On Saturday I took a road trip with Ema from work and 3 of her friends. I really had no idea where we were going except I would get to see the "countryside".
I found out it means: super boring terrain for hours at a time (also known as "Ohio" to Americans). But for the last 50 kilometers of the trip, we drove through the twisty, turny mountains. (It reminded me immediately of a "shortcut" we took years ago through the Alleghany Mountains when I was on vacation with the Schweigers...) This time Ema's friend navigating our drive kept blaming the "foolish GPS" in his Toyota for taking us on this nauseating ride.
We have finally stopped, and we get out to explore a suspension bridge.
I don't know too much about the bridge, but we are in a historical train town and the view of the river was pretty.
Train lines run through the mountains.
Kerri, Kishi, Kazui, and Ema ready to head back to the other side.
Some of the mountains we had to drive through to get here!
Train depot down below, and that's our next stop.
This is the Oigawa steam engine from 1927. It is a huge tourist draw and is often used for shooting films set in the pre-war period. The train rides were all booked up, so we did not get to see it up close and personal.
I know this must be a disappointing blog for the Scholl's... first I dog on their home state and then I skip the whole old train adventure :(
What's next to experience in the countryside of Shizuoka prefecture?
Onsen, of course. Who doesn't love naked public bathing in hot springs on a 90+ degree day?!
Here is Mori no Izumi (which means Spring in the Forest).
Surprisingly enough, I actually really enjoyed the onsen experience this time! It wasn't scalding hot like last time, just very relaxing. Maybe this is one Japanese tradition I can truly get into! This onsen was much larger than the one in Gero, with an option of several different baths.
I snuck a picture even though it's against the rules! The round bath in the center is a deep tub (~53 inches) with jets so you could stand in it and walk around. The bath on the left is for sitting and is still (no jets or bubbles) hot springs. There is one on the right (you can't see) that you lay on a bed of bamboo sticks and it bubbles all round you. It was awesome (closest thing to a hot tub I've seen), but not good if you're shy because not all of your naked body is under water!! Also on the right is an area with 3 mirrors and showers, where you sit on a stool and wash before getting in the water. Lastly, they even had a cold bath (as known as the temperature of any lake in Michigan). I took a soak in there, too, in order to cool off at the end!
Perhaps the coolest feature... an outdoor bath where the natural scenery includes Mt. Nanatsumine and the Shirasawa River. It feels kind of naughty to be naked walking around outside, and you can hear the men in the bath next door just beyond the bamboo wall.
I was really digging the view of nature until I realized it was a little too close for me. I saw a leaf floating around the bath, and when I tried to pick it out, it turned out to be a GIANT beetle!! That totally freaked me out, and I started seeing bugs everywhere. Spiders on the rocks, ants climbing on my arms, bumble bees buzzing around the bamboo wall, etc. So it was time for me to go back inside away from creepy crawlies.
When I was outside flipping out about bugs, I could hear children playing in the indoor bath. I wasn't too surprised about this because last time I went to the onsen it was with my friend and her 2 daughters, but imagine my surprise when I discovered the children were actually little boys, ages about 3 and 5! No big deal, I suppose. If you're married to a hard-working man in Japan, you have to take your kids with you everywhere, even to relax in an onsen.
After we were all wrinkled from the tubs of hot water, we ate lunch at the onsen lobby.
Here's is the vending machine you order food from. You select your desired menu item (all in Japanese), feed it the appropriate money, and take your meal ticket to the nice ladies at the counter, who make your food.
My fellow ex-pat friends think these are the best machines ever because they can get a meal without ever having to speak Japanese, but it's too much work for me. There are no pictures or words!! Reading Japanese characters is much more difficult for me.
I'd probably get impatient, just press a random button, and end up with cold noodles floating in raw egg. Yuck!! I would rather point to a picture menu and say "please".
Oh yeah, guess who I saw in the onsen lobby having lunch as well?
The 2 little boys with their mom and their DAD... what the heck?! So now I'm thinking either:
1) the boys got to choose which onsen to go in, and they like their mom better, or
2) the dad is a deadbeat and refuses to watch his children for 30 minutes in the tub.
After lunch we took a drive to Foret Nakakawana Chameikan for some tea tasting.
These bushes display the kanji character cha, which means "tea".
View of the mountains and tea fields.
Never in my life have I seen 3 men so excited about a "tea time" that didn't include clubs, balls, birdies, and bogeys. It was rather bizarre.
Ema and Kerri ready for tea time.
I've been to what seems like a bazillion tea ceremonies in Japan now, but this one was actually different. We were learning how to make our own tea from tea leaves.
I had no idea that the flavor of tea can vary greatly just by the temperature of water used, the amount of water used, amount of time you let it steep, or based on how "open" the tea leaves were. It was kind of cool to taste all of the versions in rapid succession (all with the same tea leaves in your pot)!
Here's all of my tools:
Ema pours her concoction of tea.
Is Kerri on her way to becoming a Tea Master?!
Ema and Kerri enjoy the tea garden with their borrowed geisha umbrellas and wooden sandals.
This random pile of rocks and things could quite possibly be the coolest discovery in Japan:
It's a water harp!!
There is a small fountain of water at the top (near the metal scooper), and you put one end of the bamboo shoot to the tiny round screens in the rock bed. Then, you put your ear to the other end of the bamboo shoot and listen...
The flowing and dripping water truly does make noise like a harp!! It was awesome. I was totally skeptical, and thought it was going to be lame. Here we are listening to the first one.
There were many more around the garden, and it was great to go around and listen to each one!
KG in the Japanese garden.
After a long drive back to Aichi prefecture, we ended the day with dinner at Ema's parents house. They lived in Lexington, Kentucky for 6 years back in the 1990's, so they were eager to talk to the girl from Kentucky. It was a nice meal, and it was nice to be invited to a Japanese home, rather than a tiny apartment in the city.
I enjoyed my day, but I can't help but get frustrated about all of the driving. It blows my mind that people in Japan are willing to spend so much time in a car for a short trip to the countryside.
That place was 190 kilometers away (114 miles), and it took an unbelievable 3.5 hours each way! This is due to traffic congestion and a top speed of 80 kph (50mph). I suppose it comes down to cost. The drive was $10 in tolls (weekend special) plus fuel, whereas a train would have been 1.5 hours and $66 each person each way.
