Yamaguchi Prefecture: Akiyoshidai Cave

Over the long weekend, I had a neat opportunity to take a road trip to Yamaguchi Prefecture thanks to my friend, Satoru San.  We stayed with one of his friends from university (the lovely Shoko) and spent all of Sunday and Monday sightseeing. 

Going into our road trip, I didn't know much about Yamaguchi ken, but I had heard it was famous for fugu (pufferfish) and handmade pottery. What more do you need?

Our first stop was Akiyoshidai National Park, where we explored this cave and had a lovely afternoon checking out strange rock formations. My personal favorite, the "rice terrace," is pictured above. 

I'm a sucker for a fun nature adventure. Running around trying to get a good photo of all the strange naturally formed shapes was my bread and butter.

Outside the cave

Hokkaido Kaitaku No Mura

With my last day in Sapporo, I decided to get away from the Snow Festival crowds and do some sightseeing like a proper tourist.

TripAdvisor.com led to Kaitaku No Mura, a historical village outside the city. The featured buildings were brought from all corners of Hokkaido and reassembled in the little town, open for folks to come inside and look around.

I've tried to describe what it felt like to walk through this village alone. I'm not sure if the magic came from the fact that I'm not really used to snow, or the fact that I'm not really used to historical buildings in snow, but it felt like a fairy tale.

The houses and shops were mostly empty, sparsely furnished with the sort of things one might find in a Japanese residence or commercial building in the 1800s.









 



I wandered around the village until I came upon a huge fishing warehouse. I expected to walk inside another empty building, but when I opened the door, I was shocked to find a group of happy people with tea and a little cook fire going.

"Come in, have some tea!" the man exclaimed.

"Okay!" I said, surprised and delighted. I started chatting with him. He seemed pretty chuffed to find that I could speak Japanese, and we talked about my life in Miyazaki compared to life in Hokkaido.

After my bones had thawed and I had downed another cup of tea or two, he told me that I should make my way to the sake factory in the middle of town. Apparently, there were only two buildings in town that had volunteers manning them, and the sake factory volunteers gave people free hot sake and pickled Hokkaido radish.

Free food? Free alcohol? I'm in!

My tea enthusiast friend

The Fishing Warehouse cook fire

When I arrived at the Sake Warehouse, I was greeted by another warm fire and an old man and woman who welcomed everyone inside.

They gave me a warm cup of amazake, a low-alcohol traditional Japanese beverage, and unlimited pickled radish. No better way to win me over.

Like the man in the fishing warehouse, the pair of volunteers was so happy that I could speak Japanese that we talked for a long time about life in Hokkaido.

They answered all my questions, gave me recommendations for good restaurants to try in Sapporo, and then, when they had their lunch break, proceeded to take me out to lunch!

Sake factory friends

Traditional Hokkaido "Field Soldier" Meal - complete with potato pancakes and white konyaku

I don't think I had ever been so happy I had studied Japanese before. My day in the historical village was one of the most positive experiences of my life, let alone my time in Japan. There's something so satisfying about making new friends on a trip.

Especially if those friends give you sake and pickled radish. I love snacks!

Sapporo Snow Festival

When I first started considering the idea of moving to Japan for the JET Program, I remember my mentor and former supervisor saying that the Sapporo Snow Festival was one of the best events she attended during her two year stay in Kyoto. She told me tales of snow flakes falling, huge snow mazes, warm crab soup, and lanterns lighting up the streets. 

Needless to say, I wanted to go. I wanted to eat soup and play in snow. It was my dream.

What I didn't count on was the cost. With flights and hotel expenses, the Sapporo Snow Festival looked to be a bit out of my price range. Just a reminder, I live in the very south of Japan, almost as south as you can go before hitting Okinawa. Sapporo is on the northernmost island. It's a ways away.

Last year, I passed the snow festival up, saying I'd go next year. This year, I once again, almost passed, saying "I need to save money! I'm moving in August! I can't waste my cash on frivolous things!"

Then, I did a Google Image Search and changed my mind again. When would I get another chance to see something like this?

The Snow Festival (Yuki Matsuri in Japanese) was a giant winter wonderland. There were ice sculptures, huge snow stages (with cheerleaders and raffles as pictured above), competitive snowboarding events, snow sculpting teams from all over the world, and a snow play dome for the kids. 

Strolling around getting snowflakes in my eyelashes, I felt like a kid too.

Lazy Days in Okinawa

Okinawa. White sand beaches and sunsets and fancy fruit drinks. Not a bad place to spend a vacation. Considering it's only about an hour and a half flight from Kyushu, Alex and I decided to make the trip this past August.

I had visited Okinawa before, in 2014, during winter vacation. However, due the slightly colder than beach-appropriate weather then, I thought it would be nice to give Okinawa another chance.

We left all our planning until the last minute, which was sort of a bad idea. We ended up having to rent a super expensive family sized room on the top floor of a resort hotel. Everything else was sold out.

But in the end, it wasn't a problem. We made the most of it, lazing on the beach all day, looking out over the island, and dancing around in the hotel room at night.

It had a pretty sweet speaker system and a tatami dance floor. What's not to love?

Lessons from Calligraphy and Ira Glass

Happy belated New Year everyone! 

I made this neat banner in calligraphy class in January and I am actually quite proud of it. The large characters say "New Year" and the small ones on the side say my name, which is "Ro-ren," in Japanese.

Usually, my calligraphy is pretty sub-par. I was never particularly interested in calligraphy, in fact, I only went to the class in the first place because my students kept haranguing me about it ("Please come to calligraphy class Lauren Sensei! Here is a map to where the class will be held, along with the dates and times that we will be there. Come, come!"). 

But the teacher, Yamakura Sensei, won me over. She's super funny, and a great mentor who is always genuinely concerned about her students' lives. 

Also, did I mention she's a badass who teaches martial arts when she's not teaching calligraphy?

Yamakura Sensei holding a katana

This week, when I attended calligraphy class, Yamakura Sensei told me that she could see my brush work was improving. I kept pointing out my own mistakes as I made them, and she would laugh.

After I made the piece pictured above, she told me, "Your heart and my heart are the same when we do calligraphy. Maybe you make mistakes, but you can now see your mistakes. So you can fix them and do better!"

Her words strangely reminded me of something Ira Glass said about taste in art/creative work. How when you first start something, you have this sense of how things should be, or "your taste is killer." But when you try to actually create that thing, there's a frustrating gap between what you're making and that sense of the perfect thing. Put more simply, you know what you want this thing to be, but you don't quite have the skill required to make it like that. 

I feel like my calligraphy skill level has finally gotten to the point where I have some sort of taste. I know what things are supposed to look like. But it'll be awhile before my skill level matches up to that, so I guess, for now, I'll just keep plodding along, doing my best.

But I suppose that's all we can ever do, in calligraphy and in life.

New Year's Omikuji (2015 vs. 2016)

Every year, when New Year's day rolls around, some of my coworkers and I get to skip work for an hour (shhh!) to pray at the shrine for a good New Year's blessing. Since I'm now a seasoned veteran of this tradition (two years running, baby), I thought I could have a little retrospective of my New Year's shrine photos. Ready to time warp with me?

First, we have the lovely 2015 experience where I have shortish blonde hair and a blue bow. Haruka and Takashi (pictured below) taught me the proper way to wash my hands, clap and bow to get the best possible blessings for a good year. 

We also took a fortune (omikuji) from a little box to see how our year would turn out. Haruka, Takashi and I all pulled bad ones, so we threw them into a flaming pit. It was great! 

The flaming pit where bad fortunes go...

Afterwards, I ate a giant grilled squid. I remember it being pretty so-so, it was covered in some sort of soy sauce glaze. Classic Japanese festival fare!

Grilled Squid and I: The Chewy Saga

Fast forward to 2016 shrine visit, which was just as much fun. As we walked up the long steps to reach the shrine for prayer time, we ran into several of my tiniest students. They all screamed "hello how are you?" and Haruka remarked that in Kadogawa I am now a very famous person. 

This year, when we pulled our fortunes, I actually received the best one you can get-- daikichi, which basically means "best luck." I felt pretty excited about it. 

2016 Omikuji Fortune Selfie (featuring a devastated Takashi)

Haruka received chuukichi, sort of like a "medium luck," while Takashi was stuck with kichi. Just "regular luck." They were both very disappointed, so we cheered ourselves up with a fish shaped snack called taiyaki.

The festival food stands outside the shrine

Taiyaki-- the folks in my office love the chocolate flavored one.

Always a good time at the shrine. Here's hoping my 2016 is as good as my fortune predicted! 

And let's hope that Haruka and Takashi's 2016 is much better than their fortunes predicted... "Regular luck" might as well be no luck at all. Poor, poor Takashi.

Danjiri Festival: Action, Adventure and Beer

To say that Kadogawa town isn’t well known, even in Miyazaki, would be stating the obvious. When I mention Kadogawa town in conversation, the most I get out of people is usually a plucky, “Oh, I’ve heard that you have very delicious fish.” 

We do have delicious fish. Kadogawa is a fishing town.

Yet, somehow, this little town always manages to surprise and delight me. We have a summer fireworks show that is on point, a foreign imports grocery store that is absolutely gorgeous and completely overpriced, huge green mountains and two (not one, TWO) clear, clean rivers running across the land. 

Despite all that, one of the best parts of living in Kadogawa, at least for me personally, is the Danjiri Festival. 

I know what you’re thinking. Another festival? Give me a break! Japan does loads of festivals! Everyone and their mother has a so-called “special” festival. I’ve heard there’s even a festival of male genitalia! There is, I saw it, look it up. 

And that’s true, but Kadogawa’s Danjiri Festival is even better than that. If you like sports for the action, if you like American Television Program “Game of Thrones” for the edge of your seat thrills, you better brace yourself because Danjiri has all those things and more.

The Danjiri Festival is celebrated in November every year, by building three portable shrines, each in different color schemes (green, white and blue) that represent different parts of town. Several men of all ages sign up to represent their area, either by carrying the shrine itself, or by standing on top of the shrine playing taiko drums and leading encouraging chants. 

On the day of the festival itself, the men show up in traditional garb (chests exposed for ultimate cool guy power) and carry this giant portable shrine around our town. 

If this doesn’t sound awesome, let me paint a picture for you. Kadogawa men carry a shrine with their drumming, chanting friends on top from 5am until approximately 2 in the afternoon. All while drinking copious amounts of Kirin pale lager. 

These guys are tough! When I drink copious amounts of beer, I can’t even carry my own house key, which is why my landlord has had to come unlock the door for me. Twice.

She’s a wonderful, kind person.

Now, imagine, you’re a drunk man who has been carrying this heavy shrine around with your buddies for nine hours. You’re probably completely exhausted. You’re probably in need of another beer. Now imagine, after all this toil, you are told that you must hold the shrine up over your head as high as you can lift it, and keep it there, as steady as a rock, without faltering, for a good twenty minutes. You must do this with everyone in your town, including your family, watching you.

That is the Danjiri Festival! Crazy, right? It is the truest challenge of holding something heavy and  at the same time holding your liquor that I’ve ever seen.

At this year’s Danjiri, not even five minutes after the drums started to beat, disaster struck. I watched in horror as the white team’s shrine slowly sunk down to the ground, and wobbled in defeat. To give them some credit, they kept trying to hoist the thing back up above their heads, but at that point, they were already too far gone. White team was the first casualty in the war that is Danjiri.

Then, it was the blue team. Like a great blue whale, the shrine sunk slowly down into the sea of drunk, sweaty men. All the while, they kept trying, pushing it and pushing it, hoping to keep their team afloat. But alas, they could not keep the gigantic thing steady.

The crowd and I screamed at them, clapping and singing along with their chants, hoping to give them the strength to get back into the game. I was thrilled. Honestly, watching the teams fail is the most fun part of the Danjiri. It’s the same sort of thrill you get from watching a lion tear apart a gazelle on the Discovery Channel.

But in the back of the arena, the green team’s shrine stood tall and steady. The green team never faltered, not even once. Like a lizard sunning itself on a rock, amidst the carnage of the fallen teams beside them, their shrine stayed perfectly still. So still, I almost forgot they were there, as I was shrieking “ganbatte” at the losing teams beside them.

The green team, of course, was the champion team of Danjiri. I hope they went home with a special prize. 

I can’t say for sure, because immediately after the shrines were lowered to the ground, my friends and I headed to the snack booth where I bought hot fries and a Fanta grape. I wondered aloud how the green team could be so rock steady, when their competitors could barely even hold up their shrines!

The next day, I got my answer. I had a chance to chat with one of my Japanese teacher friends who had also attended the festival. I asked her what she had thought of the competition this year, and with a guilty look around the teacher’s room, she told me the secret.

The reason that the green team outperformed the other teams by such a large margin was that the green team was composed of mostly high school students. High school students can’t drink!

I was shocked! But I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Anything was possible. 

This was a true battle of strength, skill and holding something above your head for a really long time.

This was Kadogawa Danjiri.