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.