Tag Archives: japan

Rusutsu Snow Trip 2013

Leave a reply

In January,  we took the family up to Rusutsu in Hokkaido for a bit of snowboarding and skiing. Yes, this post is a little late.

The resort feels very much like a bubble place, but essentially is a collection of hotels and a few chalets around three main mountain ski areas. We stayed in the Resort Hotel North, which is at the base of one of the ski areas. Is it really a bubble era hotel? Well, it has an animatronic talking tree, some animatronic bears (or dogs, perhaps), and a full double decker carousel in the foyer which you could ride for free every evening, so yes, it’s very much a bubble hotel, and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you aren’t paying bubble fees.

We went for an all in package with breakfast and dinner, especially as the food at the in-house restaurants was good – believe me, we’ve stayed at places where the breakfasts were awful, and yes, I’m looking at you, Yamada Onsen in Niseko! As I’ve learned, with kids, having a buffet with a decent selection is vital to keep the complaints down.

Rentals weren’t too expensive, and the kit was very good, as is pretty much standard here nowadays, and the staff were fairly multi-lingual given the decent number of Chinese and Australian guests – also pretty much standard here nowadays.  The instructors were good too, and our eldest got some lessons in when she wasn’t skiing with me. For once I wasn’t renting ski boots, having picked up a cheap pair of Head ski boots in Jimbochou for Xmas last year, and it was nice to have a consistent setup for a whole trip.

Rusutsu’s got a good selection of courses too, and on clear weather days, some great views. I’m not sure whether I prefer it to Niseko, but it’s still got a decent selection of runs, and some hilarious tree routes. There’s a snow park, where I spent a morning. I’ve never been much into jumps and such, but I did actually have a good time in there, so next season I might invest a bit more time in the snow parks and see how it goes.

I also took my GoPro out, and got some great shots of the kids skiing, and us out on our snowboards. As I’m a much better boarder than skier, it was interesting to shift from trepidation on even easier intermediate slopes on skies, to double diamond slopes through the trees on my board, and just feeling challenged, rather than concerned I was going to break something.

I tried the camera both mounted to the board, and a headcam, and actually, I think it works as both, but obviously you get a lot of snow blowing up onto the camera on it’s board mount. One note though, unless you have the anti-fog inserts, you’ll want to regularly open the casing to lot the condensation dissipate after about 20mins.!

All in all, we had a great trip, and even the flights and travel went fairly smoothly, so no complaints there.

明けましておめでとうございます２０１３

Leave a reply

Another New Year comes crashing around, and I’m hoping for another good one. No retrospectives, or lists or anything by the way; I tend to want to look forwards at this time of year.

As far as our New Year celebrations went, we had a quiet one at home for the midnight tick over, but then we were up just after 5am this morning to get the family ready and down to the beach to watch the sunrise with a few thousand other people. I did this last year, and though it was busy, it was fairly quiet. This year it seemed to be a complete circus, not just with the thousands come to see the sunrise on the Pacific beaches, but the roads were busy, especially with young guys in heavily modded cars. If anything, it added an extra flavour to the morning, and in the cold and with a few clouds, we watched the sun rise for the first time on 2013.

Given the shape of the bay, we could also see the sun’s rays hit Mt. Fuji for the first time, as surfers got their first waves of the New Year in. It was all quite relaxing given the hour and the temperature. Potentially the kids may not share my opinion of that.

As soon as the sun was fully up, people began bustling away, and we got some breakfast at one of the cafes which was open on the beach road, and then made our way home. I have to say, I do quite like this ‘first sunrise’ event, called ‘Hatsuhinode‘ (初日の出), and even if we left Japan, it’s something I’d probably still do.

Soon after lunch though we were out again at the local jinja (that’s a Shinto shrine, not an o-tera, which is a Buddhist temple, and they’re usually attended at midnight on New Years Eve) to pray to the local deities and made a small donation. I’ve been to a few shrine events, so I just had to help the kids get through throwing the coin, two bows, two claps and a prayer and move on. It went went well apart from my youngest, when seeing us close our eyes shouted, “Don’t go to sleep!” which got a ripple of laughter from those behind us in the queue.

There’s always a queue on January 1st., and for most of the o-shogatsu period, as people pray for good luck for the year, and pick up various objects to bring good luck for the year, such as a hamaya, which is a small wooden arrow to bring luck, given it’s origin is that of a weapon to slay demons. We picked one of these up for a small fee, as my wife had never had one when she was a child, so she was keen to get one with our kids.

We also got an ‘omikuji‘ (お神籤), which is a printed fortune selected by which piece of wood you get at random from a drum. Some people tie them on frames of string, or trees and such near the shrines. (For what it’s worth, ours was a pretty good one – dai-kichi).

After that, it was late afternoon and time for a break, so we’ve concluded New Years Day with a lamb stew I’d been cooking for a few hours, a glass of red wine, and having an evening in with the family. I should say that there is some traditional food for this period, called ‘osechi ryouri‘, but we don’t have them (my wife really doesn’t like them, and I’m not keen), and instead take the time to cook a few more winter based meals.

All in all a great start to 2013!

Izu, Skylines and Odd Tea Shops

Leave a reply

Over the last couple of weekends I’ve managed to get out for a couple of morning bike trips; from the first one I put some video together from the Hero2 mounted on the handlebars. There are three main routes – #134, the Pacific Coast road along Sagami Bay, the Toyo Tires Turnpike, a twisty mountainous toll road, and then the Izu Skyline Parkway, another long stretch of twisting roads with some great views of the coastline as it snakes south down the Izu peninsula.

The second trip I met up with my old friend Colin, and his rather nice Triumph Daytona 955i, at Kawaguchiko lake after a 100Km ride up some normal roads and the Tomei expressway, and we meandered back homewards down the 413 Doushi road, another relaxing, scenic road through mountains and valleys, except this time we had to break out the rain gear.

We also stopped off at Cafe Gout Temps which has to be seen to be understood – it’s a Japanese house with British castle and tea shoppe fascias bolted on, and crammed with authentic looking church pulpits, pub statues, doll houses and all manner of oddities. It serves a good avacado and mushroom pasta dish and some fine English tea as well.

Cafe Gout Temps

Cafe Gout Temps

Some more photos

Leave a reply

It’s been a while since I stuck a small gallery up on here, so I took a few random photos from the library to put up.  They’re from a few places, mainly Japan and a recent trip to Guam and from the beaches and from the woodland.

湘南ベルマレ　１−１　東京ヴェルディ

Leave a reply

Last night we went down to the BMW Stadium in Hiratsuka for a family night out to see a live football game between the local team – Shonan Bellmare – and visitors Tokyo Verdy. It was a very decent night out all told – the stadium is in a nice park and there was a lot of stalls almost like a mini-matsuri outside, selling shaved ice with fruit syrup, beer and a decent array of snack foods. The stadium is a nice, if somewhat Soviet-era looking concrete construction which apparently can hold around 18,000, but it felt plenty full with last night’s attendance of 9,370.

Shonan play in J2, the lower of the two Japanese professional leagues, but that’s OK – my local team in the UK isn’t exactly top flight, but that doesn’t stop an entertaining game, and the crowd were treated to some good football for 90minutes, and even two well taken goals in the second half giving the final scoreline of 1-1. Points have to go to the Verdy fans who put up a solid 90minutes of drums and chanting, and at least from where we were sat, drowned out the locals.

It’s been a while sine I’ve been to a J League game actually, though I always watch games when I go back to the UK, and whilst the support style might change around the world, the community feeling on the terraces and the appreciation of the play seems fairly constant. I have to say though, watching an evening game 3Km from the Pacific Ocean in a t-shirt and shorts contrasts oddly to Boxing Day games in the north of England.

Bottom line: if you’re in Japan, and you haven’t checked one out, go and see a J League game, and if you’re visiting, put it on your to do list.

I didn’t take many photos as I was assisting in keeping the kids under control as it was their first ever live football game, and whilst my eldest said she liked it, she was tired after 75mins., and my youngest spent some time with one of us walking about as he was fascinated by the stadium and all the people.

Enoshima

Leave a reply

Depending on how you look at it, Enoshima (江ノ島）is either a very small island or a large rock outcrop, a few hundred metres away from the beachfront near Kamakura in Kanagawa prefecture, to the south west of Tokyo, connected to the mainland by a road causeway.

It’s a popular tourist spot, and quite iconic in the local area. Even though we’ve lived near it for a few years, it was only last month we decided to actually go and take a look around, all the way to the small tower on top, now known as the Sea Candle.

The east of the island is mainly marina, parking and walking areas, with the west being the rising rock, which forms the main climb and attraction of the island. The lower third is a tourist zone, which has some places to eat, and some ‘interesting’ tourist gift shops selling items like puffer fish lamps, flattened grilled octopus and such.

Climb up a bit further, and you can access the escalator which speeds you to the top, or you can walk the steps up. It’s not actually *that* far up, and the walk down is quite leisurely. The middle third is mainly temples, some gardens, ponds and increasingly beautiful view of the coast on one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

The top is actually a lot flatter than I thought, with some beautiful Asian and European gardens, and some nicer (and more expensive) places to eat than you find at the base. We had a late lunch at the Lon Cafe, and I have to say, that was the best French toast I have ever had.

The Sea Candle is only a few floors high, but it still commands impressive views of the whole area, and you really get a sense of Sagami Bay’s size, just being that little bit further out into the ocean.


View Larger Map

It can take a good part of the day to wander around and sit in the gardens, and have a look around the temple areas, and some of the thousands of notes and ema (絵馬), which are commonly found at temples around Japan. You can even stop for some tea, or take in one of the regular events.

After Enoshima, we decided to drive a kilometre down the coastal road to the Moana Makai restaurant for some Hawai’ian / Japanese curry and food. It’s very, very popular so expect a wait, even for parking as it’s rated as one of the best places to eat in Kamakura, and you get that great view over the ocean.

Family Camp – Stone Chair

Leave a reply

I should say up front that though I’m not an ardent camper, I do like getting outdoors and camping now and then. Before we had the kids, we’d camp at the Fuji Rock Festival and such, and quite enjoyed it, so now the kids are a bit older, and at least big enough to fend off (or try to eat) all but the biggest insects, we decided to have a test family camping expedition last week.

I asked around some more camp experienced friends, about where was a good ‘easy’ camp site for families, and camp guru CL over at Shonan in English pointed us at Stone Chair, down in Izu, near Itou, about half-way down the peninsula.

I like to travel light, but with kids, that’s not quite as do-able, as you really need to carry a few more ‘Plan B’ items just in case. Most of the items we’ve been just adding to over the years, so now we’re pretty complete, and I put some of the things we’ve found really useful at the end of the post.

So we threw everything in the back of the car, and set off for Stone Chair, a little nervous that we are technically in rainy season, and the clouds were heavy, but actually we got lucky, since it was beautiful blue skies the whole time we were out and about.

Basic equipment list

The name you see most regarding camping here, is the Coleman brand – they make everything you could need for camping, and a lot more, and seemingly the quality is decent for the average family camp, during Spring, Summer and early Autumn. The ‘stuff’ we took then included:

  • Basic Logos 4 person tent ( a bit like this one)
  • Thermarest foam air mattresses – I personally think these are worth the money over the rolled blue foam pads
  • Basic sleeping bags – mainly Spring / Summer 15degC+ ones for the family
  • Coleman quad light (this is excellent as you can give the kids their own light for wandering around).
  • A head lamp – always useful to keep your hands free to work on things in the dark.
  • Cool box with ice packs for all the food
  • Some camping pots and pans
  • A camping stove, and we also took our ‘cassette gas‘ one.
  • My old Solio – great if the phone / game batteries run low.
  • Lots of anti-mosquito and bite spray!

That was pretty much it, the rest were some clothes, books, wipes, towels and the stuff you end up taking with kids to most places anyway.

I should say that the people at Stone Chair were great – they responded well to e-mails and phone calls, and kept their Japanese within my level, and made us feel welcome, but didn’t hang around too much, and let us get on with it.They also seem to have some wood artwork going on and there were some nice pieces dotted around the facilities.

Woodwork

Woodwork

The facilities aren’t too bad either – toilets are clean (if you excuse the inevitable insects), and there are showers available. Much of the space is devoted to tenting areas, all flat and set aside from each other with bushes and trees. If you fancy it, there are also plenty of proper barbeque places, as open camp fires are forbidden.

We also looked at the small lodges available, but who needs those when you have a tent! We didn’t see a shop nearby so you may need to drive to one, and depending on which way you approach the place, the roads can be steep and very narrow since it really is set aways back from the coast, on the side of one of Izu’s mountains, so it’s quiet, and quite secluded.

The fee for pitching our tent for the night, and use of the toilets and such was 6,000yen, though we got another 10% discount as we were midweek, and I think frankly because we were the only people there! So if you’re looking for a simple family camp area, take a look at Stone Chair.

A View from the Stone Chair

First Matsuri of 2012

Leave a reply

I’ll admit that this post is two weeks late. What can I say, I’ve been busy. In my world, ‘busy’ isn’t just the day job, it also covers drinking tea, drinking beer, and sleeping, and I’ll confess to having done all three of these in the last month. Quite often.

So on with the post.

On May 19th., we went to our first matsuri of the year. For those few of you who don’t know what a matsuri is, a matsuri（祭り）is a community festival, and many are held in the Summer around Japan. I like these things.

This one was a little atypical, in that it wasn’t really a community one, but one organised by the local council in a nice stretch of family oriented park down by the river. There were a few game stalls, a few food stalls, some free popcorn, free balloon animals (though I got a balloon katana and tried to claim it was for my kids), some ponies to ride, and inflatable castle, a monkey and some vegetable stands. This is typical faire, even for a small one like this, though I admit, the ponies and monkey are a little out of the norm.

Given the beautiful weather and park locale, it was a really relaxing day, starting around 10.30am, and winding down at 3pm, which again is a little unusual as matsuris tend to be afternoon and even affairs.

I enjoyed all of the bits and pieces, and we did ponder getting a house nameplate carved on the spot by a local joinery company who had a stall, but somehow managed not to. I do like kakigoori (かき氷), which is a bowl of shaved ice – not ice chunks, but very thinly sliced ice, which makes it more like snow – with some syrup added. It’s a staple of the hot summers here at these kind of things, and something to look forward to. There was a stall selling what seemed to be edible gelatinous spheres. More than that I can’t say – I didn’t try them, and though they looked nice, at least candyfloss is straight-up honest sugar.

I have to admit to not have been sure about the monkey – part of me balks at that, and kids love it, but that thick rope didn’t make it look too friendly to me. The ponies looked a little happier, and their owner didn’t pan-handle for tips.

One game involves a small paddling pool filled with water with what are referred to here as balloon yoyos – kind of water filled balloons on long elastic bands if you can visualise that. Each person gets a hook on the end of a length of tissue paper, and has to hook the elastic band and retrieve the yoyo from the water before the paper breaks. In reality the kids all get one to prevent riots.

One energetic tyke was bouncing his balloon up and down and then tried a trick at the precise time the elastic band broke, and the balloon flew off and smacked me in the face. For a second I had a mosh pit flashback for some reason, but calmly picked the balloon up as this clueless kid just stood there with his mouth doing that guppy fish thing whilst his poor grandmother had to apologise. I tossed it back to him and asked him to be more careful in the future.

So this was a gentle introduction to the fervour of the matsuri season in Japan, and I look forward to a lot more in the next few months. Photos likely to follow, unless I’m busy.

The Roof Tile - full

New Header Image: Roof Tile

Leave a reply

Apologies if this is a bit of a [stereo]typical image, it’s just one I snapped on a recent trip in the countryside, at a very comfy, if a little run down looking temple.

The Roof Tile - full

The Roof Tile

I actually only noticed the place due to the long pile of timber running up to the entrance, as I was cycling past in the rain, and semi dismissed it as just yet another temple, but actually, the place seemed to have a certain texture to it, as if it had a more practical purpose, if not now, in the recent past, even if it was a bit overgrown.

A Pile of Timber

A Pile of Timber

I’ll likely post a few more pictures of the site in a later gallery post.