Day 7 - Nagiso to Nojiri

Today's adventure started with another hearty breakfast and a challenging Connections game before we were collected from the hostel by a lovely chap by the name of Tommy, whom we had arranged to be our guide for the day. First up he drove us to a local washi paper maker where Ijima San (who spoke almost no English) successfully guided us through the art of making our very own washi paper. Tommy was there as the essential translator so between great gesticulation by Ijima San, Tommy and a lot of nodding and hai's, we had a fantastic few hours.

We had choice of making a large sheet of thin washi or a smaller thicker postcard size. Being the practical types, we opted for the postcard size to be easily transported home.

Firt we each had to map out a design for five separate cards using some provided scrap-booking supplies that included dried leaves, coloured paper, string, seeds, glitter and even little tiny origami love hearts. After that we grabbed the postcard frame and dipped it into one vat of thin, slushy washi mix and give it a good shuggle. That got taken to a bench and we then attempted to translate our design in reverse into the moulds. Then it was back to a different vat of slightly thicker washi mix for two more washes. After that there was some wet/dry vacuum extraction, some rolling over a towel to extract more moisture, removing the frame, tamping down the edges to smooth the paper, before transferring it to a large heated frame with a fire behind it to dry.

Thinking we were at the end, Ijima San says that we then had to make five more! Which meant five more little creative inspirations etc etc. This time we chose to use a pink tinged washi mix just for a bit of variety. I struggled coming up with five more different designs....

At the end we had a bit of a tour around the sheds to understand the process right from the native timber. It is only able to be made about three months a year, and Ijima San is paid by the local council to do this to keep this traditional cultural art alive. Otherwise he has a restaurant making handcut soba noodles and also looks after the mountain rest stops and restroom facilities. What a guy! We will have our dried paper delivered to our hotel either tomorrow morning or the next day depending on how long it takes to dry.

Tommy then drone to a road-side truck stop to use the restrooms which had a fascinating supermarket type shop attached to a rsmall eatery that sold a heap vacuum packed food stuffs, many of which we struggled to identify. We then drove another 20 mins to a local soba noodle restaurant for lunch which just happened to be right next door to our hotel for tonight, Atera Onsen, so we left our big packs and then drove back down the valley to a railway station where we left the car to start a 8.4km walk to (took an hour) and then into the Kakizore Gorge and up and over the Kansoi Pass. (about 90 mins). The water in the river we walk along a ways was crystal clear, the pools and waterfalls were beautiful and the tinkling bear bell worn be Tommy, a constant sound. At the end of the hike we emerged at the other end of our Onsen hotel, which was convenient for us, but not so much for Tommy, who had to walk the 2 kms to the Nojiri train station to catch a train back to his car .

Our Onsen looks like its heydays were in the 1970s but it is still quaint. An onsen is basically a public hot bath and so today Gabby and I took our relationship to a whole new level with our first onsen experience together. This first involved working out how to wear the yukata (dressing gown), googling the "how to" of onsen etiquette, feeling the anxiety of trying to make sure we get it right, wearing weird slippers we have to take on and off all over the place, trying not to put your towel in the onsen water but rather keeping it on your head. All of that occurred before then (and this is the point of all that activity) getting naked and bathing together. Not something Gabby and I normally do together, but hey, when in Rome, and all that...

After we had sweated it out in the hot bath for long enough, we emerged ((slowly) to find the two Australian ladies from the tea room a few days ago in the change room. They had been outside the bath house working up the courage to come in, so because we were now old hands we were able to ease them into taking their relationship to a whole new level too 🙂.

Dinner was a seven+ course visual feast. Beautifully arranged, tiny dishes of (for me) more types of mushrooms than I had ever seen before and lots of small pieces of pickled or just steamed vegetables, and soba noodles. We had just finished, and still hadn't eaten everything when the waiter brought out more food of miso, pickled veggies and a bowl of rice. Gabby had just finished reading about how rude it is in Japan to leave uneaten rice because of the amount of effort to make it, but we struggled to eat another thing (except dessert which then also followed, obviously).

Fantastic day all round. Just when we think our holiday can't get any better, it does!Read more