her Father to see Minoo Taki (waterfall). ok, she drove and i sat in the backseat and took some video of the winding mountain roads looking for the wild... o-saru-san (monkeys). we were lucky to see a couple of monkeys along the trail to the waterfall. Noriko's Father enjoyed the beautiful green of the mountains and the powerful waterfall. walking back up the hill and then to the parking lot took awhile but we all made it. after that we drove further up the mountain to the Minoo Nature Center. it was their first visit and my second. i walked there from Noriko`s home last October. it was a nice afternoon for a walk to a waterfall and a drive in the mountains. and today was the big Kobe Matsuri (festival). i left around 930a to get to Kobe`s Sannomiya station. i wanted to be there early and to be there when the first note of jazz music was played on the Jazz Street. there were some wonderful groups including one which featured a shakuhachi (traditional wooden flute) player who also sang a favorite song of mine, "you'd be so good to come home to". incidentally, i first heard that song in a little cafe in Okinawa called Pianissimo. i was probably having some tea and cake, listening to jazz or classical music from their huge musical library (albums), and writing a postcards to my family and friends. and the year was...1985.
Noriko arrived around 130p and Akemi, Tsutomu, Daigo and Misa arrived around 230p. if i was in charge of this festival...more on that later. too much to see and hear in a limited amount of time. and the parade that started at 1pm wasn`t over until 5pm. more on that with photos also. the Matsushita`s left as soon as the parade was over while Noriko and i stayed in Kobe for dinner. Daigo was tired. Misa was tired. at least Daigo didn`t cry when we had to say goodbye. he did have a lot of fun riding on my shoulders. i wished i could have taught him to use my camera has he had a much better view of the Samba dancers from my shoulders.
Daigo
Misa
after walking back thru the huge shotengai (covered shopping street) and buying a few used cds at Mickey CD and DVD shop we made it back to Sannomiya Station. we took the local train back to Osaka as we were able to get seats. that makes sense if you have ridden a crowded express train in Japan and even more sense (to me) if you are tired from a long but fun day. we had to wait about 10 minutes at Minoo station for the bus home but again, it was worth waiting and not walking home. time for bed. my last weekend in Minoo is almost over...at least until the Arashiyama Music Festival in September.
