A rainy day in the mountains

Apparently today's plan was to go hunting for fresh bamboo shots in the mountains with the chigiri-e group. Unfortunately I had forgotten the plan, so the rest of the gang had patiently waited for me, for over an hour before they finally decided to call me...Embarrassed? Me? I bowed and gomenasaied like I had never done before!
Anyways, - off we went. First stop was at a stream to stock up on fresh drinking water. The white paper decoration on the robe is because the stream is near a shinto shrine. Usually the decorated robe indicates that the place is sacred, or it indicates the presence of the 'kami' or spirit of the place. That kind of paper decoration is said to be the earliest type of paperfolding in Japan.
The surroundings of Koriyama are beautiful, with mountains and rice fields everywhere. This is 'Sakura yama', which means the cherry tree blossom mountain:

The yet unplanted, but already water-filled ricefields offered great reflexions of the mountains.
Unfortunately the fields were not the only place filled with water and before we reached the mountain top, the rain had started to pour down making it impossible to continue on with our original plan. Instead we took a closer look at the local wind mill park (the mills are German though and not Danish hrmpf), and we stopped at a private house for lunch (which did include bamboo and the largest onigiri I have ever had).

Them we returned back to Koriyama with a few stops on the way, first one being this flower field :


Then we did a small hike,

had another sip of fresh water, with a neat drinking cup made of a leave,









and ended the day at the public footbath, with natural steaming hot spring water. Nothing can beat the feeling of soothing hot water after a hike.