Sooooooooo, another weekend approached and action had to be taken. To start with I was shanghaied to a Dutch embassy party on Thursday to Celebrate “Leids ontzet”. I’m in
F-ingJapan you know, what do I want to do with other Dutchies . . .Well, it would be the last Hutspot I’d see in a while and I am sucker when it concerns my stomach. It was pretty enjoyable. I’d always had this “zonnedael” idea with embassy personnel. They’d speak like there’s something foul stuck to the tops of their mouths and dress like . . . well, like the people from flodder. It’s nice to know that some things are EXACTLY like you’ve always imagined them. Oh sure, there were the normal interns and stuff. But embassy wives are . . . embassy wives. A small side benefit was that I got to group with an assortment of people in which I was the second youngest. Whereas in the Vulcanus crew I’m the second oldest. It was an enjoyable evening with many different dialects of Dutch, English and Japanese spoken. There were even 3 other students from the TU Delft, even one from my own faculty(though I’d never lain eyes on him before).It’s true that most Europeans that get transferred here don’t get a high intensity language course, but it was kind of funny finding out that my Japanese was superiour to some people that had been here for 4 years. And not a little bit flattering.Friday, I took the night bus to Sendai. Remind me to post a map somewhere and prick virtual flags in it to show you where I’ve been. Sendai is quite a bit to the north of Tokyo though. In the meanwhile . . . google it. Now, for those of you that have traveled by busses for extended periods can guess what’s coming. Now, take into account the Average Japanese persons height. Sooooooo, lotsa sleep for me then.
At 5 O Clock me and the fair maiden arrive at the biggest city north of Tokyo, 1 million+ inhabitants, a fully developed integrated suica subway system. And at 5 O clock the only thing open is the McDonalds. Plenty of coffeshops/breakfastplaces around but none of em open. So, we just walk around some waiting for the bus to leave.
According to the guidebook Akiu Onsen is handy for accessing the places we were actually trying to see. What it didn’t mention was that this highly touristy area (one of the three most famous onsens in
Japan) is completely deserted out of main season and does not offer any place for breakfast. Also, the handy access consisted of a bus that left 2 hours after our arrival. While we had come across some Japanese in the meantime that advised us that we probably didn’t still want to climb that mountain we hesitated for only a brief stop at the toilet before venturing forth. The guide mentioned a 3 hour climb and a fine view. What could go wrong?It’s here that I’ll make a short speech about Karma and Force of Habit. When traveling around the world with everything you own on your back you tend to take things easy. No matter what happens, with everything on your back things will have to get pretty hairy before they reach a point beyond your control. Taking this on matter-of-fact-force-of-habit is a dangerous thing when going to what you think is a civilized piece of the world.The 3 hour climb took 6 hours. Admittedly we wouldn’t be registered as the fastest climbers ever, but double the climb time is a pretty steep difference. Combining this climb time with the no breakfast and slow connecting busses it was now almost time for the sun to disappear behind the mountains. Another hour and it would be getting dark. 6 hours up . . . . You do the math. Being woefully unprepared we didn’t have enough warm clothing to spend the night on the mountain, nor the wetweather gear to deal with rain or dew. A mountain hut was located in the wrong direction. Having no extra food this was not something I was aiming for anyway. So we decided to try our luck. We made excellent time and reached past the “2 km left” marker before things got too bad to operate by normal sight. Anyone that will care to look up the state of the moon of last Saturday will see it was a completely new moon . . . and it didn’t rise ‘till late anyway. Also, this was pretty dense woodlands and half-a-moon wouldn’t have lit this forest floor anyway. Being woefully unprepared didn’t prevent me from bringing a torch though. Unfortunately, it had my companion. Taking point I had the fair maiden shine at my feet some so I wouldn’t stumble over any small rocks and break a leg or smthg. This went rather well, didn’t stumble too badly all along the way. We misplaced the path twice though. That is to say: It’s nice for hikers to cross some riverbeds on their hike . . .in the daytime. Fun, exciting and ussually quite pretty. At night these crossings just make it extremely hard to find where the path continues. The second time of losing our way though we were confronted with a wire fence barring our way only to later discover we weren’t supposed to be on that side of it. We were supposed to be on the other side of it though, and seeing that was where we were going anyway that was just fine with us.Now, as I mentioned earlier the guidebook mentioned “Handy access”. I also mentioned that this included a 2 hour layover in another town. The bus timetable back therefore consisted of, not surprisingly, 2 busses. And the last had left 3 hours after the first one did (that would be the one we came with). At least we know where the Lonely planet gets it’s climbing times from. You have to do it in 3 hours or you’re fucked. It’s an hour past sundown, we’re back in a tiny village in the Japanese countryside, no busses, end of the road and the only vending machine is one of Coca Cola. Still going strong on the “no food” theme. The tourist centre (yes, the town consisted of 5 houses and a tourist centre) had been left partially open for late night campers to use the toilet but with no food, no tent and no warm clothes, a bitumen road ahead of us: We pressed on. My prediction that the 4th car would pick us up if we hitch-hiked came true. YEAH. Unfortunately, between the 3rd and 4th car this involved taking a bus back to “civilization”. The bus stopped at the next town . . . 1,5 hours walk away. And it wasn’t so much that we were hitch-hiking anymore. We had sat down in a tiny railway station where the next (and last) train would leave in 2 hours when a remarkably tall Japanese gentleman decided to come have a chat.Being our Karmarific selves it was only to be expected that after all the adventure of the day we get offered a lift to a hotel in the city we were going. He negotiated the price and everything. And when we told him we had plans to go to an Onsen the next day he asked if it wasn’t a nice idea to all go together. The karma kept flowing when we still got a meal after the restaurant we’d chosen still wanted to serve us after kitchen closing time(one look at our faces was all it took). The hotel must’ve been nice, but as it took all of 30 seconds (It was 11 O clock at this time) to fall asleep after reaching the room . . . . I couldn’t tell you.Just after waking up Takahashi (as the remarkably tall Japanese gentleman was called) and Yuki (his fair maiden) arrived. It was at this point we found out that we’d missed the hotel’s free breakfast. . . . I’m sensing a pattern here. While we were stationed at one of Japan’s three most famous Onsens we of course went to another state to Zao Onsen (equally famous though). Once again, I’ll post a map sometime, but google it for now. Or look for Yamagata instead and then picture us 40 km from there.It’s important to understand the working of Onsen, but I’ll leave you in the capable hands of wikipedia for that. Important part is that you’re naked and segregated. Though in this case, only the women were segregated as the men were bathing right off the road. I didn’t take any pictures out of . . . [insert word for courtesy] but given that it is a tourist trap, some foreign women must’ve had quite a blast there. Shriveled old naked men a mere stone throw away.After a nice soak in Brimstone/sulfur infected waters we took a small stop at a soba shop where I got laughed at for not slurping my noodles (They’re trying to break my mothers conditioning here) and after that we went straight to one of the main tourist attractions in the area. A very picturesque lake.Upon returning in Sendai we visited the local おまつり, which meant a lot of people dressed in costumes and dancing. It was quite spectacular to see some of them。And our patron’s friends had one of the better shows we saw. A bit pressed for time we left for oku-Matsashumi. But it had been a really enjoyable day, and not nearly as . . .”adventurous” as the one before, but I’ll take that as a good thing;). Leaving us to say once again: ども ありがとう ございました to our new friends.Matsushima is rated Nihon Sankei (One of the three best views in Japan) which was greatly aided by the complete lack of blue sky as it . . . made the . . . views . . . stand out better?It may not have created as nice a pictures but it made for very comfortable temperatures. We saw some of Japans nicest views and were surrounded by Japanese while doing it. In this popular tourist town we saw a total of 9 white people accenting that we were indeed deep in Japan. And it’s when being completely surrounded with them that you notice the similarities: Did you know that when Japanese women are attacked by seagulls they will squeel just as loud as European women. And there will always be a Japanese man crazy enough to offer a french frie to a passing gull from his mouth. Ah, Japanese women are just like normal women and Japanese men are just like . . . well, sjors.The night bus back had less legroom then the one that brought us there, nevertheless we slept more. Arriving in Tokyo 5 hours before lessons started with only the dirty clothes on our backs and in our packs and in desperate need of a shower.It was a good weekend
Quote of the day:
With your impoliteness you can show your closeness/liking to a person.
すごいさん
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8 Responses to “Hutspot, dark mountains and Onsen”
you always manage to get your self into these situations. At least you did not end up camping in the middle of nowhere for 3 days this time
Ah well another ordeal survived and to be told at parties ^^
you always manage to get your self into these situations. At least you did not end up camping in the middle of nowhere for 3 days this time
Ah well another ordeal survived and to be told at parties ^^
also you haven’t managed the concussion yet, or have you?
Well since it’s Friday, have a good weekend!!
ee gad what a horrible font
You manage to have eventfull times. It’s always good to know them as they belong to the past. Saves me a lot of gray hairs tot paint red.
Remind me to put the movie of the festivals on Youtube when I get back home
Hmmmmm, 60 megs . . . . I think I’ll do it some other way
たかはし と ゆき は 英語で よって 頑張ってください
Video up. And incorporated into the post. Yeeh me