Epixx

Hello and welcome to another day of great Japan experiences.

Featuring today: The great mountains north of Tokyo.

So you saw the wake-up view. Well rest assured the day did live up to that expectation. I followed advice from the guesthouse owner to go to a shrine up in the mountains. About 600 meters higher in just 20 minutes...

 On my way to the top!

Beautiful views!!

I also came across a few animals!

a chimp!

a japanese goat or deer so I am told

and a peculiarly looking beetle 😀

On to some culture! Up the mountain was a beautiful and famous shrine with an 800 year old tree that is believed to possess great power. When I touched it I could feel it pulsing strongly (then again I am a treehugger..)

it's a shrine yo. 

After seeing the shrine and awesome tree I found an onsen and went naked.

That's right! Onsens are pretty much like wellness in Belgium, but they emphasize on hot baths rather then sauna.

There I met a nice guy, we started talking and ended up eating lunch together.

Hot sobasoup with mountain vegetables. Very tasty and unique to this region!
After a good talk he suggested to guide me around tomorrow in an authentique town on the way back to Tokyo. Perfect!!

Here are some final shots of a great day that ended in a typical dinner at the guesthouse.

japanese pancakes!!!

And top things - a romantefied version of an onsen for girls

Mhmmm... 😈

Back to ryukan

So the next morning I wake up late (which is rare for me in this country) and decide to followup on the advice the owner of the ryukan gave me the day before.

Turns out it is a 2h15m drive, with backpack on. But I'm feeling sharp! 

The first hour is just highways, very exhausting. But luckely the sun is bright, again no hypthermia, thank God!

The second part is amazing. Mountains everywhere.. I take a small pitstop after 1h30m driving to get some 'breakfast'.

In this country convenientstores have very tasty plastic wrapped food!

I got a cheese bacon sandwhich and omelet (yes plastic wrapped..)

When I drove on.. this:

It was a very sweet ride. As I got nearer to my location, my expectations kept rising. There was only one guesthouse/hotel in the area so this could go many ways...

So finally I arrive. I rode past it at first because it is hard to notice from the outside. I go inside, pay 3000¥ (like only 23€..) and get to see my room...

He explains to me that I am the only guest today so I get the best room!

And this is why it is the best room. This is the view from my window:

I was amazed by the beauty I ended up in...

Next I went back into town for food. In a small shop on the way to thesupermarket I met a nice lady who gave me some free food when I only bought one drink. She was so kind..

Back at the guesthouse the owners offered me some of this:

tasty squid with sojasauce

So we shared food and drinks and we had some good talks. They asked a lot about my profession and were enthousiastic about my working methods. They said Japan needed psychologists like me. I felt flattered!  😀

The next morning I woke up to this:

Thats the view from my bed.. 😃

Okay thats enough for today. More soon!!

turning sadness around!

This day was all wrong..

I looked up a hostel and another and another. Everytime when I got there it turned out I could not park my bike and had to wait real long for check-in.

So from 11 to 14 I wasted time looking for a place...
I guess not planning in advance will sometimes lead to this...
The I finally found an ok place. I parked my bike illegally because appaerently thats the only way to get rid of it (you can't even park in garages for cars....) and went for some food because check-in was not happening within the next hours.

I got a chickensteak, 'cause it sounded cool. Then I found a meeting app called Stout. The first girl that spoke to me was very direct. She asked for my facebook right away and then my skype.
Once we were on skype she wanted a videocall asap. Next thing she asked was "can i see your cock". At this point I feared a con, this was very strange...
So expecting her to leave I asked for something in return. She got fully naked right away....
This is where I realised something was not right. I twisted the conversation into -work hard, get some. And suddenly she gave up....

I'm glad I realised it was probably a con and didn't end up in blackmail situations....
Nice nakedness though 😅😉

Then when I finally got to my hostel I felt sad. Like a bit depressed.
Maybe because I missed Vicky, maybe just random sadness. It was annoying anyway...

So I asked for advice from people I met while being here.
Someone came up with the lumeous idea to search for Asahi dream. This is, according to her, a great seasonal beer.

So I started walking and find it in the very first store.... So much for a challenge...
Awesome beer though! I really enjoyed it.
I walked on and ended up in a traditional japanese restaurant. i made sure I had a conversation with every guest there 😆😆
It was great fun and they had awesome sake which came in a cup in a small crate.
They fill it up and let it overflow into the crate. you basicly get 2 shots 😁

Afterwards I went back to the hostel. I Had a talk with a fillipinean girl, a japanese girl and a belgian girl all trough chatting and voicing. It was very nice!
I felt like the whole experience was meaningful to me. As if I had made some steps towards a brighter future... Eventually I fell asleep.
My sad day turned into a glorious one. I was so happy...