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Horse Jumping - Tado Style |
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Riding hard and fast for the big jump |
This was one of the crazyist things I've ever seen done with a horse. I have to admit, I don't have stacks of experience with horses, but this is really out there!
This event is meant to predict, or encourage the coming year's rice crop. I'm not sure which way the influence works, The test is to see how many horses are able to run up a hill then jump up on to a 2m (6ft) wall. Simple? No. You jump that high.
Of the 12 horses that attempted to make the leap, only 3 did make it. One horse was severely injured, one human was trampled, and I scuffed my knee.
That Is Japan (TIJ)
Yunoyama, Mie, JP
05 May 2001
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"TIJ" - goes the saying, That is Japan. For the unexplainable, of which there is plenty in this world of extremes. Like the little car I drive, and all the little cars here have a "reverse beeper!" Look out, little car backing up! And there is not a "piece of crap" car on the roads either. Some sort of pressure in this ultimate consumer society to constantly have the latest and greatest... all the cars are in great condition, and I'm told that's the case with TV's and stereo's as well. The roads are all in excellent condition and painted with all kinds of lines and stripes which makes them feel like a race course and promonts fast driving. That explains why nobody follows the speed limit.
Sea of Japan
Komono to Fukui, JP
21 May 2001
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Purple Casting |
With the limited weekend time I have, Saturday night to Monday afternoon, I decided to make a run for the border and see how far I could get, and if I could get back in time for class! Well, the short of it is I did, and had an excellent trip to boot.
To be honest, I was pretty slack in getting up Sunday morning, finally rolling out of bed about 10am. But this was all actually part of the great plan. I figured with a 4pm class on Monday, if I left late enough, the over night location would be my turn around point. Instead of pushing so far and having to figure out what time to turn around because I have more time Sunday than Monday. Anyway, it works in my brain, so there.
The Grand Shrine
Ise, JP
03 June 2001
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Chikako, Hiroko, Cameron, Miki |
Well, it was a simple trip down to the southern end of Mie. Some of my Japanese friends invited me down to their home town and the festival going on. It's a pretty serious event as it was a re-enactment of the Imperial Princess making her tri-annual visit to the Grand Shrine of Ise. And it's not just called the Grand Shrine in Ise, but is considered the most significant shrine in Japan. I believe I was told it is the biggest and oldest one in the country.
The town seems to be strong in it's heratage and there is a big archilogical dig going on around the city, digging up the ancient city as they try to piece together their own past. The museums were very cool with some fun interactive events to better appriciate the life style back then and the circumstances they had to work with.
Universal Studios Japan
Osaka, JP
17 June 2001
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It's pretty much what you'd expect: lots of fun. The longest wait we had in line for a ride was about an hour and a half, but that provided good time to chat and for me to work on my Japanese. And of course there was some learning of English going on, too.
It's about a three hour drive from where we live to USJ in Osaka, and we ended up paying about $20 each in tolls getting there! But with four of us in the car, it made it cheaper than the $50 bus and we could set our own schedule milling around.
Hiroshima & Kyoto
Honshu, JP
06 July 2001
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Heian Shrine and Gardens |
The first trip Natalie and I took after she arrived was on the train south to Hiroshima. It was a pretty wet and gloomy day... sort of appropreate as we toured the Peace Park and A-Dome, one of the few buildings still standing after the bomb.
We then headed over to Miya-Jima (island) to see the famous shrine and water gate (torii) of the same name. But that wasn't enough for adventureous souls like us. So we had to hike to the top of the hill in hopes of getting above the clouds and getting a view.
From here, it was an easy train ride back to Kyoto where we met up with some Japanese friends of mine and spent a beautiful sunny day touring the city.
The Big City
Tokyo, JP
09 July 2001
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Bridge over moat at Imperial Palace |
Natalie, visting Japan from Australia, had a pretty full on introduction to Japan. After being picked up from the Nagoya airport we were on the midnight bus to Tokyo. The 5am Tokyo streets were bare, but that quickly changed as the sun rose and temprature follwed suit. By 10am the Tokyo crowds lived up to their name as the biggest metropolous in the world.
Following is a narative by Natalie as she takes you on her pictorial tour of our visit to Tokyo.
The Far North!
Rishiri-to, Hokkaido, JP
12 July 2001
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You wouldn't know it... the summit. |
After spending a day and a half on the trains we wasted no time as we hopped from our last train arriving in the sea side city of Wakkanai straight onto the 6:30am ferry to Rishiri-to (island) where we pushed up all 1719m to summit Rishiri-zan (mountain) by 3pm. The wonderful view of the inside of a cloud that had engulfed the mountain peak, didn't entice us to stay very long. Our decent took us to the far side of the island and into town by 8pm with out anywhere lined up to stay the night.
The next morning, we ferried over to Rebun where, after being quite exhausted from the more than expected climb on Rishiri, we decided to take it easy and just rent bikes for the day and tour the very beautiful northern most region of Japan that way.
Mt. Fuji Climb
Mt. Fuji, JP
15 July 2001
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The shadow of Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji) from the summit. |
We arrived at the base of Mt. Fuji about 10am Monday morning and easily found the cabin. We then drove up the mountain to 5th station on the Subaru-line. This is a very popular take off point for Fuji-san climbers, it’s also a very popular tourist stop. There are stacks of shops with all kinds of the usual souvenir junk, all with the mountain peak looming overhead. The sea of clouds below us was obscuring most of our view of the land below, but we could get a glimpse through here and there. This was just a survey round. We weren’t going to start climbing the 3776 meter (12,385ft) peak until 10pm with the intent of being on the top for sunrise the next morning. This was to make sure we knew were to go, to scout out parking and have a general feel for the area, as it would be dark at 10pm. And as it turned out, it would be pouring rain as well.
Isidori Drumming Festival
Kuwana (), Mie, JP
05 August 2001
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The Drum Crew |
I made sure to postpone my departure from Japan, because everybody said this was a festival not to be missed. How right they were.
Each of the townships in the city of Kuwana has a huge cart/carrage of some sort that carries a big drum like the one I'm beating on in the photo shown here.
The festival consists of each of these townships beating on their drums, accompanied by the sharp ringing sound of brass bells being hit by other members of the group.
This is all on parade through the town, with the ultimate goal being the big temple in town where judges rate each of the township teams.
All I have now are a few photos taken by a Japanese friend which were e-mailed to me after I got back to the states!
Japan Photo Gallery
JP
01 October 2001
After living in Japan for about 5 months, I got a few travels in and came home with about 50 decent shots.
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Nagoya Festival
Nagoya, JP
14 October 2001
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Battle Reenactment |
Jumping right back into things when I got back to Japan, I got word of the big festival hapening in Nagoya, and was off like a shot. There were plenty of traditional Japanese displays, including various battle re-enactments, which were amazing. But along with that came the western influence of the marching brass band, uni-cycles, batons, and more.
That evening also resulted in visiting another festival in the small town of Tomida, where the annual "Lion Dance" was underway, photos from that follow as well!
Sadoriffic!
Sadogashima, Niigata, JP
02 November 2001
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The island of Sadogashima, just off the coast of Niigata City in the Sea of Japan proved to be an amazing discovery, one of Japans many treasures.
Of greatest interest to me were the traditions that I only got a glimpse of through the trinkets at the souvenir shops. Some very interesting artwork and craftsmanship alluded to an amazing dragon or demon dance, as well as what looked like a very elegant and graceful dance done by Sado women wearing the unique large brimmed straw hat which was folded down the sides of their faces.
In the Edo era, Sado was an island of exiles of sort... not like the way criminals were taken to Australia, but when the gold mine on Sado ran short of workers, the Tokugawa Government decided to capture mushukunin or people without proper registration in large cities and sent them to work in the Sado gold mine.
My host for the weekend was Dan Schneider, a friend from College. Dan is teaching English with the JET program and started last September. His home page has a few updates, but there is more to come after he gets his laptop and digital camera up and running.
Turtle Talk
Takanabe & Kagoshima, Kyushu, JP
15 November 2001
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The NW coast of Yakushima Island |
In keeping with what has turned out to be somewhat of an island fetish, my trip down south to Kyushu, the southern most island of the main Japanese islands, I also visited Kagoshima, a small island even further south!
The main purpose of the trip was to see Val, a friend from college teaching English in Miyazaki and to attend the conference held by the Sea Turtle Association of Japan where another friend, Scott, was invited from the US to give the keynote address.
For now, however, you'll have to be patient as I work to get my digital photos from the trip up as I have less than 24 hours turnaround time before I head back to the airport on my way to China to visit our offyonder.com represenative in Shenyang, Everett "Walker" Griffiths.
Yea, English!
Kuwana, Mie, JP
15 November 2001
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Camera Phone (in '01!): Lunch in Kuwana |
A community center in Kuwana that we teach English at felt it necessary to take us English teachers out to lunch. It was a great meal of Udon noodles or Soba noodles accompanied by the usual array of Japanese side dishes: Tempura, Tsukemono (crunchy pickles), Miso soup, Sashimi (raw fish), Sushi rolls (raw fish rolled in rice and seaweed), Chawanmushi (a pot steamed hotch-potch), and various other dishes, the names of which I cannot release for national security reasons.
But, it was great fun and the members of the class tell us they enjoy the English class very much. Many of them are also avid offyonder.com followers! So, to the right, as recorded by phone, are a pair of pics proving it all truly happened!
Familiar Ground
Komono, JP
07 December 2001
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Flight back to Nagoya, Japan |
The photos from my tour of NE China are finally up and maybe you'll understand why it took me a few days to process them all, as there are more than 50 photos and captions in this series.
China is a world of constant bewilderment. Be it the extreme contrasts of wealth, society, and even something as simple as cleanliness; to the hypocrisy of variable and inconsistent do's and don'ts that plague the most populous nation on the earth.
Everett is doing well in this seemingly backwards world, and by his own admittance, after a trip to Beijing, notes that China is not as bad as his sheltered life in Shenyang had tried to make him think. More on that thought and beyond in the next e-mail adventure newsletter.
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