Been a while, ne?
Well, Rachel from New Zealand came out for a visit. We promptly began finding all the dense gatherings of fun left in neat, organized, pre-arranged piles in Japan (as Japan is neat, organized, and pre-arranged). In fact, some of the piles were cleaned and wrapped in plastic, for our safety!
What’d we do? We played in Tokyo and Yokohama (swing dancing, temples, shopping, eating great Chinese food). We played in Kanazawa, too. Kanazawa was amazing. The place is on the west coast of Japan, on the Sea of Japan. It was never bombed in the second world war, so all of its historical bits are still in tact. We saw Japan’s most famous garden (Kenroku-en) in the very early hours of the morning. We were the first people in!
Also saw the ninja temple - a rouge temple used to defend the castle back in the feudal days. The rulers declared that no building could be higher than 2 stories, so they broke the rules and built a 4 story building in the space of 2 stories. In addition, they squeezed another 3 layers in between a few parts and suddenly, the place is a labyrinth of 7 layers/stories.
Hidden staircases and tunnels, secret rooms, double-use doors, all sorts of smoke and mirrors! Really really unique and very different from all the other temples.
Kanazawa also has a geisha district. So we toured a house and saw the tea rooms used to entertain the wealthy merchants. The roads and houses were basically only retrofitted for plumbing and electricity. The style remains unchanged.
Same for Kanazawa’s samurai district. Just a few updates, and little remodeling. We toured a samurai family’s house, whose samurai owned a lot of the farmland back in the day. The garden in the back was utterly amazing.
We came back after a few days and did some touring around in Shizuoka, too. The world’s longest footbridge, Mt. Fuji (shrouded behind clouds), and the tea mountains of Kawane. That area has many suspension bridges, so we picked one and crossed. Very fun and very high. Also stopped by an onsen for some relaxing and dinner.
Took my Ikkyu test in Iai. Passed! In March, I can test for Shodan. いいね！
I also had a business trip to Kakegawa - training the new ALTs in how to improvise. Met a few jazz fans and one tap dancer. The new lot are just as excited as I was, but a little more prepared with Japanese. Should be good fun this year, if I can be bothered to go out. I likee programming!
There are pictures, of course.