Newest World UNESCO Heritage Site -- Mount Fuji

Last week Mount Fuji was named a World UNESCO Heritage Site. Prior to this trip, I don't remember seeing this phrase. It seems to be all over Japan. Many of the shrines and temples we visited have this designation, and now so does Mount Fuji. There has been a push for years to grant Mount Fuji this designation, but for a number of reasons it didn't happen until last week. (Turns out there are 21 World UNESCO Heritage Sites in the US, including the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall and many National Parks.)

When our planning for this trip began, Ashley insisted one thing she wanted to do was to visit Mount Fuji. The more I thought about it, the more I realized she had never really been to a mountain before. Sure we've driven through some on road trips, but not walk through a cloud or feel the change in elevation. Some emails back and forth with Masumi and she found one for one of the few days we were in Tokyo.

What was billed as a "half-day" trip, turned out to be a mistake in translation. Masumi thinks of a day as 24 hours (which is technically correct) so a 12 hour trip is half a day. I think of a day in terms of the hours I am awake, so I was thinking a half day trip would return by 2.

The entire trip was in Japanese -- including what time to return to the bus during the numerous rest stops. Lunch was a Japanese lunch box eaten on the bus (yes, pork). To be fair, the lunch was tastier, healthier, and more plentiful than any box lunch I've gotten on an American bus.

Don and I realized this is the first bus trip we have taken in 14 years since we were in Italy. They are the same. There is the obligatory stops and tourist traps and the working around someone else's schedule. It will probably be a long time before we do another one because we are not fond of spending more time at the tourist trap than at the historic site. For what we wanted to do, though, this was probably the best option as we were certainly not renting a car to drive on roads with road signs we cannot read with thousands of drivers who drive on the wrong side of the road (or so it seems to us). Just not a good combination.

Our tourist stops included at the Kakita River's Spring

a waterfall

a gift shop by the

sponsor of the trip

a shrine to Mount Fuji

two highway rest stops (one coming and one going)

a photo op of one of the five lakes

a group of 8 spring pools

and a stop at the 5th level of Mount Fuji. 

The stop at Mount Fuji was too short. All included opportunities for ice cream and souvenir shopping. I ended up eating ice cream three times that day: peach, strawberry and melon. Looking forward to non-soft serve ice cream back home.

With the exception of Mt. Fuji, my favorite stop was the Fugaku-Fuketsu Lava Cave. It was 0 degrees (32 degrees Fahrenheit to us). We saw ice formations inside. I'm thinking they were stalagmites (from the bottom up). 



The day was cloudy, but not rainy. This would not have been a fun trip in the rain. Unfortunately we were never able to get a good picture of Mt. Fuji as more than half of it was covered in clouds. We just have to trust that we were actually there and that it was not just an elaborate set.

Not sure if this is Mt. Fuji as all of the mountains were covered in clouds

At the end of the trip, we said a teary good-bye to Hiroko by the Tokyo Station.

More pictures of Mt. Fuji

Nikko Sightseeing (part 2)

The post on Nikko was becoming too long, so I am breaking it up into two parts: Japanese Immersion and Nikko Sightseeing. Also check out the post on Edo Wonderland (which used to be called Edo Village), as that, too, is in Nikko.

The day started at 5 AM when we woke up way too early to catch a train to Tokyo Station (the busiest station in the world), to then catch another train to go to the other side of Tokyo (Shinjuko Station, near our Tokyo hotel), to then catch a 2 hour train north to Nikko. Nikko is a small town in Japan that is steeped in history dating back over 1200 years ago. Even as a history major, I just can't fathom history dating back to 9th century.

Masumi’s friend Tom met us at the train station with a mini-van. Masumi and her friend, Hiroko, met up with us in Tokyo. Either this station, or the other one, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915. Neither one seemed to be what I consider his style.

Our first stop was the Tosho-Gu Shrine. Masumi arranged for us to have a very special tour of the place. Unfortunately for us, it was all in Japanese. We were taken to parts of the shrine that are normally closed to the public. The shrine’s two claims to fame is an image of the three monkeys (speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil) and an image of a sleeping cat. The importance of the sleeping cat is that normally cats are depicted as hunters, but this shrine is so peaceful that the cat can rest. The images of the cat and the monkeys are on tourist trinkets throughout the town. The biggest building on the property (there are over 50) was almost done being renovated. There were other buildings about to be renovated in anticipation of the shrine’s 400^th anniversary in 2017. The difference is stunning.

This shrine is also famous for the famed "sugi-namiki," Japanese cedar avenue leading up to it. Wishing we'd brought our guidebook along for the tour.

 

The tour led us to a special room where we participated in a Buddhist ceremony of some kind. Ashley was chosen to help lead it. Masumi helped her. Other than saying we bowed twice, clapped twice and bowed again, I don’t really know what was taking place since it was all in Japanese. From a visual perspective, it reminded me of a Catholic mass with the priest spreading incense, only in this case it was a paper hanging shaken over us. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in this room.

Almost in tandem to our tour was a group of American high school students. We tried to eavesdrop on their tour in order to learn more. Masumi tried hard to translate for us, but the tour guide had a very soft voice and didn’t pause to let Masumi translate. There were tons of grade school children on field trips. They were much better behaved than American kids would be on a similar trip, but they were still noisy.

Another highlight of this shrine is a 5-story pagoda. Yes, there are lots of pagodas in Japan. What makes this one unique is that it has a pillar suspended in the center that nearly reaches the top, but not quite. This makes it strong enough to withstand earthquakes. The same technology was used in the Tokyo Tower, a much newer building.

At the end of the tour we had a special ceremony in a room where they honor dignitaries – presidents, famous people, and us. Looked like a giant banquet hall where they probably also host weddings. We were given a present of Japanese food utensils. I drake sake for the first time. I also had Ashley’s drink.

After visiting the shrine we drove down to town to take a picture of the famous Shinkyo Bridge. It was closed, so we could not take a picture on it. 

Exploring Nikko National Park

Nikko National Park is huge, but we hit the highlights. We stopped off at Dragonhead Falls. It is two waterfalls that merge together. Here we saw the first of many tourist souvenir shops. We only bought ice cream (Ashley was such a good sport about lunch). 

Then we drove to the Senjogahar Moor (marshlands). You could literally watch the mountains disappear and reappear. Quite the natural magic trick. We also stopped off at a lake, but I was too chicken to get out of the car (driving on the wrong side of the road with tight switchbacks was making me a bit carsick). 

On the way down the mountain we stopped off at Kegon Falls. The claim to fame of Kegon is that we took an elevator down 100 meters (about 275 feet) to view the falls from its mid-point. It really was more impressive from down there than it is from above it.

Both the road up and the road down the mountain are one way streets filled with hairpin switchback turns. The driving challenge for us was that the Japanese drive on the other side of the road. Whereas we are taught to “stay right,” they are taught to “stay left.” This also confuses me on escalators as I am constantly in someone’s way. Tom did a great drive navigating the switchbacks while we took pictures out the window.

By the time we made it to our hotel, I was ready for a nap.

More pictures from Nikko

Getting Smudged

Back in September 2008 I was homeschooling Ashley. This story pre-dates this blog. She was interested in Native Americans so we took her to two places -- Churchvillle Nature Center in Pennsylvania and Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts. 

I'll admit going into it, my expectations were much higher for Plimouth Plantation. After all they are a huge place with lots of staff and glossy marketing materials. Churchville Nature Center seemed to me the type of place you would pop into once and say "been there, done that, no reason to return." 

I could not have been more wrong.

Yes, Plimouth Plantation was nice, but we caught the place on a bad day, and let's leave it at that. 

Churchville Nature Center exceeded all of our expectations -- even the high ones we had for Plimouth Plantation. Our guide, Miss Patti, gave us the tour through all five stations (birthing hut, garden, games, hunting, and cooking) and answered our questions. We told her we were homeschooling our 1st grader. She said normally when she gives school tours they give the kids an arrowhead necklace and invite them to come back with their parents. Since we were already there, she invited us back, and gave Ashley an arrowhead necklace. 

We went back. Again and again and again. 

Since that time Ashley is now in her third Lenape outfit. She has been helping Miss Patti give tours, has helped Che teach summer camp, and spent a night in a Wickawam with Don during a survival weekend (again, pre-blog days). Last weekend she became an EIT -- Educator In Training. She is only 11. She is not allowed to lead school groups until she is 18 (which is a good thing, because the cannot take a day off from school in order that someone else can have a school field trip). Last weekend she was smudged during the ritual ceremony to kick off the summer gardening season (the weather this year has been so crazy, it took until now to start the garden). She and Don spend most Sundays between April and October at the Lenape Village, unless we are out of town or something else takes priority.

Ashley was recently granted her own station. If you take one of their Sunday afternoon tours you are very likely to have Ashley teach you about hunting. Last summer she created "scat" that is so realistic people refuse to touch it and naturalists have asked where did they purchase it. She is now in the process of creating foot prints. The idea will be guests will be asked to match the scat with the footprint with the animal skins (which sadly do not no have paws attached to them) to guess the animal. The presentation is a work in progress.

Once Ashley reads this and corrects me I'm sure there will be some changes. For now this is how I remember it all happening and that is the story I am sticking with.

Kate Gorrie Butterfly House

The Kate Gorrie Butterfly House in the Stony Brook Watershed in Hopewell, NJ is one of those fun hidden treasures in our area. The entire Watershed is a great place to bring children to learn about nature. The Butterfly House feels like an oasis.

The day we went it was raining, which means the smart butterflies were hiding to keep their wings dry. A few others popped out. We knew this going into it, but we had just learned about their Monday morning talks and decided to give it a try.

I'm so glad we did. Our guide (whose name escapes me -- Katie?) gave us an enthusiastic talk about butterflies. She answered all sorts of questions from us and the other family in our group including one that has bothered me. If butterflies only live for about 3 weeks, how do they make the journey South to Mexico and back North to lay their eggs for the next generation?

Our naturalist said every few generations of butterflies produces a super strength of butterfly that lives for 7-8 months -- long enough to make the journey and return part of the way to lay eggs. Nature is amazing.

Listening to her talk I was thinking about a children's book I read recently called the "Prince of Butterflies" (http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/The-Giverny-Award-for-Childrens-Science-Picture-Books/378) by Bruce Coville. An inspirational tale of how a child's life can be changed by nature. 

A few more comments about the place:

• The entire garden is filled with native plants
• It is open from dawn to dusk every day and is open to the public
• It is open from June until October when the netting is opened and the butterflies are free to leave
• All butterflies are tagged (as part of a national tagging system) before they are released
• The caterpillars are brought inside to have a chance to change in a safer environment, and to make it easier for people to watch the life cycle happening live

The nature center is also free to visit and a great place to go with kids, even on rainy days. Trails are open to the public and are also free to use.

http://www.thewatershed.org/conservation/kate-gorie-butterfly-house/