As promised, some more details and pictures from my trip in Japan:

After arriving at Narita airport, I took the train to Utsunomiya (宇都宮) where my friend Dai lives. We hadn’t seen each other for five years or so. The next day (May 29th) we took a road trip to Nasu (那須).

Nasu is a pretty mountainous area. We took a small hike to look at the azalias that are in bloom in Japan now. To get there we had to cross this suspension bridge. It swayed a lot while walking across. Scary.

We also went to a place called sesshouseki (殺生石), literally “killing rock”, so called because poisonous gases leach from the ground and kill any animals that get too close. Needless to say, that includes people, so you can only get so close before you reach a sign warning you not to get any closer. There is a lot of sulfur coming out of the ground, so the area smells like it’s filled with rotten eggs.

Geothermal activity has its good points, too. There are a lot of hot springs in the area. We stopped by one and soaked our feet for a while.

Now I’m at my friend Misato’s family’s house in Togane, Chiba prefecture. Here’s a picture of the room I’m staying in:

That’s all for now.