The River & Refreshment

The Yoshino River runs through and divides Kamiyama into 2 halves as it winds through the mountains, gobbling up streams cascading down from scattered hidden springs,  necessitating numerous bridges. Green river rocks, smoothed into various shapes, tumble and collect in arcing banks broken up by patches of sand and massive boulders. Small darter fish, clinging and wriggling, trout, minnows and water striders... a butterfly here, a dragonfly there...

Many of these spots were easy to get to, even by walking, and provided endless rock skipping/throwing opportunities as well as a chance to cool off. One spot in particular was Mori-san's favorite and was a bit of an adventure to get to, including walking through snake terrain. (Just stomp and talk loudly.) But oh so worth it, to be able to swim in the fresh, crystal clear, spring mountain water.

How lucky were we to enjoy such natural resources and play without so much as a plastic toy or gadget. Well, minus the camera of course. Just snacks and chatting about what's on view, discovering a world of its own that one only has to stop and look to notice.

view from Eri Rufus & Ira's house

not far from our house

Mori-san's favorite swimming spot

creek bank picnic with Eri Rufus & Ira

looking for good skipping stones

Sayaka & Manus

behind the onsen

scary but beautiful bridge behind the trout farm

by the trout farm

nice boulders

this is where Hopper & I would walk to to throw stones and look for fish and stuff, about 2 mins walk

A Pox on Our house

Oh ye chickenpox, a right of passage for any child, how I am grateful you are hereby vanquished from our home forever. You weren't too severe, and though you may have left a scar or two, I am happy you arrived when you did as you may have otherwise thwarted our plans to visit loved ones in America.

I am also grateful that you did not break Hopper's spirit. He remained happy and playful, if not a bit flushed and sleepy, but I certainly wish that you would have left his groin alone. And the inside of his ear, really? Why do you pick such awful places to live?

You have a reputation, like a fallen celebrity, causing ripples of pointing and woeful glances. (Because really, how do I keep a toddler indoors for a whole week?) But I dare say it's for all the wrong reasons, for you arrive and infringe yourself on many peoples lives by sheer force and vulgarity. I can see you have been busy in my city, making many appearances, and although you are welcome by a strange degree, we are always happy to see you leave. For good.

I bid you farewell, oh blistery one. It was real.

Doooooiiiieee, daaaaaag, buhbye!

PS. Thanks for the immunity boost you primeval parasite.

This week's activities included:

making rockets, fish and whales with 2 sets of buns

visiting the hissing ducks

kickin it

still happy

picking flowers for mama

acrobatics

visiting daddy's work on the last day of his show Don't Sleep On Your Moon

Beastie Boys stance

trainspotting

he insisted on napping in his stroller all week, with friends of course!

Farmers Market Kamiyama

The Kamiyama farmers' market was only 5 mins drive from our house and employs some very lovely people who were always engaging with Hopper and uber friendly. We were there fairly regularly as we passed it getting anywhere out of town and also because, well, everything was so fresh and the seasons for certain produce changed frequently. It was also just plain exciting to see what was on offer.

Inside was a giftshop selling crafts and specialty foods, a small restaurant selling a variety of noodle dishes, a cold case with local made tofu, sushi, and snacks, and the ever exciting ice cream counter. A separate area located in front had all the fresh produce, plucked so lovingly in the couple days before, brought in by local farmers. It also serves as a rest stop on the highway so there's bathrooms, picnic tables and plenty of parking.

We were lucky enough to be around for eggplants, shiitake, sudachi limes and at the end yuzu limes (which look more like grapefruits than limes), sweet potato, red chillies, Asian pear, popo (a fruit that looked like a small chubby rotten banana but had knobby irregular seeds throughout and tasted like a mango banana hybrid, so so delicious and the season lasted but a week), mandarin, purple corn, green beans, some other totally foreign fruit that I believe was called bobo, and persimmon (kaki). But to name a few.

Funny thing is that a few of these are specialty items sold in other parts of Japan for high prices but were available at the source for peanuts, and things like popo are too fragile to transport so are unknown in other parts of the world. (We came home to find a popo gift and were unsure what to do with it, it looked rotten and brown and not very appealing; thanks Keiko for making sure we got to experience it.)

We sort of gorged really. And never have I ever had such tasty firm shiitake. And the sudachi is so delicious and coveted that it goes on everything from oysters to tofu to soup. You can truly understand the nature of regional Japanese cuisine when the ingredients are so astonishingly delectable.

Oh, and the views from here are spectacular, so it was always so nice to get a meal or a snack or even just a drink from the myriad machines and sit outside at the picnic tables and stare at the mountains.

udon and ice cream

hanging around

local made cakes

ordering from the restaurant while really wanting something else

ice cream flavors: sudachi, sweet potato, green tea (2 varieties), black sesame, strawberry, yuzu, lemon, udon (noodle)

best tofu I've ever eaten, hands down

lovely employees

what's ripe and ready

and you can see who grew it (left kaki, right limes)

popo! this was picked before it was really ripe so it needed couple more days. best to eat it when it falls to the ground all speckly yellow brown and slightly ripping open

bobo! (or larva?)

soooo many seeds, must be spit out, very interactive fruit not to be eaten on 1st date

skin, fruit, seeds (hopper thought it was a caterpillar, tried not to think about that while eating, very mild flavor)

the view, and mama's great parking job

residency posters put up around town, Nik's photo in middle, of course more ijshun!