Bush Walk... Err, Mountain Climb?? (Sunday)

Hope you all had a good weekend.   I think I've been fighting a cold, so last week and the first half of the weekend I spent a lot of time sleeping.  To make up for taking it easy yesterday we went bushwalking.  Actually they called it "mountain climbing" and although not what I would normally call mountain climbing, I guess it wasn't far from the truth.  

Daniel and I went with the English teachers from one of my schools.  We started out early (despite not being able to find our house key and missing the train, we didn't miss the meeting time), caught a train to meet the others.  We then had to drive for about 2 hours to 

get there.  

I guess the most interesting thing about the hike, apart from discovering that I was fitter than I thought, was seeing the differences between Japan and Australia.   Sometimes the little things like black lady birds 

with red dots, or bigger things like autumn leaves in a forrest.  (Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the bush in Australia seems to be native fauna and not change colour, right?).  I have to say that I was also amazed about the number of crabs in the bush/forrest - while there was a lot of water and

 water falls, I didn't expect to see crabs...  

In contrast to most of the bush walking I've done in Australia (walking to go somewhere with both up and down hills) we walked (climbed?) up for 2 hours, got to the top and had a cup of coffee (in zero

 degree temperature, wearing a short sleeve shirt.  I guess I didn't really take the suggestions of a jumper seriously, it was a little cold) then walked down the exact same route.  If not for all the waterfalls and beautiful autumn leaves I would've been disappointed to take the same path.  

My knees are a little sore today - I don't think they're used to walking the one direction for so long.  Down was especially difficult.  I only slipped a few times..  

After our mountain climbing it was time for lunch.  Daniel was very brave sampling all the food.  

We then had a wander around the small town at the foot of the mountain.  It's known as "small Kyoto" because of the old buildings and the atmosphere of the town.   We went to the museum on the site of the old castle (which had been burnt down years before).  

Dan:  And once again our net access is down - trying to organise for our wireless modem to be picked up and repaired in the next few days ..   Another Aussie here, Cheng, has been very very kind in helping us with our computer problems (lending us another lappy for a while, equipment for me to test with, etc) and making the phone calls/visits to the Internet Provider..  Thanks Cheng!!!  So good to have a friend close by that can speak decent Japanese - it's really inspiring me to learn more!!!  (Or import JB for times when Cheng can't help!)    Anyway - we're not in email/skype range much over the next week or so ..  well, even skype phone has been mucking up a lot - try catching us there if you like - but no guarantees!  Hopefully all sorted...  soon...

Dan:  PS:  Nomes will probably post photos soon - just a bit hard to today..   In the mean time - if you haven't checked the gallery (link on the left) in a while there may be some newish photos there to give you a laugh :)