Big hairy men from the forest

I love autumn in Nagoya as it’s the start of “gig season”. At the weekend I was checking out which bands were playing here over then next few months and writing dates in my diary. I hadn’t heard of most of them, but that hasn’t put me off before. The first gig of the season is on Thursday: a band called Korpiklaani who describe themselves as “pure Finnish folk metal”. I checked them out on MySpace and they sound awesome, like a Finnish Pogues. I can’t imagine who is going to be at the gig apart from us. Is there a Japanese housewife following perhaps, or are Nagoya’s wholesome punks going to appear from nowhere like they do occasionally. I’ll let you know after the gig on Thursday.

http://www.myspace.com/korpiklaaniofficial

Everyone is leaving me!

First Kazue, then June, then Sarah, then Nancy, then Gwen. It's not over, Today I went to the airport to say goodbye to 5 of my clever students who got scholarships to study a semester at Manchester university.

Everything has a face (part 5)

I haven't done one of these for a while, have I?
Cute kiwis have faces in Japan. Makes me feel mean reaching for that spoon....

Yakushima

32 things I loved about Yakushima

1. It’s beautiful! It looks like Hawaii.
2. The ancient, giant cedar trees
3. The macaque monkeys
4. The well-maintained network of mountain trails
5. The weather. We were lucky and had very little rain
6. The tame, beautiful deer
7. The quiet beaches and clear warm (East China) sea. Perfect for swimming.
8. The strange shaped granite rocks
9. The cheap accommodation. We stayed at mountain huts for free and paid just 3000 yen a night each for a comfortable, private air-con room in a family house on other nights.
10. The baby turtles we watched being released at night on Inakahama beach
11. The food: flying fish, smoked mackerel, chicken sashimi and tofu caprese especially.
12. The island colours at sunset: the sky, the sea, the clouds and the mountains.
13. The orange-coloured mineral bath in a private cave overlooking the sea at the ryokan we stayed at
14. Having a beer at sunset at Inakahama beach
15. Yaku Sugi (Cedar) land. Lots of paths and interesting trees.
16. The toad we encountered on our hike
17. Our Rent-a-car: it was only a sluggish Toyota with a slipping fan belt, but it meant we could explore the whole island easily
18. The bougainvillea
19. The views from the top of the mountains
20. The trendy restaurant with the wooden deck outside (next to the river in Anbo)
21. Swimming in the sea at Isso beach and realizing that the volcano on the nearby island was actually smoking!
22. The giant boulders in the rivers
23. The changing landscape in the mountains; one minute mossy dense forest, the next could have been the Rockies, the next could have been north Wales or the Peak District
24. The 2nd and 3rd generation cedars – younger trees growing on ancient stumps
25. Swimming in the river which runs through Yaku-sugi Land
26. Dinner at the up-market ryokan in Inakahama – lots of sushi and boiled lobster in broth
27. The strange banyan trees
28. The views along the coast
29. The views of the mountains from the coast
30. Waterfalls
31. Our favourite lunch spot; a Hawaiian-themed restaurant in Anbo overlooking the sea
32. The museums about the island and UNESCO

And a few things I am less excited about….

1. The mice that “haunt” the mountain huts at night looking for food
2. The shared bathrooms
3. Squat toilets
4. A week without my tea
5. A tropical island with no fruit? I was hoping for fresh passion fruit, oranges and mango, but only found them made into cakes and biscuits in souvenir shops
6. Sitting on the floor a lot














MORE PHOTOS HERE!

Yakushima

Yakushima is a tiny island south of Kyushu and we are going there tomorrow. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I know hardly anyone who has ever been there which makes it all the more appealing. I am looking forward to seeing the rich flora and the famous Yaku-sugi – the giant Japanese cedar trees that are over 1000 years old.

Our friend Justin first suggested a trip there a few months ago at one of our hiking club meetings. The Japanese members just laughed at him as no one in their right mind would go in August, typhoon season. Anyway, we thought we’d chance it and do a bit of hiking. I should have checked what Justin meant when he said “do a bit of hiking” before I committed. We are going to do a traverse of the island from south to north covering 39k and numerous peaks in 3 days. It will probably be hot and wet, there will be leeches and we have to carry all our food and gear. Are we insane? Why on earth did I agree to that? Chiho, the other girl coming, has sensibly opted for a base at a hostel and some guided day walks instead. Why oh why am I not doing that too? I am sure it will be a good experience and I will see some amazing scenery, but I admit to looking forward to the 3 days we have AFTER the walk to lounge about on beaches and in hot springs. I will be out of contact until next Sunday where I am sure I will have plenty to blog about.

Read about Yakushima and see a video

The most expensive 35 minute hike in the world?

Nagoya is hot so we thought we’d disappear to the mountains for a few days. We love Nagano prefecture and went to the Kiso valley to do some hiking in the Central Alps. We were there in July (see pics) and there was still a lot of snow and no mountain flowers then, so we were looking forward to seeing everything in the bloom of summer and bagging a couple more peaks including the mighty Kisokomagatake (2956m). The problem was the weather was bad. Really bad. Everything was obscured by fog, the wind was fierce and the rain pelted down. We originally planned to camp, but when we got up to about 2500m we realized that was not an option and were forced to stay in the expensive mountain lodge. The lodge is very simple and can sleep 250 people. Fortunately, there were only about 40 people that night so we didn’t have to sleep like sardines in the long room full of futons. We ate the dinner we had brought in the common room downstairs annoyed that so many people were smoking. It was a bit like being at school. Or prison? “Lights out” was at 9pm and we were awoken at 4.30 by people moving about, the lights all came on at 5am and then just in case we were tempted to sleep in, there was the official wake up call via a tannoy at 5.30. I wouldn’t have minded if the weather had cleared, but it was still foggy and windy outside. No one was going anywhere. We waited a while just in case it cleared, but we soon admitted defeat and climbed down again to the cable car station.

What a waste of time and money! It only took us 35 minutes to hike up the cirque to where the fog began and that was pretty much all of the hiking we did apart from the descent the following day. We took our time on the descent to make the most of being in cool weather. The flowers were wonderful and we even came across a troop of macaque monkeys so I guess it wasn’t a total waste of time, but not really worth the cost (amended sums):

Petrol: 3000 yen
Road tolls: 7600 yen
Parking: 400 yen
Bus and cable car fee: 7600 yen (3800 each)
Cost to rest in the mountaineering lodge: 600 yen
Cost to stay one night in the lodge: 10,000 yen (5000 each!)
Extra bus fare (we lost one ticket): 850 yen

Total: 30,050 yen

That’s 130 British pounds or 259 U.S. Dollars.

That’s a lot of money for a 35 minute hike.

We visited an onsen afterwards which was as lovely as ever. There's nothing quite like a hot bath outside while looking out over mountains.

The drive home was mostly in heavy rain. It appears that there was no rain in Nagoya; it is as hot and muggy as ever! Plan B? Rent a load of movies and stay in under the air conditioning unit.

More photos HERE

Home again

We arrived back in Nagoya last night and it is HOT! We are beginning to wonder why we didn't stay away longer...

I will be typing up my diary from our trip to Indonesia and Taiwan over the next few days and posting it here along with photos if you are interested:

http://balitaiwan2007.blogspot.com/