Raining still. The onsens we wanted to visit were flooded! This one was on the river bank. It had screens so it was not quite fully exposed to the view of passers-by. The screens were removed as the river came up, for fear of the whole thing washing away. I was quite disappointed -I would have enjoyed that hot tub in the open air next to the river! :(
However the flooding streams made the touring all the more dramatic.
We have been amazed by the Japanese efforts to tame nature. All of these streams have cement or stone walls, at least on the fast flowing side of the flow. Side streams have weirs. River beds are bulldozed out and remodelled. Mountainsides are covered in cement to hold back the slips. I wonder what happens in the 100 year downpour!
Some rivers have three bridges all within sight of each other. There is tunnel after tunnel for the roads. The seashores have wave mitigation, and cement walls. Tidal inlets have cement sides, with no mangroves or vegetation at all. I wonder what has happened to the fish nurseries.
This was taken as we came out of one tunnel, saw a bridge and beyond that another tunnel. Heaven for civil engineers! Japan must have thousands of them.
That is scaffolding so they can build the bridge behind it.
Soon we were down at the coast again.
We saw some picturesque fishing towns, and dramatic rocky coastlines.
Fish farms -I understand that they catch a whole school of fish in a huge net, draw it into a circle, and slowly tow the whole thing, fish and all back to a calm water place where they can grow the fish on for market. However they have trouble with parasites because of the large number of fish in close confines, so they need to use antibiotics to control the resultant ulcers...... Factory farming in the sea. In some of the enclosures we could see a circular current caused by the fish swimming endlessly round and round the enclosure.
We found a great place to stop for the night...
It was very quiet early on, but of course we didn't consider what was going to happen before dawn....fishing boats going out before sunup. There was a whole lot of activity including crews having breakfast right next to us, at an hour when we would normally be fast asleep. Not such a great idea camping near fishing boats!
But at least we have good weather again.
1/5/14
Our goal today was the shrine (xxxxxx) near the tallest waterfall in the prefecture.
The classic photo is of the temple with the waterfall behind it. That photo appears in all of the advertisements.
But, like everything in Japan, there is a population around the attraction, and it us not so pristine or isolated as might be hoped.
It is fabulous driving in the mountains right now. The new spring foliage on the trees is various shades of bright green, pink, yellow, against the deep green of the cypruses. And the slopes are almost vertical with wild (tamed actually) rivers at their bases.
After leaving the waterfall we continued higher into the mountains. The scenery is breathtaking. We glimpsed a strange animal -with a bushy tail, about the size of a fox but much chubbier, ginger brown coloured. It scampered along the road and disappeared into a drain. We have no idea what it was.
Suddenly we came out of the forest to a clearing with a great view! What a fabulous camping spot! Take a look at this view!
And the shrine behind us!
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