Oh the places I've been...

Sorry it's been a while... I've been busy traveling around Japan. I have now been to all four major islands of Japan. Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kuyshu. I figure I am doing pretty good in my Japan travels. The last week of March and first week of April our school had our spring break. I have two different friends come to visit from the states during this time. I am now a certified tour guide... The first week my friend Nathan came to visit. Here are some pictures of his visit. 

Endoshima 

 Endoshima

Tokyo Tower 

The first week Nathan we here I was in work still so we made a few little trips near Yokohama. We visited Endoshima and Tokyo Tower. The next week I was off of school so we traveled to Nagano and Yudanaka to visit the snow monkeys. After Nagano we took a Shinkansen to Nikko. Nikko was pretty cool. The temples were awesome and so was Lake Chuzenji.

 The original hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys. 

This trip was really fun. We got to see a lot of history, a cool lake, two waterfalls, and to top it off we found the best fish hatchery ever.
Once we got back to Yokohama we went to a garden to see if the cherry blossoms had started.

There were a few blossoms but most were still not opened up. The next day we went to Lake Ashi and Odawara Castle. 

Overall this was a great trip with Nathan. We saw some really old things and some really amazing views. 

Hakuba Snowshoeing

 This last weekend I went with a group of co-workers to Hakuba. Hakuba is an hour and a half outside of Nagano Japan in the Japanese Alps. We left rainy Yokohama on Friday after school and took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagano. We spent the night in Nagano near the station and headed out early the next morning for Hakuba. Once we were in Hakuba we checked into the hotel and set out on our first adventure. We headed out from the hotel to Iwatake Ski Resort. The trail was well marked as many snowshoers had been there before us. We hiked around and had a snack break of hot coco and maple cookies. After that we continued our trek through the snow covered wilderness. We stumbled across some interesting tracks in the snow... The two ladies I was with were convinced that it was a bear... I voted rabbit... they asked the patrol guy once we got back, and he confirmed my rabbit vote. While we were hiking the clouds lifted a bit and gave us an amazing view of the valley bellow. 

After our hike we asked another person skiing by and asked her to take our picture. One of the ladies we were with tripped over her snowshoes and fell, and the lady taking our picture was awesome and kept on taking pictures. It made my day. After our hike we ate lunch at the ski resort at the top of the hill and then rode the gondola back down the hill. After we got back to town we found a lovely coffee shop and had coffee and played cards for a bit until everyone else was done skiing. While we were walking around we saw a bunch of people with snowshoes walking around, so we asked where they had gone. They were very nice and gave us a map and verbal directions on how to get to the start of the trek. So we were very excited to have a plan for the next day. 

The next day we took the Tsugike Kogen Gondola to the start of the trail at about 5,200 feet. Basically we were traversing up an old ski route. The upper lifts are shut down for some reason. The traverse was relatively simple but took us a while. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, which really made the mountains stand out. By the end of the hike I was down to a t-shirt and my snow pants. I also got a pretty awesome sunburn. Near the top of our hike the area is normally a marsh land so there are relatively few trees. But it made for great hiking and great pictures. From the start of the hike to the top of the hill took us about 3 hours and we climbed 1,112 feet. 

We ended up at the summit of out little hill (6,289 ft) with great views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. We hung out near the top for a while and ate onigiri (rice balls) for lunch and had tea. Once we ate lunch we made our way down the hill and back to the gondola. It only took us about one hour to make it down the hill, mainly due to some creative trail making down the hill. I had a really cool app running on my phone the whole time which tracked our hike. Overall it was a great trip, it's always great to get outside and play in the snow. 

Here is a link to my Trail Map I created. 

Hokkaido Ski Trip

On Saturday I left with a group of 9 teachers from Yokohama and flew up to Hokkaido for Ski Break. It was crazy in the airport I didn't have to take off my shoes through security. I never even showed ID to get on the plane. It was great to just get my boarding pass and get on the plane. We flew into Sapporo and took a bus from Sapporo to Niseko. It was only an hour and a half flight and a two hour bus ride. Once in Niseko we got into our cabin and a small group of us quickly set out for some snowshoeing. It was great to get out into the snow. We went for about a two hour snowshoe trek in the hills near Niseko. There was tons of lovely powder as we hiked around. We walked up a hill, had some tea, and then on the way down the Nepalese guide, Basant, had us "sled" down a steep part of the trail. I suggested the use of plastic bags to make the sledding a little more fun. 

The next day we got up and had breakfast all together, then most of the teachers took the 5 minute walk to the ski slope, while two of us went snowshoeing. This day's trek took us along a lovely river. It was snowing quite heavily most of the day, which made for some good pictures. As we were shoeing along we got to see numerous "River Mushrooms", or rocks covered in snow. It was beautiful! We didn't do any sliding this trek, but we did make some snow angels. After snowshoeing for three hours I decided to go snowboarding, needless to say I was a little sore. But the -30 C and near zero visibility didn't really help. But the powder was amazing. 

On Monday, Elif and I convinced a larger group of people to go snowshoeing with us. We walked near a temple and the up behind a ski hill for some spectacular views. We found a cool snow cliff, and decided it would be fun to jump off, it makes it more fun when there is about 20 feet of snow and 5 feet of powder. We spent quite a bit of time jumping off into the snow. After that we continued up and around to the top of the ski hill. Once there we stopped for a bit of tea. After our tea Basant asked if we wanted to slide down a or walk down part of the hill. Most of us decided to slide. He then pulled up two plastic bags, he was really excited to see how they would work. After one slide he said that the plastic bags were the best thing EVER! So we continued to take turns sliding down the hill. We continued down the hill back to the van. 

After snowshoeing Elif and I played with some squishy mud and did some pottery at the hotel. It was nice to do pottery, I haven't played with squishy mud in a while. Elif made some lovely garden markers for her herbs and I made a cool mug and some other little cups. The people at the hotel will glaze and fire them, and then send them to us in Yokohama. It was nice to have a little down time for arts and crafts. 

The next day we had even more people that went snowshoeing with us...Elif and I are very good sales people. On this trek we started out near a large boiling sulfur spring. Then we hiked up to another sulfur spring. We of course enjoyed sliding down some hills and having tea time. We also had a snowshoe sprint. I won... After we snowshoed we went to a Sulfur Onsen near the trailhead. The Onsen was awesome. It was all outdoors and had four baths and a mud bath, with warm squishy mud at the bottom.  It was a great way to end a great four day weekend. The only down fall was that I kinda smelled like sulfur the rest of the day. This was a great trip I got to bring plastic bag sliding to Japan, and snowshoe through some of Japan's wonderful wilderness. 

Here is a video of the snowshoeing and sliding in Hokkaido: 

I'm still alive...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, life has been busy... I just finished coaching middle school girls futsal, which is basically small sided soccer. It was fun to coach a sport where I actually knew what was going on.... better than tennis. At the last game we played there was still some left over snow from a few days ago in Tokyo, so one of the girls made me a snowman, as thanks for a great season. The next sport I will be coaching will be track and field. There is no javelin, but I will be able to coach most of the field events. I've already had a lot of students express their excitement for track, so I am looking forward to a great season. 

Last weekend (Sunday) I decided I needed to get out of the city and walk with dirt under my feet. So I looked up a hiking spot in a book and went. It was a little cloudy and there ended up being a lot of snow on the mountain. But a nice old man befriended me and became my hiking guide about half way through the hike. He lives in Yokohama and has invited me to go hiking again. After the hike I took him out to lunch to thank him for his time. It's always great to find random people to talk with. 

After the hike I went to a cool castle in Odawara. There were a lot of really cool displays of swards, armor, and other old things. Overall it was a nice chance to get out of town for the day. I love that in Japan I can get on a train for an hour and be in a completely different part of Japan. I can go from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo to the solitude of a mountain top in a few hours. Next week I will be going up north to Hokkaido for about four days with a group of teachers from school. We have our Ski Break so I will be snowboarding and snowshoeing and getting more of my outdoor fix. 

Nagano Adventures

 After returning from the states I decided to take another mini vacation to the Nagano Area. I started out visiting a big temple in Nagano, the Zenkoji Temple was packed with people visiting the Temple for the new year. This was one of the coolest statues ever. It had what looked like tar dripping from it's mouth. There were so many people that I somehow got into line to go into the temple. It was pretty big, but there were tons of people. So I made my way to the exit and walked around the temple and through the garden. After visiting the temple I made my way back to the station and to Yudanaka. 



Yudanaka is a small town of countless Onsens. There are a lot of active hot springs so there are public baths almost on ever corner. After checking into the Ryokan (Hotel) I walked around town to see what was there. I found a lovely sushi restaurant near the Ryokan. After I returned to the Ryokan the owner demonstrated Kyudo, which is Japanese Archery. There is a whole routine that must be done before the arrow can be released. It was pretty awesome to watch. After he demonstrated everyone had an opportunity to try shooting. 

The next day the owner of the Ryokan dropped a small group of us off at the Snow Monkey Park. Walking up the hill to the Monkeys I spotted what I thought was a pair of wild boar. They turned out to be Japanese Antelopes (Serow). Walking up to the park we started to see monkeys! The Owner of the Ryokan had told us that 60 years ago the monkeys did not sit in the hot spring. That was until one very smart monkey fell into the hot spring and realized it was very comfortable. She taught the other monkeys in her troop to sit and relax in the onsen. Once her troop was using the onsen, the other monkey troops started doing the same thing. Now more than 200 monkeys use the onsen.   
After visiting the Monkey Park I decided to walk bak to town (about 4 miles). It was great walking in the snow and listening the the river as we both meandered towards town. Once I returned to town I was a little cold so I stopped and had an Onsen of my own. It was like a little hot tub. When I got to the Ryokan I asked the owner if I could try shooting a little more. He spent about two hours teaching me the art of Kyudo. It reminded me a lot of javelin. There is a lot of things happening at once and it takes a degree of coordination, strength, and mental toughness. There are about six steps from holding the bow in front of you, raising it into the air, moving to a forward, expanding (drawing back), releasing, and continuing to expand. I really appreciated the time that the owner spent to teach me Kyudo. He said I did a good job and encouraged me to look for a Kyudo dojo so I can continue to lear Kyudo in Yokohama. After shooting I went to find some dinner. As I sat down to eat an old couple asked if I was by myself, I said yes, and they invited me to eat with them. They shared their food (horse sashimi and all) and sake... The lady at the next table over served as translator, and we all had a great time. At the end if the meal the older man would not let me pay... It was great food and great company... this is one of the many reasons why I love Japan!

On my way back to Nagano I stopped by the small town of Obuse. Home of the famous painter Hokusai. Known for his painting of The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. I visited the Hokusai Art Museum and a few temples. One temple I visited had a large mural painted on the ceiling by Hokusai. The Ganshoin Temple is not only known for it's mural, but also the battle of the frogs. In a pond behind the temple hundreds of frogs gather in spring. The male frogs duke it out for a mate. A famous poet wrote a poem about the Battle of the Frogs. 

Skinny feeble frog, 

don't be defeated. 

I stand on your side.

Overall the trip was a great, I got to see monkeys, shoot arrows, and see beautiful art. I look forward to visiting the Nagano area again. 

Here's to 2012...

Happy New Year everyone! I had a wonderful holiday home with my family in Oregon then came back to Japan in time to ring in the New Year. Yokohama put on some great New Year's fireworks near Minato Mirai. 2011 has been a year of dependence and change... Dependence on God to direct a change in my life. Who would have thought that in a year I would go from Sweet Home Oregon to Yokohama Japan... 

The verse of 2011 was Hebrews 11:1, the verse of 2012 is Jeremiah 10:23. Here's to another great year full of adventures! Hope you all have great New Year!