Our Weekend Travels

September 18, 2014

                This past weekend, Adam and I headed to Gifu city on Saturday.  The trip only takes about 20-25 minutes.  When we first arrived we walked down to the river where they do the cormorant fishing to make our reservation for the evening.  The heat and the hour long walk required us to take a break, conveniently, outside the waiting room for the cormorant fishing where they had free wifi!  Then, we headed to hike up to the Gifu castle.  There’s a beautiful park at the bottom of the mountain and it took us a while to find the path we wanted to take up the mountain.  

Finally, we got on the right track to the “Horseback climbing route.”  We decided on this route because it looked like the most direct path, and believe me it was!  It went straight up the mountain.  Most of the time I was using my hands to climb it was so steep!  This made me think that the reason for calling it "Horseback Climbing Route" is because people look like horses going up on all fours.  What was really crazy is that we saw people coming down this way, and I’m not sure how you’d manage that without hiking poles.  I’d call it the “Grouse Grind” of Gifu Castle.

 

                We reached the top and were rewarded with a view of the entire surrounding city/countryside/mountains.  I don’t think it would have been as rewarding had we not climbed the mountain and taken the gondola instead.  We ate our picnic and then checked out the castle.  It was much like the Ogaki castle with some history, samurai armour, weapons, pottery shards, pictures of Daymio lords, etc.  Tired, we decided to head back down and on our way we discovered a restaurant right beside the gondola.  The top of this restaurant had an even better view than the castle since there were less people and no safety bars in the way.  

                After this, we discovered the coolest thing ever!!!  Squirrel World!  Renamed by us from the original Squirrel Village, this tourist attraction is one that the whole family can enjoy.  Basically it’s this area/cage that you can go into for $2 and there’s a bunch of squirrels running amuck (as well as one chipmunk and one rabbit kept in separate cages).  The squirrels were slightly bigger than Canadian ones, but really nothing special.  They give you a glove to wear so that you can try and get a squirrel to sit on your hand (you can’t pet them).  I saw one little 2-3 years old running after this squirrel putting his hand on the ground in hopes that the squirrel would come sit on his hand.  The squirrel would run away, he would follow and repeat.  In any case, Adam and I thought this was pretty funny, and not worth the 200 yen when you can see squirrels everywhere in Canada, but it was worth the laugh.  We headed back down the mountain taking the “Seven-turn climbing route" which was a nice gradual decline.

                                                 

                That evening, we went to see the “Cormorant Fishing.”  It’s pretty cool and has been going on for the past 1300 years.  We decided that it’s a Japanese version of a dinner theatre.  What happens is that there’s these cormorant fishing masters in a boat with about 8 cormorant birds on leashes swimming alongside the boat.  They have a wire basket that they keep feeding with pine wood covered in oil that creates a fire to attract the fish.   Once a cormorant catches a fish, the fishing master pulls it out of the water and gets the fish out of its mouth.  They get the birds to fish for them!  We got to see 6 of the fishing masters, and there’s not too many left as you have to be born into this "art" and years back it almost became extinct until it came under the protection of the Imperial Household Agency.  

                                      

These are the fish that the cormorant catches, they're pretty small and you can buy them at the gift shop.

            We began our cormorant fishing experience by being taken out on a boat and given time to eat supper (we didn’t know that there would be time for supper).  Then, they shoot off a few fireworks to signal the beginning of the cormorant fishing.  Each viewing boat gets to go along side one cormorant fishing boat, so you get to see it pretty close.  In any case, it was a neat experience.

                                 

                                                

                On Sunday, we decided that the hiking from the previous day hadn’t tired us out enough.  After our Japanese class and Mass, we headed out on our bicycles into the Tarui countryside to climb another mountain.  This was yet another stair master as there were actual stairs the whole way up.  At the top we were rewarded with a beautiful view and binocular stand that was free. 

                                 

                Monday, we were tired and decided to head to the beach on Lake Biwa by going to Nagahama.  We get off the train and ask at the visitor information about a place to swim (with actions of course), to which she replies with actions that there is no swimming.  We don’t believe her, and figure we just find the lake and there’ll be beaches.  Well we found the lake, and we found some sand by the lake, but for being the largest fresh water lake in Japan it sure is dirty, at least where we were.  We still made the most of our day by walking around checking out different shops, a giant kaleidoscope that’s randomly in the middle of a flea market, some temples, the castle, and a park by the lake. 

                               

                This week, I started my training in a private English school.  I basically just observed the teachers teaching.  The classes are between 2-5 children and everything is a game where they get these chips as points.  Then, at the end they count them up and whoever with the most wins.  There is a lot of memorization with flashcards that are associated with common questions or sayings.  They also do phonics and some reading.  I think it will be fun to be with the kids.  For the most part, the kids were very well behaved.  The one thing I’ll have to get used to is kneeling on the floor with my bum on my feet.  The other day when I was getting up to switch classes after only 30 minutes, I felt like such an old lady all stiff in the joints. :P The classes are entirely in English and it doesn’t seem like I should have too much trouble without knowing any Japanese. 

   

September 21, 2014

                                     

                We’ve had another adventuresome weekend.  We’re trying to get quite a bit of travelling in while the weather is still nice and Adam doesn’t have to work on Saturdays.  On Saturday, we decided to go to Hikone.  Originally, we had wanted to go to the ocean to go swimming, but train travel in Japan is costly, especially when there is two of us.  I don’t know if it is more expensive than Europe or not.  When I was in France, I got a discount with my under 25 card, and then the euro is worth more, so it’s hard to say.  In any case, we decided on Hikone which is only about 30 minutes away.  It’s a beautiful city right on Lake Biwa with a castle.  This castle was an original construction and not a rebuild like most of them.  However, there still wasn’t too much to see on the inside of the castle but it was cool to see wooden floors and everything.  Going into the castle you have to take off your shoes because of the wooden floors, Adam thought it was funny how many Japanese people passed us taking off their shoes much more quickly than us.  (I'm pretty sure the majority of the shoes they sell here are made for easy slip on/slip off.)  The grounds of the castle were exceptionally beautiful.  We saw a plum orchard and garden.  It’s neat going to a real “Japanese garden” and not the Canadian or French version. 

                          

                                             

                              

   

             We set off and checked out the old part of town, then wandered down by a creek that led into Lake Biwa.  Our plan was to try and find the swimming area in Hikone for future reference.  After walking for a long time and stopping at a grocery store which had a Starbucks next to it (Greg we thought of you), we finally made it to the beach.  This time the lake looked much cleaner.  

          That evening we had plans to go to this insect festival.  The Japanese want to preserve the listening to insects at night and have a festival for these insects.  (Sitting in the living room now, I can hear plenty of insects loud and clear from outside.)  We were told that at the festical they had music that played along with the insects and that you got tea and cake.  The festival was in the castle gardens that we visited earlier in the day and we show up early, going through a gate and walking through the garden.  It seemed odd that the garden was completely deserted except for two ladies sitting at a table looking like they were going to sell something.  So, we asked if they sold tickets for the festival. They said, "No." We continued on to the other gate.  When we got there we met a group of men in red and one very kindly opened a gate for us to get out of the park.  We tried asking again about tickets and they just told us to come back at 6:30pm.  Although it seems like you have to show up early in Japan, or else you’re late, some things only start right on time.  So we wait outside eating our leftover lunch.  Once we get in we’re given a paper lantern with a flashlight that hangs inside.

                                                  

  It’s really beautiful seeing all these lanterns bobbing around the park as people carry them around.  I was hoping that we could keep the lantern, but alas we could not.  We made our way slowly over to the sitting area and plunked ourselves down.  We thought that we had gotten front row seats for the music.  As it turns out, we were seated in the restaurant area and the food was not complementary with the festival ticket.  We’re sitting there and sitting.  We’re wondering how other people are getting food and if the waiters just haven’t noticed us.  We see people eat, then leave and more people come in.  Finally, we figure that you have to buy tickets for this food.  So after wondering if one of us should ask about the food, if you can wave down a waiter (who are dressed in traditional attire), or if we should just go and ask the two ladies selling tickets at the table, I get up and head over to these ladies.  Keep in mind that these are the same ladies who saw us wander through the garden half an hour before it opened, now saw us sit in the restaurant area for half an hour waiting for the show to start, and now approaching them to ask the pivotal question, “Ikura desuka?”  (How much is it?)  “500” she says in perfect English.  I say thank you, go tell Adam and we both get up and leave.  They’re both very kind to us as we walk away.    

                                          

                Earlier, I had heard something that sounded like the tuning of flutes and I thought that meant that they were getting ready to play music.  As it turns out, that sound of tuning continued, and as we made our way back through the garden we found five men playing what looked like two wooden flutes, 2 piccalos, and some kind of panflute that sounded like an organ.  We listened and watched for a bit, and it sounded terrible.  Or at least, we haven’t developed a taste for that kind of music.  I guess what do you expect when they’re playing along to the insects which also don’t sound so great.  It’s interesting that they want to preserve hearing these insects on a summer/autumn night.  

September 24, 2014

                Apparently, you can tell what season and even what month it is in Japan just by what flowers are blooming.  Since we’ve arrived these red flowers have sprung up in masses everywhere!  They’re beautiful and grow out of any little cranny that they can.

                                                

                On Sunday, after going to our Japanese class and English Mass we went to a festival in Tarui with the other English speakers.  Adam was quite the celebrity with his junior high students saying, “Hello.” to him every few feet.  The food here was cheaper than the previous festival and a lot better.  

                              

They have some games set up for kids.  At one game, you pay some money and get this little net to catch minnows with.  The catch is that the net disintegrates the longer that it’s in the water and if you move it too quickly, so you need to try and catch the minnows before that happens.  As we were with a group of people with kids, they tried it.  There were other games where you get to take a scoop and see how many toys you get, etc.  They had a parade down the street with people dressed as Samurai and in other traditional garb.  The festival was to celebrate how this road let between Kyoto and Edo (now Tokyo).  

                                

Once it was dark, we got to see the drum playing and some traditional women dances. 

                                                                         

                Monday, I decided to try and research some other schools around the area and while I was looking for work, I got a phone call from a lady wanting private lessons.  Interesting how God provides.  I was thinking too how hard it was for me to find work in Calgary and here, although it’s not a lot of work, things are still falling into place relatively quickly.  I also had my first “real” class at the English school.  I had four boys and was happy that they were a bit older (around 8) and more respectful than the other 6 year olds I’d observed as it was my first class and my transitions weren’t as smooth or as quick as the other teachers'. 

                Tuesday was another holiday and so we went to Inuyama.  Although it’s only about 50 km away it took a while to get there as we had two train transfers.  Inuyama is a fairly touristy town.  We decided to first go to the Monkey Centre.  We weren’t sure what to expect for 600 yen, but it was well worth it.  First, we sat and ate our lunch before exploring.  It’s basically a zoo of monkeys from all over the world.  What’s neat though is the different “cages” that they have for them.  Some of them you can go into the enclosure and get really close to them, and it’s very natural.  Others, they can cross over bridges above our heads, some are traditional zoo cages and some not so humane looking cages.  All in all it was actually a fairly large place and took us quite a while to go through. 

 Next we headed to the castle.  We decided not to go in this time as we doubted that it would be much different than the other three castles we’ve been to and we don’t know enough about the history to really understand how pivotal each of these castles was in certain battles.  We walked through the old part of town which wasn’t as impressive as Nagahama and then headed back.  We missed out on a couple of the other tourist attractions, so we may go back.  On the way home we went to the import store in Ogaki to stock up on peanut butter and coconut milk.  It’s interesting how much of this stuff we go through, but maybe when it’s accessible we don’t realize how much we normally use.

Towns have intricate man-holes and some are even painted.  This one is from Inuyama where they have Cormorant Fising and the Castle.