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Asia » Japan » Gunma » Maebashi
July 28th 2006

Published: July 28th 2006

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Anni

ikaho

haha, graham looks silly.

hello.
so, i have taken a few day trips in the past little while. i have also attended a few farewell lunches with members from work.

first graham and i went to ikaho. it's an onsen town, but i thought it was more of a ghost town. to arrived to winding streets, with delapitated buildings, old cracked roads, and no one in sight but graham and i. this city is in the mountains, and know for its hot springs. there are 360 steps which cut through the city and lead up to a temple high in the mountain. there is also a cable car that takes you up the mountain to a lake, but we didn't have enough time to go there. i have also recently discovered that somewhere near ikaho, there is a penis (or sex) museum. some of you may be interested to know that this museum has perhaps one of the last, vintage, used underware vending machines. and it is actively working. the rumours are true, there used to be vendings machines on the streets in tokyo (and perhaps all of japan) where people could buy used girls' underware. maybe 10 years ago, however, a law was

ikaho

this building is falling apart

passed due to hygenic purposes, making these machines illegal. now the mahinces' patrons have turned to the internet, where you can of course buy used underware. that was a side note from ikaho. we did manage to find a few nice places, and took tons of photos there.

the following weekend we went to kiryu. this city was not affected by world war 2, so it had a lot of wood built houses with saw tooth roofs. saw tooth roofs were mostly used in warehouses and are in the shape of a saw, with windows on the more vertical side. these windows would also be facing north, to limit the amount harsh light that entered the warehouses. materials and silks were made in kiryu, and that became the main industry. these materials were all hand made, but now machines have affected the hand made silk craft, causing it to become very expensive. me and graham walked all around this city, and there wasn't much to see, other than a textile museum. the museum was really cool. they had a history of weaving and looms. we even got to try using the looms. we removed silk from the silk worm

ikaho

crumbling road

cacoon, we used looms that dated back long ago, when they used string, rocks and sticks. we saw how they die materials the traditional japanese blue colour. all in all it was a really good tour. there was a loom that was pretty much the first computer. some french guy made a pattern, and then cut holes in many cards to repeat this pattern, when you ran the cards through the loom, it would read which strings to put up. the coloured string would slide between the other strings that were either up or down, and that would create intricate patterns. this is why so many patterns were the same, but with different thread colours. this is what they would use in the 1600-1700's i suppose. anyways, the museum was really cool, mostly because it was so hands on. the only other thing in kiryu was a famous restaurant. it's specialty was sauced pork cutlet. a famous sumo wrestler eats there whenever he's in town, so it must be good. since we didn't have a map, we had to guess how to get there, and it took a really long time. graham finally had to ask directions (something which he

ikaho

the 360 steps up to the temple

was stronly opposed to because he didn't want to look like a tourist, but come on, we're like the only white people there walking around with cameras), and the restaurant was just around the corner. now let me tell you, this sauced pork cutlet was fucking good. i swear only to emphasize how good it was. everything about it was awesome and it was so tender and easy to eat. mmm. kiryu was an alright day trip, but we were mostly walking around trying to find things.

all that was about 2 weeks. this past week we have had farewell parties and a trip to oze (a marshland that is protected).

we had lunch with akira and junko at a really nice sushi restaurant. we ate sushi that was far beyond anything i've had in vancouver. mmm. the chef was pretty cool. he's about 35, and has been studying to be a sushi chef since he was 16 years old. people in japan takes things really seriously, but in this case, it really payed off. we had tuna done so many different ways that i wouldn't have known it was the same fish. i even tried eating sea

ikaho

megaman rock?

urchin. the texture was really creamy. i'm undecided still if i liked it or not. the lunch was really nice, and i ate way too much.
after lunch, we went to a larch statue called byakui dai-kannon (image of buddha). it was a large statue of a woman. on the inside there are stairs leading up to the top, where you can look out at the city. we didn't go in because we didn't want to pay the overly expensive fee just to walk up 9 flights of stairs. the images of buddha are inside the staute, so we didn't see them. but i did climb onlt the base of the statue. i didn't really know if i could do this, but people don't seem to say anything to you if you're foreign. perhaps they were laughing about the stupid foreigner. it was a really nice day, probably our last with akira and junko, who have been so nice and helpful to us in japan.

the next day i had a farewell lunch with 2 members and their kids. one of the kids, yuhina, is my student. she is two years old, and sooooo adorable. before i taught her

ikaho

gate to temple at top of steps

she didn't speak at all, but because i was a girl she didn't feel embarrased (she told he mom this) so she started talking. i have spent 6 months with her, teaching her about 2-3 times a week, and i adore the time i spent with her. so i was happy to have lunch. we went to an okonomiyaki restaurant, which is kinda like pancakes, but with other food mixed into it, and a different taste. these restaurants have the hot plate built into the table, and because we were with kids, we went to a special restaurant that has kids rooms. basically its a room with tons of toys, so of course, the 2 little girls (both about 2 years old) rampaged through the toys. there were books and balls everywhere. one little girl liked throwing the balls, and many times they ended up on the hotplate with our food cooking away. it was pretty funny. since we were in japan, the mothers didn't scold their children. man, kids here can do pretty much anything, and the parents just sit by and watch. the philosophy is that since life is so tough when you';re older, children should have freedom

ikaho

one of many beasts that always guard the temples

to do whatever they want. this produces whiney children who cry when they don't get what they want, who hit and yell and scream, kick and punch, family restaurants filled with loud obnoxious kids, and no repercutions for bad behaviour. luckily, both girls were very well behaved. i was really sad to say goodbye. and sadly i know that yuhina probably doens't understand that i'm leaving. however, her mom had taken pictures at class the whole time i was there, and recently had been bringing a video camera. she gave me a photo album with the photos, and a dvd of us in class. yay! and yuhina also has a copy of the dvd. i can totally picture her at home watching a dvd of us in class. i have never met a 2 year who liked learning english more.

that night, we went over to another members cabin in the mountains for the night. his wife made us a nice home cooked japanese meal, which was really good. it was the first time we had had japanese home cooking. we had an early night, because the next morning we were up at 5:30am to head out for a

ikaho

the mini temple? i wonder who plays with this?

day of hiking in oze, which is a protected wetland in gunma (the province i'm in). we arrived there about 9 and started hiking. the area was beautiful, it reminded me a lot of bc. and it was so nice to be out in the fresh air hiking. the one thing that differed from canada was the japanese attire. these people were dressed for a week long treck through trails previously unmarked, with there vest holding all the hiking accesories, poles for walking (full on ski poles) big hiking boots, and bear bells. bear bells? wtf? the area was wide open, so even is there was a bear, how on earth could it sneek up on you. but thats beside the point. the most obscure thing was how everyone was covering their skin from the sun like it was the plague. japanese people don't like dark skin. they want to be white. i think it goes back to the class system. in japan, if you are high class, you don't have to work outside, and therefor have white skin. if you are low class, you have to work outside, and have tanned skin. so, people were wearing long sleeved shirts,

ikaho

the mini rock temples? again, who is this for?

with gloves, and many had towels wrapped around their face attatched to their hats. it was pretty funny to graham and i, but alas, our mocking bit us in the ass when we realized we had sunburns.

so, because of these sunburns, our travels have been postponed. we were going to leave yesterday, but now we are leaving tomorrow. we have packed everything up, i cancelled my cell phone (only took about 2 minutes-i was expecting it to take hours days and weeks, like everything else in japan, so i was astounded), and we shipped home some boxes at the post office. mom, i sent them to you, but they probably wont get there for a few months.

so, with our lives finally wrapped up in maebashi, or the bash, as people seem to refer to it as, we say goodbye to all our surrounds. we will embark on a quick tour of japan. we hope to hit up nikko (where theres an edo murra-if we go, the pictures should explain it all), yokohama (biggest chinatown in japan and a ramen museum), osaka, kyoto, kobe, enoshima (fabulous beach aparently), tokyo, and a few more.

i'll arrive back

ikaho

a restaurant full of stuff

in vancouver on august 15th, but will leave shortly after to go to halifax to look for apartments. then i'll be home on the 25th for about 10 days. after that i'll go to halifax we my life will be taken over by school for a full year.

my arriving/going away party will be on the 27th, i think. i assume it will be dinner of sorts, but i haven;t cleared that with my parents. it will be for family and friends, so everyone is welcome to come. i'll try to write some while i'm travelling, but i dunno how available the internet is.

see you soon.
anni

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