Shirakawago

Forgot to answer questions last time.
Ana, it's great to hear from you!
As for my research methods prof, I'm pretty sure his background is anthropology.  As for your Cambodia blog, even though you're back now I still want to hear all about it~!
--

This past weekend we had our IES field trip to Shirakawago and Takayama. 
First I'm going to talk about Shirakawago because I liked it much better and it was gorgeous.

It's an old village, a world heritage site, apparently, up north.  It gets tons of snow, as much as 4 meters, our guides told us.  So it's full of a-frame style houses to keep the snow and the rain from collapsing in the roofs.

The first thing we did on our trip was stop at the Toyota Eco Institute and go on a nature hike!

We ate our bento (boxed lunches) and then got some time to wander around. 

I saw my first trace of fall, which was really exciting! Even though it was the end of October, it’s been warm almost non-stop.  Around 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit I think.  So it feels like this never-ending summer here.  It’s kind-of trying for me, actually, to not have seasons.  I feel like the summer’s just dragging out forever, even though it’s already November.  Like I’m caught in a time slip or something, and I’ll never be able to escape to the real world!  So it was really nice to go somewhere where there was a trace of seasons.

Then we met up with our guides, who were really cute. I guess they do a lot of tours for children, but that was fine by us.  It made their Japanese easy to understand!  We had three tour guides: a man and a woman who were working there and a slightly younger man who was apparently an intern.  They all wore these red outfits, hats, cargo vests, and were carrying big camping backpacks. 

The instructions we got were the following:
If you see bees, stop and be quiet until they leave you alone.
If you see a bear, start making a lot of noise and it will scare them off.  Also the guides are all carrying what basically amounts to bear pepper spray so be aware of that.

The hike, or, well, nature walk, more like, was dedicated to teaching us the relationship between Shirakawago’s people and the forest.  It was actually really interesting.  It reminded me of home, and going to nature centers and walking around in the state park as a kid, which was perfect because honestly I was feeling a bit homesick during that week.

Along the way our guides would pull out interesting things from the forest or point out different plants and explain them to us.

For example, a walnut tree.  One of our guides pulled out several empty walnut shells from his pocket, one split in half and one with the center bored out.  He said “What kind of animals do you think did this?” and we had to guess.  “The split in half one?” Squirrel? A bird? People?
He said “The truth is I have the animal in here!!” and pointed to his backpack.
As I was starting to wonder about animal cruelty he pulled it out.
TA-DAA! A squirrel stuffed animal! 

Bears also eat walnuts.

Look at how tall these trees are!

One tree in particular the guides pointed out was very strong and flexible.  The thing the guide is holding in this picture is the old fashioned Japanese version of a snow shoe, made from those tree branches.  The two middle slats are where you put your foot. 
Interesting, right?  I thought it was.

Since Shirakawago apparently looks like this in the winter, they’re necessary.


At one point Mikki, the intern, was made to put on a bear costume.  I don’t remember why.  But it was super cute, right?  (Oh man, my English is starting to sound like Japanese.  “Omishiroi deshou?” “Mecha kawaii ne? Ne?” all this “right??” is very Japanese, particularly Japanese girls.)

Another thing they showed us that was really cool was this other tree.  Once you break the outer shell of bark, the inner wood is incredibly flexible.  So flexible that you can tie it in a knot.  And it’s incredibly strong, too.  So inside Shirakawago’s distinctive A-frame houses, this wood is what’s actually used to hold together the logs forming the frame of the roof!

Our guide demonstrated, pounding the branch with a hammer to break the bark and soften it up a little, then tying the branch around one of the poles of the picnic shelter.

Guess who carried that hammer up here.  Mikki.  Wearing the bear costume, carrying the heavy stuff... Definitely an intern, right? やっぱりインタンっぽいね。

One of our guys gave it a try, too, but it didn’t go as well.  He also started out with a lot drier of a branch.

We were meant to go further on our hike, but apparently there were bears or something out and about farther up the trail lately, so our guides wouldn’t take us further.
Even though I wanted to meet a bear rather badly, the guides apparently didn’t think the two of us getting acquainted would be a very good idea.
How disappointing.  Bears, you’re missing out on my good company.

Well, it was probably lucky we turned around when we did because as we were walking back we saw a lovely rainbow! 

After that we got back on our bus and drove to Shirokawago proper.  We took a group photo, and then were free to just wander around, which was lovely.  Shirokawago is the only place we’ve been to on a trip with my study abroad program so far where I truly felt like we had enough time to see everything. 

I loved Shirakawago.  It was a little cool and misty, but the temperature felt perfect to me.  The houses were gorgeous.  Flowers and persimmon trees everywhere, and along the sidewalk there were gutters with running water. Occasionally the gutters would open up into full-fledged streams, with fish and everything. 

After our afternoon in Shirakawago, we got back on our bus and stopped at our ryokan (inn) in Takayama for the night.  Which meant more giant dinners! Except this time I actually ate everything!  We got to try Hida Beef, beef this area is apparently famous for, and grill it ourselves at our seats.  It was delicious.