Minoo Part Three

 
It is a nice hike from the village to the waterfall and back. Usually there are many monkeys begging for food, stealing food, and watching the people, but the weather must ahve discouraged them from the trail just as it apparently had the people.

Only at the return, did we see our first and only monkey at an abandoned access to the hotel that sits above the entrance on a high hill.

      

After sizing us up for donations, he apparently decided we weren't worth much effort and he ambled off.


Minoo is known especially for the bright red yellow and orange foliage around the waterfall area in autumn.

Minoo Part Two

Taking photographs in the canyon was tricky on this day because it was so dark.  I took a lot of photos, but had to throw away 5 out of  6 due to exposure related issues.  Most of the surviving photos used longer than usual exposure times, either making a little bit of blur for any motion in the frame, or making the photo lighter than the actual scene.

Here is one of Punkin taking a break just before leaving the falls, and heading back.   It was shot with a flash and unretouched.   You can see that the area behind and to the right is very dark.  That is more like what the real light was like in the canyon that day.

Near the falls there live a large number of monkeys.  They are agressive, and so the signs tell you not to feed them.   On our trip that day, however, there were none to be found near the falls.   There were no other people, either, so we were the only primates on the trail.

The trail features a few very small snack shops and one-room restaurants along the way.   None were open for us, though.

One last look at the falls as we descend the trail back to the village.

The young people took the right-hand trail, and the older pair took the left.

The trails joined later.   As you can see, the street-lights are on where there are any.  This one was at a restroom.

A long exposure gets some details.

At this little shrine, we noticed this interesting pair of tiny cars.   As Matt and I approached them to take a look, a woman came out of the shrine shop and as best as we could tell, sharply informed us in Japanese that they weren't open and to keep moving!  The body language and the arm waving didnt need as much translation.  It was one of the few times anyone was rude to us during our stay.   We briefly looked at the cars and left.    The path up to this point  will allow tiny cars more narrow than a golf cart such as these to go up and down.

The shrine was very beautiful, though.

Along the way, there was a butterfly museum.   It was closed.

A

Minoo part One

To the north of Osaka, at the last stop of the Hankyu rail line, up against and inside the hills is the village of Minoo.   Minoo guards the entrance to a deep, narrow,  long canyon of exceptional beauty, a canyon that concludes at Minoo Falls.

The walk to Minoo Falls was one of my favorite excursions when we lived in Japan, and I walked it several times both with folks who had come to visit with us, and solo.  It was always filled with waterfalls, beautiful flora, abundant birds and monkeys.

The pathway has several religious shrines along the way.

On this particular day, the whole place seemed much different than I had ever seen.   The sky was particularly dark with a light rain all day, giving the area a somewhat spooky, mystical appearance.  This is a deviation from the path, about halfway, that I never had the opportunity to pursue.   Perhaps next visit.

The crew stands at Minoo Falls.

Umeda at night

Osaka is one of the most densely  populated places in the world, and is the most densely populated city of Japan.   While somewhat smaller in population than Tokyo, it is MUCH smaller in land area.   Umeda is the Northernmost hub of two-hub Osaka.   The more Southern hub is Namba.

All around the Umeda area is an extremely extensive underground with shopping, restaurants, amusements and subways going in all different directions.   Looking somewhat South, in the distance you can see a building that sits above the former underground location of our favorite (and only)  Wendy's restaurant.

You may remember the location of the above photo from a previous post  >HERE<:  

Kyoto: by the Kamo River 2010 Japan Trip - continued....

 Kyoto is the old Imperial capitol, which moved to Edo (Tokyo) around the time of the end of the US War of Unwarranted Northern Aggression, during the elimination of the Shogunate and the re-assertion of the governmental authority of the Emperor.  We did a lot of walking that day, as we did most days on our trip.

A bridge over the Kamo River, looking East in mid-Kyoto at the end of the day.

A little Japanese bird isnt too afraid of us, only a couple of feet away half hidden in the rocks and the wild hostas.

Ah, a good chance to try out my polarizing filter.   The shot without the filter didn't show the fish for all the glare.

Shots from the other side of the Family

I was unable to get back into position before the camera fired its time delayed shot.  So, it got my better side.

She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy

And, it is.