Against the rain

This weekend we decided to persist against rainy season and go hiking rain or shine! Saturday was fairly uneventful. Tommy san invited us to a meeting he hosts for some of the local women. It's an International club and the members speak quite good English so the three of us (Kevin, Tony and me) gave presentations about our countries and then we learned some Chinese and then had tea! It was a lovely afternoon and later Tommy san took us out for dinner to this really nice restaurant that has almost every Japanese food! I had tempura and this really awesome meat dish that came with it's own burner so you have to cook it yourself! It had beef (mmm red meat!) potatoes, delicious onions, leeks and butter all fried up it was so good! And then a chocolate parfait for dessert! (I can give up losing weight now XD)

So the plan was to hit up the Nishizawa ravine in the Chichibu-Tama National Park in northern Yamanashi. Just when I thought we couldn't outdo our last hike this one took my breath away. The ravine is famous for its five tiered water fall where the emerald-blue waters fall into gorgeous pools. It's about a three hour hike along a ten kilometer trail. The trail itself was just as enjoyable as the destination. It followed right along the river and several other beautiful pools. The river was more of a continuous waterfall dropping down the green junglesque hills. The trail was a bit hard going as it literally followed the path of the river so if there was a drop in the river we had to climb up slippery rocks to continue on. It was amazing though! It was such a vibrant green, it felt like we were explorers in the rain forest. And it only drizzled. Really the cloud cover made the hike even more magical. We were in this little pocket of forest untouchable by traffic and civilization under a blanket of temperamental clouds and the sound of water and chiming birds. It was magnificent! But enough of colourful language.

After an awesome hike we went back to the Erinji temple one of the most important temples for Lord Shingen Takeda, the feudal lord that once ruled the area I live in! The garden was beautiful and I found a little akita dog to play with. He was really friendly. They are so cute and look like foxes! I really want one! And I saw a really cool inari (fox deity) shrine. Good day!

 
Next weekend, back to Tokyo for some sightseeing! Ja ne!