Kameoka Cosmos

Yesterday, I went on an adventure to the (relatively) nearby city of Kameoka. I took a bus to the train to another bus in order to get to a five hectare garden brimming with over 8 million cosmos flowers. Yes, I meant 8 million!

In theory, there were twenty different varieties of cosmos in this field. I saw cosmos in fuschia, light pink, white, yellow, peach, orange, and several that were striped or blended between the aforementioned colors. Hana ga totemo kiree deshita. (The flowers were very pretty.) There were several crickets and frogs enjoying the sights as well. A few even jumped on me, presumably to get a better view!

Adding to the fun in the Cosmos Field were about 30 scarecrows that seemed to be part of some design contest. Among the recognizable figures was Stitch (from Lilo & Stitch), Captain Jack Sparrow (from Pirates of the Caribbean), Mario (from Nintendo games), Marie (the white kitten from Aristocats) and last but not least, Hello Kitty who was riding a wild boar. Seeing Kitty-chan on a boar is not so crazy though. According to the Chinese Animal Zodiac, 2007 is the year of the pig/boar.

As part of the admission fee, I was allowed to take a bouquet of freshly cut cosmos home with me. They now grace our living/dining/computer room in a magnificent vase made from an empty Coke Zero bottle. It's very beautiful and not being eaten by cats, which is something new for me!

Arashiyama Redux

An amusing day yesterday for Renee and me. We set out to take a sight-seeing train from Arashiyama to the outskirts of the outskirts of Kyoto. There was a nice little museum on Japanese trains at our departure station. It was a steam engine train that drove along the river's edge for about twenty km, and gave us a beautiful view of the valley. The announcements on the train were apparently hysterical -- everyone was laughing the entire ride -- but Renee and I were unfortunately in the dark.

The wonderful brochure advertised several beautiful flower gardens, historic neighborhoods, and local sake breweries around Kameoka, the final stop. Unfortunately, the final stop is only named Kameoka -- it's actually closer to Umahori, which is an hour's walk from Kameoka! We walked around Umahori for a little while and had lunch, but it was getting too hot and too late in the day to make the trek to Kameoka worthwhile.

Nevertheless, we will almost certainly come back. There are riverboat tours that take you
back down the river towards Kyoto. We saw them from the train on the way up -- large boats with about 40 people each are steered by a gondolier, basically, using a bamboo pole. This is noteworthy, because the river is not calm. Although you cannot really tell from the photo, it is quite choppy in places, and smaller groups were rafting it using much more modern equipment. They run year round, so Renee and I hope to go on cooler day at sometime.