I had to be back in Takasaki by 10 am to set up the JOMO International Carnival. The gym was pretty chilly that morning! Thank goodness I remembered to bring my indoor shoes. Our table looked pretty awesome. N brought some soccer magazines, beer, postcards, and decor. He even spray painted a piece of fabric for a flag. I got Haribo at Costco and those were a big hit especially with children! I realized I actually had some German stuff with - my pencil case, Stabilos, and FIFA Germany wallet. Our table looked pretty authentic. We taught some German expressions and had people try to pronounce long German words. I think it was good, and went well!

Before the carnival started, we got lunch at the station, Subway. I managed to finagle my way through the order, yay! Another place I can order at, whew.

Last night I did some cooking preparation for the potluck Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Went to Costco so I’m bringing stuffing, rolls, and cranberry sauce. That also covers my two guests. Since tomorrow is the international carnival where I’m doing a Germany booth with another guy who speaks German, I had to make our poster. That involved printing photos at 7-Eleven! But I managed to recognize enough katakana and look at the pictures to figure out what buttons to press and it worked. Post bakery stop, I went shopping at Aeon Mall in Takasaki to get my dad’s Christmas present. It was my first proper Japanese mall. Jam-packed! I had to wait 10 minutes to find a parking spot. Looks like they like to do Christmas shopping here too! The stores all carry such cute clothing, but everything is so expensive and out of my price range. I think I’ll have to check out used clothing stores.

Afterward, I picked up my Japanese friend, K, and two others from Takasaki Station with all their food luggage. I was really happy K could come all the way from Saitama! My other friend, the JTE at one of my schools, E, was driving straight to the hall in Maebashi. This was her first Thanksgiving! I had to bake my stuffing in the oven first. It was interesting using the kitchen we had rented there. We had to take our shoes off before going in! I feel like that’s kinda unsafe. Downstairs, we had a bunch of food set up and tables. The turkeys were finally brought in and we rock paper scissored it to see who’d it first. S won for us so we got first dibs on the food! There was so much! I had to double layer my place, but it still didn’t cut it.

I had two plates, but was over full at the end. After group cleanup, I drove K back to the station and then myself home. Lying down in bed, felt uncomfortable ha.

Sadly, today was much cloudier than I had been expecting. A friend of L’s joined us for the drive to southern Yamanashi, Fujikawaguchiko. It’s the lake you always see in pictures with Mt. Fuji. It was my first time driving on the expressway aka interstate. Nicely paved, but expensive. You just bleed money. A 1.5 hour trip cost us 3000 yen. We drove a bit further to Gotemba to pick up S, a guy from our consulate group who lives in Shizuoka, the neighboring prefecture. That means I hit up four prefectures in a weekend, whoop. It was so overcast though that we could only see part of the base. Cries. I will have to return. The lake was large, and it was again cold and windy.

Most of the fall leaves were already gone, so we didn’t stick around for the night illumination. We walked around the lake and checked out the shops and festival stands. Getting food was a bit difficult though because there were so many people everywhere, the wait times were insane! We finally ended up eating at around 2 pm at a hoto restaurant. I had pumpkin hoto, a traditional Yamanashi dish which has thicker noodles than udon and a more creamier based broth. So delicious! Plus I was so hungry at that point. We stared across the lake where Mt. Fuji would have been. I feel like photoshopping it in haha. I definitely want to climb Fuji-san in the summer when it’s open.

Afterward S told us about a free light show near Gotemba so we decided to head there via back roads to avoid the expensive tolls. As we approached, the roads clogged up and the cars barely moved. It was an insane amount of traffic. We finally managed to get in parking lot #7 with L asking the traffic guy if it was okay. Despite him saying that we will have to wait a lot, we managed to get a spot after 15 minutes. It was much warmer here, off the mountains. The light show had a 400 m long light tunnel with various decor inside. Impressive! We also stopped to get some food and beer. I had some sweet potato fries and chocolate dango. They also had carnival games. There was an aquarium and water and light show at the end that you had to pay for. As we had a long drive back, we didn’t do either of these things. S had gone here just the other night, but he kindly accompanied us again. It was cool to see all the light exhibits!

Yesterday, after school I headed home for a quick dinner and to go pick up a car charger at Yamada Denki. It’s always super confusing to find anything, but I finally managed. Then I was off, driving about two hours, to Yamanashi Prefecture to visit L in Kiyosato, Hokuto City. It was a dark, windy, back road for most of the way. A fun drive since the streets were pretty empty and no one drives the speed limit here. It’s always 10-30 kph over since 40-50 kph (25-30 mph) is your usual speed limit. I felt like I was racing along at 50 mph on roads that’d normally be 55 mph in the US. I made one stop at 7-Eleven to use the restroom and get an onigiri. So much cleaner and nicer than those of the usual McD stops or rest areas. She lives nestled in the mountains at an elevation of 1100 m (3600 ft). It was so much colder! Only about 43 out instead of my usual 50.

In the morning I could see all the bare trees and pines, and Mt. Fuji! We first went to Heidi’s Village, a Switzerland village based on the Japanese anime series, and stopped at a conbini for breakfast along the way. I will never get sick of seeing mountains. The rolling hills just take my breath away. The village was cute, with goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and gardens. They had all these light decorations up for a night light show. You could even get married there. The movie Heroine Shikkaku was partially filmed there! Afterward, we stopped by the farmer’s market. I really need to go to mine!

We got lunch at this cute place, Sunnyside Cafe, a log building. There’s so many wooden type building and European style houses. It reminded me of the European Alps. Lunch was delish! We got a set with dessert and tea, yum! It was my first time eating saba (mackerel) with chopsticks and trying to fish out all the bones. So tough! Then we went up to Keep Farm in Kiyosato. We stopped along a bridge to take some stunning photos of Mt. Fuji, but boy was it getting cold and windy! I really should have brought my winter jacket, though at least I had my gloves. The Keep was beautiful. Rolling pastures with an amazing view of Fuji-san. They had a hot spring foot bath on the deck by the Christmas tree so that you could warm up. I need to start carrying a small towel with me. We went inside the shop and got Jersey cow ice cream. Delicious! I ended up buying a little artsy postcard to hang on my walls. They are still too empty.

 Today we celebrated Thanksgiving at my school with my English club! We also invited K and his boys to come and join us. My teacher did all the shopping and even got a turkey at Costco. They only had big 11 kg turkeys that would have never fit in the small school ovens, so she ordered a 3 kg one from them. The smallest turkey I’ve ever seen ha. I gathered all these recipes from my mom and friends so we managed to have turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing with homemade bread, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin bars (aka squares of pumpkin pie since there are no pie dishes here). K bought some sparkling apple juice. Cooking the turkey was tricky too because we don’t have a good rack or pan here, nor a turkey baster, but it all worked out. I think it was perfectly done! Not overcooked which I had worried about. We put the turkey in during lunch time and then my teacher and I checked on it during our free periods.

I’m so happy. Everything turned out well despite hunting for ingredients and having to make some substitutions. It really had the Thanksgiving taste and feel. Yesterday we did a bunch of prep work from 5 to 8 pm. The students split into teams and tackled everything head on. I had to run around helping because most of them don’t cook. They also did all the washing up. It was fun working as a team. In the end, we had 24 people at our table with two third year girls even coming. We said our thanks before the meal. I think they really felt the spirit of Thanksgiving!

On Sunday, I drove to Takasaki (getting all the driving in this weekend) for a birthday lunch at a French restaurant called L’isle Adam. The menu was all in Japanese although their website was also in French. Luckily they had a chalkboard menu with French. We were about 10 ladies from a mix of backgrounds. I had a lovely afternoon making new friends and eating delicious food! I had the lunch fish menu which came with salad and a drink, cafe au lait. Paid extra for the vanilla pudding dessert, so worth it! After I got home, I had to go grocery shopping and popped by Daiso to get some Christmas decor. I ended up making an advent wreath. I have some lights I can hang up around my balcony too.

Drive #2! I felt much more comfortable this time around, getting into the swing of things. It was about an hour drive to Shibukawa where I was meeting A. I stopped by the bakery on the way out to bring her something since she was making us French toast! Her apartment was so cutely decorated and breakfast delicious with a French press. I helped her set up her sim card for her American phone with IIJmio.

Later, she drove me over to Ikaho and showed me around onsen, hot spring, town. We climbed the 365 steps to the top, stopping at the foot bath halfway up to soak our feet. So many cute shops, ryokans and restaurants along the way.There are some spots that show the water rushing underneath the town with its iron, rust color. At the top is the shrine. We then walked over to Kajika Bridge which was all lit up despite most of the leaves having already fallen down. A little past that you can taste the famous golden and silver waters of Ikaho. The golden water was rather warm and tasted strongly like iron as you could tell from the brown rushing river. The silver water was cooler and less iron-like. We took a bath at the onsen too! My first true onsen in iron waters. They had a gold and silver water partition. It was serene with the cold rain falling on our heads while our toes kicked up the leaves on the bottom of the pool. Everything was outdoor including the changing room.

On the way back, I took some more photos as it was completely dark by then. We headed back and got dinner in Shibukawa at a hipster place called Junk Sweets. After A got changed (it was raining hard and only about 45 out), J joined us and we walked there. We had amazing chai tea and a fantastic, huge pizza. J chatted with the owner in Japanese. It’s their go-to place so they know him well. I was feeling good about myself too, because I understood a lot of the conversation. Context helps so much. He even prepared a belated birthday dessert for A with a sparkler! The kindness here, I can’t get over it.

Thursday and Friday I was away at English Camp with the junior high schoolers from a super global high school that puts a strong emphasis on English. We went near Mt. Akagi at the National Akagi Youth Friendship Center. It was quite pretty, nestled among some colorful trees and the woods. I had to catch the train really early to be able to arrive in Shin-Maebashi to get the bus that would take us over to the school where we would switch buses again to drive to the camp. About twenty high school ALTs went. The building itself was super cold as the sun disappeared. I was really glad that I brought gloves, wool socks, and my full winter jacket for the evening performances in the gym.

I really had a lot of fun playing games, and watching the skits the students performed. Such creativity and they worked really hard. The cafeteria food was interesting. The first day was the least appetizing, but there was always rice for every meal. And potatoes, all the carbs. The signs were in Japanese so I had to just try a little bit of everything to see what it was and if I’d like it. One mealtime we managed to talk with the students, but they were also very shy and liked to stick with their friends.

At night, we had the whole public baths to ourselves. The other teachers had bathed earlier so I managed to take some photos before we all got naked in the water. In the morning of the second day, I was using the bathroom on our floor with all these cute, little 7th and 8th graders. They were really impressed by me putting on foundation since they aren’t allowed to wear makeup. Then I let down my wet-ish, curly hair and there was more oohs. Ah, the little things, ha. We had some free time in the morning so we went on a little hike through the woods. We ended up circling the building into the campground area. I would love to have actually done some camping!

I had lunch with a discussion group and we managed to chat a bit after. They invited their favorite teacher to sit with us and another teacher followed so I got to meet them. The one guy teacher was a master origami maker and could make a dragon! As we were leaving on the bus, the two teachers were running around looking for me. He had made me a dragon! It was stunning! I’m crushed that as we were getting off the bus, I forgot him on a little shelf :( Again, you can see how amazingly kind the people here are.

M picked me up this morning as we headed off to pick up three others in Fujioka. K was meeting us at Sakurayama Park, where you could see the winter cherry blossoms. It was raining, so some of the others who had wanted to join us, changed their minds. We made to the park with only one mis-turn. There was a guy who said something in Japanese and waved us on. We only understood 300 m so we kept driving figuring he was directing us to parking. Instead we came to another entrance with a booth where you had to pay and had to turn around and re-enter the park. A little confusing, but this time around, the other guy directed us to the parking lot.

The blossoms were pretty faint, I think it was a bit early in the season, but the fall leaves were at their peak. Absolutely stunning! I love the red of momiji, Japanese maple. The rainy weather added some fog. We first walked around a Japanese garden and then walked through the park up a ginormous hill that had a gazebo on top. K decided to stay behind here and take a nap in the peaceful nature. The rest of us were hungry and wanted to get some food. We stopped by the stands that were selling local food, and the mushroom guy even spoke English!

We decided to head to Kanna Town where O, another ALT, was finishing a marathon. We grabbed some conbini food to tide us over and began the drive. The road curves around a lake surrounded by fall leaves with some red bridges spanning it. So picturesque. The color of the water was really cool too. He had already finished by the time we arrived, but we managed to cheer on some of the Japanese runners. Apparently there’s even an exchange with France so a marathon runner comes from there to run. There was free soup and O had some food coupons so we got to try some Japanese food for free, including grilled corn just like my university’s Japanese club always makes.

So I decided to rent a car! I’m sick of bothering other people for rides and not being able to go to many places because of the lack of public transport access. Ebachan brought the car down for me to do a test drive. I had to be in Takasaki at 6:30 pm for a Guy Fawkes party aka setting off fireworks in a park. Thus, I drove for the first time on the left handed side of the road! Pulling out from my small street was the scariest. I knew intellectually that I had to get in the left lane while turning right, but my body was screaming no, that’s wrong. And there was an incoming car too. Otherwise the drive was fine, just turned on the windshield wipers four times instead of my blinker since those are switched. My depth perception was a little whacked too, it felt like I was driving too close to the outer edge of the street sometimes. The drive was full of dark, curvy back roads and since I drove the speed limit, there were many impatient people behind me. Ebachan said I drove really well and safe so he feels good about renting the car to me, ha.

Once all eleven of us showed up in Takasaki at the park by the river, we started lighting sparklers and various fireworks. Some that even shot off the ground into the air. No one got maimed or died so it was a success. We did end up moving downwind from the bridge though because they were setting off so much smoke and covering the bridge and drivers. Afterwards, we drove to the train station to eat at an Indian restaurant where a couple more people joined us. The nan was ginormous! And the curry, yummy. Also got to have mango lassi again! The staff was all Indian and we only spoke English so that was easier. Post dinner, I went out with a couple people to Pitch where we got drinks and played darts. I met another Gunma ALT who studied at Ohio University and we have a ton of mutual friends. The world is so small. We headed out around before midnight so people could catch their trains and I caught a ride back home with M.

Today is Culture Day in Japan so many places had free admission. I had a hike of Mt. Myogi, our nearest mountain 30 minutes away, planned. K picked me up and we began the scenic drive through farm fields heading towards the crags of Myogi-san. It has such a jagged summit line. Another winding ascent, although shorter than Akagi, and we met up with the rest of the GAJET group at Nakanodake shrine’s parking lot. About twelve of us were hiking together. As we left, the policemen gave us a map and told us to be careful. I didn’t know this at the time, but on the neighboring peak, a couple went missing this past weekend. They found the man dead, but haven’t yet found the woman.

We did a nice loop that took us about 3 hours with some waits for the chain climbs. The chains already start right at the beginning. We went passed the four stone arches of Myogi. Only one part with the chains was a bit scary coming down, but the rest had decent footholds and handholds to use. The chains were mostly an extra precaution. The views were pretty awesome and definitely make me want to do the 6-8 hour summit hike! The autumn colors were beautiful, but a bit early still. If I get a car this month, I really want to go back. I got really hot, although it was cold in the parking lot with the wind blowing. Should have worn less layers. After we came down by the shrine, some people stopped for lunch. I hung out before four of us went to the sentou (public hot baths).

I forgot to bring a little towel aka washcloth with me so I had to buy one for a little bit extra. M and I had a lovely soak especially in the outdoor bath. The air was chilly and we had a fantastic view of Tomioka, Takasaki, and Maebashi. There was a road much further, but if you walked by the edge, you were definitely flashing people, haha. We got some ice cream afterward as you are supposed to consume milk products post-bath. We all decided to get some yakimanju in Tomioka and S, who has spent a lot of time in Tomioka, told K and I about some good places! We also went to a mochi shop that had daifuku which was cold, cream filled mochi. So yummy! I got pumpkin and tiramisu flavor. Definitely will be back. It’s also right by my school. I took K and M to my bakery and picked up some things there too. Then it was finally time to head back to my house. The hike plus sentou really knocked me out and I just wanted my bed.

Woke up at 7:30 am! Just can’t sleep in, blah. I got a message yesterday from another Gunma teacher that also does photography. He wanted me to model for fantasy concept shoot idea he had. The other guy that was supposed to come, couldn’t make it, so we decided to just do single photos. I met him at Isesaki station at 1 pm after fitting in some grocery shopping in the morning. He bought me Starbucks and a scone as thanks. I didn’t have time to eat lunch before catching the train ha. The chai tea tasted the same as US’s unlike Europe’s. We had a lot of driving ahead of us. The first location was on a bamboo path down to a rocky river near Mizunuma. Such beautiful fall colors everywhere!

Then we drove up Mt. Akagi. It was a long, steep, curvy ascent, but completely beautiful. Mt. Akagi is used by the drifters so you could see the scrapes on the side railings, and tire tracks all over the road. They had these waves in the road as a deterrent. Definitely got to see some super nice cars! The top of the mountain was already completely bare around the lake and shrine. We took some more photos in a gazebo, but just portrait shots. It was only about 5 C (41 F) out at this time so I got to keep my jacket on, whew. He dropped me off in Takasaki and I headed home via train.