Family Man

I promised to write a blog on my family and so I've finally found some time to write one! Today I was at my school for a whopping 12.5 hours due to speech contest practice and then choir practice ... but more on that later. Let's cover the the family affairs first before I forget any of them.

Prior to the arrival of my family I had had quite a busy week and although I knew they were coming on the weekend I never really thought about it until Friday night when I realised I didn't actually know what time they were arriving in Japan so I set my alarm to wake me up early juuuuust in case. The plan was that my parents would call me when they arrived and then catch a bus to a nearby city and I would pick them up from there. It sounds lazy on my behalf because it is but, I mean, it takes some serious hauling of ass to get to the airport and this particular bus is an easy way to get from point A (airport) to point B (Utsunomiya). In any case my caution was worth the bleary eyes in the morning as it was a fairly early arrival, not EARLY early but you know ... before 12.

The reason my family (consisting of Mum, Dad, Kate and Tim) had decided to come in that particular week is because Japan has a bunch of public holidays strewn together in a phenomenon known as 'Silver Week'. Why not golden week you ask? Well the more astute amongst you may recall a golden week way back in the year in some month that I don't remember. The two holiday periods shared a marked resemblance in that I have no idea what any of the individual holidays are for, I'm quite busy in them and finally ... the traffic is pretty much a bitch. Unfortunately my family received the brunt of this increase in vehicular vessels on the road whilst traversing Japan on the bus. After a long plane flight they were then cramped up in a bus for several hours but EVENTUALLY they reached Utsunomiya where I picked them up and we began by cramming everything into my car...

Which was rather comical and brings to mind this particular scene, but after we all piled ourselves in we began our journey home (at this point I should recognise that before the car ride we went to go visit a shrine but I've left that out as it's not really amazing news now is it?). Everyone fell asleep in the car ride home so our first order of business upon arrival to my abode was a nap. Prior to arrival in Nippon we never really worked out what we wanted to do so after the nap we discussed details and plans.


(above from left; outside a shrine, boiling ramen)

First I wanted to show them my town, where I live and what not to let them know that I'm not living in a death trap or hell hole. On that thought we went to the graveyard near my house which is quit picturesque and gives a nice view of the town. I showed them the wonders of Trial, we fed some fish, Mum checked out the library and Dad gave an intriguing and in depth insight into the wonders of Japanese plumbing and heating/cooling. I showed them my favourite ramen place, we ate okonomiyaki, we went to patisseries ... we did a lot of eating.


I had 6 days of holiday, followed by one day of work, followed by the weekend which worked out due to an extremely nifty combo of the aforementioned public holidays and compensation for attending a sports day earlier in the month. With all this time free it made sense to go out and explore some more of Japan and the rational choice was to head north because A) I could drive there and B) I'd never been there.

Our first destination was Nikko. Does the name seem familiar to you? I have now been there 4 times with different people. Every time I go I try to see something new to keep it fresh and so this time we went to some new waterfalls which is near a huuuge lake. Or at least... we would have gone to these places at that time was it not for the humongous traffic jam blocking our entrance. To get into Nikko it's mostly all single lanes and the only way to explain this traffic jam (which appeared to be constant from every direction) would be to say that every single car park was full and cars would only be able to enter Nikko once another has left. SO! We sat in this queue for a while, got bored after a shorter while, stopped for lunch and then gave up and went home. A bit of a depressing way to start our holidays but we conjured up some new plans that night.

Our lonely planet guide recommended we go to a place called 'Matsushima' which apparently has one of the '3 greatest views in Japan'. On the way we thought it'd be nice to stop by a place called 'Aizu' and between each of these places we would stay in a hotel in 'Koriyama' which was about halfway between everything. Got that? Matsushima, Aizu and Koriyama.


The car ride to Aizu took ages, there was another traffic jam that ended mysteriously and it turned out the festival we had planned on attending was in fact the next day. HowEVer we noticed a big castle during our drivings and it's not like you see a castle every day so we investigated that instead. It was a really nice! We spent some time wandering around and seeing stuff and eventually set off to our hotel in Koriyama. I probably don't need to talk much about Koriyama as there's nothing really there. Wikipedia highlights the fact that it's a conurbation which as it turns out (after some research into the definition of the word) is less than what you'd expect for such an interesting sounding word.

The next day we headed up to Matsushima. 'Matsu' means 'Pine' as in Pinetrees and 'Shima' means 'islands'. Islands of pine trees. The weather wasn't really anything to jump for joy about but it gave the islands this eerie, mysterious feel to them. We went on the obligatory boat cruise and saw a fair few of them and they did look quite unique and interesting I think. There was also a botanical park there which was an interesting walk too. It's an interesting place - I'd recommend it.



(above; nikko 1, nikko 2)

The next night was crap town and before we left the next day we decided to give Nikko another shot and we got in this time with little to no effort and saw the shrines and the waterfalls and the lake and some autumn foliage. At this point we were pretty much sick of driving around in my small car so it was a relief to return to Otawara and spread out. The next day I had to work so I did so all that day and the next day we went to Tokyo! Tim wanted to watch the Grandfinal of AFL so we went to a bar in Rippongi that had a special thing going on. Saints lost - that's that really! We all went up the Tokyo tower but to be honest I wasn't exactly sober so I think it passed quicker than I thought...

The next day was sightseeing which was neither here nor there. I'm sorry. I've been typing for ages so I don't want to bore everyone anymore. I worked the next week while the fam traveled to Kyoto and Hiroshima and they came back to my house the next Friday for dinner/sleep and we said goodbye on the Saturday. I'm really glad they came to visit me and although it was a bit trying (you've sort of got to see my car next to my family to get the idea of what we went through) I was tremendously sad to see them go.


So that's that really! They are the experiences had with my family and I'm glad I could fill up my silver week with something worthwhile. I think my family had fun too and I'm happy that now they have seen my situation in Japanistan and that it really isn't half bad! It's pretty darn awesome if I say so! Anyone other visitors?

kris.


P.S. In answer to the choir practice; both of my schools have a cultural festival going on later this month and the PTA are doing a choir thing with the teachers which I was roped into / offered to do. We're singing two songs completely in Japanese and the rehearsal today was the my first time hearing and singing the songs and i don't think it went too bad. I'll write about that day too in the future but I really will try to do some more posts between them.

P.P.S. Do people read this anymore?