summer break #1

so at my school we get quite a few breaks throughout the year, for a total of about 6 weeks over the year. one of our breaks was in july from the 13th to the 21st. I decided to take a bike trip to Shizuoka prefecture and I stayed in a town called Omaezaki.

here is the map of where Omaezaki is. the route I took on the way back went through Hamamatsu, Shinjiro, Toyota, Miyoshi, and Nisshin. (going there I went through Okazaki, Toyokawa, Toyohashi, and Hamamatsu)

I spent July 16th riding, and I stayed in a hotel that night. 

the next day I headed over to the youth hostel.

 On the 17th I did a bit of exploring around Omaezaki, went swimming at the beach...

The beach has a giant slide near it, so I went on that. super funn!!

Omaezaki is right on the pacific ocean, with no islands obstructing the view. I've rarely seen views like this--living in places like Wakayama, Vancouver, and Nagoya the ocean always has a coast on the other side or some islands obstructing the view. That night I stayed in the hostel in Omaezaki. It was really peaceful and the owners were really kind.

So on my second day, I did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I went surfing! I just found a little shop called Morey Surf where I could rent a surfboard and wetsuit... and the owner taught me a surfing lesson too! it was really fun! I didn't get to stand up on the board but am hoping to go back soon and try it out again :) I have found a couple places along the Chita peninsula (south of nagoya)

after my surf lesson I was all salty and sandy so I really wanted to go to an Onsen. but the only onsen was about 19 km away. although that was nothing to what I had ridden two days before, so why not go to it? the Onsen was called Ko-umare and it was one of the nicest I've been to. they even have a scented oil bath which changes every month. I was really surprised to find the price was cheap--only 500 yen for 3 hours.

these pictures were taken on the way to the onsen!

the very next day, I left the hostel before 7 am and had breakfast of a rice ball, block of tofu, and oolong tea in front of a convenience store. then I headed about 40 km to Hamamatsu city. There is nothing to see there but I wanted to send my heavy backpack back home by express delivery. Which only cost about 1000 yen.

Inland sea in Hamamatsu

then I headed up into the mountains which I would cross over into Aichi prefecture and back home. the mountain going up was really high, and I finished off my bottle of tea just going up! thankfully at the top there were a couple of vending machines waiting for me. After the top I thought I would have a really long downhill ride. but it was more like a plateau, going straight across and through most of Toyota city (yes, the car company started from there). then, I had a really fantastic ride down into Toyota's city centre. after that it was a hour or two on the highway back home to Nagoya city.

This was the longest trip I've done so far; I probably rode over 350 km in 4 days.

the plateau part of Toyota

now here are all the prefectures I've been to... not counting the ones I've only passed through: 

Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Tochigi, Hyogo, Osaka, Nara, Wakayama, Gifu, Nagano, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Niigata, Aichi, Mie, Fukui, Shizuoka, and Shiga 

(just went to Shiga on August 13th, but that's a story for another post) 

That makes 19 in total! there are 47 in all, so I only have 28 left to visit.

hey... better late than never, guys.

a trip to nagasaki.

(for fulle photo albume clicke here)

Nagasaki city is located in nagasaki prefecture on the westernmost point of kyushu island. and i think it's the closest point to south korea, too. but don't quote me on that.

I went there from august 7th-8th. so why am i posting this so late, you ask? i was editing this video... it's of hashima, the abandoned island. i'll get to that later...

so on the 7th i left hiroshima in the morning and went to kyushu by shinkansen! it's the new line that goes through a tunnel (chunnel?) under the seabed. and i got to my hostel in downtown nagasaki right around 1 pm. 

then i went to Dejima!! I had learned a lot about dejima in japanese history class... in early modern times, when japan had its "closed borders" policy dejima was, legally speaking, the only place where foreigners could trade. the dutch traded there, mostly sugar, apparently. but it was also the hub of western learning (science, engineering, language, etc.) in japan.

from history class, i was under the assumption that dejima was off the coast with not much trade going on, and the dutch people there were super isolated and poor. in reality, it wasn't that bad! in japanese dejima means "removed island" but it is no longer an island, with roads surrounding it on 3 sides. in early modern times it was more like an outpost (like Fort Langley) with a moat, except the moat was the sea. in fact, the dutch lived quite a nice life, with servants and good food... and it was very close to Nagasaki Station. I walked to dejima from my hostel in less than 30 minutes.

poorly edited attempted panorama of Dejima i took with my SLR. 

a model of the Dutch people of dejima eating dinner. notice that the room is all tatami mats and yet they are using western chairs and wearing shoes. to me that is unfathomable. after 9 months in japan, wearing shoes/sandals inside (let alone on a tatami mat) feels about as normal as walking barefoot in the middle of a highway!

all the kinds of sugar that were traded at dejima.

a model of dejima.

nagasaki has a lot of churches--this is a catholic church, the first church i've seen in japan

nagasaki is also famous for its city lights... i took this with my SLR with no tripod and no editing, by the way. aren't I fabulous?

many parts of town reminded me of europe, such as italy. it was as hot as italy too... even though i brought my 1-litre nalgene everywhere i still had to buy bottled tea :/

on the other hand, Nagasaki is not all european influence! I also came across a Confucian museum. and figured, why not check that out?

(Nagasaki is also famous for "champon"which is a chinese-influenced ramen dish. the other famous food there is Castella, a type of plain cake, which is from portuguese influence)

so finally, the piece of resistance! hashima... the abandoned "battleship" island

it was inhabited by coal miners, many of them foreigners, and their families until 1974. it's a tiny island but was home to over 5,000 people at its peak in the 1950s. it's quite isolated from nagasaki city--about a 1.5 hour boat ride. 

it had a elementary school, middle school, pool, market, and pachinko parlour. the sea surrounding hashima is very choppy with huge waves crashing against the sides of the island. notice the spray of water from a wave in the last picture and compare its height with one of the buildings. it must have been at least four storeys in height. the boat lurched heavily throughout the entire tour. luckily i have a stomach of steel or else i would have lost my lunch. 

here's the video i took with my gopro, although it's not very good.

after gunkanjima i went to the memorial peace park. it's quite moving! here is a picture of a plaque that made me quite sad :(

'"I was so very thirsty

upon the water floated something that looked like oil

I wanted water more than anything

so I drank it just like that"

- from the diary of a young girl on that day'

I think sometimes, the most valuable way to learn from war is to read about a single person's experience of it.

a trip to Hiroshima prefecture, and some thoughts.

at our classroom in Arida, we don't have summer vacation, so I decided to take August 5th-8th off to go to the Chugoku and Kyushu regions. (as it happens, we decided to take a week off for vacation anyhow... so no class this week!)

from the 5th-7th I stayed in Hatsukaichi city, Hiroshima. it's about a half hour train ride to Hiroshima city. I got to Hiroshima city by bus at 4:30 am on the 5th. then I went to a manga cafe and slept for 2 hours, and got washed up, etc. (the combination of night bus and manga cafe is a great trick for time-and-money-wise people travelling in Japan :)

then I went to my hostel in Miyajima, Hatsukaichi and right at 9:30 I went on a kayaking tour to Itsukushima shrine. along with Kinkakuji, it's one of those famous Japanese sights you have probably seen in a calendar.

I returned on the night of the 6th... because the ferry there and back was only 300 yen!

well, obviously the main reason I wanted to go to Hiroshima was to pay my respects to all the people who suffered during August 1945 and many years after at the hands of the American army. it was quite moving to stand at the ruins and think about the past. 

this is one of Hiroshima's famous sights, the Genbaku dome. people gathered here for peace rallies and to display origami cranes.

It was beautiful to see so many people in one place, all wishing for one thing, world peace. there were people from all over the world there. One thing I was really happy to do was float a paper lantern on the river, at 6pm. 

my wish was to overcome what Canadians have done to the Japanese in the past and live in peace! the atrocities of war are something we mustn't forget. 

all of the lanterns and the people watching made a lovely sight. (taken with my SLR)

after going to the genbaku dome and before returning in the evening to float my lantern, I wandered all over Hiroshima...

went shopping

 found some interesting parts of town...

 hiked up a small mountain

 through a small wood with some crazy trees

to the other side of the mountain

Hiroshima is a beautiful city and prefecture... hopefully I'll be able to return someday :)