Thursday, Oct 31
“good hike… onsen… good conversations,
good ramen, cool mountains…waterfall……
this is life“
- great morning felt productive and errands
- off on a walk towards onsen village but who knows if we’ll even get there
- rest stop with my konbini sandwich and this huge dam
- ended up actually getting there and stopped for soft serve at a minshoku but ended up in a great japanese practice convo with the i assume son of the owner and helped him out with some english phrases he could use with his guests!
- got a good tip from him to see a waterfall
- relaxing onsen
- found out there’s a bus! went back towards town instead of wakling another 2h
- got great ramen, new flavor for me again, very tsukemen fish bones-like
- groceries and walk back
- great day, just really solid day and so ‘backpack’-esque, love these spontaneous free days that happen once in a while, very grateful and glad i could have this kind of day again today 🙂
banana yoghurt cereal milk + milk tea breakfast 
konbini curry chicken and egg sandwich that was really not bad 
matcha soft serve such matcha taste, kinda felt homemade was good, and great conversation with the guy working there!! wrote out english phrases (ex. ‘there is a beautiful waterfall nearby’) he could use, and we got good tips from him about the area! 
new flavor of ramen for me! very fish bones taste. also char siu v chinese style minus the sweetness, but just real marinated. so good. (me walking out of the ramen story emphatically opening my arms like “SO. GOOD!” and me and
mountains during our 2 ish hour walk to the onsen village 
vintage looking, abandoned? petrol station in the middle of the road, but bright colors! now looking at it, suddenly thinking of wes anderson vibes somehow 
mini hike back down after the top of the waterfall trail 
ok we got to the first checkpoint real quick like wow yes he was right this waterfall is really nice, the money people pay just to see fancy waterfalls in other touristy places like nikko but then after seeing that the trail keeps going… 
we got to the top part of the trails and were greeted with this incredible waterfall that just kept going up, the wind on our face from the power of the water rushing down, the plants moving back and forth like they were breathing (which they are but you know what i mean), kind of reminded me of a ghibli movie scene with the little cute moving plants… just so incredible, photo cannot capture how fresh and so much awe to find this around the corner, and hear the roar, and feel the wind created from how much water was rushing down…with no tourists at all! just a small trail on the side that a serendipitous stranger shared with us!
been really interested in flood management recently just seeing all these dams and landslide control in different places (ex. such as here, and in nikko…)
sign that said three big dams nearby, this one, and we saw a few others too! 
interesting texture and shape 
thinking, how big the flood must’ve been to wash down those dam/flood reinforcement concrete blocks in the middle 
and seeing the dips in the concrete cliffs cut in by the rushing water
the day just happened in chunks, with a vague plan to be productive in the morning, which i did, then the idea to head in the direction of the onsen village, which just led to so many other things bit by bit by bit… maybe a metaphor for life too lol. very grateful for this day, and glad i got the time and space to live in the present and explore the day moment by moment. 🙏
(and yes, it was halloween, i totally forgot until writing the date for this post lol)
chloe eats 
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