Weekend update - Saturday, September 2
Okay, this is old and has been in draft form for about a month now, but after fighting with photos for way too long, I'm going to go ahead and post as is. :-)
This was the first weekend that I didn't really have anything planned during the day either Saturday or Sunday, but sometimes the best experiences are the unexpected. After I putzed around most of Saturday morning doing random chores, Bill came up early afternoon to recommend riding our bikes around town in search of a local organic bread shop one of the teachers told us about. About 20 minutes later we had located the bread shop, bought our stock for the week and were left with a beautiful day and the remainder of the afternoon with nothing else to do, so we decided to try to take a different route home, just to see where it led us and to hopefully kill a little more time. 4 hours and what I'm supposing is at least 24 km later, the following had occured:
We had a nice ride through the countryside and ended up in one of the neighboring towns called Ogose.
On the outskirts of Ogose (before we knew that's where we were at), a man who apparently thought it was funny that two gaijin (foreigners) were bike-riding on a road that seemed in the middle of nowhere, waved at us, then stopped a bit ahead of us to chat and make sure we weren't lost. When we had affirmed that we were riding our bikes in the middle of nowhere on purpose, he told us about a triple-waterfall and onsen (hot spring) that was about a 30-minute bike ride from where we were, and he went as far as to draw a map for us (including the way back to our town, Tokigawa). Again, with nothing better to do and not knowing any better, we set off for the waterfall.
The ride was fine, but a steady, slightly uphill climb, which was an interesting experience considering I think the last time a rode a bike that extensively were my Oslo city tour and Ireland experiences back in 2000. Playing the "Rocky" theme during the ride would have probably been appropriate. We rode through lots of little villages, which I really enjoyed.
We arrived at the waterfalls where it was quite a bit cooler, which was very welcoming. We walked around quite a bit, stretched the legs, I of course had to climb on rocks and rock-hop in the pools and streams around the waterfalls just because I can't seem to help myself when presented with the opportunity. The area seemed to be relatively popular (for rural-esque location anyway), but we seemed to have arrived at the waterfalls at the end of the regular "tourist" hours, and hence had a chance to romp around freely.
On the way back from the falls, we stopped for chai tea and ice cream at a cafe we had seen on our way to the falls, called "Die Sonne." The fact that the name of the cafe was in German caught our eye and made us decide we had to go there, probably more due to the irony of the fact that the only other cafe we know well in Japan (Poponoki) is also run by someone who speaks German. After we had ordered, I asked the lady who owned the cafe, in German, if she spoke German (duh, but it was an opening, and a chance to speak something other than English in Japan, which I am starting to feel really bad about) and she mentioned that she had lived in Germany for a couple of years as a child, and had returned when she was older to study. She also spoke English pretty well, but she and I conversed a bit in German here and there, which was really nice, again, if only to not feel like such a heel for making the Japanese speak English to me all the time in their own country. The cafe owner, ironically named Mayumi (same as the owner of Poponoki), was fantastic, as were her customers, obviously regulars and good friends. Within 5 minutes of sitting down, we were invited to a Latin music festival (random) to be held at the cafe the following weekend (which we unfortunately cannot attend due to Culture Festival events happening at our junior high schools on Saturday), where the performers would be none other than two of the people who were sitting at the opposite end of the table from us.
Only about 10-15 minutes into our visit, Mayumi slid a laminated piece of calligraphy/artwork toward me and told me it was made by the other lady sitting with the Latin music performers (all of whom were Japanese, in case you were wondering), and that she wanted to give it to me as a gift. Wow...what do you say to that kind of unexpected generosity?! The calligraphy happened to be of a well-known Japanese song, so Mayumi jumped on her piano and played it for us while she and the other patrons sang along. Unfortunately we had to leave shortly after that, not knowing how long it would take us to get back to Tokigawa, wanting to be back before dark and having other plans for the evening. Before we left though, Mayumi took down our addresses and phone numbers and everyone said, "See you next time!" I don't doubt that there will be a next time. :-)
That evening, once we were back in Tokigawa, while Bill went off to a Zen meditation session at the nearby Buddhist temple (which I think is a cool thing to be able to add into a daily activity description, so I had to toss it into my narrative), I headed to Poponoki for a star-gazing gathering they were having. One of their friends (and customers) has a huge interest in astronomy and biology, so Poponoki organized an evening for this friend, named Hero, to bring his telescope and microscope to share with other Poponoki patrons who were interested. Both the telescope and microscope were, to me, unbelievable pieces of equipment for a hobby interest We had a chance to get up-close and personal with the moon for a little while before the clouds moved in. By the time the clouds had cleared, the moon had sunk behind the trees at the top of a nearby foothill, so Hero (the man with telescope) spent the rest of our clear-sky time picking out double-stars for us. During the cloudy periods, we went inside to check out specimens under the microscope, which was also really cool.
It ended up being kind of a potluck in the end as well. Mayumi (the owner of Poponoki, just in case you lost track) of course cooked and served tea, but plenty of the participants brought homemade food as well, so there was plenty of great Japanese food to taste-test. There were about 15 or so people present for the session (including Mama and Papa, whom I mentioned in one of my first blogs, so there were familiar faces), at least half of them children. It was another wonderful Poponoki experience, and to top off the evening, Bill and I were invited to Mama and Papa's house for dinner the next evening (Sunday), along with Mayumi and her husband, Mochan.
This was the first weekend that I didn't really have anything planned during the day either Saturday or Sunday, but sometimes the best experiences are the unexpected. After I putzed around most of Saturday morning doing random chores, Bill came up early afternoon to recommend riding our bikes around town in search of a local organic bread shop one of the teachers told us about. About 20 minutes later we had located the bread shop, bought our stock for the week and were left with a beautiful day and the remainder of the afternoon with nothing else to do, so we decided to try to take a different route home, just to see where it led us and to hopefully kill a little more time. 4 hours and what I'm supposing is at least 24 km later, the following had occured:
We had a nice ride through the countryside and ended up in one of the neighboring towns called Ogose.
On the outskirts of Ogose (before we knew that's where we were at), a man who apparently thought it was funny that two gaijin (foreigners) were bike-riding on a road that seemed in the middle of nowhere, waved at us, then stopped a bit ahead of us to chat and make sure we weren't lost. When we had affirmed that we were riding our bikes in the middle of nowhere on purpose, he told us about a triple-waterfall and onsen (hot spring) that was about a 30-minute bike ride from where we were, and he went as far as to draw a map for us (including the way back to our town, Tokigawa). Again, with nothing better to do and not knowing any better, we set off for the waterfall.
The ride was fine, but a steady, slightly uphill climb, which was an interesting experience considering I think the last time a rode a bike that extensively were my Oslo city tour and Ireland experiences back in 2000. Playing the "Rocky" theme during the ride would have probably been appropriate. We rode through lots of little villages, which I really enjoyed.
We arrived at the waterfalls where it was quite a bit cooler, which was very welcoming. We walked around quite a bit, stretched the legs, I of course had to climb on rocks and rock-hop in the pools and streams around the waterfalls just because I can't seem to help myself when presented with the opportunity. The area seemed to be relatively popular (for rural-esque location anyway), but we seemed to have arrived at the waterfalls at the end of the regular "tourist" hours, and hence had a chance to romp around freely.
On the way back from the falls, we stopped for chai tea and ice cream at a cafe we had seen on our way to the falls, called "Die Sonne." The fact that the name of the cafe was in German caught our eye and made us decide we had to go there, probably more due to the irony of the fact that the only other cafe we know well in Japan (Poponoki) is also run by someone who speaks German. After we had ordered, I asked the lady who owned the cafe, in German, if she spoke German (duh, but it was an opening, and a chance to speak something other than English in Japan, which I am starting to feel really bad about) and she mentioned that she had lived in Germany for a couple of years as a child, and had returned when she was older to study. She also spoke English pretty well, but she and I conversed a bit in German here and there, which was really nice, again, if only to not feel like such a heel for making the Japanese speak English to me all the time in their own country. The cafe owner, ironically named Mayumi (same as the owner of Poponoki), was fantastic, as were her customers, obviously regulars and good friends. Within 5 minutes of sitting down, we were invited to a Latin music festival (random) to be held at the cafe the following weekend (which we unfortunately cannot attend due to Culture Festival events happening at our junior high schools on Saturday), where the performers would be none other than two of the people who were sitting at the opposite end of the table from us.
Only about 10-15 minutes into our visit, Mayumi slid a laminated piece of calligraphy/artwork toward me and told me it was made by the other lady sitting with the Latin music performers (all of whom were Japanese, in case you were wondering), and that she wanted to give it to me as a gift. Wow...what do you say to that kind of unexpected generosity?! The calligraphy happened to be of a well-known Japanese song, so Mayumi jumped on her piano and played it for us while she and the other patrons sang along. Unfortunately we had to leave shortly after that, not knowing how long it would take us to get back to Tokigawa, wanting to be back before dark and having other plans for the evening. Before we left though, Mayumi took down our addresses and phone numbers and everyone said, "See you next time!" I don't doubt that there will be a next time. :-)
That evening, once we were back in Tokigawa, while Bill went off to a Zen meditation session at the nearby Buddhist temple (which I think is a cool thing to be able to add into a daily activity description, so I had to toss it into my narrative), I headed to Poponoki for a star-gazing gathering they were having. One of their friends (and customers) has a huge interest in astronomy and biology, so Poponoki organized an evening for this friend, named Hero, to bring his telescope and microscope to share with other Poponoki patrons who were interested. Both the telescope and microscope were, to me, unbelievable pieces of equipment for a hobby interest We had a chance to get up-close and personal with the moon for a little while before the clouds moved in. By the time the clouds had cleared, the moon had sunk behind the trees at the top of a nearby foothill, so Hero (the man with telescope) spent the rest of our clear-sky time picking out double-stars for us. During the cloudy periods, we went inside to check out specimens under the microscope, which was also really cool.
It ended up being kind of a potluck in the end as well. Mayumi (the owner of Poponoki, just in case you lost track) of course cooked and served tea, but plenty of the participants brought homemade food as well, so there was plenty of great Japanese food to taste-test. There were about 15 or so people present for the session (including Mama and Papa, whom I mentioned in one of my first blogs, so there were familiar faces), at least half of them children. It was another wonderful Poponoki experience, and to top off the evening, Bill and I were invited to Mama and Papa's house for dinner the next evening (Sunday), along with Mayumi and her husband, Mochan.
posted by Mandy | 8:28 PM
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