Hokkaido

On the 9th February a group of us headed to the northern island of Hokkaido. After about 20 hours travel, including a ferry, we arrived in the capital Sapporo. Every year they host the most famous snow festival in Japan; the Sapporo Snow Festival.


We spent 2 nights in Sapporo before heading to Niseko, the most famous ski resort in Japan. Niseko is popular because of its size and mainly because of the powder snow!


We rented a house there for 3 days. We spent our days snowboarding in the best snow I have ever been on. And we spent our evenings in onsens and checking out the local area. We went to an ice bar, where everything was made from ice; the walls, the bar, even the glasses!

This is a video that Todd put together from our trip!

Shizukuishi

A friend of mine who lives in the neighbouring prefecture of Iwate asked me to organise a group of people to evaluate a doburoku tour that he wishes to offer as a service to tourists to the area. Doburoku (濁酒) is basically home make sake.

So on February 6th a group of 16 of us went to Shizukuishi. Some of us went up early and had time to visit the Snow Festival at Koiwai Farm, the largest private general farm in Japan. It was pretty impressive too. There were all sorts of snow sculptures.


This was a line of snow restaurants you could go into and have lunch!


We then went to Minshuku Nakagawa (民宿なかがわ) for our hands-on doburoku making experience! The owner Mr. Nakagawa everything he was doing in detail and my friends wife Miho translated for us. It seemed pretty easy. Steam rice, let it cool, add some stuff and keep it in a barrel with the temperature maintained between 10 and 20 degrees for about a week. After that you have a load of doburoku!

Before dinner started a few of us decided to go to an onsen. The closest one was Yukotan no Mori (ゆとかんの森). After showering and warming up in the inside bath, myself and Austin headed for the rotemburo (outside bath). We had to go out into the hall and down some stairs. I slipped going down the oddly shaped steps and bounced awkwardly and painfully down the last 3 or 4 steps. Embarrassed and bleeding I got up and tried to stop my elbow from bleeding. We continued into the onsen to meet the other 3 guys we were with and found that 2 of them had also slipped on the stairs! We compared injuries; my blood clinched the victory!

We headed back to the minshuku for a dinner of a huge variety of local mountain dishes. It was delicious. And we got to drink as much as we wanted, for 4 hours!


Then some of us put on our snowboarding gear and went outside for snow sumo!

The next morning after breakfast we realised first that one of the drivers had lost his car keys while playing snow sumo, and that another person had lost a camera. So we were all running around looking for keys and cameras, sifting through snow in all the places we remembered playing sumo - which turned out to have been many places! Eventually Austin randomly kicked a bank of snow on the side of the road, the one created by the snowploughs after clearing the roads, and the spot he kicked just so happened to be where the keys were buried in the snow! Lucky!!!

We finally left and headed to Shizukuishi Ski Resort for the day. It's a nice big ski jo with plenty of long runs, steep inclines, and plenty of black courses to enjoy!

Winter Holidays

In Japan, Christmas day is not a national holiday. Many of the foreigners here take holidays and travel. That's what I did last year when I went to Taiwan. But this year I decided to stay in Honjo.

On Christmas Eve, Chika an myself went out for a romantic dinner at a local Indonesian restaurant. And then headed to a darts bar where we were given "Christmas" Cheese cake and hot sake from the staff. Later we were given the more traditional strawberry and cream style "Christmas" cake from random customers drinking in the bar.


Christmas day was a Friday, and it just happened to be the last day of school before before winter holidays. And after a normal day at school, all the teachers had an end of year drinking party that night. The party started at 5:30 and we had a 4 hour all-you-can-drink and more food than we could possible eat!

I brought along a small Christmas cake that my mother sent me (thanks Mam!), and we gave it to the staff at the izakaya, where the party was, to cut up for us. This is how my tiny slice was beautifully presented to me; on a long plate with icing sugar sprinkled like snow, Santa sitting in some cream, with his footprints precisely marked into the "snow" and a random thing on top of the cake (I can't remember what that was...).


After our 4 hour drinking time expired, we headed off to our second party, where we all got boob shaped chocolate on our tables. It was a karaoke bar that had, for some reason unknown to me, garments and wigs that you could dress up in before you got on stage to sing! And as our group was pretty drunk at this stage two teachers were more than happy to dress up!


The previous week I had dressed up as Santa for a kids party and as a thank you from the organiser I got a smoked turkey leg. So on St. Stephen's Day I cooked myself up as best a Christmas dinner as I could! For some reason the turkey looked and tasted like ham, so it was kindof like having turkey and ham?!


On January 2nd Patrice, a girl I shared a house with in Limerick for a few years, came to visit on her way home from Australia. I always love when people from Ireland come to visit! It's nice to hear stories about home and be able to speak about stuff that only Irish people are familiar with; the latest Gift Grub etc.

We travelled around a bit while she was here. We visited the local sights Yurihonjo has to offer; the jizo's, the buddha. Chika joined us when we travelled to the neighbouring prefecture to visit the sand onsen and a cave onsen; anayukko (穴ゆっこ).


We went to Zao in Yamagata for 3 days. We went snowboarding in Zao Liza World and rode the Zao rope-way though the weather was very bad for both. We also visited one of the best nicest onsens I've ever been to; shinzaemon onsen (新左衛門の湯).


Two days after Patrice left I went to Tazawako Ski Jo for the weekend with two other guys from Akita. The weather was good though visibility of the lake was minimal.

Fun times!

4 days, 4 festivals and a Mountain

The Shōbu Carnival (菖蒲カーニバル) is the first summer festival in Honjo every year. It's a small street festival where people of all ages dance to a single song, the Shōbu song I believe, played over and over again. And it draws huge local crowds every year. And there are lots of stalls selling festival food!

We went to the park to indulge in some yakisoba and beer and found that there was a band playing there. The band, Bronze, were an interesting bunch. They had bass, sax, drums and guitar/koto. Koto is a traditional Japanese instrument and usually played with the fingers and small small picks attached to your fingers. This band was using sticks to play it! I took this video.


The next day, 1st August, I met Akagawa-san to climb Mt. Gassan. He's a 56 year old guy I went hiking with last year, I think he's the head of a hiking group in Yokote city. Mt. Gassan (月山) is the highest of the three holy mountains in Dewa Sanzan, a 2 and a half hour drive south from where I live.

It was a little bit cloudy during our hike but pretty good conditions otherwise. The hike itself was not that difficult for me. But I was really surprised with the age of some people who were climbing it. There was definitely men and women over 70 years of age climbing it! And on the way up with found an old woman lying down, barely able to talk. She had decided to climb on her own, and obviously wasn't able for it. Some guys called the rescue crew to get her!

This is a statue that you can pray to for long life.


When we arrived at the summit we paid 500 yen to have a priest to say a prayer over us, and Akagawa-san was there to pray for his daughter to pass her entrance exam into high school.

We made good time coming down, and went for an onsen before we headed back home.

That sunburned evening I went to the second summer festival in Honjo, the Honjo Fireworks River Festival (本荘川まつり花火大会). Fireworks are really popular in Japan, and a lot more impressive than the shows we get at home.

The next day I headed to Amori prefecture to see the Nebuta Festival. It was a 4 hour drive north to Hirosaki where our hostel was, and then another train journey to Aomori city. Nebuta is a large scale lantern festival. Unfortunately when we were there it was lightly raining so all the floats had plastic sheets protecting them. It was very impressive none the less! In the picture you can see all the people under the float pushing it around.



The next day, Monday, we went to see rice field artistry! I had only discovered this place actually existed the week before. I had seen pictures on the Internet a long time ago but assumed that it was created using computers. The tambo art is in a place called Inakadate, close to Hirosaki city. You can climb up a castle and look down on the fields. It was really amazing!





They had a free outdoor foot onsen right beside the fields too, which was a nice little addition.

We then left Aomori and headed back to Akita city for my fourth festival in as many days, Kanto festival (竿燈まつり). This is a really cool festival where glowing lanternsin the shape of rice ears, are balanced on peoples hands, hips and heads (like the guy in this photo!).


This is a cool video I took at the end of the festival, when the guys really didn't care about damaging their lanterns!

Ireland

In the early hours of the 11th of June 2009 I arrived in my home country after being away for almost 2 years; by far my longest time away from home. I was interested to see how I would feel about Ireland and it's people. And whether or not the safety I had become so accustomed to in Akita, one of the safest places in Japan, would cause me to be robbed of at least my wallet or phone.

The day after arriving in Ireland I headed to Spanish Point in Co. Clare where a friend from college got married; Dave Hackett and Rosaleen. We rented a house near the hotel where the reception was for 3 days. It was great to meet up with all the old gang from college. I was also reminded that in September this year it will have been 10 years since I started college, and met all my friends at the wedding! It really doesn't seem like that long ago. The day after the wedding we went swimming at a local beach in ice cold water. And a dolphin, Dusty, came and swam around the people in the water! It was my first time to see a dolphin in Ireland.


Next I headed to Kilkenny, where I grew up. After my mother collected me, we went straight to see my brother Adrian's first child, Abby. She was just 6 months old. A very easy going child, who didn't seem to mind who was holding her. Unfortunately I only got to meet her the once, and didn't get a photo with her.

I hung out in Kilkenny with my mother and the rest of the family and visited my friends in Kilkenny for the next week. While at home I sorted through my old belongings and sent most of it to charity shops. Now I have my whole possessions down to about 3 shoe boxed worth of stuff and a bass guitar that I havent played in about 5 years! It was really nice to hang out at home though. A week is definitely the longest period of time I have spent at home in the last 10 years. It was great to meet up with my granny again too.


I saw many babies while in Kilkenny. My eldest brother Paul has 3 daughters; Niamh 3.5 years old, and the twins Aoife and Clodagh 2.5 years old. The last time I was home Niamh was just starting to talk. So there was a huge change! I had to try and befriend them. I think I succeeded with two of them, Clodagh remains quite weary of me. Perhaps she has a great judge of character! Their mother Sabrina is due to have another baby tomorrow, so that's going to be one busy household!

I met up with Dave and Cara, and saw their kids; Eoin and the twins. And I met my friend Laura and her new baby Isabelle. I'm not sure where the whole baby craze came from, but it sure seems to be popular in Kilkenny!

I headed next to Limerick to meet up with Russell, had a great night out in Limerick and experienced the worst hangover of my life the next day! I also got to get new music from him including the Fleet Foxes, which are my new favourite band! I got to call into my old workplace and meet up with some of the crew I used to work with, and spent a fortune on supplements not available in Japan. I went to Galway to see Listo and Camilla's new house. I called to my old bosses house in Portroe in Tipperary for a BBQ. Headed back to Limerick for one last night before heading to Sligo. I was having a pint with Eugene in the Black Swan in Limerick when I left my phone on the table and went to the bar to order a pint. A guy who was passing my table picked up my phone (Eugene was outside) and asked whose it was, I said it was mine - thinking it was ringing or something - I had totally forgotten that that is not something you can do in Ireland, or anywhere other than Akita to be more exact!

I next headed north to Sligo for Listo and Camilla's beautiful wedding. The weather for the wedding was perfect, and the company even better. I had to take it handy at the wedding though, partly due to a cold, partly due to the fact that I knew I had to make a 3.5 hour journey the next day across Ireland to Dublin airport.


I arrived just in time to meet my sister at the airport and return to her the car that she very kindly had lent me for the previous two weeks, without which I wouldn't have been able to meet half the people I did.

After catching my Aer Lingus flight to London and sleeping on the floor I continued on my way back to Japan. My head cold seemed to be a Godsent as it enabled me to sleep on the flights, which I can't normally do.

On entering Japan I got given a leaflet saying that if I had any of the outlined symptoms that I should go to the hospital to be checked out. I had all outlined symptoms! So the next day I went to get checked out for swine flu, but was given the all clear. This is not something I should be disappointed about, but having a 10 day home quarantine period would have given me plenty of opportunity to catch up before heading back to work!

June

I recently bought my flights back home to Ireland, again. I'm going to be leaving from Narita airport in Tokyo at 11:40 on 10th June and heading to London via Copenhagen with Scandinavian Airlines. Then catch an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, arriving at 22:20 the same day; after 19 hours of travel.

The first wedding, Dave and Rosealeen's, is on 12th June in Clare. After which I have 2 weeks to travel around and meet up with everyone. Then the second wedding, Listo and Camilla's, is on 27th June in Sligo. The following day, hangover permitting, I'll go to Dublin for a 20:15 flight to London, spend the night on one of Heathrow's most comfortable airport seats, with my bags tied to my legs, and catch an early morning flight back to Japan. I'll arrive back in Narita at 9:35 on 30th after a nice long 30 hours of hungover travel!

Taiwan - Taroko Gorge

Shortly after arriving in Hualien, Christmas Eve to be precise, we decided to visit Taroko National Park, to see Taroko Gorge, which seemed to be featured on every tourist brochure available.

We took a bus from the station, and getting on the bus, it appeared to be just an ordinary bus. We drove through the town picking people up and dropping people off; what you would expect from a public bus. And before long we were out on the highway and heading for the Park.


The entrance to the Park is a road running by the river. Very quickly the road elevated in height and danger. We driving on the edge of a cliff, through tunnels roughly drilled (or blasted!) through solid rock. The road twisted and winded, most corners were completely blind. And it was at this point that the bus driver dropped a gear and put the pedal to the metal! How this driver managed to attain a licence I will never know, driving at speeds that no bus should travel on roads of such condition, passing out trucks and lorries that were choosing to drive as reasonable speeds. And by no means was the driver choosing a point in the road where it was safe, or where we could see ahead that there were no cars coming. Any point was fine with this driver; blind corners, in tunnels, up steep hills. I believe every time he passed something out, we could have been killed, and I'm not exaggerating! After a while we were laughing at his decisions, but it was a nervous laugh!


Some of the tunnels were quite dark, so the driver put on the lights in the bus. It looked like the inside of a 70's disco, after a few too many Jägerbombs!

After we finally arrived at Tiansiang, and finished kissing the sweet earth beneath our feet, we got breakfast at a very local restaurant. It was a buffet style, like so many restaurants, with a smell that most westerners would find offensive. There was only the one restaurant though, and we had not eaten, so we ignored the smell, the dirt and the huge glass jars behind our seats that contained many, of what may have been, animal tongues.


We walked from there a little and went through a pedestrian tunnel, 380 metres long, and emerged on the Baiyang Waterfall Trail. There were many signs encouraging people not to linger due to falling rocks. The sights there were very beautiful. We were walking half way up a cliff in a gorge. We passed through 7 leaking tunnels, one of which was completely dark; we were taking photos while walking, using the flash to illuminate the way! We ended up at a place called Water Curtain.


When we returned we visited the Hsiang-te Temple, where there was a pagoda and golden Ksitigarbha (Dizang) statue. We climbed the pagoda, though we didn't stay at the top for very long as there were huge wasp-like things flying around. And recalling the signs we saw warning of killer bees, we decided to leave!


We started to hitch a lift. We joked about the fact that the first car would probably pick us up... Then the first car came and passed. Five minutes later the same car returned to collect us! They had just noticed us as they were passing, and as we were hitching a ride just before a tunnel, they had to find an area to turn around to come back for us! Taiwanese people are incredibly friendly and helpful.

Our next stop was at the Tunnel of Nine Turns. This is huge! I think is impossible to get across to you how big this place actually is. We came up with a new word, hugeosity, but even that doesn't do it!

This is a gorge that has a height of about 1000 metres. So to actually see the bottom you must bend over the rail, and to see the top you must bend your neck completely back, almost looking directly upwards! We tried to take pictures, but gave up as we realised that the beauty and hugeosity of this place will be staying there, and not be transported away inside of any camera!


While travelling back down the gorge we hitched another life and got off at Swallow's Mouth. We walked around for a few hours before hitching another lift, and returning to Hualien.

This gorge is definitly one of the most amazing placed I have ever visited. I highly recommend anyone who visits Taiwan to go there!

Taiwan - The Hike

Our main goal of going to Taiwan was to hike for 7 days across the 2nd Section of southern Cross-Island Provincial Highway in Yushan National Park.

After spending a few days in Taipei we travelled south to Hualien, where we spent Christmas. And on 26th we arose at 2:30 in the morning to catch a train to Chihshang. We arrived at 5:30am and found a small restaurant close to the station, where we ate the most horrible breakfast I've ever eaten. The restaurant was run by a strange little old lady whose vocabulary seemed to consist of only mumbled who's and ha's. After that we returned to the train station to find out where to get the bus. We ended up having to take a taxi to a bus stop a few kilometres away, and then found out that the next bus was another hours wait. So we decided to start hitching a ride.


After only 10 minutes a van with 3 local labourers picked us up. One of the guys could speak a little English. He would ask us a question about something then they would discuss it in Chinese for a while then ask us something else. They were all chewing on betel nuts, which seems to be a very popular pastime in Taiwan. The driver beeped his horn twice at every vehicle and pedestrian we encountered. We drove for about an hour and a half up winding roads, through valleys and gorges of incredible beauty and enormous size. It was a misty morning so our view was hindered for most of the journey. I saw a red faced monkey sitting on a wall.


We arrived at the visitor center and collected our permits from the police station. I quickly realised I had gotten myself into a situation I wasn't physically prepared for. Our bags which contained our equipment and 7 days worth of food weighed about 30 kgs each. I found out that this was the highest mountain range in Northeast Asia. The visitor center(2600m) was higher than Mt Chōkai(2236m), the highest mountain I had ever climbed. When we entered the park an attendant handed me a leaflet describing the dangers we faced, and how to deal with them. It included info on dealing with leeches, snakes and bear attacks; I laughed uncontrollably for while at the whole situation, and when I regained myself, we continued.

The first kilometre or so involved many stops, with many strap adjustments of my bag. Though the adjustments helped, they didn't make the bag any lighter. I reflected on the 4 times I went for a 30 minute jog in the preceding weeks and concluded that it had not been enough preparation for what I was entering. Shane on the other hand who regularly climbs mountains and bikes around the country didn't show any signs of struggle. He soon offered the second walking pole which I greatly appreciated. The first section was about 4 km, but all up hill. My legs were not impressed, nor was my heart. Eventually I made it to the first stop, a cabin. Our plan had been to continue to the second stop on the first day. But I was in no condition to continue, so we decided to stay there for the night. And we realised that the full hike was no longer an option. I felt pretty bad. Shane took a hike up a nearby mountain and returned.


We met a load of really nice people at the cabin. All were from Taiwan; we were the only foreigners there. They spoke to us in English and shard delicious food they had cooked. My bag would have to wait for another meal to get any lighter! There was one crazy guy there who was drinking whiskey and singing all night. He tried to get us to drink some, we kindly refused, I wanted to be as fresh as possible for the next day.

The next morning we arose to see the sun rise through the mountains. We had some food and were on our way again. I started slow but felt better than I had the previous day. The views today were inspiring. We were able to see over the mountains and soon we were on top of one of them! We were now well above the clouds, and could see for miles and miles! The sense of achievement dulled the fatigue. But we had to keep moving. We passed two groups out along the way, it was then I started to realised that I wasn't doing as bad as I thought; we were just moving at too fast a pace. A few kilometres later we reached the 2nd cabin.


But when we arrived we discover there was no water!! A sign had been at the first cabin informing us of this, but unfortunately it was written only in Chinese. Some guys were cleaning the water tank, and had just tipped it over, a small amount of water and a dead bird spilled out. We rested for 30 minutes, divided what water we had left, 300ml each, and set off in the scorching heat to our next point, Jiaming Lake, 4.7km away.

Being above the clouds is a very beautiful place to be, but there isn't a whole lot of shade up there. And having not thought of bringing sun cream was a bad mistake. We continued. The hiking was much easier now, as we were travelling along the top of the mountains as opposed to up them. But then we had to descend one mountain and climb back up another. The descent was fine, the climb wasn't. Shane is much faster than me so he had gone on in front. I could see him about a kilometre ahead. I was taking regular breaks, and conserving my water as best I could. Many people I passed were looking at me with great concern asking "Are you ok?" I lied and said I was fine, I could have asked for some of their water, but I knew that where they were travelling to had no water. I struggled forward. Eventually when I made it to the top of that mountain, Shane appeared in front of me walking towards me, without his backpack, and holding out his bottle of water! He had raced forward to the lake, filtered water for himself, then refilled the bottle again and came back to meet me. Man was I happy to drink that water. I felt bad for all the things I had thought about him an hour earlier when I saw him marching away 1 kilometre ahead of me!


When we got going again, it was an easy km before the lake appeared before us like an oasis in the middle of the mountains. I was hoping the lake would have clear water and I could go swimming. It probably would have been to cold anyway. The sun was beating down on our heads and we realised how burned we had gotten. We put up the tent and rested inside until it became too hot. Later, under the watchful eye of a large deer, we prepared food. After dinner we climbed up from the lake to watch the sun set behind mountains that appeared like islands in a sea of cloud. Many deer appeared as it got dark, I'm sure many other animals too, as it's to only water for miles around. We thought we saw a bear too, we could only see these blinking eyes with our lights, and no antlers! But as it came closer we could see its antlers, we breathed a sign of relief, and I changed my underwear! We watched the amazing starlit sky for a while and then retired for the night.


We were going to take a different route off the mountain, but with lack of maps and an uncertainty of water, we decided it was a better idea to head back the way we came. Going forward would have meant going the full hike with a very long days hike the next day.

We awoke the next morning at about 4:30 from the worst weather we encountered the entire trip... some wind! We though it might be a storm coming in, so we got up around 5, packed up and headed for home. We were just on time for sunrise, and the wind already had faded away. Today the sun was shining on our left side, and to avoid having the left side of my neck as red as the right, I wore my scarf all day.


We were heading for home and back to the cabin with no water went with relative ease. After that the downward slopes began to take their toll on my legs. Pretty soon I was no longer in full control of what they were doing! But we pressed on, and soon we reached the 1st cabin, and it was only about 10am! Shane arrived there about 20 minutes before me, and he met some people who were so amazed that we made it to the lake and back in one day that they took his picture!


Not too long later we were back at the visitor center, and ready to head for home. We asked about buses, but were told there were none. So we took out our hitching thumbs. Many cars slowed down, looked at us, and then drove away. Perhaps they were able to smell us, I'm not sure. But after a half hour we decided to thumb a tour bus, and to our surprise it stopped and we were heading back towards sea level.

The tour group were a very nice bunch from Taipei, who gave us water, coffee, tea and snacks. When they stopped for lunch they invited us in with them and refused to accept any money from us. After lunch the haze which earlier prevented us from seeing 50 feet ahead had lifted and we could see the gorge clearly. We were travelling much slower than the way up, and we could see we were on the edge of a cliff which dropped of for hundreds of meters, we couldn't even see the bottom most of the time! Later they turned on the karaoke machine and insisted we sing for them, and they recorded every moment of I did it my way, Danny boy, and Sailing; our song options were quite limited! It was the strangest bus journey I've ever had.


Eventually we made it back to a hotel in a place called Jiaosi, a hot spring town just south of Taipei, and had a well deserved shower. I slept like a baby that night!

Christmas Holidays

I guess I had planned on coming home for Christmas for quite some time now. This is in fact the longest time I have been away from home; almost 16 months now. But just after I had definitely decided to go home I found out that a friend was getting married in late June in Ireland. So I was faced with a dilemma. Go home for Christmas and miss my friends wedding, a guy who I lived with in 3 different houses over a period of many years. Or go home twice. I decided on the latter, which meant sacrificing most of my holidays going back home to Ireland as opposed to taking advantage of traveling Asia while I am here (again). So I went and bought my ticket home; December 15th to January 6th.

About a month after buying the ticket I found out that another friend was going to get married in mid June! I knew that I didn't have enough holidays left to go for a 3 week holiday at Christmas and a 3 week holiday in June. So again I was faced with another dilemma.

I decided to cancel my trip home at Christmas and go home for a 3 week holiday next June instead, catching the first wedding just as I arrive in Ireland and the second just before I leave again.

I'm disappointed that I won't get to see many of my friends and family this Christmas. I was looking forward to some spending time in Limerick, Galway and of course Kilkenny. My eldest brothers' three daughters are growing up fast, and another sister-in-law is due to have her first baby in January. I was really hoping to see her before she gave birth. All will have to wait until next June.

On a positive note, I've decided to travel to Taiwan for the Christmas and New Year with a mad Irish man from Kerry. We're going to go hiking for a bit and then return to Taiwan for the celebrations. Hopefully it's going to be warmer there than in Akita. We are expecting it to start snowing here in a week or so.