Hiking Japanese-style

I just had a wonderful hike up Mt. Tenjo, The beautiful ancient volcano looking over the island of Kozushima where I'm staying for these days. This Island is known as one of the Tokyo islands and is 180 Km away from Tokyo. A jetfoil took me here in 2 1/2 hours.

 This Island is a beautiful mixture of beaches, rocks, a Hot Springs that spills right down into the ocean, quaint little town, and a big mountain to climb.

This island mainly lives off of the fishing industry.

It is very remote and has had some struggles economically over the past 10 years. Check out this abandoned resort.

The pool looks good but it's completely full of algae.

Chopsticks are scattered all over the floor.

Very strange.

But the rest of the island is lovely.

Yesterday I had a swim in the ocean. I took a selfie to prove it.

And came home to another lovely fish meal. Six different kinds of fishes last night. Notice also the tatami mats we had dinner on. There was basically no chairs at all in the house. You can see the position the other family is sitting in. At the top of the picture. They somehow grow up being able to sit on their knees. Not me… It was a pretty squirmy mail and short-lived because of a sore back. :)

The next day was a beautiful scramble/hike up to the top of Mount Taijo The main mountain hovering over the island.

Based on this experience I have a couple of recommendations to make for the trail builders and the Kootenays:

1. We should be building stairs right up to the top of our mountains.

2. Where you can't put stairs, we should be marking every rock and boulder with a yellow stripe so we know exactly where to place our feet. Today I felt guilty placing my foot somewhere else then the yellow marking.

3. We need to sprinkle more shrines and temples along our trails. Considering that this mom has been claimed for the last 2000 years every nook and cranny has special significance. Check out some of these sweet little temples and shrines.

4. If people are going to write graffiti near the top, we need to train to have them chisel calligraphy into the rock. Here's some several hundreds year old calligraphy graffiti.

5. and finally we need to do something about those rock cairns at the top of our peaks. Just a simple rock keep? Won't do it all! Check out the peak top pillar with its Decor on top. Can't miss the fact that you're at the top. Who's going to get on this for Mt. Loki?

I finished the day today in the pouring rain soaking in the hot springs. These hot springs are made into pools that look right over the ocean. Then there is always the private male and female section where you go in naked, you scrub yourself, and you have a wonderful relaxing time. This Hot Springs had a sauna, A cold pool, A whirlpool, and a very hot pool. 

 I had several interesting conversations with a doctor from Tokyo and an international aid worker from Kanazawa. Find me some people who spoke enough English to have a real conversation with. 

My Japanese conversations are still pretty short: hello, how are you, I am Canadian, I am so sorry, I understand a little Japanese, this is beautiful, this is delicious. And then I run out of things to say.

Back at the bed-and-breakfast for another sumptuous meal of seven different fish this time.

The next day was a steep grind on my bicycle up an overpass and to a whole Other bay called Tako bay. I celebrated making it up to the pass without getting off my bike. Grunt grunt.

Then went swooping down through the deep rain forest woods with beautiful clumps of azaleas nestled in the woods all over the place. You can see the road in the second photo.

Here was another long windswept beache with towering cliffs above. I scrambled on the beach to a series of ocean caves.

 That evening, as I tried to walk off all the fish protein I ate that dinner, I took a shortcut through an alley. I have come to trust alleys in Japan as going to interesting places. Sure enough I stumbled into a mysterious old Temple compound surrounded by massive hundreds of years old trees and statues. I was the only person there in the setting sun and it was very dramatic as I felt the hovering presence of the gods.

I took the slow boat back to Tokyo ( 8 hours as compared to 2!) because the jetfoil was all booked. As we took off from the dock the crew hands were there waiving until we disappeared from sight. This happened at every single port we stopped at. Part of the Japanese culture. They do this at train stations also.

The boat was packed full of families and students who had been out camping for the holidays. It was interesting to see that the boat had almost no chairs at all. Every room was set up with tatami mats and every person had a slot to lay on. People were just laying all over the boat comfortably.

So now it's back to the big city, Tokyo, and to work. My mind is full of thoughts of my family all over North America... And me in Asia!

This country still continues to amaze me with all the new discoveries I make on a daily basis.

Celebration at work

Friday was a milestone day for our fledgling Bunka Suginami Canadian International School. The big draw for our program is that students attending our program will not only get a full Japanese highschool graduation but also a BC Dogwood graduation certificate as well. The short hand for our program is the DD (double diploma) program. With these diplomas they will be able to enter any Japanese or BC university of their choice.

I made sure to take her around the school and show her some of the amazing club activities here that the girls are so good at.

Kendo:

Traditional archery with the target at 200 m.

And of course the whole Noginata team wanted a photograph with us.

Here are some of Our girls who brought me a birthday cake along with Gloria from the MOE and Maggie, our offshore rep who got everything going.

The only catch in all of this is that we had to open our school without the final inspection due to the timing of the Japanese year. So... We were inspected this last Thursday and Friday by an auditor hired by the Ministry of Education. Gloria has done audits all over the world and was very thorough. Everybody was on pins and needles hoping the audit would go well.

On Friday afternoon (my birthday) all staff associated with our program on both the Japanese and theCanadian side gathered in the large conference room to hear Gloria's report. 

My wonderful Japanese co-teachers.

She reported a whole series of commendations for the creative work we are doing (especially the co teaching part in which I share the chemistry, math and biology classes with unilingual Japanese teachers). She usually gives a list of recommendations but said that she was so pleased with how well we were prepared that she had NO recommendations. Everybody sighed a huge sigh of relief and shook each other's hands. We are the first certified offshore BC school in Japan; yippee!

To celebrate our owners had a sumptuous barbecue setup for us at a five star hotel. We were set apart on a table set outside on the deck in the beautiful sunshine as the sun set over Tokyo bay. As the champagne was poured and the prawns and shrimp were cooking I watched the lights come on all over Tokyo with all of its garish modern architecture and flamboyant lights. 

This was really a birthday to remember and I feel blessed to be working in such an amazing place!

Planning for Shelley's elusive 60th birthday party...

So this is one of the BIG markers in Shelley's life. She turns 60 on May 3. Of course I have been planning for a year her birthday to make a big celebration out of it and to truly mark this important life passage.

My first plans were all based in the Kootenays. I had the vision of doing a "serial birthday" all over the Kootenays, touching base over a 24 hours in all of the communities where she has worked and touched people's lives: Kaslo, Nelson, Fruitvale, Salmo, Trail, Rossland, New Denver and Silverton. I had visions of a trail of visits, pot-lucks and surprises.

But then, somebody had the brilliant idea to move to Tokyo as a surprise gift so... we began planning a Tokyo shindig which included a jetfoil boat trip out to the Izumi islands eight hours off the coast of Tokyo for some bicycle adventures there. We have the boat booked, the b&b booked, everything is good to go.

Much to our concern Helene had a serious mountain bike crash and ended up with a severe concussion. Shelley and I both decided that the best place for her to be right now is helping Helene recover so... Shelley will be celebrating her 60th back in the Kootenays and I will be Touring the Izu islands on my own for hers and my birthday.

So, knowing this was how we were going to celebrate our birthdays I decided to take Shelley on a shopping spree for her birthday. Here is the photographic evidence of where I took Shelley shopping!!!!

By the way, ALL of these stores on one street called Omotesando. Every third car is a Porsche, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini or Ferari; it's incredible!

We first HAD to stop at the Barbie shop so she could buy a Barbie outfit for her arrival in Vancouver!

We had to ward off a few other shoppers on the way as we hunted for those perfect shops...

Starting with the Ralph Laureni; why just have a store when you can have a whole building stuffed full of exciting items?

And then we did a little weaving through traffic to hit the Channel store for that perfect "Je ne sais quoi". Luckily Dior was just next door so we didn't have to carry those shopping bags too far!

Shelley was relived, as you can see, that she found one her favorite stores. No shopping trip is right without this one!

But what about those little extras? Ah yes, there is the Louis Vutton!

We needed to mix up the cultural origins of her shopping so we added a few London touches.

Stopped in here for the evening outfit for walking down Front Street in Kaslo...

Picked up a couple of set of shoes here to have SOME variety on the Wardner trail...

And finished off the day with a chat with Stella. We picked up a few items here to make Stella feel good!

I, on the other hand, did my usual "I won't spend THAT much on a shirt" shopping spree at this well set-up store in the back alley:

We finished off Shelley's pre-60 bash with a well earned drink at the local community organic sake and micro-brewery beer and food stalls. 

Happy 60th Shelley! I am honoured to be your husband and thank you for the many adventures we have shared over so many years!

*****footnote: Of course part of the reason we can continue to afford adventures is that we only LOOK through the windows at all of these outrageous stores. Thank you Shelley for sharing the true meaning of life with me. Our love, our laughter, our family, our friends and our dreams have been what is important to us, NOT the label on our clothes.  :)