Down time

I now have some time to myself. Kris left yesterday, and while we had a great time, I need some quiet time. It seemed like we were always on the move when I finished work- going to a temple, going shopping, meeting people for dinner, etc. and now I just want to be a hermit. So I made myself some edamame and miso soup and am not going to talk to anyone for the next couple of days. I have a jigsaw puzzle and a lot of apartment to clean, so I should keep busy enough.
Like I said, though, Kris and I had a really good time. We went to Kyoto and saw the temples and shrines. The leaves were starting to change there, so it was pretty nice. Then we came back to Kakamigahara, only to leave for Tokyo the next day. As exciting as Tokyo seemed it would be, I guess we were a little disappointed. We did a LOT of walking. We first went to Meiji Shrine, which is a nice, quiet shrine/park right in the middle of the chaos of the city. This was the only planned stop we made the whole trip. Instead of taking the train from stop to stop, we thought we would find interesting things walking between stops. While this worked occasionally, we definitely wasted our time. For example: there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING between the electronics district and Tokyo Station. It may not have helped that it was a national holiday- we only saw a handful of people on that walk (in a city of over 12 million). We did find interesting areas with small shops and a lot of pop culture in other areas, but next time I will plan the trip a little better.
The days are finally getting colder here. I hope I can handle it. The little wall-mounted air conditioner doubles as a heater, but as soon as I turn it off, the apartment drops about 15 degrees. I guess I need to invest in a lot more warm clothing. I just need to remember- it will never get as cold as Logan.

The leaves in Kyoto.

An interesting structure at a temple in Kyoto. We never figured out what it was.

Kyomizu temple.

Somewhere in Tokyo.

Takayama

Well, I am not ready for winter. Takayama was beautiful on Sunday, but it was FREEZING!! I don't think my hands thawed all day- at least until I finally bought a hot coffee from the vending machine. But it was worth it. This was the perfect time to go. I thought that I'd already seen the amazing fall colors in Japan, but now I know I was wrong. We spent the morning hiking around a park that used to be the castle grounds. I think between 3 people, we got about 100 pictures of red, yellow and orange leaves.
After the park, we walked around, tried fresh miso soup and dango (ground rice balls grilled in a soy sauce marinade), and looked for temples. Then we went to the Hida Folk Village, which has representatives of the common historic houses of the area. The most amazing ones are these huge houses with thatched roofs. I would think you would make a smaller house to keep things warmer, but these were not small houses. All of them had fire pits inside for warmth, but it was a cold day and we weren't staying warm.

Kris's "Vacation"

Poor Kris, came all the way over to Japan for a relaxing vacation, and I make her work! In this picture, she is helping me prepare a game for one of my schools. Yes, she has gone to a school with me, helped me teach an adult class at the international center, and today, we helped the city welcome a high school Jazz Band from Cerritos (the educational sister-city in California). But I think she's still having fun. It's actually facets of Japan that most tourists don't get to see. Tomorrow we will go to Takayama- which we hear is absolutely beautiful right now with the changing colors- for a true vacation.

Autum

So I haven't been doing too much travelling lately, but maybe even better than that has been exploring the area near my city. I still feel really lucky that I was able to move somewhere that has somewhat natural areas nearby.

We decided to take hike in the hills surrounding my city, when we found this tower with an amazing view. We could even see Nagoya through the haze.








This is a shrine in Tajimi.



The Fall colors in Tajimi.



The fall colors at Ena Gorge.

Needless to say, it is a really beautiful time in Japan right now. Hopefully we have a week or so more before it is all covered in snow.

summer

I'm losing evidence- and memory- of actually working outside this last summer. I haven't been getting much sun here in Japan.