Chasing waterfalls
So, this past weekend there was a JET event up in the northern part of Gunma, in the town called Minakami. Basically a whole bunch of us went canyoning
It was pretty awesome! Basically, canyoning is what you do when you do either fairly extreme stream-walking, or start climbing up canyon walls and jumping off of waterfalls. I was a little nervous heading into it, but I decided to challenge canyoning for the sake of having an awesome time and meeting a bunch of new JETs. Result? Mission success!
There were actually so many of us who wanted to go that we had to split in half and go with two different companies. One of these groups was going at 8:30 and one at 10:30. Guess which group I got put in! That's right, the early one. Which meant that I had to wake up at 5:40 am so I could get up and out to bike to the station to catch the 6:44 train to Takasaki to catch the 7:10 to Minakami. It was a little rough, but I made it. Those of us who were up for the 8:30 went with the Kappa Club, which was pretty cool (except that the other group went with Canyons, which is both the top company in Minakami and run by a Kiwi, i.e., is English-speaking). We had a fun getting everything translated from the guides to us. Luckily we had a couple of good translators in B and his girlfriend E, who's Japanese.
So we got all suited up in our wet-suits and headed out, already boiling, cuz man, those things are hot. Our van-ride was about 15 or 20 minutes out to the base of the trail we were gonna use. It was a lot like what my siblings and I used to do at Sugarloaf during the summers when we were little, except a lot more intense, because it was a lot steeper and more slippery, and also we used various sections like water slides. It was pretty great! The guide taught us three ways to go down- the first was the lame feet-first way. Second was super-man style, and then third was head-first and on your back. After the first time, nobody went feet-first anymore. XD
Our trail was pretty crowded, so we ended up going quite a ways up the mountain- B said afterwards we did about an hour of pretty much straight hiking, and some of that was hands and feet (though not rock-climbing levels). It was definitely hot in our suits! I definitely drank a bunch of river water without even thinking about it, until B was like, "Uh, are you sure that's safe?" You can tell you were raised in Maine when it doesn't even occur to you that there might be bacteria in the river. (Final result- it was safe to drink!) I think everybody gave in eventually, though, cuz we were really warm. The upside was that when it came time to go back down, we were pretty much on our own and could slide down pretty much continuously. Pictures to go up on facebook whenever I receive them from people with waterproof cameras/the company itself!
The downside to our little tour was that the later group, with Canyons, went to a different area, a place called Fox Canyon, which was apparently a lot more intense- they got lowered down a waterfall on a rope, etc. They also got to drive to the top and then just go down. Ours was a much longer trip, though, so I think it was a bit of a trade-off. ^^ Here's a video one of the guys on the other trip put together, if you want to get a feel for what Canyoning is like. I definitely recommend it!
The weekend didn't end with canyoning, though! That evening we had a big barbeque at the Canyons lodge, which happened to coincide with the Summer Splash concert thing, which was small but still pretty cool, and involved (as always at Canyons) the most bizarre mix of people, from middle-aged black women to Japanese infants being carried around by their mothers at midnight or later. ^^; During the day I also found lunch at a ramen shop that other JETs passed over, honestly believing it was a sign-store, and went swimming at the swimming hole you can see at the end of the above video. There's a couple of times when I'm the head swimming around in the background. ^^
I faded sort of early, what with being up at 5:30 in the morning, so I headed back to the hostel we were all staying at at about 12:30 or 1. Slept like a log and then discovered a train station that was about two minutes from the hotel, oh man! This would have been nice to know about when I was at the same lodge in February with friends B and Z. Of course, it happened to downpour up the line in Nagano on Sunday, so we waited ages for a five-minute train ride that never happened. Luckily, there was a train-spotter at the station and he ended up calling Minakami station and telling them there were about twenty people there waiting (this is normally a really tiny station- you can't even pay there), so they sent us taxis. Got coffee in Minakami with L (the other JET in my town) whilst waiting for the train, and then headed back down south, which was just awful because it was about four or five degrees (that's celsius- around ten degrees for the Americans in the audience) hotter once you were out of the mountains. >.>
So yes, basically my mission was a great success, even though goal one (challenge canyoning) was a lot less difficult than I had expected. XD
Since then it's mostly just been regular work, with a couple of classes. I was a bit sore the first couple of days, but I'm all over it now. Also, the speech contest for our area is this Friday, so I've been staying after school with another English teacher to help the kids work on their speeches. I also got my GRE study guide in the mail on Sunday, so I've started studying. Baaaasically I have to relearn any math that isn't algebra, ahahahah. >.>
It was pretty awesome! Basically, canyoning is what you do when you do either fairly extreme stream-walking, or start climbing up canyon walls and jumping off of waterfalls. I was a little nervous heading into it, but I decided to challenge canyoning for the sake of having an awesome time and meeting a bunch of new JETs. Result? Mission success!
There were actually so many of us who wanted to go that we had to split in half and go with two different companies. One of these groups was going at 8:30 and one at 10:30. Guess which group I got put in! That's right, the early one. Which meant that I had to wake up at 5:40 am so I could get up and out to bike to the station to catch the 6:44 train to Takasaki to catch the 7:10 to Minakami. It was a little rough, but I made it. Those of us who were up for the 8:30 went with the Kappa Club, which was pretty cool (except that the other group went with Canyons, which is both the top company in Minakami and run by a Kiwi, i.e., is English-speaking). We had a fun getting everything translated from the guides to us. Luckily we had a couple of good translators in B and his girlfriend E, who's Japanese.
So we got all suited up in our wet-suits and headed out, already boiling, cuz man, those things are hot. Our van-ride was about 15 or 20 minutes out to the base of the trail we were gonna use. It was a lot like what my siblings and I used to do at Sugarloaf during the summers when we were little, except a lot more intense, because it was a lot steeper and more slippery, and also we used various sections like water slides. It was pretty great! The guide taught us three ways to go down- the first was the lame feet-first way. Second was super-man style, and then third was head-first and on your back. After the first time, nobody went feet-first anymore. XD
Our trail was pretty crowded, so we ended up going quite a ways up the mountain- B said afterwards we did about an hour of pretty much straight hiking, and some of that was hands and feet (though not rock-climbing levels). It was definitely hot in our suits! I definitely drank a bunch of river water without even thinking about it, until B was like, "Uh, are you sure that's safe?" You can tell you were raised in Maine when it doesn't even occur to you that there might be bacteria in the river. (Final result- it was safe to drink!) I think everybody gave in eventually, though, cuz we were really warm. The upside was that when it came time to go back down, we were pretty much on our own and could slide down pretty much continuously. Pictures to go up on facebook whenever I receive them from people with waterproof cameras/the company itself!
The downside to our little tour was that the later group, with Canyons, went to a different area, a place called Fox Canyon, which was apparently a lot more intense- they got lowered down a waterfall on a rope, etc. They also got to drive to the top and then just go down. Ours was a much longer trip, though, so I think it was a bit of a trade-off. ^^ Here's a video one of the guys on the other trip put together, if you want to get a feel for what Canyoning is like. I definitely recommend it!
The weekend didn't end with canyoning, though! That evening we had a big barbeque at the Canyons lodge, which happened to coincide with the Summer Splash concert thing, which was small but still pretty cool, and involved (as always at Canyons) the most bizarre mix of people, from middle-aged black women to Japanese infants being carried around by their mothers at midnight or later. ^^; During the day I also found lunch at a ramen shop that other JETs passed over, honestly believing it was a sign-store, and went swimming at the swimming hole you can see at the end of the above video. There's a couple of times when I'm the head swimming around in the background. ^^
I faded sort of early, what with being up at 5:30 in the morning, so I headed back to the hostel we were all staying at at about 12:30 or 1. Slept like a log and then discovered a train station that was about two minutes from the hotel, oh man! This would have been nice to know about when I was at the same lodge in February with friends B and Z. Of course, it happened to downpour up the line in Nagano on Sunday, so we waited ages for a five-minute train ride that never happened. Luckily, there was a train-spotter at the station and he ended up calling Minakami station and telling them there were about twenty people there waiting (this is normally a really tiny station- you can't even pay there), so they sent us taxis. Got coffee in Minakami with L (the other JET in my town) whilst waiting for the train, and then headed back down south, which was just awful because it was about four or five degrees (that's celsius- around ten degrees for the Americans in the audience) hotter once you were out of the mountains. >.>
So yes, basically my mission was a great success, even though goal one (challenge canyoning) was a lot less difficult than I had expected. XD
Since then it's mostly just been regular work, with a couple of classes. I was a bit sore the first couple of days, but I'm all over it now. Also, the speech contest for our area is this Friday, so I've been staying after school with another English teacher to help the kids work on their speeches. I also got my GRE study guide in the mail on Sunday, so I've started studying. Baaaasically I have to relearn any math that isn't algebra, ahahahah. >.>