A Hike, A Soak & A Drink

Branchfuls of persimmons for sale.

The thrill of being in Japan is starting to wear thin. Perhaps it is the churning of the culture shock cycle, or perhaps I have too much on my plate to fully enjoy the great opportunity of being here. Take Sunday for example. Earlier in the week I received an email from a hiking buddy who organizes a hiking outing two or three times a month. I usually try to go on his hikes because he invites a variety of people and I need to escape the concrete crush at least once a month. The other benefit is not only can I flee the city and enjoy the Japanese mountain side, but I don’t have to try to figure out bus schedules, connection times, maps, and the like. All of the fun with none of the hassle of not speaking or reading Japanese. Sunday’s outing was “easy hike, visit onsen, and enjoy tour of sake brewery.” Right up my alley: a little hike, a little soak (onsen=hotsprings), and a little sake. What better way to spend a Sunday?

The meeting time was set. 7:45 am on the Chuo platform in Shinjuku. That meant I had to be out of the house by 6:18 to catch the train, so I packed my lunch and backpack Saturday night and set the alarm clock for 5:30. I woke up a few moments prior to the harsh shrill of my alarm, had a cup of tea, dressed, grabbed breakfast to eat on the train, and was out the door. I made the trains no problem and slept most of the way in to Tokyo. I met the hiking party, hopped on the next series of trains, arrived (finally) at our destination stop, and started the hike at 10:00 am. Ten o’clock!

View of a bridge along the Okutama River.

We hiked along a river and enjoyed the changing of the leaves. We crossed a few bridges, took some pictures, had a break, and were done by 12:30. We hopped on another train and went a few stops to the onsen. Onsen are one of my favorite things about Japan. Soaking in a nice hot tub of water always does me good. Afterwards I was feeling so relaxed I was tempted to just stay on the train and come home, but I managed to stick with the crowd and we hit the sake brewery.

The Japanese are more obsessed with time than even I am!

The sake brewery tour was much like other brewery tours I’ve taken. In a group of 30, the sake master took us around the premises. He showed us 8000 liter vats with 300-year-old sake in them. He showed us the kind of rice from which sake is made (sake rice is not good for eating, and rice grown for consumption is not good for sake). He went on about the quality of the water the brewery is used. Then he led us into a small room, gave us 4 bottles of sake to test, and let us do our thing (which, incidentally, was to drink the four bottles).

Four bottles of sake don’t last 30 people very long. My group swiftly moved on to the bar where we could pay to taste more kinds of sake. It was cheap. The first cupful was 200 yen and, provided you reused your sake cup, each subsequent cup was 100 yen. There were 12 different types to sample and between the nine of us, I think we tried all of them. A few people rushed to the gift shop to buy bottles and we were out the door by 4:45. Now I have been sick with a cold for about a week and was feeling particularly sniffly and stuffed up yesterday on top of having a sinus headache. Because of this, I only had a cup of the rice nectar and let the drinking merriment carry on around me. I crashed during most of the 3.5-hour ride back, a ride broken up by 3 train changes and laughter over the snoring of one of our companions. I arrived home around 8-ish, popped some cold medicine, drank a cup of cocoa, and tucked myself in to bed.

Maybe it was due to the fact I was under the weather, maybe it’s the shortened days, maybe I’m over going on group hikes, but at the end of yesterday I rather wished like I had just stayed home. Sure, the changing of the leaves was beautiful, the onsen was absolutely lovely, and the brewery tour was interesting, but 7-ish hours of riding on a train for a short hike, a soak, and a drink doesn’t much appeal to me. I might be singing a different tune if it had been a seven-hour hike…Next time I’ll definitely have to think more carefully about the train ride/activity ratio.