Basho and Baths!

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Matsuo Basho is my favorite Haiku poet, so any monuments to him are always high on my list. He traveled all over Japan when it meant the same as walking it during the Edo period- around 1600s- and wrote travel diaries with the best poetry ever. Good thing he made a pit stop in Gifu and made some frinds. We headed to the town of Ogaki where Basho showed up in 1684 to take in the sights. He made a lot of friends, one being a guy named Bokuin who also wrote Haiku. The way the Japanese velebrate writers is to enscribe their written charcters on stones, so Basho's poems in his handwritting were placed on stones around the canals in Ogaki, about 15 or so of the monuments. It was amazing to think that Basho was here and walked these roads, except I'm sure he didn't have to avoid mad bicycle drivers and ignore the McDonalds on the corner.

At the ancient pond
a frog plunges into
the sound of water

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Photos

The Gifu Cho
A rare butterfly that Dave got a shot of on a rare flower too, so everyone we met was super impressed.

Junior high school
We went back to my old school that I went to 16 years ago, at their sports day. It was so cool to be back.

Basho painting
at the museum.

88 Buddhas
Nearby temple with 88 statues of the Buddha, where people pick a certain aspect and pray to it. It's representative of the 88 temples in the south which is a pligrimage that many still take.

Commorat Fishing
This is a watercolour painted by Masako-san's father, who was a famous artist. We went to see the fishing one night but because it was super dark we didn't get any good photos.

Guest room
Slept here, very comfy, on futons.

Fukutomi's small garden
A beautiful tiny garden of the family, 6 by 14 feet so perfectly formed.