Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend a weekend at a secluded cabin set in the shadow of a famous Japanese icon, Mount Fuji? Well, it was something I had thinking about for a couple weeks, ever since my friend Mr. Kubo (the dentist I met near Lake Towada) had invited me. I mean, how often does an opportunity like that come along? Not often if you ask me. No crowds, no noisy tourists, no garish hotels, just you and Mt. Fuji. I was still in a little bit of shock from my arrival in the Japanese megalopolis Tokyo after a week in Kamikochi so I couldn’t wait to go back to nature.
We met at noon at his dental office in Shinjuku where I was introduced to the third member of our party, Yuki. Yuki was a published poet some 7 years older then me, reserved with a quiet smile. He was a welcome addition to our group and created a unique dynamic which spawned quite a few interesting conversations.
Did I mention that Mr. Kubo paints? Well, he does and there are hundreds of canvases to prove it. I know because I’ve seen and moved quite a few of them. An unexpected patient gave the three of us some free time before we could depart so with a devilish smile Mr. Kubo put us to work. He was storing some paintings at friends office nearby and was eager to move them up to the cabin. Enter Yuki and me, his cheerful and willing slaves.
Dinner that night, to put it succinctly, was interesting. Have you ever had horse steak? No? Well, I have. It was quite tasty and I was really tempted to ask its name. We had a multi-course dinner that ran the gamut of Japanese food. Raw fish, boiled fish, rice, but thank god there was no natto (half rotted soy beans with the consistency of snot). Japanese people love to joke with foreigners about the stuff. They really enjoy making us try it and laugh at our reactions. I’ve tried it four times, prepared four different ways, and each time its the same, bad.
Soon after entering the restaurant, Hiroshima, the master came and joined us. While we enjoyed the food he enjoyed some alcohol. His manner was unique, changing from energetic to thoughtful then back to energetic again in the blink of an eye. As a former chef and veteran of more then a few well to do restaurants he was enjoying his later years in a place of his own. The skills of a lifetime of practice passed down to the current cook.
The next morning we were up and off bright and early after a quick breakfast. Mr. Kubo was eager to get to a nearby ‘airfield’ and get his model airplane up in the sky before the okay weather broke and turned into something worse. Luckily that eagerness didn’t stop us from having a good cup of coffee at a roadside diner.
At a small field way off the beaten path in the middle of nowhere we met up with another of Mr. Kubo’s friends. He was already deeply entranced with his airplane as it danced amongst a small group of birds. After a few words of barely noticed greeting Mr. Kubo was getting his own plane ready for take-off.
It was quite a thrill to watch the planes as they weaved in and out of the clouds carried up and down by sudden currents in the wind. The real show, though, was a bit later in the morning when a few more people showed up.
One of the ‘pilots’ was doing a bit of showing off, performing some pretty wild tricks and impressing the heck out of all of us. Then, without warning in the middle of a sudden climb, the model stalled, pointed its nose at the ground and proceeded to make a nice crater in the soft dirt. All of us sat there for a minute shocked by what had just happened. In the space of just a second hundreds of dollars of plane had turned into worthless scrap (the innards were still okay but as for the frame…).
After a lazy lunch with the group the three of us headed out for a nearby brewery. Every since I mentioned that I was looking for craft beer breweries Mr. Kubo had been on the lookout. The place he was taking me to today was Banern Brewery, a place run by a German man named Stephen.
While enjoying a very tasty craft beer I picked the mans brains about craft brewing in Japan. He was a wealth of information and finally gave me a chance to see how the situation looked from a Westerners point of view from someone in the thick of it. He even took us on a tour of his small yet very productive brewery. Stephen continually talked of the challenges he faced as a small brewer but I could hear in his voice and see in his eyes that he was enjoying every minute of it. It felt good to be in the presence of someone working hard and loving it. As much as I would have loved to stick around longer I noticed that my two companions were getting kind of restless (understandable after 1 ½ hours of waiting) so we bid farewell and headed out.
It was a relatively short drive to our next destination, the Kawaguchiko Music Forest (read automated music machine museum). If you are ever in the area and have some time to waste (as well as 1400 yen a person) I would recommend visiting there. The number of 100+ year old automated music machine they have there is impressive, and almost all of them still work. I stood in wonder trying to figure out how half of them worked. The intricate machines were somehow able to perform complicated movements while playing music all without the aid of any electronic device. Very impressive.
The next morning was very relaxed. In no hurry with nothing to do really we lazed about the cabin enjoying rare, picturesque blue skies and a soothing breeze. Mr. Kubo even brought out a hammock and strung it between two trees for a bit of a mid-morning nap. I could see why a busy dentist from a crowded city needed a place like this to escape to on the weekends. Heck, even though I wasn’t a dentist from a big city I wanted a place like this. I almost didn’t want to go back to civilization but the call of things needing to be done was too strong for all of us to resist.
The drive back was pretty long and by the time skyscrapers sprouted from the horizon I was ready to take on the Japanese megalopolis called Tokyo. What was going to happen in that giant city I had no idea but I was looking forward to finding out.
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Woooow groovy.,…. must have been indeed a great thing to be in such a place…
