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Published: October 24th 2005
Shibu-Onsen
This is a manhole cover from the Shibu-Onsen town where our hotel was. It is a picture of a little man sitting in the onsen bath.Hey all, sorry to not have updated in forever! So much to say. I just got back from a trip to Nagano with the entire IES group last night, and I have millions of pictures and exciting stories, so I think that before I backtrack and update I'll write about this past vacation. It really was a vacation, we went into the country, did tons of country things, and really just relaxed for four days. It was amazing to be out of the city, I never realized how tiring living in Tokyo can be. I think that everyone had an amazing time, definitely a well needed break. It was also a really good bonding experience for everyone. I got SO close to the other Ayase Ladies (we are becoming a little family) and I was also able to spend time with people that I don't necessarily get to see on a daily basis here in Tokyo. I think everyone was a little sad to leave the country and come home to this somewhat impersonal city.
On our first day we left Makuhari City at 8:40 in the morning. Since all of the Ayase Ladies live really far away, we had to
Charter Bus
Here's a picture of my bus with the chandelier on the ceiling. leave our dorm at 6:40 in the morning. We all got up super early and had breakfast together in the dorm dining room. And then, with our weekend bags, we all hopped on the train and went to Makuhari where everyone was meeting. There were two charter buses. I love love love charter buses, I have such good memories from riding them to crew regattas or field trips in high school. I got my own seat (whoo hoo), so I just fell asleep for a lot of the way. The bus was really funny, there were chandliers on the ceiling. We took a really huge highway out of the city, I forgot the name, and it was crazy the way it had been built through Tokyo. It definitely looked like something out of the future, the road was elevated above everything, sometimes like a hundred feet into the air. It actually seemed very inefficient, both to build and to use; it just dipped and curved and winded around buildings, and over waterways without any real consideration for directness. For example, there was one section of the highway which made an entire loop across the bay... I kept thinking it would
Tokyo highway
The ridiculous curving of the highway, elevated high above the city. have been much simpler, and perhaps more aesthetic, to make the road straight. Anyway, my pictures do not do it justice.
And then suddenly we were in the country, entering the Japan Alps. We stopped at one rest-area which was located on the Suwa Lake. It reminded me a lot of Cayuga Lake, similar views of the lake surrounded by low mountains. The rest stops along this highway are similar to those along the interstate going through New York. There are lots of shops and restaurants at each establishment and sometimes there are little gardens or "nature" trails that you can walk around on. One of the stops on the way back had an herb garden. At the Suwa Lake rest area we got lunch and then just hung around outside for awhile taking pictures of the scenery. I had curry rice (a really common dish here in Japan) and it was not very good... kind of like cat food.
Back on the bus we watched Spirited Away, an animation film. I've seen parts of it and thought it was just kind of bizarre, but this time around it seemed really good. I would suggest it to people back in
Country!
View of the mountains from inside the bus. the states. Very innovative, really good graphics, etc. Our next stop was a Soba noodle making place. Soba noodles are one of the kinds of noodles here in Japan, and I guess the Nagano prefecture is famous for it's soba flour (buckwheat) and it's really good water with which you cook the noodles. It was a really fun experience to be able to make the noodles ourselves. We split up into groups and then we had these little old ladies help us make the dough and then roll the dough and then cut it into noodles. It was crazy to watch the ladies go through the procedures because it was obvious that they were really practiced. They went so fast and their movements were so practiced and almost unconscious. I bought some soba flour, so maybe we can make it sometime dad (in your bread making bowl). The noodles were really good and we stuffed ourselves.
After making soba, we all went outside. The weather on this trip was perfect. It reminded me (and Jordan) so much of Ithaca's fall. The weather was cool and clear and the air just smelled fresh. There was a really big slide outside the
Suwa Lake
Tiana and I outside the Suwa Lake rest stop. soba place, going up the side of the mountain. I climbed up there to take pictures and I didn't really want to go down the slide because I don't really like big slides, but as I was walking back down, ALL of the IES students started yelling at me to just come down. And they all started chanting my name. Peer pressure gave in and I came down the huge slide. It was hilarious to have like 60 people cheer when I came out at the bottom...
So then we hopped back into the bus and went to the Zenkoji Temple. It was a really old temple, I think perhaps the oldest wooded temple in Japan. Something like that. It really was incredible. Shin-san (the IES staff member who organized the trip and was the chaperone for my buss) took us into the bottom of the temple. We had to take our shoes off (something that I am finally getting used to here in Japan... you must take your shoes off before entering basically all interior spaces) and then we went into this labirynth (don't know how to spell that word) which was PITCH dark. Absolutely no light. And so
Zenkoji temple
Picture of the temple. ooh pretty. all sixty of us snaked through this sort of maze underneath the temple. The idea was to walk around with one of your sense impaired and then you will find "something special." It is training for monks, they are supposed to immerse themselves in this experience and perhaps find something out about themselves. Also, there is a wooden padlock along the wall, and if you are able to find and touch it you get good luck for a year. So the IES kids all walked through the tunnel holding hands and mumbled and fumbled around blindly. We found the padlock and touched it, so hopefully we will all have a lucky year.
After doing this maze thing, we just walked around for awhile. I bought a little fortune (all temples have little papers which tell your fortune which you can buy for a few hundred yen) and it said that I have "a little bit of luck in love." Hmmm... Also, this place was a HUGE tourist attraction, so there were tons of little souvenier shops. I bought some sweets which taste a little like turkish delight with walnuts inside, but they are made from soba. I bought them for
Matsumoto Castle
Castle viewed from across the mote. my field placement office, because it is customary here in Japan to purchase little gifts for people back at home. I would send some home, but they only keep for 10 days unless you freeze them. Zvi and I also saw a place where you could buy a whole bucket of edible crickets. Yum. When walking through the souvenier shops we saw a man sitting on the ground without his pants screaming.
Back on the bus. We drove for awhile more, everyone was just sleeping and listening to their ipods, and then we arrived at the Matsumoto Castle. The castle was really beautiful and from inside there were beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. The castle is not the kind of castle that you find in Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella. The architecture was very "Japanese" with slightly curved, tiled roofs, and several tiers. We walked around inside the castle for awhile, looking in all of the rooms. It was all wooden and extermely beautiful. Once again we had to take our shoes off before going inside. Some of the rooms were so open to the outside... there were sliding window screens that could be opened on all four
Inside the castle
Zvi and I inside the castle. sides of the room so that the breeze and light passed through. There were also REALLY steep stairs, I have no idea how some of the old men who were walking around made it up them. There was one room, at the back of the castle, which had a beautiful little terrace. I think that when I have a house I would like to have rooms which are modeled after Japanese architecture. There was supposedly a dungeon somewhere, but none of us found it. We also took a big group photo outside of the castle. The Japanese are big into group photos, but it will be really nice to have a picture of everyone in the program.
That was our last stop for the day, so we hopped onto the bus and drove to Shibu-Onsen, the tiny little onsen town where our hotels were. The
onsen are natural hot springs baths. The town was SO perfect, it couldn't have been more picturesque. It was set in the middle of the montains, near a river. All of the people in the town were SO nice and everyone said "ohaiyo gozaimasu" (good morning) and "konbanwa" (good evening) and made little chit-chat and
View from castle
Looking out towards the mountains from the 5th floor of the castle. smiled and waved and bowed at each other, the complete opposite of here in Tokyo. Since the town was so small, everyone knew that 65 Americans were coming to stay there for the weekend. There were people who met us at the bus to welcome us and escort us to the hotel.
The hotel was such a good experience. It was a traditional ryokan, which is basically a Japanese hot spring inn. We had traditional Japanese-style rooms, with tatami mats. We had to roll our futons out at night, and then put them away in the morning. The futons were surprisingly comfortable, some people said they were more comfortable than the beds we have here in the dorm. All of the Ayase ladies except Oahn and another girl named Jennifer roomed together, so there were seven of us total in the room. HUGE slumber party every night! We got so close to each other on the trip. We were constantly joking around and making fun of each other. We adoped Tiana as our "mamisan" (mom). We also started a game of "butt-punch" with the entire IES group. It is kind of like that game we play at home (ha ha
Ayase Ladies
All of the girls inside our room. Jennifer, Carrie, Becca, Charissa, Tiana, Katherine, and me. I know Libby just loves it) where we punch each others butts while going up the stairs. Anyway, the rules of butt punch are (1) every man for himself (2) punch butts whenever you can. So basically the entire trip people were walking around covering their butts so they wouldn't get punched.
Anyway, at the hotel we all changed into our yukata, which are the cotton robes that you probably can picture... they are very "japanese." The entire weekend, everyone just walked around in the yukata, kind of like pjs. But we all decided it was the most comfortable and the easiest thing in the world to wear. We also wore geta, which are those platform wooden sandals that are also very "japanese" whenever we left the hotel. We had tea in our room every evening and we all just kind of lounged about. The Shibu-Onsen town has 9 onsens scattered around the streets. Basically the entire town thrives on the hospitality business. There were dozens of traditional Japanese hotels so there were tons of vacationers walking around all of the time in their yukata just taking baths.
The baths were SO cool! Everyone just got butt naked (at first
Hotel Room
Another view of our room. we thought it would be weird, but we definitely got over it and it wasn't a big deal at all) and went into these scalding hot baths. The water source is from the inside of the mountain, and this fresh water is apparently very good for your health and skin. If anything it just made everyone super relaxed and calm. We tried to go to all nine baths because you could get a stamp on this souvenier town at each of the baths. Oh by the way it was divided between ladies and gentlemen, so we didn't have to see the other gender naked. But in the baths there was only a wall (very tall of course) between the boys and the girls, so we were always having conversations across the walls. Basically the baths are like a big tub inside a little house. There is an area to change and cubbies to put your towels and clothes, and then the bath is in another room. Sometimes the water is almost 80 or 90 degrees celcius, which is just short of boiling. In that case, we had to run cold water for awhile before it was bearable. We had to
Shoes
All of the IES kids' shoes at the front-door of the hotel. Every evening they arranged our shoes and put out slippers and geta for us. take showers at the hotel before going into the baths. The showers were a little weird. You sit on little stools and take a shower, but there are just rows of showers, so you are cleaning yourself right next to other people. I've always been scared to take a bath here at the dorm, but I think I've been cured of my modesty.
At 7:30 we all had a big group dinner. It was AMAZING food, prepared by the hotel staff. We each had our own little tray at which we sat (Japanese style... my legs still aren't used to it) and on the tray were tons of little dishes of things. We had fruit, salad, noodles (udon one night, macaroni another night), rice, fish (usually a piece of salmon), pickled vegetables, tempura (one night it was fish tempura, another night it was potato), chicken (one night it was grilled chicken that was served on a little fire on our tray, another night it was fried chicken), miso soup, cabbage, tofu, etc. etc. etc. We were definitely well fed. It was so relaxing to have a really good healthy meal and then head back into the onsen.
Ok, so that's
Tea Time
Jennifer, Katherine, and Tiana having a cup of tea before dinner. all for the first day of the trip I think. More to come soon.
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Chelsea
non-member comment
Fuuun tiiiime!
Looks like you had a great time in Nagano. That was a very nice read. I am planning to live in Nagano next year as an exchange student. I really like the sound of the Shiba-onsen. I may have to visit there! (Sorry if this is old. I have no idea. XD)