gujo.

As aforementioned, on the weekend I went to Gujo! I went with a strange mix of Japanese, Chinese, American, French, and German people. Heading to Gujo was incredible; I was so stunned by the scenery we drove through. I know that this will reveal my absolute ignorance of Japan, but I had no idea that there were areas that beautiful here, I felt as though I were in the middle of New Zealand or maybe Europe somewhere. The whole car trip, every corner we turned I would exclaim “Oh my goodness! Its beautiful!” In any case, I feel as though the photos below do not do the beauty of Gujo justice, it was impossible for me to capture its vastness on film. I won’t write a lot about Saturday since the pictures explain most things anyway.

On Sunday morning we rose early to climb a mountain. It certainly made me realise that if I wish to climb Mount Fuji whist here I am going to have to do some more training, if I were to attempt it tomorrow I think I would suffer heart failure.

There is an excellent feeling to bagging a mountain (if you can call my leisurely wander up a hill that). Since there were so many trees, the view from the top was still a little obstructed, but the overwhelming impression was of tree-covered mountains. Everywhere.

We slipped and slid down to the bottom of the mountain where we had a lot of fun playing around near a stream until the first leech was spotted and we all decided it was a good time to run home.

The rest of the day was spent wandering in the town of Gujo. Henry was desperate to jump off the bridge, and whilst that would usually be right up my alley, I was feeling unusually sensible and gave it a pass so poor Henry was on his own.

On the way back we stopped at an onsen, which was my first time. Although I think I managed not to look like an absolute moron, I was still told by my friends I must have done it all wrong since I ended up feeling exhilarated rather than lethargic. After, I headed back to Gifu with the cool cats.

It was such a nice weekend, I feel so indebted to the people who organised all of it and were so kind to me. Without them I never would have had access to those areas or experiences. Thank you!