Spring Snowboarding

Yesterday, a friend and I decided to go snowboarding today – quite on the spur of the moment. We walked into the JR travel agent and asked the clerk to show us the ski booklets. We have recently discovered that it is much cheaper to purchase JR packages when snowboarding. Usually, they include a shinkansen ticket and lift ticket. We got a great bargain last weekend when we went to Hakuba and yesterday we purchased tickets to Joetsu Kokusai – a large ski resort in the Niigata prefecture of Japan.

I visited this ski resort a few weeks ago and had a great time. The resort itself is quite large and has some long runs. There really wasn’t anything particularly challenging at the resort, but they did have a few half pipes set up and the terrain itself had plenty of jumps and walls scattered throughout. A few weeks ago there was plenty of snow, which is why we were disappointed when we turned up today and saw giant patches of dirt.

I have always approached spring riding in two minds. On one hand, you can often forego a jacket and even sometimes rock out a t-shirt because of the warm weather. I also don’t mind riding in slushy snow that much. However, spring also means that the winter is almost over and that realisation hit me like a tonne of bricks today. I realistically only have one more day of snowboarding left in Japan (this Friday) before I ship my board back to Australia. We had a good day out today, the morning was great as the snow hadn’t softened too much, but by 2pm the snow was very wet and it was difficult to ride on flatter areas. We cut the day short when it started to rain lightly and caught an earlier shinkansen back to Takasaki.

Now that the winter is almost over, we are beginning to plan our summer activities. Before winter started I did a lot more travelling around Japan and I am looking forward to doing more of that. Gunma is a great place to live for outdoorsy sports. I already have tentative plans for paragliding, white-water rafting for my birthday, caving, canyoning and since about 4pm today, skydiving (if someone pushes me out of the plane). Oh, and climbing Fuji-san in early August. Even though summer will bring unbearable heat and humidity, I am looking forward to it.

The Search for Plum Blossoms

Today was the first day Takasaki saw weather that slightly resembled spring. Upon being woken up at 9:30 on a Sunday morning by my dear parents calling on skype, I pulled back the curtains and grinned at the gorgeous weather waiting outside. I got a little excited and opened all of the windows in my apartment and let in fresh air, something that hasn’t happed since early October out of fear of immediate freezing.

The plum blossoms have been in bloom in Japan for a few weeks now and are seen as a bit of a precursor to the infamous cherry blossom season, which is all but a few weeks away. Given the weather was beautiful and we had nothing better to do, a friend and I jumped on our bikes and headed toward Gunma-no-mori park. I had vague recollections of a student telling me about the plum blossoms there and I had even vaguer recollections of where the park actually was. I looked the general area up on google maps and narrowed the location down to two possible spots. Given that all of the landmarks were written in Japanese, I wasn’t 100% sure which spot was the actual park. But that didn’t deter us and we headed off excitedly. After a quick stop at the Apita department set to pick up a badminton set (what else do you do in a park in Japan?) we were soon out amongst the rice paddies.

Living in central Takasaki, it can be easy to to forget how rural Gunma can be. The reality, however, is that if you drive 10 minutes in any direction away from the station you will soon be amongst farms and the mountains. Unfortunately, living in central Takasaki also means that there is little need for me to actually leave the city. Thus, we were soon lost and had no idea about even the general direction of where the park was. The map we found was little help either….

We kept riding and hit one of the major roads that circles Takasaki. We asked for directions (ぐんま の もり こえん どこ です か) and were told that we couldn’t take our bikes over the bridge. Given that I had also neglected to bring a map, we couldn’t even plan an alternate route around the bridge. So we turned around and headed back to Takasaki. We would have to be content with a stolen view of a plum tree over a random backyard fence.

After a quick stop at Takasaki station to book a snowboarding trip for tomorrow and a bubble tea (milk tea with tapioca beads – it will change your life), we headed to Takasaki park to play badminton. Of course, when we arrived we saw this:

What we sought was just 5 minutes from home. However, had we headed there first we would have missed exploring outer Takasaki and a whole lot of spring sunshine.

The bushfires.

When I opened my RSS reader on my computer and found the first reports of the Victorian bushfires, I have to admit, I didn’t take a whole lot of notice. I’ve been camping within kilometers of bushfire and drove through the bushfires that threatened Canberra a few years ago. Bushfires are so common in Victoria and although they are always sad, they are a natural and vital part of the bushland ecosystem.

But over the next 24 hours, the reports kept coming and I started to take a little more notice. Before long, reports of houses being destroyed and lives being lost began being published. And they haven’t stopped since. The numbers keep rising and it makes me so mad to know that a number of these fires were at the hands of arsonists. People need to get their kicks from less destructive means. I hope the guilt is eating them alive.

Being in Japan and not being at home in Victoria at this time is something that has been on my mind. There is nothing I can do at home, I know. But at times like these, everybody sticks together and I know that the strong Aussie spirit would have kicked in. So I did all that I could from here in Japan, I donated money to the Australian Red Cross appeal and will continue to hope that the remaining fires get under control. And that the numbers stop rising.

The Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal

A teaching update

I have been working at my english school for almost 6 months now. Time has gone so quickly. After speaking to a friend who works at a school owned by the same company I work for, I am fully aware of how lucky I have it, here in Takasaki. Given she is going to break contract shortly, I have realised it truly is luck that governs your placement in a good eikawa here in Japan.

Being a conversational english teacher here in Japan is so different to being a conventional teacher. For the most part, it is very easy. Most of my classes only take about 5 minutes to prepare for. I read the manual, check the class materials and gather some props to use in class. I have begun teaching an advanced discussion class recently. The two participants don’t want to talk about anything to do with politics, science or the economy. So I do need to spend a couple of hours each week trawling through the online versions of newspapers looking for interesting topics to discuss. Apart from that, my job is fairly easy.

The head teacher at my school told me soon after I had started that she was worried I would be bored, so occasionally they give me new jobs to do. The latest is that I am in charge of organising student counselling. So at the beginning of each month, I remind the teachers about the students they need to counsel during that month. The only job I dislike is trying to sell materials or new courses to my students. I think it is the westerner in me, but the moment someone tries to sell me something I become a little angry inside. If I want something, I will find it and buy it myself. So I always feel like crap trying to sell stuff. But for some reason, the Japanese don’t seem to mind. They even seem happy to listen. I suspect it is just their high levels of politeness, even if they are annoyed, it is not appropriate for them to display anything but a happy and interested exterior. That being said, I am extremely bad at sales and it is lucky that the school has Japanese teachers who are great at selling stuff.

The staff at the school are brilliant and I am so glad that these people have become part of my life here in Japan. Although it took a little time, I feel like I am forging genuine friendships with some of the staff. We are beginning to spend time with each other outside of school and getting to know each other much better. When I do leave Japan, I am going to miss them dearly.

I am due for my contract renewal meeting shortly. I will be renewing for 3 months and then heading home in December for christmas. Providing they offer me the opportunity to renew, of course.

Being Lazy

Sorry I have been so slack in updating my blog. Truth be told, I haven’t been up to much more than just living life. So I haven’t really felt like I have had much to write. So perhaps now, I will write about my life.

I am about 10 days off my 6 month anniversary of arriving in Japan and I am well and truly living my life in a routine. I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Good in that I feel settled here or bad in that I am living in Japan – should my life be crazy! Not that it doesn’t have it’s moments of craziness, it certainly does, but perhaps not as often as when I first arrived.

Two tourists in Takasaki

I felt extremely sad on Tuesday the 6th of January. My alarm went off at around 9am and I realised that that was the day I needed to return to work. I had a wonderful time in Niseko and the thought of going back to normalcy was a little too much for me to bear. But there was some light in this tunnel, Miss Mel and C were coming to Takasaki on Thursday and I had taken the day off to show them around.

At 10:30, I had a coffee in hand and was waiting outside the Shinkansen gates for my two friends to arrive. It wasn’t long before I saw them, although I did do a second take when I saw Miss Mel. She seemed to have turned into a typical Japanese girl during her short stint in the country. She was wearing an awesome hat, complete with fur pom poms.

We walked to my friends’ apartment, where we picked up the bikes they were lending for the day. Takasaki is a small city, however it is simply too big to walk around easily. We rode to my apartment so that they could check out my shoebox and the wonderful (yet at times frustrating) features that make a Japanese apartment. It was also Chris’s birthday, so I picked him up a cake from Cozy Ginza Conrner and we sat at my kotatsu eating coffee and drinking tea.

The next thing we did was head to Uniqlo so that they could pick up some cheap fleeces. Uniqlo is somewhat of an institution here in Japan and everyone goes there for the basic pieces that make up any wardrobe. You can also get fleeces for just 900 yen sometimes – bargain! We jumped on the bikes again and headed for Takasaki station. I wanted to show them where I worked, so we headed up to the school where they met my co-workers and marvelled at just how small my classroom is. Coming from a school where you regularly fit 25 kids into a space with plenty of room to spare, seeing a classroom that barely fits 5 people in is a little strange I suppose. But that’s how we roll here in Japan!

We grabbed lunch at a cheap lunch place at the station before jumping on the bikes again and heading for Takasaki Park. The park is one of my favourite places in Takasaki. I’m not sure why, but it feels pretty calming there and I spent a fair bit of time there when I arrived in September and the weather was still warm.

The next goal was shopping, so we headed to Suzaran department store and vivre to look for cute stationary and post cards. We did have plans to meet some friends of mine at our favourite izakaya, but we still had some time to spare. So we headed to Ban Ban, our local karaoke joint. Miss Mel and C had managed to come to Japan and not yet experience Karaoke, so we booked a room for an hour, got some beer and belted our little hearts out. When the hour was up, it was time to head to Wasabi’s. This is the izakaya I head to almost every Saturday night after work. They do a phenomenal fried cheese, salad pizza and 200 yen beers. Given I spend so much time there, I wanted Miss Mel and C to see it too. We ordered all of our favourite dishes and kept the beers coming until it was time to head back to the station so that they could catch their Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

As we got closer to the station, I began to feel sad. I knew that it would be hard to say goodbye to them, especially because it had been such an awful rushed goodbye when I had left for Japan initially. Even though I have made so many new friends here, it was great to see some familiar faces. I shed some tears at the station as I said goodbye and honestly felt the most alone I had ever felt since coming to Japan. I am happy to say that the sadness didn’t stick around very long (only a couple of days) and even though I miss everyone from home, I love being here in Japan. I love my new friends here and I haven’t forgotten how lucky I am to be having this experience. But if any of you want to move over here, I can totally set you up… just give me a call!

Thanks for visiting Miss Mel and C!

Snowboarding in Niseko (Hokkaido Part 3)

We arrived in Otaru and I think I can safely say, that none of us had ever been so thankful to be on solid ground again. After a taxi ride to Otaru station, a train to Kutchan and a bus to the town of Niseko, we finally arrived at our destination. Roughly 37 hours after our journey began (for comparison, our journey home took just 10 hours).

The taxi dropped us outside a café, roughly in the area we thought our pension was. We had been standing on the sidewalk for roughly 5 seconds when I heard the distinctive Northern English accent of Miss Mel. After a big reunion hug, she pointed us in the right direction of our hostel. We were delighted to find that our hostel was close to all the action along the main road, run by a lovely Japanese man and home to a gorgeous golden retriever that lived in a kennel next to the front door. Our room was small, but luckily it had two stories. We had a living area downstairs and our beds were upstairs.

The snow was amazing in Niseko. It rarely stopped snowing the entire time we were there and there was always fresh powder to be found. The visibility however, was overall fairly poor and we managed to go the entire week without seeing the famous volcano that overlooks Niseko. The lifts weren’t too crowded, except perhaps for the main gondola. The highlight of the week was the final 2 hours we spent on the hill. A wanted to practice her turns off the main gondola, so K and I headed to one of our favourite spots over the week As we were riding the lift, we spotted a run with loads of fresh powder which was virtually untracked. We changed plans and headed straight to that run. The powder was up to our waists, there was no one it and it was truly magnificent. I definitely had that high that only the deepest powder can give you. Like when you make a turn and it sprays back up into your face. We did that run 3 times and were truly exhausted by the end of it. The best part, was that it was snowing and by the time we made it back up to the top, the tracks had been covered and we could have another go. I heart Niseko!

The best part of this holiday, however, was getting to catch up with Miss Mel and C. They made the trip over from Australia and were spending 10 days in Niseko before travelling to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Tokyo and of course, Takasaki. They introduced us to their favourite bar on our first night, Jam Bar. I believe we frequented that bar for our Apres ski every day thereafter. Miss Mel is one of my bestest buddies in Australia and I was glad that it felt like no time had passed since we had last seen each other. We spend the days in Niseko skiing and catching up with each others’ lives on the lifts. The nights were spent trying different Japanese foods, visiting onsens and drinking. I truly miss her daily presence in my life, but I was grateful that she was able to experience my life here and meet my new friends.

This snowboarder ain’t ever setting foot on a boat again! (Hokkaido Part 2)

Unfortunately, about an hour after writing the previous post, I succumbed to Sea Sickness. After travelling all night, we were exhausted by around 6pm and decided to head downstairs to sleep. Whether it was something to do with not being able to see the waves outside, or being able to hear the ship groaning each time it rolled over a wave, within 10 minutes of being in my bed I had to make a running dash to the bathroom to vomit. And that is where I spent the next 2 hours, unable to move. I had nothing left in my body, but each time the boat dipped, I wanted to throw up. Eventually, two of my friends came down to use the bathroom and found me hugging the toilet bowl. I felt so weak that I could barely stand up and I simply propped myself up next to the wall and waited for them.

I decided to head back up to the top level of the ship, perhaps if I could see the waves I might feel better. They carried me upstairs and got me some supplies for the night – a blanket and pillow etc. I slept on the hard floor in the hallway of the café, next to the window. Somehow, that hard floor felt stable and soothing. I did manage to get a little sleep that night. Mostly, it was freezing next to the window, but I was too sick to move. So I just stayed there.

Many, many, many hours later, the morning came. I moved my little camp on to the other side of the boat to watch the sunrise and the first views of the island of Hokkaido. It was several hours before I felt well enough to drink water and some dry crackers. The girls eventually came upstairs, all looking a little worse for wear. We all complained about the hideousness of the ferry and how it was essential that we looked for another method to get home. With the storm, the ferry took over 26 hours to reach Otaru. I knew I couldn’t do the journey again. I made a silent vow when we set foot on solid ground at the port – I would never get on a boat like that again. Please don’t ask me to cruise the Caribbean with you… because unless you can erase my memory, Sunshine of a Spotless Mind style, I am going to have to say no.

Life at Sea (Hokkaido Part 1)

Currently, I am fearing for my life. I’m well known for being dramatic at times, but “fearing for my life” is no understatement. We have spent the last 4 hours on the Shin Nihonkai ferry bound for Otaru, which is a port town in Hokkaido, Japan. Travelling from Niigata has meant that our journey is through the tumultuous Sea of Japan. Never again…. Well until next Saturday at least.

Let me catch you up on the events of the part 24 hours. After finishing up work for the year at around 7pm, I raced home to pack for my snowboarding trip to Hokkaido. After a great deal of procrastination, I managed to pack a suitcase, clean my apartment and make the 25 minute walk to Takasaki station. I met K and A and we attempted to board the Moonlight Echigo, bound for Niigata. Unfortunately, we thought this train was a regular train service and had neglected to book tickets. Luckily, the conductor let us purchase tickets with the promise that if someone came to claim the seats we occupied, we would have to stand. We boarded the train and promptly fell asleep. I woke up every half an hour or so and I am happy that I woke up as we pulled into Minakami station to witness the snow falling. With the soft lighting from the station and an older style train, it looked like a scene from Hogwarts. We eventually made to Niigata at around 4:45am, where we waited to meet up with S, who took a midnight bus from Shinjuku. Once she arrived, we grabbed some quick breakfast and jumped into a taxi to take us to the ferry port.

Once we arrived at the port, we found out that there would be a 6-hour delay on the ferry. Unfortunately, our Japanese level wasn’t good enough to ask why. We cancelled our snowmobiling trip for the morning and attempted Miss Mel at her hotel to inform her of our delay. We sat waiting to board the ferry for around 3 hours.

Once we boarded, we were shown our rooms and set up camp in the corner of the café, close to a power point, so that we could plug in a laptop and a ghd for some hair curling action in the afternoon. We sat at port for around an hour before the ship left the dock. Around 3 minutes after its departure, I began wishing that it would return to dock. I looked out the windows and spied the massive waves that awaited us in the Sea of Japan. We soon left the channel and the rocking began. I have never really been at sea before and certainly have never experienced waves like this before. Luckily, we all took a sea sickness tablet just in case and I am thanking the universe right now for it’s effectiveness. It is almost impossible to walk around the ferry because of the swaying. At times, the boat takes a sudden plunge and you feel your stomach drop a little later than the rest of your body. It is getting dark now, but it was definitely possible to see the multitude of the rocking we were enduring. Items are falling off the shelves in the gift shop and some passengers are a shade of green. This is not the relaxing cruise I imagined when I booked this ferry trip to Hokkaido.

Hopefully, I will survive to write another update!

A trip to the Orchestra

What better way to celebrate the Emperor’s birthday, than a trip to the Orchestra? One of my students is a member of the Takasaki University Orchestra and had given me two tickets to her performance today. She had invited me on a previous occasion, but I had been unable to make it, so I was keen to see her performance.

A and I arrived at the Takasaki Concert Hall at around 2:30pm and after parking our bikes we went inside. We showed our tickets, were given a programme and sent on our merry way to find our seats. We pretended to read the programme whilst we waited for the performance to begin. At 3:00pm on the dot, the lights dimmed and the first act began.

The orchestra itself had at least 25 members, it was mostly wind, however there were some drums and cellos as well. The musicians were uber professional and the music in the first act was wonderful. After a brief interval, the second act began. The large concert band was gone and smaller ensembles took the stage. My student was in one of the ensembles, she was such a talented flute player. It was great to watch her ensemble perform. The last ensemble of this act took the stage and we noticed that they were all wearing tiger ears. A and I thought this was strange, however we shrugged it off… it is Japan after-all.

Enter Act 3. All I can say is that neither A or I were prepared for what followed. Whilst the music was beautiful, there were some interesting additions to the stage this time. Students wore costumes, danced boy-band style (circa 1994) and mimed into fake microphones. Santa clause made an appearance and the cello players were dressed as christmas trees. I had never visited an orchestra like that before! Interestingly though, the craziness made my day… I expect nothing less from Japan!

After the show I saw my student in the foyer area, she was crying. Today was her last performance with the band, as she will be graduating shortly. I gave her a hug and gave her my congratulations. She was a wonderful player and she even conducted the last song of the performance. I hope she continues to play for her friends and family.