Neither rain, nor snow, nor clothes!?

Saturday morning, J-Pop helped me go over my map of the Miura Peninsula and trace my previous hikes with a highlighter. It's kind of surprising how far I have walked. I'm used to maps of the USA where the scale is pretty big. I forget how small Japan really is (roughly the size of California). It renews my interest to hike the entire country!

After breakfast and mapwork, J-Pop and Ma decided to take me sightseeing.

Our first stop was Perry Park. Commodore Perry landed near this spot. It has a small museum and a huge memorial stone. Thanks Commodore for opening Japan up with your black ships!

Next we headed to the location of an Edo era (1603-1867) lighthouse. I was really impressed with this old wooden structure. Then J-Pop ruined the illusion. He showed me that the wood was really concrete made to look like wood.

A view across Tokyo Bay to Chiba

It wasn't until seeing these rocks break the surface of the water that I could really see where many rock gardens get their inspiration.

This is the oldest electric lighthouse in Japan. It was made in 1869. The lady on top was bidding us to come up for the view (200 yen ea.)

View from the lighthouse

These young fellers are on a work field trip for the post office. The guy kind of in the middle (in a suit) spotted me in the lighthouse and announced in English that he was cold. I agreed that it was a little cold. We then shared a broken English/Japanese conversation about me being married, not in the military, him being single. I told him not to worry and to enjoy being single. And finally I found someone to compliment about the Japanese Post Office's mascot (see picture below). I could tell from their reactions they agreed with me. Before we left, I had to pose for two pictures with them.

The Post Office Mascot (go-go boots, vinyl shorty-shorts, and vinyl tank top?)

A small cemetery near the lighthouse trail and ocean.

Fisherman on an outcropping near the lighthouse park

My Secret Identity

I don't know why I'm doing the "Captain Morgan was here" stance. I was feeling majestic and in need of a stiff drink, maybe. And no, I'm not going to a funeral. Just because I'm in a suit doesn't mean somebody died (that I know). I had to meet a group to discuss English lessons! I thought that many of would like to see "Professional" me. It's kind scary. Where are my cargo pants?

My secret identity.

Maeda River Trail Misc. Pictures

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" shrine at a street corner.

A wall of shrines at a temple along the way.
Our lunchtime view.

More critters from the creek.

Somebody told me this shrine was important to find.

See? There are trees in Japan.

This cat snuck up on me during lunch.

A boat. In the ocean.

I'm only showing the picture above and the picture below to express that during the first couple of hours of the trip, I had to use the restroom so bad. The aural and visual stimuli provided by these sights (and more) did not help my condition. During some stops I'd notice some members of the party missing. I just knew they were sneaking off and taking care of business but I wasn't sure. I couldn't take the chance of sneaking off and being discovered. It might have disrupted the group dynamics.

Maeda Kawa Trail

The J-Fam decided to send me on another walk. J-Pop called his friend from work who volunteers his time, once a month, to lead expeditions around local freshwater sources. He and his group check the water quality and check the floral and fauna (mostly fauna). I had to meet a lady named Murata-san at a nearby bus stop. From there, another lady joined us, and about three buses later, we arrived at our starting point.

We started at the ocean in a place called Sagami Bay. This lady dashed into my shot and I decided to keep it. When you're shooting pics and saving batteries, it's kind of like making a B movie. You only do one "take" of a scene. If it were a clear day, you could see Fuji in this picture. As an alternative, look at her cap. It's roughly the same shape.

I snapped this picture when I thought the entire group arrived. I can't remember the leader's name (Hatakashi or something similar), but he's standing on the far left. The man in blue is over 80 years old- amazing. This group had about 20 years of age on the group from my other walk. Still, I was the youngster. In jeans and an olive drab jacket I felt kind of uncolorful. They all made introductions and after the leader spoke I noticed some movement away from me so I knew it was my turn. Leader (English): Now you introduce by your own self. Me (Japanese): My name is Jory. Now I am living in Japan. I'm from Oklahoma. [pause: everybody else had a much longer intro] In Oklahoma, we don't have an ocean." I was greeted with applause and polite laughter, followed by murmurs of "Such good Japanese!" By the way, everybody says this, even if all you've said is "Nice to meet you."

We stopped at our first water quality testing site. I was still new to the group dynamic so I just stood around and watched. The lady in the red vest is Murata-san. She adopted me the most. After all, she's the one that made sure I made it to the trailhead.

This was our second stop. We stopped about three times. People would busy themselves with whatever test or measurement they were required to do. The leader's job was to dash into the river and find little animals in his net. He had one other netter that did his best to find some specimens. I was wearing sneakers so I did not grab an extra net and help. If I go again next month, I will definitely get some rubber boots.

Foreground: The leader's technique for finding stuff. Background: His helper.

To my surprise, he found all sorts of things in just a few siftings of muck. A fish called ayu (Ahh! You!), baby dragonflies, shrimp, and various waterbugs.

He also found some snail thingies that are somehow important to the feeding of young fireflies.

The leader had an experienced eye for finding things. Here is a very large group of frog eggs and a few tadpoles. He called me over to this find and said (he spoke basic English) ,"Do you know this one?" Unknown to him, I looked up the word for frog earlier and quickly replied "Frog eggs?" He's not going to pop quiz me.

The group checked the water but they also took time to unblock mucked up creeks. The leader jumped a fence and proceeded to poke the ground with a stick and two more rubbered fellows quickly picked up on the task.

The trail was quite varied. We walked on roads and through cane and bamboo so thick that you couldn't see your footing. Before we tromped off through the jungle above, I heard whispers of awe, "First time to go this way!" For most Japanese that have never trailblazed before, they were very excited to get to try this out.

We walked directly up one area of a small river. Rubber boots would have been very handy for this area. It took all my skills, learned in the jungles of Oklahoma, to not put my shoes underwater.

The leader climbed this mudwall, used a garden trowel to dig out little steps for the rest of us. He then produced a rope from his backpack and set up a railing. Now this is my kind of hike!

The most scenic part of the walk was along the trail of the Maeda Kawa (kawa=river). It was a manicured trail and there were stepping stones along the sides of it that crossed it many times. I would definitely like to come here again on my own.

We broke for lunch and I decided to get a snapshot. The guy closest to me is Kawasaki-san. He was extremely nice and we managed to have a few little conversations. The lady on the right rode with me and Murata-san from the busstop. The oldtimer is next. Our leader is in the back.

This crew wast crazy for kinoko (mushrooms). There was a very large amount on the underside of this tree and Kawasaki (with a little 1-2-3! help from the leader) scrambled up to knock them all down.

At the end of the walk, the mushroom spoils were divided. I passed for my share of the booty since I didn't know what I'd do with it.

I guess our leader had been here before, because he took those of us that wanted to walk, up a hill to some kind of rural dwelling. I think they make charcoal here from wood or bamboo.

The goal of this little sideventure was this photograph hanging on the ceiling from one of that lady's sheds. It's a picture of the Prince and Princess who visited this place once. Talk about off the beaten path.

At the top of one corner of a bend in the river was this little shrine. Those people on the left are getting water from a natural spring that feeds here. There were about 5 more people and three cars lined up to get water. It's supposed to make great coffee.

I'm ont sure about the total distance. It was less than my other walk, but it took longer with all the detours and river navigations. At the end we all said thanks to the leader and once again he said a few words and the group all turned to look at me. This being my cue I said I had a lovely time. Once again, I was greeted with applause and bows. That's really a great feeling. You can just say something simple and you're greeted like you just won the election. I almost don't want to learn anymore Japanese.

Okurahoma-Jin

It's been raining here for the last couple of days so I haven't been out much. I was just sitting here going through some picture folders on my desktop and was looking at a couple from a couple of days before we left Oklahoma. Some of our friends met up with us for a bon voyage lunch. I said thanks that day but I still feel appreciation for all of them. They became our friends (some more recently and some farther back) and helped us in life.

So, thank you and arigatougozaimasu!

Yoshie, Joey, Noriko, Yukiko, Noriko, John, Kumi

T.J., Troy, Yoshie, Joey, Noriko, Yukiko, Noriko, Kumi, Part of John's Head

Adopt-a-Gaijin Walkathon

The family decided that I needed to go on an organized walk. They checked in the paper and found one. Today I went with the walking club from 9am to 3pm. We hit about three different parks in Yokosuka, for about 13km and then we all went our separate ways. I was the only gaijin and I was the only person uner 50 years old. But these old people could really move. The pace was quick and steady. In all there were over 100 people on the walk. One man started up a conversation with me from the beginning. Sofue Marabu was the name on his business card. His American travels are limited to excursions to Hawaii. As the walk started, a lady named Takayo kidnapped me. She adopted me for the day. During bathroom breaks, old people would wander over to say (in English) ,"How do you like Japan?" and "Is the walking fun?"

Picture by Sofue Marabu.

I thought some of these people were waiting for a bus. In reality, they all signed up for the walk. Before we did our group warm up exercises, they asked me to come to the front and introduced me. My introduction was met with clapping and bows!

About 2/3 of the trail was off the road and in tree-lined paths. The bamboo groves were cool.

The guy with the megaphone spoke a little English. His job was to tell people when to take a break and what time we'd be moving on, etc. His English was just good enough to tell me what time we were leaving. At different times, people would sneak up on my side and demonstrate their English skills.

Low-fat view from the top of the Plum Orchard Park.

Regular view

Takayo-san took this picture of me. I tried to get a picturd of her but she politefully refused. She's not maried and lives in Tokyo with her 93 yearold mother. She lived in Nebraska for two years working on the Winnebago reservation so her English was pretty good. I'm wondering if on these types of events if somebody always adopts the token white boy. They might even take turns.

The observation deck at the top of the plum orchard

Here is a view of the group leaders. I felt like part of a demonstration. They walked with the flag of their club. Here,they were just inviting everyone back in a couple of days for a different hike. One old man, walked up to me and said "If you enjoy this walking, please join us again." Everyone ws really nice.

Here's a view of what the train station map looks like. At first, the only thing it resembled was a wall out of the engineering room from Star Trek. But I can finally use (all alone) this to decide what train I want to take home.

After leaving the train station, I decided what's thiry more minutes of walking? I shrugged and began the walk home. In Japan, I don't know street names. Some streets don't even have a name. I have to be creative and find landmarks. For example, the above sign always tells me which way to go. He's pointing home. It's a very low-tech navigation system.