Day 15 - Road to Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a place we must visit. Along with everyone else of course. But, as you know, we are different. We travel by scooter, not bus. This drive was long, and we temporarly got lost twice along the way. The roads were not well labaled and the deeper we were in the mountain roads, the more we doubted ourselves. To our relief, it was actually a great drive.

We climbed high, into the mountains, up an extra long and windy road, encountering a long snake. When we got to the peak of the mountain and started our decent on the opposite side, we were greeted with a remarkable view of the Japanese Alps displaying its summer colour of green.

The drive down was great too, and we were welcomed by a most beautiful waterfall where we took some photos while on our scooters.

The drive was long and we still doubted ourselves when I noticed a turn-off to a view point. Sure enough, there it was Shirakawa-go. Nice place! It was a the biggest village in the area of this style of house called Gassho. These homes were originally built to house 20 people each, and to make silk from worms and gunpowder. I can honestly say that was the way it was, since now, these homes have been invaded by a highway, mobs of tourists and us.

The scenery and architecture was great for photo opportunities and we took a lot. It was nice to be here, in the middle of the mountains. We stayed a few hours and took some nice photos and funny photos, too.

The drive north was fun. It included many dams, lakes, rivers, more Gassho villages, and tunnels. It was also a long drive, and we were a bit worried about where we would camp. The good news is that we have mobile interent for my computer with the telephone company, that we can use google maps to find cmapsites. And we found a wonderful spot. Near a small lake, in the middle of the Japanese rural villages and of course, it is free! We liked it so much, we decided to stay two nights, so that we could work both on our blogs, and prepare for our trip to Taiwan. click here ; Above & Below

Day 14 - Takayama's Charm

Our rooms had wirless internet, and Dennis and I were glad to use it until 11am, when we decided to walk the town. It was raining, of course, so it wasn't the best of days. First, I had to go to the post office and mail my broken camera back to Taiwan to get fixed. I have some bad luck with digital cameras, so I hope it will be able to be fixed. I don't know why, but the lens wouldn't close. So, hopefully, it is just a small problem to be solved.

After the post office, we walked down the street to visit another temple. This one was nice because it had an old growth tree on the gounds looking large and old. Plus, they had a temple tower, with a needle on the top, resembling temples I had seen in Thailand, but with a Japanese flavour.
After the temple, we walked to a Japanese bridge to see the old part of town. The roads were narrow, and the buildings one or two stories tall. You could see it was an ancient market, modernized for the hundreds of tourists walking around. Each building was either a tea shop, restaurant, or souvenir shop.

One striking memory I have was the amazingly sexy Japanese girl I spotted. Unlike other Japanese girls, this one had a strong tan, and was not shy of showing it off, walking down the street with her long legs. I had to get a closer look and walked past her. We both glanced at each other and exchanged flirtatious smiles. It made me realize two things; first, I need to learn more Japanese! And the other is, I might be 30, but still not too old for sexy young women! Thank god!

The walk around town was long, and we visited every corner we could, our curiousity driving us to another place for a better photo, another cultural site, away from the crowds. All this walking made us tired, so we went back to enjoy playing with our computers and getting a good rest in our most comfortable of rooms.

Day 13 - Farewell Maze

We were tired for staying up late, and a bit slow to leave. We stayed in bed until 10:30am and prepared to leave. We didn't arrive at the fishing center until 2pm. We would enjoy our last meal together having some kind of cold noodles, that a person must slurp while eating. In Japan, this gesture means it is yummy, for me, the sound is rude, I didn't slurp at all. I can confidently say, that the way I ate these noodles was in the eyes of Japanese, rude and incorrect.

Okay, time to go! Oh wait, maybe not, look at the rain! Ah, forget it, let's go anyways. Dennis and I put on our bags and all of our rain gear, and got onto our scooters. On the road again! We said our fairly emotional goodbyes, and Rocky and Ikumi wouldn't accept the 10 000 yen we gave them, instead, the gave us back 6000 yen, which actually was handy later that evening.

Before leaving the area, we stopped by our cake friends once again. Here, we enjoyed some cake and coffee. The cake shop is called Siefrieda. They were very pleased to show us some of his earlier creations in a photo album. I was quite impressed by his photos, included cakes looking like volleyballs, basketballs, dogs, trucks, police cars, and my favorite was a piano cake made for a wedding. Nice!

They took us upstairs to see their home above the cafe. It offered some pretty nice views of the valley and some comfortable living space. Needless to say, I am envious of their home!

After the nice visit, we finally went on the road highway 41, to the north, to a famous town in the area called Takayama. It is famous because of its well preserved steeets from the olden days. We arrived after dark and went on a mission to find a hotel, when we stumbled upon a hostel. The hostel was great, and new, so we decided to stay 2 nights. The place is called J-Hoppers, and I recommend anyone who travels to this town to stay there!

Day 12 - To Gero and Bread

This was our last full day in the Gero area. Wow, time flies. This time, Dennis was feeling better and he was ready to go somewhere new. As usual, Rocky was busy with his work, so we both decided to check out Gero city.

This city is actually called Gero Spa, and it is famous throughout Japan for onsens. They even have a mixed, outdoor onsen in the middle of town, where you can publically see naked people in a city. But we didn't go there.

Instead, we check out the information center and got some handy road maps. Then we walked around the shops and stopped inside a gallery where we made some postcards with water paint. I decided to make a postcard showing the waterfalls I had seen the day before in Osaka. Dennis made a postcard of the Maze area with trees, fishing in a river and the fishing center. We were very impressed by the many postcards on display. Here, we met a nice old lady who takes care of the place, and two young girls who came from Nagano for a short trip.

After the postcards, we visited the Gero City Hotel office. Here, we met some people who could speak English, and they shared with us much information about the area, good for future tourism business! On this shirt trip to Gero, the people were very nice to us, and we got a lot of cookies and snacks to enjoy for later.

After this nice afternoon, we went back to Hida-Hagiwara where Ikumi was selling her bread. This was a very social evening, and we got the chance to meet many local people and kids. I really enjoyed hanging out by their stall. It was comfortable and fun. We had many disussions with the locals and I played with the kids. We even met a couple of cute young women for a change, and it was nice to flirt. Dennis explained that he felt a little sick, and was treated to some kind of Japanese massage on the shoulders. He was puzzled, as she kept her hand on his upper back, that she continously gave off heat from her hands. I think Dennis was now cured!

The evening winded down, and we went back to Rocky's for our final sleep. Dennis and I shared with Rocky our plans for the Taiwan trip where we will compete with 51 other teams for the best itinery in Taiwan. We went to bed both happy and excited about everything, that neither of us could sleep and we ended talking for most of the night, while Rocky was sleeping like a rock.

Day 11 - Walk on the Wild Side

The morning shone us some bright blue sky weather. What a relief to see the sun! Rocky had planned an adventurous day together, then we got the phone call. He would be unable to tour us around the region, but suggested I visit him anyways for more information. Dennis felt worse than the day before, and took this day to rest and recover. He had a sore throat and fever.

I went back to the fishing center, and Rocky showed me a map, some brochures and shared plenty of information. I decided to go see some waterfalls and enjoy a job though the hills! I drove my scooter alone, through the windy roads. It was at this moment I felt free. Here I was, alone, going 70km through the mountains of Japan. Freedom was at my feet and a wave of happiness took over my body.

I reached a small town in the north called Osaka, much like the big city's name. I turned right and followed a river into the mountains. When I arrived, there was a big parking spot. I paid 100Yen for parking and had a three hour run/hike around. In 6km of walking, I saw 6 waterfalls. And apparently, in this area, there are as many as 100 waterfalls. The 6th one I saw was the best, and hardest walk of all. Along the way, I spotted a snake with a red ring around its neck. I also met a toad, that was aggressive towards me when I got closer. I didn't return until late, about 5:30pm. Rocky has plans of bringing tourists here. I agree, it is a good idea, the place is beautiful. It was different being alone, in the woods, but I didn't mind one bit.

You know, everyone says Japan is crowded, and it is, but, I know from experience, there is a lot of nature to be seen and beautiful countryside. You'll like it more than the cities, so I suggest while in Japan, get out there and discover it for yourself!

Before returning home, I stopped and bought some cake from our new friend's cafe. It all looked so good, I chose 6 different cakes to share with everyone.

When I got back, Ikumi was gone. She was busy making dough and baking some bread. As for Rocky, we invited me to a fourth and final soak in the hot srings. Rocky gave us a coupon each time we went, and entered for only 100Yen each time. After, we cooked some dinner and had a nice chat. Dennis was still feeling under the weather, so we let him be.

Day 10 - Wheat Harvesting

The morning, we saw David off. He needed to return to Tokyo to catch a plane and fly back to Amsterdam. He decided to hitchhike south to the city Nagoya and catch a bus to Tokyo. So, we shared breakfast together and said our goodbyes. After, Rocky called us, he wanted to talk to us.

We left back to the fishing center to share some words. Rocky has a future plan to bring tourists to the area. Dennis and I are starting a tour company, so we sat down and discussed the opportunity of opening up his area for tourism. It was after this talk that I decided it best to stay a little longer to get a better feel of the area.

It is true, in Maze, near the more famous Gero. There is a lot to do. For example, fly-fishing, is very popular in the raging rivers. Rocky has introduced the river trcing, or as he calls it canyoning, or even can be called river trekking. Plus, there are many hiking options, like climbing tall peaks in the Japanese Alps, or even seeing waterfalls. Plus, there are many onsen options all around. But, today, they wanted to share even another different experience, and that was harvesting wheat by hand.

After lunch, Rocky's wife Ikumi, took Dennis and I to her friend's house. This lady we met, Nanako, had a wonderful home in the countryside, surrounded by rice paddies and mountains. I was quite pleased to come here and join. She had some cute dogs, and cows and some wheat drying. We were taken to a machine, used by pushing a peddle, to harvest the wheat. Better explained in the photo. Next, we needed to sift out the husk from the wheat itself. It was not very efficent and took a long time, and in the end, we had about 10kg of grain.

After the farm work, we went for a walk around the property and and next had some tea inside. To our enjoyment, sumo wrestling was on television, and they explained the rules of the contest. It was pretty exciting to watch. We were impressed to see that there were men from other countries other than Japan in the ring, and those ones were excellent, too.

After tea, we returned to Rocky. And once again, it was onsen time. Dennis was feeling sick, and took a break, and Rocky still had some work to do. Ikumi and I were the only ones to go for the onsen. It is too hot in there for me!

Day 9 - David Peyrot is in town!

Now, I had mentioned before that David, from the Netherlands, our good friend we met at Niseko Ski Resorts, had joined us at Rocky's. We timed it so that we would arrive together at the same time. David woke up earlier than we did and went into the forest to collect some special leaves to make sushi with. Meanwhile, Dennis and I slept in an hour longer. I wasn't in the mood to do river tracing the second day since I was tired, but, I think it was important for me to join David. I am so happy I made this decision, because the second day was much better.

Why? Well, for one, I had an infected middle finger on my left hand, and it was awkward grabbing things with the pain the in the finger. But, this day, the pain eased, and I was more confident with the climbing. So, this allowed for some more advenurous climbing.

It was funnny, because along the way, we just kepted talking about relationships. David had met a Japanese girl and couldn't stop talking about her, while I have just recently become single, and we talked about the feelings surround that situation. It was funny because here we were, in the middle of the forest, in the middle of a river, and we're just talking about relationships. Rocky got us to focus on the job at hand, so we were soon soaked and engaged in some river tracing.

One part was particualry worth mentioning. There was a huge rock, falled over, with a small passage way of raging water going through. Rocky encouraged us to try and go through it. I was nervous the day before, but this time, I would not miss out. It was a feeling like James Bond, or some other movie, where there was a narrow passage, and at one point, you had to hold your breath, go under and lunge forward to pop your head up in a small space, only to get a wall of water flowing straight into your face. Then, you must climb up this water. I guess there was a lot of opportunity for injury, but instead, I just got wet!

On the way out, I warned David about the leeches, and sure enough, he got one too, on the ankle. He was luckier than Dennis because the leech was much smaller. But when Rocky burnt it off, it bled a lot.

After this amazing morning, we returned to the fishing center. Here, we learnt how to make sushi, the local way using the leaves David picked. Basically, it was rich, with fish, and fresh herbs, and we wrapped them up in the leaves. We must ahve made nearly one hundred!

After the sushi making, we had lunch, and it was interesting experience. We were given dough, and wrapped the dogh around some sticks. Next, we barbequed the sticks over some hot coals until we had some yummy bread. Plus, we had some sushi and miso soup! Yummy!

After this delicious lunch, we all had a nap and then tried something none of us ahd done before, and that was repelling off of a bridge near by. We were all wearing harnesses, and Rocky taught us how to use the equipment and one by one, we took turns going off the bridge. The beginning was especially scarey for me, to give up your footing on the bridge and relying on the rope, but as soon as you get going, it isn't so scarey any more. I liked it so much, I did it twice.

After this experience, we went back to the hot springs for another evening relaxing naked in hot water. This time, I met some local American English teachers. It was a bizarre experience talking to a stranger with his willy in plain view. I am still not comfortable with open nudity, it will take some more time.

After the hot spring, we had another fantastic dinner, and this time, we made some new friends. A married couple joined us, one who could speak fluent German, and the other English. David is fluent in German, so the two had lots to talk about. The wife had spent a year in Canada, so we had a bit to chat about as well.

After another yummy dinner came the big surprise! The man was a chef! He makes cakes! He studied cakes in Germany, and was delighted to share his creations with us. It was a nice surprise to chow on that! We all had our own individual cake, yummy!

Another great day, we were all exhausted from having too much fun and went to bed early.

Day 8 - River Tracing

Today, we woke up at 8:30am to enjoy some Japanese Miso soup to start the day. Yum yum! Then we spent the morning staying at Rocky's house while he and his wife Ikumi went to work. After lunch, we headed down to the fishing center. Rocky works in a building next to the river which promotes tourism in the area. It is called a fishing center, but he does more than that. Today, we were trying something new, river tracing. I was very excited to try this. Basically, it is walking up a river in a wetsuit with some rock climbing involved. By the end of the trip, you get to see a waterfall. It was pretty challanging since it has been raining a lot and the river was full. Rocky said it was the highest he's ever seen it.

We walked up many hard bits, until we came to the toughest part. Rocky mentioned that he was worried if he could make it up, but he did. The next person to go was very tall and not quite coordinated. Rocky through down a rope to give some support. Along the way up the wall of rushing water, the man slipped, and so did Rocky. Everyone help their breath for just a moment as we were all prepared to see two bodies falling down the waterfall. But, Rocky reacted fast and braced his body against a big rock while being plunged into the torrents. It was pretty exciting to see since in the end, everyone was okay, and Rocky pulled the man up to safety.

It wasn't so easy to climb this part, especially after watching that display, but, I was prepared and it went smooth enough for me. The water was cold, but we got used to is and enjoyed some diving into the water soon after the hike up the river was finished.

Next, we had to hike out of the river through a forest up the a steep hill. This was nice because we saw a temple at the top, next to a cliff. We gave thanks and headed off, when I noticed a strange animal walking around like an inch worm. Was my eyes decieving me? Was this a leech on the forest floor? To my surprise, it was, and a big one, too. Then Dennis told me a story about how he had three leeches on his body while walking through the forest of Malaysia in Borneo. In Canada, you see, leeches are always in the water, so this was news to me.

When we got back to the fishing center, I was shocked to see on Dennis, a small leech sucking his blood above his waist on his side. That made me do a very thourough check of my body, and to my relief, I was clean.

We said goodbye to the Japanese group that joined us, and then I saw something on Dennis' ankle, another leech! And this time, it was huge and full of blood! My god! Dennis didn't panick, so we took some photos. Rocky used a cigarette to burn it off of his ankle. It dropped to the ground in pain. Next, he took some salt and the poor creature shriveled into a raisin as it oozed out Dennis' bright red blood into a neat puddle onto the pavement.

Later on, Rocky had some customers over for a barbeque. It is Rocky's mission to increase tourism to this part of Japan, so he hope I could pour their drinks and talk a bit. My Japanese is really bad, but I was able to answer some of their questions and ask some of my own. Eventually, I went upstairs to wake up a friend of ours, his name is David Peyrot.

The reason he was sleeping is because he had been hitchiking all over Japan. And this day, it took him two days to reach us, and he had only two hours sleep, so he was exhausted. We know David originally from Hokkaido, Japan, where we were teaching snowboarding and skiing for the winter. we also traveled Okinawa together. He became a good friend of ours, and it was nice to see him once again, even if for just a short time. Our first full day at Rocky's proved to be one to remember!

Day 7 - Welcome to Rocky's

The morning, it was raining a lot. It was still the raining season and we didn't get out of our camping site until the afternoon. This day was nice, because we are now in the mountains of Japan. With the windy roads and cool rivers, I was quickly impressed by the beauty. The rivers have a strange way of keeping a thick mist floating above it, giving off a cool breeze on the body as we were scooting on by.

Now Rocky is a Japanese ski instructor friend we met while in Hokkaido. We became good friends when we worked together in the winter. He asked us to visit, and I made a promise I would, it was nice to be able to come and keep the promise. The days that awaited us were not expected. Driving into the unknown is exciting for the soul.

He wanted us to meet him around 4pm, so we stopped in a small town and did our laundry. The day had be woken up with a lot of happiness. Our team, Above & Below had been accepted, along with another 51 other teams, to compete in a 4 day trip around Taiwan to promote tourism to the country. Our hearts were filled with joy at getting the opportunity to compete in the contest, as we are confident we can do a very professional traveling job. go to www.taiwanbesttrip.com for more details.

We finally made it to

a town called Higa-Hagawara just north of a famous town called Gero. Here, we met Rocky, his wife, and his parents-in-laws.

"Welcome to the real Japan," says Rocky. After some tea and food, we drove to his home where he lives with his wife, Ikuma. There house was nice with a garden.

There, we had some fantastic Japanese cooking, and drank some sake before going to our first onsen. An onsen is a Japanese word for hot springs and in Japan, they take it very seriously. In fact, I never tried an onsen because of the fact you must go naked and hang out with other men. I felt pretty uncomfortable with this and never tried for this reason, but since it was Rocky's chance to be host, I couldn't say no.
My impression of the onsen was definitely relaxing and cleaning. They had various baths with different temperature both inside and outside. I was wondering how nice the ladies one was since ours was amazing. For me, it felt a bit strange having Rocky showing us around while we were all completely naked. But that's the beauty of travel, having to do things you normally wouldn't. The next day was going to be a lot of fun, so we needed to have a decent sleep and the onsen helped for that!

Now, we are in Maze, the heart of the real Japan!

Day 6 - To the Japanese Alps!

After having a nice sleep, we left early to start the day. We drove to a beach near the lake for our final morning bath. It was so nice swimming in this clean water. We had breakfast and started off to a city nearby called Hikone, to visit its famous castle. This I have a photo of.

At the castle, we met a cute Vietnamese girl with her mother. And her mother shared with me a very interesting story about her country, the war, the aftermath of the commuists and how her brother took a small boat across the ocean to America, with no English and no money, only to get a degree in univeristy, a job, and then sponsor his sister and niece to live there. They moved to California in 1994, and now, her daughter, Jenny, likes to spoil her mom every year by traveling to a country of her choice. This year, it is Japan. Nice to meet you guys!

After this nice morning, it was time
to hit the road. We had a long drive to the north-east. We had to travel through some large urban sprawl, and then we made it high into the Japanese Alps, where were are now.

Our campsite is a small bungalow, and this time we did pay for accomodation, about 1200 yen each. It is comfortable and a very beautiful site surrounded by nature and woods and rivers. There are no people here, though! Nobody! Very quiet, I don't think people like camping in the wet season, only us!

Day 5 - Rain Season

Who would have thought that July isn't the best time to travel Honshu, but that was definately the case today. We were pounded by rain all night long. It continued hard into the morning, not stopping until about 11am. By this time, everything was either moderately wet to soaking. My rainproof tent just happened to be on top of a very wet ground, that the water soaked through, onto our bags, sleeping bags, clothes and just about everything else.

This wet situation slowed down our day a lot. We had to find a shelter where we could hang up everything, including our tent before packing and leaving. We managed to make everything about 80% dry, but still a bit damp as we packed our things and finally left our free camping site on the northern part of Lake Biwa. Our destination was to go to a camping ground on the eastern part of Lake Biwa, about half way down.

That was about a 60km drive through some country and busy roads. Dennis was happy today to recieve his 12 000 yen tax rebate. Something I still haven't applied for.

The drive was long, and we eventually found the 4th campsite for our 5th night. The place was closed! What shall we do? Well, actually, that is good news because it means we cans stay for free! So,.. we drove up the hill to find these premade tents. Increadible! What a beautiful place with a view of the lake.

Actually, I am writing now in this tent and I can admit I am a bit paranoid of being discovered for tresspassing in the morning. I just hope we can leave early enough before any people come and discover us here. The best part about these tents is, they are huge! And they come with some free bedding, too! Even though we are staying in another place for free, we are comfortable!

Day 4 - North Biwa Lake

This day we enjoyed a drive to the most northern part of the lake, near a town called Makino. We found a wonderful campsite and were disappointed to see the price for one night was 4000 yen,.. about $45 US. So, we decided to find another spot. We found an abondoned campsite farther up the road and stayed there for free. The water is great. So clean, lots of fish. We had our baths in there. We also noticed a bird coming out of the water with a big fish in its mouth, gulp!

Along the way, during the drive, we saw a shrine in the water and stopped to take some photos. Plus, Dennis saw a sign to the turn off towards a town called Obama. In Japan, Obama means small beach, but I don't think we will see this town.

We were happy with our campsite, the scenery is gorgeous and peaceful, the problem is that it's the rainy season and it rained all night long and the following morning. Making the camping experience a little wet for comfort.

Day 3 - lake Biwa

This day was a bit uneventful, but still very nice. Dennis had to wake up early and catch the train to get his computer back while I was able to stay in bed sleeping in. A caregiver to the beach told us we couldn't camp there, but, I liked the spot, so we stayed there a second night. It was on a nice beach, and the water was so clean! It was nice to go for a swim and enjoy the fresh water. I was tired of swimming in the salty ocean.

Basically, we stayed camping on the beach, and late at night, there were some drunk teenagers near our tent, keeping me awake at night, giving me a broken sleep. It rained quite a bit and was sunny too, as this is the wet season now.