Daisen denial

Daisen is the big old mountain about 2 hours away from my front is just fun to think about.

This past Sunday I was gonna do me a solo venture up the bad boy again. There's something very good about solo hikes. I tend to talk, a lot, when I'm hiking with others. But when there's no one to talk to, I find myself figuring stuff out that I keep on putting off or get distracted away from dealing with.

My very first solo backpacking experience was in the Latir Peak wilderness of New Mexico, and it was beautiful. It also scared the ever loving hell out of me because I had never realized how much talking I actually did. And that given enough time, I'd start talking to myself. And a complete internal dialogue constantly had me wondering about all the bad things that could happen to me while I was by myself in the mountains.

It was a good experience, and I was excited to go again for another solo adventure.

But as Mother Nature tends to do, she sent wicked weather. In all actuality, it wasn't that windy or rainy, even down in Shinji, but I didn't really feel like spending the day walking in the fog. So, I did the next best thing.... picked me up a McGill and went for a road trip adventure.

The goal of this road trip was simple: drive as far as possible along the "Sea of Japan" coast and stop when inspiration hit us, turning back around mid-afternoon. Marie wound up playing DJ with the music I had available. By far, without a doubt, if a certain song had to be picked as the theme from sundays drive.....it would have to be the Electric Light Orchestra's "Living Thing". I bought a recent greatest hits album of theirs and I'd suggest the same to anyone..

The First of many
-First stop along the way was a bathroom break, next to this interesting wave breaker that had bizarre statues.

Hawai (not a misspelling)
-I'd never been to Hawaii, up until Sunday. Granted, not the same Hawaii as most would be aquainted with, but this little onsen (natural hot spring) town had a plethora of "Hawaii-eske" named cafe's and even a concert hall.

A little frisbee?
-I've been carrying a frisbee in my car, Darlene, ever since I got her and it finally came to use. As we drove further along the coast line we came upon a long beach that had Japanese surfer dudes and dudettes catching the small, but always present waves. Inspiration hit and for a nice little leg stretch we tossed the disk and watched the sea roll with the ever present storm clouds.

The Great Sand Dunes of Tottery
-I've heard about this little niche of our neighboring prefecture for a while now, and when we stumbled across the signs another detour was most definitely in order. Honestly, there's not a lot to say about the dunes. Its neat to see, fun to climb the big hill....but thats about all. What's more fun is talking to large stone heads!

Misty Mountains
-So after the dunes we moved farther along the coast....a another bit of driving we found ourselves away from the coast and on a road leading eventually to Kyoto. As mid afternoon was approaching we decided it was best to go ahead and head on back.....but by no means the same way. As we picked a random road in the approximate direction of our home, these was almost immediately signs for waterfalls and a "great plateau". What Marie swore she read as 1km away, took about 30 minutes of bending and weaving around amazing mountains roads. We somehow missed the waterfalls, but did find a cool hill near the top of the so called plateau where.....where we took this.

Hard boiled eggs
-Exiting the mountains in a great flight of terror from the "chickens", we soon realized we had no idea where we were or on what road we were on. We did however happen upon an "Onsen town" very much like Tumatsukurionsen, which is between Shinji and Matsue. These "onsen towns" are a kind of miniature resort centered around its natural hot springs and they are all over Japan, because let us not forget....Japan is on that great Pacific ring of fire. Anywho, being slightly damp from the mountains, Marie and I joined other in the public foot onsen part where anyone can come to soak their weary feet. In the very place where the water emerged from, far away from the feet soaking area, people brought or bought eggs to boil, and then to eat with a cold beer while soaking the feet, listening to the little river directly behind, laughing full of large, fat carp patiently waiting for bits and pieces of egg. A seminal Japanese moment.

We opted for a full body soak ourselves, got one at the public bath/onsen (which has been by far the hottest water I've yet to experience) and then headed home.




After another 30 minutes of driving, Marie convinced me that we were indeed not driving in the right direction. Once corrected, the ride home was pleasant, quite and an end to a great day