渡良瀬渓谷と草木ダム

Last weekend, Kevin, Eric, and I went on the Watarase River Valley railway to a tiny little station called Godo up in the mountains. We went for a nice walk/hike to Kusaki Dam and got to enjoy lots of local scenery. Despite the fact that Japan has been heavily forested and its rivers diverted and dammed and developed, it still continues to be a beautiful place.

I randomly picked Godo station to get off at, because It has the same characters as Kobe (神戸). Weird, huh?

Kusaki dam. It was surprisingly big!!

On our way back to Godo, we walked past a house that had chicken coops and pheasants right out front.

Maybe you can see Kevin off to the right there… right before he decided to take a swim in the river.

October

Fall is in full swing here in Japan. I know I KNOW that pumpkins and Halloween aren’t a part of Japanese culture, but they are something that I do so enjoy. Last weekend, I joined a pumpkin carving event with the Kiryu International Association. They had these beautiful little pie pumpkins shipped in from Hokkaido, where the weather is somewhat similar to the Northeastern U.S., and sold them for about 600 yen a pop, and kids (and some adults) came to carve them! There was a big group of us ALTs there to help out, since there needed to be some explanation for first-timers as to how to carve a pumpkin! It was nice sharing culture :D

Here is, of course, my pumpkin. I had him sitting on my desk at school this past week, but he unfortunately started to mold and I had to.. ahem… dispose of him… sooner than hoped.

I also visited my Nametwin up in Tochigi City last weekend. We took a nice walk along the river, had a bento and had some serious girl talk. I’m sad that she lives further away from me now, but it’s very cool to have a new place to explore with her and it seems like she’s much more comfortable living in Tochigi than back in… that other place… sheesh!

Lastly, I finally played that gig with the band I joined last night! It was really cool! It was my very first time working with a band (well… other than my high school band… does that even count?) I unfortunately don’t have any photos, but I will ask around and see if anyone has any kind of data from the show. It was a good experience doing something new and different. I realized that I really enjoy singing, but I have a ways to go as far as musicianship is concerned. I’m certainly no professional when it comes to this kind of stuff. I feel like I’m always fudging it.

Until next time!

Saturday

Yesterday I went to a flea market in Kiryu at the Tenmangu with some friends. We meandered around for a while, and it was really cool just looking at all the old stuff that people accumulate. I didn’t really buy anything, though. I saw a used yukata that I liked, but it had a stain on the sleeve that probably wasn’t going to come out anytime soon, and besides, when do I ever get a chance to wear yukata?! Well, I did yesterday! I FINALLY had a chance to wear my yukata. Yay!

  

I’m the blonde one to the right, with the purple obi. I think my hands look huge in this picture, probably because my sleeves are a little short. I don’t have geta because they’re too short for my feet, so I wore a pair of flats instead. I think that was the big thing most people remarked on.

Old-fashioned kaki-gori machine. Looks like it was going for about $250.

  

This part of Japan was historically the textile center of the country. The textile factories are still in Kiryu, but they don’t really use them anymore. Now they have them around for their cool, old architecture. Also, there are all kinds of references (names of festivals, shrines, etc.) to Orihime, the weaving goddess, as well as the JR Ryomo (両毛) line, with the character 毛, which means hair or fur, but in this case specifically they used it to refer to the thread produced here. 
   We also went to a cool old-style restaurant called “Basho” (芭蕉) for lunch. The building itself was easily over a hundred years old, complete with thatched roof, clay walls. and uneven stone floor.  There are all kinds of horse-motif decorations in the place. It’s a little dark but it’s cool even on a hot day. The tables each have their own unique noisemakers to call for the wait staff. We had a little brass gong. The booth next to ours had a mini brass temple bell, and another had a wooden windchime. Had the house curry and a salad, which were fantastic.

Its funny how you can go to a place every day and know so little about it. Kiryu has plenty of information and things to promote tourism, as well as tons of stuff to do and see. I’m glad I have nice friends to show me around!

お茶会

I went to an ocha-kai today in Kiryu! I’d never been to a tea ceremony before, so I was really happy to have the chance to go! There are so many small details in a tea ceremony, like the color, shape and design of the serving vessels, the type of sweets that you’re served, even the way the tokonoma is outfitted with a scroll and a piece of ikebana, that it’s almost overwhelming to a beginner. I’m serious! It’s hard to take in all of this stuff on the first time!!  It was a really cool experience though, and I would really like to go to one again, now that I know a little more about it.
On a separate note, I felt severely underdressed. I SHOULD have worn my yukata, but I am unfortunately not able to put it on (in a decent manner) by myself. Had I known this was a yukata-appropriate occasion, I would have worn it.

      

It would have matched really well with all the purple hydrangeas and irises, too. Bummer. One day I’ll get to wear it! One day!!!

伊香保

Ikaho is a little village in Gunma, the next prefecture over from where I live. It’s about an hour’s drive from here and up in the mountains!! I went there this past Wednesday with Kazu and Miki on a little road trip to see the mountains (duh) the Takehisa Yumeji museum, the Chin-po-kan (which was unfortunately closed) and the Venus museum (which was kind of entertaining, but unfortunately there was a creepy dude there…)
 
So, to get to this little lake, we drove up these super narrow and windy roads up these huuuge mountains. The best part was the melody road, when we drove over the bumps on the pavement, the vibrations made a song!! So cool! On our way back, Miki swerved into the opposite lane to see if it worked the same backwards, but it didn’t. I wish they would have had the melody road both ways!! So cool!!

After checking out the absolutely SPECTACULAR view, we went back down into the little town and had some udon & soba before going to the Takehisa Yumeji museum. I don’t know if the guys enjoyed the museum as much as I did. I first found out about Takehisa when I was studying at Kansai Gaidai. I saw some of his prints at a shop in Kyoto and I ended up getting postcards to send back home. He was kind of a painting renegade, as he basically did his own thing, yet still incorporated some traditional techniques. He also was a printmaker (he designed some really fantastic prints for yukata fabric) and commercial artist (like.. newspaper illustrations) as well. In any case, I like his style, despite the fact that most of the women he paints all have really sad looks on their faces. Sad, but beautiful.
  
Woman w/ black cat  © Takehisa Yumeji

So after that, we tried to go to the chin-po-kan… but it was closed !! >.< We drove down the hill for a while, and we came across a similar (but definitely not the same) kind of museum… and we ended up going in. It was interesting, but I guess the chin-po-kan would have involved more laughing. We came back to town after that and went to see the cherry blossoms (photos from which are in my previous entry), got some foods, and then hit up an izakaya to end the day.
Anyway. I had a great time. Great views, gorgeous art, and with good people. As per the usual, more photos are on the Facebook!