My Japanese Onsen Experience- tonoshi! demo meccha tabesugi

My next-to-last weekend in Japan I went to Misasa onsen with Ritsuko and Minori. Minori doesn't speak English so I would try to speak my crap Japanese but mostly Ritsuko did a fine job serving as interpreter. Our ryokan (Japanese Inn) was by the river and was absolutely lovely. I'm so glad I got to stay at an onsen before I leave, the service is incredible! I'm gonna miss Japanese customer service, nothing like it. Our first day was very relaxing, which was awesome as it's my last chance to kick back before I go. They had 3 baths and we tried them all, my favorite was the outdoor one. It's on the river but blocked from view by a fence, though you can see over the top of it. There are no buildings on the other side of the river so you're safe, it was fun to look at the sky and soak at the same time, yay. Around town there are a few foot baths that are open to the public so we stuck our feet in those too. Ritsuko had nicely arranged for the ryokan to prepare a vegetarian meal for me and they even asked if I could have egg or fish stock which was nice. They did manage to sneak one shrimp in and the breakfast tofu had fish flakes but all in all that is excellent for Japan- usually they manage to sneak bacon in something if you're not careful, no matter how many questions you ask and explanations you give ("yes, pork really IS meat! and fish IS an animal!").

Anyway, the food was fantastic but ridiculously huge! After we got back from our bath, they had set up our first course (pictured). I said wow this is so much food! Thinking that was all- till I was informed no, this was the cold course, more was to come. The others weren't this big, but I was struggling to finish, but I managed somehow without making myself sick, and it was worth it. The food was beautifully prepared and laid out on the table with decorations and all, we were all taking pictures as we went along. I felt very Japanese- going on vacation to take a bath and "eat delicious food"- and it was awesome! I lost track of how many dishes they brought me for dinner, and of course when I thought it was done there was still dessert which thankfully was just a tiny dango- sweet mochi-rice ball. After that it was off to another bath and then bed. The next morning another bath- surprise surprise- and then breakfast. I don't normally eat breakfast really with my schedule, and eating a big meal at 7:30 in the morning was a challenge but I managed to do it, woohoo! It wasn't anything like dinner but there were still several small dishes and it was beautiful as well.

All in all a fantastic experience. And what a great schedule- bath, dinner, bath, sleep, bath, breakfast. Couldn't get much more relaxing than that! Plus we burned off some of the calories at least on our little mountain climb in the morning.

Oh right have realized maybe not everyone knows the words I've been throwing around-for those who don't know- onsen is a hot spring. In Japan, you first shower and then go into the bath, no bathing suits/clothing allowed, and it is surprisingly comfortable, you're so relaxed you just don't care about anything. Plus everyone is practicing proper onsen etiquette- no staring, even at the gaijin (foreigner) , so that's nice. I love onsen, I want one in my future home.

Our room was gorgeous!

Close up of the 1st course- how lovely! They really know how to showcase your meal at an onsen.

Chotto Risque!

Behind that rickety bamboo screen are naked, wrinkly old men just having a riverside bath. Cultural!

Mitokusan

The next morning we went to Mitokusan, a beautiful temple somehow built on the side of a mountain, I have no idea how they carted all the stuff up there to build it. This year marks the 1300 year anniversary of it's founding- so I'm gonna assume that it's not the original structure. To get here, you have to walk, climb, scramble up the mountain, at times it's neer 90 degrees so you have to use tree roots, ropes, or chains to pull yourself up. My arms were a bit sore the next day. I kept hearing my dad's voice in the back of my head from all those hikes as a kid saying never grab onto trees for balance because they might not be stable- but sorry to say Dad that here you didn't have a choice unless you could dig your nails into the dirt. Not for those with a fear of heights, but the view and the temple are worth it, absolutely gorgeous. Would have been better in cooler weather, was feeling quite gross and sweaty by the time we got back down- those familiar with Japan's humidity know what I'm talking about, yuck. After we finished we went to one of the lower temples and had shyojin ryoori- Japanese vegetarian Buddhist cuisine, and it was delicious. This made for the 3rd big meal in 2 days though and my stomach was not too happy with me. But I figure it will get over it as this is my last chance in awhile to eat shyojin ryoori, mmm mmm!

At a sub-temple near the top of the mountain. This is built on the side of the ridge, so of course the little pathway around the outside has no railing and with a slip you'd go falling straight down. Good times. If you're scared of heights you probably shouldn't go here.

Minori and Ritsuko crawling up the mountain by the tree roots

Matsue weekend

I spent a 3 day weekend in Matsue, a "very countryside" place in western Japan, and it was fabulous. I went with Justin, who along with Lisa used to live here. It was nice to get a different view of what life in Japan can be like, and to have pictures to go along with all the stories I've heard of this place. We had fun sightseeing and hanging out with the local gaijin, some of whom I've met when they've been through Osaka. Here a lot of the gaijin have cars, to my amazement. I think I've been in a car 4 times in Japan, not counting taxi rides, and here I rode in a car every day! And their apartments were huge, we stayed with Andrew, Calvin and Tanya in their 3 bedroom townhouse, this blew my mind, I don't know anyone in Osaka with such a posh place. They even have a little back yard with grass! Craziness. When we were driving around through the countryside I was again amazed at the size of the homes, so big, and I even saw a 2-car garage! My students are always amazed to hear that at my parent's house we have a 3-car garage, they can't fathom that in the city here.

Anyway, we arrived in the afternoon, so had the day to go around Matsue city while everyone was working. We stopped first into the tourist info which is manned by Justin's former students who were very excited to see him, it was cute. Then we rented some bikes and after lunch and pirikura went to Matsue castle. I was in love with my rented bike, it rode so smooth and the brakes actually worked unlike my bike, it was amazing! Justin stopped suddenly right in front of me and I could stop too without running off the road or into him, it was cool. Anyway, the castle is small but nice, its one of the few remaining original castles in Japan. At the top is a great view of the area.

After the castle we took a boat ride around the castle moat and some of the city's canals. It was nice and scenic, beautiful weather. The boat had a tatami mat, so it was shoes off, I love that the boat had tatami! Who would have thought. The quirky part about this boat ride is that there are several low bridges the boat passes under, so the cover lowers down and you have to lean way forward or just lie down, the kids have it easy. Next we rode around the castle some more and then stopped at an old samurai residence and had a mini photo shoot.

Justin gave me a nostalgic tour of the city, going by his old apartment, and pointing out places like "here's where we had Lisa's birthday party" and "Theres the chain that I fell over on my bike!" It was hilarious. After the trip down memory lane, we rode down to the lakeside to watch the sunset and it was beautful. Made me realize a bit more how I miss being around water so much in Seattle, the closest water to me is the dirty Dotonbori river that looks more like a grey canal. yuck. After the sunset we met up with friends for dinner at an izakaya, feeling very dirty and disheveled from our day of riding around in the blazing sun and humidity. All in all a great day and introduction to Matsue.

Collapsing roof on the boat tour.

sunset over Lake Shinji

They have a backyard! With grass! I was amazed so easily in Matsue.

We got to ride in cars!

Day 2- beach and fireworks

Our second day was great fun. Andrew took us to the beach where we met up with Heather. It was ok as far as Japanese beaches go, sandy and big enough, but with plenty of concrete, view of some industrial stuff, and over the hill from a nuclear power plant! It was great to swim though, and play a bit of frisbee. We had an inflatable raft I tried to manuever unsuccessfully, I had to abandon ship and just pull it behind me as I swam to return it to Andrew after I nearly floated over the buoys. Oh well. It was so fun to hang out at the beach, we can't do that too easily in Osaka.

That night was the fireworks festival, so a group of us met up at some other teacher's apartment for pizza and I had to get help getting my yukata tied on. How such things were ever invented I'll never understand, it's way too complicated! After the fireworks I changed back into normal clothes as I didn't have it tied tight enough and was in danger of coming undone. The fireworks were beautiful over lake Shinji, and it was pleasantly not that crowded. Granted, this was the smaller display as the big show is on Sunday night, but if this was in Osaka it would have been absolute madness. And in typical Japanese fashion, as soon as the fireworks finished nearly everyone stood up and headed out, so we enjoyed hanging out by the lake for a bit more before checking out the exciting Matsue nightlife! It was nice though to be able to walk to all of the bars and not worry about a train or anything. There were a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears new JETs in town as well, so we hung out with them. Only in Japan for 3 days! So cute, I remember what I was like my first week :-)

fun times at Kashima beach

Fireworks on Lake Shinji

Day 3

On our last day, Heather drove us to Izumo, along with Hiroshi from her and Justin's karate club. First we stopped at the Shimane winery, where instead of going to a counter where you ask a server for a taste of a specific wine, you serve yourself from a choice of 10 punchbowls of very sweet wine. It's hilarious, you can have as much as you want. Could be potentially very dangerous! Especially on such a hot day- was about 35. We stuck to a few civilized samples and went on our merry way.

Next we went to Izumo Taisha, a famous shrine. Every October, the Gods from all the other shrines come here to hang out and have a meeting, they even have a building for them to stay in. It's also a shrine for marriage, so you pray in a particular way. First bow twice, then clap 4 times- twice for yourself, twice to call your future partner, and then bow once. The grounds of the shrine were nice, and it's surrounded by mountains, quite picturesque. We bought some good luck charms and piled back into the car to go to a nearby lighthouse.

I'm used to taking my shoes off when entering buildings here, and actually quite like walking barefoot around an izakaya, but I thought it was funny that you had to take your shoes off to go into the lighthouse and climb up the narrow spiral staircase. The heat made us pretty lethargic but we made it up, and the view of the Japan sea was lovely.

This was our last sightseeing stop, so we headed back to Matsue station to catch our bus back to Osaka. It was 22 minutes late which was causing us some concern, as this is unheard of in Japan. Usually all transporation can be counted on to leave on the dot, don't know how I'm going to cope when I'm in SE Asia and things don't run like clockwork! But we made it back safe and sound, feeling a bit tired and grumpy from the ride but otherwise ok. So don't want to go back to work! Such a great weekend.

Feeling very hot and tired at the top of the lighthouse with Justin and Heather.

Wino Heaven

A winery that lets you help yourself to as many refills as you want from punchbowls, and they don't even have some indimidating staff person watching, so you're free to have as much as you like. Only in Japan!

Nuclear fallout?...no just the PL fireworks show

At the end of the PL fireworks show in Tondabayashi, the sky lit up like it was a nuclear bomb going off, it was complete insanity, I've never seen anything like it. And immediately afterward, as if a bell had sounded, everyone around us stood up and started heading in a cattle-like herd towards the station.

I went to the festival solo, but luckily when I got there I randomly ran into a group of people I know, so I got to hang out with them instead of feeling like a big loser.

As noted below, PL is the self proclaimed biggest fireworks show in the world, and it is pretty spectacular. Japanese fireworks are just so much cooler than the ones in the US, the variety, the colors, the regional specific ones like Kitty-chan and Doraemon, they're just so awesome. And its so funny to see everyone sitting around complacently sipping beer and following the directions of the police. Being a policeman in Japan seems like it would be the easiest job in the world. One tried half heartedly to get people to stop sitting on a curb before his more authoritative coworker came around, it was quite cute. We ended up sitting with the crowd on the street and watching the fireworks over the hill.

The 4th of July will never live up to the Japanese experience!

Nihon no hanabi wa sugoi des ne!

This is the PL tower- looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. PL stands for point of liberty or something like that. It's a religious cult south of Osaka city that puts on a fantastic fireworks display every Aug. 1. They claim that it's the biggest in the world, with 120,000 fireworks or so. In Japan they tell you in magazines exactly how many fireworks they have! too funny. I've asked students about PL but no one can tell me exactly what they believe, just that they're a cult, and sound a bell every now and then. Close up this tower looks even crazier, ivory colored and with windy bits up the sides and windows in random locations, I don't know how they did it.