it's not life that matters but the journey...

It’s been a week and finally I have some time to get caught up.  I can't believe how busy I have suddenly become - but its summer, so its bound to get quieter after August.  First, I'll write about our trip to Nagano last weekend, which turned out to be a great break!

We left last Friday morning around 9:30 and didn’t arrive at our destination, Lake Nojiri in Nagano prefecture, until after 3 p.m.  We of course stopped along the way for gas, some lunch from the convenience store, and to rest and stretch.  It was a nice drive, through nearby Yamanashi prefecture, which is on the other side of Mt. Fuji, and past Kawaguchi-ko (one of the “Fuji Five” lakes in Yamanashi).  On the way to Nagano you have to drive through at least 15 tunnels (I should have counted them, but was just happy when we would get through them – being claustrophobic as I am), and you climb quite a bit, and the weather changed drastically when we got there.  It was so much cooler, though still humid, and the air was fresher, especially when we finally got to Bobbie’s cabin, which is in the forest above Lake Nojiri in a village called Shinanomachi.  When we got there, we just rested and drank in the sounds of the forest:  the tree frogs, which make a really high pitched sound, and the cicadas (“semi” in Japan), which are, to me, such a soothing sound, and the epitome of summer in Japan.  Something about this location reminded me of the times we spent when I was a child camping in the mountains in Colorado - the air and the bugs are different in Japan, but the trees and the whole atmosphere was similar.  It was such a relaxing place!  In front of the cabin were beautiful hydrangea bushes, and we could even see some cicadas and a tree frog in the early morning (I took pictures, so be sure to check out my photo site).  In the early evening, after we had walked a bit to see the view of the lake, it started to rain, and the four of us (Bobbie, her boyfriend Minoru, Masahiko and I) had a drink and snack and listened to the rain on the roof of the old cabin.  The cabin itself is big, with two rooms downstairs and a little study and bedroom upstairs – it has a spacious living room area and kitchen.  The toilet was not of the flushable kind, and it was a little weird to spend so much time using a pit toilet – although it didn’t smell bad and was quite clean.  None of the cabins have flushable toilets, though we heard that they put in lush toilets down near the swimming area at the lake. There is no bath in Bobbie’s cabin (though the nicer and newer cabins have baths), but her father had rigged up some kind of contraption so that you can fill up a big plastic container with boiling water, mixed with cold water, and you have a hot shower that lasts about three minutes.  I took a shower the first night and it was great, but not long enough to wash my hair. 

The first night, we had dinner with Minoru’s sister-in-law Julianne and her sister Mary who was visiting from Australia.  Julianne is married to Minoru’s brother who goes by his Korean name Pak Po (which is also his stage name – he has been playing music for a long time in Japan, and also used to live and play in San Francisco back in the 70s).  Minoru and his brother are both Korean-Japanese, but grew up in Japan.  Julianne and her two kids (really cute half Japanese and half caucasian kids - Ricky is 4 and
Anna is 2 and they are both bilingual) are spending a month in a rented cabin up there – she and Po live in Tokyo the rest of the year.  Anyway, they were nice enough to fix dinner for all of us, and we had wine and a great dinner followed by a rhubarb pie (apparently, rhubarb is one of the things that is grown in that area, along with blueberries and corn). 

Saturday, we woke up pretty early and had a great breakfast of granola, yogurt and toast.  Around 10 a.m. we walked down to the lake which is about a 15 minute walk – Bobbie’s cabin is up at the top of the property, right next to the golf course.  We spent about an hour or so swimming in the lake – the water was cold at first, but really refreshing and clean.  It was really deep, so I couldn’t swim much, but Masahiko enjoyed it a lot.  There were a lot of kids, since this property is full of families – so many half Japanese, half Caucasian kids and foreigners who are perfectly bilingual!

Here is a good time to explain a bit about this property – originally the whole area was set up as a summer getaway for the foreign missionaries and their families who were living in Japan (mostly the big cities) after the war.  I can’t go into a history lesson, but after WWII, many missionaries came to Japan as part of MacArthur’s plan, with the goal of introducing Christianity to the Japanese.  Bobbie’s parents were some of the first missionaries to come here, and they bought a cabin on this property, which was then handed down to Bobbie after they returned to the states several years ago.  Its still mostly a foreigner community – and each of the families who own a cabin really own a part of the land (kind of like a collective) and they have their own organization (Nojiri Lake Association) to keep the place running smoothly.  Now, most of the cabins are owned by kids of missionaries who all grew up in Japan – the majority of them are not doing missionary work, but are working as professors of English.  It’s an interesting place.

Anyway, it started to cloud up while we were in the lake, so we returned to the cabin soon after that – the walk back was rigorous, all uphill.  Then we went into the little village to have lunch at a little restaurant – and after resting a while in the afternoon, we drove to an onsen (really a public bath with a hot spring tap) so that we could all have a shower and wash our hair and get in the water for a bit.  Bobbie was responsible for cooking dinner that night for us and another couple, and we planned to be at their cabin by 7:45 to watch the fireworks from their balcony, which has a view of the lake.  so we had to rush back to finish preparation.  But around the time we were getting ready to walk to the other cabin, it started pouring rain (I guess it’s a regular thing in the afternoons there) and we weren’t sure we could even see the fireworks.  But the other couple insisted that it might clear up, so we went over there (by car) and did end up having a great view of the fireworks from their living room window.  We drank champagne – and when the fireworks were over we ate gazpacho, pesto ravioli and garlic bread.  It was great.  The couple whose cabin we were in was very interesting – they both grew up in Japan and met each other at Lake Nojiri – both went to the states for their education, but returned to Japan and both teach full time at a university in a very small town in Niigata (the prefecture next to Nagano, going north).  We had some great discussions about religion and politics (they are very anti-religious and very liberal) and had a good time.

Sunday was our last day there – we got up pretty early and ate breakfast.  Then Masahiko, Bobbie and I drove to the blueberry farm nearby – you can pay 200 yen (about $2.00)  to get in and then pick as many blueberries as you can.  Its about $5.00 for each fairly big plastic container that you can fill.  We got about $40.00 worth of berries, and it was hard work – it was humid and all the bushes were wet from the rain.  But it was good – I used some of them that night to make two batches of muffins and some cobbler for dessert.  I brought five containers of berries home and still have to figure out what to do with them!  They were good with my granola this morning – the rest I’ll use for some jam and some cake.  After the berry farm, I went for a walk and took photos before lunch (you can see on my photo site soon when I get them loaded) – and then after lunch, Bobbie had to go to a meeting for the association (she’s secretary) so Masahiko and I went to the village and took a little boat around the lake (kind of expensive, but I got some good photos). Minoru cooked dinner – we ate when Bobbie got back – and then I baked after dinner. 

Monday we got on the road by 9:15 or so after a great breakfast of my blueberry muffins and granola.  We stopped several times for “omiyage” (gifts) and lunch and stretching and got back after 3 p.m.  Poor Masahiko was exhausted – he had to drive both there and back, and driving in Japan is not easy.  Both of us took naps and slept early that night.  I had to work from 2 to 7 the next day (Tuesday) and then again Wednesday from 11-2.  More about my job later – in the next journal.  Overall, it was a great weekend trip – so nice to see a new place and get away from the heat, paper mills and people for awhile!

go to my photo site - I have some pictures already there, and will scan more tomorrow.  You can see what the cabin was like, and the lake.   http://photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/