Here we go, the lost pictures of the trip to Shiga Kogen via Akiyama-Go. Yep you got it right if you were thinking of the road trip that I had mentioned earlier with the staffs of my Elementary School to the secluded and forgotten "sacred" birthplace of my Principal.
Though I do not have a lot of indepth information regarding his birthplace, all I can conclude from the trip is that he's definitely one real lucky chap to be born in such a wonderful place. It's like almost living in exile, away from civilization and totally ignorant of modernization and technological advances.
Alrite here's the full story with the pictures...
Starting the trip early in the morning at 0730 hours, the teachers gathered and boarded a small cute chartered bus.
Sticking true to their strong Japanese roots, booze and snacks were the usual conversation necessities.
Arriving at a place which I have clearly forgotten the name, we had a little lithograph session. Being apt to art, I let my artistic instincts take over...but being totally ignorant and new to lithograph, my instincts failed me terribly when the picture I had drawn with a piece of crayon, turned out to be nothing more than a piece of distorted and messed up lines when being reproduced thru lithography. Lesson learned - never shade like an idiot if you want to produce nice pieces.
And so coming across this magnificient structure constructed completely outta weaving strips of a wood like material, encompassed by a circular building where we did our lithography, I knew I had to capture this on film so here it its.
Nope not to worry too much, I know it looks like a giant bird nest but Big Bird from Sesame Street is not in there. So leaving for lunch next, the trip was completely just booze which comprises of beer, Japanese wine and sake which the teachers constantly stock up time and again from the quick toilet stops. The journey was like almost an hour to the lunch destination which was on top of the mountain somewhere near Akiyama-Go. By the time I reached the top, I was already high on alcohol so I took these not so perfect pictures of the little noodle hut which was housed beside an open onsen. Yep that's all on the top of the mountain, right at the end of the road was the hut and the onsen.
The noodle hut.
The road that we came up.
The view in front of the noodle hut.
And here we have what's actually in the noodle hut. A little sand filled fire place that you see in Japan Hour to BBQ food.
The mass feast...of possibly the BEST cold soba I have eaten which justified the long alcohol induced trip up.
BBQ fish that taste medicore because they were not deboned...
And the most insane soba I have ever eaten. They were so good I almost had a cardiac arrest.
Upclose of the BBQed fishes.
And after the hearty lunch, I was cajoled to the onsen which was...*sigh* not a pleasant experience. Ok ok don't get me wrong but the onsen was great, nice ambience, fantastic view but with that much alcohol content in me and with that half "high" state, the little dip almost prove too fatal for me. The moment I step out of the onsen after a 15 minute dip, the alcohol in my blood shot straight to my head which gave me an instantaneous black out. I struggled to regain my footing, got dressed and hauled my stuffs while staggering out of the onsen barely alive. Try walking with 2 full bottle of Absolut downed in 2 minutes straight...yep that's what I was going through. Got thrashed pretty brutally so the lesson learned - Never go to an onsen with an alcohol induced state. Other than that, the overall experience was beyond words.
I did managed to capture all these pictures in my hopeless and almost dying moments. We were just metres below the musky clouds.
So struggling last to board the bus, I did shot some extra pictures of the parking lot.
Feeling much better in the coach, these fantastic untainted rivers were just too kind to my camera
And this is the sacred little birthplace of my Principal and the little white school by the river was where he used to study.
Moving further up the mountains, we trailed the narrow path along Akiyama-Go where the beautiful scenes of fall were presented from nature to me and from me to my dear Singaporeans. At times the path were so narrow, the rear tyres of the coach clipped the edges of the cliffs and I could see the debris falling down the 1200 metres ravine. Scary...
After moving above the clouds hovering at the top of the mountains, we rise above to be greeted by a lush blue sky and blazing sunshine which I still detest.
Here are some pictures taken at Shiga Kogen which was way above Akiyama-Go as the latter was just a ridge. Ski resorts were still not opened yet and the numerous other gorgeous ski resorts were sadly absent from my camera. The reason being I was simply too lazy and too wasted to snap anymore. And I can't afford to damage my little baby EOS camera in my drunken stupor.
And so the part where we literally decended from the clouds was again absent from my camera. If I had captured it, I am pretty sure that had to be the best shot I had taken till date. It was pure perfection fusing nature and beauty sprinked with art flakes but it will forever be etched in my head that is until technology can print my memory.
By the way did you not know that the pictures can be clicked for a larger view?
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