one adventure after another...

so i've made it home safe and sound. i’m getting back into the work routine and, as i’m at a new school this semester, there’s plenty to figure out and keep me busy. making my lunch is not one of those things that will keep me busy however, as i’m now required to eat school cafeteria food. different from schools back home, a cart filled with pots, pans and dishes is delivered to each homeroom. the middle schoolers don aprons and face masks and make a chow line on a row of desks in front of the blackboard. they take turns serving each other, passing out utensils, handing out the milk bottles, etc. it’s really quite cute but they are so darn slow, by the time everyone has food and we sit down and say the obligatory ‘itadakimasu’ you have about 7 minutes to wolf everything down. this was my first school lunch experience…

mackerel, unidentifiable veggies and beansprout / almond salad. i was nervous for a minute there, but luckily they’ve improved since my first day and i find myself actually looking forward to the healthy, filling meal.

the alaska, canada, seattle trip was really amazing. it was a nice combination of scenery unlike anything i've laid eyes on before, much desired family time, adventure sports and quality socializing. there's definitely more to come about all that once i get my pics sorted. the trip was also a bit of a turning point for me...it’s the first time i’ve returned from anywhere in the last 2+ years and had such an unexcited feeling. alaska and canada were very much vacation destinations, but seattle was a town where people are living and working in a vibrant, exciting atmosphere. i wrote a friend saying it was just kind of a let down to come back to my apartment in the countryside, surrounded by rice paddies, after having briefly experienced a place where youthful culture, good bars, great beer, social awareness, art, live music, grit, friendly people and mexican restaurants are all around you. there is so much kinetic and potential energy there. reminds me of what i went in search of 2 years ago, after i got tired of the moods and minds i was surrounded by in south carolina. here in japan, i didn’t find a booming social dynamic, just a whole bunch of bizarre stuff that’s held my interest really well up until now. i think i'll soon be ready to head somewhere that i don't have to worry about social hierarchies and cultural traditions so much, a place where i can focus more on what i'm doing and less on the mechanics of how to go about making it happen. a place more geared towards the lifestyle i'd like to be living at this point in my life. this is, at the same time, an energizing and daunting feeling. i'm going to use it to get motivated for adventure. speaking of...

the week before i went to the states, hase and i took a couple days off and went to minakami in gunma prefecture. i was talking to a friend about rafting, got to poking around online, found a website about canyoning and wanted to try it out. after some research, we booked a pension for the night and a canyoning day trip with with sports [that's not a typo]. the rainbow pension was simple and no frills, but the included dinner and breakfast were home-cooked goodness and there was a large, communal shower/bath area that we were able to enjoy together. [during our soak there was about a 15-minute power outage. the mama of the pension came barrelling in with an industrial strength flashlight for us. busted!] turned out our trip was less about the rapelling and scrambling associated with canyoning and more akin to shower climbing. i was a bit disappointed until we got to the woods and got to slipping and sliding around. although it was august, we were outfitted in wetsuits, booties, climbing shoes, fleece jumpers, something like rain jackets, fleece gloves, helmets, lifejackets and specially designed plastic sheets for your butt that facilitate sliding. our first task, to get used to the water, was in a river leading up to a small dam. our guide said we would 'tobi oriru' from there. as i attempted to conjugate that word in my head [something about flying and getting off, as in off the train] he did an effortless back flip off the dam. hase and i, along with 4 other guys in our group, took turns jumping off the perhaps 20 ft. drop into churning water. how exhilarating. then we mountain hiked about 30 minutes, over some rickety, broken, scary bridges, before getting back into the water. the first leg was rather leisurely. lots of floating on your back, navigating to avoid rocks, spilling over small drops and enjoying whirlpools. there were also some good swinging vines. i got a leech somewhere along this route that had to be snatched off. fat and disgusting. the bite still hasn’t healed. is that normal? for the second leg, we crossed over to another river and that’s where the real adventure part came in. think white-water rafting minus the raft. there were strong currents that pushed you along paths carved out of rock by this river over the course of thousands of years. the water urged us over long drops and propelled us to slither like snakes through some rather narrow slides. at times i felt like a chip in the plinko game they used to play on the price is right. eventually we poured over a waterfall and found ourselves in a beautiful gorge with steep, sheer walls covered with mosses and vines. it was breathtaking. we stopped and snorkeled for a bit there. then the current picked up again and we were cascading over natural chutes and navigating our way out of strong whirlpools. we’d cling to branches and vines until everyone had made it over an obstacle before floating on. we came upon a towering waterfall that we attempted to stand under. i got a pretty decent back massage but those who ventured farther into the falling streams got the beat down and faceplanted. after crawling around behind the fall there was a huge flat rock we slid down to make our way back into the river. there was another great jump, probably about 30 ft, off of a waterfall near the end of the course. unfortunately a camera didn’t make the trip, but here are some photos i cobbled together off of the internet. they are all from the area in minakami where we went.







these i found on someone’s flicker account. thanks ryoki!


it was incredibly nice to be interacting and engaged in nature that way. the adventure was amazingly scenic and it increased my awareness of that local area and the natural world. the guides were knowledgeable and responsible about the environment which made me appreciate how ecologically sound the experience was. what a feel good trip.