On a clear day, you can see for miles

The weather the past few weeks has been strangely cool for this late in spring. Rainy season is soon to be upon us, so it is no surprise that it's been raining a lot lately, but the nice even temperatures are a nice change from the soggy heat that often intrudes around this time of year.

One happy side effect of the rain is when it stops raining, the air is cleared of dust and smog and the views can be tremendous! On Thursdays I teach at a pair of elementary schools further up the slopes of Mt. Akagi, and I've been lucky to have had a pair of ultra clear Thursdays recently.

One day, I could see just a glimpse of Mt. Fuji poking above the mountain ranges that lie between us. If you are having trouble spotting Fuji in the above photo, I recommend clicking to enlarge it, and looking for the white spot in the middle left of the photo. While I'll admit that on first blush it's not much of a view of 'ole Fuji San, but consider the fact that the mountain is over 100 kilometers away and on the other side of mountains! I was pretty impressed. Heck, its only the second time I've ever gotten so much of a glimpse of Japan's most famous peak.

Last week we had another sparkling day, and while a line of clouds obscured Mt. Fuji, the view was open all the way to Tokyo! To the left side of this photo are the skyscrapers of Shinjuku, right in downtown Tokyo around 100 kilometers from Maebashi. In the center is the new TV tower that will replace Tokyo Tower as the primary broadcast point for the Kanto Region. The tower is called Tokyo Sky Tree, and even in its uncompleted state is the tallest artificial structure in Japan.  Upon completion in 2012 Tokyo Sky tree will soar 2,080 feet in the air, almost double the height of Tokyo Tower!

Black and White and Red All Over

Over the past few months I've been having fun with pictures by simply desaturating everything but red. The pictures are a selection from both my November trip to Asia, and a few more recent ones from around Maebashi.

A new view of Kanazawa

Our final stop on the Great Golden Week Road Trip was Kanazawa. The drive was long enough that we opted for the toll road expressway, but in the end we probably shouldn't have bothered. The road narrowed from two lanes to one then went back to two then went back to one again several times, causing a huge traffic jam. We were stuck in stop and go traffic for over two hours. That sort of jam isn't fun in the best of times, but with four people in a small, hot car it's even worse!

Once we made it past the jam things opened up and we made great time barreling south along the Japan Sea coast.  In Kanazawa, it was roundly agreed that a trip to my favorite yakitori restaurant, and  a few of the one liter Asahi draft beers you can get there, would be the perfect thing to wash away the unpleasant car trip. It was interesting walking around the downtown area that night, as it was so much more lively and 'happening' than downtown Maebashi. The economic contrast between the two cities was made starkly, depressingly clear.

The next day I played tour guide, and took my friends on a walking tour of all the great spots in the city. The displays outside the 21st Century Art Museum were a hit, especially the new 'color wheel' that they put out on the front lawn. As always Kenrokuen was the must see stop, and as always it was gorgeous. Though like anywhere else, it was jammed with sightseers and large tour groups.

Across from the garden is Kanazawa Castle. Much of the castle is a reconstruction, including a brand new gate that was recently opened. The only original structure that remains is the Ishikawa-mon entrance that faces the garden. Much to my surprise the gate was open to the public, and we could go inside for a look around, something I had never had the chance to do before.

While we didn't really have enough time to really see all that Kanazawa has to offer, everybody enjoyed their trip through 'little Kyoto.' I of course can't get enough of that city, and all the friends I still have there.

Haven't you alway wanted a monkey?

North-west of Nagano city is Jigokudani Onsen, home of the bathing snow monkeys. The cute little Japanese Macaques live in the hills and forests around the area, and come down to bathe and play in the hot springs.

The Monkey Park is unique in that there are no fences, the monkeys are free to leave at any time, and sometimes do, there is no guarantee that they will be swimming when you visit, though they do seem to be there more often than not.

The park forbids guests from feeding the monkeys, which is nice as the animals aren't as aggressive towards humans as they can be in other parts of Asia, though certainly I saw a few monkeys give chase to those tourists who got a bit too close in their search for the perfect picture.

I watched this little guy searching for tasty treats for quite some time. He flipped over every rock in the stream looking for food, but sadly I never saw him find any!

We had a great time at the Monkey Park, and even though it's a bit off the beaten path, I'd highly recommend a visit for any travelers in Japan.

Matsumoto-Jo

The pleasant alpine town of Matsumoto is one hour south of Nagano by train. Despite the potential for crowded trains, our trip down was easy and the clear day made for spectacular mountain scenery. Nagano prefecture really shows why these mountains are called the Japan Alps, the high craggy peaks really do recall their European namesakes.

Nestled along side a traditional shopping district is this delightfully strange samurai frog statue. It really is the sort of whimsical and strange thing that can only be found in Japan. Samurai frogs aside, the prime reason for a stop in Matsumoto city is its castle.

Matsumoto is one of the few remaining 'original' castles that has been rebuilt in modern times. Like most of the rest, the keep was slated for destruction during the Meiji Era, but it was saved by local citizens who wanted to preserve their gorgeous landmark.

It being Golden Week, to actually enter the main keep would have taken at least two hours. We all decided that we had the photos we had come for, and that a retreat from the hordes of tourists was in order. Standing in line through the entire structure just didn't seem like that much fun.

Nobody regretted the trip though, the day was beautiful, the castle striking, and the Mos Burger we had for lunch was delicious!

Sunrise Over Zenkoji

I had the misfortune of a pretty bad cold and very stuffy nose during the early part of our trip. This not only killed my voice, it also made it very hard to sleep. Our first morning in Nagano saw me wide awake at a shocking 5:30 AM. Rather than waste the morning by failing to get back to sleep, I grabbed my camera and made for the temple, primed to get some rare early morning photos.

Despite the hour, I was far from the only visitor out and about in the temple area. Zenkoji opens at 6 in the morning, and a fair number of people were there for the early morning service held in the inner area of the temple. The line stretched so far that I needed to shoot a panorama just to cover a part of it!

Next Stop Nagano

The last week of April and the first week of May sees the arrival of Golden Week, a collection of Japanese public holidays that meld together to form almost a week off from work. I've used past Golden Week holidays to show my Mom around Japan and to travel to Thailand and Vietnam. This year I went for something a little different, and a little cheaper.... Road Trip! Peter, my friend and roommate from training, was the first to arrive, and we packed up Hammond and made our way to pick up the rest of the crew.

Our first destination was Nagano City, home of the 1998 Winter Olympics, and one of the larger and more famous Buddhist temples in Japan, Zenkoji (善光寺). Visitors have a chance to go under the main alter in a tiny, pitch black tunnel to search for the "key to enlightenment", but being that it was Golden Week, the line for the tunnel stretched all across the inner sanctum. I had already found the key on my last trip inside Zenkoji 5 years ago, and the rest of the group opted for lunch over eternal enlightenment, which I think illuminates the human condition quite succinctly.

 
Traffic en route to Nagano hadn't been overly heavy, but the Golden Week crowds were out in full force in the shopping promenade near the temple. This didn't stop me from trying no fewer than three new soft serve ice cream flavors. First up was soba flavor, which is based on the buckwheat noodle that is famous in the Nagano area and tasted a bit like vanilla, though with definite hint of soba. Then I had a miso flavored ice cream cone, which I likened more to caramel, though again you knew that you were eating miso. Finally I had sakura (cherry blossom) flavor, and it was certainly cherry blossom flavor and not cherry. It actually hinted more strongly towards strawberry, though it smelled and tasted subtly of blossoms. Miso was the clear loser among the three, but even that flavor was far more delicious than it had any right to be, and all three were quite palatable.

Cherry Blossoms of Komoro

As you gain in latitude and/ or altitude, sakura trees bloom later. They bloomed in Kyoto weeks before they bloomed in Maebashi, and two weeks after the peak of blooms in Maebashi, they hit their stride in the small mountain town of Komoro, in nearby Nagano Prefecture.

Through random happenstance, I actually have two friends in Komoro, one who went to college with Zach, my old friend from highschool, and one whom I met at the Interac training. They both invited me to the festival, and I had to say yes. I needed a bit of time outside of Maebashi and Gunma, and I wanted to road test Hammond a bit, and see how he performed on a longer duration trip before the epic road trip planned for Golden Week.

The Komoro festival was held in a park set amongst the ruins of Komoro Castle. Like many old feudal castles in Japan, Komoro Castle was destroyed at the beginning of the Meiji Era, and now all that is left are the impressive stone foundations. Walking along the the top of the stone wall you see here and looking down at the flowering trees brought a new way of looking at the sakura, from above they looked less like trees and more like clouds of flowers.

The park festivities ended with a jazz performance. I didn't recognize much of the music, but a highlight track was some music from Lupin the 3rd. Only in Japan can you enjoy natural beauty, great street food, beer, and Jazz bands playing songs from animated films.

Ikaho

Every place, town, or area in Japan has something that it is famous for, be it a festival, unique food, or any other cultural odd or end. Gunma Prefecture is famous for it's Onsen, or hot springs. The backbone of the Japan Alps that thrusts through the far end of Gunma and the near end of Niigata prefecture are standard tectonic mountains, created by faulting and uplift. On the forefront of those peaks are a series of volcanoes that lend their heat to a ton of hot spring resorts.

One of those onsen towns that is close to Maebashi is Ikaho, perched high on the slopes of Mt. Haruna. Ikaho is a very pretty little town, with its stairs and winding roads dotted with stores, hotels and delicious noodle restaurants. The lifeblood of the town, the spring water and the tourists, share a steep route right through the center of town. The water cascades through old pipes and channels, some with a clear top allowing you to see the iron rich hot water as it flows to the various hotel and public baths.

At the top of the stairs lies a shrine that is a centerpiece of a big festival in September. Reportedly, the festival simply involves carrying large portable shrines up the 300 meters of steep steps, but having had enough trouble hauling my own bulk up those steps, I can't imagine helping carry anything larger than my camera up there!

Walking around the side of the town we passed this delightful little restaurant that sold boiled Oden, tea and onsen eggs, eggs cooked in the hot spring waters. It was a chilly day, and the tea and warm fire was just what the doctor ordered! Just past this spot is the actual spring, and a small outdoor public bath that I am just dying to take a dip in.

Having had so much fun just walking around Ikaho on a chill, cloudy evening I returned a week later when the weather was gloriously clear. We rode a gondola to a small mountaintop park that promised excellent views, and we weren't disappointed. To the north we could see the Nikko Mountains in neighboring Tochigi Prefecture, and to the west we could clearly see the Echigo Mountains of Niigata Prefecture, a view of which is below.

The views were wonderful to me, but it was far from my first fantastic mountain vista. My two compatriots were flatlanders (one from Florida), and these high snow capped peaks were a rare treat indeed for them.

This panorama looks back towards Maebashi, the bulk of which is off screen to the right. The large mountain in the right center is Akagi-san, while the Nikko Mountains, home to the great Nikko shrine that entombs Tokugawa Ieyasu, are seen in the distance behind Akagi.

For being such a close and easy drive, Ikaho is a lot of fun, and I imagine I'll spend another weekend or two up there, especially as I really want to try the actual onsen baths which is why the town is famous in the first place!

Lessons End

When I lived in Japan in 2005 I worked for GEOS, an English School that specialized in evening classes for housewives, students, business people, and anyone who wanted to improve their conversational English. Last Wednesday, GEOS filed for bankruptcy protection with outstanding debts of ¥7.5 billion.

Of the 300 plus schools currently in operation, almost 100 will be closed, and the remaining will be taken over by another company, though the GEOS name will remain in use. One of the schools to be shuttered is Kanazawa, where I worked for almost two years.

GEOS was a company on the brink even in 2005. In the 20 months I was at Kanazawa School, we broke even one of those months, and made a profit 0 of those months, so even then the handwriting was on the wall. You can't operate a business at a loss for years upon years, it just doesn't work! Like any line grunts, my co-workers and I had plenty of ideas to improve the bottom line, but who knows if anything would have worked. The English teaching industry is in decline, and has been for the better part of a decade at least. People have learned that obtaining fluency is hard and that maintaining fluency is both time consuming and expensive. The industry hasn't been helped by the global downturn either, after all for the vast majority of students, English lessons are a hobby or something to get a bit ahead in school, not a day to day necessity.

I have mixed feelings about the bankruptcy and the final closing of Kanazawa School. On the one hand, GEOS was poorly run and extremely mercenary in its attitude towards its customers. I actually felt bad when I would succeed in selling some overpriced study aid to my students, and I must think that if an employee regrets a sale then something is deeply wrong with this picture! However, it must be said that GEOS gave me an opportunity like no other. Certainly my life today would be very different if they  hadn't hired me and shipped me off to Kanazawa. I may not have liked the company, or it's overbearing president Kusunoki, but I loved my students, and the experiences I had in Japan. Now, that opportunity to both learn and teach will be even rarer, and I can't help but think that Japan and the world will be poorer for that.

Commuter's Paradise

This is the view that greets me every time I leave my apartment. The other day the sky was clear and blue after a long 36 hours of rain, and the weather was such as to make the drive to work an absolute joy! People who know me know that I am not a 'car person' and don't often use the words driving, work and joy in the same sentence.  In fact, it has been over five years since I had to drive a car to work every day. I've biked to work, walked to work and taken trains to work, but I've always avoided commuting by car.

Now though, I have little choice in the matter. Indeed, my area is so spread out that I've probably been driving more miles per day recently then I have in years. However, a few things have conspired to make me more amenable to a vehicular lifestyle. Despite the occasional run in with the Jomo Electric Railway, the roads in my area are blissfully free of both traffic and stoplights. Indeed, since I'm driving from the (relatively) more urban to towards the rural, and traffic I do see is usually headed the other way.

Driving to work surrounded by such amazing views certainly helps put a smile on my face in the mornings. This is actually a road perpendicular to the one I usually travel on, but I had to pull off to get this shot, as it's rather uncommon to have this clear of a day. You can see the rugged massif of Mt. Haruna on the right, and the conical snow covered Mt. Asama on the left. Both are volcanic in origin, and while Haruna is currently dormant (though not extinct!) Asama is the most active volcano on Honshu. It isn't common to be able to see all the way to Asama, perched as it is on the boarder of Gunma and Nagano prefectures.

 This view is much more typical of my daily drive to work, facing due north towards the much closer Akagi-san. Mt. Akagi dominates the skyline of the whole area, and all four of my schools are nestled in the farming communities that dot the slopes. With the latest city mergers, Maebashi City limits actually extend all the way to the summit of Mt. Akagi, though of course the population peters out long before you get all the way to the top. So there you have it, the key to commuting glee. Throw together some sleeping volcanoes, rice paddies, the occasional cow and a distinct lack of traffic and what more could a latent petrol head desire?

Driving Akagi-San

The fine spring weather continued the next day, and Ryan and I decided to just drive around and explore the area around Ogo. We soon found ourselves on the road up Mt. Akagi (赤城山). Nestled into the slopes, right as the road really starts heading uphill, is Akagi Shrine. Nestled in the pines as it is, the shrine rather reminded me of the vast temple complex of Koya San, though on a far smaller scale.

The road we took to the top was quite a surprise, twisty, narrow, and steep, it reminded me more of a back country track than a proper summit bound road. Still, the mighty Hammond took to the hills like the champ that he is, powering through the curves and giving me a glimpse of WHY roads like that are so much fun to drive!

As we approached the summit caldera we passed out of spring and back into winter! There were few traces of new growth or flowers around Lake Ono, and snow could be seen in dark out of the way pockets. Still, the area was beautiful, and I eagerly anticipate warmer weather, and the promise of hiking trails that dot the area.

Coming down we stopped at a conveniently placed observation tower, but the clear weather was turning, and the view across this end of the Kanto Plain was curtailed. Though, with Akagi-san being in my backyard, I reckon I'll have plenty more opportunities to get the weather right.