The End of Autumn

As the leaves continue to change colors, and the temperature finally breaches the 30s, I start to realize just how much I love the fall season. It won’t be long before all of the trees, save the evergreens, lose their beautiful colors. Last weekend, the great outdoors called my name for yet another round of adventuring in “Heartful Nagano.”

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Stream in Komagane

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I just like the way this picture came out...

On Saturday morning, I met Karen at Shiojiri Station, and we took a westbound train to the town of Komagane for a day trip. The attraction that we were headed for was the famous Komagatake Ropeway. When I first came to Japan, I knew this was something that I wanted to do.

What I didn’t realize, though, is that the ropeway is not a very long ride, and it doesn’t take you from the ground all the way to the top. You must first grab a bus in the town below, and that will take you about halfway up the mountain. Begin complaining.

The bus ride was absolutely miserable, and I couldn't wait to get off. The bus was so crowded that people were sitting in the foldout chairs that occupied the aisles. I know it didn’t matter that much, but I felt as though I was trapped. I would compare the feeling to being in the third row of someone’s SUV, or worse, the back seat of a coupe. If the shit were to hit the fan, say the vehicle were to catch on fire,  and everyone were to have to evacuate, the people in the front would have an advantage. They have doors allowing for easy access in and out of the vehicle. The people in that back seat, however, would have to clamber their way over the seat in front of them before even being able to think about leaving. So, it may not be an impossible feat to pull off, but it’s still unsettling. Just the way my mind works sometimes.

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How do I get out of this clown car?

What made the bus trip worse, however, was going up the first half of the mountain. I know I love rides and all, but I have never been sicker in a moving vehicle in my entire life. The combination of the vibrant fall colors mixed with the oversized windows and frequency of back to back hairpin turns was enough to turn my brown face green. For this dreaded gaijin,  winding mountain roads are romantic in theory, but nausea-inducing in practice. I was so happy to finally get off at the ropeway terminal. End complaining.  

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Ropeway lower station

As we approached the station at the top, a mysterious fog shrouded the cable car in a blanket. We couldn’t see very far in front of us, and it reminded me of being in the movie “The Mist.” We were well over a mile and a half above the ground, so I can safely say this was the highest I’ve ever been besides riding in an airplane. If you wanna see some stats about the ropeway, click here.

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"Expiation"

I wasn’t too impressed with the views at first, because the mist was covering all but what was about 150 feet in front of us. We got a quick bite to eat at the cafe near the station, and then headed back outside for one more glance. The fog had cleared up, and it was quite a breathtaking view from above. “This is what I paid for,” I thought to myself.

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The awkward Halloween "costume" isn't going anywhere anytime soon, people. It's here. It's weird. Get used to it.

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The photo hardly does the view justice...

On Sunday, I left town again, but this time for an overnight-er. I was off the next day, Monday, and the trip had been arranged by Carolyn, a senpai JET who works up north. It was a two day guided tour through the Shin-etsu Trail, with overnight accommodations covered by her city tourism bureau. The point of trip was to increase knowledge of the area through the eyes of foreigners, and get genuine input from said foreigners about what was interesting, what could be better, and so on and so forth.

The hike was unlike anything I have done before. I’m not much into hiking, but after this trip, I can appreciate why nature buffs love this sort of thing. The trail itself is similar to the Appalachian Trail. It’s a “long trail” hike that involves skating atop the ridge of a mountain range, as opposed to choosing one big mountain to go from ground to summit to ground again.

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View of autumn leaves and mountains

Since the hike was a two day experience, we were put up in a ryokan, or Japanese inn. I can only compare this to a bed and breakfast. It was kind of like a hotel, but kind of like staying at someone’s house at the same time. We slept on the floors in comfortable futons, and were served epic meals.

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View from outside the inn

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Lobby

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Where I slept

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Dinner...

The second day of the hike brought rain and fog, so we had to finish the tour early. People were slipping and falling, I was getting mud and water in my shoes. It was freezing cold. In hindsight, I had a blast. Walking through the fog made me feel like that little kid from Limbo. Of course, there were no Aragog-sized spiders, but that didn’t stop me from letting my imagination run wild.

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Mist...

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...mist...

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...and more mist.

I'm Jack Skellington: The Pumpkin King

As parents back home prepare for their children to become geeked out on sugar for the next week, and entitled twenty-somethings don outrageously offensive costumes, I sit in front of my computer to type this blog post. If you haven’t figured out by the title or my leading sentence, this post will be about my first Halloween in Japan.

Now, Halloween, as you may know is a fairly “Western” holiday with roots dating back several hundred years. It may come as no surprise that Halloween’s Celtic roots have little to nothing to do with the Eastern religions of this side of the world. That, however, doesn’t stop the Japanese from celebrating. In recent years, Japan has been slowly picking up some of the traditions that come along with the sugar-laden fall festival.

On Saturday afternoon, I went into town for the annual Shiojiri Halloween Event. Now, unlike in the states, where most towns have some sort of event, this is not the case in Japan. My town just happens to be one that does. Every year, Shiojiri puts on a Halloween event that brings the town together for a few hours.

Town flyer for event... I think

Imagine a family-friendly Halloween festival in Somewhereville, U.S.A. with costumes, trick-or treating, face painting, stale popcorn, and a bunch of runny noses. Now, just replace the citizens of Somewhereville with young Japanese families, and there you have it. For those of you with limited imaginations, the following picture encompasses the whole festival within a few hundred pixels.

View of festivities from SkyBridge

This event took place in the afternoon, and was heavily geared towards children and their families, but as a resident foreigner teaching English, I figured I’d make an appearance to see some of the kids’ get-ups and to show some face for the higher-ups. The elementary kids were just too cute for words, and I enjoyed seeing people that I knew.

After my cameo at the town festival, I was headed off to the main event: The Ultimate Halloween 2013. My Shio-bestie, the lovely Miss Karen, and I decided that it would be fun to visit Nagoya City for a huge Halloween party that some of the other Nagano JETs were going to attend. We made arrangements to catch the highway bus in the afternoon, and made it to downtown Nagoya by the early evening.

"The price is five dollars a turn, my friend. You gettin' your ride on, or what"
"Aww yeah, boy."

We were going to a big Halloween party in a big city, and we were only staying one night. You can bet your bottom dollar that  we didn’t stay at no Hilton. Our hotel was the Nagoya Sun Hotel, and for about 100USD per night in the heart of a huge city, you really couldn’t beat that price. It was conveniently located, affordable, but above all, it was real.

Realness: House quality carpet in an elevator the size of a coat closet.

Realness: Cigarette burns on the floor of hotel room

Realness: Soap/shampoo/conditioner dispenser- very gym locker room

So, at the last minute, I assembled a costume that comprised of a skeleton hoodie, some sweat pants, and a little too much eye make-up. I wanted to go as “The Walking Dread” or “The UnDread,” or something like that, but it didn’t translate too well. With my hood on, I looked like a sociopathic killer straight out of an Investigation Discovery show, but with the hood off, I looked like a wannabe emo-drag queen who looked like they missed the mark on both accounts.

See what I mean?

Emo drag queen?

The costume wasn’t really that important anyway. At least, that’s what people with half-baked costumes like mine always say. What I enjoyed about the night was hanging out with Karen, and doing some intense people-watching. It was quite the sight. There were even a few times where I was around so many foreigners that I forgot I was in Japan. It was really refreshing. It didn’t take long to be brought back to reality, though.

The most interesting spot of the night was a gay bar called the Ragglian Cafe. It was included with our wristband, and it was by far the most unique of the eight clubs we popped in. It was small, crammed, and and uncomfortably hot, but the sights and sounds were vivid enough that I could almost do an entire post on it alone.

Highlights:

1) PG-13 version of a drag show with Elmo dancing on stage and

2) Taking a picture with Ms. Makudo (short for Makudonarudo- Japanese McDonald’s)

Hot, period...

...Mess, period.

On Sunday, we woke up extra early and decided to seize the morning. While everyone else was either catching the first train back to Nagano or catching up on their beauty sleep, Karen and I headed out on a walk to see Nagoya Castle Park. Since we had a bit of time before we had to catch the bus back home, we figured it was worth seeing the castle before we left.

Just outside the castle grounds

Mosaic of Nagoya Castle

The castle layout

The castle, proper

Restoration of one of the rooms

Staircase

Nagoya from castle observation deck

Being in the big city was a bit overwhelming, but at the same time, it was refreshing. It made me think of Houston and all the people I left back home. Even though we spent less than 24 hours in Nagoya, I saw enough to know that I would like to go back and visit someday. Only next time I go, I would like to be dressed as myself.

Nagoya Castle and the Dreaded Gaijin