The Weekend Review - Hiking & Takasago Lantern Festival

I stayed closer to home most of the weekend, getting outside for a bit. I'm glad I did because the weather has definitely shifted dramatically enough that I am spending tonight pulling out my heaters and sweaters (crazy when I was still running the air conditioning last week).

On Friday, many schools and official offices were closed (kids sent home early) due to a typhoon and flood warning. I had an umbrella, but got drenched by the heavy rains on my 10 minute walk from the station to work (had to change, my pants were so soaked), but there was an announcement in our morning meetings that the day would proceed as normal. Well, about 2 hours after the other offices were sent home, the rains stopped and the sun came out, so I guess we made the right choice... but it's still good to know that government offices - especially schools - take typhoons seriously if there is a real threat. My workplace just got lucky with the call.

After work on Friday, I made dinner and a friend brought over some movies. I actually hosted three dinners last week, which is strange for me (my house is small, so I don't entertain a lot), but it was fun and I finally saw some flicks I have had on my to-do list for a while.

On Saturday morning, I was up early to get my bike fixed (finally back in business) and then met with the old ladies in Okubo. It was fun talking to them. Afterwards, I grabbed Subway sandwiches for a little picnic and met a friend for a hike on the mountains surrounding Kobe. The original plan was to go to my friend Sagar's house, bring over drinks and lunch, and just hang out while the movers came for all his stuff (he's moving home to America next week and is shipping most of his furniture), but Sagar realized he probably needed to help direct the movers and had some stuff to do, so the plans changed.

The hike turned out to be a good alternative, however, and the weather was beautiful. I've been on Mt. Rokko before, but only via the tram, and I was pretty surprised how close to central Kobe the mountain trails really were. We started from Sannomiya Station, walking up Flower Road to Shin-Kobe Station (where the Shinkansen stops). It was a little tricky figuring out how to get behind the station, to where the trails start, but once we found the path, it was a straight shot up. We walked for probably 45 minutes to a really pretty little waterfall called Nunobikidaki, stopping on the way to look at some smaller temples and enjoy the forest. A little further up the trail, we found a large dam that still provides Kobe with it's water, a lookout point with beautiful views of Kobe, Osaka Bay and Osaka City on the other side of the bay. At the top, where the cable car stops, we walked around the edges of the large Herb Gardens (I wouldn't mind stopping at the Lavender Gardens next time) and just hanging out on the benches and grassy fields, taking in the view for a while. Very relaxing. Very nice.

The whole walk didn't take more than 2 or 3 hours, but if you walk another hour or two, I'm pretty sure you will hit a large Ranch with farm animals and can hike further to Mt. Maya (maybe the same area?), which ends around Suma Beach. I had no idea how accessible the area really was without a car/bar/cable car/tram, but I will definitely be back in a month or so to soak up the fall colors (and maybe get a glimpse of one of the wild boar that are supposed to be "everywhere" in the hills).

On Saturday evening, we headed to Polo Dog, a popular expat pub in Sannomiya that our friend Richard was headlining at. This was Richie's first show and he has a beautiful voice, but it was a strangely quiet night early on, so Richie's set sort of felt more like a coffee shop (people not talking, but actually just sitting and listening to the music) versus a bar. After a while (or maybe a few more drinks for some people?) it got livelier, but overall, it was a really fun night. A huge group of people we know that live in Kobe had been doing a Scavenger hunt all evening and showed up later (in hilarious team-designated costumes), too.

On Sunday, I was going to get up and go for a run, but ended up staying in a little later, finalizing my tickets for the December trip to down-under. My tickets to/from Australia and New Zealand are already reserved now, but earlier in the week, I had booked my Sydney - NZ ticket on Orbitz, who took my credit card information and issued a confirmation of the reservation before sending me an email saying that the availability had changed and that I no longer had a ticket. I've never even heard of that happening, but the "rare situation" was definitely annoying and set me back a bit of money when I had to re-book (it's still three months out, but ticket prices have been going up everyday... it's insane).

Even though I didn't get the jogging in, I did go for a nice afternoon walk and explored a bit before hitting up the lantern festival in Takasago to see my students perform. I biked from my town to the city, and was enthralled to discover that Takasago was completely lined, side streets to the covered mall, with small lanterns. The scene was very reminiscent of Hanatoro, the lantern festival I saw in Kyoto last year, but the lanterns in this festival used actual candles instead of bulbs. The famous Takasago Shrine also had some interesting lantern art (there were 10,000 lanterns at the shrine alone, including large paper lanterns, small bamboo lanterns, lit-up bamboo structures that you could walk through like a maze, christmas lights going under the Japanese-garden bridges and bamboo staves with carvings in them). The atmosphere around town was absolutely magical.... I could hardly believe it's the same town I work in everyday.

The concert I had come to see was with two of my favorite third-year kids (one on the drums, the other on the bass) and one of my coworkers (who actually tried to make it big with his band before he became a teacher). They did a really good job, playing a few Queen and 70s hits, and it was also a pleasant surprise to discover that the school orchestra had a concert before and after the 3rd-year students played. The venue they were playing at, one of the large temples near the station, was also pretty amazing... I was surprised they were allowed to play on the steps of the temple. It felt a little bit like Yanni at the Taj Mahal.

Anyways, after exploring town a bit and listening to the music (with a bunch of my students' mothers, actually). I met my friend Ann, who lives in town, for a quick bite. Ann had just gotten back from rafting in Shikoku Island, so we basically just got grocery store food as we walked around town more, stopping some other places (like the oldest buildings in Takasago).

Today has been a typical day. It's still raining and another typhoon warning has been issues for Wednesday. I doubt school will be cancelled, but it does mean several days of rain. I came home late, after meeting with the English club, and just made dinner and vegged-out for a while, watching the Presidential debate and a few other recent candidate interviews. I was planning on running, but it started pouring just before I started, so I'm just watching movies and working on lessons now. My Japanese classes start again tomorrow and I have some other studying I want to get back into, so it should be a rather low-key week.