a weekend of adventure!

Saturday-

Oh, Saturday! So much adventure in such a little time. I didn’t have time to skype on Saturday morning because we went WHITE WATER RAFTING! I did miss skyping since that’s really the only time I can talk to a lot of people, but we had fun regardless. One of our friends drove us to the place, which is right outside of Hitoyoshi and about an hour from our house. We heard that the place, Land Earth, does a little bit of everything—rafting, kayaking, canoeing, and even in the winter, snowboarding. It was a ton of fun!!

We met some other married JETs. They live in Kumamoto City, but it was great to have other married people around! This is their second year in the program, so they knew a bit more than me, and it was good to get advice. The guy is the actual ALT, and the wife is his plus one. Since they live in the city, it was MUCH easier for her to find work, and she did. I wish it would be easy for Ian to find a job, but we’re way the heck out here, and there’s not really a lot around. Anyway, I know many of you are thinking why we would decide to river raft in the middle of October. Yes, the water was COLD. However, the company provided wet suits. That was my first time in a wet suit. They really are quite effective! We also had to wear life jackets and helmets. I’ve never been rafting before, so I’m not going to lie. When they were going over directions and what to do if the boat tips, etc, I was a little worried. Instructions were given in Japanese, so you can understand how that might have been a problem. :S

The river wasn’t very dangerous since it’s not rainy season. They said that during rainy season, the river almost reaches the road, which is veeeeery far up the river bed. Some of my friends were saying that THAT is the time to raft the river. Since the river was so low, there were only a few rapids, so the guides MADE it fun. Whenever we first paddled into the water, everyone starting splashing everyone else. I was the only person that brought goggles because I didn’t want my contacts to mess up, so despite the fact that I looked like a big goober, I was happy to have them. Everyone else complained about how much the water stung their faces. When we got a little farther down the river, they roped all of the rafts together and blew a whistle. Once that happened, it was every man for himself. The goal of the game was to knock other people into the river. Once I got knocked in, I stayed in. I saw other people get in only to get knocked back out. No thanks. Plus, whenever I hit the water, it was so cold that it took my breath away, so I had a moment of panic when I couldn’t breathe. The guides would also try to pull people in the river. Whenever we were back in our rafts, they would hook their paddles onto our lifejackets and pull people in.

Going over the actual rapids was really fun. Every raft would roll over the rapids, and then we would paddle back up on the non-rapid side of the river and do it again. The second time, the guide would try to intentionally flip us. I think our raft only flipped once because we were a bunch on morons that didn’t understand simple instructions, so he couldn’t flip us since we weren’t paddling the way he wanted us to.

The rafting trip took about two hours, and after that, we were bused back to Land Earth. The guides let us stay for a BBQ. Japanese BBQs are always very interesting. They’re called BBQs, but it’s basically grilling. Basically, everyone sits around a charcoal pit and grills meats and veggies. Everyone fights over the first meats and veggies to come off the grill, but there’s always more than enough to go around. One thing that they grill that I find weird but good is cabbage. You wait until the edges are a little crispy, and it’s delicious. It was raining outside during our BBQ, but we were on a front porch. It wasn’t until the roof started leaking and we had to take our BBQ inside that it sucked. Luckily, some of the guides climbed up on the roof and put tarps down to stop the leaking. We stayed for a long time eating and drinking, but when it was time to go home, we decided to stop in Hitoyoshi to play a couple of games of pool before driving back. After all of the excitement from the day, you better believe I slept well that night!

Sunday-

I said in a previous blog that Ian had promised me to go hiking on Sunday. He made good on his promise. We invited some of our friends to join us, so we had quite a nice little group. I had to pick up one friend at the train station, and then we met at another friend’s house. We had two options for hiking: Ichifusa or hike to the source of the Kuma River (the same river that we rafted). None of us had hiked to the source of the river, so we decided that it would be fun. We had no idea what we’d find….if the path was difficult, how long it was, etc. It took about an hour to drive there. It was a beautiful drive. There were lots of waterfalls coming down off of the mountains. It was also very cool the farther up we drove. We could tell that it was more of a fall season the higher up we went. Leaves blew across the road, and the trees had a slight tint to the leaves. The road was a little sketchy in parts. We had to avoid rocks, and once we accidentally ran over one only to hear it ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk under the car. Oops. :S

The hike up the mountain started relatively smooth. It wasn’t until we got to a fork that pointed difficult one way, easy the other way that the trail began to get a little tough. We took the “easy” trail, but it was far from easy. There were places where we had to crawl, where the path was no wider than the width of my forearm, where the path was washed out, where we had to slide on our butts, etc. We had to cross streams and wide, rocky, and dry creek beds. It was a little scary at points, but we did it! The source of the great Kuma River is a tiny little spring flowing out of the mountain. The water there was EXTREMEMLY cold. We all kind of wanted to drink it, but we were all a little nervous about drinking from an unknown water source. We did have lunch beside the spring. It was a wonderful little place to have a picnic lunch. There were some Japanese hikers, so whenever we left, we talked to them. They asked who we were and what we were doing there. Lol. I’m sure it’s very rare to see so many foreigners in such a remote place.

After the hike, we decided to go to the onsen (hot spring) in Yunomae. I’ve heard that it’s a really nice one, but I’ve never been there. Remember, at the onsens you have to strip down to your birthday suit and THEN get in the water. I was nervous about seeing students or co-workers there. The hot water felt amazing after a long day of hiking. There were two small pools inside and one big one outside. We started off inside but then moved to the outside one. It was like sitting in a hot tub. There was one end of the pool that sent electricity into the water. I know what you’re thinking. Water + Electricity = bad news. I don’t know how they do it, but the current is very low. It feels like tingling shooting through your body. It’s feels like whenever your foot or hand goes to sleep….except all over. It’s weird.

After the onsen, we went to a Chinese restaurant in the neighboring village, Mizukami. There were ten of us, so the owners let us have the big room. Having the Japanese version of Chinese food was different. I had this stir-fry dish called “mother and child”. The reason it was called that is because it has both egg and chicken in it, mother and child. The portions were huge, and I cleaned my plate. Some friends had to go home, but we went to another friend’s house to watch a movie. Unfortunately, I was exhausted. I fell asleep watching the movie. It was a very busy weekend, but I had a blast. After going so long without hanging out with people, that was very welcomed. I love Ian, but it was nice to be able to talk to someone in English other than him!