See Japan

So... I got up at 5:30am on the 28th. Got ready, packed a bit... headed for the train at 6:30, got on the train at 7, arrived to the bus terminal in Shinjuku at 7:30 and boarded my bus at 7:50am with no complications. I fell asleep for the first two hours and looked out the window and saw something unlike Tokyo. I no longer felt like I was in Japan.

2 hours after that... I looked out the window of the bus and knew I had arrived in Hakuba...

I arrived to my backpacker "hostel" (total of 4 hours and 20 minutes for the trip) and was picked up by Yasu who rents out the hostel with his girlfriend Angela. The place was about 5 minutes from my bus stop. Hardly anyone was at 5Yamago5 when I arrived because everyone was up on the mountain snowboarding. I decided to go for a little walk...

The area I was at hadn't gotten a big snow fall at all this winter. As I started taking my walk it really began to snow hard. I headed back to the hostel and quickly made friends with a girl named Courtney from New Zealand who has been working at the hostel for about 3 months just to go snowboarding... I hung out with her and her friend K-K (also a Kiwi from New Zealand) who was also staying at the hostel with his girlfriend Sato. We headed to the store for some food and hung out in the living room just chatting around the kotatsu (its a Japanese style table that heats up underneath when plugged in and has a futon wedged in between the two top layers of the table to pull over your legs.)Here's the living room we hung out in, a blurry picture of Courtney and K-K, my room with 4 futons spread out side to side, and the kitchen...

The next morning I woke up to lots of snow. About 2-3 feet of snow actually. The temperature during the day and without the wind was about 30 deg. It felt so much colder though. I woke up around 7:15am, had a nice hot breakfast which the people who run the hostel cook for everyone (and is included in the cheap 3,000 yen (approx. $21/night) I paid per night.), and then headed up to the mountain for a day of snowboarding. It took me a while to get used to things again and I still couldnt turn right which is necessary in order to carve, so I booked myself a lesson for the following morning.

After snowboarding Courtney, K-K, and I headed to lunch at a small family owned restaurant place and it was delicious. I went back to the hostel, took a nap, went to the onsen and then hung out again in the living room. The second night there were people from all over the world: Brazil, Mexico, America, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, India, Germany, Spain, and England... quite a mix especially considering there were probably about 30-40 people total.

The next morning there was even more snow. The conditions were PERFECT and the snow was so soft that it didnt hurt so bad when you fell. I took lessons for two hours which helped dramatically. I practiced on my own for a few hours down the slopes and then stopped off on the side of the mountain for a hot bowl of ramen soup. I snowboarded for about 6 hours the second day and everyone was pretty much wiped out. I went back to the hostel and headed to an outdoor onsen which was nice because it was snowing out. I left the next morning around 9am and am so happy I decided to make this trip.

It was nice to travel alone, to meet people from all over the world, to be independent, to get outside and do something active, and to see a side of Japan I have never seen before. My next snowboarding trip will be a one day excursion when Balls comes.. I'll keep ya posted.

The good news is I have no broken bones. The right side of my neck and back are sprained or something and I have some nice bruises but nothing that requires me to go to the hospital so I'm happy about that.

New Years

So, I got back from Hakuba around 1:20pm, headed home on the train and then got a taxi to my apartment because I was too sore to walk. I caught up with my roommates on their travels, unpacked and then re-packed my bags to stay at my friend Megumi’s house. I got ready and then headed back into the city to Shibuya where I met up with Meg and her friends. We stopped at McDonalds for a little pre-gaming and I had a coffee (Meg loves hamburgers although her parents and grandfather protests/boycotts McyD’s..ha).

We headed to this club called Womb where there weren’t too many people, but by 12am the place was packed with well over 1,000 people.

It has 3 stories and the DJ played house music on the first floor with a really cool light show. We danced, I missed the countdown, and then Meg and I headed home on the train around 3am (New Years Eve is the only night in Tokyo when the trains run 24 hours).

We took a taxi back to Meg’s house, got home around 4, played with her dog Maru-chan and then hit the sheets.

We were woken up around 10am for New Years meal with her mother, step-father, and grandfather. I can’t explain what half of the food was we ate but some of the things I do know were: sweet beans and chestnuts, lots of fish, rice cakes, lotus root, and I cant remember what else. We had a bit of sake and then it was back to bed for everyone to take naps.

We woke again around dinner time and had the leftovers from morning in addition to the big pot of “Suki-yaki”, which is a big pot with beef, cabbage, mushrooms, noodles, and tofu that you dip in raw egg. I wasn’t too fond of the raw egg bit but it was a delicious meal. We toasted to the New Year with sparkling wine and then Meg’s step-father Ki thought he would show us all a trick by smashing an apple with one hand. Turns out he just broke the apple in half with two hands and Meg’s mother joked him saying “anyone can do that, that’s nothing special.” Meg’s grandfather added “you cant karaoke, and you cant cook very well, so it looks like you’ve finally found your talent.”

Afterwards we just all sat on the floor around the table and watched something similar to Gladiators on television… it was a lazy day, much like Christmas or Thanksgiving. We didn’t end up going to temple because we slept…. Ah well. I’ve had a great holiday season.

It ends with a shot of me and a beautiful view of the sky and Mt. Fuji...

Well... I went to an onsen finally. It took me 4 trips to Japan to get around to it. For those of you unfamiliar, an Onsen is a natural hot spring. The water must be from a volcanic spring and they often are famous for having various minerals that can heal a number of illnesses. Traditionally they are outside, and most still are but there are indoor onsens which is what I went to. Here's an example of one outdoors and here is a not so great shot of the one I went to one station away from my apartment.

And, they're not just for humans. Seriously...

For Japanese people the Onsen is not just about relaxing. The onsen also provides opportunity to forget about the social hierarchy that does exist here. How do they do this you ask? In their birthday suits of course.

I went with my new friend Mika who is a manager at one of the offices I work at for NOVA. She's 24 I think and I would have been SOOO lost had it not been for her. It didn't help so much that this was the first thing I saw once I entered the building: Hahaha. I knew that many places don't allow people with tattoos but I thought I would take my chances. But, I managed by throwing my little wash cloth over my shoulder whenever I got out of one "bath" and went to the next, or when I was just walking around. Its funny... I was very nervous with clothes on, feeling judged, like everyone was staring at me.. but its amazing that once you are naked like everyone else you feel like no one can judge you anymore. I thought it would be the opposite feeling but it wasn't. And, I also thought it to be a bit ironic how I thought beforehand that I would feel more comfortable around strangers than friends or people I knew... strange huh?

So, you walk in. Take of your shoes, put them in a locker, buy your ticket and head upstairs. Then, you put the rest of your stuff in another locker, derobe and hit the showers. Its actually very luxurious. Showering is not done quickly and people take forever to make sure they are very very clean. After that you just get in the water and relax. The one we went to had a bath that just smelt good, one for moisture, one with some kind of herbs to cure illness, a really hot one with tea leaves and another one that I can't remember. We spent about 2 hours hopping around from one to the other, cooled off and then we headed down to the 3rd floor for some dinner. Again, the food is just awesome in Japan. The flavors are so rich and there is so much variety to choose from. We were then going to get a massage but thought we would save that for another day since we were already feeling so relaxed.

Well, this is the little corner market I talk about all the time. Its maybe two blocks from my apartment and they have great stuff at much cheaper prices than the regular SUUPAA. I head here at least once a week, but usually twice. Here's the inside: (or at least one wall..)

This is the cafe that is around the corner from my apartment as well, but in the neighborhood... not off the main road. I haven't actually managed to go in yet but I pass it everyday. It's very tiny and cute and ran out of this person's home so if there's one customer I tend to get a bit intimidated... but I plan on using it for informal Japanese lessons sometime soon. They just dont know it yet.

Next is the Tokyo River (I'm not sure if that's even the real name but thats what everyone calls it.) It runs through my city (Toda) and goes on forever. It's where the annual fireworks are held every year in August (which I heard are amazing via my roommate and last about 2 hours), as well as the big rowing competitions. Lining the banks of the river are the crew team houses which remind me a bit of fraternity rows in college except instead of fraternity letters on the outside its the college name. But, students of the teams live in them and they're always outside blasting their music and working out or something.

Next is the most tidy garden I've ever seen in my life. This picture makes my city look like the country, but dont believe it. Its in the neighborhood on my way from and to my apartment and the station. I just had to throw it in.

And, lastly... for now, is a sample picture of Omiya (the city where I teach). This is just a small little side street where they were having a used book sale. Too bad I can't read any of the books because they were going for like 25 cents a piece.

I'll get some work pictures in sometime soon, since I REALLY actually do go there almost everyday!