Walking around Yorii and the foothills west of Tokyo
On a recent Saturday I became a bit claustrophic from all of the crowding and needed to get away. I took a train into the hills west of Tokyo to a small town called Yorii. It was wonderful to walk and enjoy nature without the constant clamor of big-city Tokyo.
Yorii is just a little ways up into the mountains of central Honshu, the main island. The train ride took me a little over an hour from Wako-shi where the RIKEN Institute is located.
There's something universal about little mountain towns. If it wasn't for the Kanji and Katakana lettering, I'd swear I was in Colorado.
Just at a little higher altitude, blossoms that had fallen from the trees in Tokyo were here in full bloom.
About 6 blocks from the train station we cross a bridge over a small river.
Obviously, this is not the rainy season. People were kayaking and fishing in the river. I walked down to the river and sat on a rock away from people and just listened to the water and the birds.
From the other side of the river looking back towards the train station I spotted some interesting flags. Meanwhile a stone guardian kept an eye on me.
I walked up into a more natural park that was called the "Yorii Sports Park". The only sport I saw was picnicking and viewing the old stone tablets.
The sports park was lined by red lanterns.
On the other side of the road was a small botanic garden with nameplates for specimens in Latin and Japanese.
On the way back down, I availed myself of one of the local vending machines. Yes, that is a street-corner beer machine.
I went looking for the flags I'd seen from the other side of the river and found them flying over someone's house on a quiet alley.
It was the day before election day in Japan and everywhere were vans with politicians making their spiel over loudspeakers.
This guy seemed rather lonely. But he put on a brave show, nonetheless.
I enjoyed my day in Yorii. It made me feel much more at home than I've felt in Tokyo, where the busy push of a fast paced city tends to wear me down.
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(c) Copyright 2003
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