keep an eye on this blog.

I have a few posts to publish about the last weeks of my life in Japan...so keep checking the blog over the next couple of weeks. There are some really good posts, I promise!

Spectacular Shirakawa-go

Where: Takayama & Shirakawa-go

When: May 18-19, 2008

Info: Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Gifu Prefecture. It's a collection of Gassho-zukuri buildings. Gassho-zukuri means 'clasped hands' and that's what the roofs of the homes look like. The thatched buildings are designed this way to allow rain and snow to fall off of it. Most are now minshuku (family run inns) and as Justine wanted to see the Japanese countryside on her trip, I decided that a night in a gassho-zukuri inn would be cool.

We started our adventure by taking an early morning train to Takayama, which is the closest you can get to Shirakawa-go by train. We walked around the old streets and took lots of pictures. 

(The sake arrived in an overflowing masu and was served with some salt)

Takayama has a ton of sake breweries and you can identify them by the big balls of twigs hanging out front of the buildings. Every time I had gone to Takayama I'd wanted to try sake in a masu (little wooden drinking...box/cup?) but either someone had been sick (Elz) or it had been too hot (mom and dad). I knew this was going to be my last time in Takayama so I dragged Elz and Justine into a brewery.
We tried a sweeter sake and to be honest, those little boxes hold much more sake than they look like they can. I had only eaten a breakfast pastry that morning and it pretty much went straight to my head.

(me...soon to be drunk.)

All feeling a little tipsy, we decided that finding some lunch would be smart. We chose a famous ramen restaurant where I had eaten with Aaron and Tiffany. I remembered that the ramen had been delicious and they had played awesome rock/taiko music. Elz asked our waiter if they sold a cd of the music and he said yes. Unfortunately, when we asked him after eating, he said no....boo...

(Super rare beef sushi - OK, but not my favourite)

(Some of the most amazing ramen!)

Our bus to Shirakawa-go didn't leave for a while so we bought some snacks (sembei!) and roamed the stores. Justine got a kick out of the crazy Japanese fashions in one store (I think she could probably pull off that sparkly pink fedora!). When the bus to Shirakawa-go finally left, we found it was almost empty and by about 45 minutes in to the 2 hour ride, we had the bus to ourselves. I wasn't feeling too great (I think I was slightly allergic to the sake) so I slept for a bit and soon we were zooming through the mountains, across rivers and in and out of tunnels. We arrived in Shirakawa-go and discovered that our minshuku for the night, Magoemon was gorgeous.
We relaxed with some tea and sweets and then went out to look around before dinner.

(The gassho-zukuri are famous for their irori (built-in hearth). Part of our dinner was cooked over the fire)

We walked all the way up to the lookout point at the top of a small mountain/hill. We might have entered an area that was closed and roped-off....but sneaking in was worth it...check out those views. You could see the entire village surrounded by rice fields and mountains.




Dinner was amazing. Of course it included my not-so-favourite mountain veggies but everything else was divine. The river fish cooked in the irori was amazing and this area is known for great beef. We were all stuffed by the end of the meal and after baths we rolled into our futons.

The next morning we got up early (due to the very loud, old men in the room beside us), had a great breakfast in front of the hearth and then wandered a bit more around the village. We caught an earlier bus back to Takayama and then a train to Gero, a famous onsen town.

(If you look closely, you can see some old men bathing in the very outside bath...right next to the people playing cricket...uncomfortable)

Elz and I had been to Gero almost a year and a half before and had really enjoyed the foot onsens. As Justine wasn't so interested in a traditional onsen, we thought this would be a good way to experience the relaxing hot springs without getting completely naked. 
We picked up some ramune, a famous summer pop in Japan. The bottle is half the fun. You jam a piece of plastic into the lid and a glass marble shoots down into the liquid. It rolls around in the middle of the bottle and you can spend forever trying to figure out how they make the bottle. Just imagine...it used to be made entirely from glass.

(Corn flakes, soft ice cream and an onsen tamago. Brilliant)

One foot onsen is located inside a store. There, you sit soaking  your feet while watching a tv which plays a constant series of commercials/interviews with celebrities who are eating an ice cream parfait containing an onsen tamago (an egg slowly cooked in the hot onsen water). When Elspeth and I had been here before we had wanted to try it, but it had been 10AM and neither of us were hungry after our ryokan breakfast. This time we had no excuse. And it turned out to be REALLY GOOD.

(The water in this one was a bit hot....)

We walked around the town soaking our feet in the different foot onsens and looking for stamps (there was some stamp rally thing...we ended up finding them all but didn't want to give up our cards to enter some contest...). It was a relaxing afternoon.
Later we caught a train back to Nagoya station where we ate misokatsu (fried pork with a miso sauce, a Nagoya specialty) and of course, took some purikura!

Thanks for coming to Japan, Justine! I had a blast travelling with you! 

The hardest thing I've ever had to do.

I never expected saying goodbye to my friends, co-workers and students would be so hard. All week I've been bursting into tears after teaching last lessons with some of my favourite students. On Saturday night, we had a farewell party for me/welcome party for Joel. I was misty eyed from the beginning so by the time I had to make my speech I was pretty much a mess. I couldn't do it.

So Kayo kindly read it for me and I stood beside her and cried. My students laughed and promptly took out their cameras and cell phones to take pictures. Everyone was sweet and said such nice things. I'll really really miss them.

Kayo and I had a tearful goodbye with promises to hang out in Ottawa and Toronto soon. Miho and Yuko and I just pretended that we'd see each other Tuesday as at that point I couldn't take saying goodbye to them. Yesterday the Yamamotos took me on a trip around Kyoto and I had to quickly run into the shinkansen area before I started to cry again. With Elspeth we just pretended we'd see each other on the weekend. I can't imagine what a mess I would've been if we'd said goodbye. Luckily, we don't live that far away from each other (road trip!).

Right now I'm off to do some final packing at work, close my bank account, cut off the cell phone and then go to the airport. This is such a strange experience. Japan has really become a second home to me and even though I'm ecstatic to come home, a little bit of my heart is breaking because I'm leaving. These past two years have been AMAZING.

Toronto, here I come.

Justine in Japan!

When: May 11 & 12, 2008
Where: Kyoto
Who: Me, Elz and JUSTINE!!

On May 9th, Justine arrived in Japan, bringing with her a suitcases full of vanilla flavoured/scented goodies. We talked long into the night and on Sunday took a trip to Kyoto. Lots and lots of shopping happened. Fabulous food and ice cream were eaten. Aaron photos were taken. Songs were sung at karaoke. In other words, it was a kick-ass weekend.

Justine is a huge fan of 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. I mean, this girl owns multiple copies of the book so that she can lend them out and still have a copy at home. So of course, we had to visit Fushimi Inari where a pivotal scene in the movie version takes place. After doing a bit of shopping (ok...we got seriously sidetracked by the underground shopping mall near the station) we finally made it to those famous red gates.



We hiked up and decided that in order to have the ideal 'Memoirs' experience, we needed to stop for some kakigori (shaved ice) with pink syrup. Even though it turned out to be a bit cold in the restaurant, it was nice to look out into the forest while eating our strawberry treats.

Next stop was Kyomizudera. Good views, lots of people. SO very sunny.

(Elz drinking some good luck shrine water)

For dinner we went for tonkatsu (obviously) and then headed for some karaoke. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a purikura machine but a great night nonetheless. We stayed at an awesome new hostel that looked like it was decorated by the ikea design team. The next morning we grabbed a bus to Kinkaku-ji and Ryoan-ji.

(The irises must have known we were coming and were in full bloom)

One of the teachers with the many school groups (you'll see in a minute) saw us taking an Aaron photo and instead of trying to explain to him that we were not looking at the camera on purpose, we let him take our photo.

May is school trip month and that Monday they all must have been at Kinkaku-ji. The place was crawling with navy uniforms, high pitched screaming and laughing, and students buying good luck charms. It gave Kinkaku-ji a completely different feeling than usual. It was loud and bustling yet somehow those teachers kept it very organized.

(Yup. Who is the queen of having her eyes shut in a picture? That would be me.)

Lovely, calm Ryoan-ji. Even with high school students sitting along the steps, the garden is still tranquil. I think I've visited this shrine about 7 times and I still enjoy sitting here.

Interesting fact: shrine food is really good. We stopped for some udon and it was delicious!

Next we took a series of buses (ended up waiting at a bus stop in the middle to nowhere) to get to Arashiyama, in the west of Kyoto. This area is famous for it's cherry blossoms/maple leaves, a river and a bridge. We checked out the bridge, which I had thought was made of wood but turned out to be concrete with cars zooming over it. We bought some ice cream (yuzu, I am going to miss you!) and did some window/omiyage shopping.




After walking around for a while, we decided it was time to catch the bus back to the station. We ate really good sushi for dinner and then Justine headed to her hotel (She was going to Nara the next day) and Elz and I took the shinkansen back to Nagoya. Stay tuned for another adventure with Justine!

(Justine, you're so adorable...and don't worry, your shoes aren't coming home with me!)