Amazing Waterfall, Amazing Adventure

          This past weekend we went on a last minute adventure with our best JET ALT neighbor. We went down into Kuma-gun for a fabulous barbecue, I haven't had such good red meat in a reallllly long time. We had to drive about an hour and a half to get to our destination but it was well worth it. It is always nice to make new friends and it is especially nice to have a plethora of English speaking gaijin around.  We stayed the night with another kumajet's house. Her name was Margo and she was so nice, and her house was so amazing and had so many personal touches of home. It definitely inspired me to put a bunch of pictures around our apartment (that blog entry is soon to come). The next morning we woke up and went to the most amazing waterfall I have ever seen in my life. In the front seat you can see Colin driving with a couch surfer named Sam. It was nice to meet him in the midst of his adventures, and such a cool dude. We drove through a lot of wilderness to get to this waterfall, and honestly some roads didn't even look like roads! I picture a lot of scenes from Spirited Away when we drive around in the rural areas. 

 Once we made it to the trail to the waterfall, people made their pitstops in the unisex bathroom and on we went! You can see all of us trekking down as cute husband Rob takes photos. The path was very slippery in some places and looked very worn away, I do not understand why they don't upkeep that area, and moreso why it wasn't packed with people!

          This is the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen in my life. The water was amazingly clear and needless to say freezing cold. We went swimming and some who were daring scaled up a few feet next to the waterfall to jump in. The current was very strong for me, so I passed on that one until next time. 

          Afterwards, we went to a small onsen close by. I love going to onsen. So much. Words cannot express how awesome it is. So I won't even try. ^.^ In the lower picture you can see ALT Karen and CS Sam having fun in the parking lot. The onsen owners were sooooo shocked their were so many foreigners together that he took our picture. We're famous!

          To finish off a lovely weekend we caught more scenic pictures of the mountain filled landscapes and rice fields. So perfect Japan, so perfect.

-Jessica