Oze National Park/Back in America

I've arrived back in the States safely and in one piece. Upon my arrival at O'hare I was once again shocked at how crazy US airports are compared to the tranquility of their Japanese counterparts, and at how FAT Americans are. It's pretty crazy when the skinny people stick out far more than the morbidly obese. I think I've also become spoiled by Japanese service as it seems where ever I go it's apparently a major hassle for the employee to stop conversing with their coworkers to actually help the customer, and their displeasure is clear by the carelessness with which they do their job, be it making me a sandwich or pouring me a coffee. I ordered a club sandwich at the airport and when the lady cut the sandwich a piece of bacon fell out. She just put on top of the bread and wrapped it up. Thanks. Then I ordered a coffee from Dunkin' Donuts, cream no sugar, and since the lady was too busy gabbing the first thing she did was throw a couple heaping spoonfuls of sugar in the cup. Thanks again. Great to be back! This country isn't going to hell or anything.

I fought of the urge to pass out before it was dark last night, and though I nodded off a few times during the Red Sox game last night, in the end I managed to stay awake until the game ended in the 12th inning. Thankfully the newly Manny-less sox were able to pull it out, despite burning through most of their bullpen.

The day before I left Japan, Chieko's parents granted us a day off from the watermelon fields and took us to Oze National Park. This park is quite vast and spans across several prefectures, and it was my first time to visit. The park is most famous for it's expansive wetlands, the largest in Japan if I'm not mistaken. Adding to the beauty is that these lie quite high up in the mountains.

To get to the park proper, you have to drive up some impressively narrow, winding, steep roads. Eventually you get to a visitor's center, from which you take a bus even higher up into the mountains, on equally narrow, winding, steep roads. Eventually you get to another visitor's center, from which you hike about an hour through the woods, which then open up into the wetlands and meadows. Throughout the whole park, trails are covered with wooden walkways and stairs. There must be nearly 100 miles of covered trails. I feel for whoever was tasked with building them, but they do keep the trails and wetlands from being to trampled, and keep people from straying into the sensitive ecosystem.

You would need days to cover a good chunk of the place, and we saw several huts and lots of people carrying around camping gear, but we only had a few hours to meander around. We took a different road back to the farm which was, to be succinct, insane. I'd like to drive it again some day and take more pictures, but we were a bit pressed for time and I couldn't stop the car every 500 feet to take pictures. Maybe next time.

Here are a few shots from inside the park though:






I'm enjoying being back home. It's about 20 degrees cooler here than it was in Kanazawa, and the ever present sea breeze only helps. I'm looking forward to hooking up with friends and family, hitting the beach, and of course our wedding bash next Saturday, after which Chieko and my extremely drawn out marriage process will officially be concluded.

Despite my lack of computer and previous prediction of no blog posting during this trip, it seems that I'll be able to keep this thing updated fairly regularly, as long as I have something worthwhile. Enjoy the weekend.