To Takebe... and Beyond!

Weekend at the Okayama International Villas (Foreigner Cabins)
I spent the weekend in Okayama Prefecture at one of the five International Villas, these huge houses the prefecture rents out to foreigners in an effort to promote tourism. Each house, one of which is the house in Ghible's Totoro movie, has about 5 bedrooms so you can rent rooms and share the massive living spaces with other visitors (if you're lucky, nobody else will come that weekend) or you can get a group together and rent out the whole house. We decided to go with the latter option, which is pretty awesome considering we rented a huge house in the middle of a hot spring resort... for about $25 pp/night!
The group I went with were all friends of ours from Hyogo Prefecture, our area of Japan, but we're kind of scattered in terms of where we work and live, so we all decided to travel separately and just meet at the house on Saturday night.

I had to stay after school to work on speech training for a bit on Friday, so I made plans to ride up with my friend Kate, who was driving from Awaji Island and had to go past my city anyways. My neighbor Tu also came with and we picked up Portia, who lives near Osaka but took the train to Okayama, on the way. The ride was going incredibly slow on the normal roads and old highways, so we decided to take the newer highways (which all have tolls) to cut some time. Luckily for us, it made a difference, but we still didn't get to Okayama Station (where Portia was waiting for us) until after it closed.

The car was packed once we had four people, with Portia and I squeezed into the back seat with a lot of luggage and not much foot room (my feet were propped up on the seat so Portia could use the lower space). I still love car trips, but again, it was good we took the highway.

I knew Kate had a car navigation system (common in Japan) and I had printed some maps off the website before leaving, but we somehow managed to drive an hour past Takebe, the town we were looking for, arriving at the house after midnight. I was pretty awake by the time we pulled up, having napped in the car, so I ended up staying up, just exploring the house, surrounding area and talking with a few other people in the group until about 5am. It was a nice night, but definitely a long trip.

Saturday turned out to be a really nice and beautiful day. I was pleasantly surprised by the onsen resert area around the large house, and spent the afternoon going for a solo run to a local family resort (admiring the mountainous landscapes and changing leaves) and then for a bike ride with Dave’s brother, Chris, Portia, Tu and Kate.
In the evening, we enjoyed a soak in the local onsen (including the outside onsen, which was only separated from the men’s bath by a little stone wall… ad from the main highway by some hedges!) and then barbequed in the house. It was pretty funny watching barbeque experts Chris (H.) and Kate battle to see who had the better mushroom sauce (no complaints from the tasting committee… think the best combo is something with onions, beer, butter, pepper and soy sauce!), but dinner was great. We ended the night with a bit of DS, a few cards games and then – every mid-20-something’s favorite game, Sardines (actually a lot more fun than you’d realize) before calling it a night. I also got a text message from a coworker telling me “Megan” placed 5th in the speech contest. I’ll have to talk to her on Monday because I know she wanted to win, and I’m sorry I couldn’t be there, but 5th isn’t bad when some kids have spent time abroad. Very proud of that girl!

On Sunday, a few of the boys were planning on spending the morning checking out some local sights (including a pottery center), but it was raining so it was called off. Instead, we made a big breakfast, spent a few hours in the onsen and then said our goodbyes before taking off (some on the train, and us back into Kate’s cute little car). This time we took the highways back and somehow made the trip to my apartment in under two hours (and for a fraction of the price of a train ticket)… guess the directions TO the villa really were bad!

It was still early in the afternoon, now sunny and I was itching to do something when Kate dropped Tu and I off at our apartments so we decided to walk over to our local shrine to see if the weekend town festival was still going on (literally following the sounds of the beating drums). I ran into Deyi, another one of my neighbors, on the way to my apartment, and was free, so the three of us headed over together.
When we arrived at the shrine, I was honestly a bit surprised by hopping things still were (no pun intended – check out the vide belowo). All eight of our town’s moving shrines were still out, and while I didn’t see anyone else I recognized from town, there was a strong overrepresentation by the local yankis (“yankee’s) or thugs. Almost every other girl was wearing booty shorts, stilettos and had huge hair, while the boys had bleached theirs and died it funky colors. It was part cool and part realization that we live in a somewhat ghetto area. But it still made for good people-watching, we only witnessed one fist fight and I got a cookie-on-a-stick, so I was happy.

Here's a short video of the festival (at Futami's Main Shrine, about two blocks from my house):

After the festival, I went home and made dinner, napped for a few hours (probably catching up from Friday night!) and was going to run, but ended up Skyping for almost four hours before going to bed.

Overall great weekend.

Note: If you’re interesting in learning more about the cabin we visited (or the other Okayama Villas), video tours of each of the International Villas are now available on the Okayama International Villa website and January dates just opened on the calendar, so it looks like they’re going to be open a bit longer. I highly recommend checking them out: http://www.harenet.ne.jp/villa/

Getting a Japanese Driver's License
After the weekend, I have also decided that I am going to get my driver's license here. Ok, ok... I know it seems silly to do it this late in the game. I do still have a license from home (the US), too, but my international permit was only valid for a year and this weekend made me realize how nice (not to mention cost efficient) roadtripping can be! Cars aren't expensive to rent, either, and after talking to my friend Kate, also American, about the process for getting a license, I'm going to try out the process sometime between now and Jan/Feb. Many people do fail on the first round, and the process for getting the license is more involved for Americans (than those coming from countries that also drive on the left side), which is part of the reason the costs can add up, but they don't even let you use your own car for the driving test... which works in my favor. The testing center is also located in my city... so there you go! I guess things can change and maybe I won't take the test... but I'm hoping that, looking back on this experience years from now, roadtrips will end up being somewhat synomomous with my last spring in Japan!