Glen's Visit

Glen's trip was short so we had to do as much as possible in the time he was given and also around my schedule. He arrived Saturday evening, on Sunday we went to Tokyo, Monday we went to my school and then Tuesday we went to Nikko. I love Nikko, it is an escape from the concrete and rice paddies of Saitama and Tokyo. 

Nikko is the end of Japan's version of the Romantic road. Nikko is a national park (日光国立公園) that houses some UNESCO world heritage sights: Nikko Tosho-gu (a Shinto shrine built in honour of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and Rinno-ji (a Buddhist temple under repairs right now). At Tosho-gu, there are the famous monkeys: hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil, and the sleeping cat. It's beautiful and I love going to Nikko. It's too bad that we didn't get to go up to Chuzenjiko via Irohazaka. Maybe another time.

On Wednesday we went canyoning at Okutama! Okutama is a mountainous area in Tokyo prefecture. It was my first time going there, but definitely not my last. Since we were the only two people who went canyoning, we got to do things that others don't. We jumped lots, did flips and abseiled. At the end of it all, the owner of the company gave Glen the pictures and movies they took for free! Nice deal. After getting back, we carved pumpkins with my neighbours, one of which had never carved one before! That was fun. We had bought tiny orange pumpkins from Costco.

On Thursday we went surfing in Onjuku. It was pretty chilly and the surf was small, but I caught a lot of waves. I don't think Glen was so successful, but hopefully he had fun. After surfing we chatted a bit with the owner of Flying Sumo Surf shop and shared a pumpkin beer. This beer was soooo delicious! It has something ridiculous like 7 kg or 7 lb of pumpkin per barrel, it tasted like pumpkin pie! 

On Friday we met up with Cory and his wife Yuko in Tokyo. We went to Shinjuku Gyoen park, the Imperial Palace Gardens (which were closed) and Asakusa. 

That evening we had Shabu Shabu to eat with my coworker and her husband. I ate way too much, which is par for the Shabu Shabu course.

On Saturday I had to work all day at a debate tournament, so Glen went to Tokyo by himself. My students finished 8th out of over 25 teams! I was very proud of them and in awe of their abilitiy to keep doing debate.

The next day Glen had to leave stupid early, like 5:30 am or something, to get to the airport. I accompanied him part way and we said our good byes. At which point he continued on his way to Korea.

Mount Akagi Hike (October 19, 2013)

Last weekend, I went to Gunma prefecture with a former coworker and my friend Michelle. We left home around 7:30 am and drove to Mt. Akagi (赤城山), arriving at around 10 am. My coworker, a retired chemistry teacher who works part time, drove us. The weather was not so good and rain was threatening us all day. Luckily, it didn't rain until we got back!

The drive up was rather perilous. Mountain roads are extremely narrow and curvy, meaning that you can't see much and cars/trucks/cyclists/people pop out from seemingly nowhere... The ride up the mountain was so curvy that my friend was car sick. I was fine, just a little nervous. 

The hike was about 3 hours, it was more of a walk than a hike. The colours hadn't changed yet but it felt like winter on the mountain. There are a bunch of mountains in the area as well as a pond and lake. Apparently there are bears and deer. I saw signs warning to beware of bears and every hiker was wearing a bear  bell. Not that it means much. Everyone seems to wear bear bells, regardless of bears existing or not. We saw physical evidence of deer but didn't see any real animals.

At the end of the hike, we went to Akagi Jinjya (shrine). To get to it, we crossed a remarkable red bridge (You can see it in the pictures). The city where this park is located is called "Maebashi" or　前橋, which means in front of bridge. Perhaps it is referring to this bridge. The shrine was on a peninsula in lake Onuma. Onuma lake is a crater lake and apparently in the spring, you can find skunk cabbage there! Ha ha. It's rare and special in Japan. It was really pretty and picturesque. Before entering the shrine, it is customary to cleanse yourself: First you wash your left hand, followed by your right hand, next you wash your mouth and finally you rinse the ladle. The decoration for the "cleansing water" was a cool dragon (you can also see that in the pictures). Outside of the shrine there was a place where people write their wishes on wood blocks, a lot of them were asking for cute babies. I don't believe this shrine is a fertility shrine. In Shintoism, it is believed that gods live in the mountains, so the shrines in the mountains are built for the gods of the mountain.

Here are some pictures from hike:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100942110@N04/sets/72157636714546346/