Umezu no taki

I was recommended to check out some waterfalls about an hour from base. It is known as a good place to go swimming. Although it is still very cold, we decided to check it out.

After a short walk we found the top of the falls.

Then we walked down to the lower falls that opened up to a large blue hole.

It was only about 70 degrees outside and the water was very cold. I didn't brave the cold, but Dustin stripped down to his undies and dove in. It was crystal clear water.

The sign below was by the swimming hole. It has seen better days, but still made me laugh.

Hmm?

After his polar-bear dip!

 Once we had explored the falls we decided to follow an overgrown road. It followed the creek for a while then we came across an old bridge.

Up the ridge

Old Bridge

After carefully crossing the bridge we couldn't even tell where the road was. After taking ten steps and hitting ten spider webs we decided to turn around. Remember how I mentioned the spiders were big in Japan? We decided not to have them on us anymore!

The drive home took us through some small mountain villages. Here they have already planted the rice. By hand, each piece. The Japanese call this time hanataue or rice planting. There are festivals celebrating a traditional folk ritual of prayers to the Shinto rice god. We didn't attend any of the festivals this weekend, but seeing all the fields and knowing all the labor that goes into it was pretty amazing.

Mikawa Mu Valley

This weekend we were only going to have good weather for one day. Did I mention it rains a lot here in Iwakuni? I had heard of a beautiful area about an hour away that sounded like a lot of fun. So we went to Mikawa Mu Valley. A coworker recommended this place because it is themed like an Indiana Jones movie.

Entrance

 At the entrance was a small booth selling ice cream and snacks. On speakers we heard the Indiana Jones theme and "adventurous music." Off to one side was an area where you could mine for gold. We were very excited about the caves so we focused on that first.

We paid a small fee (about $10 a person) and got a scratch off card and compass.

As we made our way through the caves we would put our compass on a podium. If our directions matched up then this was a clue for us. You could have four different adventures. Our card was labelled WEST so we only did the clues that applied to our story.

Once we determined if it was our clue, we had to figure out the answer to the questions. Each time they were translated into English so we never had a problem. Once you picked an answer you scratched off that section of the card to reveal a new part of the story.

Metric!?!

A clue with a secret wall!

As we progressed though the caves we came across an underground lake, a huge cavern, a waterfall.

What a fun adventure! I won't tell you what the treasure was at the end of our story. It was the journey getting there that was all the fun!