Monday, October 17, 2011

More beautiful scenery... and not so beautiful...

Last weekend Tetsu and I went on a drive to Fukushima. Supposedly the north of Japan isn't getting many tourists and so the tollways have been opened for free access hoping to get visitors. It seemed like a good time to go sightseeing so off we went.

The scenery was beautiful. Lots of lakes and the leaves were just beginning to change colors.

We ended up at the top of a mountain/volcano. Well! They don't have to worry about a lack of tourists! Just to get up the mountain to the parking lot we had to wait in line for an hour and a half!

And then there was a line to use the bathrooms and then there was a line to climb up the mountain!


I successfully made it up the line to the top of the volcano crater! Hard on the knees but they both work!


Windy at the top!


And then another long traffic jam on the expressway to get home...

Aside... When Tetsu and I drive we often spot things other than beautiful scenery. When I first came to Japan I was appalled that drivers would just get out of their cars and pee at the side of the road! They are not flashers... I guess they just have weak bladders. It has become an inside joke about how many "pee-ers" Tetsu and I see in one drive. Maybe less than years before but they are still there!

Usually I can't whip out my camera and take a picture of some man doing his business. What kind of a woman would do that?! But I have taken some great pictures in my mind. One time I saw a bus load of men lined up by the roadside... I guess the tourist bus driver just stopped and said "Go right ahead!"

And another time I was coming out of the City Hall in down town Nikko and a very distinguished businessman in a suit just turned to the bushes right by the steps and finished his business too! My goodness! The City Hall has bathrooms!

And I often see farmers step out of their houses and give their field a mini-watering! In front of your own house? I don't get it!


In the hour and a half wait to get up the Fukushima mountain, a man got out of his car a few cars ahead of us. Tetsu laughed and said, "You've got your picture... Take it!" So I did.

Men have the right to use the roadside. We women have to suffer...

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