Tulips on Tulips on Tulips

Well my friends, I have recovered from the Shimanami Kaido. No longer sore, it was time to embark on another adventure!

Luckily, I have made friends with some really great people who help that happen. On Sunday, I went to the Tulip Festival just outside of Yonago City in Tottori prefecture. Driving there was a little nerve-wracking- at one point it was hailing! But it wasn't long before we made it to the most delicious brunch spot: Bistro de Suzuki. The food was French, as the name implies. It was a fantastic meal of four courses: cold meats including beef, salmon, pork, duck, octopus, squid, white fish, and a mystery seafood item; salad and potato soup; main course - I chose duck confit; and creme brulee, chocolate cake, and a slice of fruit cake. And then you got a drink with dessert, I chose rose soda. Is your mouth watering yet? Oh ma gersh. It was so delicious. Here are pictures to drool over:

After that, we headed over to the Tulip Festival at Hanakairo Flower Park. As with many attractions, there was a discount for foreigners- score! The opening terrace had a number of arrangements with different kinds of tulips and some other flowers. I especially enjoyed the fake instruments with flowers all around them. We walked along a creek sort of thing, saw some koi fish, but mostly saw zillions of beautiful flowers. It is pretty difficult to describe everything because it was mostly walking around, looking at really fantastic nature. I think in this case, the pictures can say more than I can.

"Tottori Hanakairo Flower Park"

Street organ- why not?

A different variety of sakura- this one was in full bloom!
The blossoms only last about a week, so it was nice to see some blossoms again :)

That dome is the greenhouse with the exotic flowers oooOOooo just wait

Inside the greenhouse we found a duet of alto sax and piano performing.

Tunnel of Orchids

There was a little museum of sorts with some framed art

A man was making straw animals

And he gave me one!

We got to see Mt. Daisen for a bit!
Also called Hoki Fuji, because it bears a resemblance to Mt. Fuji and Hoki is the region.

Shimanami Kaido

Before my story, I must announce that my blog has reached the 1000 views mark! In lieu of this benchmark, I would like to give a shout out to all of you who take the time to read about my life. The easiest way for me to do that is name the countries that show up on the stats (that's right, Google tracks you!). So, let me holler at: the USA, Japan, Germany, UK, Russia, Spain, South Korea, France, French Guiana, and New Zealand. You are all my favorites.

Now for the tale of the Shimanami Kaido...

WHOA! What a cool weekend I just had! Saturday morning I woke up at 5 am to be able to catch the 5:58 train from Matsue to Yasugi. Around 5:30, I noticed my window, doors, and very sensitive closet doors were shaking but it didn't register as anything important at first (did I mention it was 5 am? Brain wasn't working). Shortly after it stopped, I thought to myself- was that just an earthquake? Should I have taken cover under the table? I didn't have long to ponder this, however, because missing the train would be disastrous. I met some fellow bikers at Matsue Station where we purchased tickets and a few minutes after were informed that the train was delayed due to a - what? - EARTHQUAKE! This was the first one I noticed, which is pretty exciting. They are supposed to be pretty rare in Shimane. This one was in the Osaka/Kobe area and I think was around a 6.0. After getting some of our money back and taking a later, cheaper train, we made it to Yasugi and started on our way to Onomichi. It's about a 2.5 hour car ride and really all I have to say about it is that this girl was not made to fit in Japanese cars.

We arrived at the bike rental place, everyone got their bikes rented or ready, we took a group picture, and we were off! The only way we knew we were on the correct route was a blue line along the road that we so trustfully followed. It didn't take long to realize that the rumors were true- Japanese renal bikes have some of the least comfortable seats. They are super thin and rock-hard. It only became a minor setback during the last quarter of the ride- only once did I have to walk a bit just because it hurt. Just before the first bridge, we were introduced to the fact that in order to access each bridge, a hill must be ridden up. Sometimes this was not too bad, much of the time it was rough. But I believe I rode up at least half which is an accomplishment! After the first 3 bridges, we stopped at a little lunch spot. They offered a number of lunch options, I opted for a fried fish burger and fries. One particularly special thing about this region of Japan is that it is known for its many types of citrus. Something like 36 different kinds are grown here and they all look like oranges or lemons. There were many citrus tree groves (? fields?) along the way which made for some nice scenery when you got sick of looking at the beautiful mountain island water scenery - wait, that is impossible. At the lunch spot, it was easy to find many of these types of citrus for pretty cheap. Everyone shared what they got and it was simply delightful. 2 more bridges and a hill later, we found ourselves at the mouth of the last bridge, just as the sun was setting. It was a wonderful last kick of motivation to complete the journey.

Citrus at the lunch spot

Making dino faces

 

 

Sunset at the last bridge

We (the last group) arrived at the hotel just before 8 that night, a solid 9 hours after we left. We went straight to dinner which was a traditional Japanese dinner with rice, pickled goodies, sashimi, fruit, tofu, chicken-tofu-mushroom-various greens nabe, very nicely cooked fish (sitting in the dead carcass), and tea.  Very delicious! After some much needed showers and some hangin' out makin' friends, it was clearly time for bed. The room I stayed in was two rooms joined by a sliding door. The floors were tatami mats and about 5 girls slept in each room on futons on the floor. Normally, that might be a little uncomfortable, but after 77 km of cycling, there was not much stopping sleep. 



Breakfast the next morning was a traditional Japanese breakfast of miso soup, rice, nori (seaweed), rectangular prisms of egg, and various other delights. Although it's no Torchy's breakfast taco, I dig a good Japanese breakfast. I had originally planned on cycling both days, but it was clear to me that would and could not happen. After bidding the first group of cyclists adieu, the second group came to help the rest of us return our bikes. After the bike return, they were off. We said bye to the rest of the non-cycling group, and I began a day of sightseeing with two girls from Shimane I got to know. We decided to go see the castle in Imabari. The part of the city that we walked through wasn't exactly a thing o' beauty, but the castle was nice. Along the street in front of the castle, there were something like 30 fire trucks. I imagine it was the city's entire fleet, which is maybe a safety hazard? Soon after we got there, they began some sort of demonstration where each fire truck put its hose into the mote and sprayed water out back into the mote. We walked around a little more, then walked back to the station so we wouldn't miss our bus. Which we still managed to do. Luckily, there was another bus that left 30 minutes later, but arrived at the same time. Confusing? -yes. Classic Japan? -yes. We made it back to the first bike rental place about 15 minutes before the rest our Shimane travel party returned. During that time, we were looking out over the water and suddenly realized how many jellyfish were floating along with the current in front of us. And here I was - the whole bike trip - wishing I could just swim it. No thank you! I will take a sore butt over a million jellyfish stings. Definitely cool to watch though.

The ride back to Shimane was relatively uneventful and a good opportunity for a little nap. I was dropped off with another Matsuean (Matsueite? hmm) and we had a short train ride back from Yasugi. I was very glad that I had walked to the station the previous morning instead of riding my bike because there was no way I could have gotten back on a bike. It would have been left to be picked up another day.






Overall, it was a phenomenal experience with tests of physical and mental strength, as well as a great chance to make new friends. Although I am not part of the JET (popular Japanese exchange program) program, I am very happy to know people in it who organize many of these great events so I can join. Post-ride thoughts: I have a slight desire to continue this biking thing so I can go back and conquer the two day experience. We will see how that goes!

 
Here are some more pictures:

 

Sunset over the last bridge

Sunset at the last bridge

Go-Go-Magic!

The Susanoo Magic is the professional basketball team of Shimane prefecture and I had the pleasure of seeing them play last weekend. I was pretty determined to attend this game- I tried to go a few weeks ago, but when I showed up I found out they were playing in the neighboring town of Izumo instead. This time, I knew it was in Matsue and I knew it was at the city gym. It is usually a 30 minute walk which is not unpleasant because there is ample sidewalk space to avoid colliding with the cyclists who are usually on sidewalks. I left my apartment and it was raining a bit, a little windy as well, but that wasn't about to stop me. I was a woman on a mission. I wanted to explore what the culture of a Japanese professional basketball game holds. So I set out on my journey, realizing that the rain was somewhat getting worse, but found quickly the real problem was the wind. I feel like I've been in some windy situations in my life, but rarely have I felt like I am actually potentially unsafe on my feet. Of course, there were special conditions to some of this unsteadiness. I chose the second longest bridge to walk over which gets very strong winds from Lake Shinji. I had my excellent new umbrella which felt so strong, I had my basically all-terrain boots, I was determined to put my head down and walk fast. Eventually I will make it. It wasn't until after the bridge that the wind was actually a problem. I was almost to the gym, maybe one block away. I could practically smell the sweaty players. Then the BIGGEST gust of wind hit me from behind, flipped half of my brand new umbrella inside out and exposed me to the elements. I struggled to shut my umbrella thinking- umbrella makers must know this is how umbrellas die. Shouldn't umbrellas be resilient to such force? Shouldn't they just be able to flip back the other way and be okay? Maybe some umbrellas do that, but not my sweet darling. I ran into the building from there because I was close enough, but on the way home discovered that there are some dangling jagged metal pieces on the inside. So unless I want an eyeball full of tetanus, the umbrella must go. I arrived shortly after blast off, the Magic was playing the Bulls. There weren't many seats in the upper deck left, but the woman found me a nice seat on the side-right behind the team! Cool, I'm there. All of a sudden the women around me are all asking which player is my boyfriend. Whoa- what? Just because I'm white I'm dating a player?? No- turns out I got seated in the family section. I had a nice discussion with the younger sister of the captain and met some other family members of players. The announcer was hilarious. Every time we were playing offense, a song would play and the crowd would chant GO-GO-MAGEE (Japanese pronunciation) led by our announcer. Defense was the classic "DE-FENSE" chant, nothing too exciting. During half-time, a youth basketball league came out and played a few mini-games. The little kids (6-7) played the little kids, the winner played the older kids (8-9), the older kids played the parents. It was all really adorable. The Magic played well, but the Bulls played a little better and won it in the end. The walk back was significantly less traumatic, but still rained a little bit.

I have been borrowing my coworker's bike to get prepared (mostly preparing my saddle bones) for the big bike ride this Saturday. I have ridden to work a few times and found it doesn't take long to learn where the big bumps on the route are, as well as which pants allow for proper bike-riding range of motion. I am very glad I get this practice because although there is the saying "it's like riding a bike," that doesn't necessarily mean that as soon as you get back on the bike you are as skilled a rider as you were previously. But I'm coming along. I'll be ready for the weekend, at least.

Great news- work is more exciting! We just got another student, probably will sign one who came today, AND we will be turning into traveling saleswomen. Tomorrow I travel to Tamatsukuri Onsen and - well, essentially my job is to stand there and thank the person for listening. But my Japanese coworker will be trying to get people to come to our school!

I have started to listen to TED talks every night, and highly recommend it to everyone. Tonight I listened to the one from a few days ago by the one and only Ken Jennings! I've found it's a great thing to listen to while you cook. Also- I've been super into cooking EVEN MORE! Tonight I made yellow curry with veggies including a mystery purple potato I bought on a whim. It is pleasantly sweet. Put that on some rice and mmm that is one taste bud experience I enjoy. I also made a potato-onion-eggplant rice dish and used pesto pasta sauce which turned out very well. And yesterday, for the first time, I made sushi! I put shrimp and corn inside, and before you say "corn sushi? what?!" I will tell you that corn sushi is among my top choices at the Hamazushi sushi conveyorbelt restaurant. The only difference is they load theirs with mayo and I don't buy mayo. But really, cooking is awesome. What a great new hobby. Bonus- I am getting more incentive to keep my dishes clean! Working on living the grown-up life.

The cutest coffee shop ever, right around the corner from my work. He roasts his own coffee beans!

  The game!

The little children playing! So cute

My second sushi experiment- temaki sushi

WARNING: POLITICAL

Two topics. A little bit to say.

I have been asked what I think about the situation in N. Korea being this close to them. As for my safety, I feel pretty confident that I will be alright. As for what the future holds, how am I supposed to know? How are any of us supposed to know? This is a new leader of an oppressive country. We may be familiar with how the country has acted in the past, but we have very limited knowledge of this guy's country-ruling strategies. I think all that we can do is try to enjoy our lives because unless you are a part of the national foreign policy whatever group (I ooze political knowledge), I can't think of anything we can do to change the situation. Besides move to Canada?

I don't want to get too far into the wound that is this country's battle over marriage equality because I could write a blog (not just a post, an entire blog) about that. And also, I think that of course everyone deserves to express their own opinion and a blog is unfortunately very one-sided. So I will simply leave you, my readers, with this music video by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert called Same Love. Not only do I love the message of the lyrics, but I think that the melody and composure of the entire song convey the "love is love" idea so well.

Two months?

It's weird to think that I've been in Japan for 2 months. I had that thought as I was walking home yesterday from some adventures. In an attempt to explore my subconscious, I wondered why it felt weird. It doesn't feel like the time has gone by particularly fast or slow. Maybe it feels weird because these have been the strangest 2 months of my life (maybe, except those first two months after I was born... I imagine I thought those were pretty ridiculous). In a way they have been strange because they haven't been all that strange. There are really only a couple of things that are different between my life in Matsue and how I imagine I would be living in a city in the US. There is the obvious language barrier that causes my reliance on those who can speak both languages. There are also the differences in culture, sure. But some important things are the same. I am finding a community. Not just of foreigners. Last night I met the woman who owns the flower shop with her husband around the corner from my house. I met some Japanese locals at one of the Hanami parties that I went to. I am becoming familiar with the women who work at the grocery store. Meeting especially those who are in my neighborhood makes me remember fondly the time playing outside with the neighborhood kids growing up. I am also learning to work in a professional environment. Never in my life have I gone this many days looking this level of presentable. And then of course there is the independence. It is quite simple: when moving to a foreign country alone, you will continue to be alone until you step out of your safe apartment and do something. Eventually you will make friends.

SPEAKING of making friends, I went to the mall some number of days ago and made a friend as I was heading out the door to go home. I feel strange giving away other people's personal information or names on my blog (even though I have done it in previous posts) so I will see how long I can go without saying her name. After exchanging information, we decided to hang out sometime because she is new to Matsue (although not to Japan). This past weekend we went to Tamatsukuri Onsen (the same place I went on the map tour) and looked at the beautiful cherry blossoms that line the street. We put our feet in the hot foot bath, enjoyed some cream soup, and ate some cake. It was my first experience taking the train out of Matsue station and I came out relatively unscathed. They are local trains so they are louder and rustier and creakier but we could easily find seats to a "big" tourist spot on a Sunday, so it's not a big deal. When we got back, we had dinner at the Italian restaurant on the second floor of the glass building near the station. I never know what to call this building. It is part restaurant, part gym (with pool.. on the 5th floor?), maybe part museum. I'm not sure- and I'm not sure it matters. Here are some nice pictures.

 Hanami at night. Some people care if there are people in the picture they don't know. 

Some people don't realize it happened until they review the pictures.

 Walking from the Tamatsukuri Onsen Station to the main road was prettier than the main road.

 If I saw the castle at night, I had to go back and see it during the day.

 So I did

I don't have an oven or a proper lid for my good frying pan but I do have an unhealthy love for frozen pizza.

This is the result.

Here's something I found out while editing this post late into the night: my upstairs neighbor snores super loud. The fact that I can hear his (or her? really it's a he, I saw him once. I just didn't want to rule out a loud woman-snorer) snoring means one of two things, or maybe two of two things:

1. These snores are monster growls and I should probably watch out.

2. Since this is the first time I've heard the snores, I must keep my neighbor awake with my music that I play almost all of the time that is not necessarily what I would put under the quiet category. It's not blaring, but I have to be able to hear it through my whole apartment, ya feel me?