Chiiori

We camped at a great spot with eerie vine bridges. We built a fire and relaxed a little. But, three people in a one person tent is not so fun. Especially when it is raining buckets. At 3 am, I elected to "sleep" in the car.
The rain postponed our Tsurugi-san hike for a day, so we decided to drive through the valley to Chiiori, an old farm that has become a non-profit organization. We did some bushwacking down a gorge and made up stories about the abandoned stone structures. The nerd that I am kept wishing for a Shikoku wildlife field guide. Mmm...cataloging nature.

Golden Week, Iya Valley, Shikoku

On the way to Shimonoseki Station my cab driver warned me about the task we were about to undertake. (a rough translation) "Regular mountains are like this," he said, putting his hands together, fingertips touching to make a right angle. "Shikoku mountains are like this," his hands now at 45 degrees. I was hungover and a little bit concerned, but not deterred.

I met Sally and Marko at Shin-Iwakuni, and we set off for Shikoku. We were ill prepared and terrible at reading Japanese maps, but eventually we found our way up to the top of some beautiful mountains.


On the first day, we had a nice walk and we saw a magical woodland creature that we named John. Later, Nori, a lovely guy who runs a guesthouse in the Iya valley, told us that it was a very rare type of deer (he has never seen one) that only lives near Tsurugi-san. We decided that it is still magical.

Furthur

Driving on the left side of the road is hard/confusing for me. Driving on twisting mountain roads with no guardrails and 1000 meter drops is also a little scary. But the mountain highways in Shikoku are only one lane anyway, so left side right side wasn't my main concern--head on collisions and rolling down the side of a mountain were. The incredible views, however, made the whole driving ordeal worth it.

The mountain roads were lined with old abandonded buses, which spurred reminiscences between me and Marko about the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Carlos Castenada, Magic, Psychedellics, the Grateful Dead, Mania, Jonestown, Mormons, and Gnomes. Sally now thinks we are crazy. And, she's probably right.

Eye of the Tiger

Exhausted after a night of cross-cultural communication (I was slightly distracted by Ken's new pervie mustache the whole time and my Japanese language skill definitely suffered as a result), we let Tiger entertain us until the sun came up.

Yabusame

Mourning the departure of our buddy Shouta(he moved to San Francisco, he's not dead), Makoto and I set off to Tsuwano, an old castle town in Shimane-ken, for the Yabusame(horseback archery) festival. The competetion was amazing; the tradition, the clothes, the horses, the skill. After the festival we ate San-sai (mountain vegetable)udon and went for a stroll through the old samurai quarters. The streets of Tsuwano are lined with streams of koi, many of which are over a meter long. Apparently there are more koi in Tsuwano than there are people. Mmm...koi.

Hanami

Hanami is my favorite Japanese celebration because all it involves is eating and drinking with friends under sakura. The laziest tradition ever!

Kitty-chan

We took Laird's kitty queen to a shrine to celebrate the beginning of hanami (cherry blossom viewing), my most favorite time of year.

It's the Muppet Show

How come no one ever told me that I look like a muppet? Seriously. A muppet or a serial killer. I'm about 5 years away from "Crazy Cat Lady" status.