Autumn in Aomori

 Akita Prefecture is renowned for having the highest level of English in regards to proficiency tests. And with this power, comes great responsibility – in the form of a speaking test. This week I helped one of my JTE’s test the third year students. We went through the type of questions that they would be asked (ie. Handed it to them on a silver platter) and despaired when some refused to pay attention and resultantly ballsed up their test.

The students were awarded a 1 for a correct answer, 2 for answering with some grammatical errors and a 3 if they completely stuffed it up or couldn’t answer.

Ropeway over the Autumn colours of the Hakkoda mountains

The first level involved the assessor holding up a flash card with an image on it and the students having to identify the object in English (building, chair, speech etc). For the second level they had to answer questions such as: how long have you lived in Akita (we covered that if they answered `Since~` they had to state a specific year, and if they used `for~` they were to use for ~years – though this seemed to fly over a lot of heads…), ‘Have you ever been to Sapporo?’ etc.

The third level involved the students studying a small paragraph for 20 seconds before using the text to answer questions: ‘where do people often run’ (apparently ‘where’ and ‘when’ are easily confused…) ‘How many soccer balls are there in the picture?’ and ‘what is the boy going to do?’ ‘He is wash the hands’…. It was frustrating watching some of the students second guess their grammar without being able to help them, though most of them did quite well.

Wednesday was the usual visit to the primary school, although this week I ventured to the gym at lunch time to watch the kids charging around and somehow got myself roped into a game of tag with some 4th graders. They call it oni (ogre, demon) so one person starts off being the oni and tags another who also becomes one. We had been playing with 2 onis to begin with until the kids decided I ran too fast and that I would be an oni by myself. Fortunately this meant I only had to catch one kid and then let him do the work while I had a breather. Unfortunately the kids then decided that they would all be onis and then promptly started counting down from 10 while I hightailed it away.

This exercise taught me two things: 

1. Running in ballet flats that already have a toe in the hole is not advisable (I spent that evening sewing the hole up infront of an episode of Big Bang Theory.

2. I am still fully capable of outrunning a 9 year old.

As a kid I have memories of mum explaining to my sister and I that when you’re talking to someone on the phone you need to give verbal confirmation because the person at the other end can’t see you nodding your head. My 23 year old self could do with a refresher course in phone etiquette as I have now started bowing to people on the phone, which is not only completely useless, but also looks really bloody stupid (especially when you do it in the staff room and other people are there to witness).

Friday was a skip out of school – bags in car, to Honjo to pick up Liam and then on to Akita city where we met a very bundled up Cari in her apartment (the Starks had it right: winter is coming) and headed on to the train station, stopping along the way so that Cari could ring Mengkin to inform him that she’d completely forgotten about him, that we’d already left, and that he should start running.

We graced an October fest beer festival (complete with a classy jazz guitar/double bass/vocal arrangement) where Josh met us for a couple of brews as the heavens opened on the marques.

Saturday was game day – we started the drive up to Lake Towada. The trip would normally have been about 3 hours but we at Josh’s recommendation we took a slightly longer route through the Hachimantai gorge as all the autumn colours were starting to come out in the trees.

 Here the trees don’t just turn brown and die, they put on a spectacular swan song of yellows, oranges and reds before succumbing to the harsh winters. We were all in agreement that even if we had just spent the whole day driving – it would have been worth it for a day trip – the scenery was absolutely stunning.

Tama River Dam

We stopped at the Tama river Dam….and a bridge that I can’t remember the name of (though I do remember that between the architecture and the incline the tunnels that we had to drive through looked more like hydro slides).

The winding roads rung very similar to those at home, it was gorgeous driving through the mountains and watching the foliage turn from green to oranges and yellows as we climbed in altitude, and then after driving through trees, we came up over the ridge and were presented with an absolutely stunning view of Lake Towada – Honshu’s largest crater lake that straddles Akita and Aomori prefectures and occupies the caldera of a still-active volcano (I’m glad I read that after we visited…)

Oirase Gorge walk

Once checked into the hostel we headed out to Oirase gorge to walk along the river side (along with the 2 tour buses worth of tourists…). I’m just going to dump photos otherwise I’m going to end up repeating “it was gorgeous” way too many times.

Next was the essential trip to the nearest supermarket (a 40 minute drive away) to stock up on booze and snacks.

We kind of messed up. Because by the time we got back to the town where we were staying it was 5.30, pitch black and everything was shut.

On spotting a shrine gate I decided to go on a little wander to check it out, the path led past the komainu (lion dogs) guarding the entrance and through the trees….and through the trees…and more trees….Liam had caught up by this stage and after we had been walking for a few minutes with our phone lights we decided that this was beginning to look a little too much like the start of a horror movie and remembered that there had been a couple of beer attacks in Akita…We bailed and walked briskly back.

Lake Towada

The Liam and Josh managed to scrounge some spuds and hotdogs from one place that was still doing takeaways and Cari and I opted to indulge in the MOUNTAIN of instant noodles that was in the hostel (we now realise why they had so much stocked up).

The hotel on the corner had an onsen that we decided to check out – after gawking over the indoor waterfall and a traditional looking Japanese house complete with tatami floors that had been built inside the hotel as a restaurant (got the feeling that we wouldn’t be scoring any 200yen packet ramen there…)

The onsen had an outdoor section which was a relief after the rather toasty interior. Nothing quite like sitting in the cool night air in a hot spring, chatting with a mate that you really haven’t known for that long- butt naked.

The evening consisted of many card games, and much drinking. Needless to say, we were all feeling a little spent the next day.

Jigokunuma Pond

The sulfuric fumes of Jigoku pond didn’t do much to settle our stomachs but the view was quite lovely.

The main mission of the day was to get the gondola up to the hakkoda mountains. It when we had to stand in line for and hour waiting for tickets that the hangovers really hit…

The ropeway took you up and over the autumn colours aaaaaaand it was absolutely gorgeous… Once at the top we talked through to the wetlands.

And what trip wouldn’t be complete without a little bit of history?

In 1902 a group of Japanese Imperial Army soldiers were caught in a blizzard on the mountain, the single ascent resulted in 199 which made the incident the worst mountaineering disaster in modern history. So of course all of the locals love to tell you how the mountain is haunted – there have been two films made about the incident in 1977 (Mount Hakkoda) and more recently in 2014 (Mt. Hakkoda)

Aomori Snow Monsters. Photo from:
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2015/12/15/sho-shibata-captures-the-
snow-monsters-of-northern-japan/

So along with the ghosts of soliders, the mountain is also home to the Aomori snow monsters. Thanks to the brisk climate, a phenomenon known as “soft rime” occurs when moisture from fog instantly freezes on trees, resulting in Hakkoda’s winter zombieland…

*insert name here*

We stopped at another big ass bridge (that I have also forgotten the name of) as the autumn colours just don’t seem to get old. Cari and Josh were staying an extra night at Towada but Liam and I headed home that afternoon as in time for school the next day. We stopped at the lookout over the lake to take some final snaps before starting the drive back to Yuri (I believe this is the correct term for the area that encompasses both Yurihonjo and Nikaho).

Fun fact: my car talks to me

Fun fact: most of the time I have to idea what its saying

Fun fact: that night it informed me that I had been driving for 2 hours and “won’t you take a break?”

Another week done and dusted.