Our April activity had 7 brave hikers - Anna, Lya, Meg, Laura, Maryssa, Stan and Kyejin! Since it’s a perfect season for hanami, we decided to go to 2 different places to enjoy beautiful flowers, 1) Shibazakura Hill (芝桜の丘; Shibazakura no oka) at Chichibu Hitsujiyama Park (秩父羊山公園; Chichibu Hitsujiyama Kōen) and 2) Kinchakuda (巾着田; Kinchakuda).

1) Chichibu Hitsujiyama Park (秩父羊山公園; Chichibu Hitsujiyama Kōen)

Hitsujiyama Park is a 20 minutes walk from Seibu Chichibu station. The name of the park, Hitsujiyama, literally means Sheep Mountain as hitsuji (羊) means sheep and yama (山) means a mountain. As the name shows, you can see some sheep in the park.

Our destination was Shibazakura Hill (芝桜の丘; Shibazakura no oka) on that day. It is located in the south of Hitsujiyama Park (羊山公園) and has an area of about 17,600m².

We could enjoy cherry blossoms in full bloom on the way to the hill. There are different kinds of cherry blossoms, which made the place even more colorful and stunning.

Shibazakura Hill is planted in more than 400,000 pink phlox mosses of 9 different colors. In the blooming season, it becomes a flowering carpet shape is designed from Floats and costume patterns of the Chichibu Night Festival and night festival’s excitement.

2) Kinchakuda (巾着田; Kinchakuda)

Kinchakuda Plateau is a 15 walk from Koma station. We just needed to follow a red sign with 巾着田 (kinchakuda) so it wasn’t difficult to find it.

When we arrived at the place, the Spring Festival was already over but instead, we could enjoy the 菜花 (nanohana; rapeseed flowers) in full bloom ourselves. There was no crowd and we were the only people there! The purse-shaped field filled with rapeseed flowers is surrounded by cherry blossoms in full bloom too, and when the wind blows, it rained cherry blossom petals. It was such a beautiful place.

1. Was this hiking easy or hard? Score from level 1 (easy) to level 5 (hard).

Laura: level 1

Stan: The hike was VERY easy, grade 1. And why? Well, we did not really do any climb except few stairs : )

Anna: Easy, easy 1! I think it’s the first time we didn’t encounter stairs!

Lya: It was so easy! No big slopes, barely any stairs, really chill : D

Meg: 1. It was easy. XD We didn’t really hike up any mountains this time.

Maryssa: 1 Easy. There were few hills.

Kyejin: Level 1. It was easy!

2. How was the scenery/sightseeing there? Score from 1 (bad) to 5 (amazing).

Laura: level 5. Luckily we went when the Sakura trees were fully bloomed. Plus, the park surrounded by mountains was beautiful.

Stan: The scenery was much better than I expected in both cases - firstly, I had known Chichibu a bit from the past and I did not expect so many sakuras (including the pink, leaning ones) over there in a full bloom, plus the shibazakura flowers were great and I finally managed to see them. So 5, of course. And why? Flowers. I just like them.

Anna: 10! The cherry blossom trees in Chichibu were stunning! There weren’t as many people as in Tokyo famous spots which made it even more beautiful than any other big Sakura park I’ve seen before.

Lya: 7/5. Sakura and flowers were in full bloom! All the colors! So pretty♥

Meg: 5. It was soo beautiful. One of the best hanami spots and not a lot of people. I highly recommend this place to do hanami and enjoy sakura.

Maryssa: 5 The flowers were blooming beautifully.

Kyejin: It was the most beautiful and not crowded hanami I’ve ever experienced. I would love to visit there again next spring!

3. What was the most memorable moment of this trip?

Laura: There was a spot full of Shidarezakura in full bloom. Since it was a bit windy the rain of sakura petals was very pretty.

Stan: Probably the sakura petal falls in the wind.

Anna: I discovered a punishment for Korean kids. Ah and of course Sakura rain ✿

Lya: When the wind blew softly and it rained Sakura petals. Stan took a good video of it!

Meg: Enjoying the sakura fall down with the wind and eating yummy food.

Maryssa: Walking down the path lined with sakura trees.

Kyejin: Showing Anna how to write her own name as a Korean punishment o_O and dancing with everyone in the rapeseed flower field. Also, the sakura rain whenever the wind blows…♡

4. How was food? What was your favorite?

Laura: I didn’t eat much since I had a cold. But the snack shared by Kyejin was good (good)

Stan: I only had one food and that was yakiniku, grilled one, one the stick. So I cannot compare, but then again, no matter how I look like, I am not a “big eater”…

Anna: New things I tried were miso potatoes and buta miso don. Both worth it.

Lya: SNACKS FTW. My favorite was wild boar skewers (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Meg: Maryssa and I had a butadon and it was really good. The homemade gelato was awesome too!

Maryssa: The food was great. The butadon was so delicious.

Kyejin: Miso butadon (the one on the right side in the picture) was so gooood! The one on the left side is hiroshima okonomiyaki and it was good too : ) Anna and I shared these two dishes and we were very satisfied! And we had late dinner after hiking at the Mexican restaurant where Maryssa introduced and it was great too. Everything was perfect on that day : D

5. Will you recommend this mountain to others? Score from 1 (No) to level 5 (Absolutely).

Laura: level 4. If people go during the time either the sakura trees or the gardens have lots of flowers, the park is very pretty. Otherwise, I think it is too far away and there are no trails around there to venture into the forest or mountains nearby. But the station and town are pretty and the people friendly so it is a nice place to hang out.

Stan: I can recommend both places with 5. I am not sure if Chichibu is worth 5 out of the sakura/pink moss blooming season, but in this case yes.

Anna: Yes! It wasn’t crowded at all and it was beautiful. The second location we went to also looked like a perfect place to have a barbecue.

Lya: 5! Absolutely, it was gorgeous!

Meg: 5. It’s just so beautiful and food is good too! : D

Maryssa: 5 Would definitely recommend. The scenery was stunning, food was delicious, and staff were nice.

Kyejin: Of course. It’s now my secret(?) place for hanami!

6. Any comment?

Stan: Thanks for the great trip, socializing was also outstanding, I personally need more stuff like this, it made me switch off, even though I was working occasionally.

Anna: Looking forward to the next hiking with everyone. There are always nice sceneries around no matter the season.

Lya: A really fun and pretty day (≧▽≦) Special mention for Sushi Go!

Meg: Big thanks to the company! : D

Maryssa: I would call it more of a walking tour than a hike, but it was gorgeous and a nice place people could spend the whole day having a picnic at.

Kyejin: Yes, big big big thanks to the company! : D It was really fun and I can’t wait for our next hiking already. Let’s hike, people!

~ Anna, Lya, Meg, Laura, Maryssa, Stan, Kyejin

P.S. The 3rd Sunday of the month is the Hiking Day so the next hiking will be on May 19th! Please join this fun hiking, dear ILL people : D

On March 17th, on a beautiful Sunday, Anna, Lya, Meg, and Kyejin went hiking to 3 different mountains, Mt. Gongen (権現山), Mt. Koubou (弘法山), and Mt. Azuma (吾妻山).

Those mountains are located between the Hadano and Tsurumakionsen stations on the Odakyu Odawara line and the stations are easily accessible from Shinjuku station directly without any transferring. It takes about an hour only so it’s a perfect day trip from Tokyo!

Since each mountain is about 250m tall only, it was a relatively easy hike. There are plenty of picnic tables and benches so we could rest enough and play fun card games whenever we arrived at the summit of each mountain. It’s said you can enjoy an amazing view of Mt. Fuji on a clear day but unfortunately it suddenly got cloudy when we were at the observatory. It’s also a popular place, especially during the cherry blossom season.

1. Was this hiking easy or hard? Score from level 1 (easy) to level 5 (hard).

Meg: 2.5 or 3 because of the uphills.

Lya: The hike was 2 hard. The beginning was pretty straining but it got easier after a while ^^

Anna: Mount Koubo was an easy relaxing hike although as usual, it started with stairs but we did our best and got easily to the first stop!

Kyejin: 2. If it was just one mountain, I would give 1 but since we hiked to 3 mountains in one day, I give 2!

2. How was the scenery/sightseeing there? Score from 1 (bad) to 5 (amazing).

Meg: 3 The view was nice and you could see a nice view of the area we were in.

Lya: I would give a 4 to the scenery. It was beautiful and we could see far, but we missed the Sakura blooming. That would have been a 5.

Anna: We had perfect weather for hiking not too hot not too cold so we enjoyed the day a lot. There were nice stops in the way like a sightseeing mini tower, statues of the demons of the woods and lots of Sakura trees that unfortunately hadn’t bloomed when we went. So if you have the chance to get there when they bloom I’m sure the views will be even more rewarding!

Kyejin: 3. Too bad we weren’t able to see Mt. Fuji or cherry blossoms but still there were a small temple, a big bell, an old well, an observatory, interesting trees, pretty flowers, weird bugs(?) and lots of sheep ᏊˊꈊˋᏊ so I enjoyed it a lot! Also, we had to walk along the river from the station to the park for about 15-20 minutes and I liked that too.

3. What was the most memorable moment of this trip?

Meg: Sushi Go haha

Lya: Playing Sushi Go (≧▽≦)

Anna: This time we enjoyed the breaks playing cards and eating!

Kyejin: Of course playing Sushi Go! It’s a “Spanish(?)” card game Anna brought.

4. How was food? What was your favorite?

Meg: Eating fried chicken from the fried chicken shop was awesome! The omiyage shop was really good too with lots of testers.

Lya: If we don’t count dinner, we mostly had snacks, so nuts and cheese FTW. And that chocolate thing that Anna and Ruben brought. (• ε •) If we count dinner, the fried chicken was amazing. And the fried cheese. I like all the foods. ALL OF THEM!

Anna: This mount didn’t have any food stalls so make sure to bring your bento/onigiri when hiking! After that, we also walked around the area and tried karaage from a からげ専門店 it was very good!

Kyejin: We found a karaage shop that won lots of awards from international competitions. We had to wait in a line but it was totally worth! The Nagoya restaurant we went to after hiking was pretty good!

5. Will you recommend this mountain to others? Score from 1 (No) to level 5 (Absolutely).

Meg: 3 I recommend this mountain but maybe less than our previous ones because there wasn’t so much to see or attractions on the actual route of the hike but we did see sheep which was fun!!! There was also a sign for possible monkeys!!

Lya: 4 because it was pretty but there can always be a prettier mountain, somewhere. Also, lack of sakuras. But please go see it fit yourself

Kyejin: 3. Yes, it was easy enough and fun enough at the same time.

6. Any comment?

Meg: The hike was really fun and relatively chill this time compared to previous hikes. We ate lots of snacks, played lots of games, and ate some yummy fried chicken that has apparently won an award. Then, we went to Izakaya for more food. Yay! We love food! Haha. I really enjoyed my time with everyone and it was only one train ride away from Shinjuku. The weather was good too! Thanks, everyone!

Lya: I want to play more Sushi Go. The hike concept should be to play it in more and more extravagant places. I want to win once at least, everyone was so good!! (≧▽≦)

Kyejin: It was super fun! It’s always so pleasant to have a great time with great people! I’m already looking forward to our April hike.

~ Anna, Lya, Meg, Kyejin

P.S. Please join this healthy and fun hiking in April, dear ILL people!

Odawara Plum Festival is held in Soga from early February to early March every year in Japan.

February 23rd was the perfect day for our February hiking, and Anna, Lya and Kyejin went to Soga to enjoy the beautiful plum blossoms and “mini” hiking.

This was what’s written on the board in the view point:

Soga Plum Orchard

The Soga Plum Forest, located about 4 miles northeast to the central district of the city of Odawara. The forest is made up of three areas: Bessho, Hara, and Nakagawara, approximately 35,000 trees of white plum.

The views of Mt.Fuji, the Hakone and the Tanzawa mountain range and the Sagami Bay are also wonderful, and it has been selected as Kanto Fujimi 100 view (One of the best places to enjoy viewing Mt.Fuji).

Message from Anna:

“Wonderful Saturday surrounded by plum trees.

This last Saturday due the start of the hay fever season (with the fear of sugi trees) and knowing it was time for ume to bloom Kyejin-san proposed a nice adventure in Soga. I think that’s the first time I see so many ume trees in their fields with lots of space for walking and zero crowds!

We had an enviable picnic (that goes for you who hasn’t joined yet )and we finished with a mini hike to a viewing point of the city.”

Message from Lya:

“The weather was grand, and so were the Ume trees!

We had tasty food (thanks Anna!), a nice walk and a lot of fun. One of the highlights was to find wild kiwis and pet Shiba inu. Much love! (๑♡3♡๑)”

Message from Kyejin:

“I haven’t seen so many plum trees before (there are over 35,000 trees!) and haven’t realized how colorful they are. We did a “mini hike” and could see the whole village filled with colorful plum trees. That’s why we could smell plum flowers anywhere in the village.

The picnic was awesome too. We bought Japanese festival foods including umeshu Lya treated and one of my favorite parts was Anna’s Spanish omelette. That was just perfect for the ume picnic!

It’s alway so pleasure to travel with good people. The plum trees were beautiful but our trip was even more beautiful It was full of stories and fun moments! I already look forward to our next adventure.“

The next hike is going to take place on March 17th! Are you joining us? Let us know!

- Anna, Lya and Kyejin

Four brave hikers challenged the cold winds to see some breathtaking views on top of Mt. Nokogiri. Alice, Anna, Ernst and Kyejin went to Chiba Prefecture, Tokyo’s neighbouring prefecture on a crispy clear Sunday in late January.

January is a tough month for hikers. The cold makes hiking a challenge, even with the right equipment. We wanted to go to Mt. Takao, but a last minute change proposed by Anna led us to Mt. Nokogiri.

It is about 329m tall and there are an astonishing 1,500+ Buddha’s on the mountain. Small ones, huge ones, laughing ones, smirking ones, studying ones, sleeping ones, etc. There was no end to them! Sadly, not all were intact. During the Meji-era a lot of Buddha’s were destroyed in an anti-Buddhist movement. Even now, there are CCTV cameras watching over the statues.

Alice has visited Chiba before, but that was for Disney and Narita airport (who of us cannot relate to the last one?). Alice said it was wonderful to spend some meaningful time in Chiba, because we definitely did some exercise there! We had to walk up so many stairs, that the stairs still haunt my dreams. Or rather nightmares…

Happy to report that from Mount Nokogiri, we had excellent, unobstructed view of Muira and Izu Peninsula, Tokyo Bay, as well as Mount Fuji most of the time. That we could see Mt. Fuji from almost every stop was awesome, as Anna tells us. With some extra training, some of us want to conquer Mt. Fuji one day!

We also got to admire the 31-meter-tall carved Buddha and unusual rock faces. Unusual in the sense that Mt. Nokogiri was a former quarry and the rock was cut out and shipped off. There was another very large Buddha carved out on the wall of an abandoned quarry site.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the temple that was built on Mt. Nokogiri, as it was under renovation and construction. Hopefully the next visitors will be able to see the temple. In any case it was a nice day trip out of the busy city!

The next hike is going to take place on February 23rd! Are you joining us? Let us know!

~Alice, Anna, Ernst and Kyejin

Hello!

Last month on the 28th, we had a mini Halloween party in our Tokyo office!

One week before the party, we also started decorating the office to enhance the Halloween festive mood.

And here are some pictures from the event  We set up a make-your-own-tacos? burrito? kabab? table for the October event.

 Some of us also dressed up in costumes! Can you guess who we’re dressed up as?

Thank you!

Nanatsu

 

Hi everyone! Nanatsu here.

On September 29th, 15 of us went to Forest Adventure in Tochigi as a company trip! Have you ever heard of a Japanese TV program called “Sasuke” or maybe in the U.S. you’d call it “Ninja Warrior” where competitors compete in multiple obstacle courses to be the “muscle king”?  Well, Forest adventure is no less tough than them! Some activities were definitely challenging, and we had to use the muscles we hadn’t used for a while. (I could barely got myself up when I woke in the next morning…)

 

After about 2 hours bus ride from Akasaka,  we arrived at Forest Adventure Ohira, Tochigi. It was raining a bit in the morning, but luckily, the rain stopped by the time we arrived in Tochigi. (Good karma, maybe!:p) 

After putting on harnesses, getting a safety briefing and practicing together with the forest crew, Akira-san, we went off to the adventure!

There were 2 courses in Forest Adventure Ohira. One is ”Discovery Course” which is mainly for children between 5 years old to 9 years old and ”Adventure Course” which is more suitable for 9 year olds to adults. We took “Adventure Course” which is consisted with 32 activities divided into 5 sites in total.

We started off with an activity that was about 5 meters high and gradually went up to taller trees.

There were also zip lines between each site and they were super refreshing!

 

 

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Also, each activity in Adventure course had an indication of its level from 1 to 4 .

 

 

 

Overall, it took us about 2.5 hours to complete the entire course, but it was definitely a rewarding, unique experience/workout you wouldn’t be able to have often in Tokyo.

After we completed the course, we rewarded ourselves with the BBQ in the forest!

 

We also went to all-you-can-eat-grapes at a local veneyard in Ohira after we left Forest Adventure!

A variety of grapes we had was 巨峰 (kyohō, literally “giant mountain grape”) and it was a speciality of Ohira area.  

 

We also all got to take 1 bunch home as an omiyage. 

That’s it for today’s event report on Forest adventure trip. Thank you guys for reading this post!  Stay tuned for the next event report!

Best,

Nanatsu

P.S. Special thanks to Hawken, Jae, Marvin and Meg for providing the pictures and the videos!

Hi everyone! Nanatsu here.

As it’s been forever since we last updated our office event blog here, we’d like to get back to sharing it with you all. My name is Nanatsu and I’ve worked on content for JapanesePod101.com in the past and now I’m working on the HR team at the ILL Tokyo office, and I’m also one of the party organizers for the company.

At the ILL Tokyo office last Friday, we had our 3rd after work party this year! This time, we got ourselves down to the iconic city central of Tokyo, Shibuya, and had a company bowling tournament! =○

Here are our co-workers, Matt and Nori playing “太鼓の達人 (Taiko no tatsujin)” the popular arcade game while waiting for the others to show up at the bowling place…

At the bowling alley we went, シブヤEST (Shibuya EST), we could use a monitor to order food and drinks remotely just like one of those 居酒屋 (izakaya, Japanese-style bar) or カラオケ(karaoke). Although it maybe took a little longer to get service here than in an izakaya, it was still very convenient as we could 100% focus on the game without having to run to get food.  

After ordering some food & drinks and some announcements from the party organizers as usual…

 The game begins!

“Nailed it.”

“I’m done.”

Everyone did a great job, trying their best to get the top score! Great job!

(All photo courtesy to Jaehwi, our KoreanClass101.com star!)

Have you been bowling in Japan? It’s one of the most popular sports to play after school or work since many bowling alleys in Tokyo are open until late at night. You will see a lot of “サラリーマン (sararīman) practicing even around midnight while drinking a beer or two. If you have a chance to visit one, please check out the place with the convenient ordering machine, too! 

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment!

Hi everyone, Motoko here!

Today I’d like to tell you about the welcome party we held recently. This spring, we welcomed four new team members: Ice, Gabriella, Paloma, and Raul. To introduce them briefly, Ice is a member of the video team; Gabriella and Paloma work on content creation; and Raul is a member of our IT team.

The welcome party was held at a Japanese shabu-shabu restaurant near our office. The restaurant’s traditional Japanese-style design was quite nice. The great service was also a pleasant surprise for us—waitresses in kimono and a waiter assisted at each table with cooking the shabu-shabu properly.

Shabu-shabu is a type of hot pot cuisine where people cook the vegetables and meat by themselves. So diners usually put the vegetables into the hot water in the pot. Diners also pick up the finely-sliced meat (pork or beef) with their chopsticks, then cook the slices by swishing them in the hot water. The name “shabu-shabu” actually came from this swishing action, and is an onomatopoeia, as the swishing makes the sound “shabu-shabu.” Did you know that?

At the restaurant, we did the “shabu-shabu” by ourselves. After all, that’s the most important part of having a shabu-shabu, right!? But the waiters helped us cook the other ingredients, which was very handy for the shabu-shabu beginners.

Have you ever had shabu-shabu before? If you haven’t, please try it at least once!

(Apr 2013)

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner!

Hi everyone, Motoko here!

Today I’d like to tell you about another listener visit we had recently. We had a JapanesePod101.com listener come to visit us in the office. This was the fourth visit for me, but I still felt nervous!

This is Matt. He was visiting from California.

I had heard that he came to Japan for a holiday. But it seems that it was more of a special trip for him, because guess what? He came here to meet his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. His girlfriend is Japanese, and he wanted to meet her parents. It sounded like a big event to me! But Matt kept smiling the whole time and said he was alright. I thought he was brave.

I guess that Peter probably felt more nervous, because he knows that it’s one of the big events for men in Japan to meet their girlfriends’ parents!

I was very happy to receive the souvenir he brought. It was popular Girl Scout cookies from the United States. One packet was chocolate mint flavor, and the other was peanut butter. I liked the peanut butter ones more than the choco mint.  Thanks, Matt! We all enjoyed them.

Matt, did you have a lovely time with your girlfriend and her parents? I hope so.

(May 2013)

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment!

Hi everyone, Motoko here!

Today I’d like to tell you about another listener meetup we had.

The other day, we had a JapanesePod101.com listener come to visit us from Mitaka, Tokyo. (Yes. From TOKYO!)

Audrius studies at a private university in Tokyo and lives in the dormitories there. He is from Lithuania, in Northern Europe. He is the first Lithuanian I’ve ever met! I was pleasantly surprised by his level of Japanese fluency.

Let me talk a little about his Japanese learning journey: he started learning Japanese with JapanesePod101 in Lithuania, before he came to Japan. Then he continued to study it at the university. His energy and efforts towards learning Japanese are awesome, aren’t they?

We welcome anyone traveling to Japan or studying here to visit us! Drop by our office and say Kon’nichiwa!
（Apr, 2013）