Sunday morning.... much time was spent [in my case, at least!!] recovering from the night before, eating and drinking half a barracks' worth of vittles to try and stave my hangover and cleaning up.
We got a taxi about 10:40 to Sengetsu Shouchuu Museum. One warning... HOLD YOUR NOSE WHEN YOU ENTER! The place stinks! However, it was quite interesting seeing how shouchuu was made. Ironically, having some tasters helped quite a lot.
After that was the samurai house and the remains of Hitoyoshi Castle, which I found really interesting. I actually want a samurai house like one we were shown!
At 12:30, those who didn't raft either got lunch form a restaurant whose name I've now forgotten o went to a combini.
I tried some kind of basashi and had cold soba noodles, which were much nicer than they actually sound.
After a small kerfuffle getting all our tickets and luggage sorted out, we got the SL steam train from Hitoyoshi to Kumamoto. I slept, ate shouchuu ice cream and gazed all around at various intervals.
The only really bad things I can think of is that we didn't get more than one chance to get to go to onsen and that on Saturday night, we didn't realise we weren't supposed to drink the wine :/... Anyway, really glad to have donn this and sorry for not beingn there last week
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Hitoyoshi Trip: Saturday
As part of this class, we went on a trip to a place called Hitoyoshi, stopping at Arase and Kawabegawa along the way.
Firstly, Arase Dam (see below).
Our guide, Mr. Nakashima, runs a group lobbying against the dam that may or may not - although most likely never will be - built in Kawabegawa. He told us about how sweetfish were dying out in Arase because - thanks to the dams - the water can't flow properly so the sweetfish get lost and die because they have no idea where to go.
However, good news! A 'fish ladder' (WOT) had been built so fishermen could still practise their livelihood....but for some odd reason there was no water in there at all as far as I could see.
After that - and a long ride up a high mountain road *turns green*, we stopped off somewhere to have a look at a little island and hear some more from Nakashima. Apparently, people used to live on it, but in reent times it's more often than not submerged due to the increase in silt in the river.
This done and lunch bought, we made our way along more high mountain roads (X&) to Kawabegawa. We went there as there's been a lot of controversy in Japan about whether to build a new dam or not for the past 40-odd years, and it's not over yet.
I'll attach a document Nakashima-san gave to us in another post explaining more about it.
In Kawabegawa, villagers have been made to move from low down in a valley to somewhere higher up due to the Japanese government's plans. Most of the buildings left down below are to do with industrial building, I think.
This done, we made our way to Hitoyoshi Craft Park, where I had a go at making a keyholder. Didn't turn out brilliant as it was my first time doing something like that, but I'm pleased with the results. Some other people made rings or knives.
_:_:_
Everyone tried to make their way to the Akikake Gymnasium (where we'd be sleeping that night), but got a bit lost on the way.
However, we made it there in the end and the rest of the evening was spent relaxing; volleyball [which I was dire at, but no matter], TV and karaoke were just some of the choices of activities on offer.
All good fun.
Except I got WRECKED and had a huge crying fit [for reasons I'm not going to go into]. Still, people here are genuinely nice so that's cool.
Firstly, Arase Dam (see below).
Our guide, Mr. Nakashima, runs a group lobbying against the dam that may or may not - although most likely never will be - built in Kawabegawa. He told us about how sweetfish were dying out in Arase because - thanks to the dams - the water can't flow properly so the sweetfish get lost and die because they have no idea where to go.
However, good news! A 'fish ladder' (WOT) had been built so fishermen could still practise their livelihood....but for some odd reason there was no water in there at all as far as I could see.
After that - and a long ride up a high mountain road *turns green*, we stopped off somewhere to have a look at a little island and hear some more from Nakashima. Apparently, people used to live on it, but in reent times it's more often than not submerged due to the increase in silt in the river.
This done and lunch bought, we made our way along more high mountain roads (X&) to Kawabegawa. We went there as there's been a lot of controversy in Japan about whether to build a new dam or not for the past 40-odd years, and it's not over yet.
I'll attach a document Nakashima-san gave to us in another post explaining more about it.
In Kawabegawa, villagers have been made to move from low down in a valley to somewhere higher up due to the Japanese government's plans. Most of the buildings left down below are to do with industrial building, I think.
This done, we made our way to Hitoyoshi Craft Park, where I had a go at making a keyholder. Didn't turn out brilliant as it was my first time doing something like that, but I'm pleased with the results. Some other people made rings or knives.
_:_:_
Everyone tried to make their way to the Akikake Gymnasium (where we'd be sleeping that night), but got a bit lost on the way.
However, we made it there in the end and the rest of the evening was spent relaxing; volleyball [which I was dire at, but no matter], TV and karaoke were just some of the choices of activities on offer.
All good fun.
Except I got WRECKED and had a huge crying fit [for reasons I'm not going to go into]. Still, people here are genuinely nice so that's cool.
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