Chestnut Crazy in Obuse

Brellowgirl
Nov 12, 2015
5 min read

11.10.15

I didn’t feel like writing yesterday, so I didn’t. I didn’t feel like eating lunch today, so I didn’t. I don’t have to go to bed on time and I can have ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I wanted to. So THIS is what it feels like to make my own rules.

Thankfully I’ve been pretty good about my routine and I have been eating some kind of breakfast – usually fruit, which I typically don’t do. It’s been raining here so I didn’t feel like writing yesterday. I made chicken soup for dinner and went to bed early. Today we woke up to more rain here in the mountains and I promised myself I’d get ish done today even though the weather sucked. We worked hard until noon and then I skipped lunch and went for a run. Same 3.5 mile loop that I did last time but instead of running back to the lodge I went up to the foot spa in the hills and stuck my feet in the water. Rose and Vincent were up there when I arrived so I joined them for a bit and ended up relaxing up there for about an hour. The water was extremely hot and took a whole hour to get used to. It was pretty funny to see people come and go because it was too hot. They’d stick their feet in the water and then take them out reaaaal quick and be gone within 5 minutes. I had some nice quiet time up there for a while. After that I hit the onsen for an early bath. When I first got here I wanted to try out every single onsen. Now I’m just so comfortable going to the one down the street that I don’t want to try anything new. I’ve peeked my head into a few and none look as nice or clean or big as mine.

The onsen was nice and peaceful and hot. For the first time I realized that the water source comes out of the mouth of a lion into the bath. It’s cool looking cause there’s all kinds of calcium build up on the lion and it just looks badass haha.

11.11.15

Typical Cassie, I fell asleep writing that and I’ll probably fall asleep writing this…

We started at our regular time today-8am and worked till 12 cleaning up around the lodge and then tidying up at the ski locker. I wanted to go running today but there was too much computer work that I had to do so I made a quick lunch of rice and friend eggs, leftover soup and kamaboku (fish cakes).

11.12.15

Third times a charm, right? Hopefully I won’t fall asleep writing this cause I’m down sitting by the fire…

I spent the rest of my afternoon yesterday planning out Australia for me, Kirk and my aunt. We’ll be in Sydney for NYE and my cousin will be joining us so we’re looking for a place to stay for a few days before we go to Melbourne. I’m a bit scatter-brained right now so can I just say that Adele’s new song is bangin’? I haven’t been listening to new music since I left really so when I opened up spotify to take a listen I got addicted to “Hello”. So good. Okay, sorry, back to yesterday. Luke and Gab (our hosts) treated us out for ramen at a local place down the road. Gab’s dad is visiting from Switzerland and the minute we walked into the restaurant the owner went crazy and practically started crying she was so happy to see him. It was the lot of us workawayers and we had a delicious meal out at this place. They had a bunch of different types of ramen and everyone tried something different. I went with a spicy miso kimchi-it was super yum. After dinner Luke was fired up and ready to sing so we hit a karaoke bar. It looked more like my grandparent’s living room but it was cozy and the perfect environment for us to embarrass ourselves. We had a BLAST. My cheeks hurt so much I was laughing so hard. Rose’s boyfriend, Vincent, was super into it and sang most songs out of tune and with a blonde wig on. It was so incredibly magnificently brilliant. We had this Japanese grain alcohol that I think was shocho (soju) that we drank diluted in hot water. It was a lot of fun and the ladies from the ramen place joined us after they closed up haha. There was an older guy there who was in love with Anaïse and tried to get a kiss out of her for while before giving up lol.

Today we were allowed to sleep in for an extra hour and start work late. We tidied up quickly and made some new beds because a bunch of people were going to come (workawayers and guests). Rose and Vincent left early in the morning and Marcus left in the afternoon. I already miss my new friends. Me, Anaïse, Isabel and Macon rented a car and took a day trip to a neighboring town about an hour away called Obuse. The town is associated with the famous artist Hokusai who painted the Wave off the coast of Kanagawa. The town also has vineyards, apple orchards and chestnut EVERYTHING. The minute we got there we started eating. We had these little cakes shaped like chestnuts called taiyaki which is pancake or waffle batter that’s put in a mold and then filled with chestnut paste and a whole chestnut in the middle and then another half of the molded batter is put on top to close it. It results in a heavenly, fluffy, chestnut filled goodness. It usually has red bean inside so maybe these are called something different but it’s basically the same thing. We all had the same set menu from a restaurant specializing in all things chestnuts. Our lunch came with rice with boiled chestnuts, some vegetables, miso soup and some fermented beans. It was delicious. We finished and walked around town, shopped a bit and then visited a few temples. At one of the temples I donated some money and left a wish for little Billy, a boy our fraternity "adopted" who has an inoperable brain tumor. He lives closeby so our brothers are always hanging out with him. In a bunch of churches I visited at the beginning of the year all over Europe I lit candles for Billy and said some prayers so I thought of him especially today at the temple. Overall It was a beautiful day with the others. On the way to the car park we stopped into a sake shop and sampled a few different types of sake (which all tasted the same to me). Further down the street we were ushered into a country shop by a lady asking us to sample some plum wine. We chatted for a bit and I found out she used to live in Morris County NJ… so crazy.

When we got back to the lodge there were 3 new workawayers (a couple from England and a guy from France) and 2 guests. Anaïse and I hit the onsen then made dinner. Going to the onsen is kind of awesome now (except for yesterday when there were small black flecks of something in the water but I didn’t notice until I was in the water cause I didn’t have my glasses on and couldn’t see anything…). Because it’s getting cold out here I look forward to onsen time and it’s perfect to soak in the hot water and warm up.

Okay, I’m getting sleepy and I have a lot of planning to do after work tomorrow so I have to get my rest. Enjoy the pictures =]

Much love,

Cas