Two hikes to Two steps

So I finish the Cheiron school on Wednesday and following this I’ve got a couple of slots of beamtime, so yeah busy. Thankfully last weekend was a three-day one so I managed to have a good few days of chilling.

Day 1 and hike one was a trip to Ruriji temple with Sam and some of the retired folks that have been helping us to learn Japanese on Wednesdays. Wasn’t sure what to expect from this one but I was promised a monkey park so I was already keen. Also Ueda-san, the main organizer, is a wonderful person. Her English speaking isn’t so great but her understanding is very good and she is always so energetic.

 

We started at around 10:30 and as we were leaving from the mountain it meant we could lie in for a change. We hitched a ride down to the start of the course in the neighboring town of Sayo. It wasn’t to far although for some reason we seemed to take the longest route around the mountain possible.

We arrived at about 11:30 but could not start as we needed to wait for the rest of our group. Sadly they’d been involved in a minor car accident just outside Kakogawa and so would be a bit late, no-one had been hurt though “よかった“　

At the start of the hiking course there was a museum dedicated to insects so we went inside to kill a bit of time. This was no big surprise to me really since judging by the creepy crawlies I’ve seen where I’m living Japan is pretty full of bugs of all shapes and sizes.

It was only very small so it didn’t really take so long to look around, and given that all the displays were in Japanese it didn’t take too long. Thankfully Sam and myself were not the only none Japanese speakers. Some of the other members of our Wednesday Japanese class had also come along. Along with Sam there was Klara, a PhD student at spring8 who is from the Czech republic, a student from Bangladesh studying at the nearby university and a couple from China (Anily and Wang I think but that could well be wrong).

It was nice to talk to some new people as always. I’ve got such a gob on me. Myself and the guy from China seemed to have a good knowledge on bugs and were more than happy to share our knowledge, though I got the distinct impression no one else really cared. He also knew a fair bit about traditional Chinese medicines. There were some pretty incredible remedies for scorpion stings that involved using spiders to draw out the venom, mad.

After stoping for lunch we were invited to join a show put on by the owners of the museum for some of the kids in attendance. They told a short story about a grasshopper or something and then sang a famous kids song called “Mushi no koe” (insects voices). I think I shocked a few people by knowing the words, thank you online Japanese lessons.

After that we did a quiz, made much more difficult by the fact we couldn’t understand the questions. I think myself Sam and Klara did alright none the less, with a fair bit of help from Ueda-san.

After that we finally began the ‘hike’. In fact we just walked about 600m from the car park to a nearby temple and back again. Well most of the people were well into the 60’s and 70’s I think so not too surprising. The son of the temple’s head monk also joined us.

We were informed by him that the stairs leading up to the top of the shrine where known as the insect stairs as there where 64. To explain six in Japanese is rokku, but it can also be read mui. 4 is yon, but it can also be read shi. Therefore 64 is mui-shi and mushi is the Japanese word for insect. Gotta love the foreign language puns.

We then returned home, though not before stopping at another shrine, there is always another shrine, on the way back. This place had a very large Sakura tree in its courtyard though sadly it was the wrong type of year. Also there was a plant that bears soap nuts (Sapindus). I’d not come across them before but you really can get quite an incredible lather from them. I’d be interested to do some mass spec on them to figure out the active ingredient.

Saturday saw myself, Arnaud, Sam and Stratos joining some of our teacher friends and a few others to go trek along an abandoned rail track. I was really looking forward to this outing. It had been a while since I’d last met up with the “せんせいたち“ and they are always fun.

Thanks to Arnaud the time of the hike had been pushed back an hour meaning we could sleep an extra hour. Cheers Arnaud. The train journey was quite a long one, we had several changes along the way. It wasn’t so bad and I met my first of many new faces at Aioi, a Jet from Perth. Nice guy though he immediately started talking coding with Sam and Arnaud. “ぜんぜんわからへん。“

We arrived at Namaze station with a little bit of time to spare, for a change, and it wasn’t long till the whole gang was assembled. There were many people I’d not met before from all over the world, Australia, America, Singapore, Peru and even Oxford. There were a few familiar faces to including Gerard a quality bloke from New Zealand and Kelly, event organizer extraordinaire.

We got moving fairly quickly, actually we were moved on by the station staff I think such a large congregation of foreigners in one place was making them anxious.  Off we trotted with Sam and Kelly chirping away in French in front of me and Tomoko and Yuki nattering away in Japanese behind me I’d never felt more like an ignorant Englishman. Most of the people I meet speak at least two languages, I struggle with one most of the time.

The route itself had a big sign outside it informing us we should not hike here. Of course there were many Japanese families wandering along the tracks so I doubt it was too rigorously enforced. The views were pretty impressive. The old rail tracks actually lead through Mukogawa river valley and I think the recent typhoons have done wonders for clearing out the water. I haven’t seen rivers that clear since I was in Vancouver.

The other cool thing about following old rail tracks? Old rail tunnels of course. There were plenty on the 2 hour walk and we regularly had to get our torches out (no that isn’t a euphemism). It really was an excellent hike route, just something a bit different to the normal mountains, and of course the company made it all the better. Oh and also the opportunity to drool over some amazing crag, I so need to go back when I know a bit more about trad I think.

We finished up at some izakaya close to the train station to grab drinks and what not. Apparently there 名物 (specialty) was wild boar but I wasn’t too peckish. Since there were around 20 people or more I didn’t get chance to chat with everyone but everyone seemed pretty cool.

The range of backgrounds of people on the jet program is really quite astounding. Two people that really stuck out where a neurobiologist from Singapore and an Austrian whose dad had been part of the team who developed golden rice. Hmm I think I may have a biology bias in my memory there.

After a grand day out I headed back to Himeji with Arnaud, Gerard, Sam and Stratos. We wanted to find somewhere to watch the rugby, since Gerard is from New Zealand and Sam is from France it was a matter of national pride. The place we settled in was Hosanna a “British” pub.

Hmm Japan you may have gotten it a bit wrong here. Where to start? Well besides the fact it was spotless and had waiters in Texan ties. Also the German music and pizza on the menu were a little off to. They did at least do “チプース“ (chips) although they were actually wedges with a garlic and herb seasoning. Meh close enough.

So onto Sunday then since I’m sure you don’t need to know about the rugby. First things first I had to wait in for my bike to be delivered. It was expensive getting it repaired but I am very happy with it. On a personal note I did manage to sort out the delivery time by myself even though the driver spoke no English, small victories I guess.

Anyway on the agenda was a reggae concert with the lovely Miss Kelly. Apparently it was co organized by the Japanese foreign embassy to promote Jamaican culture to the locals. I love reggae, so it was a no brainer ,but it would be interesting for other reasons. Reggae is loud, brash and very forward, everything Japan isn’t. I was actually curious to see what the crowd was like.

As it was a 3pm matinee I guess I shouldn’t have been too shocked that the audience consisted of mostly old couples. All the same the music was fantastic. The first half was a Jamaican music medley going through a brief history of music on the island, including some fantastic djembe playing. The second half focused on more modern music and gave the artists a chance to promote some of their own work.

 

I had a fab time jiggling along but the whole event was a bit stilted. The crowd weren’t particularly into, it seemed a lot were there as a curiosity not because they were interested in the music. That's fine and all but not what I was expecting. I guess it’s difficult when you don’t understand what the band are saying, I think some of the subtleties of ‘welcome to Jamrock’ were lost on the audience.

It was as good excuse as any to get off my rock none the less and it was all very nostalgic. I think ‘no woman no cry’ actually brought a tear to my eye making me think of all my roodies back home, (you know who you are.)

It was nice to break away from ‘Japanese culture’ for a bit anyway. I’ll be honest I’ve just come out of the honeymoon period right now. A lot of myths about Japan have been dispelled, nothing feels particularly new and exciting and small things are getting on my nerves. Don’t get me wrong I do love this place, I enjoy my job and like the people (mostly) but I am missing home.  Seriously if anyone could mail me a loaf I’d love you forever.

Hona mata.