Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring! literally.


It is officially spring! And Japan is on vacation and planning on making the most of it. The part around Yokosuka and Kanazawa feels that way anyway. It's party time all over the place. It is also really truly spring, with cherry blossoms and pigreons making nests (note how much prettier Japanese pigeons are).

I had seen a poster a way back about a guided hike starting at Kanazawa-bunko station, 11km long. Sounded good, so this morning I showed up a bit early, hoping I could find it. Well it was quite easy... all you needed to do was to follow the huge signs all over the place, and stand in line to sign up and be assigned to one of the 10 guides. And that was just for the 9am hike. They had others starting later.... Guess I shouldn't have worried.


We were a group of 9 with a very nice guide. In red on the map is where we went, starting from the Kanazawa-bunko station (left), and ending up.... at Oppama station! In the middle is the little badge I got for doing the walk. Some people signing up already had 5 or 6 of them....


We saw lots of neat stuff along the way. The temple complex is near the Kanazawa bunko station and is very picturesque, with lirrle red bridges, and carp and stuff. Then we went to someplace that was very pretty .... if what you like is toilets. It seemed to have been important , maybe as the emperor's summer house or something, but every room had a different type of toilet in it. A bit special...


From the island where the weird house is you get a wonderful view of the clam diggers and, behind, Natsushima and the red square things in front of JAMSTEC. And right next to that, a new take on the pick-nick grounds: the barbecue grounds. It was only 11 then, but quite a lot of the pits were taken already.

At Oppama station they had bands, food stalls, garage sales, dancing groups. A really good show! It's a pity abour the wind, which is nearly blowing the food off the stalls, but still a great day.

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