Going to Japan with the Governor
Serving as long-term mission volunteers at ARI. Friendship. Farming. Inspiration.
Today we leave ARI. We arrived on September 1.
We still have a couple of posts in progress, so continue to watch this space in the coming days.
And at some point we will do a reflection post. It has been a lot to process. As Chrys said during our goodbye announcement at Morning Gathering, we are going home to a place called the “Land of Enchantment”, which means it is a magical place, but we also are leaving a magical place in Japan called ARI.
We took a three-day respite from ARI and visited Nikko National Park. Nikko is known for its temples and shrines on the edge of the village of Nikko (where we stayed)
and for the beautiful area around Lake Chuzen-ji. We did run into a bit of weather during our hike.
We visited just a few days after the peak fall colors, but still it was beautiful.
We rented a car for the drive into the mountains, which added to the adventure – you drive on the left in Japan.
Today was an ARI holiday so we walked into Nishinasuno for shopping, lunch, and solid WiFi. Mission accomplished on all fronts.
For lunch we went sushi. About a month ago we had our auto-pizza adventure, and today it was auto-sushi. It was the same process: check in at a kiosk for our table assignment, order from a tablet, and self-pay at another kiosk. The only brief human interaction was the person who brought our beer. Here the food was delivered by carts on tracks that whizzed by your table. Our first item, tuna was delivered by a Shinkansen, while another table’s order went by on another track in a race car.
One of the things that amuses us is Japanese goods that try to be American. For example, we see people wearing sweatshirts that look to be from an American university, the kind with the school’s seal in the middle and the name around the seal, except that the school does not exist. East Tennessee Community College, anyone? Or on an item there will be a collection of words that looks like a cool American expression but actually does not make sense. This is a badge on the bike that Scott uses at ARI:
SUPER SPORTS WORLD CENTLIRY (sic) CLASSIC. Huh?
Recently Scott was finishing his hot goat milk after dinner and took a closer look at the mug he had grabbed from the basket.
It is a mug for GIANT CORN. You can see on the left side it says GROW IN BIG FARM and on the right it says AMERICAN DREAM. The lower left says AMERICAN TASTE, the lower right says IMPORT, and inside the star on the right it says SWEET.
Scott considered this, showed it to Chrys, and said “This is the most Japanese thing I have ever seen.” And we both cracked up laughing.
Wednesday was the halfway point of our time at ARI. Sometimes it feels like we have been here a long time and sometimes just a few days. Long-term volunteers (those serving at least two months) get two days off for each month, and this weekend we took two days off to make a four-day holiday.
We went to Tokyo and from there made a day trip to Mt. Fuji. We stayed in the lively Shinjuku area at a hotel notable for Godzilla climbing on it.
We saw two movies at the multiplex in the same building as the hotel – One Battle After Another and Kokuho (with English subtitles). Kokuho is Japan’s submission for Best International Feature Film in the next Academy Awards. 10/10 would recommend both.
We did a lot of hiking around Mt. Fuji and actually some saw of it at the end of day.
We did some needed shopping, saw some sights, and ate some good meals.
It was a nice respite, but it also was nice to get back to the quiet country of ARI.
There was an earthquake last night. Japan is earthquake country, so that is not unusual.
Many buildings at ARI had to be rebuilt after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake in 2011. And part of our orientation was what to do when there is an earthquake. The short version – if an earthquake lasts at least 1 minute then evacuate to the appointed outside location. (We do wonder who has the presence of mind to time an earthquake.) The key is to get out of any building immediately, because the aftershock is what likely will cause the most damage. Or the really short version – do whatever the Japanese do, because they have been doing this their entire lives.
Last night’s earthquake at 12:20 probably lasted about 20 seconds, we reckoned. So nothing to worry about (if you are Japanese). But it was strong enough to shake our beds back and forth. We wonder if we would have been knocked off balance if it had been during the day.
You would not be wrong to say that Nishinasuno is off the beaten path. But do not ever underestimate American commerce, because the main drag has both a McDonald’s and a Starbucks. This drizzly Saturday afternoon we made a trip to the latter, a 45-minute walk into town from ARI.
Our objective was not coffee. Instead we were in pursuit of coffee mugs. We had a two-fold purpose.
Practically, we wanted our own mugs for morning (instant) coffee in our room. The ARI day starts with morning exercise at 6:30 (see the Radio Taiso post) but breakfast is not until 8:30, and that is long time after awakening to wait for a caffeine injection. And the single kettle of (instant) coffee at breakfast does not last long among the 60 or so people. So first thing each morning we go downstairs to the community kitchen and heat water in the electric kettle to make (instant) coffee in random mugs from the shelf. It does the job, barely.
But our primary purpose was, simply, collectibles. We collect Starbucks mugs. But not just any mugs. We collect mugs that commemorate the places we have traveled. Originally Starbucks called them City Mugs. Then they were the You Are There mugs. Now they are called the Been There Series. But whatever they are called, crucially, they are all the same size. Well, in the early days there was some wide variation until Starbucks settled on the current dimensions. So they stack well in the cupboard. And we have an entire cupboard. Maybe 50 in all, maybe more, we are not sure because our daughter absconded with some a few years ago. They come from Beijing to Berlin, Chicago to Santiago, Chile, and everywhere in between. When we are home we use these mugs daily and are reminded of our visits to those places.
Today we hit the jackpot. The Nishinasuno Starbucks had three different mugs – spring Japan, autumn Japan, and Tochigi. Tochigi prefecture is the Japanese “state” where we are living. Scott gasped when he saw the Tochigi mug. We got the last one on the shelf – either Tochigi mugs sell like hotcakes or they could not move the last one. Most likely the latter. We got the autumn version of the Japan mug because we will be here through the season.
But it gets better. While we were making our mug decision a preternaturally friendly staff person brought us two demitasse cups with samples of the seasonal Autumn Blend. Mind you, it had been 23 days since we had a decent cup of coffee, to be blunt about it.
It was magical. The autumnal flavor exploded in our mouths; the caffeine shot through our veins.
So we got two tall coffees and a pumpkin scone. The staff were excited and amazed that we were from the US (remember the beaten path, like the Shinkansen, bypasses Nishinasuno) and that we would be here for another two months. We sincerely promised to return. Later the manager introduced herself and welcomed us. The staff fussed over us when we tried to return our dish ware. And notice in the photo that the server had written on our hand wipes Have a nice day ❤️ and Thank you! 😊❤️
Best. Starbucks. Ever. 😊❤️
Each Monday through Saturday the day at ARI starts with morning exercise. The entire ARI community gathers in a large circle and does a light exercise routine to music. It lasts about 3-5 minutes. Watch the video below of a bit of ARI’s morning exercise with the sound on for the full effect.
But this is not just an ARI thing. The exercise program is broadcast nationwide every morning at 6:30am on the Japanese public station NHK Radio 1. It is called Radio Taiso. Raído Taiso is done each morning in schools, work places, and anywhere there is a radio. In fact we find the key to doing morning exercise is to follow the lead of Yuko-san or Koshi-san, who grew up doing these exercises.
Radio exercise was first broadcast nationwide in 1929. The purpose is to promote social happiness as a byproduct of maintaining and improving the health of Japanese citizens. The exercises were designed to be easy and accessible for people of all ages and to be performed anywhere.
Today there are three exercise programs, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, which are broadcast on a rotating basis. The current radio exercise No. 1 has been broadcast since 1951.
You can find out more about Radio Taiso here.
The name of this blog is a family inside joke. No governor is involved.
Perhaps you have had an experience where you are having a conversation about a topic, the conversation moves on from the topic, but then much later someone starts talking about that topic again as if it was still the current topic? A conversational non sequitur, so to speak. We call that “going to Japan with the governor”. The Germans probably have a word for it, and if you know the correct term then let us know in the comments.
The backstory. Many years ago, we lived in Colorado, and we were at a group dinner. The then-governor of Colorado (Roy Romer) was going to Japan as part of a trade delegation, and for some odd reason that briefly became a topic of dinner conversation. And the conversation moved on, as happens. About half an hour later one person at the table (who shall not be named to protect Blair’s identity) suddenly started talking about the governor going to Japan, as if the past thirty minutes had not happened. It stumped the table. And thus, was born a family expression.
So, when we needed a title for this blog about going to Japan, well there you go. And if any governor should visit Japan while we are here, that is strictly coincidental.
