Today was far too pretty to go to waste so I decided to go out and do something. For one thing, the weather was temperate and not overly disgusting, and well, I have been saying how much I want to go hiking…
Which unfortunatley included navigating the damn railways…
Soofa bitch.
Lucky for me, it was a pretty straight shot to Akameguchi. I even got on a semi-rapid, cushy seats and everything. I usually take to reading on such an excursion, but instead, I decided to listen to Wicked.
There is something incredibly odd to me about going through a part of a mountain via train. Just sayin’.
When I got to the station, I had a LOT of time to kill. I got there maybe fifteen minutes after the last bus left. I really wish my Japanese was better. It was a bit difficult trying to figure out how to get to the start of the trail even with the page out of the Kansai Scene. For the record, the article wasn’t all that detailed.
On the bus, there were these ladies who looked all decked out in hiking gear, so when we got off at the stop, I asked them for directions. The younger of the two answered me in English, much to my relief. She said I could follow them. The entrance to the falls is actually past a bit of a small town commercial area — there are souvenir shops and a hotel thereabouts. I was very grateful for their help.
I paid the three hundred yen to gain entrance to the trail (about three dollars) and skipped the salamander museum. I got there a little after one o’clock, and I knew the last bus back to the Kintetsu Station departed at 4:00 PM.
How can so many wondrous things be in one place? I think I was on sensory overload. SOOO many things ran through my head as I tried to take in the surroundings: “Glory be to God for dappled things” as I walked through the sun-dappled forest…”Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the woods” and “My heart wants to laugh like a brook as it tricks and falls over stones on its way” as I followed along the waters. I wondered about how many people swam in the many pools I passed before the place became such a hiking attraction. I thought about how much I wish you could all have been with me as I picked my way up and down the trail.
Words cannot even capture the language being spoken to me as I traipsed around.
I took lots of pictures, though. They’re up on flickr. They seem repetative, I know…but…there was just SOOO much I didn’t want to miss anything!
Incidentally, if you’re ever up for this excursion, take the Kintetsu Line. Try and get a semi-rapid, but if you don’t, you want to take one going towards Aoyamacho. The buses leave for the start of the trail at the 55’s mostly, and return on the 10’s. Eat a pumpkin thingy from the really nice lady whose stand is right before you get to the entrance. I don’t even really like pumpkin and I thought it was tasty.
And if you miss the last bus, hoofing it back ain’t so bad. Of course, taking a cab may have been a wiser course of action, but I was not so lucky in that venture. Which reminds me, if you do walk back, watch out for monkeys. No, I’m not kidding. At one point, a guy stopped to warn me about the monkeys. They’re really kinda dangerous. I saw a whole mess of ‘em! I was lucky to not be attacked.
Hmmm…now that I think about it, every time I walk somewhere I’m lucky not to get eaten/jumped/etc.
There were monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe…?
Please say that there will be monkeys in the Lint Wars.
Whoa. I’m losing my touch. I didn’t even think that.