Cheerless Murmurings - Week 53 (May 19 - May 25)

Cheerless murmurings

Week 53

Time rolled on much as it had the past year in Koganei. Classes drifted by as though in a haze of laughter, talking points and target language structures. The high of having stayed in Japan for more than one year continued to drive me forward. Summer was just around the corner and the weather was really starting to get warm for the first time. The cicadas would soon be chirping their way to oblivion and the summer flowers would be enjoying their short bursts of glory.

Much like the cicadas and flowers, news of unusual and interesting events were short this week. The usual barrage of karaoke singing and plastic instrument playing echoed through the streets of Shimo-Kita-Zawa on Monday, but otherwise this week remained not much more than a mishmash of the rest...

Writing somewhat gloomily...

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello

American Bowl - Week 52 (May 12 - May 18)

Since almost every picture this week has students in it I can't post it publicly on the net. So instead you get Sean harvesting the booty of Kayoko and I!

American Bowl

Week 52

This week marked not only my birthday, but also my receiving of what is likely the worst birthday present I could possibly ask for: Kayoko leaving. She was returning back to Wisconsin in order to continue her education over the summer at University. Good move, but sad to see her go.

That Saturday was her last day teaching at Musashi-Koganei before she returned to the US to pursue her studies over the summer at university. It was a pretty emotional week at the school with few of her classes finishing with perfectly dry eyes. Definitely a bittersweet week if there ever was one.

Friday afternoon was great though because I had a most awesome of surprise parties. It was in one of my afternoon classes. Right after the class I was surprised to see one of the new sub teachers that would be taking over for Kayoko come into the class with a little tree of cupcakes. It was super awesome and I was kind of embarrassed. I got really nice gifts from my students too, including one for my mom which I will give to her when I get home. I was still super shocked and embarrassed though. I really wasn’t expecting it.

I was also starting to get to know Sakurako, the new manager! She’s very cool (I’m actually sitting next to her while she researches hiking routes for me as I write this) and had just started before golden week.

But that really wasn’t the big part of the week. The big deal was Sunday’s good bye party/birthday party thing. It happened in Koganei park, and featured what is now tradition when teachers leave the school: a nice, big, barbecue. Japanese style of course, so yaki-soba and yaki-niku, not burgers and hotdogs.

It was a fantastic party actually. Sean came along as well, which was nice because he got to reconnect with his old students. Sakurako was also really meeting many of the students for the first time. It went splendidly. This was despite the rather cold, windy weather. Didn’t matter though, the conversation kept us warm! That or climbing trees, which I did between snapping pictures of students and talking to everyone. The beer helped too.

The BBQ broke up around 5 after a few group photos and a tearful goodbye speech by Kayoko. After a long walk to the parking lot Kayoko and a few of the students acquired transportation to the bowling alley for the second half of the party. Sean and I dropped by my apartment to drop off some supplies before following them.

Bowling was much the same as the barbecue. Great time, everybody was really happy and we even had a few students that don’t usually turn up to the parties. I can’t say that I kicked ass, I think I only came in around 8th of 19, but I was pretty content with my bowling prowess after I got into the swing of it. One of my younger students was there, Taiki, and we totally dished out massive high-fives. It was great fun. I think Mr. Clarke (some of you know who I mean) said it best when he quipped ‘it’s your own fault if you don’t have fun at bowling. You should be excited and ebullient’ or something along those lines.

We finished off at around 10 and everyone went their separate ways. It was a great send off for Kayoko, I think it really helped close that chapter of her career and life.

Monday…well…you know what I do Mondays, reprise my erstwhile position as rock singer at Ben’s place in Shimo-Kita-Zawa. How can you beat that for a weekend though? Parties all weekend long!

Partied out…

Ian “Mello Yello” Cantello

Annual Encounter - Week 51 (May 7 - May 11)

The waterfall I passed by early on in the hike.

Shortly after spooking the deer, this mountain ahead and the ridgeline to the right of the picture I would navigate on the way to the hut for the night.
Sunset. Bad news for yours truly.

At the time the sunset I had already navigated that ridgeline. I had another crest to conquer before reaching the hut.

Accommodation. Check it out, kotatsu, and my gear. The gear is also pretty light as you can tell. I was trying to keep the weight down. This is the morning of the second day at about 5 am

Out the door, a nice view of the hut at dawn.

0.2 km? Really? It's that close? What a joke...

Summit of Kumotori-san, 2018m, mmmmmm Fuji.

Kung Fu, cause, you know, I used to do it.

And one final view from the top before it was time to get out of there.

The emergency hut at the top of the mountain.

You know, the one problem with Fuji is it's very difficult to shoot anything else without making it part of the centerpiece...

Fighting a war in the South Pacific would have sucked.

This doesn't look like it, but it's a view straight down the trail...you can't faintly see the switchbacks in the foreground. This is nearing the end of the hike.

Ah, the small mountain town of Oku-Tama. Nice to be out and back in civilization.

Annual Encounter

Week 51

Well, back to the grind again. Fortunately it was a very short week back from holiday. Golden Week ensured that it was only a three day week to get back into the habit of things, which I adjusted to no problem. It also meant I didn’t have very much time to plan a very big event (in my mind). The weekend of the 10^th and 11^th would mark my first multi-day hike and entirely solo no less. Kayoko was kind enough to set up my accommodation at a mountain hut for the night and so, after a short week, I was up and ready to hike on Sunday at the crack of…10.

So…that’s not good.

The mountain I was climbing that day was Kumotori-san, the tallest mountain in Tokyo prefecture, but only just. It sits right on the border of Saitama, the prefecture that begins immediately north of Tokyo and runs further into the mountains. Unfortunately, I didn’t spend very much time examining the outline of the hike in my guide book before heading out. I’d thought the trailhead was only a couple of hours out from Koganei. It turned out to be closer to 4. Not only that, but bad connections resulted in an even longer trip to the mountain than I expected. There was an extra bus ride and train trip involved...

After previous experiences I had promised myself to avoid starting a hike late enough in the day that darkness would ever be a concern. Unfortunately I violated this tenant at the beginning of this hike. Having hit the trailhead at a little past two PM, I started out on the hike anyways. It began nicely enough, crossing a bridge over an extremely deep river valley. I was too rushed to snap a photo though.

A short hike up the slope saw me arriving at…a construction site.

There was supposed to be a cable car there that would cut out 1100 vertical meters of the ascent. This was a serious problem, as I was already far behind my original schedule and now was definitely not going to make it in time for my 6 PM dinner deadline.

Fuck.

So, being foolish and bull-headed, I started trudging up the mountain to get to Mitsu-mine-jinja where the more horizontal portion of the hike begins. Let me just also state that the first sign I passed on the trail was one warning about kuma (bears), so I was put on edge pretty early.

I passed by a beautiful waterfall low on the trail and shortly afterward, while traversing across a fold in the ridge, startled a few deer that dashed off quickly into the undergrowth.

By the time I achieved the ridgeline I’d already drank all of my water and was panting with the exertion. It wasn’t a hard climb but it was extremely warm and humid for early May. Also, as I would later learn in the South Alps, having a hydration bladder leads to much better water conservation.

Anyways, I still had a good few hours of hiking ahead of me, so quickly buying a couple more bottles of water at a hut, I soldiered on across a pretty level and well defined path.

Things went well at first. The first hour or so was quite easy and level, so I was lulled into a false sense of security. It wasn’t until I had the first of the two rugged rises that the path would climb over that I realized I’d perhaps bitten off more than I could chew. It really didn’t help that my concern about the 6 PM deadline had lead me to forget about pacing myself.

Having summited the first of the two peaks I would attain before walking down into the col that held my hut for the night, I noticed that the sun was now only about 20 minutes away from setting which spelt really bad news for me. After snapping the last two pictures of the dusk I pushed on through the woods, wary of the approaching gloom that signalled night. Before long I’d lost enough light that I could no longer see properly and had to breakout my headlamp that I carry with me at all times. It was around this time too that I noticed my right knee start to hurt. I have a tendency to favour my right leg when stepping up, so I figured that I just put more strain on that one. It had been a while since I’d been out hiking anyways, the one in Malaysia having been not too difficult. Guess I was a bit out of shape.

The second rise conquered, I headed down towards the place I’d be staying, Kumotori-sanso. At this point, walking along with my improvised walking stick in the pitch dark, I was getting kind of nervous. The path certainly wasn’t very precarious, but I was tired and worried about running into some forest denizens that might be unfriendly. I’d spooked a number of dear on the way from the first to the second rise, which was initially surprising then quite impressive as I watched them bound lightly up extremely steep pitches. But, with my iPod on in one ear and singing out loud I kept on plugging forward.

That was until I looked to my left about 10 meters into the woods and saw two eyes illuminated in my headlamp light.

Needless to say, that scared the shit out of me. I froze initially then yelled “Hey” loudly. Whatever it was that was looking at me quickly ran about 3 meters to the right and stopped, looking at me again. I yelled again and it moved a little more before stopping to gaze at me again. At this point I decided it was time to book it. So, moving slowly away while facing the eyes, I pushed on ahead through the woods. After moving out of sight I started to walk faster, casting frequent gazes behind me to make sure I wasn’t being followed.

Whatever it was, it didn’t follow me. My guess is it was either a tanooki or a monkey. I think it was probably too small to be a bear and didn’t sound big enough to boot, unless it was rather young. Regardless, this encounter dissuaded me of ever risking a late departure for a hike again. Going through woods like that is scary as hell at night.

My encounter with the unknown life form occurred about 10 minutes before I reached my hut. 8:30 PM, fully two and a half hours late. After sitting and resting I ran into one of the hut owners. She set me up for the night in a private room that looked like it was ready to sleep about 10 people but just held me and a kotatsu for that night. The hut was very well appointed and comfortable, although I wasn’t yet used to the routine of mountain huts.

At 9 PM it was lights out, whether you wanted to go to bed or not. I wasn’t quite sleepy yet since I had made the fool’s mistake of staying up until 3 AM the night before. My sleeping schedule wasn’t adjusted enough to permit me to fall asleep easily so instead I read a bunch of my William Gibson novel by headlamp light.

Soon though, it was bed time. I slept poorly and intermittently.

The lights snapped on and the intercom rang out an alarm at 4:30 AM.

Awesome.

I wake up, still exhausted from the ordeal the night before, pack up my gear, and stumble to the dining room for a Japanese style breakfast. For the uninitiated, that would be fish, rice, a raw egg to go on the rice, as well as some pickles, natto (if you want it) and, of course, tea and miso soup. Doesn’t sound great from a Canadian point of view, but I got pretty fond of this fare in my later adventures.

After belting down breakfast (I missed dinner the night before) I brushed my teeth, bought some water at 500 yen a bottle, and headed out.

The actual climb to the summit of Kumotori was a huge anti-climax. It was a very gentle, short walk up to the top, as it was only 20 minutes from the door of the hut. Woo… Even then, at 2018 meters, Kumotori-san was the highest mountain I’d been on since Fuji in the August previous. I spent a little while hanging around at the top striking kung-fu poses and looking at a snow covered Fuji off in the distance before packing up and heading down.

I must say, the rest of the day was fairly unremarkable. It was just a long, slow 8 hour walk down to the end of the hike in Oku-tama, the same place I’d hiked out to a few months early when I went for my hike at Mitake-san. It was nice enough walking through those woods, enjoying the few views I had of Fuji before the really thick forest closed in.

I saw a bunch of birds on the way down, including a little black capped chickadee-like bird that followed me from tree branch to tree branch for five minutes. That was pretty endearing.

But yeah, there really wasn’t much to report from that hike out. Just a long slow walk. I was out of the woods and back in civilization by 2 pm, having begun the journey out at 5:30 AM or so. Long hike.

And that was it! This hike was sort of a celebration for me. It marked the one year anniversary of me arriving in Japan, the day of my landing in Narita having been May 10^th, 2008. And what a year it’s been! I had a second celebration the next week, but that’s for the next blog.

Remaining scared of the dark…

Ian “Mello Yello” Cantello

Singapore and The Trip Home - Week 49 and 50 (May 4th - May 6th)

Pulau Tioman departures committee.

The pier at five AM. Nothing better.

Our breakfast. Roti in Mersing.

Hindu temple in Singapore.

Buddhist temple beside Hindu temple in Singapore.

I got yelled at by a security guard for taking this picture...

I thought this was a particularly precarious way to dry your clothes.

The market we checked out in Singapore. It was pretty busy.

Okay...sorry about the long obscure quote, but it must always accompany this picture: "A man has a choice...I chose the impossible. I built a city where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the great would not be constrained by the small. Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality...I chose to build... Rapture."

Flashing green men are the best kind.

How much international intrigue has gone down in the bar of this hotel? I do know this month, they created a pretty damn famous drink.

There's a bit of construction near downtown Singapore. Mostly on reclaimed land it seems.

And there's downtown Singapore, plus the Merlion.

And there's a bedraggled Canadian in an ugly blue shirt.

Allow a photographers conceit for a minute. This photo is frustrating because the plant in the foreground is out of focus. If it had been shot in Landscape or with the building out of focus it would look good. Alas, it was not.

These grow on the street!

Colonial District.



Singapore and The Trip Home

Week 49 and 50

Well, there’s nothing worse than finishing off a trip by waking up ass early to make it to the ferry that will take you back to the boring old mainland, but that was the start of our journey home via Singapore. Early, early god damn wake up, and out on the pier by 5:30 AM. I had a wonderful little time while I waited for Winny and Melissa to finish getting ready. I sat outside on the porch with petting a stray kitten.

The ferry ended up being a half hour late, which really, really pissed me off. That rage was mildly alleviated by watching the squid flit around beneath the pier in the pre-dawn glow.
Finally the ferry arrived and we were Mersing bound. I tried to sleep on the boat, but no dice. I just ended up sleepily watching the Stephen Chow movies they played on the DVD player. It was a bit too early in the day for Kung Fu Hustle.

We pulled into Mersing at 8:30 AM and, after dodging the approaches of a few cabbies, started the short walk out to the bus/taxi terminal deeper within the city. On the way we ran into a woman by the name of Daniella who was going the same direction as we were. She was some kind of business development worker who had recently finished in South America and was now on a tour of South East Asia, doing the solo-backpacker thing. She tagged along with us to the station where we had some roti for breakfast which was excellent. When we found out that the busses were fully booked, we decided to do the natural thing, which to take a cab all the way to Singapore.

I got the front seat, which had both its pros and cons. The pros were that the AC was doing its thing for me…not so much for those in the back seat. Also, I got to see the roads we’d whipped past a couple of nights ago in the dark. The Cons? I got to see the roads we whipped past a couple of nights ago in the day. Oh yeah, and the constant tension caused by the driver continuously trying to edge around massive transport trucks on curvy roads. Malaysian drivers have this wonderful thing they do where, if they’re on the road and it looks like there’s no one coming in the opposite direction, they drift over onto the center line. It was nerve wracking to say the very least. By the end of the trip I was envying the passengers in the back seat who had been lulled partially to sleep by the stifling A/C-less atmosphere.

Arriving at the cab depot we switched over to a different cab, one tasked specifically with making trips across the border to Singapore, or so it seemed. The driver was pretty pro.
Before long, we were in the short queue to enter the city state of Singapore. It was an interesting shift of visuals waiting in line there. As soon as we entered the massive customs complex the quality and price of vehicles around us greatly increased. This spoke to the obvious prosperity that Singapore has enjoyed and the last few decades. We had a slight complication getting through the customs paperwork and had to have our bags examined, but it was ultimately no problem.

Once we were dropped off in downtown Singapore we were on our own. After getting some Singapore dollars and consulting our Lonely Planet book, we were off and searching for a place to stay. A few inquiries and about a half hour of walking later landed us at what could be very, very loosely defined as a hostel. It bore a much closer resemblance to a hotel, especially after the price of our room for 3+ was quoted at 240 Singapore dollars. That’s kind of REALLY expensive for a hostel. This was especially true considering our room did not have a TV and the shower required priming of the water heater before hot water would be available. I know that in a hostel you wouldn’t expect this anyways, but for $240 SD, I’d expect a little something extra. Also, the desk clerk was kind of unfriendly, bordering on downright hostile. I think our showing up without a reservation frustrated her. Again, it’s a FUCKING HOSTEL.

*sigh*

Daniella did not check in with us. After lunch at a local food court she split off and went to meet up with a friend of hers who lives in Singapore. And so, our group was down to three.
What followed was basically just a long walking tour of Singapore. We spent a good while walking through a very large market in the center of the city, perusing T-Shirts and other things. We also visited a few different temples. Singapore, much like Penang, maintains a cornucopia of places of worship in relatively close proximity to each other. Our ultimate goal in these wanderings was to find the Merlion which required at times some fairly unconventional navigation of shopping malls and busy city streets.

Singapore is very beautiful. It is chock full of well manicured gardens and revels in its liberal application of green spaces. It’s also exceptionally clean. This of course all comes at the cost of some of the freedoms normally associated with other cultures. I mean, come on, this is a city where it used to be illegal to chew gum. There’s still a fine for spitting it out on the ground. Clean is clean and Singapore accepts no substitutes.

After a good amount of path finding we finally hit the harbour and, against a backdrop of towering sky scrapers, found the symbol of Singapore itself, the Merlion. We admired it as it contently sprayed water out into the harbour.

From there it was a nice walk back through the colonial and administrative district of the city. Impeccably maintained, it was almost like visiting Britain for a day (or so I imagine). The sun was setting fast though and before long it was back to the hotel room to get refreshed and head out for dinner.

Our last meal overseas was in a beautiful little boutique restaurant. We ate Middle Eastern food, shish kebab and pita. It was delicious. We also shared a Singapore Sling, the birthplace of which we’d wandered past earlier, the Raffles Hotel.

It was a great meal too. The wine was well matched and it gave us a great opportunity to reflect on the trials and tribulations of the last week. It was a great way to finish off our short day in Singapore.

Dinner complete, straight to bed.

Next morning we woke early of course, rolling out of bed at 5:30 AM. After once again having to fight with the hotel desk staff, we had a cab and were off along a beautiful orchid-bedecked highway within minutes. The 8 AM flight soon saw us on the way home to Tokyo. I of course failed to sleep again, but managed to watch Gran Torino, The Road To Perdition and The Bourne Identity on the way back. In flight movies are a terrible thing…

Landing in Narita in the mid afternoon we quickly bid farewell to Winny who was bussing back to Fuji-Yoshida. Then Melissa and I had lunch in an airport restaurant before boarding the Narita Express back to our respective homes.

The next day I still had off so It was merely relaxation. I think in the PM I actually did end up going to Ben’s to partake of a bit of Rock Band, but I’m not entirely sure. I’m writing this about 3 months afterwards, so the events are a bit fuzzy. Ben had just returned from Vietnam where he had been travelling with his girlfriend. He had a pretty wild time it seemed, even having lost his wallet shortly after arriving. Crazy.

Anyways, that was Malaysia and Singapore! Another amazing trip I believe…

Finally finished writing about it…

Ian “Mello Yello” Cantello