Monday, October 13, 2003
We got back a short while ago from a little overnight trip down to Kushiro on the south coast, via Akan national park again...we saw plenty of CRAZY autumn colours, unbelievable really. I don't have time to put pictures on-line right now but will try and do it as soon as possible.
So, on Sunday we headed down through Akan like I said, stopping off at a couple of places on the way to see the leaves. Lots of traffic around (of course), with people stopping on blind curves, brows of hills etc. etc. in order to get pictures. We survived though, and continued down to Kushiro city, via the marshes (the biggest marshes in Japan I think). They looked like something from Australia, a vast yellow grassy plain with clumps of bushes and small trees, surrounded by tree covered ridges. There are lots of wooden pathways through the marshlands which you can walk on. Did a little walk, and then drove on through the city (took a while, got lost many times, but we made it in the end!) and out the other side to find a campsite. We found a good one next to a small lake, just as it got dark. After we pitched we went back into the city to find Uniqlo and do some shopping there, and then to KFC for food which we took back to camp.
This morning we brushed the spiders off the tent, dried it afte the inevitable night-time rain and set off back to the marshes to walk more of the trails. On the way we saw quite a lot of the famous Japanese cranes (tanchou) grazing like dinosaurs in the grassy meadows. Again, this inspired suicidal tendencies in people driving by, desperate for pictures. We also saw a couple of very tame foxes, which approached cars fearlessly (even if they were driving at 50kph), and in the woods, a chipmunk! After the marshes we drove back through Akan stopping at some different places for leaf viewing. one place was basically someone's back garden in which they had tried to create a traditional style garden with lots of red maples. Pretty nice despite being a little tacky.
Haven't written that much in a long while! As I said, look on our pics site soon for the goods...
So, on Sunday we headed down through Akan like I said, stopping off at a couple of places on the way to see the leaves. Lots of traffic around (of course), with people stopping on blind curves, brows of hills etc. etc. in order to get pictures. We survived though, and continued down to Kushiro city, via the marshes (the biggest marshes in Japan I think). They looked like something from Australia, a vast yellow grassy plain with clumps of bushes and small trees, surrounded by tree covered ridges. There are lots of wooden pathways through the marshlands which you can walk on. Did a little walk, and then drove on through the city (took a while, got lost many times, but we made it in the end!) and out the other side to find a campsite. We found a good one next to a small lake, just as it got dark. After we pitched we went back into the city to find Uniqlo and do some shopping there, and then to KFC for food which we took back to camp.
This morning we brushed the spiders off the tent, dried it afte the inevitable night-time rain and set off back to the marshes to walk more of the trails. On the way we saw quite a lot of the famous Japanese cranes (tanchou) grazing like dinosaurs in the grassy meadows. Again, this inspired suicidal tendencies in people driving by, desperate for pictures. We also saw a couple of very tame foxes, which approached cars fearlessly (even if they were driving at 50kph), and in the woods, a chipmunk! After the marshes we drove back through Akan stopping at some different places for leaf viewing. one place was basically someone's back garden in which they had tried to create a traditional style garden with lots of red maples. Pretty nice despite being a little tacky.
Haven't written that much in a long while! As I said, look on our pics site soon for the goods...
# posted by Phil T : 4:10 am
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