Rice paddies, mountains and blue skies? I’m there!

This being my third trip to Japan the past five years, I wanted to get away from the big cities. Since Ema had to return to her hometown of Saku to take photos with her sister before her sister’s Coming of Age ceremony (Seijin-Shiki / 成人式) next January, I took this opportunity to tag along. The first day was mostly spent getting to the city…

The trip started with us almost missing our 8am flight in Hong Kong, last ones on the plane again yay! Arriving at Narita International 4.5 hours later, we hopped on the Keisei line to Ueno station in Tokyo. Somehow, between the purchasing the ticket and the gate to the station (not even 20m away), I managed to lose my ticket. After a few minutes of searching, I gave up and bought another 1200 yen ticket. Unfortunately this caused us to miss the “Super Express” train to Ueno (which only comes every 30 mins, but gets you there in 35 minutes) , so we ended up exchanging our ticket and taking the more “scenic” (aka more crowded and a much longer ride) local train to Ueno. The ride took a little over an hour and Ema spent most of the ride playing Drawn to Life on my DS  while I just took in the scenery. Before reaching Ueno station, I would find the lost train ticket in a little nook in Ema’s suitcase… Fail (We ended up getting our money back for the unused ticket, minus a 150 yen fee).

At Ueno, we switched to the JR line and caught the Shinkansen to Sakudaira (5,460 yen). By then we were starving, so we ordered a kamameshi (rice in a clay pot) which consisted of chicken and vegetables, with a side of pickled veggies. Most stations have a special one you can purchase. This particular one is called Toge no Kamameshi (峠の釜めし, literally “Pot rice of the hills” because it comes from a station which is located up in the hills/mountains) can only be  purchased on the train. You even get to keep the cute little clay pot it comes in (which we didn’t). As we ate, the scenery quickly changed from city to rural, from flat land to mountains. A little over an hour later we had arrived at Sakudaira (Alas, Saku was still a 15 minute drive away).

Toge no Kamameshi (峠の釜めし)

While walking from the station to the car, this teenager looking at his cellphone walked by us, and as he passed, made a sound and ran off quickly. Not really noticing anything wrong, we just kept walking. A good 10 seconds later it just started pouring out of nowhere! I asked about it later, Ema claims the locals can sense it (I don’t quite believe her, but I can’t really come up with a better explanation).

Chiwa … the… chihuahua… orz

For dinner, we went to a soba restaurant nearby where I had some soba and tempura. The soba was grown and made locally (actually, I didn’t even know soba was a plant). I also didn’t know they gave you (what seemed like) a bucket of soba and as much as I love soba, I just couldn’t finish all that food. The rest of the night was spent watching TV, playing with Chiwa, drinking whiskey and talking (well mostly the family talking in Japanese and me trying my hardest to follow the conversation).

After a little studying and a quick shower, I settled into bed. Tomorrow, I would get my first real glimpse of the town (it was raining too hard to see anything, plus they don’t really have streetlights).

*Note: Aside from the bento, no food photos were taken the whole trip, as gadgets at the breakfast/lunch/dinner table are a no-no. Also, I left my cellphone AND my camera at home the one time we went to a grocery store