Monday, November 29, 2010

On my honor... stand

Honor stands abound this time of year! The ones I see the most often are selling mikans. I don't know what this one is selling. Manure maybe?

This stand was in the middle of a vast expanse of farmland. This stand had celery, eggplant, and some kind beans. If I wasn't in the middle of my run, I would have bought some celery. Only 100-yen!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Kinkai Rusty Water Campground

This park area has a gorgeous view! There is a campground, a small pond and some walking trails. I don't know how one goes about making reservations to camp here, but it is very pretty.
We walked around the pond here. I would guess it it's about a 1/2 mile long path.
View of the path.
This park is close to the Nagasaki Prefectural Forest Park, but we only stumbled upon it taking the wrong road. It's on the same mountain.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Prefectural Forest Park Athletic Course

As far as Athletic Courses go, this one is nice! Some courses have point systems, but this one doesn't.
The course includes 15 different obstacles that were a bit too cold to try this week. Those metal bars are cold! We did try most of them though.
Above are the monkey bars.
There are a lot of hills in between obstacles.

Climbing ropes followed by a climbing wall.

This athletic course is located in the Nagasaki Prefectural Forest. We found it by driving toward Nagasaki, past Bio Park and then following signs in English to the Prefectural Forest.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Choju Waterfall in Saga

Behold! The Choju Waterfall in Saga. I wonder if this waterfall is sacred because it's not much of a waterfall... at least not this time of year.

There is a shrine at the bottom of the waterfall.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

A couple of waterfalls in Saga

Still on the hunt for parks, we stumbled upon these two waterfalls. These two pictures were taken in the Obuchi Park.
The two photos below are from the Kannon Waterfall... I think. I followed the signs and the walkway for the Kannon Waterfall, but it was little more than water rushing over the rocks.
The waterfalls aren't much to see, but the drive along 349 this time of year is beautiful!
This resort in Saga caught my eye because I had never seen anything like this. The water slide goes outside the building before dumping into the pool back inside.

Monday, November 22, 2010

One big spiral slide!

We have been having very mild weather recently. This has prolonged park hunting season for us!
There is a cable car that you can take for 100-yen round trip. If you are over the age of 65, the ride is free.
The well manicured bottom of the spiral slide. It's prettier than my pictures shows.
I think you are supposed to wait until an attendant is up at the top before you go down the slide. When we got to the bottom there were several workers waving their hands at us. The start of the slide is really high up there!
The slide entrance is halfway across this bridge.
Top of the slide.
Another part of the playground.
You can see two grass slides in the photo above. I only saw the smaller top one being used. It's the only one that looked like it was being used too. They have slides available to use.
That's the smaller grass slide.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Fresh fruit in a vending machine.

I keep hearing that they want to start putting veggies and fruit in vending machines in American junior high schools. They're way ahead of the trend here in Japan.
For just 100 to 200-yen you can buy a bag of fresh mikans. We had already bought some from a farmer's market up the road when we came across this machine, so I can't vouch for the quality. They looked really good though. There was an honor stand up the road as well.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Our trip to Hokkaido... okay, not really.

It was actually just a trip into town to a store called Tamaya.
I don't know the frequency of these food extravaganzas, but this was our second. The first time we went to one featuring Kyushu foods. Until the 23rd of November, it's Hokkaido's time to shine.
It looks like an egg, but it's some kind of beef or pork filled ball. I didn't try it.
There were samples of almost everything. If you're hungry, head there!
More samples.
Something called Rusk. These were strawberry and chocolate Rusk. They were just little bread crisps with a taste of strawberry sugar on them. The ones in the photo above weren't very good. On the other side, by another company, there were caramel and chocolate. Those were really good!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

A park of dreams and romance

That slide in the picture above is fun, but it's a workout to walk the stairs to the top! It was cold when we went, but we were warm by the time we went down the slide.
Here's the view from the top in case you don't make it to Saga. Those red roofed buildings below the slide are another part of the park that include an obstacle course and a water park.
The rest of the playground part of this park were just so-so.


This park may, or may not, be called Dreams and Romance Hill Park. I can verify the Hill part!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Chicks, beetles, and bottle caps.

I've seen beetles at plenty of festivals, and I had heard of chicks being sold as well. This was my first time actually seeing them sold.
I saw a couple of kids walking around with little chicks in their hand. I hope they know how to take care of them.
Who knew those bottle caps could be made into a giant work of art.
Voila! That's an entire wall of only bottle caps! Pretty cool, ne?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Another Scarecrow Festival

These scarecrows were lined up in Saga.
There were many scarecrows representing a bunch of different nations...
...and the underworld.

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