Beans and Rice!

During the weekend I went to Chiba City, to see what it's like. Being not that tourist-mekka, Chiba has its sights, such as Chiba-Castle, a zoo and the Port Tower, all of these linked by Chiba Urban Monorail, worlds longest suspension type monorail. Most of the day i spent at the port area, which is one of the largest in all of Japan. Just some minutes walk from Minato Station there's a small piece of green in midst the never to end industrial architecture spreading along the eastern coastline!

Just at the waterfront of this recreational area, there is the port-tower, a slender building of 112m height. Still not totally gotten used to outdoor background music, i stood in its shadow amazed and listened to jazzo-electrified popsongs (something that met my liking at last). I went it up of course, trying not to mind looking down 112 meters through a translucent glass- and steel construction. But you also have a great view over all the vast commercial area, up to Tokyo where buildings slowly disappear in the fume. Ships coming in and going out again, waking some wanderlust in me just at the other end of this beautiful earth.

Outside people were taking advantage of the accessible waterfront. At a small renaturalised bay surrounded by a factory- and silo-landscape, people were relaxing, surfing, fishing crabs (leaving aside the flying fish, which are lots of fun to watch) and looking for seashells (me too!). Still not having had enough of industrial coastline, i went on a boat, that did the port tour, allowing me to experience the view from the seaside.

I went back again by the monorail, stopping at Chiba Park to relax a bit, before continuing to the city center to experience Chiba after nightfall. In fact, by then the scenery totally changed. And daytime-commuters giving way to a more younger townsfolk looking for entertainment. Finally I let myself convince once more by some crazy background outdoor free jazz, to look for the place where they had that. But in vain. All in all I had quite a hard time getting a simple drink! That's because on ground floor, there are mostly shops. Clubs and bars, are on higher floors, so no strolling by, checking if the place is what you're up to right now. Instead there are panels in front of the elevators, turning out to be totally undecipherable for me, including signs saying pub, while the place turning out to offer some slightly different kind of leisure. I got my beer at last. In a restaurant.
Link to the Foto-Map (Thanks go to Thomas here!)

Best of falling asleep in a train (respectively in public)...

1)Man dozing off while unfolding a peace of paper.
2)Woman sleeping while on an escalator.
3)Girl satnding sleeps while holding herself up on a grab handle.
4)Girl fallen asleep while typing a message.
To be continued...

Those who are not reading or utilizing their mobile-whatsoever in the wagon are asleep. And that is about 50% of the passengers.
At first i found that really funny, how people managed to sleep in the most inconvenient positions you can imagine.
And I wondered how so many people could burden themselves with de facto no-quality rest. But after some days of commuting I now understand why.
Going for 1 ½ hour by train just drains your brain.
After about 60 minutes I just don't want to read any more.
Nothing at all!
And despite just not being able to, i realize getting near the point just dozing off too. And most of the time I arrive at school feeling like have been hit on the head by a stone.

Hamano. Satellite View

The distinctive coastline is shaped by land reclamation programs started in the sixties.

Chiba City Blues

Literally not a just title I am borrowing here. As Chiba City is rather far away and it takes about 20 minutes to get there.
The town I am living at is Hamano, still part of the never seeming to end agglomeration of Greater Tokyo Area, inhabiting around 35 million people (it's 20 more minutes by car farther south that urban area finally ends).
Despite its name (Hamano meaning “seaside fields”) you never see Tokyo Bay from anywhere here, as heavy industry, which Chiba prefecture is known for, is spreading down along the seaside and entering is prohibited (i tried to).
But just like of the nearby coastline, you never notice anything of all these kind of plants, power-, petrochemical-, what so ever, at the house where I stay.
It is situated in midst of a nice residential area, a shrine or workshop here and there, some traditional restaurants, as well as your “conbini”(-ent store) just around the corner. The hosts are incredibly friendly people and I like them really much. Of course there are these rules you have to stick to, but as we (there are more guests) are staying in a separate building, there is at about enough privacy and yes! there's space too!
The traditional room I live in might have 15-20m², opening up to a small garden with tiny crooked trees, full with strange fruits that are only not edible (probably for the best).
You might think you are living in a small town just like anywhere in Japan.
And a swift ride by train is probably the best cure from such delusions!
It takes about 90 minutes to get to school, but only if you get the rapid train, which in fact is quite popular among commuters, meaning you won't sit down for most of the ride. (It's crowded just all the time. From 11:00 to 16:00 it might be, let's say, less crowded.)
Of course there are the local trains too.
So enjoy reading a book during 1h45. Or find out why all the mobile gadgetry packed with the latest killer application, just no one cares for back home, is such a big thing over here!

Only that a plain tourist visa exempts you from the merits of postpaid-service. So no mobile plugging into the net for you, cowboy! (In fact I know quite a few people who didn't manage to get a mobile phone at all).
Another funny thing about commuting 90 minutes in one direction, is that the worlds best working public transport system situated in the worlds largest metropolitan area simply stops at about midnight. So when you go out make sure to head home at 22:30 at the latest, or otherwise be prepared to stay up all night. Much time to spend at home therefore!
Despite my hosts having put up a WLAN router, i hoped if not mobile so i could simply connect to the internet, without having to walk over to the noisy entertainment-center. But the thing just didn't work. Flatline! Eventually I spent two further weeks without permanent internet-connection, experiencing just how dependent on it one is today. Dependent, as it actually fullfils a purpose. But I tell you, this was cold turkey!
No skypeing with my girlfriend, no news, no getting organized on a more than basic level, checking train connections, anything...!
By now its fine. No more hanging around at strange manga-shops, or slipping onto the next seat released at school, to check emails and occasionally write one...
Junkie-time definitely is over!

Zao Onsen – Crater lake and Rotemburo

I arrived at Yamagata-city totally exhausted. Despite the assistance from the tourist office I didn't manage to find the hotel recommend in my wise book, so i stumbled into the next not to stylish looking business hotel just outside Yamagata station to the left, which called itself plainly “bizinesu hoteru”.
Having slept quite well i took an early bus up to Sao Onsen, a renowned ski and hiking resort, where i would allow myself 2 days of relaxation. I stayed at “Minshuku Boku no uchi” (Tel. 023-694-9542, literally meaning “my home”, which turned out to be a great name to earn surprised reactions, when being asked where i stayed.)

Zao Onsen offers two main attractions for visitors during this season: The first one is Okama, a crater lake in midst of a reddish moonlike mountain scape. As I definitely have had enough of exhausting hikes i eased my way up there by taking the ropeway, so i only had more or less to follow the the chine to access a spectacular view. Just like at home, people here use to greet each other on mountains, and as during these days mountains were about as crowded as Tokyo subway is at rush hour, i soon felt like a supermarket cashier.
Put the view payed it all back! In fact the crater housing Okama lake, is only one of several craters. The sichle-shaped chine you walk around, while looking down to Okama, seams to be itself formed by volcanic activity.

Apropos energy from beneath the earth, Zao Onsen's other attraction is its hot springs (“Onsen” actually meaning hot spring, therefore Zao Onsen means nothing other than “Zao Spa”). The characteristic sulfuric smell welcomes you as soon as you get out of the bus up there, and you only stop to dislike it as soon as you slide into the hot water of a rotemburo (open air basin). Despite the long way up from the village-center (my legs still ached from the day before) i preferred the Dai-rotemburo, which might be the more basic one, but which offers the most natural beauty.
So there i really found much needed relaxation before returning to the hectic metropolis of Tokyo.

Dewa Sanzan II - Don't try this at home: Climbing up Gas-san in bad weather

I didn't get too much sleep that night as the said wind, howling over the roof. As i opened the shutter to peer into morning light i was quite disturbed seeing no more than a light grey flatness. The shukubo was covered by clouds piling up at Gas-San and it rained from time to time. I was quite undecided what to do. There was no more bus for Tsuruoka and the weather really looked bad, despite the forecast reporting about good weather today.

So i waited for nearly three hours, but nothing changed, it even got worse. I could have called a Taxi, but that would have cost me around 100€ and i would go the opposite direction i wanted to go. So finally I decided for going over the mountain top. As the people at the shukubo didn't try to hold me back, i thought to myself, it will be ok.
But it got hard.

I lacked the appropriate equipment, especially boots and trousers, which would have been no great trouble, if weather had been better. But it started to rain again just 10 minutes after i had put on my backpack weighing around 10kgs and settled off. My jeans soon got soaked and the nice wooden planks, changed to a stone path even worse than the steps the day before. Sight was about 5-10 meters at the best.The higher up I came, the stronger the wind got, and it went cold. Balancing on the stones which were itchy and wet, i more than once nearly got knocked down by sudden blasts. The only thing preventing me from turning back were some other guys who went up too. Their equipment was much better than mine, only none of them seemed to care for their heads, as they didn't use theirg hoods, or anything, one of them wore a baseball-cap.

After two hours walking at a military pace (official walking time: 3hours for 5km and 600m height difference) i reached the mountain top, on which there is Gas-san jinja (Gas-san shrine). This one was closed as had been all the other huts on my way up (strange thing buildings suddenly taking shape out of grey nothing). At least i found shelter behind the walls surrounding the shrine. I was exhausted and hungry, but i had nothing to eat, so i went on down the other side, towards Yudono-San, the third mountain, which you luckily simply pass by descending. At noon rain finally stopped and after about one hour later i got beneath the clouds, offering less winds and higher temperature. On the way to Yudono-san Jinja (shrine) a small river went along the path, but as i already got used to balancing over slippery rocks this was no major obstacle for me. But i realised i steadily got weaker, and lost security of my step. Finally i went down some ladders (slippery too) after which i got to Yudono jinja and finally got some rest.

Yudono jinja is not a building like the other shrines but an about 3 meter high orange rock, from which a hotspring is pouring down. To worship it, you first receive a blessing by the priest, rub yourself with sacred paper, then you may walk it up along the warm well. Leaving, there is put up a small basin where you can soak your feet in the hot spring's water, which i did just gladly, before descending farther to Yudono-san hotel, which i thought to stay at, without having seen it. But as they charged 8500 Yen for a night in this run down concrete block dating probably from the 60ies, i decided to go to Yamagata-town directly, despite being totally exhausted.

Dewa Sanzan I - Haguro San

The next day i got up early and went to the Tsuruoka tourist office, where i got all the information I needed. The nice clerk even made the reservation for me at Hachigome Shukubo (Temple Lodge at "Eight Station" on the way up to Gas-san (Information, tel. 090-3022-1191)). So this was my plan: I would go from Tsuruoka to Haguro-Town by bus then hike up Haguro. As business would close down on the same day around Gas-san, i were lucky to take the last bus to Hachigome, where i could stay for the night and the next day proceed up to Gas-san and farther on to Yudono-san, from there continuing to Yamagata-city. So i would have to carry all my lugage with me.

After a short ride I got to Haguro-town, where you just turn left, to get on the path up to the peak. Haguro-San is the lowest of three sacred mountains. Pilgrimage there was established by Prince Hashiko in 594 AD, who practiced ascetism there. The three peaks have ever since been related with the idea of unity between shintoism and buddhism (shinto-deities are understood as incarnations of buddha), which was in fact the offical doctrine during Edo-Period. So just after the start of the path, i perished in a dense forest of tall cedar trees. The trail itself consist mainly of some 2000 stonesteps. Unfortunately these steps are not made for contemporary europeans feet, so i had to decide either going up there on my toes, or otherwise do it telemach-style. I decided for the latter.
On the way up, you pass by many shrines and also a 1000 year old Pagoda (that you normaly only find next to buddhist temples), as well as a 1400 year old cedar. After about 2/3ds of the way up there is a traditional teahouse where i stopped to have some matcha (powderised green tea) and enjoyed the plains stretching out at the feet of Haguro-San. You also get your certificate of achievement there, proving that you did all the way up on your own.

After the teahouse it's only a short hike, then the path ends just next to Sanjin-Gossiden, a tall red shrine, housing all three gods of the mountains. It is the main building in a vast complex of shrines, lodges, a museum, including some souvenir-shops that also serve soba (noodle soup).
I got the before mentioned bus that went up to Gas-san eight Station this season, meaning also that i definitely had to go on to Yamagata, as there was no returning to Tsuruoka by public transport within this year. The bus winded up its way up to Hachigome, where i went directly to the shukubo, which was a basic mountain hut just next to a shrine. I seemed - once again - to be the last guest this season as i shared the large loft just under the roof with no one (which was a creepy experience, when cold autumn wind howls outside). As there was some time left of the day, i was strolling a little bit around, impressed by the view, following wooden pathways, to whichs sides laid marsh-ponds, and i was just glad having weather on my side.

See all Fotos here!

From Aizu to Tsuruoka

The same day I went to Tsuruoka, which i read was the best stay on my way to Dewa Sanzan, the three sacred mountains: Haguro-San, Gas-San and Yudono-San, each holding a Shinto-Shrine.

I reserved a room at Nara Ryokan in Tsuruoka (down the main street away from the station, tel. 0235-22-1202) with simple tatami beds and western style bathrooms and a very kind landlady.

To get there i had to change trains at Niigata a middle sized town at the japanese sea.Having stayed on Honshu for some days now, i hoped to get to the seaside and taste some fresh fish. Unfortunately, i didnt come farther than to Shianano river delta, when it became already time to return and not miss my train.Still thinking the european way, i thought, where there is a nice view and good atmosphere, there must be some restaurant or at least a tea- or coffehouse. But the only thing that caught my eye was a big convention center. There, i said to myself, there i must get something to eat.

In vain.

Actually there where some buisiness folks sitting around tables on a beautiful terrace, but what they were drinking from, were oneway bottles and they had brought their bento with them.
Quite disappointed i went back out the the roadside, passing by a big storage hall.And thats where i noticed some flags with the character for fish. So just out of curiosity i stumbled into the open hall, where my eyes instantly got caught by the view of a large grill and tasty seafood roasting over burning wood. But they would only sell it starting from four o'clock, when i would be already continuing for Tsuruoka.

Now having the delicious goods right under my nose, i simply couldnt turn around and go away. So i told them my situation and begged them to make an excemption. They did. And luckily I carried my catch back to the Shinano where I had my lunch, just the way i had hoped it to be.