Waterfalls and Maruyama Dam

Yesterday was our day off and since it was a sunny day we decided to hop in the car and go to the small town of Yaotsu, which is just across the Kiso river from Kani. I have a student who lives there and so I was looking at the town’s website the other day and became intrigued by pictures of a giant dam and some beautiful waterfalls (Yaotsu is also famous as being the birthplace of the “Japanese Schindler”. He managed to give visas to hundreds of Jews in order for them to escape to Japan and then after the war, to the U.S. The town is very proud of this man and there is a big memorial park and museum about him but we didn’t go there yet.) Once we got across the river it felt like we were in a town that time forgot. Everything was old and run-down and looked stuck in the past, but not in a touristy way like Mino city. The mountains suddenly became much bigger and steeper than just 20 minutes away where we live. We took a couple of wrong turns but eventually got to a lookout point to view the river and the big dam. We ate our lunches we had bought at the convenience store and tried to decipher the informational plaques for visitors. It looks like they are going to be constructing a new dam which will raise the water level almost 20 feet. That means that some of the small narrow roads that we were driving on just minutes before will be flooded. You can see a lot of construction around there of new roads. The river and soaring mountain scenery was great and it was fun to watch all the hawks flying around and fighting mid-air with the crows.
We wanted to find a way to drive down closer to the river but I think the road doesn’t open until May, so we will have to go back. We decided to then try and find the waterfalls. We had to go back into the small center of town where there was a big city map. We figured out where to go and then set out. Unfortunately, we took another wrong turn and started driving up a steep mountain road that just kept going up and up and up! Eventually we pulled off at a lookout point, checked the map and realized that we were now on a mountain road that goes to another town. So we headed back down after taking some breathtaking pictures of the town below.
We found where we made the mistake and finally arrived at the waterfall parking lot. This little walking trail that follows a mountain stream is littered with waterfalls, and I have to say this was the most impressive and beautiful collection of waterfalls I have ever seen. Let me put it this way, when you see Japanese gardens where they have purposely arranged all the rocks and created an artificial waterfall, they are trying to emulate something like this area of Yaotsu. There is a legend that a famous samurai swordsman in the 1500s used to come here to meditate and practice his swordsmanship.
There was sign that said there were snakes in the area but we didn’t see any. It was probably still too cold. This was definitely a place we will go again and it was amazing to think it is only a short drive away. After we came home we decided to finally go downstairs in our building to try out this Japanese restaurant we are always smelling. It was really, really small and we really couldn’t read the menu at all. Luckily there were some sets called omakase where you choose which dollar amount and they make whatever small courses the chef wants to make. We ended up having a 10 course meal that was outstanding and we got to watch the chef as he quickly and deftly prepared raw fish and artfully created dishes using pieces of bamboo and leaves and other natural décor. That meal back in the States would have been astronomically expensive, if you could even find a Japanese restaurant that made dishes like that. I think the chef was concerned about whether or not we could eat raw fish so they asked us and I assured him it was okay. Also, I was excited that this place served real wasabi. It was the first time I had ever eaten it and I actually didn’t mind it! I hate the usual fake stuff you find in most restaurants.
Well, please check out the pictures of Yaotsu and our meal.

Driving in Japan

Since I have started driving in Japan, I thought I would write a blog about what it is like. First of all, my company car is a small Daihatsu (600cc) with “Let’s English” advertised all over it. The back seats are so small that only small people can fit back there and even then you wouldn’t want to ride back there for too long.

In Japan one drives on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is generally on the right-hand side (although it is not uncommon to see a car with the steering wheel on the left because it is seen as trendy to buy European cars direct from Europe where they drive on the right). That was strange at first and I had to keep saying to myself, “Stay on the left! Stay on the left!”. But it becomes second nature pretty quickly. The roads around here can be very narrow, but are still two-way roads. Sometimes you just have to stop and get over as far as you can and let the other person pass. You do have to be careful not to do a nose dive into a rice paddy seeing as there are no guard rails. There are lots and lots of reflecting mirrors which are essential considering all of the blind curves and intersections.

One feature that I really love about driving here is that when you are sitting in the intersection at a signal waiting to make a right-hand turn (same kind as a left-hand turn in the US) there is a clear mark on the road that shows where to stop before turning and then if there is so much traffic that you can’t turn until the light turns yellow or red, there is then a green turn arrow that allows several cars to go ahead and make the turn. It eliminates backed up traffic and the apprehension of getting stuck out in the middle of the intersection.

The speed limits are a little lower than back in the US. Main city streets are 40 km/hr (25 mph). Highways are either 70 or 80 km/hr (45-50 mph). But one thing that is the same as back home is the number of people who tailgate and speed. I guess once people get behind the wheel of a car they tend to become impatient the world over!

Generally speaking driving here is easy and the roads are so well marked with freshly painted lines, many reflectors for night driving, signs in English and Japanese, and no pot holes. Speaking of pot holes, I mentioned the term to some of my high level students and not only had they never heard the word “pot hole” they had never even heard of the concept! They couldn’t understand why or how a road would just start to fall apart! Japan puts a lot of tax dollars into the roads, so they are very well maintained. (interestingly, I looked up “pot hole” in my Japanese dictionary and the Japanese word is “ana”)

Many Japanese highways are toll roads. And it doesn’t come cheap. I guess that’s another reason the roads are well maintained. They collect massive tolls! Damien and I recently drove to a town about an hour away on the highway and it cost US$22.00 one way! Gas is also expensive (125 Yen per liter. I can’t get my head around all the conversions it takes to figure out what that is in dollars per gallon!) But my car in Japan is about half the capacity as my Honda Civic was in the US, but it costs more to fill my car here. And pumping gas is really easy. Just lift the nozzle, push a button, pump and go inside to pay. They don’t use credit cards much in Japan so there is no such thing as paying at the pump. Of course there isn’t much crime either so people don’t abuse the system.

We try not to rely on the car too much and walk or take the train if we can, but it is nice to have a car in a city like Kani because there are times when we want to buy something large or want to go somewhere that is inaccessible by public transport.

Eventually, Damien and I will have to get regular Japanese driver’s licenses. Australians can just get one based on the validity of their Australian one. But American’s can’t (because America doesn’t recognize foreign licenses), so I will have to pay to take driving lesson and then pay to take driving tests. My co-worker from South Africa just had to do that because South Africans are in the same boat as Americans. She had to take the test three times before they passed her!!

Mountains!!

Today was an amazingly perfect weather day. We didn't have any plans, but knew we had to take advantage of it somehow. The sky was clear and blue and the temperature was just right. We decided to go try to find a small whole foods/organic store in a neighboring town that we had found on the Internet. It was way out in the boonies but the drive was amazing and it allowed me to see snow covered mountains that I hadn't seen before because the air hadn't been so clear. Unfortunately, when we finally found it, it was closed on Sundays!! Oh well, the drive was beautiful and now we know how to get there.
Now it was lunch time and though we planned on making something at home we easily persuaded ourselves to go check out the local noodle joint. Our boss, Keith, introduced us briefly to the self-professed "soba master" on our first night here but had yet to eat his noodles. He runs a shop,it is literally 2 metal shipping containers stuck together! The noodles were excellent and the soba master was eager to practice his English a bit. We felt a little guilty about going out to eat since we had gone out last night to a Chinese restaurant with Shayne and Rory (our co-workers from South Africa) which is owned by one of our students. But both places had great food!!
After lunch we were looking out over the town from the top of our building and Damien pointed to a nearby hill and said that he wanted to go there and see if we could hike up it. I was a little dubious since we had never been there and didn't even know if there were hiking trails. But I went with his suggestion and off we went. It was only about a 10 minute drive and low behold there was a parking lot and a hiking map! It was a magically beautiful hike through aromatic hinoki cypress forest, and tons of colorful flowers. We heard strange birds and saw a lot of cute little brown lizards. There were many people out having picnics but it wasn't overly crowded at all. We hiked around, stopping at sweeping mountain vistas and old forest temples. We followed a beautiful Japanese garden with cherry trees and waterfalls down back to our car and there we noticed a little cafe. We thought it would be nice to end our day with a nice coffee and a cake. The cafe was extraordinarily quaint with pottery everywhere and a very strong Japanese aesthetic. Inside there were nice pieces of pottery for sale. I asked if they were made there and an older woman said yes, her husband is a professional potter and pottery teacher and behind the cafe is their house and his studio which has old, outdoor wood fired kilns. The pottery was expensive so we will have to wait to buy a piece, but it goes right along with our pottery collecting ideal of buying pottery directly from the artist.
We couldn't believe such an oasis is only a short drive away. We will definitely be going there again whenever we need to "get away".
(I have also posted some pictures of things that I can see from the front window of our apartment, as well as some pics of the recent meals we have been cooking. You have to check out the teeth on the fish I cooked yesterday!! I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley!)

Mino - Paper City

I mentioned in my last blog that we bought an old Japanese scroll that was ripped a little at the top. In order to fix it we asked around to find out where we could buy washi (Japanese paper). Everyone said, "Oh, go to Mino city, they are famous for washi!". I looked it up on the internet and found out that Mino has been a paper making city since the 700s. I guess they probably have pretty good paper there! It was about an hour by train into the mountains. The town was obviously old and small and quaint and probably doesn't see many Western faces as we got a lot of stares. The town has a large area where most of the houses and buildings are from the Edo era (1600s-mid 1800s). The main architectual feature they are known for are the udatsu. These are large ornate firewalls that helped to protect against the spread of fire from house to house. They were also a way for families to show off their weath and status. There are many paper shops, although the number of families still making paper has dwindled to around 30. One of the old houses is now a musuem and it was amazing. A rambling complex of elegant tatami rooms, old kitchens, Japanese gardens, centuries old storage buildings and sliding doors. We also sort of toured a sake brewery that went back and back and back full of nooks and crannies. I say sort of because apparently they just let anyone in that wants to go look. It was a real working brewery that looked 100s of years old.
There just happened to be a festival this weekend. It was a very local festival where each of the 6 surrounding towns bring in their special float and parade it around the town and then gather for a big celebration at the shrine. We kind of felt out of place. But everyone was friendly. We were stopped on the street in the morning by this cute old guy and we were talking with him for a bit in my meager Japanese. We saw him later in the afternoon at the shrine and he came over and we talked some more. He was enamoured with Damien's facial hair and kept saying how cool it was! I asked him if he spoke English and he said he was 72 years and too old to learn. We talked with an older couple in the sushi restaurant we had lunch in too. I have cetainly gotten to practice my Japanese this weekend!
We walked down by the big river and saw an old lighthouse from the 1700s. We ended by going through a paper lantern musuem and then finally buying our washi paper. We were exhausted by the afternoon and headed back to the station. The station was just a big delapidated wooden building with cats everywhere. I assume they are train savvy!

I also want to let you know that Flickr now allows videos so I have posted one from Mino City and a few others from the past couple of weeks. We will start taking more videos from now on.

Festival!!!!

This past Sunday Damien and I went to the annual Inuyama spring festival. Inuyama was the town we went to with Jeremy that has a small original castle. The festival was wonderful. The main attractions were 13 floats that are moved around the city streets. These floats are three tiered, made of wood and lacquer and some of them are centuries old. In fact, this festival has been going on since 1650. One thing that sets these floats apart from other cities' floats are karakuri. Karakuri are large marionettes (also very old) that are partly automated and partly controlled by people on the second story of the float. They do a little performance for the crowd before being moved down the street. The floats themselves are very tall and very heavy. When the crew of about 10-20 men lift it up to turn it around, your breath stops! The whole thing looks like it is going to fall apart! And the first level of it is filled with children playing drums and other people playing flutes. But then they are successful in turning it or moving it a little and everyone on the street claps and cheers.
At night the floats are covered with 365 lanterns each. Believe it or not each paper lantern has a candle in it with a real flame. So let me explain this again, century-old, wooden, floats, covered in flammable lacquer paint and filled with children are covered with hundreds of tiny fires and pushed and pulled around by a bunch of guys through narrow streets lined with power lines. Oh, did I mention the floats are are followed by 2-3 support staff pushing giant coolers full of beer for the pushing crew? At one point one of the lanterns caught on fire and it was thrown off into the street!! But amazingly nothing bad happens and everyone has a good time.
I have to mention the food we had! We love Japanese festival food: the tastes, the smells, the sounds of the vendors saying, "irashaimase!" with cigarettes dangling precariously from their mouths. Here is a rundown of what we had: grilled squid on a stick, takoyaki (dough balls filled with octopus), okonomiyaki (pork and cabbage pancake), taiyaki (grilled cake filled with sweet bean paste or custard), chijimi (spicy Korean kimchi pancake), choco-banana, candied strawberry, grilled chicken on a stick and a honey and cream crepe. We were stuffed!!!
The other highlights of the festival were the cherry blossoms that were falling on the crowd like snow and the small Japanese flea market we found where we bought a 90 year old hand-painted wall scroll. It is not in the best condition so we didn't pay what it would be worth in better shape. But it is beautiful and I have always wanted to buy one. I will post a picture of it when we put it up.