Mt. Isanago

We climbed Mt. Isanago.

It is already Spring.
However, it was snowing the night before.

Though it melted on flat land,
mountains still had snow.

.

We were the first climbers apart from deers.

Mt. Isanago is called 1010 track.
It has 1010 steps.
Climbing up the steps is quite hard.

Some open area has less snow as it had melted.
Most of the track had snow as they are under the shade of trees.

We reached at the top.
It was full of snow!!

On the way back to the car park,
we met some family with kids.
They had picnic packs.
They were planning to have lunch at the summit.
We warned that there were lots of snow at the top.
They kept climbing anyway.

I don't know if they had lunch there though.

T.Gray

Making charcoal

About three years ago,
my husband and I were invited to charcoal making
by his colleague.

His colleague lives in a small village in Tango.

Charcoal making steps
v
v
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After burning for long long time (maybe about 8 hours),
we pulled the burned woods...



and cover them with dirt.



Colleague's house


This was done in March.
It was a beautiful day.

Charcoal can be used as heater.
But also, it is really good to dry a room.
You keep it in a humid place.
It sucks water and keep the room dry.

We use some under our kitchen sink.

T.Gray

Should auld acquaintance be forgot...

It is the new year, 2010, the future, or so they say.

In some countries there is partying and debauchery, in others there's nothing because they believe the New Years starts on a different date. In Japan, however, there are shrines. In Japan it is custom to go to the shrines either on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. It seems to parallel Christian Christmas - the day before, the day after or both, it's your choice.

This year I went to two shrines in Mineyama. The first one is named Jotokuji). As you can see there is a lot of snow.


The custom is to go up to the bell, ring the chime once, clap and say a prayer. The idea is to scare away evil and bad luck for the new years. Here are pictures of the bell.


Most shrines offer saki and kuromame (sweet black beans) to also bring in good luck. Here are more pictures around the shrine.


There was also a second shrine named Konpirajinja located at the top of a few set of stairs. The picture below is of only one set.

At this particular shrine they had special food, charms, keitai (cell phone) straps and statues of animals depicting the new year. Last year was the Ox, this year is the Tiger. I was also excited to receive special New Years candy. This candy is especially hard and sweet. The idea is to use the mini mallet to break off pieces. It was a little difficult to no smash the candy into a thousand pieces but definately worth it.

If you get the chance to be in Japan during the New Year I would highly recommend seeing a shrine. It's a different experience and certainly more interesting than church, in my opinion.

-Rob