Back in... November, we took a trip to some local caves. I've been meaning to blog about it, but you know how that goes.
Let's start with some maps. I know it's hard to understand where we are in Japan and where the places we're visiting are. Most of the time it's hard for me, and I live here. Anyways. Misawa is A. The Ryusendo (Rye - ooo - send - oh) caves are located in Kuji (Koo - gee) I'm pretty sure. It was roughly a three hour drive, which was a little long for a day trip.
Onto the caves! I've never been in a cave before. I didn't really know what to expect, besides darkness and bats.
This cave had very narrow walkways. It was wet, obviously, and we got all sorts of little drips on us as we walked. Jeff kept mumbling about how difficult it was for him to maneuver the weird angles. I'm fairly short, so most of the overhangs and twists didn't make me contort like he did.
One spiral staircase had it in for Jeff. He had to basically bend over backwards and maneuver the wet and sometimes slippery steps. This was about the point he started telling me "You just had to pick the caves tour..."
Most of my pictures are blurry or hard to see, since it's so dark in the caves. I saw maybe one or two bats while we were walking, but Jeff counted twenty-something. It could be because I was so worried about slipping and falling. I'm clumsy. There were tons of stairs and water, which could be pretty dangerous for someone like me.
I made it through without slipping! I felt that was a pretty successful cave tour. I was kind of disappointed by the caves though. I didn't know what to expect, but the tour only took about twenty minutes. A three hour drive for a twenty minute walk? Bummer.
There was a pretty path outside the caves. We walked it after the caves and I think both of us enjoyed this walk better. I'm still mesmerized by how gorgeous northern Japan is, even in November when the leaves are falling and everything is preparing for snow.
It was a chilly, overcast day, but it was still gorgeous.
At one point, the path even had Jeff quoting Indiana Jones...
"Bridge very sturdy, Dr. Jones. No worries!"
We really enjoyed the walk. We made it to the end of the path and it started sprinkling. We hurried back towards the caves where there were some restaurants. We got out of the cold rain and got some warm food.
It was a small Japanese restaurant, so the menu was pretty limited. We both figured noodles were a safe bet. This was buckwheat noodles with wild vegetables. It was pretty good! I've never had buckwheat noodles before. I prefer ramen over buckwheat, but they were filling and it warmed us both up after getting drenched in rain.
Next up on the tour was an Amber museum. It was an additional hour to get to the amber museum. At this point, it was about 12pm and we were honestly ready to be done. The caves were underwhelming, and the long drive back to base was unappealing. But we forged on after we bought some much needed caffeine.
The amber museum was small. We started by sanding and smoothing our own small amber pieces for necklaces. Jeff and I are both perfectionists, so of course we very carefully smoothed and compared our pieces. (We have them just hanging on a doorknob at the moment, but they may become gifts for our nephews at some point soon).
The exhibits were interesting. The amber chess set above had Jeff falling in love. Some of the signs had English translations, so we were able to decipher what it was we were looking at. There was a myth inside this amber "sun" that people believed there used to be two suns. One shattered and fell to Earth, leaving pieces of the sun, amber, all over the world.
This was a meditation room. Apparently some people believe amber has healing and calming powers. The amber rocks on the floor felt wonderful. The color was pretty too, but I'm not sure it would calm or heal me if needed.
There was an amber mine we could go tour if we wanted to. We did, so we wandered up that way. It was about 3pm at this point. I went to walk into the mine, and freaked out! There was a BAT flying directly at me!! Agh. I jumped back and made Jeff laugh hysterically. Turns out we hit their feeding time, so the bats were repeatedly flying out into the entryway to get bugs, then flying back into their caves. Over and over again. I was grossed out and fascinated at the same time. I took a video because it was something I'd never seen before.
All in all, it was an interesting trip. We both enjoyed seeing the places. But the length of the drive and the anti-climatic caves made us both mildly disappointed. We agreed that while it was fun, we wouldn't pay for that tour again. Next time, we'll try a different tour. But regardless, it was fun to see something new!
Maybe next time, I'll post more promptly about our adventures too ;)
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