Iwayado Park

This park is a great place for viewing the fall foliage.  This map shows the places to view.  We went too early for that, but it was still a beautiful place.  

 

On a couple of different hikes I have seen these huge leaves.  I couldn't figure out where they were coming from, but this hike we found the trees way on the top of the canopy above us.  

There were lots of very old stairs and moss in the park. 

I thought the orange moss was interesting.

Even the danger signs in Japan are sometimes cutesy.

There were some chains to hold onto as well as ropes in another place.  I really like how Japan puts people's safety as a high priority, even on something like a hike.  

This was a damn.

Love the twisted trunk!

Another structure overrun by nature.

Some of the leaves were just starting to turn.

Love this old mossy bridge!

Tanuki.  These can be seen all over Japan.  

A poster showing the night illumination that during the fall leaves viewing time.

It was another successful hike! This would be a good place to take the family back to view the fall foliage.  

Gifu Castle Hike

 I went with the parent hiking group on another outing.  There was "the easy way" or "the hard way." The hard way required gloves to hold onto rocks, (which I didn't have), plus I wouldn't have wanted to bring my camera then, it might have bumped into some rocks.  

Here is the castle at the top of the mountain/hill.  We had to hike all the way up there! 

Apparently there are wild boar in the area?!

It was a very rocky place.

Mushrooms on the end of a log.

There were lots of roots that we hiked through.  

Spider webs! It's an apartment house!

Some of the path had stepping stones.  

It was a very misty and rainy day.  

This is a quote by Galileo.

It started to clear up! It was a great view!

The climb was pretty hard, possibly because of the rain.  It actually started to rain while we were on our way up, so we had to be careful on the rocks.  The path most of us took is called "meditation path." I don't think anyone who went that way would agree!

Inside the castle.

This is a saddle with mother of pearl inlay.  How would you like to use this?

A miniature of the castle.  As we hiked, we imagined what it might have been to be a soldier hiking up. Who was the first person who decided to put something up there.?! I guess it means it would be more secure.  

The ceiling.  

The view from the top was fantastic!

I loved the mist rising over the mountains!

These are crocheted!

This pagoda was at the bottom in the park.

Since it was so wet, we decided to take the gondola down! It had a great view as well!

We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch that had a robot cat delivering the food! 

I am loving have a people to go exploring with!