Mountains!!
Today was an amazingly perfect weather day. We didn't have any plans, but knew we had to take advantage of it somehow. The sky was clear and blue and the temperature was just right. We decided to go try to find a small whole foods/organic store in a neighboring town that we had found on the Internet. It was way out in the boonies but the drive was amazing and it allowed me to see snow covered mountains that I hadn't seen before because the air hadn't been so clear. Unfortunately, when we finally found it, it was closed on Sundays!! Oh well, the drive was beautiful and now we know how to get there.
Now it was lunch time and though we planned on making something at home we easily persuaded ourselves to go check out the local noodle joint. Our boss, Keith, introduced us briefly to the self-professed "soba master" on our first night here but had yet to eat his noodles. He runs a shop,it is literally 2 metal shipping containers stuck together! The noodles were excellent and the soba master was eager to practice his English a bit. We felt a little guilty about going out to eat since we had gone out last night to a Chinese restaurant with Shayne and Rory (our co-workers from South Africa) which is owned by one of our students. But both places had great food!!
After lunch we were looking out over the town from the top of our building and Damien pointed to a nearby hill and said that he wanted to go there and see if we could hike up it. I was a little dubious since we had never been there and didn't even know if there were hiking trails. But I went with his suggestion and off we went. It was only about a 10 minute drive and low behold there was a parking lot and a hiking map! It was a magically beautiful hike through aromatic hinoki cypress forest, and tons of colorful flowers. We heard strange birds and saw a lot of cute little brown lizards. There were many people out having picnics but it wasn't overly crowded at all. We hiked around, stopping at sweeping mountain vistas and old forest temples. We followed a beautiful Japanese garden with cherry trees and waterfalls down back to our car and there we noticed a little cafe. We thought it would be nice to end our day with a nice coffee and a cake. The cafe was extraordinarily quaint with pottery everywhere and a very strong Japanese aesthetic. Inside there were nice pieces of pottery for sale. I asked if they were made there and an older woman said yes, her husband is a professional potter and pottery teacher and behind the cafe is their house and his studio which has old, outdoor wood fired kilns. The pottery was expensive so we will have to wait to buy a piece, but it goes right along with our pottery collecting ideal of buying pottery directly from the artist.
We couldn't believe such an oasis is only a short drive away. We will definitely be going there again whenever we need to "get away".
(I have also posted some pictures of things that I can see from the front window of our apartment, as well as some pics of the recent meals we have been cooking. You have to check out the teeth on the fish I cooked yesterday!! I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley!)
Now it was lunch time and though we planned on making something at home we easily persuaded ourselves to go check out the local noodle joint. Our boss, Keith, introduced us briefly to the self-professed "soba master" on our first night here but had yet to eat his noodles. He runs a shop,it is literally 2 metal shipping containers stuck together! The noodles were excellent and the soba master was eager to practice his English a bit. We felt a little guilty about going out to eat since we had gone out last night to a Chinese restaurant with Shayne and Rory (our co-workers from South Africa) which is owned by one of our students. But both places had great food!!
After lunch we were looking out over the town from the top of our building and Damien pointed to a nearby hill and said that he wanted to go there and see if we could hike up it. I was a little dubious since we had never been there and didn't even know if there were hiking trails. But I went with his suggestion and off we went. It was only about a 10 minute drive and low behold there was a parking lot and a hiking map! It was a magically beautiful hike through aromatic hinoki cypress forest, and tons of colorful flowers. We heard strange birds and saw a lot of cute little brown lizards. There were many people out having picnics but it wasn't overly crowded at all. We hiked around, stopping at sweeping mountain vistas and old forest temples. We followed a beautiful Japanese garden with cherry trees and waterfalls down back to our car and there we noticed a little cafe. We thought it would be nice to end our day with a nice coffee and a cake. The cafe was extraordinarily quaint with pottery everywhere and a very strong Japanese aesthetic. Inside there were nice pieces of pottery for sale. I asked if they were made there and an older woman said yes, her husband is a professional potter and pottery teacher and behind the cafe is their house and his studio which has old, outdoor wood fired kilns. The pottery was expensive so we will have to wait to buy a piece, but it goes right along with our pottery collecting ideal of buying pottery directly from the artist.
We couldn't believe such an oasis is only a short drive away. We will definitely be going there again whenever we need to "get away".
(I have also posted some pictures of things that I can see from the front window of our apartment, as well as some pics of the recent meals we have been cooking. You have to check out the teeth on the fish I cooked yesterday!! I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley!)
posted by Ana | 12:58 AM
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