Mountains!

It was a weekend in the mountains, in Yamanashi, around Mt. Fuji. The kids played hooky on Friday, and the Steigers (Wilson, Miki, 3 yr old Conrad Shushuke and 1 yr old Viktor Ryosuke) picked us up in their mini-van. It was a drive of 2 hours or so to our first stop: Fuji-Q Highlands.

Fuji-Q Highlands is an amusement park, with all the usual stuff. Jeff and I rode the Fujiyama, which apparently was certified as the highest and longest roller coaster in 1997 by Guiness. I hadn't been on a rollercoaster in awhile, and my eyes shut of their own accord on the first - highest hill. It was a little scary, but I figured I wouldn't die.





























I screamed my head off, but I much prefered it to the teacups I rode with the kids earlier, which made me queasy. I have this theory about spinning things not being that much fun when you're older: you know how, when you're a kid, you spin around and around until you fall down giggling? Spinning is fun! Then you get really drunk for the first time, and get the spins. Suddenly, spinning is not fun. It is associated with imminent vomiting or passing out. Spinning = pain. I used to ride the Rotor at Geauga Lake seven times in a row when I was a kid. Now, even looking at a ride that goes around and around at any speed makes me sick.

This is a rollercoaster I refused. There are no cars to sit in, they hang you and you twirl around - as if just the hills and loops weren't enough. No thanks.











The kids rode a bunch of little rides, like the swing thing and a mini-coaster, merry-go-round and log rides.















D on the merry-go-round
and the cars














The kids and Wilson on a log ride














Kids on a little coaster. The guy behind them looks a little underwhelmed.














We all rode the Ferris Wheel













and the view was pretty cool from the top.




















This was one of the other rollercoasters that I refused to ride. That drop was almost straight down.









I'm also not really into 'ohmygod-the-elevator-cable-just-broke' rides



















Jeff and I had some yummy snacks, post rollercoaster.








I had some barbecued squid on a stick. Mm!










Jeff had takoyaki, which is grilled balls of octopus, covered with bonito (a kind of fish) flakes that look like they're dancing around - cool!














After the park, we drove to a restaraunt near Miki's mother's house, where we were staying for the weekend. We had hoto, which is a noodle specialty of the area. Mine had pumpkin in it, and slices of duck. Yum.















M & D liked Miki's mom, because grandmothers spoil children.













They also had a great time playing with the Steiger kids, because they were younger. M especially liked to hold Victor. It was super-cute.









M and Victor













The view from Baba's (obaasan's) yard





We adults drank wine, after drinking what Wilson insists is the best hangover preventative. I don't know what it's called, but it has turmeric in it, comes in a gold bottle, and can be purchased in any combini.


















I felt fine the next morning, and the next day when we did the same thing, so it must work. I'll have to look for it Saturday, before I go to the Blue Corn to meet Helen.

The next day, we got up and drive to the Paul Rusch Festival.














A strange phenomenon: to go a very western-style agricultural festival in Japan. But there is a good reason:

Paul Rusch, from Madison County, Ky., arrived in Yokohama in 1925 and influenced many Japanese lives by giving the hope and vision.

In 1936, Rusch planned to make a Utopia in Kiyosato. His idea was to build Seisenryo as a rural agricultural center and completed this task in 1938 making every effort to raise funds from the United States when Japan was fighting against China. In 1941 Seisenryo was closed due to World War II and Rusch was forced to return to the U.S. against his will.

Rusch came back to Japan with Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s staff as he promised and worked hard to build Saint Andre Church to restore the people’s withered minds and give them hope for the future. The church has a unique tatami mat floor adopted from the Japanese lifestyle. Later, he opened an experimental farm at a high altitude on cold land and started a dairy farm. Although his life came to an end at St. Luke hospital in 1979 at the age of 82, Rusch’s belief and faith have been passed down to the members of both Japanese and American Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project Inc.

An American couple we met at the end told us an additional story. Apparently, the people in the area were so hungry that when someone died, it was traditional to rattle a few pieces of rice inside a piece of bamboo, so they would at least hear the sound of food before they died. Paul Rusch was, understandably, very moved by this.














Wilson likes to come to this area just for the view. Sadly, it was overcast that day.


























Japanese bluegrass? OK, there was one white guy. It was kinda funny hearing old blugrass standards sung with a Japanese accent.


















M being an apprentice blacksmith with Jeff Farmer, from KY. He's been coming to the festival for 9 years or so.








A random clown came up and made D's balloon into this











M enjoying a kodomo beer (kid beer!). Kinda like rootbeer, but not really.







I had some wine-fed beef while watching some bluegrass. It was quite tasty.








Future engineers










We were planning on going to a winery after this, but due to various minor disasters (D's kodomo beer foaming up too much to drink, D losing his blacksmith-made iron snake) and delays, we couldn't have gotten there before it closed.













Plus, it was getting quite chilly, so we looked forward to getting back in the warm minivan, where many of us promptly passed out.












We went back to Baba's and she made us curry. It was the most beautiful color and I said so, which everyone thought was really funny for some reason. The kids had a hard time settling down to sleep that night (I think Wilson and Miki were amazed by the amount of energy a small Davis boy can have - I told them that they were looking at their future), so Miki told my kids about the Yamanashi Vampire. If you opened your eyes, he would get you, but if you kept them closed and went to sleep, he would give you good dreams. She made this up on the spot, and I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it freaked M out further and he said he couldn't sleep. Personally, I think it was all the ice cream and chocolate. I thought it was really funny. I've read about various ghouls and baddies that parents used to scare their kids with to get them to behave (the boogeyman, Baba-Yaga, etc.), but we don't really do that kind of thing anymore, do we? I wonder if it was effective then.

So, on Sunday we went to a winery and wine cellar called Budo no Oka (lit. grape cave). I'm glad we waited, becasue the weather was gorgeous and the views stunning.


































































For 1000 yen (about 10 bucks), Jeff & I got wine tasting cups and were set loose in the cellar, full of regional wines. Some of the wine tasted like Boone's Farm, but a lot of it was quite drinkable. We stayed mainly in the full-bodied reds section.















It was fun being tipsy that early in the day! We made some friends, too, who seem to have been tasting more than us. One of them pulled me down to the rose section for a taste. Like cooler, and one of the few I spat out into the barrel provided for that purpose.













We bought a few bottle for us, and a few bottles for our neighbors. It is a good idea to go meet your neighbors with gifts, we have been told. We haven't quite gotten around to it yet, but hopefully the bottles of wine and the hoto we bring them will make up for the fact that it's been almost two months.

We were on our way to a waterfall from here, but then Jeff spotted the trojan horse, a main attraction in a huge playground at the base of Mt. Fuji, off the highway, and we had to go. The park cost a little, but it was super-fun for the kids, and had more fantastic views.







The Trojan Horse.





Climbing up to the top was an experience in "wow-they-have-different-safety-standards-for-playgrounds-in-Japan-huh"












Awesome view of Fuji-san (they add -san to show respect for the mountain)





Japan has the best slides!



D & I cartwheeling




















Jeff & I playing






The Steigers, tour guides extraordinaires


























A quick stop at the motorcycle museum as it was closing:


























It was a wonderful weekend, and we've already planned the next one: on-sen in winter. Before that, tho, Wilson has invited us to his place for Thanksgiving. That'll be really nice, because I wasn't sure if we were going to have Thanksgiving this year. Fall is already very different: I'm used to going to the pumpkin patch to pick out our to-be-jack o' laterns, and seeing piles of big pumpkins at the grocery stores. So far, I've seen one very large pumpkin at the festival, and chunks of pumpkin in my hoto. Wilson says you can get them on the Navy base, but Jeff refuses to haul one home on the train.

Anyway, back in the city, I decided to try the adventure of coloring my hair with Japanese dye-in-a-box. I'm used to going down to Sally Beauty Supply and picking the perfect red from the huge selection and mixing it myself. So, understandably, I was a little nervous at the selection I saw in the stores:














Thankfully, at the local Create store, I found a box of not-one-of-twenty-shades-of-black dye. It looked red enough, but it was obviously formulated for a different ethnic-type, so I wasn't sure how it was going to come out. I was impressed by the delivery system: in a comb you squeeze the dye through. Not messy at all; the very neatest dye-job ever, in fact.














Other than that, I assumed the directions were pretty much the same: squeeze this tube into this bottle, apply, wait 30 minutes, rinse out. I crossed my fingers, and happily, my roots are gone and it's fairly red. Not quite as bright as I'd like, but no one else will notice the difference. In fact, no one has. When my hair gets a little longer, I may experiement with some other hair-color products I saw, like bleach-wax. Bleach is, for some reason, only in the men's hair dye section. Is it more acceptable for men to have bleached streaks in their hair?