My Father died earlier tonight.

My Mother called me earlier tonight to tell me he collapsed in the kitchen at 7.30 pm while he was getting a glass of milk. Initial speculation seems to be Diabetic shock which took its toll. Apparently he fainted and just never woke up again.....at least I hope that's the way it happened for him.

I will be going home soon. I have to go for my Father and, of course, my Mother needs me now. I will be absent for a while.

My Father was Istvan Laslo, born July 5th 1937 - died May 17th, 2007, Age 69.....just shy of his 70th.

He loved his family and he was obsessed with soccer. He died within minutes of watching some soccer on TV, so there is some consolation he was enjoying something he liked before the end.
May he Rest in Peace.

Golden Week, Part 2...Shikoku

Hi

This entry is the longest so far. So please set aside some time to read at your leisure. I tried cutting it down, but I deemed these comments worth reading. I hope you agree. I don't intend to write small novels each update, believe me.

....click on the pictures to view then in greater detail.

Having driven in my local area, the next step was to venture further out. Shikoku was the choice.

Shikoku is a large island just south of Okayama. It is like a little Tasmania, but this island has four states - or provinces (ken) - Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi and Ehime. It was our aim to drive around the island quick time in three days, enjoying the freedom our rental car had to offer.

I picked up a friend for the trip.
Richard (Richardo Sensei) comes from NSW. He came from Sydney to spend his JET tenure in a little beachside town called Yorishima. He says the only interesting thing to do there is drink, count horseshoe-crabs...and then drink some more.

Avoiding the horseshoe crabs, we made it to the highway. Our GPS system, which we dubbed Saiko, kept wanting us to turn down small streets instead of staying on the highway....this lasted all weekend.....we figured she must have been trying to take us to all her relatives Udon restaurants.
Resisting her charms we followed some road signs until Saiko finally played along, and we got to the Seto-Ohashi Bridge.

This bridge was MAGNIFICENT!!
It spans the divide over the Seto Inland Sea between Okayama and Shikoku. It took us about 20 minutes to cross the bridge by car and we took in some wonderful views of the sea and the islands. The toll at the other end, though, was 3500 Yen....about $37 Australian.

We did a quick drive through Takamatsu and made our way through Kagawa-ken to Tokushima-ken in quick time....stopping only for coffee and Udon noodles.
Soon we found our way to the mountains of the Iya Valley, which presented some fantastic postcard scenery.
As we progressed, the road narrowed quite often, until there was only one lane. It would widen often so that two cars could pass, but it meant that when cars came head on, one would have to reverse back to a wide area to allow the other to pass.

It made travelling slow and a bit scary when you considered the mountainous drop on one side.
Along the way we stopped at an onsen.

A cable car took us down the side of a steep mountain to a sheltered hot spring. We basked in its heat while we scanned the running river below our rocky perch, and struggled to keep our Udon down against the strong sulphur smell of the spring around us.

We soon got to our camping area in Kazurabashi.


It was crowded with tourists, but we made it through, and found to our delight a number of fellow Westerners from Okayama who had the same idea.

We set up tents by a river bank and got stuck into the camp fire building. Night came soon, and we had dinner around a raging fire, drinking beer and wine and toasting marshmellows.
...all the while listening to the river sounds echoing off the mountains around us.

The next morning Richard and I packed up and set out.

In the morning we ventured across a real vine bridge across a river, near a beautiful waterfall.

It was reinforced with steel cables, but the gaps between the poles in the floor were real enough. The bridge also swayed as you moved on it....not an ideal feature one looks for in a bridge. It certainly woke us up.
We recovered at another onsen.....a cable car on top of the Kazurabashi Hotel took us to its mountain peak where a lovely hot bath was laid out in a Japanese garden setting. We washed away the campfire smells in the hot springs, feeling like eagles in its nest perched high upon a cliff-face.

Then we set out....we made our way out of the mountains and found ourselves in Kochi City, capital of Kochi-ken. We checked out the local castle there. A small construction, but still set out with the usual series of steep steps leading to a lovely castle structure.

Then we went south along the coast and wended our way to Uwajima - famous for one thing.. ...It's sex temple and museum.
The temple itself was a shrine to which one can pray for sex-related requests. A tree nearby hosted numerous messages tied to its branches from needy persons.....there were a lot of requests. Outside the temple a huge wooden penis was on display, which certainly caught our attention. Also the various statues showed similar phallic references.
Only a few female related statues were around - seemed the main theme for requests revolved around the concept of large, strong, powerful...er...sex drives.
The museum itself forbade photo's. It consisted of three floors of sex related artifacts from around the world, including many old pictures from the Kama Sutra. Many were quite crude and at times quite comical.
It was certainly an eye opener.

From there, Richard and I headed home. By now were were tired of driving and ventured north again towards home. In Mastuyama, we stopped for lunch and across the road spied "The Love Machine" - a used car lot with the cheapest looking small cars. We couldn't help laughing at these so-called chick magnets. We contemplated showing the owner a few of our sex museum photo's to share our new found wisdom on the subject, but we thought it might be misinterpreted. Instead we indulged in yet another onsen...this one had a nice Japanese style building with Chinese rickshaws outside it. Very hot water inside I can tell you!!

Then we ventured north, and soon we were crossing over the magnificent bridges taking us home to Okayama.
We got home just as dusk came to Yorishima....the horseshoe crabs didn't seem to have missed us.

The next day I returned the car and sadly made my way home by train....but as I stared out the window, I was humming some road music to myself and thinking about beautiful mountain valleys, onsens, sex shrines......and Udon restaurants on every corner.

Golden Week, Part One

Hi

This week is referred to as Golden Week in Japan. Through a series of consecutive public holidays, a week off is created for most of us. For this week, I have rented a car. Having spent the last 8 months relying on public transport and my trusty granny bicycle, I can now venture off the beaten path and explore my local environs.

The car is a pale blue Mitsubishi Colt.....far from the WRC Subaru Imprezza I was hoping for. But if I squint my eyes and use my imagination?.....Still no. Oh Well.

At least it has GPS navigation.

On Monday, I spent the day exploring the Okayama Blue line. This is a scenic drive between Bizen (my city) and Okayama (the capital city), through some mountains and along the coast.
So I left my home and cruised the 40 km/hr speed limit out of town. This is understandable because the streets are so narrow, and the concept of a sidewalk doesn't exist here. The white line on the road edge just separates the road from the houses front gates. Pedestrians walk on the white line.

I cruised out onto this highway and made my first annoying discovery. The maximum speed limit on the highway is 50km/hr! And that is in most areas. Sometimes, the speed limit is reaches an almighty (sarcasm very strong here) 60km/hr!!




But I quickly saw a positive to this. It allowed me to take in the beautiful scenery around me while still cruising at a comfortable speed.

I stopped at a few lookouts and took some photos. I stopped at a huge bridge crossing over the Seto Inland Sea and took in the view of numerous oyster farms in the bay. I had lunch on top of a mountain, and then ventured down to the coastline, where I watched yachts cruise a huge bay.










A great day.

On Tuesday I ventured north of my little town. I went to Mimasaka, about 45km from here. I went to an ONSEN - a series of natural hot springs which the Japanese just adore.
Along the way, I was taken with the countryside and took some photos of beautiful hills and rivers along the way.










The onsen was discovered centuries ago by a wandering monk who followed some herons to the water spot where the springs originated. Statues of him dot the area.

The onsen itself is magnificent. It is set outdoors, with pergolas to protect from the rain and sun if desired. It maintains its rough rock-pool look with waterfalls, yet it has the modern comforts nearby for relaxation. The use of the onsen and a towel rental cost 800Yen....about $10 Australian.
Sadly, I couldn't take photo's in the place....I was in the men's area and everyone strutted around naked, holding small handtowels over their privates. I thought it best not to shame any of them with the sight of my large wide-angled piece (camera that is). But I scanned a brochure photo of the place for this Blog so you get at least one picture of it....sadly, the woman was not part of the onsen when I was there.

Funnily enough, despite the men's modesty with the small towels, no-one seemed to bat an eyelid when an old cleaning lady wandered into the change rooms and collected towels and swept the area. I had seen this before in public toilets (and felt uncomfortable about it, too), but here men were fully naked, drying off, with a clear view of all the others in the onsen through a window!! Very strange. She didn't seem to care..in fact she seemed quite bored. I guess she's seen it all before.

So after that, I relaxed in a massage chair, had lunch, and ventured off home. I listened to some English music on the way.....ACDC, The Angels, Midnight Oil, Men at Work, Cold Chisel, all to the view of Japanese mountains and rivers..... accompanied by the electronic Japanese vocalisations of my GPS telling me which way to turn at the next crossroads.

On Thursday, I venture south with a friend to the island of Shikoku. I will appraise you of its wonders after.
Till next time. See ya.