Sunflower Sayanaras

This past weekend was busy with goodbye parties, coffee dates and trips to some favorite spots in Tottori. On Friday a major typhoon was set to strike Tottori directly and school was cancelled at every school in the prefecture. While a friend of mine in Tokushima was terrified by the way her apartment was shaking, here in Tottori it was almost completely rain and wind free. It was a total false alarm that proved nice for all the students who got a four day holiday! (because Monday was Sea Day as well) In Japan teachers always come into the work, no matter what. So typhoon or not I was at my desk for the 8:10 start of my work day. The morning was boring because there were no students and no classes, so in the afternoon I went downstairs to visit Kiyosue for a cup of tea. She ended up taking me to the prefectural museum for dessert and coffee. Her hubby works there so she knows the museum restaurant well, and we enjoyed watermelon cheesecake and matcha ice cream. All in all, not a bad typhoon Friday!!

On Saturday morning I met up with friends for one last trip to cat café Kitty Blue. The cats were in their usual charming form and I just enjoyed relaxing with them running over my legs in search of treats that Meru was doling out.
 After our cat fix we headed to Kannon in garden. This is possibly one of my favorite places in all of Japan. It is a quaint garden and Buddhist temple tucked away on the base of Mt. Kyusho. It is about \500 to enter, and it includes some matcha tea and okashi. The feeling of calm is unmatched anywhere else in the city. It also happens to look exceptional in each season. Particularly the fall when the leaves on the trees are changing.

That evening we walked down Wakasakaido and enjoyed the summer festival that runs every Saturday night from July through August. Sarah and Meru went fishing for baby koi and we split some cotton candy with JM and Dave. We finished our night with a nomi and dinner at Doma Doma, by far one of my most favorite haunts.

Sunday morning I met up with my Japanese tutor and was really surprised when she showered me with gifts, photos, a letter in simple Japanese and even a bag of fresh produce. I was her student for about a year and a half before I quit to focus on my last month’s here. I sort of felt a little animosity about quitting from her, but at this final coffee meeting she was genki as ever. It was fun, and as usual she tried to convert me to SGI Buddhism, an occult type sect of traditional Buddhism. I just smiled.

That evening was another goodbye event, this time the last bijinkai for Yamashita and Kiyosue and I. Kiyosue’s husband joined us again, and we enjoyed the ladies plan at Cucina, a fabulous Italian place, where I got to drink a mimosa!! Yamashita presented me with a beautiful hard cover address book as a going away gift. The cover has a picture of a koi fish and it is truly one of the most beautiful gifts I have received here. It is also something I can easily use for years to come, so it is a nice lasting memory. I was definitely on the verge of tears thinking about how much I am going to miss those two. Yamashita is jetting off to Bangkok this Friday so I have even less time with her. I never would have guessed my two best friends at work would be 20 and 30 years older than me, but they turned out to become like older sisters to me.

Monday was Sea Day, another excuse for a holiday in Japan. Literally the Japanese instituted this day because there was no holiday in the sweltering July heat. Supposedly it is to honour the sea. In the morning Toshie and Toshimi, the aunt and niece I tutor, took me to Shikano. I have tutored the two of them for the past year, and every Wednesday night has been so relaxing, sitting under the kotatsu and enjoying chatting. Plus they always give me food to take home!! Shikano is a small onsen town about 1 hour drive from Tottori. We stopped at a small restaurant inside a traditional house where we ate the most delicious bento off of wooden umbrellas. It was adorable, and in addition to being aesthetically pleasing was the most delicious meal I have had in the two years I have been here. Everything had a unique and exquisite flavor, including the local flower that was pickled!! Of course Toshie treated us because she is a doll, and after lunch she even took us to a local handmade ice cream shop. We were stuffed from lunch but she got me two take away flavors to try, sakura ice cream and umeshu sorbet. The ice cream shop happened to be in the middle of the countryside, opposite to a sunflower field, so a completely picturesque finish to the morning. 

That afternoon the sun was still shining brightly so Meru and I trained to Higashihama beach and soaked up the rays. I got a little burnt, but enjoyed one last time in the Japanese sea, and plowed through my book, Tokyo Vice, about an American who began reporting on the Yakuzas activity for the Yomuiri Shinbun. This past weekend was stuffed with events and parties and coffees. The fuller my heart gets the more I wonder how I will adjust to being back home. I am definitely ready to leave and really excited to readjust to Canada, but Tottori has become my second home now for so many reasons.

Bijinkais and Mt. Mitoku

Two of my best friends

We had one of our last bijinkais on Friday and Kiysues husband joined the four of us this time. As usual we met at Mama’s again, because literally everything there costs 300￥, and it is delicious. It was a ton of fun, and as usual left me feeling natsukashi for the people in my life here. It is hard to imagine that in a few weeks everything will be a distant memory, with thousands of miles and an ocean in between us. It is really hard to wonder when, or if, I will see some of these folks again. Kiyosue, Yamashita and I are pretty tight, so I am really hopeful that the two of them will end up in Vancouver as they have been talking about now for a few months. It would be amazing!!
The next day Sarah, Meru and I decided to hike up Mt. Mitoku. I decided to hike up for two reasons. The first being to check out the 1300 year old Buddhist temple built into the almost vertical rock face. The second was to clear my head. Leaving Japan has become a difficult task. It involves a lot of emotional interactions and conversations, a lot of money and more stress than is preferable. So I woke up on Saturday and despite the chance of rain I hopped on a train bound for Kurayoshi. After a soft cream stop we taxied over to the base of the mountain, and we made it just in time for the last group of hikers to be admitted up. The hike is kind of grueling and also dangerous, as a few hikers die each year on the route. The guides checked our footwear twice for tread, and if you fail that inspection you are forced to wear their traditional sandals to go up. Sarah, Meru and I all passed the inspection and headed up. I am a runner so cardio is fine for me, but the vertical incline we were heading up and the rocky bottom below frightened me almost immediately. Luckily Sarah and Meru encouraged me to continue and I am so glad I did. This hike was probably one of the most breathtaking sights I have experienced in Tottori.
To imagine that the well word rocks have been grappled with for over a 1000 years, but tourists, locals and Buddhist monks. By the time we made it to the temple we were muddy and exhausted, but the exhilaration of realizing we had reached such an incredible piece of history made it well worth it. I would say it is a must climb for anyone in the area. The views were gorgeous and it was an amazing feeling to experience that kind of history.

1300 years later

Earl Grey Beer and Tiger Mosquitos

A few weeks ago, before typhoon and crazy humudity hit, I headed for Mt. Daisen to enjoy the local Beer Fest. Every year the mountain in Yonago is the host for a craft beer festival. The event features close to 75 craft beers from all over Japan, and a nomihoudai ticket for $45, which includes a limited edition beer glass. If you are cheap like me you can just buy a 5 drink ticket (or 2) for around $16, which is more than enough considering this is real beer and not the watered down stuff they normally serve at izakayas. Anyways the beer of the day was definitely the Earl Grey beer. Seems like a strange combination but it was the most refreshing beer I have ever tried!! I made the mistake of trying the banana beer, not good. I love fruit beers, but banana was a bust. The location was superb, as the festival was just at the mountain base. In addition to all the beer there was handmade food being sold and performances throughout the day. Camping is also free for people attending the event, so if you are a Tottori resident it is a must do summer event! One major downside was the allergic reaction I had to the tiger mosquitos at the event. Yes, tiger mosquitos, they are a bug found mostly within Asian countries. My foot swelled up and was itchy in a way I had never experienced before. After two trips to the doctor and the ophthalmologist (my vision became blurry!!) I slowly began to recover. Also the eye doctor is insane in Japan. It felt like a twilight zone episode as I was led into a dusty old room filled with books and told to press my face into a giant round machine while clinic staff watched, all in the same matching pale teal colour uniform. It was so outdated and I felt like a specimen. The appointment ending with them laughing at me because ‘my eyes were fine’. It was bizzare and I definitely can’t wait to be able to go to an appointment next year and actually communicate effectively.

Later that week I stopped at a friend’s Juku (cram school) at her request. She teaches two students from my school and she wanted me to drop in and have some English conversation. The two students were shy, but the boy in particular was quite sweet and tried his best to chat. Overall it was awkward but I walked away with a bunch of gifts including a fan, chopsticks, furoshiki and some natural pressed juices. I made my friend happy, and I probably brightened up some otherwise tiresome lessons.

Watermelon Race

Team Watermelon! 

Weight lifting pre-game!

I spent a few months in training for a 10km Watermelon race in a nearby town, Hokuei. The race was free for all foreigners(!!) and included a new running shirt- woohoo!! I managed to talk a friend into training with me and kudos to her for starting at square one (no running, ever) to completing the whole 10km!! On race day I was anticipating a small town race but was pleasantly surprised to see the large crowds turning up for the race, with a beautiful course that wound its way up and back through watermelon fields.  I managed to run my best time for a 10km race, and about a week later I hit 3001kms on the Nike Running application I have been using for years. It is an unreal feeling to have been a runner for so long now. It has been one of the best ways for me to get out all my negative energy here too. When I am running my mind and body are free, and for the most part, runners etiquette dictates that a runner is a runner, regardless of race. I am always the foreigner here, but when I am running I am just another runner.

watermelon graveyard

woo!! Done and Done!