Ohayou Gozimasu from Lake Toya!
Showers are meant to be relaxing and warm and pleasant but our bathroom.... not so much. I can only dread what it will be like in the winter but for now I have to suffer with a pretty bad setup which I hope to rectify soon. I will upload a picture of the shower room later as I don't have one on my phone at the time of writing this (Totally not 6 days late...) but to put it bluntly... it's not the best shower room and is in need of dire renovation but as for the shower head itself.. it works great and is powerful and very easy to adjust the temperature without scalding yourself.
So once showered and fed, we were to be meeting the mayor which we had dressed.... sort of formally for. We simply put on shirts which were honestly.. very badly ironed so they still had creases left over but still, we were in a rush despite being up early. Strangely as well my partner has taken to waking up at 6am to go jogging... I swear he's insane. But anyway, we went to the town of Abuta which is about a 15 minute drive away where we met the Mayor of the town. He was a very nice man and he gave us a tour of the head offices which included the fire department and communications center which was really cool to look at. Apparently as well he doesn't show volunteers around the center so we felt rather privileged that he took the time to show us around.
We met several of the workers at the office including the board of education members who we would be staying with for some time on Thursday afternoons during our working days in Abuta. We frequently introduced ourselves in Japanese which was a little daunting but thankfully as I was used to speaking at least some Japanese it wasn't too much of a problem though my nerves got in the way quite frequently, causing me to slip up. Regardless, everyone was really impressed and commended us on our Japanese ability. At the center as well, we had our pictures taken for town article which is sent to around 400 people and we were to be on the front cover! I hope to track down one of these articles if possible but it's a little disconcerting that the entire town will now know your face and name when you don't know theirs. We had a long chat with the mayor and drank green tea whilst talking about the geo-park area which contained Mount Usu, the active volcano which erupted only 14 years ago. It was really interesting and poor Erika-san was doing her best to translate everything the mayor said as he didn't speak any English and he was using a lot of technical terms, so I am very grateful to her.
After visiting with the mayor we were taken by Taka-san around Abuta which included going on a mini hike up the hill where we had a great view of the town plus views of the volcano. One of the key things we did was look at the damage caused by the last eruption of the volcano. The Japanese left some of the debris as a reminder of the damage that the Volcano can do and that they must learn from the eruptions in order to reduce the damage caused. It was a little sad to see all the places, including a destroyed nursery which had been claimed by nature once more.
This trail lead all the way to the top of the hill which gave a great view of the surrounding area and Taka-san showed us the site of the volcano and where everything was in correlation with the eruption zone. He also gave us a bit of a history lesson and took us to the excavation site of native inhabitants homes.
Following on, we then drove to a tourist like area at the foot of the volcano which was owned by a researcher who studied volcano's before anyone else in Japan which provided essential information in predicting eruptions and how they worked which launched Japan's research into the top of volcanology. The place was really pretty and had a lot of interesting gift shops that we got a chance to look around in.
The next place is a little hard to write about as I do not want to give offence to our hosts. It was meant to be a zoo for bears but It's hard to use the word 'zoo'. Coming from England where animal rights is a very serious issue and all zoos conform to regulations that protect the welfare of animals, Japan I don't think does. The bears were cute but they seemed very unfed and their 'enclosures' were mere cages and empty concrete pits. The pits were overcrowded and didn't seem clean. The area was filled with crows and the presence of death was everywhere. It wasn't what I would call the nicest experience and whilst I am grateful for being taken, I can't say I agreed with the way the place was run. Though the staff were nice enough to us and welcomed us.
However, afterwards on the way back to Toya we stopped for ice cream at a place which overlooked the hills. There we are delicious ice cream and let me tell you, the Japanese really know how to make ice cream! It was absolutely amazing and I really wish we lived closer so I could go back for more. There is actually an ice cream shop near our house which also sells amazing ice cream but I shall tell you about that in another entry!
So once showered and fed, we were to be meeting the mayor which we had dressed.... sort of formally for. We simply put on shirts which were honestly.. very badly ironed so they still had creases left over but still, we were in a rush despite being up early. Strangely as well my partner has taken to waking up at 6am to go jogging... I swear he's insane. But anyway, we went to the town of Abuta which is about a 15 minute drive away where we met the Mayor of the town. He was a very nice man and he gave us a tour of the head offices which included the fire department and communications center which was really cool to look at. Apparently as well he doesn't show volunteers around the center so we felt rather privileged that he took the time to show us around.
We met several of the workers at the office including the board of education members who we would be staying with for some time on Thursday afternoons during our working days in Abuta. We frequently introduced ourselves in Japanese which was a little daunting but thankfully as I was used to speaking at least some Japanese it wasn't too much of a problem though my nerves got in the way quite frequently, causing me to slip up. Regardless, everyone was really impressed and commended us on our Japanese ability. At the center as well, we had our pictures taken for town article which is sent to around 400 people and we were to be on the front cover! I hope to track down one of these articles if possible but it's a little disconcerting that the entire town will now know your face and name when you don't know theirs. We had a long chat with the mayor and drank green tea whilst talking about the geo-park area which contained Mount Usu, the active volcano which erupted only 14 years ago. It was really interesting and poor Erika-san was doing her best to translate everything the mayor said as he didn't speak any English and he was using a lot of technical terms, so I am very grateful to her.
After visiting with the mayor we were taken by Taka-san around Abuta which included going on a mini hike up the hill where we had a great view of the town plus views of the volcano. One of the key things we did was look at the damage caused by the last eruption of the volcano. The Japanese left some of the debris as a reminder of the damage that the Volcano can do and that they must learn from the eruptions in order to reduce the damage caused. It was a little sad to see all the places, including a destroyed nursery which had been claimed by nature once more.
The next place is a little hard to write about as I do not want to give offence to our hosts. It was meant to be a zoo for bears but It's hard to use the word 'zoo'. Coming from England where animal rights is a very serious issue and all zoos conform to regulations that protect the welfare of animals, Japan I don't think does. The bears were cute but they seemed very unfed and their 'enclosures' were mere cages and empty concrete pits. The pits were overcrowded and didn't seem clean. The area was filled with crows and the presence of death was everywhere. It wasn't what I would call the nicest experience and whilst I am grateful for being taken, I can't say I agreed with the way the place was run. Though the staff were nice enough to us and welcomed us.
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| This is a stuffed bear... :/ |
After the ice cream we went up to a hotel called the Windsor Hotel which is a super expensive 5 star luxury hotel that hosted the G8 conference in 2001. We felt very poor going into the lobby area as that was the only place we could go but the inside was absolutely beautiful.
We stood in front of the huge glass window with live classical music being played and it really did feel like being in a movie scene such as James bond, only we were in causal shirts, jeans and trainers. I would love to explore more of the hotel however that comes with an £800 price tag as one night in the cheapest room they have costs that much, AND THAT'S NOT EVEN INCLUDING BREAKFAST OR DINNER!!!! I might stay there maybe on night but I highly doubt that will be this year. The view from that window covers the entire lake though so it's a really pretty place to stand.
Finally we were taken back to the town we were staying in and left to our own devices. However, my partner disappeared and actually went back home but there was no way in hell I could go back and sit in the ho0use with such beauty and opportunity outside so I went out with my camera and it was like Shinjuku all over again, only greener and less crowded. Here are some of my pictures!
After exploring it was finally dark and I got home after a quick shop at our local convince store. I bought what I assumed was bacon as well as udon noodles, meat sauce and mini american style hot dogs which I planned to chop and make a noodle sausage bolognese style dish... however reading Japanese instructions is not easy and let me warn you, don't try to cook it the English way because that really does not work... So in essence I had cold noodles and cold meat sauce with no actual meat... lovely. My partner meanwhile only had bacon and toast, but that was by choice. I still had to make it mind you.
Today was amazing and I really can't wait for the next. Soon we'll have the welcome party as well which I am super excited for! I'll write more soon!
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