My international driver's permit is due to expire in a few weeks so I went during work today to get my Japanese Driver's license... and here it is!
Lucky for Canadian's, getting a Japanese license is super easy and just a matter of getting my Canadian driver's license translated, filling out a few forms, and paying around 7000 yen (unlike what my American friend Justin had to go through). w00t!
River crossings, slippery waterfalls, loose scree, melting snow drifts and beautiful ridge lines - all the elements needed to make a day hike into an adventure! This is exactly what me and my friend, June, experienced last weekend on my most favorite mountain so far, Mt. Shari. We got to the mountain just after 9 o'clock in the morning after getting lost and having to ask for directions to the trail head. The beginning of the trail starts off on a normal road that quickly narrows into a small path that ventures into the forest. After a while we reached our first of many river crossings, balancing on rocks just barely poking above the rushing water. A small mis-step and you'd be swimming! After an hour, three more river crossings, and navigating across unmelted snow drifts we reached a spot beside the river where the path branched into two routes - the old path and the new path. After short deliberation, we decided to ascend the new path and descend down the old path. 
After another hour of hard, steep climbing (with a few stops for pictures), we finally made it to the top of the ridge with a clearing where we had a great view of the mountain range. There was a Japanese couple taking a rest in the clearing so we decided to ask them how much longer it was to the peak. They pointed to a soaring mountain across the valley and said, "That one there, on the left". What we didn't realize is that the "new path" basically takes you up a different mountain where you then have to traverse along the ridge to get back to Shari-dake. "From here, maybe two more hours," they said.
After a short rest for water and snacks, on we went. We hiked another hour up and down the ridge line, through small gullies still filled with snow, and along shadowed forest paths. We were mainly among brush so we had a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains and forests. The clouds were low that day and flowing up the mountain side, only to be dissipated by the sun's heat once it reached the peak. It had the effect of creating a standing wall of fog essentially straddling the mountain ridge. It was amazing.
We made it back to the rushing river we crossed from the start of the hike (now a small creek at that altitude) where the new path meets back up with the old path. We continued up the creek, stepping from stone to stone, until we reached the rocky road to the top. We followed a path of loose stones through the trees for another hour until we cleared the trees and reached a giant mound of scree and boulders, like a scar on the face of the mountain. We scrambled our way to the top ridge and stopped to rest while we watched the clouds roil on the other side of the mountain. 
From there, we still had another hour of hard climbing to go. The scree and boulders continued to the bitter end until we crested the final peak and finally reached the summit. We sat down to rest and rewarded ourselves with lunch as we reached the top, just as my legs were starting to tighten and the scree was taking its toll. We were in the midst of a cloud on the summit so all we could see was endless fog. We chatted with a Japanese guy on the peak in English who showed us a map of the mountain and the routes up. We told him we came up the new path and were planning to go down the old path but he told us, "It's very dangerous. You should go down the new path". After he headed down we said "Bah, 'dangerous' is relative," and still planned to descend down the old path.
We headed back down around 2 o'clock after a eating lunch and resting for a bit. Most of the Japanese people we met on the mountain were headed down on our way up so we were one of the few people left at the top. We made our way back to where the new and old paths met and continued on down the creek. We were in the shadow of the mountain where the clouds didn't dissipate at this point so we had fog as our constant companion the entire way down. The old path is a more direct route that follows the creek directly down the mountain. The further along it goes, the bigger and faster the creek becomes until it's a viable river. The path continues along, crossing and re-crossing the river, jumping from one bank to the other and barely straying from it at all. At parts where there were waterfalls or steep drops, chains and ropes are conveniently provided to prevent from slipping on the wet rock walls. Maybe 'dangerous' wasn't so relative after all.. We quickly realized that the "old path" was definitely not meant to be climbed down but climbed up! We'd accidentally taken the wrong route around the mountain! Facing the inevitable, we carried bravely forth. It took us a slow, precarious two hours climbing down slick rock, past waterfalls and across more snow drifts until we finally arrived back at the point where the paths met up. We were exhausted but took the final hour back to the trail head nice and easy. It was 5 o'clock when we got back to the trail head, a full eight hours after starting out. Tired, sore, wet, dirty and with three of our four knees injured, we were ready to call it a day. Afterwards, we went to an onsen to soak in the scalding water and soothe our aching muscles.
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The annual HAJET (Hokkaido Association of JETs) Summer Meet is a perfect time to get together with JETs from all over the Hokkaido for a weekend of camping, food, friends and fun in the sun. Last weekend, the summer meet was held at beautiful Lake Toya, the site of last years' G8 Summit. It also happens to be inconveniently located on the other side of the island from my house. On a rainy Friday evening after work, Justin and I left Eastern Hokkaido in his car, Roy, and made our way to Sapporo through the scenic Daisetsuzan mountain range. We spent the night at Callie's (new) place and left early the next morning (fueled on Starbucks) in order to make it in time for the morning meetings at 9:00am.
As Justin was in the meetings, I spent the morning setting up the tent in the scorching heat and exploring the Lake Toya campground. Toyako is a caldera lake with a picturesque island in the middle and the area is still volcanically active with numerous onsen around the lake. Mt. Usu, a stratovolcanic mountain on the south end of the lake, erupted just nine years ago and a smaller mountain next to it called Showashinzen is a lava dome that was formed by earthquakes and spewing lava. 
Over 30 JETs from around the island showed up for the Summer Meet. There were meetings held in the morning and activities like a sumo competition (of which I didn't win :( ) and capture the flag to tide people over until the BBQ enkai for supper. It was a hot and sunny weekend (finally! after a month of non-stop rain) so a few of us took a dip in Lake Toya to cool off. At night there was a trivia contest, a lot of socializing and a lot of drinking. Alcohol + A big group of Gaijin = Loud. I felt a little bad for the other Japanese campers next to us, but fortunately they were warned earlier that day about how loud we were going to be (and were suggested to move their tents further) but said they would be fine with the noise. So polite, ne? 
The next morning we woke up early since the tent became a sauna from the sun (this is at 6:00am, btw) so we ate breakfast, took down the tent and prepared to make our way home. We left the campground in the morning and made our way back to Sapporo, making a quick stop at Jozankei onsen along the way to clean up and another stop in the city for kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) before hitting the road again for the long drive home. We got back in to Kitami just as the sun was setting, nine hours after leaving Toyako. It was a condensed, exhausting, but incredibly fun weekend (over half of which was driving) but I'm glad I made the trek out there. Toyako will definitely be a place I'll return to next summer to hike that island in the middle of the lake. 'Til then!
Remember back in the day during Elementary and Junior High school when we had Track and Field day? That one day doing events like the three-legged race, spoon & egg race, 100m dash, 400m relay, long jump, water balloon toss, sack race, and tug-o-war? winning badges regardless of what place you came in? In Japan there's a similar day called Undokai - or Sports Day - with a lot of the same events.. with a Japanese twist. Their society is big on cooperation over individualism so a lot of the events are geared towards that in mind. The Junior High school kids, for example, take the 
three-legged race and expand to an incredible twenty-three-legged race! They also have the skip rope event where not only one or two students jump simultaneously, but up to 20 students at a time! Another event called the Canoe race had one student, the "rower", balanced with a pole walk on the backs of their teammates across the field as they raced to give him a platform to walk on. It was crazy to see all the teamwork involved. For the elementary kids there was the 100m dash and the relay races, from the standard 400m baton relay to one where they run with a pole and flag. There are a lot of events that include the parents too such as the bean bag toss, the kids vs. parents baton relay and the tug o' war. Another difference with the Sports Day in 
Japan are the Yosakoi dance and athletic demonstrations where groups of kids make crazy poses like handstands and human pyramids. Sports Day is a pretty big deal here and the kids spend up to three weeks before the day practicing and rehearsing with their teams. I went and watched two Undokai's, an elementary school and a junior high school, but unfortunately it rained on both of the days. The kids were genki enough to ignore the rain though and still had a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching all the crazy events had fun at the (free) enkai's they held afterwards with all the teachers and parents!
Every Spring my town of Kamiyubetsu holds the most famous event we have all year - the Tulip Fair. Millions of tulips are planted in rows upon rows in our Tulip park, blooming like clockwork at the beginning of Spring and creating a dense landscape of vibrant colors and sweet odors. The fair is a month-long event and the entire town gets involved by planting tulips along the main street and decorating their gardens with tulips. The fair has grown in such size and popularity that our town mascot is Tupid, the tulip. Tour bus companies include the Tulip Park as one of their sightseeing stops so the fair brings in a lot of tourism to my sleepy little town of 5,600 people. Here's the English website for the park.
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On a weekend in mid-May I went down to the Tulip Park to check out what all the fuss was about. I'd heard about the tulip fair before coming to Kamiyubetsu so I was eager to check it out. Right in the middle of the park is a wooden windmill that looks like it was lifted straight out of Holland with numerous rows of tulips strategically planted to create beautiful designs on the landscape. There are pavilions selling food and tulip-flavored omiyage (gifts), info booths about the city, a roofed cart giving guided tours through the park, a mini helicopter giving five minute aerial view rides, and needless to say, a lot of tulips! I walked around the park among the rows of flowers, checked out the information booths, had some tulip-flavored ice cream, and ran into a bunch of my students at the park before heading to the museum next to the park to chat a bit with the curator. The museum has a permanent exhibition on the native Ainu who lived in Hokkaido and on the Furusato soldiers who helped populate Eastern Hokkaido. The museum itself has some crazy concrete architecture that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. If you weren't able to check out the fair this year, come by in the Spring next year! I'll still be here to show you around :)
So, I've given my blog a fresh, new look! One day while I was writing a post I looked at the page and realized how boring it was, so I brushed up on my ol' HTML skillz and installed in a new template. Too bad I haven't been posting as much!
Seriously though, writing blog posts are pretty time-consuming. I'm not one of those people skilled enough to write a polished post from scratch. First, I have to think of what to say, then I write it down, then I painstakingly go through what I've written a few times to edit and fix all the grammar errors. A short 3-4 paragraph post with 8-10 pictures can take me over an hour to publish and I usually have to be in the mood to write. So, apologies to you readers (the 4 of you) for nothing recent!
A few of the main reasons I keep this blog are to:
1) Let my friends and family back home know what I'm up to,
2) Improve my writing (considering I've only written one essay during my entire University degree), and most importantly:
3) Keep a journal of my time in Japan
I think a lot of us would love to remember all the things we've done or places we've been to in our lives. Some people keep journals, others keep picture albums; I keep a blog. Since arriving in Japan over 10 months ago, I've written 66 snippets of my experiences here and my travels to other countries. I think the greatest loss I could think of would be to lose these memories. If you think about it, everyone saves up money for two things: physical items and experiences. When you travel or see a movie or go to a concert, the experience itself is ephemeral but the memory of it lasts forever. It's the memories and experiences we're paying for, not the plane or concert tickets.
So anyways, that's why I write this blog. Sorry for all the rambling, I'm just thinking in my head.. out loud.. on the internet.. I'll get back to real posts again soon.
Huashan is one of those places, like the Great Wall, that can't be described in words but has to be experienced in person. As I was planning my trip to China I came across this photo:
It's one of those photo's that makes you think, "Wow, where is that?" I discovered it was an ancient mountain in central China called Huashan, and it was this photo more than anything else that made me decide to go to Xi'an.
Huashan, or Mt. Hua, is heaven on earth. It's one of China's five Sacred Daoist Mountains with precipitous cliffs and lofty peaks that tower over the surrounding plains like daggers sticking out of the Earth. There are five peaks on Huashan, four in each cardinal direction and a Central peak, the tallest being the South peak at 2160m. On the peaks are different hostels and lookout pavilions that give panoramic views of the mountain range and countryside. There's a cable-car that goes to the North peak at 1613m, but to get to the other four peaks you have to hike further up the mountain along Black Dragon Ridge, up the Heavenly Ladder and finally reaching Golden Lock Pass. The Chinese have really grand names for all of these place. The other way of getting to the North peak is to simply hike up from the bottom, which was the route I took.
The path begins at a temple at the foot of the mountain and gradually becomes steeper further along. Half way through, The Stairs begin. I was literally climbing a mountain! Most of the steps are cut into the mountainside and continue for over 2000 steps until they reach the North peak. It was quite the workout! The path normally takes four hours but I was able to conquer it in two and a half hours, reaching the first peak an hour after noon. I spent the rest of day making my way to the four remaining peaks and exploring the trails on top of the mountain. It was like walking on a floating island with sheer cliffs connecting each of the peaks and beautiful, flat, tree-lined walking paths between 
them. I'd only planned on a day-trip to Huashan but the atmosphere, scenery and feeling of well-being I had was too overwhelming for me to leave just yet. I got a bed in one of the hostels so that I'd have more time to explore the next day. When evening crept up I returned to the West peak and found a comfortable spot on top of the bluff to watch the sunset. As I was sitting above the clouds, looking down at the sun as it slowly slipped into the horizon, I discovered why Huashan is considered Holy...
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I spent the next day exploring the rest of the peaks I hadn't visited yet. I went over to the East peak to see the morning sun reflecting brightly off the mountain walls. I walked over to see the lonely Chess Pavilion but decided not to pay it a visit due to the strong winds that day. When it was well into the afternoon I had visited all the peaks, walked up and down countless stairs, and walked almost every path that was on top of Huashan. I was tired, dirty, and exhausted so I decided to head back down. I opted for a quick 5 minute cable-car ride to the bottom because I wasn't quite up to tackle those stairs again. I fell asleep on the bus ride back to Xi'an that was stalled by engine troubles, heavy traffic and randomly stopping to pick up and drop people off on the side of the road.
Later that night at the hostel, I looked through the pictures on my camera and wondered why I never saw that one photo that brought me to Huashan in the first place, those precarious planks of wood jutting out from the side of the mountain. After consulting the internet, I knew exactly where that photo was taken: it was in the one and only path I didn't bother trekking on, the one I came across just before the sun set and resolved to go back the next day to explore but didn't because I was too tired and decided to head down the mountain instead.. "F****CKK!" was all I could think once it hit me. "So that's what regret feels like!" I had the huge urge to head back to Huashan the next day just to hike that one last path, but my schedule and flight prevented me from doing so. I still have the urge to go back to Huashan one day to do that one path I missed but, apart from not seeing the photo that brought me there in the first place, I enjoyed my time on that beautiful mountain. Just having been there is good enough for me.
Canada
