Winter and early spring are too cold for camping, but if you wait too long, suddenly rainy season arrives and you have to wait another month or two for a clear weather.
Fortunately this year I managed an overnight (= one night) camping trip in Sekigahara before the rains started.
I saw a couple of snakes, a couple of deer, and lots of big, black swallowtail butterflies. I`m afraid I didn`t take any photos of them, but please enjoy this picture of my campsite. Nice spot, isn`t it?
I really enjoy beachcombing - walking along the beach, looking for interesting things to collect.
Here are some of the things I picked up from the beach at Ishigaki Island. I found a lot of small cowrie shells, which I like. Unfortunately they`re quite sun-bleached (dry & white). Maybe one day I`ll try to polish them and make them shiny.
Do you like beachcombing? What do you like to pick up?
If you`re bored with the standard 2 swings [blanko] and 1 slippery slide [suberi daiso] at your local park, how about checking out this place? It`s next to the planetarium (*my previous blog post).
It was a bit too difficult for Owen, who has only just turned 3 years old, but he still seemed to enjoy trying the different challenges with my help. I think it`s more suitable for kids aged between about 4 and 11.
My wife told me she went there when she was a kid, so it`s been there for a long time... Do you know it? Have you ever been there?
Here`s a link:
http://hamada-sports.com/ichinomiya_chiikibunka/ichi/facility/athletic.html
Not too far from Waikiki Beach is a place called Hanauma Bay. It`s an excellent place to go snorkelling - you can see all kinds of colourful tropical fish, and coral too. I had a great time taking photos of them with my underwater camera.
The beach is very scenic, isn`t it? So it has appeared in various TV shows and movies, such as `Blue Hawaii` in 1961, featuring Elvis Presley. I`ll look for it next time I`m at the DVD rental store!
A week ago I attended the wedding party of an ex-workmate, Noriko, & her husband, David. It was held at a campsite in Nagano, and went on all afternoon and into the night. They booked all the cabins at the site, so everyone could stay the night in them (or tents). What a great idea!
The releasing of Thai-style floating lanterns at sunset was also a nice idea - looks nice doesn`t it?
As you can see, I took Owen with me, & we both had a good time.
Congratulations Noriko & David, & thanks for inviting me!
I bought my Fuji Finepix XP camera a couple of years ago. I use it as a regular day-to-day camera, but it`s waterproof, so I can also use it underwater. I took the above photo when I went snorkelling at Mihama beach during Obon holidays. As you can see, the water was quite clear, but even when the water is clear, it`s pretty tricky (difficult) to take underwater pictures - the fish move, the water moves, you move, and you have to come up for air all the time! It`s kind of frustrating, but also fun.
On Sunday Teragoya had a daycamp for kids in the mountains of Inuyama. The kids were really interested in finding & catching animals. You can see some of the animals above, in the photos.
The kids had a great time & so did the teachers. It was a fun day, & we were lucky that it didn`t start raining until we were about to leave.
Tarui is a small town between Ogaki & Sekigahara. I`ve passed it a few times on the train on my way to Sekigahara or the Japan Sea coast, but this was the first time I`d stopped there.
Just 5 minutes` walk from the station is the picturesque little Ai River, with well-maintained grassy parks on each side. This was one reason I wanted to visit Tarui - I always thought that the river & the parks looked so nice from the train window as I passed.
Not only is the river only 5 minutes from the station, but there`s also a McDonalds nearby - very convenient! We got our lunch there & ate it at a park bench near the river.
It was very hot, so we only stayed a couple of hours, but I might return another day, maybe by bicycle & without Owen, so I can explore the surrounding area (the base of a forested mountain is just 1km away).
If you live around here & you have a kid who`s crazy about trains, or you just want to explore a scenic little town, I recommend taking the train to Tarui.
On Sunday we visited Mihama Beach in Fukui prefecture. Like last time, I couldn`t find much beach wood, but I found some other interesting things, as you can see above.
As usual, my wife was very interested in them, & asked me lots of questions, for example:
"What`s that?!" and
"Why do you want it?!" and
"What are you going to do with it?!" and
"You`re not going to keep it in the house, are you?!"
It`s nice to have a wife who shares an interest in your hobbies.
![Mount Kinka Speed-Hiking]()
Yesterday I hiked up Mount Kinka in Gifu again. Two weeks ago I hiked up with a friend, but we took our time (went slowly). This time I wanted to try to do it faster.
HIKING LOG:
1:00pm: Finish teaching Bera-Bera class. It was really fun, so I`m in a good mood & motivated to climb Mount Kinka again.
1:10: Chat with my wonderful boss, Akemi:
A: Bye, Otto. Are you going home now?
O: No, I`m going to hike up Mount Kinka
A: Oh, that`s nice.
O: Yes, I went up with a friend 2 weeks ago but we took our time, so I thought, well, I`d like to try it again, but faster, so...
1:30: ...and that`s the reason East Timor is mostly Catholic. Wow - is that the time? I gotta go - Seeya!
A: [sound of snoring]
2:00: Reach foot of Kinka, Nana-Magari (7 tuna???) trail
2:25: Reach the castle at the top. Raise hands, do Rocky impression. Take a photo of the castle. Take a rest.
2:30: That`s enough! Speed-hiking! Come on! Start back down.
2:50: Reach bottom. Try to say "konnichiwa" to an old lady. Sounds like "keeeer-urgh!". Difficult to breathe...
2.55: Think about catching a bus back into town. No! Speed-hiking! Come on!
3:20: Arrive back at Gifu city centre.
I think I can`t do this course any faster without running, and I don`t want to do that.
...well, not alone. If you`re interested in running up Mount Kinka with me, please let me know! Super-speed-hiking! Come on!
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