Little Quirks

Friends... Family... Strangers??

Welcome back to my strange world.

Today is kind of a "Heterogeneous", compiled, arranged, assorted, repetitive, redundant post of a number of things that has happened to me over the last 2 weeks.

First and for-most, I got to go to a REALLY cool temple last weekend.  I have no idea where it was except for it being in the mountains.  Now, saying "something is in the mountains" in Gunma, is like saying, "it's in California" in America.  Everywhere I look in Gunma, there are crazy mountains.  So lets just say this temple was in the awesome mountains here. (again, not very specific)

A family I taught in America came into Gunma for the weekend.  They decided to take me to this crazy temple because I studied that kind of stuff at The Ohio State University, and I find it interesting. They said it was going to be able an hour and a half to get there.

No problem!

I like these people, I haven't seen them in a while, I am excited to spend some time with all of them.  About 40 minutes into our trip, we arrive at the Entrance of the Temple.  I was thinking "no way it will take over an hour to get there from the entrance!"

I was wrong

We started this journey up a wide road to the top of a mountain.  It started off nice and we were all laughing and talking.  I was taking lots of pictures of the mountain as we ascended it as well.

(Blurry mountain 1)

(Clear Mountain 1)

(Blurry Dan spectating Blurry Mountain 1)

I need a new camera

I have never seen some of the mountains that I saw that day.  Everyone talked about how I was going to love the fall when all the leaves start to change color.  I can't wait for it.

So we climb higher and higher in the mountains.  Soon the road starts to get very thin.  There is only room for one car at a time and if another one comes, we sometimes have to back up and let them through.  It was very bendy also.  The roads got to the point where I had to look straight ahead to avoid starting to feel sick. I was sitting next to a former student of mine (who is only in 3rd grade) so she was having a blast.  She was jumping all over the place, and really just enjoying the view.  

As she was jumping around... I started to feel it.  We were getting higher and higher in the mountains...

The road was getting more and more crazy...

The air was getting thinner...

The cars were getting fewer so we were getting faster...

I had the feeling start to come up from deep down...

I knew I couldn't hold it much longer...

I couldn't wait anymore...

PULL OVER!!!!

(I had to take a picture of this beautiful mountain being covered partially by clouds)

After a little bit more, it started to rain.  That was upsetting for me because I wanted to go see the temple and if it was raining, I know I couldn't see it.  Then it got very foggy...

I asked them if the weather was always this crazy in the Mountains, and they said, "No, only when we have to drive through clouds like we are doing now..."

WE WERE DRIVING THROUGH A CLOUD!

I was so amazed with this.  They said on days where it rains, the clouds are very low and they actually will drive through some of them when we see the temple.

We came up above the clouds. It was beautiful.  After the short drive above the clouds we descended back through and up again one more time.  It was just after we crested the clouds the second time that I saw them!

(WILD MONKEYS!!!!)

Yup...

Wild Monkeys...

These were not in a cage, they were not being fed, they did not have some cage they would sleep in during storms... Wild Monkeys...

How Strange it is that I live about 1 hour by car from wild monkeys!!  I'm not talking 2 or 3.  There are only 3 in this picture but when we came through the clouds, about 10-15 (I can't tell beause the babies were running too fast) wild monkeys ran across the street and all hid in the trees!

During this experience, I was fumbling with my camera trying to turn the damn thing on, only to talk about 60 pictures rapid fire, but since my camera is crap, about 2 or 3 came out as acceptable.  This is my favorite one.  The people here call them "Saru" (That means monkey)

I later talked to my students at work about the monkeys and one of them told me that she has to deal with them always getting into her yard. (She lives 20 minutes away from me by car)

I'm not sure, but I will most definitely be locking up my house at night now even more than before.

The last thing I want is monkeys getting into my house and causing me to go bananas at night with all there monkey business.  I don't want monkeys hanging around my house... The last thing I need is (insert other crappy monkey pun) when I am trying to sleep!

So we continued up the mountain, and we arrived at possibly the coolest place I have ever been to.  It was a real temple that has been around for hundreds of years.  

I could talk about everything all day and if you have any questions about the pictures here leave a comment and I will explain it.  This is just some of the stuff that I saw while I was exploring the Temple.

One thing that was very cool, was the temple has these little boxes that have like "fortunes" in them and you have to spend a dollar on one, but some are bad luck and some are good luck.  I decided to try my hand at it....

                                               

(That's right!!! I got the luckiest one!!!)

We returned home that evening and I said good bye to my friends.  What an absolutely amazing time I had with them when they came to visit.

The next weekend Lisa came to visit me again.

(I have not been alone 1 day the entire time I have lived in Japan thus far)

Lisa and I ended up going to the neighboring town and found a FREE ZOO was there!

We traveled to the station and hopped a cheap train to the next town.  When we arrived, we decided to try and use the town map to let us know where the zoo was.  Just look at the map and follow the roads, and it shouldn't be a problem...

(*sigh*...)

So after Lisa looked up the directions to the Zoo on her phone we set course!

This was going to be fun.  The weather was nice, the city was quiet, and the zoo was going to be free! 

On our little walk we saw some of the craziest trees I have ever seen!

(They look like... I don't know!)

Everything in Japan is new to me.  Lisa and all my friends take for granted that I HAVE NEVER BEEN HERE and everything from the weather to the plants, and the people are all pretty new to me. Everything is interesting.

We finally came to the entrance of the Zoo, and walked up this cool entrance way. 

(Crazy peacocks)

(Tiny Deer)

(REAL BAMBOO FOREST!)

(My new favorite animal)

Ok, so far this zoo was just like all the other zoo's that I have ever been to.  It had animals and little attractions, but then there was something that blew me away...

(This monkey exhibit)

You might be saying to yourself, "But Dan... This doesn't look interesting to me!" and "You'r a chump if you think THAT is cool!" or "You'r camera sucks!" (Which I would have to agree with)

But this was the entire thing.  There was not net to keep the monkeys in... There was no tall gait to keep them back... It was just monkeys that could EASILY escape from this place if they wanted to.

The other thing that got me amazed was there was no real gate to the zoo... If an animal got out, it might as well just run all over the town.  

(my camera is not zoomed in... They could totally jump out if they want to)

(Awesome tree!)

We headed home after about 40 minutes at the small free zoo.  It was a lot of fun and I saw so many things that were cool and new there.  Not to mention it was FREE! I could go here anytime I was bored and walk around for a bit.

When we got back we were hungry, so we ordered something that I have not had since before I left for Japan.

WE HAD PIZZA!!

(Italian Tomato and Basil)

(Seafood)

We ordered Japanese pizza.  The seafood pizza had scallops, shrimp, and squid on it.  It was tasty.  The Italian Basil had tomato and bacon with basil... amazing.

We finished the night by eating and drinking while we watched an episode of Penn and Teller back in the 90's do magic.  It was a good day.

More of my current events coming very soon.  Stay tuned for more!