Amanohashidate

We finally made it up to Amanohashidate! This land formation is fairly close, but just far enough to be a bother, so we kept putting it off. Finally, we made plans to go, and Mari n Julius joined us.

We drove out from Toyooka and ventured into Kyoto Prefecture. We stopped at a conbini on the way and found Pepsi's Ice Cucumber. Of course we bought it! But it didn't taste much like cucumber.

We reached the tourist trap, followed the lines of people, boarded the chair lift, and found ourselves in a large crowd of tourists. We tossed some clay disks at a stone hoop, hoping for eternal happiness. Alas, none of us are meant to be happy. Then we did the big Amanohashidate thing--



Turn around, bend over, and peer through your legs at the opposite mountain. Doesn't it look like it's floating? It must be a bridge to heaven! Anyhow, it was fun, everyone looks really silly, which just adds to the fun. We took in a few views, wandered the town a bit, generally goofed around. Then we headed back to Takeno for the night, and set off fireworks.

A small roadtrip with great friends, good food, and silliness. It was one of my favorite days in Japan. And there was beachiness the next day! Really, the weekend couldn't have been better.