Move to the countryside, they said... It's peaceful, they said...
Nothing ever happens in the countryside? Well...
After the landslides last month, how about a wild car chase with multiple police cars and helicopters searching for a fugitive 81-year-old tax evader on the run with a hunting rifle? O_O; Apparently this happened... (This report says he was "In his 70s" but later reports said he was 81...)
On Thursday I was working when I noticed the noise of some helicopters above. There had already been a lot of helicopters all week, but those were military ones, so I figured they were doing some kind of exercise at the Atsugi or Gotemba bases. These ones however, kept circling above my area, and after a while I started hearing police sirens too... and more sirens... and shouting via loudspeakers, although I couldn't catch what they were saying. At least 10 police cars must've passed by, some of them right behind my house ^^;
Then I looked online to see if I could find any news, and found an article saying that there was potentially a gunman on the loose, and that they were currently chasing the fugitive by car, moving toward Hadano... ^^;;; Guess I wasn't going for my walk any time soon.
About 30 minutes later, just as I thought they seemed to have passed by (the noise was getting more distant), the news was updated with a note that they caught him, and it turned out he didn't actually have a rifle with him (they only assumed he might have because he had a hunting license apparently, but the gun never left his house, phew...)
So I went for my walk on my usual route, and just as I turned into the narrow forest road, a giant tow truck tried to pass me. I stepped off the road to let it pass, but I've never seen such a huge truck on this road - it's barely wide enough for a kei-car, so I figured it wouldn't be getting far... Maybe it was going to the landslide site to clean up?
It stopped in front of me where the road gets even narrower, and to my surprise it wasn't a forestry worker but a uniformed police officer who came out and started looking around. I asked him if there was anything going on and if it was okay for me to be walking here, but he said nothing was going on and please move on, but be careful of bears... Okay?
So I did, but a couple hundred meters there was another officer standing in the road and this one said that I couldn't go any further because... Didn't you see the news? That fugitive's car is actually stuck on the trail up ahead and needs to be towed... Apparently he had tried to escape by driving into this narrow forest road and got stuck, and then he got arrested. Some dozen meters ahead of the police officer, I could indeed see a car and a police car off the side of the road, leaning sideways. ^^;;; Good thing I didn't go for my walk an hour earlier, otherwise I might've been hit by that lunatic's car ^^;;;;
Since the road was closed, I went for a walk in the fields instead...
Rice is being harvested, but the supermarket shelves are still empty... And the rice that IS for sale, is 2 to 3 times the usual price. Maybe I should ask a farmer if I can buy some rice directly... ^^;
This hydrangea didn't get the memo that it's September
Then on Friday I went for a walk on the forest road again to see if it was open again, and in the place where the cars had been, a makeshift sign was placed that that stretch of road would be closed for a couple more days for construction work... Maybe that car getting stuck finally provided some incentive to fix the muddiest parts, haha.
And... I think I saw a bear!? O___O The police officer's comment about bears had struck me as odd because there haven't been any bear sightings on this side of the national route 246 in the three years I've lived here as far as I know, but on Friday I saw the big fluffy butt of a black animal disappear into the bushes a couple dozen meters ahead of me... It must've noticed me before I noticed it, so only saw its butt and I can't be entirely sure... but I don't think it was a deer at least? Maybe the "closure" of the trail due to the landslides has led to decreased traffic (not that there was much to begin with...) , causing the bears to get more bold and roam around?
The funny thing is that after all the action the previous day, I wasn't even shocked by the bear. I was just like "...Oh well, guess I turn back again... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "
I never see any people there on my walks aside from an occasional farmer, and never saw any animals besides deer sometimes, so this was probably the most action this road has seen in years, lol
At least there was a pretty sunset on Friday
After the landslides last month, how about a wild car chase with multiple police cars and helicopters searching for a fugitive 81-year-old tax evader on the run with a hunting rifle? O_O; Apparently this happened... (This report says he was "In his 70s" but later reports said he was 81...)
On Thursday I was working when I noticed the noise of some helicopters above. There had already been a lot of helicopters all week, but those were military ones, so I figured they were doing some kind of exercise at the Atsugi or Gotemba bases. These ones however, kept circling above my area, and after a while I started hearing police sirens too... and more sirens... and shouting via loudspeakers, although I couldn't catch what they were saying. At least 10 police cars must've passed by, some of them right behind my house ^^;
Then I looked online to see if I could find any news, and found an article saying that there was potentially a gunman on the loose, and that they were currently chasing the fugitive by car, moving toward Hadano... ^^;;; Guess I wasn't going for my walk any time soon.
About 30 minutes later, just as I thought they seemed to have passed by (the noise was getting more distant), the news was updated with a note that they caught him, and it turned out he didn't actually have a rifle with him (they only assumed he might have because he had a hunting license apparently, but the gun never left his house, phew...)
So I went for my walk on my usual route, and just as I turned into the narrow forest road, a giant tow truck tried to pass me. I stepped off the road to let it pass, but I've never seen such a huge truck on this road - it's barely wide enough for a kei-car, so I figured it wouldn't be getting far... Maybe it was going to the landslide site to clean up?
It stopped in front of me where the road gets even narrower, and to my surprise it wasn't a forestry worker but a uniformed police officer who came out and started looking around. I asked him if there was anything going on and if it was okay for me to be walking here, but he said nothing was going on and please move on, but be careful of bears... Okay?
So I did, but a couple hundred meters there was another officer standing in the road and this one said that I couldn't go any further because... Didn't you see the news? That fugitive's car is actually stuck on the trail up ahead and needs to be towed... Apparently he had tried to escape by driving into this narrow forest road and got stuck, and then he got arrested. Some dozen meters ahead of the police officer, I could indeed see a car and a police car off the side of the road, leaning sideways. ^^;;; Good thing I didn't go for my walk an hour earlier, otherwise I might've been hit by that lunatic's car ^^;;;;
Since the road was closed, I went for a walk in the fields instead...
Rice is being harvested, but the supermarket shelves are still empty... And the rice that IS for sale, is 2 to 3 times the usual price. Maybe I should ask a farmer if I can buy some rice directly... ^^;
This hydrangea didn't get the memo that it's September
Then on Friday I went for a walk on the forest road again to see if it was open again, and in the place where the cars had been, a makeshift sign was placed that that stretch of road would be closed for a couple more days for construction work... Maybe that car getting stuck finally provided some incentive to fix the muddiest parts, haha.
And... I think I saw a bear!? O___O The police officer's comment about bears had struck me as odd because there haven't been any bear sightings on this side of the national route 246 in the three years I've lived here as far as I know, but on Friday I saw the big fluffy butt of a black animal disappear into the bushes a couple dozen meters ahead of me... It must've noticed me before I noticed it, so only saw its butt and I can't be entirely sure... but I don't think it was a deer at least? Maybe the "closure" of the trail due to the landslides has led to decreased traffic (not that there was much to begin with...) , causing the bears to get more bold and roam around?
The funny thing is that after all the action the previous day, I wasn't even shocked by the bear. I was just like "...Oh well, guess I turn back again... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "
I never see any people there on my walks aside from an occasional farmer, and never saw any animals besides deer sometimes, so this was probably the most action this road has seen in years, lol
At least there was a pretty sunset on Friday