Alright! Finally got around to the last of the photos taken of my bro’s visit, almost two months later! Time flies when you eat four metric tons of rice everyday.

After Aoshima, we sped southwest to Miyakonoujo, where my good college buddy Troutman was staying at his girlfriend’s family’s home. And whattya know, they invited me ‘n Po! But I talked about that, I believe. The next morning we got up and headed for a big ol’ waterfall in the area.

A sign informed us it was one of the 100 most beautiful waterfalls in Japan! The falls themselves impressed me, not that fact. But if there approximately, say, 75 waterfalls more impressive in this country, they’d probably break my mind.

A path led up the rocks, to the top of the waterfall, where a neat concrete path led across the clear rushing water. Troutman and Po actually ventured off the bridge thing onto the large rocks, towards the waterfall. I stayed back with Rie because I still had a bit of a cold, or because I was a simpering panty-waist.

We wandered around the park for a bit, until it spit us out alongside another river and farmland. It was a brisk day, but super clear and bright, and the sun shone intensely, giving everything this mystical warmth and clarity. I believe I spotted this house and had Po snap it… beautiful. This is one of my favorite photos of the whole bunch, its just… wow.

We headed back to Kawanabe that day, probably to relax and sleep on our own futons, without fear of imposing on any hosts. Or was that the night we went to karaoke with all of my friends in the area? Maybe that was the next night. In any case, the food was good, my friends came out to meet Po, however briefly, and the evening culminated at a karaoke bar where Po got absolutely wasted. At one point he was just standing, doin’ a weird little shuffle dance with anyone else that moved or sang. It was awesome! I think he recovered just fine the next day, too, a testament to his resistance.

On what may have been our last full day, we headed out to my favorite place in the area, Iwaya Kiyomizu Magaibutsu park. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, maybe I haven’t, it’s a park some 8 kilometers away. Its surrounded by cliffs, caused by rivery erosion, and the center is just beautiful tended parkland. The real treat is one cliff-face that sports tons of Buddhist carvings all over it… the most recent is a Buddha from 100 years ago, the most amazing are celestial Sanskrit characters from almost 800 years ago:

Utterly overwhelming… before my continent was even discovered (by post-renaissance thinkers, anyway), people were carving observations about lunar eclipses and comets into Japanese cliffs.

Basically, its one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to, and its really close. I still duck in here every couple of weeks, just to walk around. Its so gorgeous, in any season or weather. Though soon the cherry blossoms will blossom cherrily, and that should be an amazing sight.

On our way out of the park, there was a big map of the town, and I discovered there was a waterfall up north some way! I had no idea! Po and I memorized the general appearance of the kanji that spelled the name so we could look for it, and headed north. A side road was marked with a big white wooden sign with just a bunch of non-descript black Japanese on it, but two of the kanji matched, so we turned down the road and followed it until we got to a little elbow bend in the road. There it flowed.

After enjoying it for a bit, Po and I hopped in the car, and headed back, opting to take an uphill right instead of the downhill left we had come in on. The road brought up up a mountain, to a small patch of deforestation that granted us a view of endless mountains and forests. We shot the shit, marveling at the things we had done and seen in just 3 weeks.

Before I knew it, Po entered the terminal to begin his long voyage home. The walk back to the car, and the drive back to Kawanabe from the airport was probably the most heart-wrenching thing I’ve ever experienced. I was to return to an empty apartment, resuming the amusing but mundane task of teaching English to kids that really didn’t want to learn English, and I was gonna do it alone.

I think the light from the afternoon sun, which was bouncing off of Kinko Bay to my left as I drove, caused my eyes to water.