Takachiho

Last weekend Serenity & I went to the mountain town of Takachiho for our first wedding anniversary. It's a small town tucked in the hills, famous for it's beautiful gorge.

A short walk from town down to the river leads to the gorge, where you are surrounded by greenery. It was definately one of the prettiest places we've seen in Japan.

We took a ride on a rowboat through the gorge past the waterfall, weaving between the many other boats (most people had no idea how to steer the boats, and there were a few traffic jams).

Serenity enjoys the boat ride while I rowed us along, careful not to row underneath the waterfall.

At the bottom of the gorge, just above the rowboats, were restaurants and plenty of fish ponds. Most of them had koi, but this one was full of Rainbow trout. We rested with a beer and watched this little girl pull one trout after another from the pond.

That night we went for some niku (meat). Some restaurants have this kind of BBQ at the table, sometimes gas (like this one) and sometimes charcoal. They serve you small strips of meat and vegetables and you cook it yourself. Delicious! (oishii!)

The next day we went to visit some more shrines in the town that were tucked away in the trees.

Here I am washing my hands before entering the shrine.

We didn't know until we sat for a while, but this shrine is for couples. The two trees are tied together with the ritual straw rope, and couples hold hands and walk around the trees three times. So, since it was our anniversary, we wrote our names on a prayer placard (hanging below on the fence) and then walked around three times for good luck. (This was after watching enough older couples to assure it wasn't a fertility shrine...)

This guy stood guard outside of Amano-Iwato-jinja, a shrine where the sun goddess used to live.

The trail to the sun-goddess' shrine went along the beautiful creek. That's Serenity standing on the bridge.
Here's the sun-goddess' shrine, sitting in a big cave right next to the creek. The entire area was covered with little piles of stacked rocks, each one a request to the goddess for a prayer to be answered.

We walked farther upstream to get away from people and found a nice section on the creek to relax in peace.

It was a perfect weekend and a beautiful area...

Next weekend, off to Tokyo...

Springtime in Fukuoka-ken

Springtime in Kyushu is beautiful...the weather has been perfect.

The first weekend of April was the last of the sakura, or cherry blossom.
Serenity and I headed to Akizuki, the small town in the hills near Tachiarai, about a two hour leisurely bike ride from our house.
The town is home to ruins of an old castle, and many, many cherry trees.

There was a main path lined with blossoms, shops, food and plenty of people.

On the grounds of the old castle, people set up for picnics underneath the cherry blossoms. Most people drink plenty of alcohol while doing so. It's a Japanese tradition. We ate our picnic here, though we broke the mold and didn't sit underneath a cherry tree.

This area was selling rice wine, sake, and other beverages. After you make your purchase, this guy lets you dig your hands in the pot and pull out as much rice as you can.


Serenity underneath the trees on the main path.

This is the bridge over the old moat that surrounded the castle. The water was covered in cherry blossoms, and when the wind blew it looked like it was snowing.

Vendor selling ume-mochi (rice cakes cooked with plum filling).

We rode our bikes around the town and found some beautiful spots tucked between the hills.

This huge tree was growing right out of the old stone wall above the creek.

The shrine at the top of the old castle ruins.

Up close shot of the sakura. Looks alot like almond blossoms in Chico, but no scent.

The next weekend we spent the day in Fukuoka City with our friends Katsume & Keiko, and climbed to the top of another castle (again - just ruins...none of the castles survived World War II.)

The skyline of Fukuoka from the top of the castle ruins. The castle is actually right in the center of the city.

Serenity next to the lake at Ohori Park, which is next to the castle ruins.

We took rowboats out on the lake.

Katsume & Keiko

Serenity & Will

Walking along the outside of the castle ruins. Cherry blossom season was over, but a different species of cherry tree was blooming, much more pink and bigger.
(left to right: Serenity, Keiko & Katsume)

And here are some random findings in Japan that may only interest me...

Storefront mannequins.
Not sure why they feel its necessary to show you what the pants look
like when you're bending over.

On the the last train of the night...a weary shopper passed out, right in the middle of text-messaging someone on her cell phone.

The cat/dog man. If you look closely, you can see a cat on top of his stroller, and a dog is following him. There was another pet (cat or dog, not sure) in the stroller (no actual human children). He had just grabbed a third cat by its tail and slung it over the stroller to the ground. The cat didn't seem to mind.
The whole thing was all the more weirder because this was in the middle of a shopping mall, and no one seemed to think anything of it.

Looking out the front of the train heading home from Fukuoka.

Our view from our kitchen window. Ironically, most windows that don't have a storm shutter have bars over them...either to keep objects from crashing through in the typhoons or to keep out robbers.

I'm guessing it's the typhoon...since crime is almost non-existent (especially in Tachiarai).