Thank Goodness It's Year End!

So it was the last day of the year and we (meaning a lot of people) decide to send of 2005 by going to Nasu Shiobara which is in Tochigi-ken in Japan. We called ourselves "TGIYE" (Thank Goodness It's Year End), since the Japanese bus companies requires groups to have some name.

The bus was to leave Myorenji (with Shyam, Lalima, Aadya, Shailesh(i.e. me), Lekshmi, Girish, Venkat, Karthik (Sr.), Ramesh(Jr.), Savita and Namdev) at 6:00 but we Indians being Indians managed to leave at 6:40.

So here we were in the bus heading to Kojiya to pick up some more people. The bus was loaded with a lot of goodies (or should I say "eaties"). It was early in the morning and thankfully we are handed some nice food which just about stops the complaints of hunger (for the time being).

We reached Kojiya at 0720 and some more guys joined in (Tirupati Reddy, Jyothi, Karthik (Jr.), Sridhar, Ramesh(Sr.), Veena, Sunny, Deb, Sukumar, Pravin, Pradeep). We then proceeded Komatsugawa where Siva and his family (Lakshmi, Rishi, Vishnu) joined us. As Rishi entered the bus we wished him on his Birthday and he cut a cake we had got for him. Since there was no knife, the cake was cut (or should I say mutilated) by a spoon and distributed to all of us.

So here we were all set to go to Nasu. The bus started its journey to Nasu at 09:00. We were already late by about 2 hours. Poor jokes, loud songs and good food filled the journey to our first stop. As we proceeded to Nasu, the land gradually turned to white as the mercury dropped.


So we reached our first stop - Nasu Safari Park. We got into a special bus which is supposed to look like a lion. The kids were really excited seeing the bus. I guess at that impressionable age, all this must be really exciting to them. So off we are into the Safari and we are welcomed by the White Lion. This is the first time I see this creature and realize that this is probably the King of Lions. Then we see the "Regular Joe" Lions. They were behind a cage but they seemed to be sniffing the air as our bus passes by. Food was probably on their mind.

After that we saw animals who could be seen with the windows of the bus opened. Deers, cattle, donkeys, elephants, etc. were there along the way. Even a girraffe had a peek at as we were in the bus. Everybody really enjoyed feeding the animals, especially the white deer since legend has it that it brings good luck. It was certainly good luck for the safari tour operator as he sold animal feed worth 3000 yen from our trip for food that looked a lot like corks on a wine bottle.


After that we boarded the bus and filled our stomachs. No talks, just food (does that sound like what Nike's tag line would be if they had been selling food?).
So after the food, we headed towards the "Otome no Taki" - Otome Waterfall (or at least that's what the itinerary said). On the parking lot near the place, the snow was knee deep over a large area. And after a few minutes Venkat was lying deep in the knee deep snow after being ambushed by Girish, Shyam and Sridhar (although there might have been more perpetrators). Snow fights followed and even the kids joined in. But it did not last long as we had to head towards the waterfall. The trek to the waterfall was made quite difficult because of the snow. But at the end, the journey to the waterfall was worth it. A lot of wonderful sights of snow, streams of water and wildlife. And by the time we returned to the bus, we were a satisfied lot with injured backs, twisted ankles, inflammations, wet shoes and a lot of photos.

At last we head to the cabin lodge, which in dark looked like a forest, around 6 in the evening. We unload the luggage only to see a section of the group mourning. A case of beer had been either lost, misplaced or forgotten depending on which story you heard. So alcohol was greatly limited a bottle of vodka and 2 bottles of wine. The great depression followed. Thankfully food was in abundant supply so the barbecue started after painfully cleaning the barbecue pit and the grill. The vegetables were barbecued followed by chicken and fish. The fish unfortunately went uneaten (too salty). After that we started dancing and breaking (our back) for about an hour till 11. After that age took over and we all desperately needed to catch our breath (at least I did).

Now what? We had 1 hour to the New Year but nothing to do. We tried some games about creating stories with each person adding to the narrative. I know. Sounds boring. But we actually did have some fun. But even that was limited and we started a new thing. Watching the clock and talking trash. And then the clock struck the zero hour. We wished each other and headed to sack almost immediately.

Thanks Goodness It's Year End!