Posts tagged Iya
Once Again, Back to Iya Valley
Dec 25th
For two reasons, one being that I’ve grown to love the area around the Iya Valley and the other being the fact that the new teacher, Jennifer, had never visited the area, we decided to take a day-trip to visit famous Kazura Bashi (vine bridge). This time however, we relied entirely on public transportation to get around. Although it took a bit more time than driving would have, riding the rails to the valley was an interesting experience by itself. Arriving just after the peak of the changing leaves, snaking our way along the edge of the valley by rail, there was so much that we could see.
After arriving however, we discovered that we had missed the ‘busy season’ by one day. This meant that the bus schedule was effectively cut in half, most of the main attractions in the area had their last day the day before we arrived, and most of the shops had closed for the season. Nevertheless, it was a really nice relaxing trip. I think that may have been my last trip to the area for this season however. Definitely next year though…
An Interesting Weekend
Nov 23rd
A few weekends ago I was invited by a friend of mine to stay in a small cottage (called a ‘yado’ in Japanese) for an evening. Although I knew absolutely nothing about where, when and why, I decided to have an adventure and accept the invitation. It’s not to say that it wasn’t a good experience, but it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. As it turned out, my friend and I were among a group of about eight people gathering for an ‘international cooking party’ and an evening of eating, drinking and chatting. It was certainly quite nice to talk to so many interesting people who each had a wealth of interesting experiences and insight, but I must admit that I did feel a bit out of place. It was one of those trips that makes you feel like you want to escape at the time, but in hindsight, it was a worthwhile experience. I’ve posted ten pictures from the trip up in the photo gallery. Be sure to take a look!
Mt. Bizan and Kazura Bashi
Sep 24th
After waking up at 6:00am and spending the morning hiking Mt. Bizan with a friend of mine named Patrick, while at the same time dodging the most terrifying fist-sized yellow and black spiders along the way, Mari and I spent the afternoon exploring Western Tokushima. We started west along the Tokushima expressway but overshot our exit and ended up having to travel back the way we came. We decided however, to skip the expressway and take the narrow winding roads through the mountains. Although there were several instances in which I thought we were going to plummet off the road, the scenery along the way was amazing.
We stopped along the side of the road by a chestnut tree and walked down the bank of the river. We spent almost an hour just sitting by the water enjoying the silence. After having spent the past six months living in the city, this was a sharp contrast to what I had gotten use to. Although we got lost several times along the way, we did finally make it to our destination;a bridge made of vines called Kazura Bashi.
Like every other tourist spot in Japan, there were the usual collection of gift shops, restaurants and crowds at ever corner;it was well worth the trip however. Crossing the shaky slat bridge was an adventure in an of itself, not taking into account the adventure of just finding our destination.
Exhausted, we returned to Tokushima, had a nice dinner at my favorite Japanese curry restaurant, and just chatted for a bit by the river near my house.
