July 11 2009 Took a drive to the west of us and explored the Oirase River. A spectacular area. Once again, many many many (did I mention many) photos of our expedition. One would think that I had never seen a river or a gorge before.....I have, but you wouldn't know it by the abundance of photos. Though I feel my photos just can't do justice to the area.Above: entering the gorge area to park at one of the visitor centers to commence our hike.
Below: A sign just for those flying black rats. It was outside an eating area, so I assume they are a bit aggressive and one has to protect your food.
First stop on the trail.
Above: I am getting the impression that Andi is getting tired of "hey, look at the camera!" She seems to come up with a different expression every time.
Simply gorgeous views. The sounds of the river flowing are wonderful. Even though the main road is just a few feet away, you can't help but feel absorbed into the surroundings.
The trail is groomed and very well maintained, so it is an easy walk, not much exertion required. Great for a slightly out of shape mom (that'd be me, not my mother) and an energetic child.
Mom and Andi enjoying their walk.
View of the river at a calm point. Shane spent a lot of time looking for good fishin' spots. I'm sure if he could he'd be right back up there with a pole in one hand and lots of time in the other. We did see one fisherman, but he seemed a little shy at the prospect of Americans watching him. Can't say as how I blame him.
Took a little side detour to get to one of the impressive waterfalls.
SAM in Japan!
Japanese Characters were carved into the boulder we were standing on and moss had grown in the etchings.
Shane found a little salamander in one of the little pools at the base of the falls. Since we haven't seen much wildlife here, of course he had to pick it up!
A picture of birds that I guess you can see in the gorge. Didn't see a single one. Occasionally you might hear the song of one over the roar of the river. Perhaps one has to get up early in the morning and sit quietly and see if they come out.
Above, some rapids. Below: We didn't get to the end of the trail, Lake Towada, but got about half way there. We had a late start in the day for our hike. Will have to go much earlier next time to do the full length. There are buses that'll transport you back down to your vehicle. So, since it was getting to be almost 5pm, we decided to find a bus stop and wait for the bus. Of course this presented the next problem. We could find the bus stop marker without a problem. Reading the schedule presented a little problem. The times of the stop were written in numbers that we can read, but the days of the week were in Japanese. Achhhhh, really it is frustrating to not be able to read. We did a little guessing and figured the last bus should be along soon. If not, there were taxi's as well going back and forth, we could flag that, but would probably cost more. While we waited for the bus a couple of cars did slow down to perhaps offer us a ride, but then would spot Shane and look a little surprised and go on. Now keep in mind Shane is a rather big guy for this country, and even though there are Americans in this area (as it is a popular place to go for those of us from the base) he still might surprise a few people.
But at long last the bus arrived, thank goodness, as silliness was taking over, as seen below. We made our way back to the car. Then drove back up the mountain to see how far we had hiked, about 4 K. and took a rather scenic ride home through the mountains.
