The Pretty leaves.
Abe Shinzo
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Su Climbing
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Me and what looks like a danger sign.
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Me and David at Temple
Hello All! How goes it? It has been seriously a very strange week....but because I am late, you will just hear about last week for now. :)
I was finally able to go hiking! I recently discovered that at the end of my train line, there is actually a hikable mountain! So I wrangled up some friends and and we made the 30 minute trains ride journey there.
For the beginning of December, it was surprisingly warm, and a very clear day. I was immediately surprises how crowed it was! I guess coming from Alaska, I am really not used to hiking in crowds. But this is Japan, and there are only so many places to hike.
For this mountain, there is a "tram" option, in which you can just ride up. Of course we hiked up on one of the many trails. Before we began the hike, however, there seemed to be some commotion by the tram area. We were curious, of course, and saw a bunch of people greeting this middle aged guy. We were very confused, for we thought he looked familiar but could not quite place him. When I asked someone nearby, he said it was "October Man" which of course made absolutely no sense to us. We snapped a few shots so we could ask out host families later, and headed up trail #6.
As we were going up, at an a very quick pace, this "October Man" and his 4 bodyguards (they had cool ear things) passed us on our way up. We were still very confused, but continued up on our own. Then, some random hiker flys past us as asks us if we had seen Abe Shinzo, and ran ahead to catch up to him.
We were aghast! Abe Shinzo was the recently resigned Prime Minister of Japan! When we first arrived, he was all over the news because of his sudden resignation. This is basically like seeing George Bush randomly climbing Flattop! Abe claimed health as a reason for his resignation, but the way he flew up the mountain made me think otherwise. Anyways, probably the most important person I have ever seen!
Anyways, it took us about 2 hours to reach the summit, where we had a delicious lunch. We planned to go to the Summit of mount Jimba, further somewhere, but ultimately couldn't find the trail. So we headed down, which was good, because we had no idea there was a temple on the mountain! It was very impressive, and looked amazing with all the fall leaves. we spent awhile here.
we finished just as it was getting dark, and made the journey back. Su invited us to her host family's house for some Korean tea, and it was really fun. Japanese people are famous for hospitality, and they kept giving us more and more and more sweet snack up until the moment we left. They were very nice people, and I could tell they really enjoyed interacting with us.
Later in the week, I went with my Host Mom and Tsuki-chan to a New Years Mochi party. we rode about 40 minutes by bike to reach Asagaya, which is a significant distance away. The party basically consisted of people pounding the mochi, and then creating snacks out of it. While it was fun, the main mochi making guy was really strict about it all. The mochi I made was not good enough, and I had to eat it instead of putting it in the main pile. He was also strict with Tsuki-chan, who was trying his best.
Unlike the usual events I go to, people were not really wanting to socialize much (except a crazy old man and a nice lady who kept giving me food). So I mainly stuck with Tsuki-chan and Mama, which was fine with me. They created dishes for us to eat, a Mama made sure I tried them all. One, in particular, she told me the meat inside was turtle-like (かめみたい) I was like sure, I am willing to try anything. I ate it, and crunched on a few bones, and I decided (by looking at the bone) that maybe it was part of a cows spinal cord, which I guess could look like a turtle (?). A while passed, and someone came up and offered Mama a piece of meat of the bone. I looked, and guess what? It was a turtle shell!!!! I asked my host Mom how that was not a turtle! She thought it was hilarious, and we looked it up in a dictionary, which turned out to be "snapping turtle!" Why would anyone eat a turtle??????? Well, I ate one. And it tasted like chicken.
Righto, that is all the interesting parts of my week. Stay tuned!
I was finally able to go hiking! I recently discovered that at the end of my train line, there is actually a hikable mountain! So I wrangled up some friends and and we made the 30 minute trains ride journey there.
For the beginning of December, it was surprisingly warm, and a very clear day. I was immediately surprises how crowed it was! I guess coming from Alaska, I am really not used to hiking in crowds. But this is Japan, and there are only so many places to hike.
For this mountain, there is a "tram" option, in which you can just ride up. Of course we hiked up on one of the many trails. Before we began the hike, however, there seemed to be some commotion by the tram area. We were curious, of course, and saw a bunch of people greeting this middle aged guy. We were very confused, for we thought he looked familiar but could not quite place him. When I asked someone nearby, he said it was "October Man" which of course made absolutely no sense to us. We snapped a few shots so we could ask out host families later, and headed up trail #6.
As we were going up, at an a very quick pace, this "October Man" and his 4 bodyguards (they had cool ear things) passed us on our way up. We were still very confused, but continued up on our own. Then, some random hiker flys past us as asks us if we had seen Abe Shinzo, and ran ahead to catch up to him.
We were aghast! Abe Shinzo was the recently resigned Prime Minister of Japan! When we first arrived, he was all over the news because of his sudden resignation. This is basically like seeing George Bush randomly climbing Flattop! Abe claimed health as a reason for his resignation, but the way he flew up the mountain made me think otherwise. Anyways, probably the most important person I have ever seen!
Anyways, it took us about 2 hours to reach the summit, where we had a delicious lunch. We planned to go to the Summit of mount Jimba, further somewhere, but ultimately couldn't find the trail. So we headed down, which was good, because we had no idea there was a temple on the mountain! It was very impressive, and looked amazing with all the fall leaves. we spent awhile here.
we finished just as it was getting dark, and made the journey back. Su invited us to her host family's house for some Korean tea, and it was really fun. Japanese people are famous for hospitality, and they kept giving us more and more and more sweet snack up until the moment we left. They were very nice people, and I could tell they really enjoyed interacting with us.
Later in the week, I went with my Host Mom and Tsuki-chan to a New Years Mochi party. we rode about 40 minutes by bike to reach Asagaya, which is a significant distance away. The party basically consisted of people pounding the mochi, and then creating snacks out of it. While it was fun, the main mochi making guy was really strict about it all. The mochi I made was not good enough, and I had to eat it instead of putting it in the main pile. He was also strict with Tsuki-chan, who was trying his best.
Unlike the usual events I go to, people were not really wanting to socialize much (except a crazy old man and a nice lady who kept giving me food). So I mainly stuck with Tsuki-chan and Mama, which was fine with me. They created dishes for us to eat, a Mama made sure I tried them all. One, in particular, she told me the meat inside was turtle-like (かめみたい) I was like sure, I am willing to try anything. I ate it, and crunched on a few bones, and I decided (by looking at the bone) that maybe it was part of a cows spinal cord, which I guess could look like a turtle (?). A while passed, and someone came up and offered Mama a piece of meat of the bone. I looked, and guess what? It was a turtle shell!!!! I asked my host Mom how that was not a turtle! She thought it was hilarious, and we looked it up in a dictionary, which turned out to be "snapping turtle!" Why would anyone eat a turtle??????? Well, I ate one. And it tasted like chicken.
Righto, that is all the interesting parts of my week. Stay tuned!
3 comments:
that is so crazy that you saw the resigned PM on a random hike! craziness!
You have certainly got quite the adventure going on in Japan! I totally admire your nerve to eat whatever they give to you. I wouldn't be so brave, I think. But I have to admit I have eaten and enjoyed frog legs. Tastes like chicken. :)
As for the PM, that's pretty groovy. I wish you had gotten a chance to talk with him though I don't know what one would say.
Most of all I love the photos you are getting. The leaves and trees -AMAZING! You might consider trying to get a couple of individualized shots of them when you find something like that. So you'd have the full composition in one photo then the isolated items - talk about a great page! Or you could do a macro shot of the leaf of the tree you like the most. That would also really rock!
i told my poli. sci. friend about you hiking with abe shinzo and he was very envious, to say the least. he found it very ironic since he resigned over "health issues."
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