Japan
Suzaka

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    • Day 21

      Tanjoubi

      May 29, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      Today no trips or trainrides. Today is the day i celebrate my birthday! I told Marina a while ago and she suggested to have a big party with barbecue, music and drinks. I didn't have to think long about an answer. :-) I decided to stay in the hostel and when the first guests from Tokio came I helped them build up the tent and bbq. The sunny weather and the good mood made for a good atmosphere. The food was delicious but I expected that there were going to be things I had never tried before. I was not disappointed. Some of the more exotic ones were fried grasshopper in soy sauce and a salad with jellyfish. You might not expect it but both tasted pretty damn good! Meanwhile Ryo, one of the guests from Tokio had been drinking in a pace that even i couldn't keep up with. Eventually the alcohol caught up with him and he decided to lay in the garden and eat some flowers. After about 30 minutes he was back to his old self and joined us in the party. After the barbeque the party went on inside and even more guests and local people joined the party. I got a cake and so many nice presents. Ryo had heard of my small backpack and so he bought a bucketload of potatochips in real small packages that would never fit. I also got a japanese version of a knapsack with beautiful decorations. It was so great, i got lost for words and that doesn't happen a lot. The party went on long with lots of beer, sake and a lot of laughs. Thank you Marinasan for such a wonderful party! I will remember this for a long time!Read more

    • Day 19

      Thank you Keyaki

      May 27, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      I allways hate these days. You have a great time with wonderfull people in a cool place and then you have to leave. It just plain sucks. :-( This was one of those days. I know it's a sign that you had a good time and made some great memories but still. Meh.
      I slept in untl around 9 o'clock and even decided to take a later train to Suzaka but the inevitable had come. I had to say goodbye to Nozomi and Natsumi whom, together with Mae and Mumi, i had so much fun with. I always find it hard to find the right words so i just gave them a big hug and a heartfelt thank you before i set off to my next destination. We didn't stop waving to eachother until i was around the corner. As i walked to Sendai station i felt sad and grumpy. But i had to move on. Next stop on my trip would be Suzaka and that would make up for a lot since the owner of Kura Guest house is a very warm and welcoming person. I primarily slept in the train and after walking around downtown Nagano for a bit, i took the local Nagano Dentetsu line to Suzaka. I picked up some beers at the local Aeon supermarket and walked to the guest house. I was not really paying attention and was about to pass the guesthouse when i heard an excited Marina shout "Paturiku!!". I felt a lot better right away. I gave her a big hug and was introduced to another guest from Nagano. Two girls from Australia joined us later. It was so good to be back again! We just talked about the past 18 months and just about everything else. I went to bed feeling a lot better than when i woke up.
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    • Day 22

      Monkeys

      May 30, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

      After yesterdays party we agreed to take it easy and so Marinasan suggested we go to this special onsen in the mountains. The other guests had already left and so it was just Marinasan and me. The onsen was not too far from the hostel and as we arrived we were the only ones there. This onsen, like most onsens in Japan is gender separated and agreed to stay inside for about an hour and then meet again at the entrance. I got into the dressing room and there was no one there. Usually it's not allowed to take pictures for obvious reasons but since there was nobody there i figured also nobody would mind. ;-) Eventually one other person got into the onsen after me but he only stayed for 15 minutes so i had the whole place to myself for 45 minutes. And if that wasn't enough it was an outside onsen with a great view of the surrounding mountains which were fully covered in trees. Only thing was that the water was rich in iron and sulfur and so the air smelled a bit like farts. But that was a small price to pay for the awesome experience. After the time was up we got back in the car to Suzaka but Marinasan made one stop underway to a really cool and noisy waterfall. I guess that's why it's called thunder waterfall. We got back in the car and after some time were greeted by some of the snow monkeys i had seen in the onsen last time i was here in the winter. I took some pictures from within the car because even though the monkeys are small they are still wild animials and can be pretty strong. Marinasan dropped me off at Suzaka station since i wanted to explore a little bit of Nagano. First i went to a Ghibli exhibition with all kinds of sketches and drawings from all the Ghibli movies. It even had a scale model of the onsen from the movie "Spirited Away" or as the Japanese call it "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" (Yes i have practiced a lot on it haha) I walked to Zenjo-Ji temple to get the seal in my goshuincho which i didn't get the first time and got back to the hostel where i actually took it easy on the beer since we had to wake up early for the bamboo picking tomorrow.Read more

    • Day 23

      Bamboo

      May 31, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      As you may now i am not a morning person and so getting up this early was quite tough. My original plan was to get up not to early and take he train to Tokyo. But Marinasan suggested to us that some of her friends were going bamboo picking and that if we liked, we could tag along. This was an opportunity i did not want to miss for the world and so i changed my plans to go bamboo picking and eating first. We met up with Marinasan's friends in front of the hostel and headed off into the mountains. A short stop at a konbini store provided me with necessary items and some items i just forgot to take with me from the hostel. I seem to forget or lose a lot of things this vacation. Anyway armed with gloves and a makeshift hat we got back in the car and a short while later we were at the top of the mountain, ready to pick bamboo. A short explanation from Senseisan on which bambooshoots to pick and we were off. It was obviously not Senseisan's first time up here since he came fully prepared with insect repelling clothing and stuf like bearbell and a flare gun to ward of any bears. We walked around the mountain and suddenly all the Japanese people stepped into the bushes. Not knowing exactly what to do, me and the other guest decided to just follow them and step into the bamboo bushes where the best bamboo shoots were to be found. It was there that i found out that just a tshirt and some shorts are not the best gear for walking around in bamboo forest. It was hard to find the first shoots but after a while you know what to look for and i actually picked quite a lot of bamboo. After bringing the bamboo back to the car we went for a second session but apart from a very steep climb and almost getting a treebranch in my eye it was fairly uneventful and we got back to the car since there was not much more bamboo to pick. At the parking spot the cooking gear was installed and we had a fantastic picknick with soup made with the bamboo shoots we had just picked. After all this hard work it was time for an onsen (obviously) to soothe al the aching muscles. We got back in the car and i guess Senseisan must really like "Call me maybe" because he played a soundmix version of it about 6 times in a row. Back in Suzaka we counted the bamboo shoots and apparantly we had picked for over 200 euro worth of bamboo shoots. Not bad for a days work. It was almost time for me to go but not after helping to peel the remaining shoots and getting some slices of bamboo pizza, which is truly delicious. I said goodbye to everyon and gave Marinasan a big hug and I had to hurry to get to the train. Takasan was so friendly to bring me to the station in his bright yellow Twingo. We said goodby and with a sad feeling i got on the train to Tokyo, my next stop.
      I directly went to the hostel and after checking in found myself talking to some guys from Germany and Switzerland and even a Dutch guy. Only the second one i've met so far. We decided to go to Shinjuku to go out and find some nice bars but we were obviously to late since most of the bars were closed. We took a taxi ride to Shibuya to try our luck there but that was not much better. I'm guessing tuesday night might not be the best night. We too another taxi back to the hostel and that was it for today.
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