Yomiuriland, Ozenji shrine and Mount Kumotori

Hello!

Well it has been an eventful four weeks or so, my holidays are almost at an end.  This is going to be a very "me" focused update because I've been finding things to fill the time while Jason's been working.

Yomiuri Land

Who likes rollercoasters?  I do!  I went on some rollercoasters and they were pretty good.  I also went on a ferris wheel that promised views of Mount Fuji; it didn't deliver.  Here are some pictures anyway!

Ozenji Temple

We live in a suburb that's named because of its proximity to this temple, and so I decided I'd go for an exploratory walk/jog.  Ozenji shrine is probably 25 minutes walk away, less if you jog, more if you jog and you have a terrible sense of direction like I do.

The main temple building is beautiful, as are all of the surrounding buildings and shrines in the temple grounds.  I walked around the temple grounds and the park that they back onto, and think I have found a nice spot for future walks/jogs.  More photos HERE.

Mount Kumotori climb

This brings me to the most recent update, and probably the last thing I'll do outside of Tokyo for the summer holidays.  I decided to climb a mountain.  I made the decision a couple of weeks ago, and narrowed down my criteria by having a look through the Lonely Planet guide to Hiking in Japan that I picked up off Amazon.

Jason and I visited a couple of outdoors shops to pick up supplies like a torch, a backpack with water bottle built in, a compass and a bell to attach to my pack.  The bell was to warn bears I was coming so I didn't surprise them.  This is something that was a huge novelty to me, and I bought it more for the "just in case" factor than anything else.

Just below the summit of Mount Kumotori is a mountain hut which accepts reservations by email.  I got together my meagre Japanese, and with the help of google translate and very short sentences, sent an email that made sure I had a private room at the hut for the night after my first day's hiking.

Lonely Planet rated this hike "easy-moderate" and a hiking blog gave it a 2 out of 5.  I think moderate would be accurate, and 2 out of 5 doesn't come close.  This was a 2 day, 31 km hike, and I was kind of sure I was ready for it.

To get to the starting point, I caught a limited express train from Ikebukuro to Seibuchichibu, and caught a bus out to Mitsumine Shrine.  The bus from Seibuchichibu was 75 minutes and cost 900 yen.  The bus had a suica/pasmo card reader, so it was all very easy and civilised.  The timetable for the bus can be found here:  http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~kumotori/jikoku.htm.

The day was beautiful, it was clear, sunny and warm.  This was a shot taken from the bus on the way up to the shrine.

I filled up my water bottles, walked around the shrine for a little while, snapped some pics, and then thought I'd better get onto the climbing thing to get to the hut before dark.  I started up the trail at about 10.50.

Okay, not gonna lie, the first day was ROUGH.  Day 1 was a 950m ascent, around 13 km (if I trust Lonely Planet) or 11 km (if I trust the trail markers) and I managed it in just under 5 hours.  Around one hour in I was met with sections of the track that had me scoffing "Hah, don't be ridiculous, that's not the track, that doesn't even...oh"

That being said, I got there, and I even saw a deer!

Ten minutes after I spotted the deer there was a crash out in the nearby forest.....I got out my bear bell and jangled the rest of the way up.  I figured it would be a bummer to get so far and then get mauled half an hour from the end.


I stayed the night at Kumotori Sanso, the mountain hut, and decided to leave the summit climb for the morning.

By this stage, I was absolutely drenched in sweat, coping with a pounding headache that was bordering on a migraine and dying to get my shoes off.  Checking in was pretty simple because I emailed ahead, and I was able to pick up enough of what the hut owner told me to find my room, the toilet, the water station and figure out the schedule for dinner, lights out and breakfast.  Despite reviews to the contrary, the lady running the show was just lovely and really helpful.  7500 yen got me a private room (it was a weekday at the end of summer), and two meals.

I found my room, tried to figure out how to nap on the futon without sweating on everything and prayed the headache would go away before dinner.  It didn't, and by the time 6.00 rolled around, I had the rising nausea of a proper migraine.  Awesome.  Had a few mouthfuls of rice, some miso and a couple of cups of green tea, stalled for time and left the rest of the tray untouched, going back up to bed.

The next morning was much better, the headache had receded to a dull throb, I'd kept my fluids up through the night.  I got up at 4.30, in time to catch the sunrise and then have breakfast, where I ate everything on the tray.

I plotted the route for the day, deciding if I felt up to it that I would follow the Lonely Planet course of 18 km rather than take the shortcut listed on my Japanese map to a bus stop that would take me to Okutama station.  I say shortcut, but it still would have been 4-5 hours of solid hiking.  Then, I made the climb up to the summit!

I look awesome.

Riding on the high of reaching the summit, and with my headache basically gone, I figured I could handle the 18 km, and you know, the first three and a half hours were great.  Mostly downhill, great scenery, cool temperatures.  

I reached what I thought was the halfway point, filled up my water bottles and had a snack.  I realised after another three hours that the halfway point was actually the 3/8th point...doesn't seem like much, but it sure made a difference.

I reached this point and had a mini celebration.  Yeah, I must be almost at the train station!!....the signs on the concrete road soon diverted back down a steep track for another hour and twenty minutes, but I finally reached civilisation, 8 hours after I began the hike.

4 trains and 2 hours later, I was home, where I had the best shower ever.  

If I were to do this again, I would not follow the Lonely Planet trek, it seems like the extra distance tacked on didn't really add to the experience, and the trek didn't give details of where to fill up water either.  Following the Japanese map would have been a better bet, even with barely any kanji knowledge under my belt, as the trails had water stations marked, and gave details of how many buses per day ran from trailheads.

Now I'm at home, walking around with legs that are so stiff and sore they make me walk like Frankenstein's monster, but I'm happy in the knowledge that I did it and got home in one piece.

More (many more) pictures are here: CLICK CLICK

Monster movie effects, monkey business and fertility - July wrap-up

Well doesn't time fly!

I'm on summer holidays right now, and I have been enjoying my time doing absolutely nothing, then I had a gander at how long it's been since the last update.  Oops.  We're still alive, trust me!

Special Effects Exhibit

We went to an exhibition of special effects at the Tokyo Contemporary Museum of Art, it was fantastic.  The whole thing was dedicated to props, costumes and sets from monster movies made in Japan.  Featured in the exhibition were godzilla costumes, various scale models of cityscapes, with exquisite detail, right down to the scrape marks in the concrete powerpoles.  Unfortunately cameras were only allowed in one area, so we went nuts in that area.  After we finished up, we bought the book that had the pictures we weren't allowed to take.

While we were in the exhibition, we watched the premiere of a Studio Ghibli short movie called "A great warrior descends on Tokyo".  It was amazing, and it was all done with no CGI, just old-fashioned effects like explosives, cranes and paint.  Links to the rest of the photos from the exhibition are HERE.

Shortest escalator in the world

We went out to Kawasaki city the following weekend and managed to get three sights seen, pretty good for one day's effort.  Our first stop was at More's department store, which has an escalator in its basement that has been certified by Guinness world records as being the shortest in existence.

We were excited!

It was pretty lame.  Good thing we had other plans for the day to continue with.  Now we can say we've ridden the smallest escalator in the world.



Nakamise Dori

We went a little further out to Kawasaki Daishi to check out the Nakamise Dori shopping street.  This street is famous for its Daruma dolls that bring good luck, and for the hand-made sweets sold in the shops lining the street.  The street has been voted (by who?  I don't know) as one of the best soundscapes in Japan.  This is because of the sound of chopping sweets in the shops, the store owners calling out and people chatting.

We went on a drizzly day, which meant the crowds weren't too horrendous, and yes, the soundscape was lovely.  We sampled lots of lollies before buying fortune cookies, though we couldn't read our fortunes. We actually only just finished the bag of those.  Delicious!

At the end of Nakamise Dori is a temple, and during July there were temple markets being held - mainly selling windchimes.  Windchimes totally aren't my cup of tea, and Jason isn't fond of them either, but the food stalls around the windchime stalls made me heartily HEARTILY regret eating lunch before going to Kawasaki Daishi.

In the temple itself, there was a street performer who had a performing monkey.  I'm pretty reluctant to watch these kinds of acts because I always worry about animal cruelty.  I think this guy treated his monkey pretty well (feels strange to type out that sentence), and the monkey didn't seem unduly worried about any of the goings on.  

With that out of the way, here is a picture of a monkey on stilts:

Honestly my favourite part of that picture is the little girl in the background.

Kawasaki Daishi fertility temple

Feeling thoroughly cultured, we headed back towards Kawasaki Daishi station, for our last stop before we went home.  Our last stop was the Kawasaki Daishi fertility temple.  It was pretty quiet at this time of year, but in spring it is the centre of the annual fertility festival.  

The temple is specifically for prayers about fertility, so couples wanting children will visit to attach a prayer wish for a baby to the shrine.  It was also historically (apparently) a place of protection in years past for prostitutes seeking safety and wellbeing.  It's a nice thought, and the above picture is one of the only ones that we have that is safe for work.

The main centrepiece of the temple is a gigantic black iron phallus, which we both got photos with, because why not.  More photos of the temple, and of the rest of the things at Kawasaki Daishi are here: CLICK HERE CLICK IT CLICK IT.

Onto the everyday...

Jason got some good news; he has been offered a full-time position once his first three month contract is up.  With that, comes annual leave and stability, which is something we're both happy about.

That updates you on the exciting stuff we've been doing.  Other than that, life has been going on as normal.  Working, learning Japanese, paying bills.  I'm thoroughly enjoying having some time off, and have been utilising it by doing not terribly much.  

The heat at the moment is absolutely incredible.  The humidity is something I had always thought people exaggerated about, but no, there is no exaggeration with Japan's humidity.  We don't even get the worst of it living in the Kanto region.  If we were living in Nagoya, I don't even know what we would do.

To combat it, we use the air conditioner liberally (something I would very very rarely do at home, but this is a totally different kettle of fish), and keep all the doors and windows shut.  I just got some block-out curtains today and have put them up, and they are making a big difference to the heat too.

Anyway, until next time!