Relaxing in Toyama

It has been some time since the last blog entry given that we have basically been relaxing and visiting with family and friends in Toyama. We haven't been visiting anything exotic during this portion of the trip; simply living life like everyday Japanese do in this smaller city.

Over the past nine years of coming here, this place has really come to be a second home to me. It is very familiar - almost as familiar as traveling to visit friends and family in places like Winnipeg and Edmonton. There are language and cultural differences to deal with but these are not insurmountable. It has become very apparent to me though that I do need to make some stronger effort to learn the Japanese language. Doing so to some level of fluency would make these visits so much more enriching. Perhaps over the next year I will actually make an improved effort in this regard.

Other than shopping, eating, talking, watching TV, and sleeping, we did go on one interesting trip up into the mountains to a tourist area called Shirakawa-go. Basically, it is an old-fashioned small mountain town that contains old-style homes with thatched roofs. These homes are what farmers used to live in way back when. Interestingly, most of the thatched-roof homes that we saw are actually still in use; they aren't just set up as a tourist attraction.

There were tons of tourists from all over Japan - so many that it was actually difficult to walk at times. There were even a few foreigners which was interesting given that this place is relatively off the beaten path for foreign tourists. The nicest part of this trip was the tree leaves that were just starting to change colour. Over the next month, many of the trees will start to turn orange, yellow, and red.  It will definitely be a beautiful site to behold. Unfortunately, we only caught the front-end of this.
 

One of the highlights of the Toyama leg of the trip for me was to get a chance to chat with Maiko, Hana's cousin's daughter. Maiko recently spent 10 months in Australia perfecting her English language skills. Besides Hana, Maiko was the only person that I could communicate with directly. It was great chatting with her. One evening we must have talked for over 3 hours about various topics including what life is like in Australia and Canada. I did have to bug her a bit though - her English is definitely tinged with an Australian accent and slang. That made the conversation even more fun! This experience also showed me directly how important language and communication is. If I improve my Japanese language skills I will definitely be able to develop deeper relationships with people here in Toyama and that would be a very rewarding experience.

Tomorrow it is off to Yokohama and then Tokyo. This vacation is starting to wind down. It is hard to believe how quickly time flies when you are having fun...