Back to Nakano:
This is the church building there, on a hill overlooking the city. The auditorium is on the second floor and there is a one bedroom apartment on the first floor. We slept on futon in the auditorium. The church apartment was Mom & Art's home-base for this trip.
They got their produce at this fresh-food market.
There is a lot of produce grown in Nakano (orchards, gardens and rice fields) and it was reasonably priced. (One yen was about one US cent.)
Japanese towns have farmland in and around them. This is because all land in Japan is incorporated into some village or city. In addition their land use is very mixed because of their (good) land zoning system. This commercial field of rice might have been in town and had a house on either side.
The Nakano peaches were astounding - large and delicious. On the tree they are individually wrapped for protection from bugs and birds.
The farmers had devices that randomly made noisy explosions in the orchards to scare birds away. (They run off propane.) At first I did not even notice the sounds. There happens to be an outdoor gun range within earshot of my house so my brain just interpreted the noises as the ordinary sounds of home.
Grapes are also carefully cultivated. The white thing is a rain shield. In this case there is a net over the vineyard, so the grapes were not additionally wrapped in paper.
We went to a museum in nearby Suzaka that had been the large home of a successful (ancient) Sake (Japanese rice wine) maker. The traditional gardens were beautiful. They also had interesting displays of historic clothing and childrens' toys.
Water bubbled out of the center of this beautiful under-stated fountain.
Then in the evening after an English class at the Susaka church, the pastor and his family had us over for dinner.
Another day, our friend LilyBeth took us to the nearby town of Obuse. It had a street of shops with Japanese-culture gift shops. This one featured hand-made paper items.
There was a camel bench by the front door of a shop.
Out by the street was this distinctive rhinoceros beetle sculpture. (The real, live beetles are big, but only about 2 inches long.)
We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant there. Again the food was excellent. Even though we ate out extensively in Japan, the Japanese food was consistently balanced and healthy.
That afternoon was another English class in a local public building. The view out of the classroom. Notice the ski slopes that were used during the 1998 Winter Olympics. The trees at the base are more orchards.
A typhoon (hurricane) was expected to hit Japan that evening; it ended up going a different direction. However, loudspeakers around the community were being used to make announcements, warning about expected high rain and wind.
That evening we went to the Takanami's for dinner. We had met their daughter Mai last year when she visited North America and stayed with Marilyn.
Mr Takanami loves fishing. He showed us his fishing equipment. The pole is handmade bamboo and is the very best.
