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.