Well that is my real basic Japanese which means “we went to Fukuroda Waterfalls and an onsen (the nude bath houses)”
There are several things that I have noticed about Japan that is different from the USA. The obvious ones you notice right away and the not so obvious ones (which after a few months of being here, I have learned). One of the not so obvious differences is the national holidays; I feel that Seth has a day off at least once a month. I am not complaining about this at all, I thoroughly enjoy it to be honest! The Japanese are very hard workers. It seems that many of them put in at least 11 hour days and work 6 days a week (luckily Seth does not work these hours), but still gets the holidays off.
Lately we started going to Agape International Church here in Tsukuba. After our second week there we were invited to go on a day trip with them to celebrate keiro no hi (a day to respect the elderly). Keiro no hi holiday falls on the third Monday of September. We and the Haines’ gladly accepted to join them in hopes of meeting more people from the church. Also, we never turn down an opportunity to travel, especially if it means we get to see the falls or the onsen!
The Fukuroda Water falls are about an hour and a half car ride from Tsukuba. These falls are known as the second most beautiful water falls in Japan. Unfortunately this day turned out to be really wet and rainy. However, we still really enjoyed our time because you get to the viewing docks for the waterfalls through tunnels in the mountain. So we were able to view out of them without getting too wet! There are many trails in this area that we would have loved to explore more, but do to the rain we called it off early.
Here Seth and I are in front of the waterfall on the first viewing floor of the viewing dock
Here is a side angle of the water fall that we were able to get. On the left bottom half of the picture you can see the first viewing dock. Now you have a reference on the size of the falls.
After we were done with the water falls we headed back to the bus and started our journey to the onsen. I was getting more and more nervous about this part of our day! We first stopped off at a river for some fishing and lunch. We had no idea what we had in store next, lets just say the onsen was a cake walk compared to lunch! We arrived at the river and noticed that there was a bamboo raft plank that was on stilts in the water, which would rush up the plank. Little fish would be trapped by the bamboo then you would grab them and place it in a bucket. This is how they caught the fish for our lunch. You can see this with the picture below.
After the group finished checking out the water and the fish, our pastor Mayumi (my-you-me) Fujimiya came over to the Haines’, Seth, and I and said
“Are you going to eat some of the fish that were caught here?”
“Oh yeah that sounds great” we all said together! We all sit down at a picnic table with a beautiful view the clouds rolling over the mountians, the river, and all of the colors of the vegetation. The colors were so vitberant because of the rain...and then Mayumi sets the plate down with the fish…………………
“Are you going to eat some of the fish that were caught here?”
“Oh yeah that sounds great” we all said together! We all sit down at a picnic table with a beautiful view the clouds rolling over the mountians, the river, and all of the colors of the vegetation. The colors were so vitberant because of the rain...and then Mayumi sets the plate down with the fish…………………
…………………..UMMMMMM, this is a whole new meaning for fish sticks!
So in Japan, they eat the whole fish. Yes, I just said WHOLE fish! The four of us got our fish, stared at it with a ‘how am I going to do this?’ look and then we noticed an old women chowing down on the fish head. All of us took a big sigh and took a bite.
Matt and Seth, at work the next day, asked their fellow employees about why they eat the bones. They told them that this is how they get their calcium which with my nutrition passion, I found to be very interesting.
Well none of us finished our fish sticks but we tried it and no one threw up, but there were lots of gagging. We marched back to our bus and headed to the onsen! “Oh yeah” Chelsae and I thought getting naked with a bunch of women that we have just met including our new pastor…awkward!
To be honest every women there was naked so it wasn’t awkward at all. It was really nice and I could tell a difference in my skin and hair almost instantly. Another nice thing is that when Chelsae, Reagan, and I would get into a new onsen pool the Japanese women would politly get up an leave our pool. We told each other its because they know how awkward it is for foreigners, they did not want to make us feel more uncomfortable.
A statue at the Onsen!
It was a fun little holiday and a great day to see more of Japan. Plus we got to know people much better from our church.
~Kate
October 5, 2010 at 10:25 PM
eating fish bones just sounds uncomfortable and unnecessary. Tell them a glass of vitamin D milk goes down much easier and also is a good source of calcium.
October 7, 2010 at 4:08 AM
Ya, funny story. When we told them that we don't eat bones they said "Well, how do you get vitamin D?" Matt and I looked at each other and said "Uh, we drink milk like every day." They don't drink much milk over here, or any liquids for that matter. I would say that the average American drinks more liquid at one meal than Japanese people do all day.