Hiking Nyukasayama, Nagano

My friend, Mike, and I headed to Nagano a couple weekends ago to go hiking! We were headed to Fujimi Panorama. "Mi" being to see/watch in Japanese and Fuji being, well, Fuji, but it being rainy season, didn't have much like. We did see a lot of clouds though!

The Lilies of the Valley were suppose to be the primary draw to this area, but they weren't quite in full bloom yet. The staff in the area told us there were over 1 million plants. I question whether he counted those or not.

We reached the summit around lunchtime and enjoyed a nice picnic. I'm not quite sure what everyone was looking at here. "Nice cloud" "Hmm...I'm more partial to the cumulus myself".

We thoroughly enjoyed the lower humidity and cooler temperatures of the mountain region and the rain even held off for most of our hike so we could enjoy the fresh air and scenery.

I forget how much I miss nature when we are surrounded by it all the time every day, but it was so refreshing to walk about and SMELL nature and BREATHE fresh air.

I like to play "Where is Mike?" with several of my pictures. Being a photographer, he was often behind the group, crawling around getting a picture of something most of us walked right past.

Such a wonderful day. Only time for a few more days like this in Japan!

Yunessun Onsen

The weekend before Christmas, Glenn and I joined an MWR tour where we went to the Yunessen Onsen. Onsens are very popular in Japan. Think of it as a naked hot spring. I've described them before. This place was a little different though. It was more of a swimsuit friendly water park hot spring.

You wear your swim suit and then they also give you a towel and small jacket. Since there are spa rooms, restaurants and rest/relaxing areas you can wear your jacket everywhere.


Inside there were hot tubs, a large child-friendly water park and Dr. Fish (you put your feet in a pool and these small fish eat your dead skin and it tickles!).

Outside was the best part. It was only about 40 degrees so it was cold going from pool to pool, but once you were in the water, it felt great!

It wasn't just water though, the outside pools were filled with coffee, wine, green tea, sake and charcoal water!

Glenn in the coffee pool that they brew right next to it.

 

Me in the red wine pool.

Glenn and I in the green tea (/ectocooler) bath.

We had a great day relaxing and enjoying all the goofy people at the spa. I would definitely recommend you make a trip!

I think they outsourced.

I was on a tour on Saturday and this sign was on our bus. Our U.S of A Navy owned bus... oh goodness.

I guess no one double checked his work. Sorry for the blurry picture, the bus was moving.

Not America Safe: Fuji Fire Festival

I think I'm going to start a new series titled "Not America Safe". I don't know if it is the lawsuit-happy country that I am from or what, but Japan doesn't seem to care when things are not up to to the safety standards that a modern country expects. Or maybe just that Americans expect.

Example number one, the Fuji Fire Festival. This was an amazing festival with torch lined streets full of fire. Very cool, but what happens when the ashes from the top float down and light the bottom on fire? Well then you have a torch that topples over and fills the street with fire. It's cool, just walk your small child on the other side of the street, please. At least they did put the center of the festival next to the fire station. According to the bus guide, there has never been an incident or death at this festival in it's long history. That's impressive.

A little background from our tour guide:
"The Yoshida Fire Festival (Yoshida no Himatsuri) is held every year on Auguest 26th to appease the goddes of Mt. Fuji and to keep the volcano from erupting for another year. It also serves as the closing ceremony of the Fujisan summer climbing season. For this lively two day festival, named one of Japan's three most unique festival and celebrated for over 500 years, the entire community comes out to watch the burning of large "taimatsu" torches and the parade of two large Omikoshi (portable shrines) through the streets...

The festival starts at 2 pm on August 26th at the Fuji Sengen Shrine in Fujiyoshida city with the carrying of two large omikoshi portable shrines. The festival continues with the lighting of the torches starting at Kamiyoshida Community Center at 6 pm...the festival continues until 11 pm or midnight when the torches burn out. At 2 pm on the 27th the shrines are taken back to Sengen Shrine where the finale of the two day festival, a running of the shrines 7 times around a sacred rock, happens at 5 pm.

The origin of the festival is based on the story of the Goddess of Mt. Fuji...who becomes pregnant and is accused of having an affair by her deity husband. To prove her innocence, she locks herself in a room of the shrine and sets it afire. If the child lives, it will show her dubious husband that is is indeed his child because it could supernaturally endure the heat. According to the story, the goddess' child was born in the middle of the flames, which proved to her doubtful husband that he was indeed the father. The flames made by the taimatsu torches at the fire festival represent the fire started by the Goddess of Mt. Fuji to prove her innocence."

What's a festival without cotton candy, octopus and ice cream? Sounds like Japan to me.

Izu Fun Dive

I am behind on some big events of the last few weeks, but I will try to catch up! I was out of town all weekend visiting a friend from college and I have a big trip that I leave on in a week and a half. So much to do! First, a couple weekend ago, I went scuba diving in Japan! The water wasn't as clear as Guam, it actually reminded me of when I got certified in the lake in Minnesota, but with much different sea life. Yesterday was Marine/Sea Day in Japan (a national holiday) so this is a good post to follow that!

My friend Nicole and I signed up for a tour through Camp Zama's tour office. It was advertised as a refresher/fun dive for new divers. That's us! We started the morning early with a 3 hour drive south to the Izu peninsula. The best part of the drive was towards the end when we had amazing views of Fuji across the bay. An amazing backdrop for our dive.

Our tour guide, Yoshi, had an underwater case for his camera and was able to take some pictures for us during the dive! Since our group was so small, only 4 people, it was easy to stick together and get some fun shots! The area that we went diving at, Osezaki, is a very popular place for divers. Underwater, they had rope courses that you could follow and different "sights" along the way.

Here I am with a Winnie the Pooh (Pooh-san) statue! This was close to the underwater shrine as well!

The cluster on the right side in the plant are squid eggs.

We did two approximately 30-40 minute dives with a lunch break in between. Our max depth of the dive was about 55 feet. I really enjoy diving and am becoming more comfortable with my skills and my buoyancy. I can't wait to go diving again somewhere!

Shizuoka Prefecture - Part III

Our last stop on the MWR tour was Dragon Rock Cave. It was a cave, it was pretty standard, but we had a good time with all the goofy J signs and the names of each part of the cave.

Here, Mike is attempting to follow the sign on the left. It instructs you to bend over and look between your legs to see the formation behind you- that's one way to do it I suppose.

This was my favorite cave name...perhaps Beethoven played it in C Major??

After the cave trip we made the 2-3 hour drive back to Atsugi break with a stop for dinner at a rest stop. Whew... a long day!

Kakegawa Castle

Stop #2 on our MWR tour was Kakegawa castle. The castle was built about 500 years ago by the lord that was governing this area during the era of the civil wars (aka territorial disputes). The Tokugawa family eventually took over this area and ruled the castle. They ruled the castle for hundreds of years until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1854 and collapsed in 1869. The castle was eventually rebuilt with donations from the citizens of Kakegawa. It was rebuilt with wood in the traditional methods in .... 1993. So, it is super old, but you can't tell because they rebuilt it using the traditional plans and techniques.

I thought this part of the castle was rather ingenious- they left small holes so that arrows, rocks or other objects could be thrown at people attempting to seige the castle.

 Nicole is attempting to siege the castle...no such luck. :) Maybe the umbrella is hindering her?

It is the Warriors Ambush Hideout area. I'm hiding, can't you tell?

Shizuoka Prefecture - Birds, Castles and Caves (oh my!)

On Saturday,  I took an MWR tour with four friends from the squadron. We headed south to Shizouka prefecture. When I have subsequently talked about this trip to students in the past few days, I've noticed that the tour sounds kind of lame, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I'm sure that's because of the company I was with. We made everything a great time despite the all day rain. I'll probably break this up in to a few posts because it was a 13 hour day and we saw lots of things!

First, we stopped at Kacho-en Bird Park. This is an aviary/zoo and it was a wonderful place because the animals are free to roam and fly (except for the owls that will eat the other birds/hurt people). I think this is my favorite picture of the whole trip:

Nicole was not a fan of the birds landing on her at first. Oh and Lauren got pooped on, that was funny.

We got to feed the penguin-san! They were so cute, I want to take one home with me!
Then we saw birds, birds and more birds. Some outdoor birds:

There was even a bird "show". The secretary bird was my favorite. It eats snakes and kills them by stomping on their heads! They did a demo with a fake snake for us.

Then we went inside and saw some of the water birds. Who knew flamingos were aggressive? One of them bit me while I was trying to take a picture with it!

This is much better: