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This past Monday, I was able to get away for a brief leaf-peeping excursion in Soja. I ended up in Gokei Valley for the first time, and I was not disappointed. The colors were incredible, and I now understand why that place has a reputation among the locals.

Of course, it wasn’t fun waiting for a parking spot to open up on that narrow road. But at least there is a parking lot, and the traffic was being managed about as well as you could expect. Anyway, it was worth the wait, as you can see.

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Bonus picture of Sanjuro at Bitchu-Matsuyama Castle. He popped out of his window to say goodbye at the end of the day!

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Earlier this year my father visited Japan and during his trip he spent one night on Miyajima in Hiroshima. He told me it was a really great experience. Miyajima gets a huge number of tourists every day, but most of these people leave by night leaving the island a very peaceful place when the sun goes down. I had been there a few times before, yet I had never stayed the night. So, recently I decided to experience it myself.

I went there during the NEO break with my partner. During the day we spent time in Hiroshima city and did not arrive on the island until about six in the evening. By that time, there were already few people on the island. We checked in into the hotel and then decided to enjoy the island at night. Of course, we first went to see the tori gate. It is lit up at night and gives a very different image than in the day. After checking out the gate and taking some pictures, we needed to find something to eat. There are not many restaurants on the island and most of them close early. We managed to find one place still open which served eel (anago) rice bowls. It was a little expensive (around 3000yen), but it tasted great. That night we also booked a night cruise. We got on the boat, and they took us over to the tori gate and explained to us about its history and design. They also moved the boat around the gate at different angles so we could take photos of different views. It was a unique way to experience the famous sight.

The next day we spent on the island doing many different activities. When we left the hotel in the morning there were already plenty of people on the island. We immediately went to Itsukushima shrine. When we reached the inner shrine, we noticed a lot of people were gathered around the main praying area. Then we noticed there was a wedding ceremony going on directly behind the prayer spot. It was fascinating to see such a traditional ceremony be held right in front of our eyes, and with so many spectators too.

After visiting the shrine, we went to Miyajima aquarium. It is not the biggest aquarium but there is enough to see there. It was also not so busy. A lot of the tourists do not seem to go there, especially the ones from abroad. One of the things we ended up enjoying the most there was simply watching some of the staff practice for the seal shows. They were doing it in the regular show area and did not mind visitors watching them. The seals were so smart and well trained that it was entertaining to see the animals even help teach the young staff.

Next, we went over to Daisho-in Temple. The temple has many parts to it, and it is difficult to explain all of it in words. The place that really stuck with me was a cave, which inside had 88 icons representing the Shikoku pilgrimage.  We spent well over an hour there and there was so much to see and do. Another thing that stood out at the temple were the jizo statues. There were so many all around the temple grounds, of different shapes, sizes, materials and designs.

The last part of our time on the island was focused on the mountain. We took the ropeway (aerial lifts) up to a high point. From there we had to do a bit of a hike up to the summit. We were late to go up and had limited time to make sure we could catch the last lift back down. We managed to have just enough time to get up there, enjoy the view, and make it back in time. I am glad we went up, as the view was quite amazing.

By the time we got back to the main area of the island, it was dark. We had almost been on the island for 24 hours, but we had been able to enjoy many different things there. We managed to pick some things to eat and take home as souvenirs and then began our journey home. Most people have never experienced spending the night on Miyajima; however, it is a fun and relaxing way to enjoy one of Japan’s most famous spots.

Nick and I climbed Utsugi-dake in Nagano prefecture on October 27-28 during NEO’s week off.

This was one of the hardest hikes I have done. It was 2264 meters up and down over two days, a distance of 20.4 km, and we stayed overnight in an unmanned unheated hut that was around -10 degrees C with strong wind all night. My hiking app has a rating system for hikes, most that I do are difficulty 18-20, but this was rated at 52! (Mt. Fuji is rated at 41)

On Sunday night we stayed at our friend’s cabin about an hour away from the start of the hike. We cooked up some super thick steaks and we had a good time catching up with everybody.

The first half of the hike had a lot of vertical ascent on well maintained trails.

After about halfway up, the trail changed into a very rocky ridge trail with warning signs about being careful not to fall and die.

We got a bit behind the intended pace and needed to hike the last 90 minutes with our headlamps on the pitch black rocky trail.

We finally reached the hut and quickly changed into dry clothes and set up our sleeping mats and sleeping bags because it was freezing cold once we stopped hiking uphill. We had originally wanted to stay in manned hut, but they all closed for the season earlier in October.

Even after eating some warm food it was hard to stay warm because the wind was blasting the hut all night. We used (kairo) hand warmers in our pockets and and had to wedge some hiking sticks in the door to keep it from rattling. The reward for leaving the hut to use the toilet in the middle of the night was the most amazing starscape I have ever seen. The Milky Way was clearly visible, but it was just too freezing to think about taking pictures.

Day one: 7 hours hiking, 1736 m (5700 ft) ascent

The next morning we woke up around 6:30, which is actually a late start by Japanese mountain standards. The hut was in a shallow valley about an hour from the peak of Utsugi-dake.

We ate a quick breakfast and hiked up to the peak with no backpacks, leaving almost everything at the hut.

The views from the peak were amazing. A few clouds were just starting to come up the mountain, so unfortunately we were blocked from seeing Mt. Fuji, but we could see many other peaks in the Japan Alps. There was one other hiker up there and we were able to get a nice group photo at the peak.

Almost an hour back down to the hut, we gathered up our belongings and started the long long descent. We safely passed the narrow ridge zone that was almost all rock and tree root scrambles with a lot of harrowing wooden ladders and chains down rock faces.

About halfway down we took a different trail than we had come up. The trail stared wonderfully, wide paths with nary a rock nor boulder in sight. However, it quickly turned into a 45 degree muddy slope covered with huge wet leaves that prevented almost any easy traction. Every step was using thigh muscles to stop slipping and my upper legs quickly turned to quivering jelly.

I was heavily relying on my sticks and upper body strength by the time we reached the bottom, as my legs had had it. It started to get dark and we once again had to use our headlamps to see in the dense forest canopy.

The final kilometer or two was on asphalt roads back to our parking area and it was fantastic to not have to climb down boulders and tangled tree roots or slide sideways down slippery hills anymore.

Day two: 8 hours hiking, 526m (1725 ft) ascent, 2122m (6963 ft) descent

We drove 2 hours back to Nagoya, got cleaned up and had a pizza party to celebrate being alive.

Here are some pictures of the NEO staff in our Halloween costumes in case you didn’t see us in person.

友達ではなく知人程度の人を町なかで見かけたら、アナタは声をかけてほしいですか？

私の誕生日だったので友人とお茶をしたのは珈琲好きのお店。小さなお店ですが、珈琲豆を買う人、珈琲を飲んで一息つく人、いろいろです。お一人様の方も複数いらっしゃる中、お歳の大きなおじいさんたちがそれぞれお一人でやって来てお茶をして、それからまた帰っていかれます。自宅でテレビの前にずっと座っているよりも、時間と労力をかけてﾖｯｺﾗｼｮと家を出て、外の景色を見ながらコーヒーを飲む姿を見ると、平和な日本であることが幸せです。きっと今までお仕事を長年され、お年を召され、自由時間をゆったりと過ごすことができているのでしょう。

と、そこへまた白髪交じりの細身のおじいさんが入って来られました。ふとお顔を見ると、見たことのあるお顔です。直ぐに思い出しました。お世話になっていた小児科の先生です。この４月で閉院されたのですが多少偏屈で物をはっきり言う先生でした。ただここの看護師さんが皆さん天使のような優しい看護師さんばかり。先生は多少キツイものの、見立ては正確で看護師さんがとても親身だったので長年お世話になった医院でした。その先生がお歳になって閉院されことも知らずある日医院の駐車場まで行ったら建物はもぬけの殻でした。

その先生が同じ珈琲ショップにいらっしゃる。お礼を言うなら今…と思いながら結局声をおかけせず先生が立ち去っていくのを眺めるのみだった私です。なぜって、私が逆の立場であったら、無防備で自分のテリトリー外にいるところを顔見知り程度の人に襲撃されたくないから。

と言い訳をしがらも、今このブログで私がグチグチと言い訳をしているということは、やはりあの時にお世話になったお礼を言うべきだった、その機会を逃したことを痛感中です。

写真は折角のその珈琲店ではなく、その前に食した韓国冷麺。そのお店では、韓国の人がキッチンで冷麺を作り、東南アジア出身の人がテーブルに出してくれ、隣の席は英語を話す観光客の座る国際色豊かなランチでした。