Northern Ibaraki

G'day everyone,

last Sunday I had the pleasure and privilege to accompany Isoji and his family on a trip to the northern part of Ibaraki prefecture. Japan consists of 47 prefectures and are similar to states, although I can't tell to which degree. Ibaraki is the prefecture where I live and work right now. The city of Tsukuba however is located in the flat plain part of the prefecture. The northern part, which we visited, is mountainous and filled with a lot of small and rather isolated settlements. In short, just what I love. The weather on that day was also perfect: Cloudy and humid coupled with occasional light rain and a huge downpour at lunch time. Just perfect. And to proof that I haven't lost my mind I prepared a lot of pictures for you so you can get a feeling for the place.

Our first stop was Hanazono Shrine, which literally means flower park shrine. It wasn't the season for any flower to bloom though. It is located in a pretty isolated place, but so was basically everything I saw that day. We also saw a waterfall. Here are some pictures:

The shrine gate.

Our first waterfall. Isoji's wife and I are talking about the flora.

What are you saying? The waterfall is not big enough? Well, in that case you'll have to wait for the next one.

Our next target was Yamatsuri (lit. Arrow festival), a small town, in search of lunch and another waterfall. To get to the waterfall we had to cross a pretty, red suspension bridge followed by a narrow gorge. The following pictures will show you that the weather was perfect and that I haven't lost it...

View from the bridge to Yamatsuri.

The river we had to cross.

View into the entrance to the gorge together with Isoji's family.

Isn't it a nice view? Together with the low hanging clouds and the mist over the trees? Beautiful. The following pictures show the gorge and the waterfall at the end.

That bridge was pretty slippery.

Those rocks were pretty slippery.

That waterfall was pretty ... pretty.

There was a huge overhang over the waterfall. I tried to make a picture of it together with the fall but it was just too huge. Here are the fruits of my not so successful labor:

Huuuuuge...

What are you saying? This waterfall is still not big enough? I've got something special for you then.

Our next stop was Fukurodanotaki ("Rice bag waterfall"?). I hope this will be big enough for you.

That's big in my book.

Wait, you're still not satisfied? Haha, I have a surprise for you then. This is only the lower part of the waterfall. How about this:

Woah, that would classify as "pretty big" in my book.

Still not big enough? Are you mad? Well, you'll be surprised to hear that this is still not everything. Watch this:

Well damn.

That's 120m height and 73m width. If this does not satisfy you than I suggest you hop in a barrel and throw yourself into the Niagara river.

At this point I'd like to thank Isoji and his family for taking me with them on this trip. I was able to see places I would've never been able to see otherwise, not to mention the lovely company. Thank you so much.

どうもありがとうございます

See you next time.

Cheers

Nils

PS: There was an earthquake this morning! Enough to shake my empty beer cans out of place. Isoji made a little video of the intensity propagating through Japan. Pretty neat.