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 10th,
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 4th
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.
