Up to Obama - Beautiful Obama, Robby rooms, and some countryside

We had arrived in Obama and went straight to our hotel.  Yup, this is Obama-

They had asked if we wanted a free upgrade on our room.  Of course we said yes!  Instead of the big suite we had pictured in our heads, they gave us a room with THREE beds!  Interesting.....

 

Up to Obama - Abandoned vacation homes and Obama's water

The original plan was to find someplace nice to swim.  Easier said than done when most of them seem to be lined with concrete.  The road we were on brought us to a popular swimming area accompanied with touristy things.  Popular twenty years ago maybe. And, those touristy things are all abandoned now.  Probably because what little swimming one could do was relegated to this small pool-

Across the road was this eerie looking road with obvious abandoned houses up the hill so up I ran and left Yukino behind-

Up to Obama - A beautiful lunch

We didn't have a plan this weekend when we set out but luckily it turned into a wonderful two days of fun.  To start, we went to northern Osaka to do some driving and stop at the top of a mountain.  We didn't know that at the top was a little temple village however-

The hundreds of stairs were not a welcoming sight for Yukino and I but we had to get to the top.  Along the way was this super cute "restaurant" that we vowed to stop at on the way back down-

Driving in Hyogo and Kyoto - devil bugs and flower parks

For poops and giggles, Yukino and I headed up the western side of Hyogo just to look around.  Its a big prefecture and has a lot of fun roads and things to see. 

Even in the middle of nowhere there are tuning shops doing pretty cool work like wide body conversions (white MR2) and full blown race cars (pink S2000)-

I believe our camera was really struggling to take good photos at this point-

At the horse races

Horse racing is a ....big thing here?  I am not sure.  But, there are a handful of race tracks around and one is conveniently located close to Osaka.  Taking the train less than an hour brings you to an otherwise normal station.  Except, EVERYONE gets off at the stop. 

We brought along our super cooler for supplies and it proved to be a smart move.  I had to take a picture of it among all the old lady bag trolley thingies-

The arena from a distance-

Osaka Bike Polo and grilled chicken with friends

Soon after I had bought my fixie bike, I met a nice bike polo player on the way home who kindly informed me that there was an Osaka Polo club and that I was free to join them anytime.  They meet every Monday and Wednesday night either at Osaka Castle Park or another park, as well as Saturday during the day at the Castle park.  My first time was on a beautiful sunny Saturday.  And, since this was in the peak of summer, it was unbearably hot.  It was incredibly hot.  Everyone was constantly going to the vending machine to get something to replenish all the liquid they were loosing. 

Everyone was very nice and open to teaching me.  My bike isn't set up for polo as ideally as it could be but I tried my best.  And, was horrible.  I scored once which I was happy about but was slow as a dead badger out there. 

Teams are randomly drawn each round and players line up behind their goal for the start-

Someone on the sideline counts down and players sprint for the ball in the middle and the game is on!

Getting deeper into Japanese car culture - Evo club

Car forums don't seem too popular here so Minkara provides what is lacking in that department.  It's a kind of social network for car guys/girls and has pages for car clubs as well.  I have always seen pictures of car club meetings in Japan and I finally got the chance to join one.  The plan was to meet at convenience store and then head out into the mountains for some nice hotspring action.  Nothing like sitting naked with other car guys right?

The weather wasn't great and the club members were a little odd but I went with the flow and did the drive out to the onsen.  It was a slow drive since we had to keep everyone together but soon we arrived at a ridiculously large hot spring place.  Hot springs here are either really cute and small or gigantic places for families.  This was the latter. 

You can see my car second from the left next to the most badass EVO I have ever seen.  Full  blown race car. 

Meet Aki, my son

I am skipping ahead here with the timeline of the photos but I think that's okay.

Here is a cute picture of our new baby, Aki-

Akame 48 Watefalls - More watefalls and salamanders

Continuing from my last post we have a different view of the last waterfall-

The trail was quite precarious at point and had little treasures like this waiting for you here and there-

Akame 48 Waterfalls - Giant Salamanders, Ninjas, and....waterfalls

On a cool and cloudy Satuday, Yukino and I drove out to Mie Prefecture to see the Akame-shujuhachi-taki, or Akame 48 Waterfalls. 

Along the way, I thought this view was nice and went in closer to check it out-

I believe it was a tea house or restaurant of some sort.  I would have stopped in for some macha but really wanted to keep driving.

Camping in Wakayama - Day 2 - Beautiful driving, avalanches, and a coffee grave

Waking up in the morning wasn't fun but getting on the road was.  Food options in that area were....non existent but I think we managed to get some sort of food somewhere near where the following picture was taken.