Link to photos from 10/09 to 10/13. Not sure where we were when, ha! Lots of special places…
Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PoJgCM5L3zLUb7QdA
Jess’ words:
Japanese roulette: the act of selecting a rice ball from the convenience store cold shelf. The packaging is a plain wrapper, clearly labeled with whatever is gracing your rice. Unfortunately, you haven’t studied enough Japanese to know whether your rice ball is pickled salted plum or tuna. Hence, the roulette.
The slipper game: you are in a large room with many shoji (sliding, paper covered doors.) Which shoji conceals your slippers?
I love our current inn, a hostel in broad definition, filled with tatami rooms which can be opened or closed or expanded or contracted. There’s a brook babbling outside. The village is silent, except for some chickens and a very rare car. We are fed royal dinners and breakfasts, many plated wonders of strange and wonderful vegetables and fish and dumplings. One observation: it seems every meal must have a slime component, be it okra or the interesting potato starch and sesame paste sweet of last night’s dinner. Having given explicit instructions removing natto from the menu options, we’re content to try everything else. Our cook seems pleased and interested that we eat everything on our plates.
We came here to see Haguro San, the unifying shrine of the three sacred mountains here. Although the season has not yet shifted, mount Gassan has no reasonable access at this time, and mount Yudono is also inaccessible to the careless. To get to the temple one climbs 2446 (or possibly 2447) steps. In any event, they were solid stone, slippery with the rains and the wet leaves.
Jim’s stuff:
After the 2446 or 2447 steps, (BOTH UP AND DOWN by the way) We went back to our 100 year old guest house “Tamonkan” and had a fabulous Japanese dinner followed nee next morning by a great Japanese breakfast followed by a bus ride back to Tsuruoka for a museum tour and lunch. Fridat the 13th we caught a Train, bus, train transfer to Yamagata where we are currently looking looking for dinner!
FINFINFIN
s/v Hajime - Begin 