January adventures

January was a brilliant month, mainly because lots of my friends came to visit Kushihara! We had a great time, and I've been catching up on the work I missed ever since.

Firstly, we drove all the way from Tokyo to Kushihara, through snow and sunshine, and caught a glimpse of Mt Fuji on the way:

Then, arriving in Kushihara on the 3rd, we were invited to some new years celebrations. A really nice welcome back to the village! Here's a picture of Konstantin playing with some children...sweet :) ...and, the following day, helping butcher a 100kg wild boar..slightly less sweet.

Here is a picture of us posing with the boar. I should clarify that we didn't play any part whatsoever in catching it. It had been hunted down and shot earlier in the day by some members of the Kushihara hunting crew, who hunt in the mountainous forests surrounding the village every weekend during hunting season, which lasts from October to March. They often catch smaller boar in cages and snares, but this was the first time I'd seen them return with such a large animal. We were invited to the celebrations that followed.

...And, like all good celebrations, it all ended with traditional dancing...

...which, like all good traditional dancing, ended with a spectacular fall and a couple of head injuries. Luckily sake is a great anaesthetic.

We had a few more parties in Kushihara after that, with more dancing, more sake and more delicious food from the mountains. (And fireworks, though everyone was too busy nearly getting killed to worry about taking photos). Below are pictures of giant hornet canapes and a delicious termite-tofu salad:

Introducing all the various wonderful things in Kushihara to my friends was a lot of fun. However, we had agreed in advance that we would also go and see a place that none of us had ever been before, a place we'd always wanted to see - the snow monkey onsen!

We went to Nagano prefecture, and the snow was incredible. We stayed in Shibu onsen town, in a lovely ryokan which gave us keys to wander freely around the town in yukata, bath-hopping. The ryokan owners also let us use their cooking facilities to make a particularly good pizza. And in the morning, we went to visit the snow monkeys.

I don't have a picture of everyone who came to visit, but this photo (above) was taken on our last day. Shortly after this photo was taken, we made the amazing discovery that the town we were staying in not only appeared to have more hot springs than people, but also happened to be home to a winery, a sake factory and a beer brewery. All of which offered free tastings. A spectacular end to a pretty amazing couple of weeks.

And so..I want to end this blog post with a proper heartfelt thank you, for all of these January adventures :) I was worried about winter. I thought it might be cold and lonely. After all, there are no hornets to hunt, no wasps to chase, no grasshoppers to catch, and the fields are covered in frost (if not snow) on most mornings. But thanks to my friends who came to visit me, and to the generosity of spirit and hospitality of everyone here in Kushihara, I've had an unforgettable start to the year.