool place to see. Some of the buildings were from the 1600s. We both particularly liked the thatched roofs. They're over 30 centimeters thick. An entire town (approximately 40 people) could put one together in two days. Some of them had moss, grass and even small trees growing on top of them. There are a lot of pictures of the Folk Village but this update is already huge so you'll have to check them out on Facebook.

After returning to town from Hida no Sato we promptly visited the Owara Tamaten vendor for the aforementioned 4 more Owara Tamaten. From there we decided to look for a birthday present for Aimee's friend Kirin (whom some of you know so I'll keep my mouth shut) which we found. We also found these:

They're frozen tangerines. We saw dozens of people with these and we were determined to find them. It didn't really take long... we worked our way through the crowd and then were shouted at to buy them by the vendors. It wasn't all that difficult. If they hadn't shouted at us though we probably would have missed them.

After finishing our tangerines we decided to get our bags, catch our train and end our Takayama adventure. On our way back to the temple though we were waylaid by another food vendor...

Hida beef sushi and Hida beef gyuman were both really good. The Hida beef sushi – not so much. The problem with eating raw meat isn't the “Eww, but it's raw meat” factor – I have no problem with raw meat in that sense. The problem I have is that with raw meat you can't really taste the fat, and fat is what makes all Japanese beef so good. With the Hida beef stew and Hida gyuman you could really taste the fat. With raw Hida beef you couldn't. It was still ok, but not great. I would have rather had another helping of stew.

And with that meal our Golden Week adventure ended. After a disappointing beginning we ended up having a great time. Looking back on it we even enjoyed our time in Kamikochi, even though we didn't get to hike.

I'll leave you with one last picture. The baby monkey was the best picture from Kamikochi; this is the best picture from Takayama:

Golden Week - Takayama and Kamikochi (Days 1 and 2)

Golden Week is a week long holiday in Japan which starts at the end of April and ends in the middle of the first week of May. Aimee and I decided to go to Takayama (a city in the Japan Alps) and Kamikochi (a resort area and the beginning of many Japan Alp hikes – we went for the hiking, not the resort).



Day One

We took a 2.5 hour train ride from Nagoya to Takayama. The scenery we saw from this ride was second only to the scenery I saw riding on trains in Switzerland. We followed the Hida river almost the entire way up to Takayama. The Hida river is often called the Japan Rhine because it looks so much like the Rhine River in Germany. The vegetation is incredibly lush and green and the river has been running for so long that it has carved its way 10 meters down – sometimes more – through solid rock.

When we arrived in Takayama we promptly got on a bus for Kamikochi. We planned to spend 4 days hiking in Kamikochi and then return to Takayama to spend two days there before heading home. The bus ride to Kamikochi was much like driving through the Rockies in Canada. The snow-covered peaks brought back many memories of my numerous drives across Canada. They were also an ominous sign of what was waiting for us in Kamikochi.

Kamikochi is in the Shirakawa World Heritage Site area, so there are no private vehicles allowed past a certain point on the highway. Most people do what we did and take a bus from Takayama. It takes about 20 minutes from the blockade on the highway to the resort area in Kamikochi because the road is one way and there are a ridiculous number of buses making the trip in and out daily. When we arrived at the resort parking lot there were probably 50 buses.

All those buses must have meant the area was pretty popular. This is why:

Our Hiking in Japan book said that 95% of the people you see milling about near the bus terminal don't make it past the kappabashi bridge. They come for photo opportunities like this and then stay in the resort or turn around and go home. Five percent of the people continue past here to hike. Unfortunately for us, this was the only accurate information we had concerning our trip.

After we got off the bus we went to the tourist information centre to get maps and information about hiking in the area. We had planned on camping in Kamikochi for the night and then starting up Yari-ga-take (at 3190 meters it's the second highest peak in Japan. Fuji-san is the highest) in the morning. The lady looked at our bags and asked if we had crampons and ice axes. We looked at each other and then back at her: “No, we don't.” The book we have said we wouldn't need crampons nor ice axes at this time of the year for the hike we wanted to do. “Oh, well you need them to hike up Yari-ga-take.” We looked at each other again and then I asked her, “Well, where can we hike without crampons or ice axes?” She said, “We recommend here and here.” She pointed at the map on the table in front of her. “And how long does it take to get to here?” I asked, indicating the longer trail. “Oh, it takes about 6 hours – 3 hours each way.” We looked at each other with great disappointment. It had taken more than 6 hours to get to Kamikochi. We didn't come here for a 6 hour round trip hike. We thanked her and left the building.

After venting our disappointment with the hiking book we decided to camp for the night in Kamikochi and reevaluate in the morning. We went and registered for a camp site and set up our tent. Since it was only 3 o'clock we decided to walk for a while on the longer trail the lady had told us about. We weren't entirely disappointed since there were animals along the way - monkeys and a Japanese sero. A sero looks like a cross between an antelope and a goat. I've got a picture of one on Facebook here that you can have a look at. I'd post it here but it would have to be small so you wouldn't see much detail.

The monkeys were significantly more interesting than the sero. There were about two dozen monkeys – half of them were on the ground foraging and the other half, mostly younger monkeys, were in the trees. Not surprisingly they didn't mind our presence. They continued foraging for roots as if we weren't there. When we got back to camp we saw a man chasing them with a wooden rake. They're seen as pests by the people who work at Kamikochi. Interestingly they don't seem to steal food from campers. We thought we might have to take precautions similar to those you take to keep bears from stealing your food in Canada. I guess the rake man has that problem solved.

Day Two

The walk the tourist information centre lady said takes 6 hours we did in 4. We passed pretty much every person in front of us so maybe the 6 hours only applies if you're Japanese. The walk wasn't too bad though. It's railroad grade the entire way so it wasn't difficult. And we were walking through the valley so the mountain scenery was very beautiful.

On the way back we ran into more monkeys. We took a few more photos and then continued heading back. Our timing was perfect because we saw this little guy:

Watching him play and eat was almost worth not being able to do any hiking. Almost. The coolest part was when something spooked his mother. She ran over and grabbed him at full stride, swung him under her chest and scampered over to a tree. The whole motion took maybe 3 seconds. We took a lot more pictures but this post is already huge... You can check out the rest on Facebook.

We wanted to experience our first onsen (hot spring) when we returned but we missed the time period it was open. The two hot springs in Kamikochi are at two (of about 8) hotels and they are only open to non-guests during certain hours. So we spent the rest of the day/evening writing and reading in the tent.

I'll make a post about days 3 and 4 later.

Hiking in Tajimi

No, we didn't need to be rescued this time.

I found out from one of my students that there is a hiking path almost right off the train at a place called Jokoji. It's a very picturesque area – there's a river running right by the station which runs through a valley so there are high tree-covered hills on either side.

The trailhead is right across the bridge this picture was taken from (to the right). About a kilometer along the trail is a nice park with a huge pond and large shaded grass areas. A nice place to have a picnic – especially on a day off since it's only an hour from our place. We couldn't find where the trail continued from the park so we ended up following a road up into the mountains. We eventually came to a footbridge that crossed the road. The footbridge was part of the trail we were originally on. Back on track, we carried on.

Three kilometers along the trail we stopped to eat some of the food we had brought. Aimee and I both have fine taste – we ate Brie cheese and some kind of walnut bread. Very delicious. Sated, we continued along the trail, where we ran into our first Japanese snake.

He was originally on the trail but he moved much too quickly for me to catch him. Stop gasping – the only poisonous snakes in Japan are in Okinawa. He climbed this tree (it's about 4 meters high) in 30 seconds. From where he was perched he was able to watch as we took pictures of him. He also tracked us as we moved along the trail to change picture taking angles (but that doesn't worry you because you remember that they're not poisonous). It was really cool. Aimee would walk underneath him and I would watch as his head turned from one side to the other. Wanting to let him get back to sunning himself, we continued.

About four kilometers after we saw the snake the trail came to a crossroads and we weren't sure which way to go. There were sign posts but, as you all know already, my kanji reading isn't great. We picked the path that lead down the mountain and, a couple kilometers later, ended up at a strange natural history museum.

It says Nishiyama Natural History Museum. The “museum” consisted of a bunch of old fish tanks on this guy's lawn, a lot of junk, and some strange paintings strewn about the lawn and entrance. We poked our heads inside the building and there was more art hanging in a hallway. At the end of the hallway we could see a man sleeping. Fearing we would be invited in, we took our leave.

There were no more trails to be had so we had to walk along the road to get back to where we (thought) the train was. We ended up walking 15 kilometers along the road to a train station a couple stops up the line from where we originally got off. We've got 11 more months to work out this navigation thing – have faith!

Rescued in Seto

Aimee and I went on our first hiking excursion on the 11th of April. Aimee had been out to Seto earlier in the week to teach and she said that there were mountains there that we could hike up. I had been to a similar area during the week (Tajimi) but we decided to go to Seto instead. My ride out to Tajimi had been nice – I passed through vast rice fields and went through some small mountains. Since Aimee said she found mountains I assumed that our rides would be similar. I was mistaken. The entire ride went through the city and upon disembarking at Seto, I estimated that it would take us about 6 hours to get to the top of the nearest mountain, meaning a 10 hour round trip. This would not usually be a problem except that we arrived in Seto at 11:45 and the trains don't run late on Sundays. Aimee disagreed with my estimation, so off we set.

We walked for about an hour up a road which proved to be a nice walk. We got off the busy main street and saw lots of quaint Japanese houses and more than a few people enjoying the nice weather by gardening. After topping the hill we had been walking up we found a trail head and decided to take it. The sign post said it was 5.4 kilometers – what was 5.4 kilometers we weren't sure. My kanji reading was not up to the task of translating the sign. At best we figured we'd end up somewhere interesting; at worst we figured we'd do a loop and end up where we started. Turns out we did neither.

Half an hour of walking brought us to the summit of a small mountain – maybe 250 meters. We took a break and drank some water because it was extremely humid. In retrospect it probably wasn't “extremely” humid and we're just not used to it yet. It only gets worse so we've been told. We saw another sign post indicating we were 3.0 kilometers from our destination so we pressed on. About 30 minutes later we had reached the bottom of the other side of the mountain and found ourselves at a crossroads. We could take a road and continue down the mountain or we could take the road up. Or, we could take another trail which lead to... we didn't know. When we got off the train in Seto we saw a sign that said Tajimi was 17 kilometers from the station and we knew we were walking in the approximate direction of Tajimi, so we decided to take the new trail, figuring we'd hit Tajimi at some point. Not 5 minutes up the trail we met 4 Japanese hikers who would prove to be our rescuers.

They were taking a break at the top of a hill we were coming up. After exchanging a friendly “konichiwa” (good afternoon) they quickly offered us beer and snacks (Kirin and peanuts with puffed rice things). The offer of beer and food came within a minute of introducing ourselves – easily the fastest I've been offered beer in my life. After hiking for two hours the beer was very welcome.

Even before we told them we were ECC teachers from Canada they had seemed to take an instant liking to us. They kept trying to fill us up on snacks because we were offered more as soon as we were done each handful. I'm sure they would have filled us with the sake they had had we not nursed the beers they gave us (the cold can felt good in my hand so I took my time). We told them we had been hiking from Owari Seto (the train station we got off at) and didn't really have an idea of where we were going. I asked how far it was from where we were to Tajimi and the oldest man told me “dame desu!” while making an X with his arms (pronounced “da-may dess,” it means “no good”). He told me it was 20 kilometers to the nearest train station in Tajimi. Already 2 o'clock we would have been hard pressed to cover 20 kilometers of unfamiliar ground to catch a train. Perhaps realizing that we did not want to turn around and walk all the way back to Owari Seto, Yamazaki-san (the man we spoke with the most based on his English ability) invited us to join them. He told us they were walking an hour and a half to another peak and then on to a closer train station. We happily accepted the invitation.

We continued to make small talk while we drank our beers. Yamazaki-san used to work at Hitachi selling electronics and was now retired. The four of them meet once a month to go hiking somewhere in the Chubu area (the area we live in). Fuse-san (pronounced “fu-say”), the eldest of the group, asked me how old I was. I told him I was 27 and Aimee was 25. He smiled and looked at Yamazaki-san, who told us that Fuse-san was 71 years old. 71 years old! The mountain the 4 of them had just ascended and descended was more than 600 meters high. Yamazaki-san then told us that he was 70, the elderly woman was 68 (Atsuko) and the other man (Hayashi) was also 70. They called themselves “Silver Hikers,” though you would not know it looking at them. Aimee told Yamazaki-san that she had guessed they were in their 50s – 55 at the oldest. He found this amusing.

For the remainder of the hike down to the train station we spoke at length with Yamazaki-san about all kinds of things. He told us about his children and grandchildren; his favourite hikes in the area; where he and his group had travelled and were planning on travelling; some of his business trips (he did a whirlwind trip of North America 30 years ago: 1 day in Montreal, 1 day in New York and, I think, 2 days in Washington before returning home); and he told us Japanese names for some of the flowers and trees we passed by. We also spoke a little with Fuse-san, who, when he was 64, had run a 42.195 kilometer marathon in Honolulu. Hayashi-san drove the support car for him, though I would not have been surprised if he was capable of running a marathon, too. Fuse-san was also a “patrol man” in the area were were hiking, as he lives in the area and walks the trails every day. Hayashi-san had hiked Kamikochi and he told us a couple places to check out when we go there – specifically which onsen (hot spring) to go to.

As we neared the bottom of the road, Yamazaki-san told us we would be stopping in a traditional Japanese house for a rest. Aimee and I were excited by this as we had yet to see a traditional Japanese residence. The town it was in probably appealed to us more than the building itself. The town was a tiny rice farming village which probably had no more than 50 people in it. I counted probably a dozen buildings. I was surprised that places like that existed so close to Nagoya (the 4^th largest city in Japan).

Twenty more minutes of walking took us to a parking lot where Fuse-san had his car parked. Our rescuers extended their hospitality further by offering the lost Canadians a ride to the train station. Yamazaki-san, Hayashi-san and Atsuko-san were being dropped off there by Fuse-san anyway so we were not making them go out of their way by accepting their offer.

On the train Yamazaki-san pointed out landmarks in the area – the Toyoto Automobile Museum and the 2005 Aichi Expo were the highlights. Before the stop where he and the lady were getting off, Yamazaki-san gave us his email address and told us to email him the next time we were going hiking. We told him we definitely would since we had had such a great time. He also told us to come and visit him sometime to meet his wife. She wasn't with him because she doesn't enjoy hiking. She does love to cook and make clothing though. We thanked him again and told him that today had been our best day in Japan so far. I think he was pleased.

We weren't being polite when we said that today had been our best day in Japan. We were having fun hiking before we ran into the Silver Hikers but running into them made our day much better. We felt that we got to see the real Japan – the Japan behind the commercial behemoth. There were no tall buildings or giant advertising billboards; no cars or buses or trains; and not a lot of people. These four people were also the first people with whom we had had a lengthy conversation and with whom we had spent a significant amount of time. It was great getting a chance to have a real conversation with some Japanese people instead of just talking about work or students in classes we teach.

We also weren't just being polite when we told Yamazaki-san we would email him the next time we go hiking. Talking about it later, Aimee and I agreed that it would be a real pleasure to spend time hiking with the four of them once a month when they go out. We would also really like to meet Yamazaki-san's wife. I got the feeling from the way he was telling us to visit that he would like to show off the Canadians he rescued.

Ieyasu Parade

Today we went to our second Japanese Festival – the Iesayu Parade in Okazaki City. Now those of you who know me well let me stop you right here – it wasn't that kind of parade. There were neither floats nor bands. I would not have gone to that kind of parade. This parade was a celebration of cherry blossom season and the birth of Tokugawa, the Shogun of Japan during the - wait for it - Tokugawa Era. Tokugawa was born in Okazaki and he is the one who ordered Nagoya Castle built (the castle from the mass email I first sent out). More importantly, this was a parade featuring samurai.

There were over 1000 samurai dressed in traditional samurai warrior armor with real-enough-looking swords. They also had fully-functional flintlock rifles, which they fired over the river.

Tokugawa's general was on horseback, as was the general's... lieutenant? Assistant? We weren't sure. Unfortunately we didn't get great shots of them.

We were told by a lady we work with that when she first went to this festival the horsemen would ride by targets at full gallop and shoot at them with bows. I was really excited to see this but it didn't happen. The only bows we saw were on the midway across the river. (Brief aside: these were recurve bows, not cheap plastic Canadian Tire bows. You had to shoot at balloons 20 meters or so away. The lineup was 50 people deep so we skipped it – we wanted to get good seats for the samurai battle [we didn't end up getting very good seats]. Could you imagine going to a carnival in Canada and shooting a bow and arrow at targets? It would be an insurance nightmare. It'd never happen.) I would have been satisfied with the General hurling his long spear at something but that didn't happen either. Oh well.

The battle itself was pretty well choreographed. Tokugawa's men were attacked by the ninjas and the samurai had to fight them off. After the ninja were killed/run off, the General ordered a full assault on what was presumably the enemy's army. The different contingents of foot soldiers then charged off the field to much cheering by the fans.

After Tokugawa's men charged off the field, he and his daimyo (lords) watched a fireworks show and then the festival ended. Fireworks during the day aren't as impressive as they are at night. For one thing, the colours aren't as vibrant. Another problem is the smoke. You don't really notice the smoke from fireworks at night because it's dark. During the day it's really all you can see. The pictures didn't turn out too well so we're skipping those.

Grace (our friend from Edmonton), Aimee and I crossed back to the other side to get some more festival food (I think I mentioned how delicious festival food is in my last email). After enjoying yakitori (meat on a stick – we had pork) and squid (also on a stick) we decided to sweeten things up with candied apples. Neither Aimee nor Grace had had candied apples before. Grace still hasn't because she opted not to get one.

We continued walking along the river enjoying the cherry blossoms while taking the obligatory cherry blossom pictures. Here is the best one:

On our walk along the river we encountered an old Japanese man and his dog, Nowaru. The dog looked like a small akita. If I've looked it up correctly, Nowaru means “sly” or “sneaky.” The name applies to the dog as he looked like a trickster.

I ran into the man first while Aimee and Grace were behind me taking pictures. He asked me if I was “Igirisu,” which means British. I told him I was “Canada-jin” and his face lit up. He started to go off about all the places he had been in Canada. He had been to: Vancouver, Kamloops, Calgary, Edmonton, Athabasca, Anchorage and Juneau (those last two are in Alaska). He had driven between some of the places and taken a train between others. By this point Grace and Aimee had caught up to me and Grace, whose Japanese is better than mine, made the conversation between the three of us (Aimee doesn't speak Japanese) much better. He asked where in Canada we were all from and he asked me my age – but not Aimee nor Grace. I thought that was odd. He asked if he could take our picture and we happily agreed to pose for him under a cherry blossom tree. Then he took Grace's address – presumably to send her a copy of the picture (hopefully more than one). He was a very friendly old man and while we were riding the train back Aimee and I discussed how that sort of thing would not happen in North America as often as it happens in Japan. Even though we are becoming more and more common in Japan, the Japanese do not seem to tire of striking up conversations with westerners.