Nagano

10-12 January 2014

My first big adventure in Japan was a two-day road trip to the Nagano prefecture. Japan is divided into 47 prefectures; which translates over to our version of states. The first day of my road trip, I went up to the Jigokudani Monkey Park, then up into the mountains to see the Togakushi Shrine, down into the heart of Nagano to see the Zenko-ji Temple, then found my way to a hostel in Suzaka, a suburb of Nagano, for the night. On the second day, I went south towards Matsumoto and visited a wasabi farm and a castle on my way back to base.

Since being here, I have gotten a vehicle. Since military folk are always coming and going, the vehicles on base get passed around more than germs at a daycare.  (I had another analogy but kids may read this…) So most of the vehicles are old and kind of junky, but darn it if they don’t get you from point A to point B without breaking down. I wasn’t going to name my car, but I have caught myself referring to it as Marshmallow Banshee quite a few times. It is boxy and white (marshmallow) and there is a loose belt so when you turn it on it squeals like a banshee until it is warmed up. :P Haha

Anyway, even though I do have a vehicle, I rented a van from base for my trip. I did this because the vans have snow tires that I do not have, and they will pay for toll tickets! So, on the morning of the 10^th, I went and picked up my van, decided that the Japanese GPS that it came with was useless to me, put the address to the Monkey Park into my phone’s google maps app, put on some rockin’ tunes, and I was off. When I was getting onto the highway, I stopped by a booth that printed out a ticket… like a parking garage would. This is what I would give to the tollbooth operator.

Once away from the city, I really got to enjoy the scenery. Fussa in the Tokyo prefecture is in the Kanto Plains region. It was a very nice change from the constant crowd to be able to see open spaces and well tended stretches of land as I winded my way up towards the impressive Japanese Alps. I was in the northern portion of the Alps that are referred to as the Hida Mountains.

After a while, I started wondering about a rest stop. I had been seeing “P” signs by exits/turn offs for a few stops and some had other symbols like the gasoline or coffee cup or fork/spoon, so I became more and more sure that these were rest stops. I pulled off on one and sure enough, a rest area. This rest stop had 3 places to grab a quick bite to eat, a sit down restaurant, a convenience store ½ the size of a Walgreens, the nicest bathrooms I’ve ever seen at a rest stop, and a full service gas station. This was not just a ‘special’ rest stop either. All of them are that nice and super convenient because even though there are all those amenities, it is still just the one access stop off the highway, so no worrying about getting lost or turned around.

Remember that ticket that I got when I first got on the highway? Well instead of paying 8 different tollbooths on the way up, the ticket shows where I am coming from and judging where I am getting off, there is a table/graph they use to figure out how much I owe. Super convenient! I was a giant fan of this concept. The van I was in had an ‘Eco-start’ feature so that it turned off the engine when I was stopped… it was weird and they are fairly new. So new that one of the tollbooth operators had not seen it. Even though there was a language barrier, we had a perfectly understood non-verbal exchange over this odd car feature:

I pulled up to the tollbooth, we exchanged greetings, I handed him the toll ticket, he was at his computer for a second and then paused, did a slow double take towards the hood of the van, and looked at me quizzically. I just let my foot off the brake pedal a bit which started the engine again and lurched the vehicle forward a bit as I half shrugged back. He gave an understanding “Ah” and laughed.

When finally my GPS got me up to the Monkey park, my heart sank a bit when the access road was closed due to snow. The sign said it was only about 35 min. hike though so I parked my car and got out… There, someone told me I couldn’t park there… That was done by pointing to my car and then crossing their forearms. Well crap. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Japanese people it’s that above all, they are polite and will help you when and if possible (from my experiences so far). There was a lot of pointing as he tried to explain how to get to the other entrance to the park, but when he could tell I was completely lost, he pointed to himself then his 4-wheeler cart thing then to me then my car.  I made the steering wheel driving motion and he gave the thumbs up. Neat! I was following him. So he led me about 5 minutes through town to the other access point. Totally out of his was, but made my day.

Once parked at Jigokudani, it was a 35 min hike through the woods anyway. It sure was pretty though. I had been missing the open areas and fresh air and SNOW! The monkeys themselves were pretty neat. The hot springs smelled like sulfur, but the monkeys didn’t mind :p Not all the monkeys get to chill in the hot tub. It’s like the royal family gets to be in there and all the rest are down in the river or other areas. There is one that is clearly the alpha male who makes the decisions of who gets to be there or not. I captured when someone got cast out… it was intense. Honestly, I was a bit edge every time they would get up and move around or get close to me. Especially when they would get all riled up. They had signs posted all over not to make eye contact with them and they mean it! You could tell when someone would because they would start getting antsy. You could feel it in the air. It was weird when you got down really close to the hot tub with them. At one point, it was actually downright horrifying, I was just about to leave as it was feeding time. A guy was spreading some sort of feed in the snow and monkeys were coming running from the hills and everything. I didn’t want to get in between them and their food but they were coming so fast and blocking the path… I did get a bit anxious. They are most definitely not afraid of people though. There was this little one that was picking up some ice and looked like he was handing it to a girl that was taking a picture of him. She was super close too.

So after the Monkey Park, I was nervous because my phone was almost dead and I had no charger and had no idea where to get a car charger. So, that catchphrase “Thank Heaven for 7-eleven” or something like that… well it’s true! In Japan, the main convenience stores are 7-eleven, Lawson’s Station, and Sunks. They really do have pretty much anything you could need when you’re in a jam. So, phone charging and GPS back online, I was on my merry little way to Togakushi Shrine. About half way there is when the driving started to get pretty fun and mountainous. If I did not have those snow tires, there is absolutely NO way I would have made it. This is the first official shrine that I have seen and it was pretty neat. I really liked the town of Togakushi as well. It was just so cute and quaint. Looked like a quiet little mountain town. Just crazy to think that there is this much snow on one part of this relatively small country and fairly warm beaches in another part maybe 100 miles away. Maybe less, I don’t feel like googling it and I’m not all that great with geography.

So working my way out of the mountains down toward the main portion of Nagano, I just kept saying “Wow” because of the scenery. I even pulled off on the side of the road, ran across and clung to the guardrail to get a picture/video of a particularly beautiful stretch of mountains. I also came across this covered patch of road at a 16% grade. Those of you reading this from Nebraska or other flat areas… a 6 or 8% grade is pretty steep. This was nerve-wrackingly steep… I know it was covered because if there were even a light dusting of snow on it, complete and utter chaos would ensue.

I made it down to Zenko-ji Temple, and this was my first temple experience. There are a lot of little shrines and a few big buildings, one main temple. Also, instead of a basic tori gate, they have an elaborate wooden gate with two guardians on either side. At this one, there were houses along a row on a street that preceded the gates and shops before that. Then there was a basic tori gate and the regular town. I arrived there a bit later than anticipated and some of the areas were shutting down for the evening, but I really enjoyed walking around.

After the Temple, I worked my way through town to Suzaka; which is just a suburb of Nagano. Nothing like a spread out of houses type suburb, but you know. In Suzaka was Guesthouse Kura, where I was going to stay for the night. It is a traditional Japanese-style house with tatami mats to sleep on and everything. I was going to stay in the female dorms but since I was the only female, I stayed in a single room all to myself. Probably easier to heat that way since there was no central heat, just a mini heater. My room had a side office with access to outside. Down the hall was a kitchen, and further down to the left was the shower room and wash closet (toilet room). Down to the right was more guest rooms, and in the middle was a garden. My favorite thing about traditional Japanese houses is that they usually have a garden area. This one was quite spacious and looked very peaceful.

I was going to go out and explore the town a bit on foot but turns out there wasn’t too much around and it was freezing out, so I opted to stay in and talk with the owner of the hostel, Marina, and her neighbor, Kaori. We were soon joined by another neighbor who rambled off his Japanese name and then said, “Call me Kutz”, and also by another hostel resident who I didn’t catch his name.  We sat and drank kabosu tea that Kaori’s sister-in-law had made, all of us centered around a heater in the main room of the front of the house. It was like putting lemon marmalade into hot water… in a good way. Kabosus are a type of Japanese lemon is what I got from the conversation. Marina spoke quite a good deal of English, Kaori studied English for 6 years (but she said it had been a while and she was enjoying practicing), Kutz spoke a little and the other traveler spoke very little as well. That being said, we all managed to stay fairly involved in conversation for the evening. I think my favorite part was when they were asking me how to say ‘hamburger’ and they were repeating, trying to sound as American as possible. It sounded like it was straight out of Pink Panther or something. It took all I had not to bust out laughing. They were also googling a bunch of random American things like chicken fried steak. I got from the conversation that Kutz worked with mentally handicapped people at a living facility around town, and Kaori worked at a bakery. They had never heard of a Paramedic, and when Kaori looked it up in her translation app and read it off, there were some approving “Oh” s, so I’m not sure exactly what it said but it probably sounded more impressive than it actually is. Haha!

In the morning, I left early for the Daio Wasabi Farm about 45 minutes north of Matsumoto. This was my absolute favorite view of the mountains from this farm. I am going to nerd out, but the mountains were just as I pictured the Misty Mountains to be when I read The Hobbit. Then, seeing this farm and its little set up of how they had the houses and watermills really made me feel like I was in the Shire or something. I thought it was pretty amazing that it was freezing and the grass was brown above the water yet looking in the water there was this vivid green plant life. Also, The watermills had a thin sheet of ice on them that was also quite visually stimulating. Walking up farther, I got to see all the wasabi plants. They were actually in the shallow river and you could see the steam coming off the water. I enjoyed walking around the grounds for a bit and appreciating some shrines that were about. One of the fun things the wasabi farm had to offer was the wasabi-everything concessions. Wasabi juice, wasabi beer, wasabi potato croquets, wasabi meat croquets, wasabi ice cream, etc. I tried some wasabi ice cream and a wasabi potato croquet. One thing about wasabi in its natural form (before it gets processed and spiced up) is that it is quite sweet. When it gets processed is when it gets spiced up. So not everything was translated, but of what was, what I retained from the processing and ‘heating up’ of wasabi is that the root is the part that is used, just like horseradish. The root is ground up and soaked in water. This is the step that the ‘spicing up’ occurs. From here, it is minced/pureed down and voila! Wasabi paste as we know and love. For what I had in the ice cream and croquet, it was just ground down for texture and a sweet taste that was quite good but not spicy by any means.

From the Wasabi Farm, I traveled down into the heart of Matsumoto to Matsumoto’s Castle. This Castle is one of the largest and most impressive military castles in Japan. It is also know as “Crow’s Castle” because it is said to look like a crow spreading its wings, but I think fish castle would be better suited. It had these ornate fish perched on the top of its roof peaks, and matching giant deep blue fish swimming in the moat around the castle. On interesting fact is that it has a ‘hidden floor’. If you count, you will see 6 floors, but actually there are 7. There was a secret 4^th floor that was for hiding supplies and warriors. The hallways were wider so that warriors in full armor could run through them as well. As much as it was built for military use, it still did have a personal touch on it. On the ground floor, one ruler had a moon room built on for his son or grandson (I forget). I did climb all the way up to the top though and take pictures. I mean climb too… the stairs were super steep, and narrow especially the further up in the castle. This was really the last stop of my journey. From here, I drove home for 3 hrs, nothing too eventful.

 I enjoy my work and my co-workers, but I really enjoy my time off, especially when it can be spent out enjoying my host country.