On Friday night, us English teachers had a work party in Takasaki with the old and current teachers. I stopped by Animate before it, but they didn’t have what I was looking for. The restaurant, Dragon Cafe, was right across the street. What cool decor too. We had our own little private cubby. I took advantage of the all you can drink part to finally have cranberry juice again. It’s been ages! The food was also very yummy, but I did not eat the raw egg with rice dish. I went home straight after because I had to get up early this morning to get on a 2.5 hour train ride to Yokohama! I was meeting B and her boyfriend there. I know B from Prague as we were in the same TEFL class. She spent the last two years teaching in Vietnam and has moved for a brief moment to Japan.

I got to Yokohama station shortly after 10:30 am and went to try and meet them. We had a bit of a mix up and ended finding each other by the subway gates about 30 minutes later. It was awesome to see her again! We headed off to Minatomirai, the harbor, port area. Ocean! The wonderful smell of salt. Ah, how I love that smell. We walked along the waterfront over to the famous red brick warehouses and checked out the shops inside. After a slightly pricey lunch there at a burger and sandwich shack, we stopped by a pie shop (pie!!) before proceeding to the Yokohama ship terminal deck. What a view! It was so windy too! The ocean breeze helped keep us cool.

We headed next for the Chinatown, one of the largest in the world, passing by the stadium where there was currently a game going on. We stopped for some booze at a conbini and drank it on our way. Oh, how nice it is to have no open container laws. Chinatown was cool and filled with dumplings and other SE Asian shops. We popped in and out of stores. Our feet were quite weary so we headed to the nearby waterfront park and took a break to eat our pie. The gardens in the park were stunning and filled with roses. There was a fountain too that was a gift from San Diego. We ended up strolling back along the water to the subway station. I had a great time hanging out with them and seeing a new city! We said our goodbyes, and I went back to Yokohama station to try and see the outside. I bought a postcard with the old station facade, but didn’t realize they had updated it a long time ago. No more pretty building. After a quick Starbucks stop, I got back on the trains to head back to Gunma.

I had made plans to go to my first handball game today! Tomioka Higashi is very strong in sports, especially handball and we make it to nationals each year. This was the regional championship game to qualify for the national tournament in August in Yamaguchi Prefecture. I first met up with Ichigo-sensei at her house at 10:30 am, before we went to Yoshii high school together. It was really crowded and hard to get a parking spot. The boys team was playing when we arrived. I met some of my students’ parents while we waited for their supporters to clear the gym.

I was really surprised. Everyone changed into their indoor shoes at the door. I forgot mine so I borrowed a pair from Ichigo-sensei. The pile of shoes around the entrance was huge and we had to wade through to make it in the the gym. The spectators had two rows of chairs to sit in along the side of the gym, or they could stand around the court or on the second floor balcony. Each cheering team choose the color they would wear to represent the school. Ours was dark blue and pink. Once the game started, the temperature rose quickly. Poor players. And it was so loud! I don’t know how they can talk to each other or hear the coach with all the drumming, cheering, and smashing plastic bottles, with beads inside, against each other. A whole different kind of environment from the usual Japanese silence.

Another ALT, L, also was there watching the game. It was really exciting. The rules I learned back in 10th grade started coming back to me. Tomihi was so good! I was really surprised. One of the girls kept running so incredibly fast. I’m really happy I got a chance to see them play. I wish I could go see the national competition, but it’s too far away. I was kindly treated to cold tea by one of the moms and got to chat with the students after the game. Utterly impressed. Ichigo-sensei and I returned to her house and she cooked lunch for me and some neighbors that came over for a visit. I finally got to meet her husband too. We had a fun time chatting while the kids played, and for dessert we made blueberry scones in her oven. They turned out super yummy although it was my first time making them.

Another early morning departure to go hiking. I decided to re-attempt summiting Mt. Asama without snow. I left shortly before 7 am and enjoyed the empty early roads. I had such gorgeous weather this time, I could see Asama next me, getting bigger and bigger. Sadly, it’s not as pretty without snow on top. I took the same route as last time. The winding, gravel road was pretty bad without snow too because there were so many more potholes to dodge. Quite a bumpy ride. There were many other hikers this time. I didn’t encountered a lot of people on the first leg, but once I passed the evacuation shelter/hut, I came across the same people twice during my loop. They were all impressed that I was hiking alone and by how fast I was - ha, long legs I guess? I thought I was going slowly with lots of breaks!

The first stretch through the woods wasn’t fun. I almost turned around by the immense number of biting flies. I didn’t bring any bug spray with me and what started with two horseflies ended up at twenty at one point. I kept killing them so I don’t know if that attracted more. I’ve never seen such a swarm. The constant buzzing was very annoying and it made it hard to take a break since the flies would immediately descend and attack. The sun was strong and hot, but I made it to the shelter by 10:30 am, in 2 hours as planned, in less than half the time it took me with snow. The flies left me shortly before, once I passed through the valley with the sulfur river. The landscape looks completely different without snow! The biggest change was the pine tree forest ahead. I thought the trees were really short before, but half of them was covered in snow! The snow was actually much deeper than I had guessed before. The trail markers that were at our shins, were now around my head. That means almost 6 ft deep snow!

The going was super easy and quick at this point, and I reached our past turnaround point and then the junction where the trail split to go up to Asama. Sadly, I didn’t check the volcanic activity ahead of time… The alert had just been raised a week ago to level 2 and the trail up Asama was closed. So once again, Mt. Asama foiled me. Apparently, it had a small eruption earlier in the week of smoke and yesterday, a small amount of ash was deposited and caught on camera. Volcanic tremors continue to happen as well. Asama’s daily sulfur dioxide releases have been growing sharply, hitting 1,700 tons on Thursday from 500 tons on Monday. I ended up going left at the junction, following the signs for the J-Loop trail that goes along the ridgeline overlooking Asama. At this altitude, it was already much cooler and pleasant. The wind really picked up as I emerged from the treeline. Oh, it was stunning. Asama rising up on the right, windswept landscape ahead of me, and the other mountains on the left with so much green.

I ended up snacking before the steep ascent up to the ridgeline. I couldn’t believe that the trail was in front of me. It just looked like rocks! It was really fun though. I enjoy more bouldering-like hikes and the view didn’t hurt either. I had lunch at the first mountain peak, Sennindake, 2319 m. I continued crossing the ridge and hit the other two peaks, Jakotsudake, 2366 m, and Kurofuyama, 2404 m. The latter part of the trail passed in and out of the forest and hordes of gnats. I made it to the last overlook point, before descending on the other side of the ridgeline at about 2 pm. This was a rough descent as I was pretty tired and the trail was rather slippery with gravel. There were many flowers along the switchbacks down the mountain.

I made a break at the shelter to rest my aching toes, before finishing the rest of the descent. I passed by the waterfall on my way down which was bursting due to all the rain. There was even a beautiful rainbow! I got back to my car at 4:30 pm, after 8 hours of hiking including all my breaks. Not bad for 13 km with an elevation gain from 1400 m to 2400 m! I got a little headachy from the elevation change, but nothing too bad! I did have to push myself although not as much as at Oze, ha. So lucky that I had great weather too!

 

The family had to head off to the airport at 2 pm so we didn’t have a lot of time left. Lars and I left the parents to pack and left for Ikebukuro at 9:30 am. Lars really wanted to visit the main, biggest Pokemon Center. I was surprised to see they were selling more Japan exclusive anniversary goods. I ended up getting earrings! We returned to the airbnb to check out by noon, and departed with all the luggage over to Ueno. We grabbed some food at a cafe and ate in Ueno park while listening to a fantastic street cellist. I brought them to the Keisei station and we said our goodbyes. I’m really happy I got to show them around a bit!

Yesterday, my friend, A, contacted me because she was going back to Tochigi to visit her family. That’s so much closer in Osaka, but I already had the Tokyo plans. We managed to figure out we could meet halfway in Omiya, Saitama for dinner today. I had the rest of the day to spend in Tokyo, but I didn’t want to travel around too much or spend a lot of money. I was exhausted from doing so many things ha. I decided to relax at Starbucks and read first, before to the huge toy store, Yamashiroya. There were so many floors! But the basement offered character goods which is what I was after. Need to stock up on cute writing supplies. I also got a present for A. Afterward, I went and hung out in Ueno park. I staked out a grassy spot and read some more. The weather was gorgeous. It took about a half hour to get from Ueno to Omiya where I hung out at the Starbucks at the station there to kill more time.


A managed to catch an earlier train and we met outside the west entrance to go get shabu shabu! My first time eating this kind of hot pot. We had to wait a little before getting a seat, but it gave us time to discuss the menu - which kinds of sauces, meat, vegetables. We got so many little dishes and the food was amazing! My favorite add in was the really sweet potatoes in the tomato sauce. Yum! Although it was pricey, it was so worth it. We parted after a great time chatting at dinner and I managed to get back home at 11:30 pm. Getting up tomorrow will be hard!

We had plans to met our friend, K, at Tokyo station at 9:30 am. She was going to spend the day with us and show my family around Tokyo. My family was excited to see her again because when she studied in the US, she spent a weekend at my house. Lars didn’t have time to eat breakfast because he was so slow in getting up, so while waiting for K, we decided to stop at a bakery. K joined us and stopped at a yummy bakery on the way to the Imperial Palace where I ate a cranberry muffin. After the quick snack, Papa wandered around taking photos of a fountain and we moved on to the outer moat and walls of the palace. We walked over to the East Imperial Gardens entrance. It was hot out so we tried to stick to shade. The hydrangeas were blooming wonderfully.

We exited the gardens and took the subway over to Tsukiji fish market to get some lunch. The tiny alleys were jampacked with people. I think my family found it pretty interesting to see all the different kinds of fresh seafood and the prices. We ate at a sushi bowl place, sushi donburi, as they had enough space to seat us five. It was my first time eating prawns, the large shrimp, raw and I wasn’t a big fan. Too slimy. Sea urchin was good though! Lars freaked out while deshelling them because of the brain juice haha. Right outside the restaurant, something was going on. They had two of the transportable shrines, one filled with three guys playing the flute and drums. It was great that my family got to experience something so Japanese.

We walked along the main road over to the Hama-rikyu gardens. It’s located along the water and has salt water ponds! It smelled like the ocean and you could see the effects of the tide. It was a large and beautiful garden. The tea house located in the middle of one of the ponds was stunning, and a popular building to sketch. There were like twenty different people painting and sketching it! We caught a water bus, aka boat, from the gardens to head upstream to Asakusa. The ride took about 45 minutes and we passed under so many different color bridges. It was the closest I’ve been to the Sky Tree as well. After disembarking, we went to Starbucks for an afternoon wake up call, before stopping by the atm, and entering Asakusa temple area.

Sadly, the entrance gate was under construction and covered up. The old style shopping street that lead to the temple was filled with food stalls and souvenirs. Very tempting to buy many things. We passed through the main gate into the temple grounds. It was quite impressive and beautiful. We got there after 5 pm so I couldn’t get the seal stamp in my book, but wandering around the grounds was very satisfying. We saw lots of koi, some really funny ones sticking up through a waterfall, trying to eat algae off the rocks.

We decided to get dinner by Shinjuku station. My one request was something very Japanese and K fulfilled it with yakitori! We ended up a tiny winding alley near Shinjuku station. I later found this is called Piss Alley… I did see a rat run across a sign overhead. It was chock full of tiny restaurants, all selling yakitori. The smell of barbecued meat and smoke was everywhere. K asked in a couple places if they had room. Most of the downstairs areas were tiny, stool seating, but some had larger seating upstairs. We managed to get a spot in one. They even had an English menu! The food was amazing and delicious. The best yakitori I’ve had yet. My fav was the grilled leek with bacon wrapped. Yum! After dinner, we went to the government building and up to the free observatory. The line was intense! But we managed to see sprawling Tokyo at night. We said goodbye to K at the station and took our weary selves back to the airbnb.

I drove my car to school and back today as we had a very narrow window of time to catch our train to Tokyo. Lars and Mama were waiting outside when I pulled up outside my apartment. I dropped them off near Takasaki station while I went to park the car in the cheaper lots further away. We had like 4 minutes to spare, phew. Lars needed a ticket as well, because he had misplaced his IC card in his luggage and couldn’t find it. We managed to get all settle on the train for the next two hours to Shinjuku station. I got really hungry though since you aren’t supposed to eat on the local trains and I had no food with me.

We transferred at Shinjuku station to the subway to head to our airbnb. We decided to wait at the final station’s entrance as Papa was not far behind us. He had taken the shinkansen up from Osaka. We got to the airbnb at 8 pm and ran into all sorts of trouble getting into the building. The worst experience I’ve had yet. Mostly it was due to the language barrier in her instructions in how to get the key and my assumption that there would be two keys. We finally got in the apartment over an hour later. The family proceeded to complain about how small it was, but I thought it was rather big for an inner city, Tokyo, apartment, ha. We all decided it was too late to get proper dinner, so we went to the conbini instead. It was my first full conbini dinner meal. I made it almost 11 months! We ended up going to bed around midnight, eep!

I managed to rearranged my two classes I have on Wednesdays and take the day off to hang out with Mama and Lars. I debated a lot on where to take them, but decided on Mt. Myogi since it was nearby, and I had never been to the shrine. Luckily, although the day was cloudy and wet, it hadn’t started raining yet. We set off pretty late at 10 am. It’s impossible to get Lars up early, that sleepyhead. I parked the car by the shrine, at the visitor stop and we walked over to it. I didn’t realize the whole shrine is placed on a steep hill! So many stairs! The shrine was stunning. Huge cedar trees, filled with a rainy mist. Every corner had cool parts tucked away. We spent over an hour exploring the grounds, before returning to the car. I picked up some hiking maps at the visitor center and we drove over to the art gallery and lookout park to have lunch.

We were invited in by some staff to check out the art gallery inside the building so we postponed lunch. All the art was of Mt. Myogi. Some really stunning paintings. It was definitely interesting to see, especially the little kids’ art on the third floor. We had lunch after on a bench by the empty dirt fields where cosmos grew in the fall. Afterward, I moved the car to the closest parking lot to the trailhead we wanted to take. A brief bit along the road, and we were off climbing a steep paved path that met up with the top of Mt. Myogi shrine. We split off into the woods. The trail gradually ascended with quite a few stairs. Everything was damp and green.

We climbed out to one outlook area, passed a waterfall, saw a forest crab, and a snake! Along the way, Lars shrieked several times when something got stuck to his leg. He said it was an inchworm, but later I noticed some stuck on my shoes and leggings. My legs were covered completely. They were little forest leeches with quite a bit of sucking power! They liked to hide inside your shoes too. Luckily I only got about three on me. They move really quickly! We turned around at the second outlook point. There was a chain to get to the top, but it was way slippery and not well attached. We just ended up rock climbing the small distance. The view was really pretty! I climbed over to a small outcropping. It was tricky to get there as there was really nowhere to place your feet. Lars even made it up there although he is afraid of heights. Getting back down was harder for him and required some butt sliding. He had worn the wrong shoes too.

The way back went much more quickly and we managed to complete about 4 km in almost 3 hours. We made it back in time to be able to go to the onsen. Mama managed to feel comfortable enough to try it out, and Lars was actually excited at this point. The soak was great. We left shortly after 5 pm and headed off to get dinner at the same sushi place I took Lars earlier. It was really empty this time, being a weekday, and we had to order everything verbally. Mama and I shared an expensive eel plate that got flambeed with a torch! It was delish.

Lars and I arranged to meet the parents at Shibukawa station at about 11 am. Lars and I stopped by Mister Donut for breakfast. So we came up from the south, and they took a bus and train down from Takaragawa. We headed off to Ikaho and I remembered where to park! A showed me a great spot last time. I wanted to try and met up with her, but she was going to Ikaho later in the day around when we left. We started at the bottom of the 365 stone steps. I pointed out the water running underneath the stairs, and we stopped by the footbath for Lars and Papa to try. We got some free tea there from ladies advertising the Tomioka Silk Mill. I actually managed to tell them that I lived there.

We had lunch at a cafe with a sweet interior design. I had cold salad udon and it was delicious! Something I could easily make myself. We finished climbing the stairs and visited the shrine. Then we headed over to Kajika bridge which looked quite different now in the spring! The family tried the gold onsen water and the silver regular stream water before Papa and Lars went to take their first proper onsen bath without towels. Mama and I hung out next to the water source bubbling up from the ground. Lars told us afterward that he ran into a guy with full body tattoos! All the other Japanese guys moved from one pool to the other. He didn’t know that they guy was a yakuza. How crazy!

On the way back down the stairs, we stopped by a shop that sells soft serve ice cream. I spent some time trying to deciphering mixed in katana, but had my orders all set when I went to the window. She then handed me an English menu, haha. After getting ice cream, we also stopped by my favorite store filled with cat themed things. I ended up getting a bag like the one I got my sister for Christmas. Either as a lunch bag or for makeup. It’s so cute! We got back to the car and set off for Takasaki station to drop my dad off so he could make the trip back to Osaka. Mama needed to get a Starbucks too so we waited for her while she had to pass through a gigantic line filled with high schoolers.

Lars desperately wanted to visit an anime/manga store so I took them over to Mandai Shoten. Both were promptly impressed. I managed to buy some nice things and Lars was happy with his pokemon card purchases. We drove back to Tomioka and stopped by the grocery store by my house. Mama bought a lot of alcohol ha. We just ate bread and salad at home.

Last night, my family (my dad, mom, and little brother) arrived in Takasaki at 9 pm. So crazy to finally have them here! After a quick stop at 7-11 to get some food, I drove them back to my place. We were up pretty late chatting and unpacking. We managed to fit two people in each of my rooms. Saturday morning, we left home at about 9 am to drive up to Tanigawadake, a mountain on the border of Gunma and Niigata, in Minakami. We parked at the ski area parking garage to head up the ropeway on the side of the mountain. It saves you a three hour steep hike up the side of the mountain. Although it was pretty warm at the base, the top was pretty windy and chilly! I wished I had brought my sweatshirt with. The views were stunning at the 1300 m, and we decided to take the second, shorter lift to the very top of 1500 m.

Wow, just wow! Mountains and greenness everywhere. The peak of the mountain is at about 2000 m and the surrounding mountains still had some snow on them. We scrambled over a rocky area to have lunch while admiring the beautiful view, although our seats were rather uncomfortable. We ended walking to the shrine on the opposite side of the lift too. On the descent, I noticed that the rest of the road we wanted to drive to Ichinokurasawa Gorge was closed. Back at the center I asked and found you had to take a bus to the gorge. Sadly, we had just missed the bus, and it’d be too late to catch the next. We decided to head over to Takaragawa Onsen where Papa and Mama would be spending the night at the ryokan as an anniversary present.

On the drive over, Papa wanted to stop by the dam. The roads were crazy curvy and small, but it was a fun ride! The lake was so empty. Everything is really dry before the rainy season. Arriving at the onsen was confusing, because there was a guy at the gate who wouldn’t let us park down by the entrance as I had done last time. We tried explaining to him that some of us were staying overnight and that Lars and I were just going to the onsen, but it was too hard to get our point across. We had to park at the furthest lot, just outside the entrance while Papa and Mama pulled their suitcases down to the main ryokan entrance. It was actually hard to find! Completely tucked away, down the road, over a bridge, past all the parking, and around the corner.

After dropping them off at the reception, Lars and I slowly made our way to the onsen entrance for the non-overnighters. The guy there actually spoke really great English and was surprised to hear that it was my second time there. Although he overcharged us each by 100 yen according to the signs around and what he typed into the register...not sure if there was a recent price increase or what. It seemed fishy, but this is Japan… Lars and I rented a towel as well. We walked past all the old timer decor and the black bears in the small cages, before stopping and hanging out by some tables. Papa and Mama still hadn’t shown up about 30 minutes later.

I wanted to find a toilet next, but the signage was really lacking. I ended up asking a staff member who for some reason had trouble understanding me (although I’ve asked this many times before with no issues…). There was one in the ladies bath which she then went to show me the way to. Then I explained to Lars how to get changed and what to do with his clothes. Lars finished quicker than me, and had started heading into the water when I came out. I had to explain to him again that we need to pre-wash first around the corner. The water that had felt so cold in the winter was hot now! We rinsed off and got in the first bath which was really hot. Lars was freaking out a bit about all the men who were not covering themselves properly, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. We tried out all three baths and hung out in the last one the longest because it was much cooler.

Lars started getting red quite quickly so I had to remind him to sit outside and cool off. I went to see if I could track down the parents as it had been over an hour waiting for them. Finding people with blurry eyesight was a little tricky, but I finally spotted them coming down the path and waved Lars over from the opposite side of the river. Once again, I explained bathing etiquette and we joined the parents for a short round two. They didn’t stay in the water as long, and we both ended up getting changed around the same time. This time, I learned that the guy’s changing room was much bigger than the woman’s. Makes sense with the higher number of men there. Also as a guest of the ryokan, the baths are open 24/7! You could go for a dip in the middle of the night.

After saying our goodbyes, Lars and I made the trip back to Tomioka where we stopped at a kaiten sushi place for dinner. It’s the closest one to my house that I haven’t tried yet, but the fish was amazing! A step up in price and quality. It was crazy full on this weekend night. You had to order from the servers directly, but Lars is a pro. He immediately just picked up the menu, said sumimasen, and pointed to what he wanted. He’s already adapted well to being in a country where he can’t speak the language.