Monthly Archives: August 2012

Hiking Norikura

When I only had two days left on Norikura and most of my work was done I decided it was time to finally bag the peak.  The work that I had left was all hemispherical photographs which required cloudy days/ dawn/ dusk.  Thus when I woke up and saw that it was sunny, I decided, today is the day to hike Norikura.  However, the weather is so variable that I brought my work gear as well in case it was cloudy on my way down the mountain.

The first 1/3 of the trail I was quite familiar with since I hike it pretty much everyday, from there on however it was a new experience.

second leg

Up the second third I went.  Interestingly the higher I went on the mountain the more restricted the trail became.  So many people hike Norikura that to preserve the ecosystem and vegetation areas are roped off for hiking and you are not supposed to leave the trail.  The second third of the hike as did the first follows a stream up slope.  At a beautiful little pool in the stream there were two posts with Kanji written on them and two statues.

trail shrine

trail statues

The one with a cane I like to think is the Norikura Yoda.

The trail continues to gradually go up slope until it hits the road again.  Here is where in the spring the road stops and the buses turn around.  Just up slope from the road is a large bowl in the mountain side that is protected from the sun and wind.  This is where people come to ski almost year round.  When I hiked the mountain it was August 10th and there were maybe 15 people out on the snow skiing.  Due to the quality of the snow at this point there are tracks that people ski down rather than just anywhere.  Apparently lots of ski teams come to Norikura to train during the summer.

Skiing now

The hike continues it’s way up hill skirting around the bowl, and leads it’s way up to an even higher cottage on Norikura.  This cottage like most hiking cabins is also a restaurant and gift store.  From the cabin to the top is the last stage of the hike, and the only one that most people take.  The reason for this is that during the summer people can take the bus up to about 2700m, which is only 300m shy of the peak.  One of the reasons for the road is that there is an observatory up there on the mountain.

observatory

So there are lots of people from this point on, while the other part of the trail had been all mine.

lotsohikers

I don’t think I had ever hiked with so many other people at one time.  Many of the hikers were elderly, but there were also a fair number of families with kids hiking the mountain.  As with most things in Japan I did not know the proper hiking etiquette, so I went with what we do in America.  That being if someone comes up behind you and you are hiking slowly, stand aside and let them pass.  If one person is going down and another going up and they meet, who should yield,  in America the person going down would yield.  Etc.  However, I could not find a pattern in what the Japanese did, it was basically a slow scramble up a trail.  The trail was relatively wide in most areas, but not always to allow for traffic to go both ways.  trail

Some of the other things I observed were that people did not always like you to pass them, sort of as though it was a line and no one should skip other people.  This feeling was more prominent when I passed older people than the younger.  Or maybe they remembered when they could quickly scamper up a mountain.  Either way there was much waiting.

There was this one old lady who would take a step and then rest, then take another step and rest.  When ever I made a move to go around her she would try to keep going but then stop and rest.  I backed off and waited until the trail widened more so I could just go around.  Younger folks were more willing to let you pass with a “doozo” or “sumimasen”.

Up the mountain we climbed on to a shoulder of the mountain which led to the peak.  As I climbed the mountain clouds began to form and soon it was completely enshrouded by them.  Though there was an occasional glimpse of a view.  In the crater of the volcano there is a large alpine lake with a little remnant snow pack around.  crater

From there you can see the peak clearly with a shrine on top! But of course I did not have 5 yen on me.  It is tradition to donate 5 yen when praying at a shrine, 5 yen is sort of a sign of good luck.

shrine

Norikura is 3026m high and very easy to climb, though I am not sure I would want to do it in the rain.  I sat on the peak for about 45 minutes watching the clouds, occasional view and my fellow hikers.

Norikura_me

On my way down I was much more observant than on my way up and noticed that on the scree slopes where the hiking trail did not go were pink.  Pink with flowers, I could not tell what kind so I got out my camera and zoomed in to discover these beauties.

 hillside of pinkPink flower

komakusa (コマクサ) or Dicentra peregrina

 

Back down the mountain I went and since it got cloudy, I preceded to finish out the rest of my work.

 

10 Things I have learned

  1. Always carry an umbrella or rain coat
  2. Preferably an umbrella that is wood or plastic during lightning storms while standing in a river (AKA street).
  3. Waterproof bags are amazing, my Timbuktu bags for my computer and purse did amazing even when I forgot lesson 1.
  4. 90% of the time I will not be understood in English or Japanese and 99% of the time I will not understand Japanese
  5. Most people know at least a little English, but are too shy or scared to speak.
  6. There is always a festival going on, join in.
  7. Most Japanese are scared of bears
  8. Hiking attire is very different in Japan than in the US, lets just say leggings and shorts, swirls and dots.
  9. You rarely know what you are eating, if it is good keep going, if not try something else.
  10. Cities are lonely while mountains are friendly.

Daio Wasabi Farm

I realize that while here in Japan I have taken very few days completely off and just had fun and acted like a tourist.  However, now that all the fieldwork is done, that is precisely what I plan to try and do the next few days between preparing for my return journey to the US.

So what did I do on this day off?  I went to a farm, a wasabi farm to be precise.  Daio Wasabi Farm is the largest Wasabi farm in Japan.  It is a bit of a tourist trap, but nice none the less. 

I must admit I had no clue how wasabi grew, but figured in was in some kind of soil? Wrong.  Wasabi naturally probably grew in the river beds in the valleys below the Japanese Alps.  And I guess it still sort of does, however, the stream beds are farms.  Wasabi Close up

Wasabi plants themselves grow on the highly manicured artificial stream beds, where rows of rocks are made into mounds, like soil would be for most other crops.  Between the rows of rock is a constant stream of fresh clear water that comes down from the mountains and out of the ground.  On each mound two wasabi plants are planted one on each side closest to the water.  I read somewhere that the water is kept at 13oC year round, but I have no clue how that is possible when the water appears to be diverted from the river.  Above the plants about 1.5m high is black shad cloth.  I do not know if this is to keep the sun off the plants or to keep birds away.  

Wasabi rows

Wasabi Cover

Little rhyme I came up with while walking around.

Amanda, Amanda, quite aweary,
How does wasabi grow?
With river stones, and spring snows,
And pretty rocky rows.

Wasabi and Me

I mentioned that Daio is a bit of a tourist trap, it is sort of a mini amusement park like atmosphere, but with no rides.  The farm it’s self is free to visit, probably because they expect you will buy stuff there, which is true.  There was wasabi everything and I don’t even know what everything I tried was.  Some of the larger items I ate were a wasabi burger, which was no burger at all but a potato/wasabi croquette in a pita with shredded cabbage and a leaf of lettuce on this wasabi mayonnaise is squeezed.  It was tasty, not what I was expecting, but delicious.  And it was hot, but not wasabi hot, but freshly fried greasy hot.

Wasabi Ice Cream

I had to try the wasabi ice cream while I was at the farm, it sounded horrible, wasabi ice cream.  Turns out it was not horrible, but not exactly good either.  At first I rather enjoyed my ice cream.  For one it was cold while the day was hot.  Secondly, it was nothing like I expected.  It tasted lightly sweet with a plant like flavor.  After awhile however, the cone stopped being delicious and more of a chore to finish.  The wasabi flavor was becoming stronger the more I ate and while it was not a hot, nasal passage clearing wasabi taste, it also did not belong in ice cream.  The last completely unique item I had was a wasabi beer, yeap, wasabi beer.  It was a Kirin beer, dyed green probably not by the wasabi but by food colouring, with little shreads of wasabi in it.  So how did it taste? Like every other Kirin beer I have had, except for the filiments of wasabi and the color I would not have known anything was different.    I at least had a cup though to go get water out of the spring to drink with though, so that was nice and I had to try it. 

Wasabi Beer

There are a number of stores at the farm selling wasabi everything and most of them you could taste. Some were delicious, some hot, but most of all they were all unrecognizable to me and I have no clue what I tasted for the most part. 

After buying some souviners, I headed back into the town of Hotaka.  Where I learned there are lots of wasabi stores, I am not really sure what they were selling, but I went in one and it smelled great, and appeard to be a higher quality than that at the farm.  I am no wasabi conosour and I don’t know if this is true.  It seemed like maybe the wasabi farm was the cheap wine of wasabi and the wasabi in the storese in town were fancy high class wines.  However, if you don’t know anything about wine, wine is wine and wasabi is wasabi. 

I headed back to Matsumoto after a delicious soba dinner and decided to take a scenic dusk walk back towards my room.  I went through the park around Matsumoto castle, when I got close I saw there there was a big dance stage, like the one that has been next to my house, but maybe 5 times larger set up near the castle.  On the stage there were drums and children wearing Yukata hitting the drums.  Since there were no crowds I figured that what ever had been going on had finished and the drummer just let the children hit the drums for fun.  I continued on my way, as I passed the stage however, I saw the sign saying that the dance would start in 20 minutes.  The previous two nights I had gone to my community dance and it was great fun so I wanted to see what a large dance at the castle would be.  In the mean time I walked around and got some great pictures of Matsumoto Castle at dusk. 

Matsumoto Castle Night

When the music began I headed back over to the stage.  The first dance had the words Matsumoto Bon Bon in it but it was not the Matsumoto Bon Bon that I had learned, so I watched.  The second song, had a complicated dance and it too I didn’t know.  However, the third song, I heard the title and knew I knew it so I jumped up and joined the circle.  For you dance in a circle slowly moving forward in one direction or another.  It felt great, there were lots of people, I knew the steps.  The next two songs I also knew however it had started raining so the drums had to be covered up.  Dancing continued though for the record player, yes record player not ipod, CD player or tape deck, but record player was covered as were the speakers.  However, when the rain did not let up and the song ended, the dance was over for the night.  

Dance

I don’t know the meaning of the dances, but it is fun to be involved with a large group of people doing something.  Much of my time in Japan has been me doing things by myself so the social aspect of it is really nice is nice. 

Matsumoto Bon Bon

I didn’t really know what the Matsumoto Bon Bon was but was told that it was the biggest festival in Matsumoto and worth going to watch and maybe dance.  So I went.

So what is the Matsumoto Bon Bon?  Well, Bon means to dance so it is the Matsumoto Dance Dance.  But in reality is part dance competition, part parade, and a big party.

Bonbon

Dance

There is a specific song called the Matsumoto Bon Bon and the song lasts for about 30 minutes, I don’t know what the lyrics say besides Matsumoto Bon Bon.  And there are verses sung by a male and some by a female.

I was told that there would be groups of dancers and that they had a dance routine, I did not realize however that every group dancing did the exact same dance.  Groups of dancers were composed of orginizations, companies, school groups and probably many others.  Each group had a uniform too, some wore tee-shirts or jersey’s but most were wearing summer short men’s yukata (link to Wikipedia). An additional prop of the dance is the fan, each group had their own personalized fan.  The fans are used in the dance.

Street view at an intersection with people dancing in all directions.

Parade

The Bon Bon is also a parade for each group forms a block like a marching band standing in even rows.  Slowly they dance through the downtown streets to the Matsumoto Bon Bon.  Like marching bands in a parade skill at keeping time and staying in line is important for the competition portion of the dance. This particular group was very organized and did the dance in step with one another.

Party

When the song ends there is a small reprive for the dancers before the song and dancing begins again.  With each group there are people with coolers and trash bags on little wagons with refreshments appropriate to age.  Thus all but the children were quickly getting drunk throughout the evening, making the dance more interesting and a little less rigid.

Beer Cart

Thousands of people come out to watch the Matsumoto Bon Bon.  Many people dress in Yukata for the day of all different colours.  In addition to the Bon Bon there was also a carnival like atmosphere, with food booths lining the streets as well as games for children.  Though I have lived in Texas and been to the Minnesota State Fair, I have never seen so many kinds of meat on sticks.  Granted I don’t know what most of them were or what they were flavored with.  My favorite, though I did not try it was an entire squid on a stick.

Booths, lanterns, and river

 

Kuma

Beware of Kuma

Beware of Bear?   I think it is funny that the picture is an angry grizzley like bear and nothing like the bears I have seen.  Sign at the bus stop on my way up the mountain.

On the road early in my trip I had the chance to see two kuma (Japanese Black Bear or Moon Bears).  The relationship between the Japanese and Kuma is quite funny and I do not understand it.  In the park there is no hunting, or at least I hope not.  So there are very few kuma and tons of people visit Norikura everyday.  Some of the middle school groups that show up to hike the mountain are in groups in the order of 200-300 students.  With all these people around even with it being peak berry season, if I was a bear I would stay away.

However, the Japanese are really quite scared of bears.  Very few people hike without a kuma yoki zuzu (Bear protection bell).  One day I was in the woods working, not too far from the trail, but far enough to not be seen when a herd of middle school students started to go by.  In addition to bear bells, their sheer number and their incessant yelling they also had fire crackers.  When I asked the cabin owner about it he was not surprised.  Fire crackers in the national park to keep bears at bay.  Crazy, I don’t think that would be legal in the US but probably more due to risk of fire than anything else.  I don’t think Japanese carry guns while in the wilderness, but after this experience I began to wonder.  I had known for awhile that some people probably heard me in the woods working and thought I was a bear, should I make it clear I am not.  Yell, iie kuma every once in awhile? Well sometimes I yell that anyways but not to tell people I am not a bear but to keep bears away.  I also yell no bear, but incase the bears speak Japanese I do it in both languages.

It was not until I was about 40 meter from a kuma in the woods and startled it and it startled me and probably neither of us saw each other but scurried in opposite directions that I realized maybe I should have a bell.  If me working in the woods, even with my noise allows a bear to get that close.  That night I was given a bear bell to use while in the woods.  While it is good for me to keep bears away, I think it is equally valuable in letting people know, I am not a bear.  Though their faces might seem equally shocked when I come barging out of the woods in seeing a foreigner, as they would a bear.

Kuma near road

During my last week on Norikura I saw two bears.  One scared me while I was in the woods I think I was walking and it was walking and neither of us heard each other.  However, when I stopped and started working I realized that there was a bear about 10m to my right and my heart skipped a beat.  Then I made lots of noise both yelling and with my bell.  The bear scampered up slope and started to circumnavigate me on the left side.  That is when I decided I was done with that plot for the day and would just have to return some other time.

The other bear was very photogenic.  I was walking down the road around 6pm when I came across a bear in a meadow.  My bear bell rung every time I took a step so I am sure it heard me way before I saw it but when I came into view it looked at me and then went back about it’s business of eating flowers.