Kanazawa and Hopp one in Hakuba

So yesterday morning we awoke with all agleam in our eyes, For this is the day in which I was to see a ninja dera (ninja temple) and a Samurai castle. I couldn't even describe to you how excited i was to see these two things. so the story goes, we went to this temple and found out it wasn't actually a ninja temple...story of my life... BUT what we did find out is that it was a Samurai temple with many tricks and illusions to fool enemy ninja sent to the kill the Feudal Lords back in the day. Things such as murder stairs, hidden stairways, trick doors, and many other little things that were designed to help the lord hide in his temple or to injure the intruders.

Next was the castle, and to say the least, utter disappointment...So as it turns out, back when the Feudal Lords were all battling, basically all the castles got burned down by each other...so there was no actual castle... we did get to run around the grounds of the castle and ended up hearing about the history and the layout of the grounds from a volunteer guide that found us foreigners wandering around.

we then went to the park, Kendo -something something park...it was absolutely fantastically gorgeous!! it is actually one of the three most popular and famous parks of all Japan!!!

afterwards we went to the a fish market.... This was sooooooo cool! literally a ton of small alleys lined with fisherman and their days wears shouting out trying to sell them! we found a 600 dollar fish...a ginormous tuna fish!!! it was mainly crab season, so we saw tons and tons of crabs!!! one of which pinched a mouthy Japanese guy as he tried to mockingly make fun of me for not being brave and stinking my finger in his claw.....serves him right!!!

we also found a super famous street that has been filmed in movies many times ( can't name any though)....but we found a gold leaf shop!!!! and they let us eat straight gold!!! also let it be known that i was dared to snort some.... and as thick headed and manly as I am....i totally did... two words: no bueno

after this tiresome and fun filled day, we ended up at a 100 yen ($1) sushi shop..... I will try my best to accurately describe this... but basically you sit in a booth with you buddies and there is a big super long conveyor belt that brings out hundreds of plates of different kinds of sushi and you just pluck it off the belt as it goes by and eat it....they charge you per plate as it all cost 100 yen a plate.... all us boys had and average of like 10 plates each, the girls averaged 6 plates each... we then retired for the evening.

when we did get home, we started packing the van for what came today, Hakuba, and more specifically Hopp one resort..... a HUGE mountain!! with a 5 mile long run...it was sooooooo awesome!!! I actually switched backs to skiis for today because i wanted to keep up with all the pro boarders i was with, as it turns out... I like boarding better now, the skii boots were too big and multiple feet of snow is now bueno on those skiis...i should have stayed on a board.. on the upside! i met a british guy and his student Andy who was learning English and how to skii. i also bumped into 2 Australian Girls who thought my American accent was cute. Also 2 ladies from New Zealand who i skiied with for awhile because we were all trying to get to the bottom of the gondola... This place was sooooo big, i literally got lost with a map... yeah... with a map... so once i made it down to the gondola, i ate lunch quick and had a beer while chatting to three British guys in the local pub. As it turns out, everyone from everywhere was there that day. I also met a gentleman from Chicago IL but has lived in Asia for the past 20 years and is currently in Singapore doing HR work...

we all came home to Sally's famous cooking and we had Curry.... The really hilarious Satoshi came over and brought his brother with him...they all are playing card games around the table... while Tyler and I blog away, and everyone is winding down....

I am sore and tired, so I'm going to to soak in the bath tub with healing bath mineral waters.. peace out

Church, Jam, Onsens, and Snowboarding!!!

SO Sunday (Yesterday from this post) we had church in the morning at the Church planted by Joel and Sally Kaufman. It was an all Japanese church, so between Joey, Abby, Sam and Essie Kaufman we got the gist of the sermon preached by Joel. Later that day we Practiced for JAM which is basically like a "called to worship" for those of you Illinois readers, uh... a Youth Fellowship night for you Leo readers, and well..Bluffton doesn't have anything like it...but basically we had Joey Kaufman and Dustin Huber on guitars, Sam Kaufman on the Bass, Yukiko on the Keyboard, Machiko, Essie, Abby and myself on Vocals, and ryunoske on the drums.... it was interesting to sing in Japanese....and actually it was a blast!!! they gave me romanji (characterized wording)for me to sing along with... don't get me wrong it was tough..but tons of fun...I also had a puny egg shaker and tambourine too! that went super late!! but praise was lifted and the Japanese Christians loved hearing and singing with us, hearing my testimony (translated by a super cool Japanese guy named Isaac) and hanging out with us too! right after that us boys met a guy named Toshino... Toshino is possibly on of the funniest and coolest Japanese guys I have met! that's putting it simply.... he took us to an arcade...

Words or pictures can't really describe what a Japanese arcade is like... HUGE!!! TONS OF GAMES!!! CHEAP TO PLAY!!! they had things that range from slot machine (for tokens), to virtual horse racing, to guitar heroes with BONGO drums....

any ways we also visited sento's and onsens.... you need to google this phrase to get a great description of it.... basically you go into this huge room and get completely naked.. you then go and take a shower in a communal room..and then go into various baths and massaging waterfalls, and saunas.... to say the least it felt phenomenal...yeah it was a little awkward at first... but eventually you get used to it.

Today, we woke up early and set off on the adventure of a lifetime!! we went snowboarding in the mountains... Raicho Valley is a "small and local" place in toyama.... to put it into perspective, it is bigger than any slopes I have ever been to in the Midwest..it was HUGE!!! yet a "small and local" place in japan.... in a day or two we are going to Hakuba, which is one of the big boy slopes of japan!

after snowboarding we hit the local onsen..... which is exponentially better after a day of learning how to snowboard....needless to say, my body is shot beyond belief right now.... we came home to dear mama and papa Kaufman and supper...

we now are just taking it easy, by the fire, all sprawled out on the floor, doing our own thing....we are just getting ready to pop in a Japanese movie and chill for the evening.
we all are warm, filled bellies, and comfortable...

(yawn) i guess its time to watch tha.... ....t.... ... ... mo... ... .. .

The "REAL" night before Christmas Story

Twas the night before Christmas over here in Japan,
a whole bunch of ruckus like a marching band,
All through the house there was laughter and glee,
a ton of people in the Cabin, it was a sight to see,
As midnight came and Santa did not show,
He must have forgot or is very very slow,
he must have left his suit in Karuizawa town,
and all his elves were asleep making no sound,
One by one we all awoke in the morn,
a crap ton of snow outside white and shorn,
Joey stirs the fire and brings back to life,
with sticks in his hands, and not the usual knife,
as mama Kaufman stirs and rustles the house,
she makes lots of noise like a flock of grouse,
Essie just lays there on the couch by the fire,
she dreams of snowboarding and big jumps she aspires,
the rest of the girls upstairs and silent,
but watch out for Abby she can sometimes be violent,
Tyler is skyping with family and friends,
he blogs, and facebooks, and communications he sends,
Sammie and Dustin asleep in their den,
they won't sleep downstairs due to the snoring of Ben,
Ben as he writes and observes the morning day,
Is bound by language and is running out of what to say,
we are all having a gift exchange of small,
we had quite some trouble deciding the best present of all,
with much thought and coffee put into this conclusion,
it has been decided by all without any confusion,
The best gift of Christmas that anyone could acquire
is our faith and fellowship with our beloved Kaufmans by the fire.

International flight - day 4

Basically I am going to skip over the international travels because our time in japan is way cooler than our travels. So I will just skip straight to day 1 in Japan

Both day 1 and 2 we spent in Karuizawa up where the Kaufmans own a cabin and have their Christmas and Summer Ministry. Some of the highlights were Elving, which is where we all dress up as elves and Papa Bear Kaufman as Santa and sang Christmas songs and passed out Japanese literature.

we ate curry for supper cooked by mama bear. and then went to the famous woodshed coffee house that the Kaufman kids worked at as young kids. We then went to an onsen....

words cannot describe what an onsen is like but I will say this one thing: pure awesomeness, relaxation, and openness...

the second day the entire Kaufman family drove to a hospital to see a friend so the three oblivious Americans (also known as Gaijins) took a walk into the Machi or the town market. We made many a few blunders and a few really sweet discoveries. Including curry fill doughnuts and heated cans in vending machines.

we then packed the van and headed to Toyama. We stopped along the way at the monkey park to see the Japanese snow monkeys. They were awesome to say the least. You should check out Tyler Knochel's Blog that links to a video of the monkeys. you can see it at http://thaikno.tumblr.com.

We then went to a Traditional Japanese Families house and had fresh apples, and they ended up feeding all 14 of us!! (P.S. we met the Kole Family and they came to see the monkeys and came to this house with us.) after being stuffed full of Tea and Raman noodles we chatted for awhile and asked many questions about their lives and the traditional Japanese Lifesyle!

Upon arriving home late night, we were surprised by Joey Kaufman showing up and it was phenomenal being able to see Him again!!! I squeezed him so hard i think his eye about popped out of his head!

the next day we ran around Shiminato which can be classified as probably the jankiest town you could ever think of. We went to the equivalent of a dollar tree store and bought souvenirs for you all! We then ate at the Kaufman kids favorite Curry place, it was dandy!!!

after lunch we went to flamingo ( a store) which is like a humongous store owned by a guy. Everything is slightly used, or cheaply purchased, or something else...When you buy things, it seems like a black market of everything ran by the yakuza....

oh and P.S. - everyone around me thinks we are Russian. They always try to speak Russian to us, and we just smile and nod.... maybe its because of the massive beards we are sporting.

anyways after dealing with they yakuza and getting some sweet steals on goods. we came home and spent the evening with David the ambassador of Japan from Sierra Leon. He awed us with his Gospel style singing on Christmas songs including O Holy night and last Christmas. We then chatted the evening away and ended up singing Christmas and Praise Songs. We all went to bed pooped as always with our ever busy travelings and sight seeings.

I do apologize as I am not a writer by trade, and my humor is not good on blogs as it doesn't make much sense..other than the fact that I am humor myself in that many people laugh at me. Stay tuned for the next few days. I will try to do it every night but there will be no promises as we are always on the run.

Character Profile of Japan

So there are actually 10 of us, but profiling everyone would take forever and they won't be with us four guys so the group consensus was to only profile the main group of our traveling posse. Although one other member not in our posse did make the profile list because she really really wanted to be. So here is our gang:

Sam Kaufman - Our trip leader. Sam is a 22 year old Civil engineer who attends Purdue University. His parents Joel and Sally are the family we will be staying with for most of our time! He is big on snowboarding and looking at world wide economical blunders and wants to fix the world's problems.

Dustin Huber - Standing at 6'4" at 170lbs, this Giant of a Man hails from Bloomington, IL. He attends Illinois State for accounting. He makes a great elf here in Japan, although he literally can account for two on top of each other.

Tyler Knochel - Ty is 20years old, attending Arizona State for Business Management. He is very trendy in his style here in japan and is also or designated photographer as he is always toting around a camera and tripod.

Ben Gerber - [written by Tyler] Ben is the balancing member of our group. The yang to our yin. He's about 2-3 levels louder than the rest of us guys and proportionately more fun. He's gung-ho literally 24/7, even when he sleeps, his snoring sounds passionate. I love him to death, I'm soo glad he's here.

Abbers Kaufman - Abby-chan has made our profile list because well, she is just awesome and so darn cute! and there are many leo people (quelly, whit and the rest) that want to hear about her! She is the life of the party when Ben is not the party. With extreme excitement and zeal she can make anyone laugh at will and brighten their day with a smile.

The other members are Melissa Mcleoud, Essie Kaufman, Joel & Sally Kaufman, and Ruthie Kaufman! You will probably hear these members being referenced to often in the first two weeks of our adventures!