General status update

After a wonderful four and a half weeks of holidays, to which we thoroughly adjusted, today was a nasty first day back at work. Actually, not that nasty at all, we had a very easy "training" day, largely spent looking at Dave's wedding photos, and discussing our holidays. Still, it wasn't holidays... We have another two days of training, and then off to school from Thursday.

As for Mum and Dave, we had a great week with them (I'll write up something about that soon), and this morning they left to travel up north for the week, (far north and western coast - safe areas, there's no need to worry), with the aim of coming back to spend the weekend with us.

Kamikōchi

Extra seating down the aisle of the bus

While in Takayama, we went for a day trip to Kamikōchi, a National Park in the Japanese Alps. The trip started with a rude shock, we went to buy bus tickets, and discovered that return tickets were $50 each. Ouch! Hunter and I looked at each other, and decided that we might as well pay up. The bus trip was nearly two hours, but for most of the way, the scenery was spectacular, and we had books with us for when the bus was going through tunnels or other not so exciting regions.

Getting off the bus, it seemed like the place was completely overcrowded. It is, apparently, one of Japan's most popular National Parks. However, once we got a little way onto the trails, the people thinned out significantly. There were still more people than you'd see at a park in Aus, but we were able to enjoy the scenery largely in peace.

I won't talk too much about the scenery, I'd rather let the photos speak for themselves, except to point out that the photos really don't do the place justice. Kamikōchi really would be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, Hunter said the most beautiful. Also, I've never seen so much spectacular scenery with so little exertion. I think we ambled along for about 4 hours, but it was pretty much all level ground, walking around the rim of a (very high up) river valley between the surrounding mountains.

There are a lot of photos below, but I had a lot of difficulty narrowing it down even to these, because it was just so beautiful, so I hope you'll forgive me.

More monkeys!

 

Takayama

A couple of weeks ago, Hunter and I enjoyed a trip four day trip away to Takayama. Located in the "Japanese Alps", the area is not densely settled, which was a pleasant change from the busyness of our usual surrounds. We caught a Shinkansen to Nagoya, and then a slower train to Takayama.The train trip from Nagoya to Takayama was at times breathtakingly beautiful, with high forested mountains and a rushing river crashing over sharp-looking boulders, zigzagging alongside the train tracks. Two and a half hours passed in no time at all.

Takayama itself is a small city, with a population under 100,000. Because of its location in the Japanese Alps, the city was quite isolated, and developed a distinctive culture. Some highlights were:

• Aa district of old houses from the Edo period (1603-1868) that are either still lived in, or used as shops

Inside a museum - chimneys not invented yet, it seems

 

I knew the Japanese were short, but this is tiny!

• A folk village just outside the city, showcasing the rural lifestyles of years past, with beautiful thatched houses that I would most certainly not want to live in

Making straw shoes

The finished product

Work, peasant!

• A walk among a string of temples on the eastern edge of the city.

Visitors

Mum and Dave arrived last night, for a visit of a little under 3 weeks. They arrived bearing tins of Milo, toothpaste, and two loaves of rye bread, as well as a few other wonderful reminders of home (thanks Ann, Lyd, Matt & Em!). It's certainly wonderful to see them again after 5 months. We'll see what sort of adventures they get up to over the next few weeks.

You didn't tell me she was a blonde

Yesterday, I went with a couple of teachers from one of my schools to dress up as a Maiko, or trainee Geisha. When we got there, I heard one of the ladies comment, "You said she was a foreigner, but you didn't say she was a blonde". Nevertheless, with a wig, heavy make-up and a re-positioning of eyebrows, I was able to pass as a moderately convincing Maiko.

If you read my post about dressing up in yukata, you might remember that I complained that it was uncomfortable. Wearing a kimono effortlessly beat that for discomfort level. If you look at the belt, you can see that we were constrained from underarm to hip. Breathing was difficult, bending was impossible.The multiple layers were heavy and hot. The worst part though was the wig. It was heavy. Very heavy. By the time it came off, I had a nasty headache, and sore neck and shoulders. The girls who dress like this all day everyday (usually 15-20 year olds) must be very tough. The results, however, were pretty stunning, even if the resemblance to the usual Licy was very faint indeed.

Monkey Business

Yesterday we explored Arashiyama, a region on the outskirts of Kyoto. Along with the usual assortment of temples and shrines that just about every area of Japan seems to boast, Arashiyama is famous for its Spring and Autumn colours (wrong time of year for those), and its Monkey Park. Actually, I can't believe it's taken me this long to visit the Monkey Park, although I didn't fully realise what it was until quite recently.

The monkey park is located at the top of a pretty decently sized hill. As we climbed, we saw progressively more and more monkeys, until we reached the top, where there was quite a tribe. The monkeys are Japanese Macaque, commonly known as Snow Monkeys, because the species survives further north than any other primate other than humans. Today, however, it was not snowing (obviously), and this particular tribe is not the one with the famous hot springs snow photos. They are, however, to my eyes at least, incredibly gorgeous.

With a further small payment over the park entry fee, we got the privilege of feeding the monkeys, albeit through a wire mesh. They were greedy little blighters! The large males especially did not appreciate any of the upstart youngsters getting fed, and made their displeasure known. As a result, I unfortunately didn't manage to get any good photos of the little ones, but I got some good ones of the bigger monkeys

Do I smell food?

Is that for me?

Got it! Nyah nyah

There was also some pretty scenery in the area, but it didn't compare to the excitement of seeing the monkeys.

Fireflowers in Uji

The Japanese word for fireworks in hanabi, or flower fire. I think that this is a much lovelier term than fireworks, after all , what does the "works" part actually stand for? At any rate, on Wednesday night was a big fireworks show in the nearby town of Uji, and Hunter and I decided we'd have a look.

Before we could watch the fireworks, first we had to get there. The train to Kyoto was not too bad, a little crowded, but you get that sometimes. However, the train from Kyoto to Uji was something else entirely. We walked along the platform looking for a carriage that had room for another two. There wasn't one. Eventually, we did what any normal Japanese person would do; we picked a carriage that was already overflowing, with people already in the doorway such that the doors wouldn't close without some readjustment of limbs, and just proceeded to get on. Somehow, bodies were readjusted to allow the two of us to get on, and also another couple of people who got on after us. Initially, I thought I could go to sleep and still remain propped up by the people around me, but after a while, somehow, people rearranged themselves (I think there was a bit more room towards the middle of the carriage), and while it was still too close for comfort, at least I was no longer bum to bum with the guy behind me.

Once we got off the train, the crowds did not get any better, however after a long walk, and a longer queue to get some food, we found a pretty decent vantage point. The fireworks were impressive. I haven't seen live fireworks since I was about 15, so I thoroughly enjoyed the loud bright explosions and the smell of gunpowder. Towards the end, they had a bit of fun making the fireworks explode to form stars, smiley faces, and other shapes, some more recognisable than others. Almost as fun as watching the fireworks was listening to the exclamations of the Japanese people around us. I'm sure an Australian crowd wouldn't have made so many exclamations along the lines of "so cool", "cute" and "wow". I tested out the fireworks setting on my camera, but this disappointed somewhat, and I didn't manage to get much in the way of good photos.

Probably the best fireflower photo I got

The moon put on a steady if not flashy show

Getting home was even more fun than getting there. Hunter and I started heading back to the station at the end of the second last round of fireworks. This meant that we were towards the head of the queue, but what a queue. I think two trains for Kyoto left before we got on one. Fortunately, the trains were leaving in pretty quick succession, but it was still quite a wait. It was amazing how orderly everyone was. People just did what they were told, as various police and rail staff directed people, and stopping the flow to ease congestion at points ahead. The train was just as packed as on the way in, but we were lucky enough to get one seat between the two of us.