Sunday around town

My town has approximately 18000 people but it is an amalgamation of 4 towns and has an area of 952 km2. My small town in the town is called Mikawa (which is further divided into smaller sections but I have no idea what their names are) and has a pop of 4000 and an area of 250 km2. On Sunday I decided to explore the back country a bit more since thus far I have only covered a small area on my granny bike and it was along the main highway. The area is so incredibly beautiful with mountains, rivers, and shrines dotted here and there. The further I traveled from the main highway the more rustic the areas became, though often they all still had new vehicles parked in front of their shacks. I happened upon one hamlet like area where all the farmers were sitting in front of their houses on mats and cleaning their vegetables. It was very interesting and I received many a stare from this lot.

I found a dam I didn't realize existed because we by pass that view by driving through a tunnel in the mountain. It is actually mesmerizing watching the intensely constricted power of the water surge through this small fissure. In much of Japan nature is contained and it is somewhat sad. Riverbank are concrete, waterfalls are manufactured even the roads between the rice fields are paved. It causes me to lament on how difficult it will be to find an untouched, unaltered piece of earth in the future. Although, there is still much beauty to be found. This is a picture from this crazy mountain road I found. It clung to the side with barely a guard rail to prevent a long plunge but the view was spectacular. It continued going although nothing was along it and I do not believe anything was at the end. I did not follow it through however because places to turn were becoming few and far between.

I found this surprisingly long stair case in a very small hamlet. I believe there were bear droppings on the stairs so I was a little scared but there an old man cleaning vegetables at the bottom so I figured he could protect me!

This is the shrine that lives at the top of the staircase. All areas have their own shrines but this one is fairly large for such a small area. It was a very peaceful and picturesque spot if a bit shabby. When praying at a shrine you wash out your mouth and your hands, if a fountain is available, and then you throw money in a wooden box, if this is available, you then ring a bell that is at the top of a rope and clap your hands two times. After this you can make a wish to the God of the shrine and then bow when you leave. Well the bell at this shrine was ripped in half and needless to say did not work. I am not sure if the God is a malignant one or if the bears perhaps had a bit too much fun.

Bamboo forest along the stair to the shrine. It is the first one I have seen in Japan though bamboo is used quite often and is prevalent in every day life.

Aquarium

Saturday went to the aquarium with Melissa and Kristen. It was pretty small but still interesting. Melissa was pretty excited because she had never seen a dolphin show before. Dolphin shows in Japan are identical to those in North America so it wasn't anything new to me and the show was pretty small scale, but her excitement was contagious. It was nice to get out of Aga-machi and see some sites in the city.

Kristen snapped this awesome pic. I have eaten more octopus and squid here than I ever thought to in my life.

Anticipating the dolphin show.The sea lions were pretty cute, these two were fighting over their little island.After we went for a walk along the beach and watched a gorgeous sunset over the sea of Japan.

Kristen strolling in the white sands.Romantic sunset!


Slowly fading....
...

almost gone

Horse meat...

Went to an izakaya in Tsugawa on Friday night with a group of people from our town and Gosen. The drinks were good and the food was excellent...until they decided to order raw horse meat. I don't gross out easily and I know I would be fine eating it; it is simply the principal of the matter. I don't want to contribute to horses being raised for slaughter (not sure if they are but just in case). The rest seemed to find it delicious. I like my meat well done so even if it wasn't a poor horsey chopped up I don't think I would have liked it, though I have had raw fish and it is alright. A couple of the Japanese girls attempted to teach me this children's song about a creature called Tanuki. Tanuki is a popular figure here and quite a prevalent image at restaurants. He is a squirrel like creature with overly large testicles.

The song is a children's song about Tanuki's testicle swinging or something similar to that. This is a childrens song! What would be incredibly taboo back home is everyday here. For instance the kancho. Kancho is when a person joins their hands together with index fingers pointed and attempts to stick them up another persons bum. The nursery school children have no compunction attempting this over and over again upon my own and at one point I was standing, stranded, with my hand covering my bum amidst a sea of little kanchoers. Anyhow, I attempted to learn the song but it was too much for my limited Japanese.

Minori and I. Minori is a beautiful girl but her face gets incredibly red when she drinks.

Holiday Monday!

Monday was a holiday in lieu of the Saturday I had to work. Jimmy and I decided to go on a longer hike and the leaves are just beginning to change so we were hoping the view would be nice. It rained the day before so it was quite a muddy slog going up. Coming down I landed on my bum many of the time and fell into splits a couple as well. James' junior high does the climb every year and it is amazing because it is fairly dangerous. Back home parents would have to sign a mile of paper to allow their kids to go. My elementary school did a shorter climb but it had steeper sections and kids could have been seriously injured. We started the climb around 9:30 and finished at 3 something I think. At the top it is 1300 metre high. It was good to get exercise though I felt it the next day. We stopped at an onsen after to relax our weary muscles. This is the scene for my most embarrassing moment in Japan thus far. I have explained previously that in onsens one bathes in the nude. Well, they generally have an inside and outside pool. The outside is more picturesque often consisting of rocks and plants etc and so it was on my way to this outside oasis that I slid down the stairs feet in the air in all my naked glory! I was on display to all those inside because the windows beside the stairs were floor to ceiling and I received a fairly deep gash on my elbow. Nothing hurts the pride more than making a fool of yourself in the buff.

The water from these falls was delicious! There was a bigger waterfall but I was too exhausted at that point to take my camera out.

It doesn't look like it but that is the path straight behind James.

At the bottom the leaves were still on the trees and gradually there were less and less until we reaches these trees.

It is pretty desolate at the top.

Picture of the river with all the trees changing colour. Never looks as good, though!