Last week I deployed a couple days paid vacation and journeyed to Nagano, where I spent five days with my good pal Abby Augusta. She lives in a small town just an hour north of Nagano City called Saku, where one can find a goat farm and wholesome towny characters of varying eccentricity (such as the Mushroom Lady, whose borderline inappropriate affection Abby has been stricken with for some time now). After the pleasant trip (three trains, a bus, and a bicycle), Abby and I cooked up a Mediterranean feast of falafel, hummus, tabbouleh, and pita (a rare find in Japan, but I’d been collecting the ingredients one month prior). Abby had whipped up a dish of fresh guacamole, which added a nice Latin flare to the meal. (Actually, all this talk about good food is making me sad knowing I’ve got a meager cup-o-noodles awaiting me for lunch today.)
The next morning I awoke to freshly baked banana bread and hand-drawn maps of Saku, which Abby had left for me before heading to work. I spent the day wandering the town, which was substantially colder than Nagahama (Shiga had barely entered into autumn, whereas Nagano was already transitioning into winter). Here are some of the sights I encountered:
[I followed these quiet paths from the maps Abby had drawn for me.]
[One of the maps took me to Nagano Farm, which seemed to epitomize the fall season.]
[This is Nagano Farm. There was no one else around.]
[These rabbits greeted me hungrily, which made me wish I’d brought some of the leftover falafel. This goat, on the other hand, was full of grizzled sass.]
* * *
On Friday, after a good morning run through town and another of Abby’s exquisite breakfasts, we went vanishing into the mountains for a couple days. We stayed in a thatched-roof inn (really rare) in a mountain village called Chusha. This area of the mountains is known as Togakushi, and it’s famous for soba (Japanese noodles made from buckwheat flour), which we ate a lot of (and in varying forms) throughout our stay.
The bus ride up to Chusha was steep and harrowing, and when we finally arrived it was already dark and had gotten really cold. Luckily, our room at the hostel was incredibly cozy with a closet heaping with blankets and a kotatsu table (table with a built-in heater underneath). We spent the evening reading under the kotatsu and got lots of sleep for the next day.
In the morning we went hunting for breakfast, but inevitably ended up with soba noodles. They were delicious, but we were craving pancakes and coffee (also really rare). We even drank soba tea with our noodles (which was amazing) and had soba-dango (sticky, sweet ball of goo) for dessert. Afterward, feeling initiated into the soba-laden culture of Togakushi, we trekked out toward the hiking trails.
We hiked the Togakushi plateau all day, occasionally emerging from the woods to buy soba ice cream or to tour some passing village. At one point, we crossed paths with this absurd little Ninja Village. Here’s a glimpse:
[Here’s Abby and me harnessing the art of stealth. You can see the mountains in the background (those are real, not cardboard, I swear).]
[This is Ninja Village. It’s a real village--the buildings date back hundreds of years and have since been converted into museums, coffee shops, and one is now a NINJA LABYRINTH!]
[After finding our way through the Ninja Labyrinth (a course of trapdoors and hidden passageways) we tested our Ninja skills on this Ninja Obstacle Course (ages 5 and under, but who can read those whacky signs, right?).]
[Here I am scouting for Ninjas in the Quaking Tower (seriously, the tower was on a hydraulic, causing it to wobble violently from time to time, making the spiral staircase a tad difficult to conquer).]
[Here’s me in the tower-at-rest. Check out the sweet rope bridge over yonder.]
* * *
[We got a little lost as the sun was coming down.]
[We trekked through the woods surrounding this pond and came out to this sight. I half-expected a dragon to come writhing out from the bottom of the pond ... but no, nothing like that.]
[This was the last trail of the day: a narrow, winding path blanketed in soft pine needles that twisted really, really high before plummeting back into town.]
That night we were completely wiped. We drank tea under the kotatsu and then took in 12 hours of sleep. The next day we slept past check-out time, bid reluctant goodbyes to the thatched-roof inn, and ate soba crepes and drank coffee at this nearby cafe:
* * *
The remaining details of the trip are comprised of even more reluctant goodbyes and one four-hour, standing-room-only train ride home. Care to hear about ‘em? Probably not.
5 Comments for this Entry
Erin
Beautiful stuff Nolan! It's hard to imagine that is Japan at all and not New England. I'm chotto jealous of your wonderful time!
Monday, November 6, 2006 - 06:42 PM
Ryan
as i read this i am eating yakisoba noodles (bastardized american microwave soba)!!!
Tuesday, November 7, 2006 - 04:15 AM
Val
Hi Nolan...this is Abby's mom. You have taken some incredible pictures! I loved the goat, the spider, and the Nagano farm shots. Val
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - 01:42 PM
brendabrenda
You went to heaven and you didn't even send me a ninja postcard?!!
Thursday, November 9, 2006 - 08:31 PM
KRISTIN!!
Sass is your fave word.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - 12:20 PM
This is old news! I meant to write in about the English Hiking event one month ago (it took place in early October!), but I guess I got lazy. I’ll make this quick.
Missing from this photo are the two boys, Matthew and Aran, who were probably running amok in the background somewhere. Here’s Matthew with the peace fingers and his sullen older brother in the background:
Matthew’s hands-down the cutest kid I’ve ever met. He’s six years old, but he speaks three languages (Japanese, English, and Tagalog--his family immigrated to Japan from the Phillipines just after he was born). He was so excited throughout the entire day--never complained once.
[Yoko, Aran, Ruth, and Kana]
[Yoko, Aran, Ruth, and Kana]
[Matthew chilling with some tough guy outside the Figurine Museum]
[View of Nagahama Park from the top of Nagahama Castle]
ed stones with the kids. Here’s a photo of the group:
