july 4

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July 4

Max wanted to tag along sightseeing with me for a day, but didn’t want to go to Kurashika since he had been there a few years back. Instead, we traveled to Takahashi with intentions to spend the night. When we arrived in Takahashi (which actually translates to tall bridge), we walked into the travel’s info stand that was part of the train station. Apparently, the youth hostel, which was marked in my travel book, didn’t actually exist. The guy at the desk even called the number my book listed although it just turned out to be a regular, overpriced hotel. The cheapest we could have stayed there would about been around $60, and neither of us really wanted to fork over that much cash. We just decided to finish sightseeing in takahashi, take the train to kurashika, and spend the night at the hostel there.

According to my travel book, Takahashi had three things going for it. First was the old Japanese style houses which, I have to admit, were pretty cool. Second was a famous Buddhist raked gravel garden. When Max and I showed up at the temple, we found a temple that looked that the card taker had been absent for a year or so. There actually was a caretaker there, but the temple was in disrepair, and the gravel garden was definitely not raked and had weeds growing throughout. A little disappointing, but not a huge loss. The third was a famous castle that was hidden up at the top of a neighboring mountain. After struggling for a bit to find the start of the hiking trail, we started hiking. Unfortunately, Max wasn’t in the best of shape, and we also chose to hike during the middle of one of the hottest days yet in Japan. Needless to say, we took frequent breaks and consumed a lot of water. After an hour or so, we made it to the top. There was actually a guy up there who collected the $3 entrance fee. He told us that he hiked the trail everyday although there was a way where you could drive most of the way up instead of hiking the trails entirety. The castle was pretty small but cool none the less. The guy at the gate gave us free chilled tea which alone was worth the entrance fee. After hiking back down, we took the train back the way we had come to Kurashika.

It turned out that the hostel wasn’t actually in kurashika. It was about 20 minutes down the line from it in a town called Kasaokaya. There is less in Kasaokaya than there was in Takahashi. The YH here is by far the fanciest hostel and only $30/night. Unfortunately, we have a 9pm curfew, and I’m not sure that I like the owner all that much. He hasn’t done anything to really cause me not to like him, it’s more just that I don’t think he likes me. Not really sure why. We explored kasaokaya, found a pretty cool mall, ate supper and came back. I was tired and passed out for a few hours while max watched Japanese tv. That night, Max and I stayed up talking for a long while. Max is 24, a recent college grad, and is hoping to get a job teaching English in japan. His major, oddly enough, was world religion, and he attends mosque although I never really figured out whether he believed or not. Needless to say, we talked for hours over subjects pertaining to the human subconscious, whether or not a human mind could really bend a spoon, and other out there topics. Max is a really cool guy. It’s a shame that he lives in Washington, the exact opposite side of the continental US.

Didn’t ever do anything for the 4th. We actually didn’t see any other foreigners, let alone Americans today.

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