Men Retreat: Run away Run away!!

At our Presbyterian Church, there is an annual Men's Retreat.  Surprisingly, it does not have a whole lot of scratching, spitting,  and other socially unacceptable behavior associated with it.   But, it does have Guns!    A subset of the group meets at the local shooting range and propels small units of lead and brass through defenseless paper and plastic and then eventually into a large pile of dirt.
 

Somebody in the group looks like a gangsta.   Thankfully, he didn't rap for us.

I think he is about to show us how a blow-dart is used to take down a target.   Sometimes, as Freud says, "a cigar is just a cigar"

He has that "This is sweet!" look on his face.

 So, would John Calvin have preferred a laser-sighted pistol or a tricked-out AK-47?

After the gunplay, banging around other small projectiles is a favorite pasttime.

 When they saw I was going to take their picture, all the chips came off the table.   Was it because they didnt want word getting out about their high-stakes game?

 

One group of guys stood around the fire outside.  In the cold wind.   Enjoying their favorite available beverage.

 I did not take any pictures the next morning of all the activities, as I was busy exploring the hillside trails with the sons-in-law.

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.