Roving Japan

Day 21 Photoset

The morning walk over the mountain was really nice. Japanese forests are really interesting because they are such a patchwork of different plants. One minute you’re in a bamboo forest, and then suddenly you’re in pines. You even occasionally find yourself under broad leafed deciduous trees. This diverse plant life makes the mountains in Japan look completely different from the mountains back in Oregon. It’s also cool to come across lonely Jizo-sama statues. We find them every now and then, but in the woods they look a lot cooler.

After the mountain pass we entered the city of Ozu. It’s a small castle town that looks like its still in the middle of a transition from the Meiji era to the modern era. Buildings here are very old looking, and its very easy to picture the city before modern technology brought power lines, paved roads and cars. In the center of town is a replica of the main Ozu castle tower. Risa and I hiked up to it, but they were charging $5/person to go inside. We only paid like $7 to see Himeji castle AND the castle garden… so we couldn’t bring ourselves to pay the $5. We took some pictures and continued on our way.

The next stop was Ozu onsen where we spent a couple of hours cleaning, and relaxing. I also managed to ninja a little electricity and recharge the iPhone a bit.

We are now camping at a rest stop in the city of Uchiko. Shikoku has a ton of mosquitoes and last night one of them bit Risa’s cheek and her ear. Her right ear is about 50% larger than her left! When we got to tonights camp, she got another bite on a finger, and 2 on her wrist. Then a little later she got bit on her thigh. The little bastard bit right through her pants. It’s not fair sometimes.