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Blogs from Nagano, Japan, Asia
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April 12th 2013
Goodbye south east Asia, hello Japan. I've been here five days now, initial impressions are very good but I'll get to that in a bit. Cambodia was... brief. Brief and very bloody hot. April is the hottest month of the year for most of south east Asia, and although it's only about 5 degrees hotter on average than their coldest month of the year you definitely notice it. Of the five days I had in Cambodia, three of them were spent sitting on a bus. Not the greatest use of my time, but the only reason I went to the country was to see Angkor Wat so it had to be done. Spent a fairly sticky night in Phnom Penh in a hostel with some dodgy air conditioning. It didn't work particularly well anyway, but the ... read more
July 28th 2012
My last week in Japan! I could hardly believe a whole year had passed since I arrived in a nervous whirlwind the previous July. The rainy season had passed and my house was transformed from the winter freezer into a baking, hot sauna. I sat, lethargically most days after school, sprawled on the sofa, sweat streaming down my face.....there was no respite from the heat unless I went and trawled around the local supermarkets to enjoy the aircon. This was a busy week of cleaning, packing and parties. Monday was my first leaving party with the board of education guys. They picked me up from my house so I could drink and took me to a really nice traditional, and fairly informal, Japanese restaurant. We shared lots of delicious fish dishes - although at one stage ... read more
July 14th 2012
I didn't want to leave Japan without attempting to climb Mount Fuji, which is such an iconic symbol of this beautiful country. So, thinking it would be a great last event of me and my friends, I organised for us to do the climb on Saturday 14th July. I'd heard that Fuji is not the most scenic of climbs, being a giant volcanic cone and all, so most people recommend doing the night climb and getting to the top for sunrise. I spoke to a few people who'd done this and they said it was a long slog, but not too hard - many families do the climb with their kids. The trip seemed doomed from the start however. Nine of us left from Iida city Saturday afternoon, pooling into two cars, and we got lost ... read more
June 30th 2012
June is "hotaru" (firefly) season in Japan. I have never seen a firefly before, and so I was quite excited to join a local group this evening on a firefly hunt around the local paddy fields after dark. I went to a local community hall around 6.30pm, for a short lecture on fireflies by a retired science teacher. I didn't understand too much of the talk, given that it was all in Japanese, but I did glean that there are two types of Japanese hotaru, Genji botaru, which are the larger and brighter than the smaller Heike botaru variety. These delicate creatures live around rice paddies and streams. Their larvae need clean water and a plentiful supply of small water snails to eat. Unfortunately their habitats are in decline and so are the firefly numbers. During ... read more
June 5th 2012
The day we left Fuji – clear blue sky and the volcano reveals herself entirely, typical! We enjoyed the view as we headed to the station. Matsumoto – the most lasting impact; the ridiculous jingle announcing the name of the town at the station. I wish I could sing it to you. Our reason for visiting the city was Matsumoto castle, one of the few originals remaining in Japan that has survived earthquakes, fire and war. We joined the retired Japanese daytrippers at the castle. A very enthusiastic 78 year old man hurried out of the volunteer gazebo to be our guide. He was very knowledgeable and clearly a castle enthusiast. We spotted a piano concerto in his folder and discovered he had begun learning the piano at 50 and had been practsing this piece for ... read more
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June 5th 2012
Tsumago to Magome After looking round the Daimyo (lords) ryokan we walked 8 kms along the old postal path to the village of Magome, it was a pleasant woodland walk with a couple of waterfalls, fish-farm, warning bells for bears and a rest house. We were treated to a cup of tea, sour cherries and a dried fish each at the rest house from an old man, but disappointingly we didn't encounter any bears. For a country that has used wood for much of it's construction of temples and housing and rebuilt itself numerous times due to earthquakes, eruptions and fires, it has managed to retain it's forest covered mountainsides and valleys. We tried a few local sweets/snacks on the way; we had sticky rice balls in a sweet soy sauce, grilled beef, rice crackers and ... read more
May 21st 2012
Well I managed to drag myself out of bed half an hour early to allow enough time to see the eclipse. It started about 6.30 am, with the sky taking on an eerie twilight. As the eclipse progressed, shadows began to take on a weird, hazy double effect. It was a cloudy day, so there was a worry the clouds would obscure the eclipse from view, but luckily this didn't happen. I had to leave for school by 7.45 at the latest, so I sat in my car eagerly awaiting the full eclipse moment, my special glasses at the ready. At dead on 7.30am the moon moved right in front of the sun, blotting it out apart from a ring of blazing light round the edges - very beautiful. By the time I got to school ... read more
May 20th 2012
This has been a bad week! On Monday after school I drove over to Matsukawa, a neighbouring town about 40 minutes north of Takagi. I needed to drop some photos off with my block leader Marion, who is an assistant English teacher in that town. She lives in a block of teacher flats, and when I got there I was struggling to park in a small area near to the entrance. I was in the process of reversing to give myself more room when someone drove behind me and I clipped the back of the car as I went back. It turned out to be one of Marion's JTEs (Japanese English Teacher), who I also know from karate class. She came over to me once I was parked and asked if I was ok. I apologised ... read more
April 4th 2012
I'm somewhat disappointed in myself that after seven months, my level of Japanese is still very basic. I know I could study harder than I do, and when I get into frustrating situations I desperately wish I had! I definitely understand a lot more than when I arrived last August, and I try to comfort myself with that. For example, today I managed to ask the new school principal (who although very sweet, speaks very little English), permisson to pop out to the bank at lunchtime. Silly, but it took me a good few minutes of building up courage to attempt it and then it was a relief (and a bit of a surprise) when I was fully understood and told it was ok. The language barrier can be pretty isolating, none more so than at ... read more
March 31st 2012
The month of March is Hina-matsuri, or Japanese doll festival. Since January I'd noticed these creepy looking ( but very expensive) dolls appearing in the shops. On 3 March people celebrate "girl's day", where families with daughters wish for their happiness and healthy growth. Traditionally, families with girls will collect a set of these ornamental dolls for the child for display. The elaborate display represents the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court of the Heian period (about a thousand years ago). The old belief was the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Last Saturday my friend Sumiko invited me to her village of Achi, which every year has a Hina-matsuri display at locations throughout the village. Unfortunately the weather was atrocious - it was blowing a gale and tipping it down with ... read more
