Paul Hartrick » Japanese Travel

Horanenya 2009

-Paul — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:05:54 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I traveled down to Matsue for the 2009 Horanenya festival. The Horanenya festival is one of three famous boat festivals in Japan. It is held only once every twelve years so I took advantage of this time…

The story is that the spirit of a “Kitsune” fox god is transported between two shrines by boat and Kabuki actors dance while the rowers chant “Horanenya!” (a plea to the gods for a good harvest).

If you missed it don’t worry you can catch it again in the year 2021…

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White Water Rafting in Minakami

-Paul — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:03:43 +0000

With the end of the Ski Season Japan and the ramp up of Summer activities I decided to give White Water Rafting a try while the snow is melting and the water is running fast enough to give more than the average adrenalin rush.

The location of choice was the Tone River in Minakami about 2 hours north of Tokyo. I decided to head up the night before as the train planning system told me it was a 3+ hour train ride to get to Minakami station…

For those who will travel to Minakami, catch the Shinkansen to Jomokogen station(上毛高原駅) and get a ride from the tour operators… 10 times more comfortable and twice as fast.. local knowledge very useful and was used on the trip back… dumbass train planning systems…

White Water Rafting in Manakimi(水上) is definitely a highly recommended activity… Local advice was to do it before July for maximum fun so I will be going back in June to do Canyoning and White Water Rafting again… For safety reasons I wasn’t able to use my Tachyon XC sports camera but the photos the tour company took were great and have posted a few of them below.

I’m not that hard to pick in the photos, the only foreigner and I also happened to muscle into front position of the boat.

Pre-Rafting training… The guide is from Peru…

Didn’t see this in the brochure….

Taking it a bit too serious…

Getting interesting…

Getting the adrenalin going now…

That’s a good idea… Bring the rafts together…!?

Relatively calm part of the river…

Hold on…

Now it’s getting fun…

All back in one piece…

I chose the fastest river run for maximum enjoyment which meant only 4 braves in the raft at the beginning and then we joined up with the other rafts about 20 minutes down the river and traveled for about another 40 minutes through various rapids and rocks… It all culminated in an optional 4 meter Rock dive that the tour guides were quick to point out was not covered by insurance, everyone did it and nobody got injured.

After the White Water Rafting there was a BBQ and a few beers to unwind and share the experience with the other people…

Finally my ride home…

Circ du Soleil – ZED

-Paul — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:53:43 +0000

Yesterday I had the pleasure to see Circ Du Soleil – ZED. The show is held in one of Circ Du Soleil’s purpose built theaters which is located next door to Tokyo Disneyland.

I can easily say it was the best stage performance I have ever seen and I am now keen to get tickets for Circ Du Soleil – DRALION located in Harajuku.

If you ever get a chance to see a Circ Du Soleil show then jump at it, and don’t be shy to spend the extra money on the best seats, it’s worth every part of $200 a seat.

Here a few photos of the show I found on the web.

After the show I spent the next 4 hours exploring Ikspiari, the shopping and entertainment area that adjoins Tokyo Disney Resort and the Circ Du Soleil theater.

There is so much to see do at Ikspiari you could spend a while day just exploring the surrounding areas. Here are the photos I took of the day, looking forward to heading back with my proper camera to get some more dramatic shots.

Cherry Blossom Party at Hikarigaoka

-Paul — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:07:44 +0000

Last weekend I went to a Cherry Blossom Party organized by the local Sushi bar that I frequent. The location was Hikarigaoka, about 20 minutes ride on the Oedo Line from Shinjuku Station. As always there was all the wrong brands of beer, cold food that is meant to be served warm and the usual attendees getting all pissed up after 3 cans of beer. Regardless of the standard party offering in Japan I still had a fun day. It also gave me a chance to try out my new 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM Canon lens. Below are a few photos of the day.

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Japan Cherry Blossom Season 2009

-Paul — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:07:28 +0000

Here is the latest forecast updated daily from Tenki showing the current forecast for Cherry Blossoms dates in Japan. I was at Hikarigaoka Park last weekend for a Cherry Blossom Party, post and photos to come, and there were about 50% of the blossoms out. So the weekend of the 4th April should be the perfect time to view the blossoms with the following weekend of the 10th April being good but starting to loose the blossoms for another season.