Country Roads, Take Me Home

I feel as though I have just returned from a week like vacation. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to travel up the Noto Peninsula, all the way up to a nice little town called Wajima. As you can see, it's famous for a few things. I certainly enjoyed seeing these things, but to me, the best part was the green.

As with most of Japan, mountains rise and fall gently and continuously throughout the Wajima country side. It's almost as if, in the same way the wind can create gentle, soft waves on the ocean, it worked its magic on the land. They key difference in Wajima that captured my heart was that where the mountains fall and the land becomes flat, it's still green. I can appreciate the city to some extent, the human engineering, the things to do and whatnot, but it becomes a drag sooner rather than later. This is especially true on the drab concrete roads that crazy drivers run wild on. A friend once told me that Kanazawa drivers are the craziest, and worst, drivers in Japan. I didn't believe him until I started driving.

Up in Noto, things are remarkably different. As with the U.S., different parts of Japan have a difference in culture. I was surprised at the stark difference between Wajima and Kanazawa although they are both in Ishikawa, Japan and only 150km apart. The people up north are much like Vermont people. Straightforward, talkative, honest and witty (and they also know how to drive like sane people!). I enjoyed meeting people up there and was sad when the time came to leave. The food, I might add, was wholesome, healthy and satisfying. One incident impressed me while we were at the grocery store in Wajima. I was looking at the drink section and there was a group of girls about 10 years old getting a drink. When they turned around I thought I would get the standard "What-the-heck-where-the-heck-are-you-from?!" stare. They turned around and nothing happened. It surprised me because we were in a small town with almost no foreigners.

Being from the country side though, I could spend endless hours just staring at a field of green grass (or in this case, rice). It's particularly hypnotic when, on hills that already appear to be rolling with the winds, are filled with tall stalks of rice plants with their tops swaying gently in the salt filled ocean breeze. Another part of the stunning beauty of this place was how the ocean suddenly ended and mountains began. Some places had rocky cliffs to them, other places just a typical mountain. We even found a waterfall that manages to flow upwards in the winter time...That I will have to go see for myself though.

All in all, it was a great day and I'm rather sad to be back in the city today. But, life must march on. Here are some pics I took with my cruddy cell phone cam. The beauty of this place has motivated me to try to get my paws on a new camera.

Note: The pics will come later. Blogger blows when it comes to uploading pics right now and I won't fight with it. Perhaps I should jump ship to a new service as I always have a bear of a time uploading pics here.