Top 10 Highlights of my Week in Japan

I recently went to Japan for a week to visit Rika's family. Rika was there for three weeks, but I couldn't take that kind of time given the busy work schedule right now.  We don't do a lot of touristy stuff anymore when we go to Japan, so nine days kind of works, but I'd prefer to stay a little longer.  It felt like we returned just after getting adjusted, and with only one week, every night gets booked and the trip becomes a whirlwind.

Below I've written a "Top 10" list of my favorite experiences on this trip.  You can also see the photo album I put up (also linked to the right).

10. Daria-en (Dahlia Park)

We went to "Daria-en" with Rika's mom and grandma.  Dahlia Park is in a neighboring town called Kawanishi.  I used to teach at Okino High School in Kawanishi, which is very close to the Park, but I never saw it while I lived there.  So I actually did do one touristy thing.

The park is just acres and acres of dahlias.  Huge bloomin' dahlias.  Not knowing what a dahlia looked like, I was a bit surprised at how big they are and how many varieties of colors and shapes they come in.  They aren't quite orchids for sheer wow factor, but they are impressive nonetheless.  It costs about $5 to get in, but if you buy the "Park & Onsen Combo", you can do both for $6.50.  We did that.  Nothin like a day of western flowers and eastern bathing.

9. Morning jogs

I always try to go for at least a few jogs in Japan, but this year there was a twist.  Rika was jogging with me.  We chose to run up into the mountains toward the campground, which I found out is actually owned by Rika's family (who knew?).  Rika's family was a bit iffy about us running out there, for two reasons.  The first, and saddest, is that someone committed suicide there the week before I got there.  Nobody really wanted to be up there as a result, which is a real shame because we normally might have had a barbecue there.

The other reason is that there are bears.  Before we start, Rika's mom is careful to remind us to watch out for bears.  Rika decided it was better to be safe than sorry, and sang while she ran, some kids' song about meeting a bear.  It is sung in rounds to the tune of Down by the Bay, and goes something like this:

Aru hi (One day)
Mori no naka (Out in the woods)
Kumasan ni (Into a bear)
Deatta (I did run)

Hanasaku mori no michi (Out on a road in the blossoming woods)
Kumasan ni deatta (Into a bear I did run)

She sang this to make sure the bears knew to stay away.  I argued that Japanese bears were small and wussy and that they were nothing to worry about.  Apparently word got out, though, because on the news one night a bear went into a bus terminal and messed up 9 people.  Don't diss Japanese bears.

8. Grapes, Pears and Apples

The best thing about where Rika grew up is the close connection everyone in the community has.  Every day, somebody was dropping by to give a basket of grapes, or a bag of apples or pears, or some other locally grown vegetable from their recent harvests.  People come in, announce their gift and how insignificant it is, then sit and chat for an hour or so before returning back to work.  I really like it, but I also think it would be a long adjustment period for me to get used to it.  I find it hard to just drop everything and host an unannounced guest until they are ready to leave.  Or I think I would.  I don't know.

As for the fruit itself, it's delicious.  The grapes are famous throughout Japan, and visitors from Tokyo go back with boxes costing $50 and up.  I ate a ton of the smaller Delaware variety, but the best might have been the huge MegaSuperDelicious (I don't know what they were, so that's what I'm calling them), which were really incredible.  The neighbors even let us go into their field and cut our own grapes, which we then took as a gift to the owners of Urashimaya Ramen, my favorite ramen shop.  Here is Rika and her mom, taking a grape-picking break.

7. Urashimaya Ramen

There is no shortage of ramen shops in Japan, but if ramen shops were forced to battle to the death with only the most delicious surviving (perhaps on an island like in the movie Battle Royale), the winner would clearly be Urashimaya Ramen.  It is so much better than any other ramen shop I've been to that it is the only restaurant/dinner that I schedule on my trips.  It's the only one that matters.

It helps that the owners are awesome and allowed me to create and name my own ramen.  I order a chashumen (meat ramen) with vegetables.  It's called the Buraian Special.  It's not on the menu, so you can only order it if you're "in the know".  We walked in, gave them their grapes, and talked for a bit about how long it had been.  Then they asked me if we wanted the Buraian Special.  All I had to say was booyah.  Booyah.

6. Meeting the Higashikou teachers

Outside of Urashimaya Ramen, I try to make sure I see my former adviser, Saito-sensei, every time I make it back to the area.  He always calls a few other teachers and we meet for dinner.  We went to a restaurant called hikousen, which means hot air balloon.  It's a pretty nice place and kind of an anomaly in small-town Japan.  It has swinging benches at some tables instead of chairs, a full mix of Japanese and western meals, and it's all pretty reasonable.

Saito-sensei has been through some health issues of late and, though he was thinner than in the past, he seemed to be in good health.  Aoki-sensei and Susaki-sensei were also there.  We debated the biggest news--the Social Democrats' new ruling majority, led by Prime Minister Hatoyama--and the effect it will have.  Among other things, he's arguing to remove the tolls on the highways and provide direct monetary assistance to parents.  I'm not sure anyone's convinced he'll lead a great change, but I definitely got the sense that everyone was ready for some kind of change.

Considering that Bush and the various Liberal Democratic Party leaders had a strong relationship, it's interesting to consider how Obama and Hatoyama will work together.  Nichibei kankei (Japan-US relations) is getting interesting!

5. Kusa atsume (Grass gathering)

One of the things I kind of enjoy about being at Rika's house is the opportunity to do some manual labor.  That will sound weird to most of you, because you know I don't do anything mechanical, technical, engineeringical, or anything that involves tools.  But for a couple of days in Japan, something changes. 

A couple times per year Rika's family will cut the grass in their fields, have a friend bind it into hay bales, and then they gather them and load them in the barns.  They own a number of fields, and get grass from many neighbors (they trade cow manure).  With her dad turning 60 this year, however, it's getting harder and harder for them.

So part of the feel-good factor is simply helping out her family.  But the other part is just the doing of it.  I don't want to do it everyday, but I feel like it's a good reminder of what hard work really is, for when I'm at home complaining of having too much to type.  In any case, I may be slightly less muscular than a recently exhumed skeleton, but I can still drive those little tiny trucks something fierce.

4. Sumo

When I was living in Japan, I got pretty into sumo.  I learned a lot of the wrestlers' names, a number of the over 100 ways to win a match, and even saw some live sumo in Tokyo and Nagoya.  But since I came back to the States, I kind of lost touch with it.  I happened to go back right when the September basho started...15 days of sumo.

Unfortunately, I caught the first half, so I missed all the drama of the final days.  And in the US, I'm not sure that there's a reliable source from which to watch the videos.  YouTube restricts them in the US, for example, due to copyright issues.  In any case, it was great to reconnect with it a bit, and seeing how it's changed over four years (dominated by foreigners currently, primarily Mongolians) is interesting. But the Baltic states are also producing strong wrestlers with one, Koto-oshu, an ozeki (just below yokozuna) and another, Baruto, who went 12-3 in this tournament to finish 3rd.  It's only a matter of time, I think, before we see a white yokozuna.

3. Which stands for 3, Count 'em, 3 Books

One of the things I don't do as much as I'd like anymore is just sit and read a book.  Well, there's nothing like a plane for that!  I powered through three books on the trip, and probably could have read a lot more if not for paying some semblance of attention to Rika and her family.  Here are the three books I read, and I definitely recommend each of them.

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do: This book goes into the physics and psychology of driving automobiles, and more specifically, why we always seem to be driving in a traffic jam.  I love books like this, that tackle some aspect of everyday life and explain it in its myriad facets.  I'll definitely pay more attention to the way I drive now that I've read this book.

Duel in the Sun: This book delves deep into the 1982 Boston Marathon that saw Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley battle to the line in what is one of the greatest distance races in history.  But it also looks at how that race affected the next 20 years in these mens' lives, providing insight into what makes a champion runner and what it takes to overcome immense hardship.

Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There: This book was written in the early 2000s (I think) by NY Times columnist David Brooks.  In it he argues in what he calls "comic sociology" that Bobos--people who meld both Bourgeois and Bohemian beliefs--are the new upper class, and he goes into detail about what that means for shopping, education, religion, etc.  It's pretty funny and scarily accurate, and I found myself smiling a lot thinking that he really nailed it in his observations.

2. Mahoroba Marathon

Rika and I ran the Takahata Road Race, also known as the Mahoroba Marathon.  That translates roughly to "An exceedingly great marathon surrounded by mountains and hills".  Back when I was living in Japan, I won the 5k race twice and even set the course record.  This time I got my butt whupped by three women.

I wrote all about the race for Runner's Tribe, and you can read that article here.  It also got me to dig up my old emails from Japan where I wrote about the race the first time.  I put that email online and added a few old photos.  You can relive that memory here.  I have a goal to get all of those up on this site, but it's going to take a while.  I'll let you know as I get them up!

1. Hunting for Matsutake

Probably the coolest thing I did was hunt for matsutake mushrooms in the Takahata mountains.  Matsutake are the rarest of Japanese mushrooms, and can sell for ridiculous amounts.  So going out in search of them is like a mix of mountain climbing and treasure hunting. 

Rika's dad and neighbor, who is a matsutake expert, took me up to where they always find them.  Unfortunately, it was right at the start of the matsutake season (which only lasts one month) and it hadn't rained in a number of days, so the ground wasn't moist enough.  That's a long-winded way of saying we didn't find any.  But we did see some good views, a number of bear tracks and even a few other hapless matsutake hunters spending their morning in the mountains.  I've already told Rika we need to go back in early October so I can find one next year!

Bonus: The Fam

I didn't say much about Rika's family, but they were the reason for going and honestly, it's gotten easier and easier for me to stay there and feel comfortable.  I was worried about my Japanese a little bit, as I don't use it that much anymore, but for the most part it came back within a couple days and I didn't feel I'd lost much except for some of the technical vocabulary.  The meals were amazing--no vegetables that weren't grown in their own fields--and the lack of Internet connection made it a true break from work.

Usually, you can judge how long a trip should be by how you feel when you leave.  Sometimes the last week can be a drag and the thought of being home is a relief.  Other times you feel like it's a bit too early to be leaving.  That's how I felt this time.  I wish I had another week.

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