Alone again.
Having people come travel with me for a while is such a bittersweet experience. It feels so comforting and wonderful to have someone else with me who I can laugh with, and hold, and talk to, and build memories with. Having someone else there makes things feel more real because there's another witness to it all. At the same time, there's a part of me that craves the independence, slower pace, and surreal feeling of solo travel. Of course, once I am alone again, loneliness, sadness, and homesickness set in, and it takes a few days for them to pass and to settle back into my solo traveler rhythm. There are pros and cons to both modes, as with everything in life, I suppose.
One thing I know for sure: it will be a relief to be home, surrounded and grounded by my awesome community of friends and family again. I feel ready to be back, but I also suspect that I'll be faced with some sadness also -- sad that this grand adventure is over, sad about missed opportunities, sad that I don't know when I will be able to travel again. It's also overwhelming to think about finding a new job and a new place to live, but.... *deep breath*... one step at a time. I've still got six more nights of Okinawa to soak up before it's time to face the reality of being back and all the thoughts and feelings that come with it.
From Magome to Tsumago: The Kiso Valley Trail
I found out about the Kiso Valley hike on a WhatsApp thread with a group of people who were planning to come to Japan and brainstorming ideas of things to do. One of them posted a screenshot of a Pinterest board about the Kiso Valley hike:
Looks lovely, right?? Often, these things turn out to be more beautiful or breathtaking in the promotional photos than they are in person, but this was just as charming as I imagined it would be, despite the cherry blossoms not reaching full bloom yet.
The path beginning with an uphill stroll through Magome
The forest-y part of the hike (which was most of it)
View from Tsumago castle ruins on a hilltop (the view OF the ruins was super disappointing so no photo of that)
The last stretch of the path, through the town of Tsumago
To get to Magome, I took a train from the Suzaka station to the Nagano station, then a train from Nagano to Nakatsugawa, and a bus from the Nakatsugawa station to Magome. The hike took about 4 hours to get from Magome to Tsumago and then to the Nagiso train station, where I caught a train back to Nagano, and another to Suzaka. What I'm trying to say is that doing this hike was a somewhat complicated process that took all day, but it was totally worth it. I loved it. There was just one stupid thing that happened that almost ruined an otherwise lovely experience.
In the middle of the hike, when I was on the forested part of the path between the towns, a (presumably Japanese) man approached me from behind (I didn't think anything of it because it sounded at first like he was just a jogger), and touched my butt. I spun around and pushed his hand away, and -- a bit in shock -- just said, "WHAT...?" Then it sounded like he said, "cute" (maybe trying to give me a compliment?), but I just shrugged, not sure what he was saying, and continued walking. He took his phone out and asked for a photo. I said fine, and let him take a photo. But then he followed me, saying "hey" over and over. When I turned around again, he pretended to unzip his jacket and said, "let me see." I said, "you want me to take my shirt off?" and he said yes, and then my whole body flooded with rage and adrenaline. I yelled, "NO - you're disgusting. You need to leave me alone RIGHT NOW." He kept following me, and when I turned around again, he grabbed his dick, and then reached out and said "let me touch them." I shouted, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!!" and when he still didn't leave, I just took off running down the trail. I figured I just needed to run until I saw someone else on the trail -- he'd back off if I wasn't alone. It only took about ten seconds before I found a couple who was hiking in the opposite direction. I explained to them what happened, hung out with them until my heart stopped racing, and then continued down the path by myself again. For about half an hour, I kept checking behind myself to see if he had managed to follow me, but fortunately, I never saw him again.
For that being the first time this entire trip that someone has sexually harassed me, I think I handled the situation pretty well. After it happened, I fantasized about other ways I could have handled it, like grabbing his phone and throwing it into the forest so he couldn't take photos and he'd have to go look for it and leave me alone, or just kicking him in the crotch... but you never know how someone will react to something like that. Maybe he would have gotten pissed, and the situation could have escalated. Running was probably the best choice, but I was just so annoyed that he interrupted my awesome leisurely walk, and made me have to run to get away from him because he wouldn't back off. I didn't feel like I should have to change anything about my experience on that hike to accommodate someone else's garbage behavior. What the hell is wrong with people like that?? And in Japan, of all places! This is the last country I would have expected that type of thing to happen.
Oh well. One positive thing about it is that I have realized that the lack of sexual harassment and assault I've experienced up to this point hasn't been due to some special badass energy I'm putting out into the world that makes me immune to such things. I was starting to believe that, as long as you carry yourself in a fearless way, people won't mess with you, but that's simply not true. It really, truly is never the victim's fault. Also, it did feel good to stand up for myself and to yell at someone for their disgusting, inappropriate behavior. Overall, a good learning experience, but would not recommend. One star.
The Kiso Valley hike itself, however, is definitely a five-star, highly recommended experience.
Snow Monkey Onsen
So... there is an onsen where snow monkeys go to chill out and warm up during cold winter months, and when I heard about this, I knew I had to go check it out. Are you kidding me?? Monkeys and onsen?? Those are two of my new favorite things!! It only took one a train ride, a bus ride, and a 30-minute hike to get up to this magical place -- the cost of which are all included in the 3200-yen Snow Monkey Pass. Magical.
BABY SNOW MONKEY!
The picturesque snow monkey onsen, nestled high in a mountain right next to a river
I love how they rock back and forth while they're snuggling:
One question: Why aren't any of them actually IN the onsen? I wish I could have gotten in... but this one is monkey-exclusive. Apparently, there's a separate onsen nearby where people can bathe (with a towel around them, not naked as usual, since it isn't private and both men and women use it), and the monkeys sometimes join the people in that onsen. I tried to find it, but it isn't well-marked and I had to just add that to the list of "would have been cool, but not the end of the world" list of experiences that haven't worked out.
Kanazawa
After Nagano, I went to Kanazawa, where I stayed for 7 nights. When I was checking into the hostel there, the guy at the front desk said "7 nights...is that right? Why so long?" I guess Kanazawa is usually done in a couple days for most people, but I knew I'd need time to catch up on the blog and plan for the remainder of the trip. Kanazawa seemed like a chill place, and for the time frame I would be there, they were supposed to experiencing cherry blossom blooming. Alas, due to the long winter, the blooms were postponed by a week and I left Kanazawa a day before they arrived. Gaaaaah! *waves fist in the air*
Oh well. Still managed to see some cool things here. For example...
The Kenroku-en Garden -- a classic Japanese garden and beautiful place to meander for an hour or so
Geisha night in the Higashi-Chaya District
(this was the view as I waited in line at the teahouse)
What I learned at geisha night:
Geishas are not required to smile or appear as though they are enjoying themselves (this isn't an official thing, just an observation. It's also not a criticism -- just different than what I expected)
Kanazawa used to have 200 geishas, but now they only have 43, and the Higashi-Chaya District has 14 of them.
Geishas must be at least 18, but there's no age limit; the oldest one in Kanazawa is 85, and highly sought after.
Sessions with a geisha last for 90 minutes. Prior to the use of clocks, two sticks of incense were used to track the time (each one burns for 45 minutes).
To spend an evening with geisha entertainment, you must be referred by a previous client; first-timers cannot book this experience themselves.
Geisha entertainment is incredibly expensive (around $900 USD)
To ensure that clients can focus completely on enjoying themselves and not stressing over payment, geisha clients are not billed prior to, or at the time of, the experience. Rather, billing only occurs twice a year. If the client does not pay at the time of billing, the referring client is notified and held responsible for the other client's bill.
Geisha are allowed to get married, but their relationship status is kept secret from clients (I think we can all admit that it's just more fun to be entertained by and flirt with someone you assume is unattached)
I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha right now; I'm about 20% through it, which isn't quite enough to make further commentary on geishas and their world, but it's a very compelling read and if you wanna talk about it, I'll have it finished soon!
So fancy: edible gold-leaf, from a store near the geisha tea house that sold traditional Kanazawa gold leaf products
Shirakawa-go
While in Kanazawa, I took a day trip out to a UNESCO World Heritage Site town called Shirakawa-go, which I heard about while reading some in-flight magazine (in-flight magazines are surprisingly full of excellent recommendations for places to see!). It is full of centuries-old, thatched-roof, Gassho-style houses, and the people who lived here used to raise silkworms. And whenever I see the word "Gassho" I think "grasshopper," but that is neither here nor there.
It was a very beautiful and charming place, but I was struggling a bit with travel fatigue that day, and it was raining, and the real-life experience didn't quite match up with the online photos, so I was feeling a bit underwhelmed at the time. As you can see, however, it was still a very cool place, and I'm glad I took the time to see it.
Inside one of the Gassho-style houses (I love indoor fireplaces, but this one seems to be letting out an unhealthy amount of smoke into the room)
Bought this horseradish chocolate bar at a store in Shirakawago... tasted an awful lot like wasabi. So I looked it up.
Wasabi IS just horseradish, you guys!
Yamanaka Onsen Town
Another day trip out of Kanazawa was to Yamanaka, a town full of onsen, allegedly. When I missed the opportunity to do the human onsen with the snow monkeys, I googled "onsen in Kanazawa" and found out about this Yamanaka place.
When I got there, I noticed on the map that there was a hiking trail, so I decided to enjoy a scenic walk before trying to find an onsen. It was gorgeous. Besides being a sunny day, it was just a beautiful trail also. I've realized something about myself: I do like hiking, so long as "hiking" means walking along well-paved paths where I'm not going to run into branches or spiderwebs in my face, or have to adjust my footing a bunch to make sure I don't trip and fall. I enjoy being out in nature, I do -- I just don't like working very hard to be out there. The forest is not the place I want to get sweaty and all cardio-rific. When I'm hiking, I want to go slow. I want to take it in. I want to breathe easy, clean, peaceful breaths.
Same bridge, different views
The onsen I went to after the hike was great, but not like the onsen from the ryokan in Hakone. This one may not have even been natural hot springs (it didn't smell of sulfur or anything); it was more "giant women-only hot tub," less "quiet natural springs retreat bath." There were about 15 Japanese women and myself. Still great, though, and a bargain: I got a tiny towel, a tiny thing of body wash, and entry to the onsen for less than 1000 yen ($10 USD). Not too shabby. Definitely getting more comfy with my naked body in front of other naked people, that's for sure.
There were other things I did in Kanazawa too, of course (I was there for a full week), but the day trips and Geisha night were the highlights. Honestly, I feel like I don't have good judgment anymore when it comes to what other people will want to hear about; I've got photos from the Omicho market, and a walk through a park, and the Kanazawa Castle, but there just isn't much to say or even great photos to share for any of those places, so I'll leave it be.
Anyway, on to Osaka!
Osaka: Take Two
My first night in Osaka, I wandered into a small bar to ask for help finding my hostel. My phone indicated I was about 50 feet away from it, but I just couldn't find it. So anyway, I go into this bar, and a man offers to help me. As he's looking at my phone trying to figure out where the place is, a woman at the bar starts talking to me in English (she's the only one who really speaks it), and offers to buy me a beer. The guy figures out where the hostel is -- just around the corner, down an alley where I never would have expected it -- but I had that beer waiting, so I just made a mental note of where the hostel was, and went back to the bar to enjoy my beer and my new friends. They bought me some shochu (sake), and some food, and after a few hours, they invited me to karaoke at some random restaurant down the street. It wasn't the kind of place that had English songs, so I just enjoyed their singing (featured in the video below) and some more shochu.
Then (around 2:00am I think? How did it get so late??) they escorted me back to the hostel, where someone was waiting to give me my keys and show me to my room. I spent the next day in bed, feeling that classic hangover emotional cocktail of regret/guilt and residual joy from the previous night. I just hate that I wasted a day nursing a hangover, but at least I still had two more days to do everything that was on my list for Osaka this time around.
It was odd to be back in Osaka without Chase, but I'm glad I went back, because there was quite a bit we missed the first time around. First of all, the CHERRY BLOSSOMS WERE BLOOMING, finally!! It was every bit as magical as I hoped it would be. The only thing that would have made it PERFECT is if the sun was out, rather than the weather being overcast, but I am not about to complain. Check it out:
Ok no cherry blossoms in this photo, but there were lots around the park surrounding this gorgeous Osaka castle
Near the giant ferris wheel (which I went on by myself) was the Osaka aquarium, which was awesome. However, it was busy, and I realized that I'd gone on a Sunday. I always seem to go to zoos and aquariums during the weekend, when I have to cede good viewing spots to small children. Anyway, the aquarium had a huge tank in the middle of it that contained hammerhead sharks, whale sharks, and several small sharks and manta rays. Amazing. (When I saw the scuba divers in there cleaning the tanks, I thought, oh yeah - that's another way a person could use their scuba diving license, isn't it?)
The aquarium also had capybara (odd for an aquarium, but all right), and it was fun to know that I've seen those cutie rodent buddies in their natural Amazon habitat, not just in a zoo/aquarium. Same with some of the fish, from when I scuba-dove! But I'm so grateful to those types of places, because it's very rare to get the opportunity to see much wildlife in its natural habitat, and I don't think that should mean that we don't get to never see them. It does so much for one's appreciation of, and sense of connection to, nature and the rest of life on the planet to see it with your own eyes.
Other things from Osaka: tried Japanese BBQ and walked around Dotonburi (lively shopping and food district along a river)
Japanese BBQ: soooooo , so, so good. Also expensive.
Dotonburi River Promenade
A night of drinking and karaoke with some very generous strangers; a day of hangover; the aquarium; the ferris wheel; walking through several cherry blossom parks; getting a $13 IPA at a craft brewery called Molto! near the old hostel; the Osaka castle; Dotonburi; Japanese BBQ -- Osaka was well worth the re-visit.
Now for the final destination of this amazing adventure: Okinawa! I assume I'll be writing that blog post from Olympia....