May 15 – June 15, 2020
Places we Traveled:
Hitachi, Nasu, Lake Chuzenji, Tokyo, Oarai Beach, Mashiko/Haga
Peaks:
- Hiking to the crater of an active volcano. This one was on Andrew’s bucket list, luckily we have a willing volcano to climb in our prefecture. During this time, domestic travel was strongly discouraged but in nearby Nasu “one of the Kanto region’s most well-known, active volcanoes” is easily accessed via ropeway. You can also be extra and hike the entire mountain, but we recommend the ropeway…for the “views”…then it’s just a cool (cold, windy) little trek up the rocks to the crater. If you’re as lucky as we were, you’ll also run into a group of Chinese mountain climbers carrying a watermelon.
- I finished my first large crochet project! A few people have asked about how I spend my days in Japan since I left my job in the States. I’m a pretty active and practical person, so I’ve picked up a lot of hands-on hobbies to pass the time: yogurt and kombucha making, gardening, crochet, etc. This blanket is a pretty big accomplishment for me, and Andrew likes it because I keep the aircon “too cold” (I run it at 24-25 C aka 75-77 F mostly so our house doesn’t get humid and grow mold??)
- Exploring beaches: we are ~40mins from the east coast of Japan’s Ibaraki prefecture. Now that the weather is warming up, we’ve visited a couple of the local beaches. I can’t tell you they’re perfect, but it is a novelty for this Ohio native to spontaneously head to the ocean for the day.
- Celebrating our first marriage anniversary at an onsen (natural hot spring) hotel near Lake Chuzenji. I’ve been curious but reluctant to visit any of the numerous onsens around Japan number one because I don’t necessarily want to be naked and alone with a bunch of strange women but also because I have tattoos that would be difficult (impossible) to cover and visible tattoos are unwelcome at most onsens. For our anniversary, Andrew booked a weekend at an onsen hotel that included a private outdoor bath on our balcony. One of my great dreams in life is to someday own a hot tub (aim for the stars). So, this trip was pretty perfect for me. Lake Chuzenji is at a slightly higher elevation than Utsunomiya, so the weather was still very cool. So, the hot outdoor bath was so relaxing. We also had the hotel’s kaiseki dinner (seasonal Japanese course meal) which was very tasty.
- Impromptu weekend trip to Tokyo!! The country has be slowly reopening in the wake of the virus. So, we felt comfortable making the 40-minute shinkansen trip to Tokyo. For the first time since February, we experienced some essential services like wood-fired pizza and really, really good coffee. For anyone curious, outside of eating and drinking we wore masks at all times during this trip. Yes, even while strolling around Ueno Park, fully outdoors and away from any crowds. We washed/sanitized our hands frequently at the freely available sanitization stations outside of almost all businesses. It was relatively safe.
Valleys:
- Giving up on bucket list items we were excited to do while we are living in Japan. The hiking trails to summit Mt. Fuji are closed for this year, the Japanese and Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 races are canceled, there will be no summer Hanabi (fireworks) Festival, the Olympics are postponed, and the border to Japan (and pretty much everywhere else) is closed until some TBD date. There’s an episode of Silicon Valley where two of the characters come up with an acronym (Richard is Great, but Y’know… RIGBY) so that they can shorten the time it takes to complain about their friend while still acknowledging they like him and he’s generally a good guy. Japan is great but, y’know. We are healthy and happy, but…y’know… Obviously we are very lucky but…y’know??
