Conbini breakfast for us. I got a cream bread and an onigiri that they heated up for me. I just kept saying yes and wham it was hot haha. I’m noticing them asking me a lot lately so now I know what they’re asking. Kasumi got some oden. Afterward, we walked over to the Tomioka Silk Mill, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The streets were packed. We saw so many giant tour buses. As a resident of Tomioka, I could get in free. We confused the teller though when Kasumi asked for one adult ticket and one resident, and I was the one to show my residence card ha. I actually got a brochure in English with a bit more of the history. If you are more of a group, you can ask for an English tour ahead of time. Otherwise, all the signs and tours are in Japanese there. You can rent an audio guide for 200 yen in a couple different languages or do the audio for free on your phone with a QC code.

It was cool to be there on the weekend because they had some demonstrations of the silk weaving, taking the cocoon apart till only the worm was left. I also got to touch one of the cocoons and pull the silk off the outer shell, and see the worms wiggling around and make the cocoons. A lot of the site is still under construction and being restored. It’ll be interesting to see the finally product. I think I’d enjoy it more if I got more historical info about the place. Afterward, we went to get yakimanju, a Gunma speciality. They are soft buns are coated with a rich, sweet and salty miso sauce and grilled. So delicious and cheap! The best shop in Gunma according to many JETs is right by my school. I know what I’ll be getting for an after school snack somedays!

We went to get lunch next at CO-JIRO and stopped in some tourist shops along the way. Trying to get some Christmas ideas. I had heard good things about the restaurant so I wanted to try it out. Made Kasumi translate again for me, heh. The interior was nicely decorated and the sign has a cute cat next to it. They offered two lunch set options, A and B, so easy enough for me to order in the future. The food was amazing! Definitely lived up to its reputation.

Then we headed off on to Nukisaki shrine which was about a 40 minute walk away. You can take the train a bit closer, but it honestly doesn’t save much walking time so we decided to work off our food. The last stretch is really steep, straight up hill. What a workout! We had to start pulling off our layers. What’s special about Nukisaki is that you have to descend down stairs to the shrine. This is extremely rare to find in Japan. As we were leaving, some kind of ceremony had started with chanting inside the shrine. It looked like a blessing or so.

Lunch at CO-JIRO

Tea house garden

From Nukisaki, we went to a green tea house that had opened this past summer, ちゃきち, Chakichi. I had found it through instagram pictures. It was amazing. The decorations were fantastic and the sliding doors and windows were open to the little Japanese garden in the back. They had many green tea and other ice cream flavors. We both got matcha parfaits that were very yummy. It was difficult to choose what to order! Before we left, one of the staff struck up a convo with me. He had studied abroad in Australia and had lived there extensively. His English was so good and had an Aussie accent. I will definitely go back! So much more to try.

The small train station was about a ten minute walk away so we took it back to my station. It was a bit tricky this time because since it was the weekend, there was no one at my station or the one we departed from. That means taking the number ticket on the train and then paying the driver directly when getting off. You need direct change though so we had to figure out how to use the machine in the front of the train to convert a coin to smaller coins. It all worked out though and now I know how to do it for the future! We popped by my place to grab our bags (and for me to change into my hiking clothes), and headed off to Takasaki. Kasumi was heading back to Saitama and I was heading up north, a little past Numata to Gokan to spend the night in preparation of hiking Oze tomorrow. The public transport takes so long so I wanted to get as close as possible: 40 min train to Takasaki, 50 min train to Numata, 80 min bus to Tokura, 20 min shuttle bus to Hatomachitoge and one of the park entrance.

Matcha parfait

I had extra time in Takasaki so I grabbed a cheese bun from a bakery and a coffee at Starbucks, and hung out there. They have all the drinks written in English as well as Japanese so it was easy to order. They have an extra size here called short that’s even smaller than tall. The short prices are about the same as the US tall prices. It was a comfortable ride. I was planning at crashing at another ALT’s house, K, and she had offered to pick me up at the train station. So kind! Instead, another ALT, J, was driving and she was riding along with. That zero tolerance drinking policy. I had planned to join in on a game night at her apartment. I got to meet some cool new people, eat lots of junk food and pizza, and play spoons for the first time in forever. Apparently J lives far from Numata in a small village, Katashina, only 10 minutes from Oze. He offered to let me crash at his place and drive me to the shuttle bus pick up. This would save me 2050 yen and allow me to get an earlier start tomorrow. Super nice of him. We left around 10:30 pm for the long drive back to his place. We made it in good time. The stars were pretty amazing and it was so cold! About 45 degrees as a low. Thus, his place was already a lot colder and it was comfy to bury myself in a blanket.

After all the grading all week long from all the midterms, I was completely wiped. I’ve received my four extra classes that will be starting next week. Definitely feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how I’m supposed to get all my work done. I had to grade half of the exam for all 120 second years and the 120 first years too. Still working through the pile.

Today Kasumi comes! It’s so exciting to meet up with old university friends. We were heading to a sunflower festival in Midori today so I took the train in Takasaki and met her at the station at 11:30 am. We got lunch together at Subway in the food court. Mind-blown. Completely different choices. You can get fries and only six inch subs. I got smoked salmon with mascarpone and she got the duck sandwich.The choices were extensive and only six or so were the same US ones. When picking your toppings, there are no banana peppers or jalapenos, and you just say what you don’t want on your sandwich. Easy enough since I know the word for all. We caught a hour train to Iwajuku station where Kasumi called the bus service and told them where and when to pick us up. It was more of a private shuttle for 300 yen haha. It took us from right by the conbini at the station to the sunflower fields.

There were some food stalls and three fields with sunflowers. One was blooming strongly, but the others still weren’t at full bloom yet (so late!). When we arrived, they were just starting the archery on horseback demonstration. It was a tiny lane they had to gallop down while drawing and shooting an arrow into a piece of wood on a stand to break it. There were three targets. Some hit and others missed. It looked so hard especially at the speed they were riding! It was a bit sad though to see how some of the horses were treated. They were pretty jumpy and shoved around a lot by multiple people. Definitely seemed like the bit hurt. Afterward, we took some sunflower photos in the best field and each got a fresh manju (bun with red bean paste inside).

We decided to walk back to the train station since the shuttle bus couldn’t come for another 15 minutes. The poster had said a 20 minute walk, google said 25 minutes and it took us closer to 30 min. Always a bit nerve wracking walking along narrow Japanese roads where there are no sidewalks. We had just missed our train by ten minutes so we hung around waiting for about 30 min at the station. It’s nice to just swipe your Suica card at the station entrance. No gates. By the time we got back to Takasaki, it was already dark. We decided to get dinner in Tomioka at Mirai so we rode the private line all the way to Joshutomioka. I think it was interesting for Kasumi to see our bumbling country train.

I told her to remember how deserted the streets were and to compare it with the tourist rush we were going to see tomorrow. This time at Mirai, Kasumi easily deciphered the menu for me. She got an interesting cassis drink that tasted sweet and good. Together we ate fried cheese, sashimi, yakisoba, yakitori, and fried shrimp (little whole shrimp!). We walked back to my place and crashed.. Sadly it was cloudy, because you can see the stars pretty well in Tomioka.

On the bike ride to Kanra

Another beautiful day! I quickly had to do laundry before the rain comes again ha. I went to Kanra again today for a pumpkin baking party this time. The bike ride along the main roads was quicker and I got to admire the rice fields turning golden with all the mountains. I brought my supplies so that we could also bake my pumpkin muffins in a real oven this time. We ended up with some mini muffins and big muffins, a sheet pan of pumpkin bars, and made tofu pesto burgers (a spontaneous invention) for lunch when another friend joined us. Ichigo-sensei and her daughter even dropped by briefly. Plus some snack food was eaten while we watched Downton Abbey. Butter beer was also made! She’s so talented and made cream soda and butterscotch from scratch! In the afternoon, we were joined by another lady shortly before I had to leave to get some cleaning done at home. She brought some apple crumble that was also yummy. Ah, I love pumpkin things and how the smell lingers.

I popped by the bakery early this morning, but they didn’t have my bread yet made so I had to buy some buns instead and another chocolate hedgehog. I also tried some bun that had an edamame paste inside (I think). It was interesting. I also had to pick up my bike from the repair shop. I had dropped it off yesterday after school. I had the words brake pad and tire written on a post-it and showed it to him with the words, my bike and new. He could say the words front and back so he understood both tires, wrote a price down, and told me to come back tomorrow at ten when the shop open. As I was picking the bike up, I ran into Kocho-sensei who was biking to the concert given by our students at the train station. I already had plans to meet with K and do a waterfall hike up in Nanmoku so I couldn’t go.

 K picked me up at my place and we headed off into the mountains. It took us about an hour to get to our hiking spot. We were quite close to the border to Nagano. The drive was gorgeous! Such nice weather and I love to be in the mountains. The roads got super narrow, filled with blind spots. Luckily we didn’t encounter many people. We ended up waving to several tour buses filled with hiking tours. Look at us two gaijin! We parked and set off on what we thought was the trail. Together we could read about three characters on the sign, ha.

The first part of the trail had a really decrepit bridge that was falling into the river. It had been roped off and the trail didn’t lead that way, whew. The trail was beautiful. We followed along a river filled with rocks, shadows and sun, small waterfalls, and so much greenery and moss. Everything was rather slippery though. We had to traverse some rotting bridges so it was a little scary! The one had some serious holes in it. We even got to the end of a snake, He was moving too quickly to get a photo. After climbing a ladder next to a waterfall, the trail ended at the final Sandanno Falls, 50 m tall. You could barely see the top! We picniced here for a late lunch. It was a tad chilly at this point as the trees were quite thick. No sun for us and since the hike wasn’t too strenuous, I didn’t heat up a lot. K had planned to go swimming so during our descent, we stopped by a pool of water and a good waterfall. Perfect to take a shower! The water was frigid and the air cool, but he went in anyway!

On our drive back, we stopped by this one rest area we had seen. There was a ravine where the river had hollowed out rock. We walked a short path to a suspension bridge. So pretty! Would love to swim here during the summer, but no way down to the water. We later also stopped at the Nanmoku road station aka rest stop. They had a little restaurant and a shop that sold local food and products. Nice and cute things! I picked up a free hiking and waterfall brochure to plan future trips. They even have a camp site out there and an observatory. I’d imagine the skies would be amazing. The waterfall hike that we did was listed as #1. We got ramen back in Tomioka before K dropped me off. The bowl is always so big. I can never finish it all. Quite yummy though. I then had to go grocery shopping still. The sunset was so beautiful. One of the best I’ve seen. I wish I could have gotten a better shot with the mountains framed against a pink backdrop.

First day of no more cool biz. Now that it’s colder, it’s interesting to see all the windbreaker jackets that the male teachers are wearing, ha.

Shimonita is certainly a whole other world. Out in the bumpkin country all my students have really old, fashioned uniforms so even at Shimonita only some girls roll their skirts and boys have their shirts more untucked and unbuttoned. (Especially compared with Takasaki! The really short skirts and makeup they’re all wearing.) But before and after class when you have to stand and bow, only some of them do it, and so slow and grudgingly. They have good relationships with their teachers though. Also interesting how students have to stand and answer here. There’s much more pressure that way on an individual.