Monkeys

[Taylor]

On our third day we traveled an hour by train to a town located in the foothills of some mountains Southeast of Nagano City.  From there we took a 15 minute car ride up a mountain and walked one a half kilometers through a forest (and up the mountain a little further) before finally reaching a hot spring full of snow monkeys.  Pictures and videos below.

This one had a toy it was protecting.

Galloping on three paws to keep it safe from a thief.

I watched him roll the ball in fresh snow to make it bigger.

At first I thought he was doing some sort of balancing trick but after a few moments it became apparent that he was marking his toy.

"My precious."

Videos:

More photos and videos here.

Happy Halloween?

[Taylor]

I know it’s a little early, but I thought I’d share this photo of a spider I took outside after a (wonderful) classical guitar concert we went to.  If you look close you’ll see a few other spiders hanging out along the side of the web.  You might think those are baby spiders, but they’re actually males and the large one is the female.  There’s some interesting Japanese folklore associated with this spider that you can read about here.  Jorogumo is its name in Japanese.

Alright, so maybe that’s a little creepy.  Here’s a nice antidote for the jorogumo.

Chestnuts and Frogs

[Taylor]

Over the weekend (is our blog finally up to date now?  weird), Julie and I ventured into the woods of Shichinohe to harvest chestnuts with her coworkers.  Afterwards we ate cake and drank tea at a secluded retreat located a little further into the heart of the Blue Forest.

We also befriended some frogs.

Pond outside the cabin where we ate cake.

View from Cake Cabin window.

To give you some perspective on the size of the frog, the person holding it is four years old.

More photos here.

Mt. Eboshi 2009

[Taylor]

My entire school climbed a nearby mountain a few weeks ago.  We did this last year too but this time I was able to climb with the students up to the top and back down again.  The hike, to and from the school, was 24 km.

Mt. Eboshi in the distance

At the summit. Mutsu Bay, Noheji Town, and Yokohama Town in the background.

More Mutsu Bay, Hiranai Town, and Natsudomari Peninsula

Most of Aomori Prefecture looks like this. When the lighting is just right, you can see why they call it the "blue forest."

Awkwardly smiling in the wind.

As you can see, at the summit we were treated to a glorious view of Noheji Town, Mutstu Bay, Shimokita Peninsula, Natsudomari Peninsula, and our neighboring towns of Hiranai, Shichinohe, and Yokohama.  To see all the places where we spend the vast majority of our time all at once was breathtaking to say the least and made each kilometer on the hike worth it.

As for wildlife, no frogs this year.  However I did get a few photos of some large grazing mammals.

Summer Break, Britni’s visit: Kyoto

It took 7 hours to travel from Noheji to Kyoto by train.  Our $3 coffee (!) and novels made the time fly by quickly.  We left early enough to leave time to start exploring Kyoto on the day we arrived.

On the train

Kyoto City

Our first day, we managed to see Toji Temple, featuring the tallest pagoda in Japan, and the Fushimi Inari Shrine, featuring all of the bright orange Shinto gates framing a path through the mountainside.  We also managed to eat some yummy sushi and then bus to our hostel.

Toji

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine

The next day, we rented bikes from the hostel; only $1 for the whole day!  We were delayed by a punctured tire, but still managed to visit Ryoanji (rock garden), Kinkakuji (aka the Golden Pavillion), Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kyoto National Museum, and the Kiyomizu (pure water) temple.  Whew!  This was my favorite day of the whole trip, because of the bikes.  It was sooo hot, so the breeze felt really nice and we were making really good time (better than the busses we passed).

Ryoanji

Kinkakuji

Kyoto Imperial Palace

Kyoto National Museum

Kiyomisu "Pure Water" Temple

View from Kiyomisu

On our third and last day in Kyoto, we went to Arashiyama to visit a famous bridge and a monkey park.  So cute!

Togetsukyo Bridge

We took a train to Tokyo that afternoon.

Summer Break, Britni’s visit: Tokyo

[Julie]

After arriving at Tokyo Station, we were able to navigate to our hostel train stop just fine, but we wandered for a good hour longer than we needed to before finally arriving at the actual hostel.  We actually walked right by it once, failing to notice the tiny sign in the window across the street from where we were walking.  After our third round of asking for directions, we found it!

Keeping with the trend, we decided to explore the area without a map or destination in mind.  We ended up stumbing upon not only a vending machine with HUGE cans of soda, but also a very polite waiter of a fancy bistro who gave us directions to a cheap yet delicious sushi place.  We found our way back with minimal confusion.

The next 5 days went like this: Disney Sea, shopping Harajuku and Shibuya, Ueno Park and Zoo, baseball at Tokyo Dome, and saying farewell at Tokyo Station.

Disney train

Disney Sea

Disney Sea

Disney Sea

red panda, Ueno Zoo

anteater

flamingos

Ueno Park Fountain

Tokyo Dome

Hanshin Tigers vs. Yomiuri Giants

Tiger fans cheered their team to victory!

Thunder Dolphin, roller coaster near Tokyo Dome.

We did this at night! The view from the top was beautiful and the ride was crazy!

Thanks for visiting, Britni! )

Gone Fishin’

[Taylor]

As you may recall, my friend Bryan and I went hunting in June.  By “hunting” I mean stumbling around in the woods in the morning looking for animals with no intention of harming them.  A few weeks back we decided we should also go fishing.  But it was agreed that needed to make our equipment.

After going on a few reconnaissance missions to our local river, I discovered that the preferred way to fish involved using a telescopic rod without a reel to catch the tiny, inch long fish swimming up and downstream.  Instead of buying a fancy telescopic rod, we purchased bamboo poles about fifteen feet in length and duct taped fishing line on at the end.  For bait we used some flies and mosquitoes that died in our stairwell the night before.

Although we didn’t catch any fish, and some ants carried off most of our bait while we weren’t looking, it was a huge success.  Highlights included spotting a river crab (!), locating a small school of fish just out of reach of our gear, snagging a newspaper and possibly some sort of worm-like creature, identifying birds, and enjoying what might have been the best weather we’ve had all summer.

“

Bryan snagged an unidentified decomposing invertebrate.

Snagged some twigs. Earlier I caught newspaper.

Julie trying to coax a crab out of hiding.

More photos here.  We’re planning on going fishing again in the fall when the local trout return to Noheji River.

Aomori Rock Festival

[Taylor]

Over the weekend Julie and I drove to Tsugaru City on the Western side of the prefecture for an all day rock festival.

We mostly wanted to go because one of our favorite bands from Japan was scheduled to play in the afternoon:  Eastern Youth.  Eastern Youth strike a nice balance between noise and melody.  Their music is cathartic but very listenable.

They played a great set — a nice mix of old and new material.  The highlight for me was “Into the Sandstorm,” which was the first Eastern Youth song I’d ever heard and is still one of my favorites.

The other bands we saw were also fun to watch and listen to.

Interesting enka/rockabilly/storytelling solo act.

The Beaches. They played a fun set of reggae dance rock.

Neatbeats. 60s style garage rock.

Mari, the lead singer from Tsushimamire. They probably gave our favorite performance of the day.

Not pictured:  the King Brothers.  During the last song of their set, the lead guitarist climbed the scaffolding of the stage, about twenty feet off the ground.  He then jumped off, not into the crowd, but back onto the stage, did a ninja safety roll, and immediately picked up his guitar and began playing music again.

Wedding in Alaska

[Taylor]

Last Wednesday Julie and I took an overnight bus to Tokyo, hopped on an airplane bound for Vancouver, B.C., spent twenty four hours at the airport waiting for our next flight, flew to Anchorage, Alaska for a wedding, flew back to Vancouver, met up with Julie’s parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephews at the airport in Vancouver, flew back to Tokyo, took a bullet train to Aomori, and then a local train back to Noheji.

It was wonderful.  In Alaska we were able to spend some quality time with longtime friends we haven’t seen in at least a few years, including the bride and groom (Kenzi and Curtis, respectively).  Friday night, after the rehearsal, we went to the home of Kenzi’s parents for some whole roasted pig, salmon, halibut, barbecue chicken, salad, rice pilaf, and lively conversation.  They live on a mountain in Chugiak with a gorgeous view of Cook Inlet.  We managed to get a good picture of it as the sun began going down at 11:30 at night.

The wedding was perfect.  I’ve been friends with Curtis for the past sixteen years and am so happy he’s found the love of his life.  His wife, Kenzi, is a wonderful person.  I hope our next visit will come sooner rather than later.

Seeing Julie’s family was also very refreshing.  We had a great time catching up and were amazed by how much our nephews have grown in the past year.

Now we’re back to work, staying plenty busy until the students go on summer vacation.

Anyway, here are some photos:

On the trip, Julie began a new hobby — taking pictures of me sleeping with my mouth open.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

The view overlooking Cook Inlet that we alluded to earlier during the rehearsal dinner.

Looking up at another photographer before the ceremony.

:D

Dad's dance.

Cake

Hacky-sack

Dudes of Valdez

After the reception we stayed at a hotel in Anchorage and ordered this pizza at midnight. It was one of the best decisions we made that weekend.

Anchorage airport.

'Merica Sized chips.

Playing with the nephews in Vancouver.

Our nephew Levi playing with a ball we bought for him and his brother. It changes color if you toss it.

Angela (Julie's sister) and Jack

Back in Tokyo

Pikachu Express

As always, more pictures here.

Rainy Season

[Taylor]

Spring is over. We’ve been experiencing the rainy season of Japan for at least the past two weeks, if not longer. Here in Northern Honshu the weather is cool but humid, the landscape green and gray. Although it’s the middle of June, it doesn’t feel like summer at all. We’ll have to wait until the end of July for that.

In the meantime, with all the extra humidity, we’ve had to step up our mold prevention effort. This weekend we swapped out all the moisture absorption packets in our closets and drawers.

Over 48 packets replaced.

Rainy season is also, apparently, caterpillar season. We’ve seen them everywhere we go. Most of them tend to look something like this.

Slightly smaller than my index finger.

Weekend Stuff

On Friday we had a wonderful time hanging out at a yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant with friends. The following morning Julie helped out at a local nursery.   She met many kids under the age of five and, for most of them, it was their first time meeting a foreigner. In the afternoon I played Go at the community center.

On Sunday, I went hunting.

By “hunting” I mean watching animals in the woods with my friend Bryan without weapons (though to be fair Bryan surprised me by brandishing a fake pistol that he hilariously explained would be used for self-defense). We ended up in a moist forest on the outskirts of Shichinohe and at times I felt like I was back in Oregon.

Bryan thumbing through a guide book of birds in Japan.

So did we find anything? Yes. Just when we had given up hope of spotting large, interesting creatures, a Japanese serow (wild goat-antelope) came trotting across a ridge about twenty feet away from us. It was, understandably, surprised to see us and stared us down for a few moments before venturing deeper into the woods. Success.

Looking ahead to this week, we’ll both be pretty busy with school visits. However on Thursday afternoon I’ll be participating in a teacher softball match. On the weekend we’ll be heading to the Oirase Gorge for a night of trivia, charity fundraising, and fun with friends.