Summer vacation in 2009 vol.2

On the second day, I moved to Yamakoshi village, which had became a famous one, because of The Niigataken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake in 2007.

I wanted to know the present condition of Yamakoshi village, so I decided to go there.

The route of my trip was making my way though Gunma prefecture and Niigata prefecutre for 6 days.

Before visiting Yamakoshi, I went to one of the famous stations in Gunma prefecture, where the platforms are located 81 meters under the ground.

It’s called “the mole station” and actually the platforms of Doai station are in the deepest in Japan.

It was very cool down there, and I needed to go up 462 steps to the ticket gate of Doai station.

It was too hard to go up so many steps, shouldering a heavy backpack. There was only one bench for passengers on the way up to the ticket gate.

After 400 steps, I found the sign of the goal. However there were still 17 more steps to go.

Finally I reached the goal! To tell the truth, many passengers got off the train at Doai station. Maybe all most of them were climbers, because the surrounding area of Doai is very famous because of Mount Tanigawa.

I rode the next train 1 hour later, and got off at the nearest station to Yamakoshi, and then I transfered to a local bus.

About 20 minutes later, I reached the bus stop, which the landlady of the ryokan indicated me to get off at.

But I couldn’t find the community bus which I needed to catch to go to my ryokan, so I called her.

She said that she would ask her husband to pick me up. Soon her husband came, and he took me to the correct bus stop, where the community bus was waiting for me.

The name of both the bus stops was very similar, so I had made a mistake.

When I reached the ryokan, the landlady was in the middle of cleaning. The above images are of the ryokan and my room.

The atmosphere of the ryokan was unique, however it was nice.

The landlady served me cool tea and a piece of watermelon, as soon as I entered my room.

Actually I didn’t plan any schedule in Yamakoshi, so I asked the landlady about her recommendations.

She suggested I follow her husband and when he came back to the ryokan, go to the fishponds, in which they cultivated the colored carp, and also go to see their vegetable patch.

Before the husband came back to the ryokan, I strolled around there by myself.

Yamakoshi is famous for bull fighting, which is a protected national cultural event.

I wanted to see the fight, however to my regret, the fight had finished the day before my visit.

So, I just took pictures of the place in which the fight had been held.

When I went back to the ryokan after 1 hour walking, the husband had also just come back.

The landlady lent me a long sleeve shirt, gloves, and boots.

At first, we went to the fishpond near the ryokan. There I saw many fry of colored carp .

Yamakoshi is famous for the cultivation of colored carp around the world.

Since Yamakoshi is the original area of cultivating colored carp, and the quality of the colored carp is very good, many wealthy people from all over the world buy Yamakoshi’s colored carps.

While he was driving his car, he told me some interesting stories.

A British guy has been living in Yamakoshi, and he has been introducing Yamakoshi’s colored carp to the world in English.

I guess the following website is his.

Niigata-nishikigoi.com

The Yamakoshi Year – This is a past version of his website.

Many foreign buyers visit Yamakoshi every year, and their scale of wealth is beyond comparison to Japanese buyers.

However the price of carp is decreasing in recent years, because of an overstock.

Unfortunately, in addition, the same industry is growing in China.

He also took me to the fishponds which are located in the mountains. He said that he built all of the fishponds himself.

After visiting the fishponds, we moved to the vegetable patch with regional vegetables which is called “Kagura nanban“

It was my first time to see such rare, regional vegetables.

This vegtetable looked like a green papper, but the taste was a bit spicy.(I ate them for dinner later.)

On the way to the patch, he showed the houses which had gone under water, because of the river which became dammed up which had flooded due to the earthquake.

It was a shocking view for me, and I recalled the news at that time.

The following images show the cruelty of the earthquake.

I want to tell you a bit about the story of the earthquake, especially regarding Yamakoshi.

In Yamakoshi, 2 days after the big earthquake, the chief of the village decided to evacuate all 2,200 people from Yamakoshi village to the next city.

Residents had to leave the bulls, the colored carp, and their fields, and abandon the Yamakoshi village.

Half of the bulls and all the carp, which people had cherished, died. All residents were evacuated away by helicopters, because all the road had been cut by the big earthquake.

A few days later, some people returned, and they succeeded to evacuate the surviving bulls and dogs which had helped their owners in the earthquake. A true story about a dog in this earthquake became a movie titled “A tale of Mari and three puppies“.

http://www.yamakoshi-mari.net/

http://mari-movie.jp/index.html

Although I was hesitant, at last I asked him about the present condition of the owners of the houses.

He told me that some of them left Yamakoshi, and that others were still living in Yamakoshi.

They could reconstruct their houses, because most of them were farmers and they had joined the earthquake insurance of the farmer’s cooperative.

I think it’s very rare. In other cities, which the big earthquake had effected, many people still live in temporary houses.

However, I was a bit relieved to know that Yamakoshi village seemed to be recovering from the earthquake.

Yamakoshi is also famous it’s beautiful view of the terraced paddy fields.

The husband took me to one of the famous photo spots. However, I saw the scars of the earthquake had not healed there yet.

We went back to the ryokan before 7 o’clock, and I took bath before dinner.

The dinner was very special and the most delicious one during this summer trip.

After dinner, the husband took me to a small local festival near the ryokan. It was held in a playground of an elementary school.

A dancing and fancy-dress contests were held there.

The local people were dancing the Bon dance which was particular in that area(a small area of Yamakoshi village).

I tried dancing, by following the sister of the landlady, however, it was very difficult, so I couldn’t dance well.

The husband told me, the number of people dancing became decreasing, compared with past festivals.

I think it’s the reality that traditional local culture is disappearing. I regret that very much.

The following images are of my breakfast and a pet whose name is Bob.

Finally I want to tell you about the community bus, which I couldn’t find easily.

I saw the sign about the community bus at the bus stop.

The community bus is provided by the local people free of charge. This service is paid for by the local people since the public bus stopped running after the earthquake.

Summer vacation in 2009 vol.1

I like traveling alone. Especially I like taking a trip on local trains.

In Japan there is a useful local train ticket which is offered by JR(Japan Railway Company) and is called “The seishun 18 ticket“. We can use it every spring, summer and winter.

Regarding this summer holiday, I originally planned to visit to my husband’s mother’s birthplace with them. Then after visiting there, I planned to travel alone using the seishun 18 ticket.

However, we needed to change our plan due to his mother’s bad phisicalcondition.

I left my home on the 14th and headed to Ikaho Hot Spring in Gunma prefecture by express bus from Shinjuku. Ikaho Hot Spring is one of the famous hot spring areas in Japan.

The reason why I decided to go to Ikaho is because I was interested in Mizusawa Udon, which is one of the famous types of udon in Japan.

The shops which serve Mizusawa Udon are located nearby Ikaho hot spring.

The following image shows Mizusawa Udon Street, and along the street, there are many udon shops.

It was actually not so near to Ikaho Hot spring from Mizusawa Udon Street. I went to Mizusawa Udon street by taxi, and asked the taxi driver about his recommendation.

He told me about the following udon shop.

By the way, near my hometown, there is a popular regional udon which is called Sanuki Udon.

We are very familiar with this Udon, so almost all of us are particular about the taste and the quality of udon.

The taste of Mizusawa Udon was not bad, however for me it was too soft. At that shop, the most delicious dish for me was Maitake Mushroom tempura which was served as the part of the set menu with the udon.

So I decided to go to Gunma Maitake center after lunch, which was located not so far from the udon shop.

I bought some special maitake mushrooms for my parents, aunt and grandmother, who are all living in my hometown, and asked the center’s staff to deliver the mushrooms to my family.

Later, I asked my family about their impression of my gift, and they said it was very delicious!

After the Maitake center, I moved to a famous Kokeshi museum which is called Usaburo Kokeshi Museum.

Although I am not interested in Kokeshi, I didn’t know any other interesting spots nearby, so I went there.

Contrary to my expectation, the museum was amazing. I saw many beautiful, cute and creative Kokeshis there.

Especially the second floor of the museum, which was the gallery of the creative types of Kokeshi was good, and I highly recommend you to go to see them.

After the museum, I moved to the another museum, which I also didn’t expect very much of.

The name of the museum was “Ikaho Omocha to Ningyo Zidosya Hakubutukan(Ikaho Toys, Dolls and Cars Museum)“.

I thought that it was just a typical, common museum found in rural areas of Japan.

As soon as I entered the museum, I was disappointed, because it was even less interesting than my expectation.

In the first section of the museum, some antique Teddy Bears were on display. Then in the next section, old goods of Japan were on display. Both were boring for me.

In the third section, many old classic cars were on display, and I could understand  the owner’s purpose of opening his museum.

He really likes beautiful, classic cars, so after collecting and restoring to mint condition, he put them on display.

The condition of the cars was very good.

I could also understand his excellent business sense. I saw many ingenuities which had been thought out by him in order to attract many customers to his museum and to encouraged them to buy souvenirs.

Since I am interested in marketing, I really enjoyed the museum.

I took the following photos on the way to the Kokeshi museum. The view was very nice!

After visiting 2 museums, I called a taxi again to take me to Ikaho Hot Spring.

Actually I paid a taxi fare of about 5,000 yen to and from the Mizusawa area. It was expensive, however I really enjoyed it, so it wasn’t a problem.

I finally went back to my Ryokan(Japanese style inn) before nightfall.

The following images show the ryokan and my room.

I really like such old and typical types of ryokan.

After taking out my belongings from my backpack, I left my room quickly to walk around the Ikaho area.

I walked a lot, then reached the fountainhead. At the fountainhead, there was a open-air bath. It was amazing!

That night, I bought one boiled egg on my way back to the ryokan from the open-air bath, and after eating it, I enjoyed a bath of the ryokan, then went to bed quickly.

The first day was very full.