an explanation of sorts
University happened that’s what. If you haven’t guessed by now, all that studying tends to kill my blogging muses.
But we are on spring break next week, so I hope to at least get the next post out.
Have no fear, I’m not abandoning this until I’ve finished, it’s just had to sit lower on my priority scale.
Until then!
just an announcement about a change to your regularly scheduled iHenro
Just a quick announcement, I start back at university tomorrow, so I’ll be revising my scheduled posting days. Look out for new posts on Wednesdays and Sundays (more or less)~
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November 25, 2011, Day 5
Today I had to push myself. Legs are feeling very very stiff and my calves hurt!
I exchanged name slips with my two new friends at breakfast, and then we were off around 7:40. Made it to the first temple shortly after 8. Then it was the long slog to temple 18.
I took the route through Tokushima city. It was interesting to see a little more of Tokushima, but it’s not a huge city. Nor does it have much of anything really. But it was better than climbing the 150 m pass if I used the other way.
Followed route 55 for most of the day. All in all not very inspiring.
Did have a woman stop and talk to me –…
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Day 4 was a day of contradictions in a way. By the afternoon my legs were so sore and stiff, getting up stairs was near impossible. And the last 6 km was a real challenge, mostly flat, but because my legs were giving me so much grief I couldn’t move as fast as I would have liked and it felt as if it really dragged out. However, all that being said, it was my favourite day! Mostly because the downhill stretch was so beautiful.
As per usual I left pretty early in the morning, and because I started out in the mountains it was still somewhat dark. But as soon as I got through the pass I had the morning sun breaking over mountains, valleys, and little townships. So very pretty. The sky was a gorgeous blue, and the water in the river was just so clear. Not at all…
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November 24, 2011, Day 4
Boy, do my legs hurt (and feel stiff).
I let the others at the lodge last night talk me into the extra 6km. So tonight I’m near No. 16, rather than No. 13.
Actually made good time to 13, 5.5 hours. Considering I thought it would be all down hill, but actually there was a pass we crossed and then mostly downhill. Today is wasn’t cow smells, but chicken smells.
And there was this one bridge. If you could call it that. More like planks were there used to be a bridge. But it was very very pretty in the mountains and along the river. It was amazingly blue.
After 13 it was back to Tokushima city and suburbia. It actually took…
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Yes. I’m a horrible blogger. Moving on.
Do you remember Fish Dinner?
That was when I first got him. March of 2008. Despite being a fish from a fishing game at a festival, and the 2 hour commute home in his little plastic bag, he survived.
He survived me! The horrible person who would leave him home alone in the summer heat with just a holiday food cube for company.
He was such a good fish. Loved people. Liked watching tv too.
When I left Japan he was adopted by ‘new!michele’ (the girl who took over my job and apartment), and I was happy he still had a home.
But when I went back to visit Tokyo in December and enquired after Fish, new!michele had some very sad news.
She had renamed him F-diddy (wish I was creative enough to think of a name like that…). And F-diddy obviously decided that gangsta was how he would live. And die.
New!michele went to Kyoto with a friend for a week. When she arrived back she took one look at the fish tank and thought ‘Where is that fish!’.
She searched high and low for 5 minutes (the apartment isn’t that big) before finding a fish tail and the orange outline of a fish on the floor. Just like a police crime scene. Apparently F-diddy lost his life in a drive-by robo-vaccuming.
RIP Fish Dinner. You were a good fish. You made me laugh, even at your end.
Am I? Well, back in Brisbane actually.
So, firstly I am so sorry that I have been a totally slack blogger and haven’t posted regularly for months. But a lot has been happening and I haven’t felt like doing any writing. And so. yeah. slack. Sorry m(-_-)m
Let’s see, since my last post I’ve been to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Wakayama and then back to Tokyo. And Brisbane. So yeah, my life in Japan has come to a conclusion. And I have very mixed feelings about that.
It’s been great to see my family and friends again, but moving back to Australia ahead of schedule means I haven’t really planned anything. at all. But I’m working on my resume, and I have big plans, we’ll just have to wait and see if it all turns out.
I’m sad to have left Japan, I managed to see a lot of my friends before leaving, but there were a few which i just couldn’t arrange to meet, which was even more saddening. But it’s good to be away from all the earthquake craziness, and actually, not having a job really doesn’t agree with me. At least in Australia I am working towards a goal.
I have so much to blog about, so do expect more posts shortly. Even a few more posts about hiking around Tokyo (although I still would not recommend going hiking in the Tokyo region just yet…). So keep an eye out, I hope to be back to posting at least once a week from now!
So, in short, Im alive, a bit nervous, and no longer doing the 88 Temples in Shikoku (really, I can’t say how sad this makes me, but I’m just not in the right place mentally to take it on at the moment).
GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED thanks for looking!
Yes, that’s right, a GIVEAWAY!
So, I only have a couple more weeks left living in Tokyo, and I would like my hiking maps and a few books to go to someone who wants them.
To give you an idea I have Mapple Yama to Kougen Chizu number 13, 14, 22, 23, 29 and 30 maps, Day Walks Near Tokyo, A Flower Lover’s Guide to Tokyo, a couple of hiking books/magazines in Japanese, and a few more books in English.
What you have to do is leave a comment with your email address before 5pm JST Sunday March 13th down below, and tell me what hikes you want to do in and around Tokyo. Please only enter if you live in Japan, I will only post the items within the country.
The lucky person to inherit will be contacted by email, and I’ll include a full list of what I’ll send you. If you don’t want any of the items then please let me know so I can offer it to another person. And then the books/maps/etc will be mailed out to you as soon as possible!
Oh, and if anyone would like a rice cooker too please let me know!
No, these are ICE MONSTERS! Or Juhyo in Japanese.
At the top of Mt Jizo, at the coldest time of the year, they gather under the full moon~
Okay, yeah, so they aren’t actually alive… But they can look really creepy! Literally like a huge group of icy monsters gliding along under the moon, ready to converge on the light…
Actually, the Juhyo are trees that have a build up of super cold snow and rime. It doesn’t happen in many places in Japan, the conditions have to be just right, but at Zao in Yamagata you can see theses beautiful natural sculptures every year. And go skiing on some fabulous slopes, soak in natural milky white hot springs, and eat delicious beef dishes made from beef raised in Yamagata itself.
It’s pretty famous within Japan, so it’s always busy, but it’s also so beautiful!
The best season for the Juhyo is in February, but they can also be seen in January and March. Weather although is much harder to predict, with strong cold winds (-10 deg C when we went!) and high altitude, it changes very quickly.
As always, more photos of my visit to Zao can be seen on flickr!
yamaonna 