We’re just back from our weekend trip to my student’s second home in Onjuku and what an adventure it was! It rained very heavily Thursday night and we woke to a wet dreary looking world on Friday morning. The forecast was for good weather over the weekend though so we hoped for the best. Sure enough, early in the afternoon shortly after we met Rie and set out the sky cleared and the sun began to shine.

It took us four hours to travel the approximately 120 km across the Boso Peninsula to Onjuku. We explored back roads that we would never have seen from train or bus and made several stops along the way to enjoy the sights. One of our stops was at Otaki Castle which, though much smaller, is built in the same style as the castles we visited at Osaka and Himeji on our first trip to Japan. We would also have done some hiking but the riverside trail was impassible because of the heavy rainfall.

Rie’s husband, Keiji, who took the train out to Onjuku after he finished work for the day, joined us a couple of hours after our arrival and then began the first of the amazing meals that Rie prepared! Served in traditional Japanese style, dinner both days stretched out over a couple of hours and consisted of a wide variety of foods served in several small courses. Presentation is an important part of the Japanese dining experience and Rie is a very artistic person so everything came to the table looking beautiful. Dinner both days began with sashimi, slices of raw fish which Richard and I have both come to enjoy very much.

Neither of us had met Keiji before but it didn’t take us long to decide that he and Richard are two of a kind. In spite of his very limited broken English, Keiji’s sense of humour shone through and we enjoyed him thoroughly. Though he didn’t join us for most of the weekend’s activities, he was a wonderful host whenever we were at the house.

Yesterday began early with a visit to the Saturday morning market in nearby Katsuura. The street was lined with vendors selling a wide variety of seafood, produce and even flowers. It was amazing to us to see all of this happening outdoors at the end of November!

After the market, we headed back to the house for breakfast then went to Onjuku beach, a 2 km stretch of white sand, to see the famous statue of a prince and princess in Arabian garb riding on camels. The landmark was erected in 1969 to commemorate Tsukino-Sabaku (Moonlit Desert), a 1923 song inspired by this beautiful beach. Like many spots along the coastline this weekend, Onjuku beach was dotted with surfers.

Next on the agenda was a trip to Kamogawa Sea World, one of the world’s largest facilities of it’s kind. We observed a wide variety of fish and other sea life in the aquarium and took in the dolphin, killer whale, sea lion and beluga whale performances. While we have attended similar shows in other places, we’ve never seen anything quite like the killer whale show before. The trainers entered the water with the whales and the interaction between them and the enormous animals was absolutely amazing.

A stop at Tanjo-ji temple finished the day’s sightseeing. Back at the house, we were joined by the rest of Rie and Keiji’s family, their two daughters, son-in-law and three grandchildren who all stayed the night. We thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by a family and realized that, except at church, we don’t have that experience here in Japan.

When Keiji, who has been teaching school for 38 years, retires next year, he and Rie will move to the lovely Onjuku house that they built three years ago but for now it’s their weekend getaway. After a relaxing breakfast this morning, everyone packed up and went their separate ways. Miwa, the elder unmarried daughter, joined Richard, Rie and I while Keiji took her car and headed for home. The four of us spent the day taking the scenic seaside route around the southern end of the peninsula and back up the Tokyo Bay side. It was a day of surprises. Our first stop was at Rosemary Park, a quaint bit of Victorian England complete with gardens and gazebos, a little church and even a replica of William Shakespeare’s birthplace! As we strolled amongst the flowers and enjoyed soft ice cream in the sunshine, we had to once again remind ourselves what time of year it is. The day was so warm that we didn’t even need jackets.

Before we left for the weekend, Rie drew me a map of the places that we’d visit and the routes we’d take. It showed us driving around the peninsula but not all the way to Nojimazaki at the very end. If there was one place that we’ve visited in Japan that I’d have chosen to return to above all others, it would have been Nojimazaki. It is such a beautiful spot and we enjoyed our stay there so very much. Imagine my surprise when we rounded a curve today and I spotted the Nojimazaki lighthouse in the distance! My amazement grew as we continued toward it and by the time the car stopped almost across the street from the hotel that we stayed in back in early July, I was pretty much in tears. Never in my life did I expect to see that spot again or to climb the 77 stairs and 14 ladder steps up the inside of that wonderful lighthouse! The icing on the cake was yet another amazing meal in a restaurant looking out over almost the same view that we had enjoyed from our hotel room.

We made one more stop along the way, riding a cable car up a mountainside. Rie and Miwa, who had never been up before, had hoped to show us a giant Buddha carved into a rock face but we discovered that it was quite a hike from the top of the cable car and it was too late in the day for such a jaunt. The views from the top of the cable car were spectacular, however.

Rie is a tremendously giving person. Not only did she refuse to let us pay for anything this weekend except the ice cream at Rosemary Park, but we learned on the way up the mountainside that she hates cable cars and was only making the trip for our sake!

We feel so very privileged to have had the opportunity to share this weekend with such special people. I think we all stepped a long way outside our comfort zones and hopefully came away better because of it. I know we most certainly did.

In Japan, November 15 is Shichi-go-san, a traditional rite of passage celebration honouring boys who are three and five years old and girls who are three and seven. Shichi-go-san literally translates seven-five-three. I’m uncertain why these particular ages are so significant but odd numbers are considered lucky by the Japanese.

Because November 15 is not a national holiday, families often hold their Shichi-go-san celebrations on the weekend preceding that date. In fact, even though today is a Saturday this year, the celebrations have been going on for the past couple of weekends and we even saw a few families at the temple in Narita on Thursday who were clearly there for that purpose.

Little girls are usually dressed in kimono, often for the first time. At three years of age, they usually wear a padded vest called a hifu with their kimono. At seven, an obi takes the place of the simple cord used to tie the kimono. Boys look like little samurai in their traditional outfits.

Shichi-go-san begins with a visit to a temple or shrine to pray for the child’s health and good fortune. It’s also a time when formal photographs are often taken and the family usually goes out for a special meal after the celebration.  The children are given chitose-ame, long thin red and white candies.  Chitose-ame means thousand-year candy and it’s meant to signify many years of life.

This little one was very shy but her family was delighted when I asked if I could take her picture.

We spent a little while in Tokyo today exploring Shibuya, a bustling, youth oriented shopping district.

A popular meeting place in Shibuya is the statue of Hachiko, the faithful dog.  According to one of Japan’s best loved stories, a professor who lived near Shibuya station in the 1920s had an Akita dog that would accompany his master to the station every morning and await his return each night.  After his master died in 1925, Hachiko continued to come and wait at the station every day until his own death 11 years later.  The statue was later erected in memory of his faithfulness.

After visiting the statue, we crossed what is touted as the world’s busiest intersection, or at very least Japan’s busiest pedestrian crossing, and sat at the window of the second floor Starbucks that overlooks the intersection watching in amazement.  The walk light comes on every 2 minutes and 40 seconds and for about 40 seconds, a mass of humanity crosses in every direction.  By the time the light comes on the next time, that crowd has gone on it’s way and another has gathered.   Keep in mind that these pictures were taken at 2:15 on a Thursday afternoon!  What must it be like at rush hour?

Since Thursday is our regular day off and our school was closed on Friday, we decided to make an overnight trip to Hakone. Located west of Tokyo, Hakone is a very popular tourist area well known for its onsen (hot springs) and its views of Mount Fuji. While on this trip, we learned that Hakone has been a sister city to Jasper, Alberta for the past 36 years. Following the advice of our handy Lonely Planet guidebook, we decided on an interesting loop through the area.

Leaving home at about 8:30 Thursday morning, just late enough to miss the worst of the commuter crush, we headed into Tokyo where we boarded the Romance Car, a quick and comfortable express train that took us to Hakone-Yumoto, the beginning of our loop. There we crossed the platform to the 120 year old Hakone-Tozan line and climbed aboard the tiny narrow gauge train that would zigzag up the mountainside through numerous narrow tunnels and over river gorges to Gora, a very interesting 35 minute ride.

By the time we reached Gora we began to feel as if we were on a tourist treadmill, moving from place to place amongst hordes of other sightseers. Fall, is an especially popular time for Japanese tourists to visit Hakone to see the coloured leaves. The season is a bit late this year so the colours may be more splendid a week or two from now but the hillsides were a beautiful mix of green and coloured foliage. There were many foreign tourists but the vast majority of the travelers seemed to be retired Japanese (we dubbed them the geriatric gang) and school groups.

Over our years of teaching, Richard and I have shepherded countless children on field trips to various interesting sites and we like to think that they were much better behaved than most of the Japanese school groups that we’ve been encountering on recent outings. The biggest difference, I think, is the fact that when we planned field trips, we recruited parent volunteers and usually traveled with one supervisor for every four or five children. Many of the venues that we visited required this. Here, we often see one or two harried looking teachers trying to keep track of a very large group of excited children. I don’t envy them at all! Unfortunately, a lot of the children are loud and unruly which makes the experience less than pleasant for the tourists who share the area with them.

After lunch in Gora, we lined up for the 10 minute funicular, or cable railway, ride up the side of the 1153 metre high mountain, Soun-zan. Soun-zan is the starting point for what the Japanese refer to as a ropeway, a 30 minute, 4 km cable car ride to Tokendai on the shore of Lake Ashi. On the way, the gondola stops at Owakudani. On the advice of our trusty guidebook as well as some of my students, we got out there for a look around. Formed some 3000 years ago, Owakudani is a volcanic cauldron of boiling pools, bubbling mud and steam-spewing vents. What an interesting sight! Of course, we also had to sample the black boiled eggs that are sold here. According to legend, eating one of these eggs, which are cooked in the boiling mud, extends a person’s lifetime by several years. We’ve heard anywhere from four to ten! Since the eggs are sold in groups of five, I ate two and Richard had three. Since women are known to live longer than men, I decided that the extra egg might help him catch up!

After sharing most of the day with so many other travelers, imagine our surprise and delight when we headed back to the cable car and discovered no one waiting in line. We rode the rest of the way down to the lakeside in our own private gondola! From there we took a ten minute bus ride to the nearby village of Sengoku where we had reserved a room at the Fuji-Hakone Guest House, one of the few affordable places to stay in the area. A short walk in the chilly evening air, supper at a small restaurant and a soak in the guest house’s private onsen bath finished off the day.

After breakfast at the guest house, we caught the bus back to the lake shore where we lined up for the next cruise to the other end of Lake Ashi. To quote the Lonely Planet, “The ‘Pirate Ship’ has to be seen to be believed – it’s tourist kitsch at it’s worst, but fun all the same.”

We disembarked at Moto-Hakone and there began what was for me the highlight of our trip, a four hour hike along the old Tokaido highway back to Hakone-Yumoto. Built during the Edo period, this road once linked the ancient capital city of Kyoto, with Edo, present day Tokyo. It was a strenuous hike, largely because for most of the way we were walking on the large uneven rocks that were used to pave the ancient roadway.

About an hour into our trek, we arrived at the Amazake-chaya Tea House where we stopped for a cup of herbal tea and a glass of amazake, a thick warm non-alcoholic drink made from fermented rice. The present roadway between Moto-Hakone and Hakone-Yumoto is separated from the old highway by only a few metres at this point so the tea house serves vehicle traffic as well as hikers but it hasn’t always done so. We met the proprietor, a young man who is the 13th generation of his family to own and operate the tea house! Long before the invention of the car and long before my country was settled, his ancestors were serving weary travelers in whose footsteps we were walking! The young woman who served us spoke fairly good English and, in spite of the fact that there were several other customers to be taken care of, she took the time to visit with us at some length. She took quite a liking to Richard telling us that he reminded her of Robin Williams! She was such a delight.

Continuing on, we encountered the occasional hiker along the way and passed through a couple of small villages. We could often hear traffic on the nearby roadway but for the most part, it was a very peaceful journey. The weather was cloudy and comfortably cool. Our backpacks contained only a change of clothes, the bare necessities for an overnight trip and the food and water we’d need along the trail so our loads weren’t heavy.

When we finally reached our destination, we sought out another onsen where we could soak our weary muscles. Following advice given us at the Yumoto-Hakone tourist information booth, we took a free shuttle bus to a lovely public onsen with both indoor and outdoor pools that was only a few minutes away. We had reserved seats on the 7:00 pm Romance Car back to Tokyo but after stopping for dinner, we were back at the station a little over an hour before that and were able to exchange our seats for ones on an earlier train. That got us home and into bed a little sooner than we’d expected having once again seen and experienced a different aspect of Japan.