New Recruits... (Louise)

Carl here,

As you will probably be aware, the first of the two new intern's has finally arrived in Japan. Louise Fisk a 3rd Dan from Robbie Smith Sensei' New Zealand Wadokai arrived early on Saturday morning.... and was asked by Arakawa Sensei to watch the 'high performance' class on the Saturday afternoon (where I met up with her after I got home from work). Louise was itching to get stuck in to training and could be seen practising when she thought no-one was looking! In the evening, Louise could finally put her karate suit on and do some training...

Amy (left) & Louise (right)

Sunday
Louise had a few days to settle in to her temporary apartment before Erica (the other new intern) arrived and before she started work, so Amy, Louise and I decided to use Sunday to do some sightseeing, souvenir shopping and get to know to know each other a bit better.

Amy, Intern 4.5 (left) & Louise, Intern 5.0 (right)

We headed to Asakusa, the site of one of the most popular temples in Tokyo, Senso-ji, and a great place to pick up souvenirs.

Pose!

Then went on a 45 minute ferry cruise along the Sumida Gawa (Sumida river)....

...to the Hama Rikyu Tei-in (Detached Palace Garden), a very nice example of a Japanese garden with the city of Tokyo looming in the background. Being a nature lover, and a scientist, Louise had a great time there...

...We spent a long time in the park/garden, mainly because every time we walked past a tree, Louise did this:

which looked like great fun, so naturally I gave it a go too:

I ended up walking around the park in the opposite direction to the two ladies and thought it would be diffucult to find them again, but then I saw a sign for a '200 year old pine tree' and knew instantly were they would be headed!

...a 200 year old pine tree - wow!

When we found each other again (at the 200 year old tree!) we left the park and had a walk up to the popular shopping district in Ginza, and naturally visited the big toy shop there. We grabbed some noodles at a basement restaurant and caught the train to Ueno, bought an alarm clock (for Louise) and headed to the movies in Satte city with David and Chris (two other Canadians from Shiramizu) where we were planning to catch the new Star Trek movie, though sadly, our organisational skills were lacking and the only show times had a very late finish... so we grabbed some snacks instead... We all had a great time, and I already feel like I've known Louise for years!

Monday


Louise joined Arakawa Sensei at the Sugito Shirayuri Kindergarten for her interview, then shadowed me for the last hour whilst I tought an English class. Then she was 'invited' to help out at the Monday Kindergarten karate class. Arakawa Sensei gave all the kids a 'mini' English lesson, and got all the kids to introduce themselves in English... 'My name is...., Nice to meet you'...

Louise helped Arakawa Sensei teach this class and then I joined them to go to the branch dojo at Asukaru Sports Centre in Satte city. Louise then trained in the Special Kata class whilst I helped with the rest... Afterwards we all went to Kuki station to pick up Erica who was chaperoned from Narita airport by Lawrence (Intern V3). We had a very quick introduction and by this time it was getting very late so we took dropped off Erica at her temporary apartment for some sleep with an agreement to have a 'proper' introduction tomorrow...

Sorry, no pics of Erica yet - the battery died on my camera....!

Nantai-San, Nikko National Park

Amy here…

Spared on by our recent achievement at Tsukuba-san, we gathered our wits together and decided that in Golden Week, we would climb another mountain. After all we need all the practise we can get before facing Mount Fuji!


it's not that big really!

Our choice was Nantai-san, which at 2,486m high is bigger than anything that can be found in the UK. Nantai-san can be found in the Nikko National Park, about 90 minutes by train from Sugito. According to our untrustworthy hiking guidebook, Nantai-san is classified as an ‘easy-medium’ climb. Now I’m not entirely sure how they come to these ratings but I’m starting to think that it’s only an easy climb when compared to climbing Mount Everest, with no shoes, one arm tied behind your back and blind folded!


A perfect day for climbing
Lake Chuzen

For once our guidebook gave us accurate instructions on how to get to the foot of the mountain, the start of the climb is actually through the Futarasan Chugushi Shrine, visiting the shrine itself is free, though they do levy a 500 yen fee (per person) for the pleasure of climbing the mountain.


The Shrine

We spoke to a young girl at the Shrine shop, and explained that we wanted to climb the mountain. We received a firm ‘honto?’ - which means ‘really?’ You could almost see the unspoken sentences forming in her mind ‘but… but… your foreigners!’ she promptly tried to discourage us by explaining that the climb was difficult, and would take over 6 hours.

Eventually, she must have realised that we were going for it anyway, so after making sure we had water with us, she relieved us 1000 yen and started talking us through the safety precautions (in Japanese) and explaining where all the safety huts are on the climb. We were also told that 13 other people were currently climbing the mountain whilst she gave us a pair of tags and a basic map.


1 hour into the climb - san, ni, ichi - pose!

In hindsight, the girl was probably more shocked that we weren’t kitted out with full SAS-style survival gear, rather than a single day-pack, T-Shirts and sunglasses! ...and, we didn't have a single pack horse between us!

The start of the hike was actually a locked gate, so we had to go through a small wooded area to get to the main path and began a very steep climb that just got steeper and steeper. At quite a few points on the climb, I thought I was going to have to use my arms and actually climb the mountain, rather than hike up it.

(Carl here... after doing a little research on the internet after the climb, this gate isn't opened until May 5th, when they 'officially' open the mountain!)

The Scenery
The mountain varied considerably in nature, what started as open woodland...


The start of the climb

led to a winding road...



then very thick woods where we almost lost the track a few times...





followed by very loose boulders...



more woods then lots and lots of deep snow,



then finally lots of red volcanic rocks and yes, more snow!



The Adventure...
It was a very hot day, maybe 30 degrees, with the sun beating overhead when we started the ascent, so we were very surprised when we first saw a thin layer of ice. I started the climb in a vest top because it was so hot!


...note the ice behind Amy!

As we climbed further up the mountain, we met a few of the Japanese climbers and one guy told us that there was snow ahead, a little while later we saw to our disbelief a thin sprinkling of snow on the ground.

And then we turned the corner and saw this.....


Winter Wonderland...

…needless to say that we were more than a little shocked. The route was completely covered in snow and we had no choice but to walk through it. As we ventured further, I was suddenly missing a leg. The blanket of snow was actually over 2m deep in places and I’d managed to fall through with one of my legs. I had to ‘save’ myself because Carl was too busy laughing and taking this photo….



…though a few short moments later I was laughing because Carl became victim to a hole in the snow.



Naturally I just had to take a photo of his misfortune!

This part of the climb turned out to be great fun, we were constantly laughing (…at each other!) but the going was slow, but steady. It amused me to see us overtaking many of the seasoned Japanese mountain climbers, all in full climbing gear, most of whom were taking a break before they tackled the rest of the snow covered trail.

We finally reached the summit after about 5 hours climbing, which is quite a quick ascent (according to our guide book), though we could have made it a lot quicker without the snow!


Amy, setting up the 'victory' shot!

At the top was the usual shrine plus a semi-abandoned building. The exact peak was a large rock formation with a huge ‘sword’ sticking out of it.


The 'victory' shot!

The view was spectacular, the clear air and as much snow as you could wish to play with! We also had a great view of the surrounding mountains and Chuzen-ji ko (Lake Chuzen).



I felt that the descent had a greater element of danger to it. The loose rocks and boulders that were tricky to climb up made the descent more than a little interesting. Also, the pace that Carl sets when hiking, make even the easiest of climbs into an endurance event!



Summary
The photos speak for themselves; it was a great pleasure to climb the beautiful mountain, especially since it took us away from the crowds that always flock to Nikko, seeing something completely off the beaten track. We also had the most fun that we’d had in a long time (especially through the snow!).



The climb wasn’t easy though, and the different types of terrain made some parts very challenging. If you know what you’re doing, and you’re reasonably fit, then the mountain shouldn’t cause you any problems.


On top of the world!

Narita Drum Festival

It's all about teamwork

Hello, it’s Amy here.

This blog post has been on my to-do list for a while now, so please forgive the lateness. On the 12th of April, we (being me and Carl), set off to meet up with a friend of ours called Maja. Maja has been in Japan now for many years, and has been a good friend to all the interns. She is always at the major competitions throughout the year that the intern takes part in. (There is also an Interview that last year’s intern did with Maja in the archives.)



Maja had invited us to a drum festival that was taking place in Narita. It was a lovely sunny day in Japan and the heat was rising. After finally finding each other at Chiba train station, grabbing a quick bite to eat and finally getting the right train we arrived in Narita at about 1 o'clock.


It was fun getting through the crowd!

The first thing that I noticed was a beat in the air, the second thing I noticed was the mass of people blocking all the streets. The police had done a great job of blocking off all the roads so that the drum parade could go through the streets unhindered...




...but the thousands of people who had travelled to Narita had been squashed into the narrow streets that lined the route of the parade. Making moving from place to place very difficult.

{Carl here - Can you tell that Amy's Day job is being a Police Officer back in England? Most people just don't appreciate the hard work of the Police :-)}



We soon found the parade which was a mass of colour, costumes and enthusiasm.



The excitement and fun rubbed off the people taking part in the festival and onto the crowd.



The Japanese ethos seems to be 'if its worth doing give it a 110 percent'. There was not a single look on the drummer’s faces of someone being coerced or being bored.


Deep in concentration...!

They smiled and jumped about. They took a real delight in what they were doing and were very proud of their skills.


Elvis...!

The participants aged from around 3 years to 90 plus. (However there was a newborn baby fast asleep in one if the drumming floats.)



We made our way carefully to the Naritasan Shishoji Temple.



By this point the crowds had become vast, and due to the fact that I am vertically challenged and unable to see past the crowds we decided that we would look around the temple and the gardens while the masses were still watching the parade.


Maja and Amy... Paparazzi!

The gardens were a peaceful retreat compared to the bustle of the streets. It was a mini wilderness, with streams and waterfalls.



The cherry blossoms were still in season too, making the beautiful garden/temple well worth a visit with or without the festival.



By the time we had finished touring the garden the festival was over and the crowds had dispersed. We walked up the street back towards the train station, it was then that I noticed the streets were traditional Japanese buildings. (They were easy to miss with thousands of people in the streets).


This was Maja' delicious looking dessert.

We then ate in one of the many restaurants, the cakes could have found themselves in an art museum! I was then time to say good bye and return to Tokyo.

Disney Sea

Carl here...

A few months ago Amy and I went to the fantastic Disney Land and had a great time, so to celebrate Amy's 26th birthday, we decided to see what Disney Sea had to offer.

I must say, that I'm not particularly into the cuddly Disney characters at all. I prefer the cool characters like Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story and the funny Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. Both of these characters are honoured at Disney land (including a brand new Monsters Inc ride!), But Amy really likes Aladdin and for that, we had to go to Disney Sea!

Tickets...!

A view of 'part' of the queue to get in the park.
The picture was taken from the Disney monorail.

It was a Sunday, and it was forecast for great weather so naturally it was very busy. We made sure that we arrived before opening so that we could beat some of the queues though. Once the doors are opened the crowd race to their favourite parts of the park to secure a FASTPASS for their chosen rides. The Fastpass is a great idea for cutting your waiting times, they basically give you a time slot to come back to the ride so that you don't have to stand around all day.





In front of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull ride.

Apparently Disney Sea is very popular with 20-30 year olds (like us!), maybe because a lot of the rides have height restrictions that stop smaller kids from enjoying certain rides. Of course, it could be because Disney Sea actually sells beer!.

Though there are still plenty of rides that young and old can enjoy...



...just don't try to tell Amy which ones are which!



The 'Tower of Terror' was definately my favourite ride, but I won't spoil it for you all. :-)


Twilight in Disney


Finale!

Anyway, we had a great time yet again thanks to those great people at Disney. I definately recommend a visit for people of any age. At first glance, the entrance fee can seem expensive, but when you think that we were there for over 12 hours, then it's actually quite good value.