Insane Kawazu day trip!
Yesterday I went to see the Kawazu cherry blossoms... in Kawazu! Which is about three and a half hours by train!!
^^;;; Up until now, the furthest day trip I'd taken by myself is probably Chichibu or Tsukuba - not counting the times driving somewhere with friends, in which case my trips to Niigata and Shimoda beach were further. Anyway, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone if you're not as crazy as me xD I was away for about 15 hours, 7 of which were spent on the train, and 7 were spent walking, and the remaining 1 was spent in an onsen... I didn't even really stop to sit down and eat, since there was a lot to see and I didn't want to waste any time. And the food sold at the sakura festival was the kind of stuff that you'd normally eat while standing or strolling around, anyway.
Why the heck did I do this? Probably because it was forecast to be rainy all weekend, but when on Friday I saw that Saturday wouldn't be nearly as bad as originally predicted (just cloudy, no rain), I really wanted to take advantage of it and go somewhere new... And considering that the sakura in Atami were already blooming two weeks ago, the Kawazu ones might be, too! So I looked it up, and they were, according to the festival website! I've already seen Kawazu Sakura on the Miura peninsula two years ago or so - a much more sensible option for a day trip out of Tokyo - but it would be really cool to go and see them in the place where they originally came from... and I'd also read something about there being gorgeous waterfalls in Kawazu if you walk further upstream... And I was looking for an opportunity to give my new camera a proper test run, too! And what would be a better place to do that than some super-photogenic spots? So let's go!
I got to see this pretty sunrise on the train just before 7AM! I'd left at 5AM, which meant that I started going down the Izu peninsula just at about 7AM. =D I miss the "sunset" and "sunrise" settings that my old camera had, though. It was hard to get nice colors.
Boats... Through the train window and a fence at a station we were stopped at... On auto-mode the camera would only focus on the fence, but I tried using the manual zoom to focus on the boats.
I went to Kawazu basically without looking anything up or printing any maps, because I figured that it's impossible to get lost when you're just walking up and down a river. And I was right! I hoped to find some hiking maps at the station perhaps, but I couldn't find any, except maps of the festival area only =(
So I just set off along the river and hoped for the best, with a general idea of "It's 8:30AM now, so I should probably turn back at about 1~2PM if I want to take a train home around 5 or 6" That's the convenient thing about walking routes where you walk back the same way as you came.
The festival starts at 8AM apparently, so even though I'd taken the very first train to get there from Tokyo, it was already quite crowded in the area closest to the station. The website for the event had said that because there are no tourist bus tours right now, it's the perfect time to enjoy the sakura without the crowds... But if this is "without the crowds" then I fear to think what it's usually like WITH crowds... ^^;;;
There were two monks hoping to get some donations from the crowd... They were definitely real ones though, because they were standing still and professionally chanting buddhist sutras in a soft tone of voice, rather than walking around harassing people for money like the fake ones in Ueno xD
Sakura... and a lemon tree?? =O
There were some rapeseed flowers too, the contrast between the pink and yellow was really pretty
You could go down to the river, too
*-*
Close-up... Too bad it was cloudy all day, so I couldn't get any pics of flowers in the sun. I like how you can see rain (or dew?) drops on these though.
Random oranges in the river?? I was starting to learn what the local specialty was, besides Sakura... All sorts of citrus fruits, apparently! They were everywhere!!
Most people seem to stay within the area about 1 km from the station, where all the festival stalls are concentrated too, so when I just kept on following the path upstream, there were fewer and fewer people, until there was nobody around anymore... But the trees just went on and on... =O
When I reached the quieter area I took this little video to test out the video recording capabilities of my new camera. It looks pretty good, I like how far you can zoom in while recording, and that the sound doesn't cut out (or pick up any clicking or other noise) while you're zooming =D
Tried the "super vivid" setting, too. That's... very vivid xD
The mode where you can choose to emphasize either red, blue or green tones is really neat too! It's a more natural kind of vivid
Little bird! I could tell that the zoom was a little better than my previous camera, too.
Zoooom... xD (I actually took this one from a path a few meters away
Nice and quiet area...
A different angle
The "toy camera" setting... I really like this effect =D'
Yay~ I did my hair like Rin from Yuru Camp, just because I was feeling like it xD
Then the riverside path came out onto a road, and there were no sakura anymore for a while, other than some random lone ones in people's gardens and fields. I couldn't find a way to get back to the river (maybe it was private property?) so I just followed the road for a bit. There weren't any sidewalks, so it wasn't all that comfortable to walk there D=
This tree was impressive =O
After a while I spotted a sign towards the "Sano River Hiking Trail", which wasn't in the correct direction for where I wanted to go (along the Kawazu River) but it said there was a waterfall there, so I had a quick peak before coming back up to the road.
It was so pretty down there, and the shapes of the volcanic rocks were fascinating =O
Then I continued walking along the road towards the Seven Waterfalls area...
...and a while later, spotted a sign for an "Odoriko hiking trail"... I didn't know what that was - and the sign was actually saying that part of the trail is closed for construction work and I was currently on the "detour" trail... But it seemed to be going in the right direction - towards "Old Amagi Tunnel" which a quick google maps search revealed was ahead beyond the waterfalls where I wanted to go, so if I followed those signs, I should end up in the right place. Great! =D No need to waste my phone battery by looking at google maps anymore xD
AND I got to see some interesting things along the way, since the trail deviated from the main road and went through some farms and rural villages closer to the river. =D
I felt like I was trespassing on someone's farm, but the signs definitely said that this was the trail...
Definitely a farm / orchard, though. I can't believe they don't have any precautions to prevent hikers from stealing those oranges, not even a fence or a sign. =O Though I suppose it's obvious that you shouldn't take them...
Even when I got off the farm and onto some narrow back roads, there were still orange trees along the road =O =O
It looks so round and juicy and yummy... This one was hanging so low by itself that I almost hit my head on it.
So photogenic...
This whole area reminded me of Natsume Yuujinchou >w<
Especially this...
And this...
It was a long walk, but I definitely didn't get bored!
To be continued... I still need to sort out my pictures of the waterfalls area because I took way too many... About 300 pictures in just one day! ^^; And my first set of batteries isn't even empty yet! I'm definitely happy with the performance of my new camera so far!
^^;;; Up until now, the furthest day trip I'd taken by myself is probably Chichibu or Tsukuba - not counting the times driving somewhere with friends, in which case my trips to Niigata and Shimoda beach were further. Anyway, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone if you're not as crazy as me xD I was away for about 15 hours, 7 of which were spent on the train, and 7 were spent walking, and the remaining 1 was spent in an onsen... I didn't even really stop to sit down and eat, since there was a lot to see and I didn't want to waste any time. And the food sold at the sakura festival was the kind of stuff that you'd normally eat while standing or strolling around, anyway.
Why the heck did I do this? Probably because it was forecast to be rainy all weekend, but when on Friday I saw that Saturday wouldn't be nearly as bad as originally predicted (just cloudy, no rain), I really wanted to take advantage of it and go somewhere new... And considering that the sakura in Atami were already blooming two weeks ago, the Kawazu ones might be, too! So I looked it up, and they were, according to the festival website! I've already seen Kawazu Sakura on the Miura peninsula two years ago or so - a much more sensible option for a day trip out of Tokyo - but it would be really cool to go and see them in the place where they originally came from... and I'd also read something about there being gorgeous waterfalls in Kawazu if you walk further upstream... And I was looking for an opportunity to give my new camera a proper test run, too! And what would be a better place to do that than some super-photogenic spots? So let's go!
I got to see this pretty sunrise on the train just before 7AM! I'd left at 5AM, which meant that I started going down the Izu peninsula just at about 7AM. =D I miss the "sunset" and "sunrise" settings that my old camera had, though. It was hard to get nice colors.
Boats... Through the train window and a fence at a station we were stopped at... On auto-mode the camera would only focus on the fence, but I tried using the manual zoom to focus on the boats.
I went to Kawazu basically without looking anything up or printing any maps, because I figured that it's impossible to get lost when you're just walking up and down a river. And I was right! I hoped to find some hiking maps at the station perhaps, but I couldn't find any, except maps of the festival area only =(
So I just set off along the river and hoped for the best, with a general idea of "It's 8:30AM now, so I should probably turn back at about 1~2PM if I want to take a train home around 5 or 6" That's the convenient thing about walking routes where you walk back the same way as you came.
The festival starts at 8AM apparently, so even though I'd taken the very first train to get there from Tokyo, it was already quite crowded in the area closest to the station. The website for the event had said that because there are no tourist bus tours right now, it's the perfect time to enjoy the sakura without the crowds... But if this is "without the crowds" then I fear to think what it's usually like WITH crowds... ^^;;;
There were two monks hoping to get some donations from the crowd... They were definitely real ones though, because they were standing still and professionally chanting buddhist sutras in a soft tone of voice, rather than walking around harassing people for money like the fake ones in Ueno xD
Sakura... and a lemon tree?? =O
There were some rapeseed flowers too, the contrast between the pink and yellow was really pretty
You could go down to the river, too
*-*
Close-up... Too bad it was cloudy all day, so I couldn't get any pics of flowers in the sun. I like how you can see rain (or dew?) drops on these though.
Random oranges in the river?? I was starting to learn what the local specialty was, besides Sakura... All sorts of citrus fruits, apparently! They were everywhere!!
Most people seem to stay within the area about 1 km from the station, where all the festival stalls are concentrated too, so when I just kept on following the path upstream, there were fewer and fewer people, until there was nobody around anymore... But the trees just went on and on... =O
Click to viewWhen I reached the quieter area I took this little video to test out the video recording capabilities of my new camera. It looks pretty good, I like how far you can zoom in while recording, and that the sound doesn't cut out (or pick up any clicking or other noise) while you're zooming =D
Tried the "super vivid" setting, too. That's... very vivid xD
The mode where you can choose to emphasize either red, blue or green tones is really neat too! It's a more natural kind of vivid
Little bird! I could tell that the zoom was a little better than my previous camera, too.
Zoooom... xD (I actually took this one from a path a few meters away
Nice and quiet area...
A different angle
The "toy camera" setting... I really like this effect =D'
Yay~ I did my hair like Rin from Yuru Camp, just because I was feeling like it xD
Then the riverside path came out onto a road, and there were no sakura anymore for a while, other than some random lone ones in people's gardens and fields. I couldn't find a way to get back to the river (maybe it was private property?) so I just followed the road for a bit. There weren't any sidewalks, so it wasn't all that comfortable to walk there D=
This tree was impressive =O
After a while I spotted a sign towards the "Sano River Hiking Trail", which wasn't in the correct direction for where I wanted to go (along the Kawazu River) but it said there was a waterfall there, so I had a quick peak before coming back up to the road.
It was so pretty down there, and the shapes of the volcanic rocks were fascinating =O
Then I continued walking along the road towards the Seven Waterfalls area...
...and a while later, spotted a sign for an "Odoriko hiking trail"... I didn't know what that was - and the sign was actually saying that part of the trail is closed for construction work and I was currently on the "detour" trail... But it seemed to be going in the right direction - towards "Old Amagi Tunnel" which a quick google maps search revealed was ahead beyond the waterfalls where I wanted to go, so if I followed those signs, I should end up in the right place. Great! =D No need to waste my phone battery by looking at google maps anymore xD
AND I got to see some interesting things along the way, since the trail deviated from the main road and went through some farms and rural villages closer to the river. =D
I felt like I was trespassing on someone's farm, but the signs definitely said that this was the trail...
Definitely a farm / orchard, though. I can't believe they don't have any precautions to prevent hikers from stealing those oranges, not even a fence or a sign. =O Though I suppose it's obvious that you shouldn't take them...
Even when I got off the farm and onto some narrow back roads, there were still orange trees along the road =O =O
It looks so round and juicy and yummy... This one was hanging so low by itself that I almost hit my head on it.
So photogenic...
This whole area reminded me of Natsume Yuujinchou >w<
Especially this...
And this...
It was a long walk, but I definitely didn't get bored!
To be continued... I still need to sort out my pictures of the waterfalls area because I took way too many... About 300 pictures in just one day! ^^; And my first set of batteries isn't even empty yet! I'm definitely happy with the performance of my new camera so far!