September 26th

Well, woke up a bit late after going out last night. Then about lunch time we decided to go somewhere to take Koo on a long walk. We ended up going to the Kamayama lakes, about an hours drive from our house. The first thing we did when we got there was rent two bikes, and sit by the lake and eat some lunch. As you can see from the photo, Mami looks pretty hungry !

The scenery was amazing. Lots of Peregrine Falcons flying around aswell.
We decided to cycle to a famous shrine that was built about 600 hundred years ago. The sign said it was 3 km away, but we didn't realise it was at the top of a mountain !! So after a while, Koo got tired and had to get a ride up to the top in the basket on the front of my bike !!
I was surprised - I thought that after a while, he would want to get out and run about. But he was enjoying being chauffeured around, and ended up staying in the basket nearly all the way to the top !
I found this dead snake in the middle of the road on the way up to the shrine.....I am no expert, but it looked to me like the snake bit itself and killed itself with its own venom ? If it did, it must of been a pretty daft snake !
We finally got to the shrine. It was decent - built into a massive rock, and seemed much more traditional than the shrines you see in Tokyo and other major cities. Also, I was impressed with the handcarvings on the entrance to the shrine (see pic on the left).
I think Koo is getting lazy ! He decided to take the easy option on the way down the mountain aswell !!
So, after that we dropped off the rental bikes and drove over to where Mami had found a waterfall on the map. We parked the car and walked through this tunnel that was really cold inside and had fresh water dripping down from above it.
I couldn't get a very good photo of the falls, but they were quite impressive.
So, me and Koo went down to investigate. Koo ended up jumping into the water, and being very surprised at how cold the fresh mountain water was !
This was the kind of scenery was were cycling around in all day. Its was great, and best of all we barely saw anyone, it was so quiet. I think we will come back to this area again sometime, but next time I will have Koo cycling and me sitting in the basket !!