On The Road...

While we were all at Matt's a few weekends ago, we didn't just hang out in cabins and drink ourselves silly... we also made a hike up to a beautiful temple in the mountains. I believe it was called the Hiroi Temple (if someone from the trip is looking at this blog and knows the name, please correct me).

That aside, it is an amazing area of Aichi. The mountains are about 2 hrs from me by car, so it's nice to know I can easily escape to serenity!

The trip up there was pretty amazing... very small roads! We also came across a very beautiful and colourful snake on the road. Luckily we were in our cars because this was a VERY deadly snake, whose bite can kill you in less than an hour!! Hamish was driving the car ahead of mine and stopped to gawk at it and hang his head out the window to take a photo. People who live in that area are told to kill the snakes immediately if you come across one. We all wanted Hamish to run it over, but being the nature lover he is, he let the snake go.

The hike up to the temple was short compared to Fuji-san. The rainclouds were rolling in, so it was a bit cooler, yet the air was very very dense, but it felt great. All you could see was trees for miles and miles.

Hikes like these make me feel very grateful for being able to come here to Japan, because it is such a beautiful country. It's an undiscovered gem when it comes to vacation destinations. Thailand is all the rage these days, but you should try to come here and see Japan in the Fall when the leaves are changing colour, or in the Spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

Oh... and their fireworks just flat out rock. You haven't seen fireworks until you have seen Japanese fireworks.

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In other news... I got a new fish tank and some new friends for Jitters, my freaky fish. I bought 5, but only 4 have lived... but they all get along famously, and are quite happy. Jitters is content now and behaving nicely. I made sure that he would remain the biggest fish in the tank to govern this new aquatic land. They are great to have around, and are very peaceful to watch.

Enjoy the new pics... please leave comments!