And so Golden Week starts and the
family and I went off to a little bungalow in the mountains of Nara where we
met two of Otousan’s eleven siblings, Chieko and Kenji, plus one of his nieces,
Kana. And what great fun we had!
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| Otousan, Chieko, Kanna, and Kenji |
On the way there, we noticed some of
the giant landslides that had occurred earlier in the year—yikes! But we were
at a safe spot, so there was no need to worry. The bungalow was pretty nice and
for those of you who know me, reminded me greatly of The Coach House with a
small kitchen on the bottom floor and a great big loft on the top where all of
us slept.
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| Yikes |
As you all know, I am very enamored of
mountains and the mountains here were beautiful with little tufts of clouds
residing on the peaks, just like fluffy, torn up cotton balls or something.
It took quite a bit of driving to get
to our destination, so once we got there it was well past noon, so we settled
into a lazy day. There was a river running right past and it was the most
beautiful blue-green I have ever seen. It also had some awesome boulders lying
around, which I promptly used for photo taking.
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| Our bungalow |
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| The handy window linking the kitchen to the cooking fire--plus Okaasan! |
Then we went to a nearby onsen and
soaked our troubles away. It was gorgeous—there was an outdoor bath with a view
of the mountain with a waterfall. I wish I could have taken a picture, it was
so beautiful!
When we returned, we started up a fire
in the fire pit table thing, and then started roasting up an early dinner. We
then would brave the heat to grab our delicious morsel using chopsticks.
After that, I also taught the way of
the s’more to the huddled masses. It was a smashing success—they were fans of
both the regular “cookie graham” s’mores as well as the ginger biscuit s’mores
using dark chocolate. Mmmmmm, mmmmm!
As it got darker, we took some fun
pictures and then we pulled out the fireworks! Hina had insisted on them when
we stopped for charcoal (and they sell it as logs in boxes—not as coals in
bags, what a surprise!)
Hina had a blast. I did too.
Then Hina and I went to go stare at
the neighboring cabins’ dogs. It
eventually led us over to another firework party where the generous adults gave
Hina a whole pack of fireworks!
They were absolute strangers, but so
generous. I’m not sure if this would happen in the US…maybe a small town, but
the city? I don’t know, but the delight on Hina’s face made me smile.
We went kind of early to bed, after
socializing (read: drinking) a bit and telling funny stories.
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