I kept my promise to myself and did not go to Tokyo this past weekend! It must be some kind of miracle!

The plan for last weekend was to watch the newly released Gokusen movie and then head up to Kiyosato to attend the YETI Sayonara party. I was supposed to meet up with Katrina in Kofu at 11 for some lunch and a movie, but she was running late and we bumped the meeting time to 12:30. I ended up in Kofu by that time, but she was still not quite ready, so I headed to the theater on my own. Once at the theater I realized that we would miss the train that would get us up to Kiyosato before the party started. I still wanted to see the movie, but Katrina decided to pass.

I grabbed a ticket and then had a quick sandwich and banana juice at a little cafe near the theater before the show started. The movie itself was only so-so. I was really looking forward to it and I loved seeing Odagiri Ryu as a student teacher but the story line wasn't really that exciting and 2 of my favorite characters, Sawada Shin and Yabuki Hayato, didn't show up in the film at all. I knew that they probably would be in it due to the cast list, but I was still holding out hope of a special appearance of some kind. It was a bit of a let down. There were a bunch of other previous cast members who made appearances though, but after a while the just kept getting all jumbled up in my head and it was hard to tell who was who.

After the movie, I had some time to kill before the next train to Kiyosato so I grabbed a bit more to eat in preparation for all the drinking I would be doing later in the evening. During this time, I realized I wouldn't be alone and that Janet and Miki, both also ALTs in Yamanashi would be on the same train. Once on the train, I had a nice little chat with a woman who works for a flower shop in Kobuchizawa. She was in Kofu to celebrate working 10 years for her company. After our chat concluded, I went to go find my friends.

Once we arrived in Kiyosato, we tried to figure out how to walk to the KEEP, where the party was being held. It wasn't too hard to figure out on the map, unless your name is Miki. The boy couldn't figure out that map to save his life. He kept thinking we should be going the exact opposite direction from our destination. In the end, Morgan came in Karen's car (soon to by my car in about a week) to pick us up.

And yes, you read that right, I'm getting a car! Even though I've lived here for 2 years without one, I really feel it’s about time I got one. I've had to miss out on quite a few things because I couldn't manage to secure a ride, and now I won't have to. I've already got a road trip to Niigata and Kanazawa planed for the summer, with more to follow.

Back to the party......The theme was ganstars/villans. I just worn a white top, black skirt, and fedora but some people really went all out. I also went to the Sayonara party last year, but this year it was held in a different area of the KEEP. The actual party room was more like a barn, but the sleeping areas were really nice and a huge step up from the ones last year. Guess you gotta take the good with the bad. YETI provided some tasty sandwiches and I brought a bottle of white wine to get me through the evening. I had a good time chatting with everyone and enjoyed my evening, but ended up getting really sick and I don't think from just the alcohol either. I was still sick throughout Sunday and let’s just say riding the train back home was hellish. I still feeling a bit under the weather today even and it's already Tuesday. Hopefully I'll start feeling 100% soon.

Labels: friends, Kiyosato, weekend, yamanashi, Yeti

Isawa onsen is a resort town that is 3 trains stations from my apartment. It's a great town, but is also known as a Yakuza hangout spot. Not too worried though as I've never had any problems when visiting. On Wed. a group of us went to Isawa to check out Spaland. It's a Korean style sauna and hot spring resort type thing. You can check out pics on their website, which is http://www.hotel-naito.com/spaland/index.html.

While most onsen tend to cost anywhere from 100yen up to around 1000yen, this place was a bit more pricey. Just to get into the onsen, there is a 1800yen fee. However, you get a set of towels, a shirt and pants outfit, and access to all sorts of bath and beauty supplies including shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioning products, body soap, scrub clothes, face wash and masks, toner, lotion, a toothbrush and toothpaste set, etc, etc. So, it's expensive, but worth it.

After you pay the initial fee, you are given a numbered wristband. You can use this band to purchase various goods and services throughout the restort and then pay on your way out. There are several restaurants, shops, massages services, and spa treatments available. We started out by heading to the Korean spa/sauna area. Right after laying down in one of the hot rooms, we were pulled out by one of the staff. Apparently you have to pay an additonal 200yen fee to use the hot rooms. Some of us decided to stay and others decided to move to the onsen area. I was one of the ones who stayed.

The hot rooms were pretty nice. One room was decorated in all black and had beds of black stones. In the biggest room you could find marble stone slab beds, pink jade stone beds, and a bed of green, red, and white stones. It had a really nice atmosphere. There was also a super hot room, an ice room, and a woman only room. The woman only room had these color changing light stars on the ceiling which were really relaxing to watch.

After the sauna rooms, I headed to the onsen and got myself a body scrub. It's one of many spa serivces offered in the onsen, but you do have to pay extra for it. It was totally worth it though. After the scrub, I hit up the baths. There are quite a few pools in the onsen area. There are 2 baths outside, along with 3 singlue tub style baths. The tubs were normal onsen water, but one of the larger pools was a milk bath and the other was a speical mineral mix. The milk bath was not actually milk. It is a micro bubble bath that supposely helps exfoliate your skin and all the microscopic bubbles gives the pool a milky white appearance. Inside there is a super hot bath, a herb bath, a bamboo floored bath, a wine bath, a bath that has a bunch of water jets, and a shallow swimming pool. My favorite was the wine bath. It smelled like grapes. Love! There were also 3 saunas, one of which had salt scrub available.

After soaking, it was time to finish up. The locker area has a bunch of product available and there was this awesome face peel stuff available for use. I liked it so much I ended up buying a bottle to take home with me. Before heading out we grabbed a bite to eat at one of the 4 restaurants in the building. I had some super tasty celery and tomato ramen. I will probably be returning to Spaland again some time in the future.

Labels: friends, onsen, spa, yamanashi

A little birdie told me that most of the new JETs will be getting their placements in the next few days or so. If you happen to be a new JET placed in Yamanashi and find my blog while frantically searching for information on the prefecture, I would just like to say hi and would recommend that you check out the YETI website. It will help you get in touch with pretty much all the JETs in the Yamanashi area. You can find a link to it in the links column. If you happen to be place in Yamanashishi specifically, contact me because I will know who your pred is. You might even be my neighbor!

Labels: JET application, yamanashi, yamanashishi, Yeti

The Takeda Shingen Festival is held the first weekend of April and is one of the biggest festivals in Yamanashi. Months before the festival people apply to participate in it and on the day of the festival, dress up as various samurai and participate in a huge parade. I really wanted to participate in this, but managed to miss the sign ups. However, watching wasn't as boring as I thought it would be. I went with Tiffany and we had a blast wandering around and checking things out. Next year though, I'll be ready for when the sign ups roll around!

Labels: festival, samurai, yamanashi

Mt. Minobu is a famous mountain and temple located in southern Yamanashi. It's 1,153 meters high and houses the Kuno-ji Temple which is the headquarters of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. The temple is massive and well known for the 287 stone steps you have to climb in order to get to it. Apparently the JETs who came the year before I did had to climb to the temple in their business suits! While I'm glad I didn't have to do that, I have always wanted to see the temple, so I decided it would be a nice day trip to take with Heather.

We left after I got done with my morning classes and took the train about 2 hours to the Minobu Station. Because I had to work that morning, we arrived sort of late and the temple isn't all that close to the station. We started down the map at the station and decided to try and walk our way their after the train station people proved to be unhelpful with provided transport information. However, after walking only a little ways from the station, a lady who had overheard our conversation with the train station people ran over and told us which bus we could take and when the last bus back would be. Thank goodness for helpful, English speaking, Japanese people because it would have taken us at least an hour or so to walk all the way there.





Once we finally made it to the top, we took a moment to do a victory pose and started looking around. The temple complex was huge compared to any of the other temples I had been too. There were several buildings and you could actually go inside and walk around! While walking around, we also ran into a bunch of monks, which was kind of cool. One must have just come back from the store as he had a bag full of groceries. They only downside to the whole thing was that at one point we got yelled at for taking pictures. I guess you’re not supposed to take them while you’re in the temple. Now we know.

Outside the temple happens to be just as beautiful as the inside. Especially at this time of year as the temple has some really nice cherry blossoms. The temple was even selling cherry blossoms that you could plant in your yard! Seeing as how I don't have a yard, I opted for some cherry blossom themed sweets which turned out to be absolutely delicious. I'll probably go back next year just to pick up more of the sweets!

After exploring the temple grounds, we considered going to the summit of Mt. Minobu itself, but we missed the last pull cable car to the top. We could have hiked it, but would have had to hike back down in the dark which neither of us were thrilled at the prospect of. So we took the bus back to the Minobu station and took a little walk around the town to check out some of the cherry blossoms we'd seen on the bus ride over. The town is small, but really quaint and has way more cherry trees than any town near me. After our tree viewing, we hit up a local restaurant for some hoto, which is a bit different that the hoto in my area, but is still just as good.

Labels: Heather, minobu, vacation, yamanashi