Micha & René in Japan

The destination on our first day in Osaka our destination were the were Minoo-Waterfalls in the north of Ōsaka.
But René and Claudi didn’t hand over their old apartment yet and didn’t finish packing their belongings. Claudis parents additionally brought two huge suitcases to take many of their collected items back to Germany. So in the morning we split and René and me took the suitcases and went to their apartment first to meet with the others lates. The apartment is also located in the north so that the detour wasn‘t too big and on this way is also the University where René did his semester abroad. So he showed me the enormous campus which is only one of three and still four times bigger than the one of ETH and his former big group office. Unfortunately he had already returned his key to the labs so that I couldn‘t see the most interesting part.
Further along the way was also small fruit vendor of which René seemed to know the clerks quite well judging by the easy chit chat. At this store the prices were surprisingly cheap compared to the supermarket and we bought some apples, bananas and what I thought a grapefruit. At this shop they also had Hokkaido melons which are extremely pricey and a small one already costs about 20€…
Then we went directly to the apartment, dumped the suitcases and too a bus to catch up with the other who directly went to the waterfall. Since we were hungry we also bought some small snacks at the supermarket including marinated sticks of liver, chicken joints and chicken skin - very delicious :D
The Minoo-waterfall is situated on top of a mountain and we were walking a beautiful way to get there which first leads through the Minoo-district which is very quiet with many many beautiful houses and gardens. Almost only families live there which is very untypical for Japan. Then we had to climb up a great path through the forest over many stairs again. At the beginning of the stairs was a small booth where we bought delicious maple leafs covered and fried in sweet dough. Unfortunately Japan has many Taifuns every year which destroy a lot of the beauty every year so that some of the winding paths were closed and we had to take a small detour.
We had to agreed to meet with the others at the waterfall. But a couple minutes before we reached the waterfall they came towards us because they got cold. So we agreed to meet at a café down the road and we started to explore the waterfall which was not as impressive as the path upwards. So went up a little higher and saw many more closed paths. When René called Claudi they went down further because the café was closed and we agreed to meet at their apartment.
Having more time, René an me decided to take another way down which seemed to be shorter. But shortly after we left the waterfall behind us we didn’t see any people anymore. But what we saw was a huge dam protecting the area of the waterfall and a cool forest with redwood kinda trees with fingerest needles :-)
At some point we got a little lost and not even a lonely jogger could help us which is why we had to take the street for a while. Back on the forest track we reached a point where the path forked rectangular to the left and right and my komoot root down the mountain went straight down the a rather steep valley. Of course being short in time I suggested going to the valley where no path was to be seen^^ And in the beginning we it was easy to walk and we covered good ground. But at some point the canyon got narrower and a small stream appeared and suddenly we saw the effects of the recent taifuns… Many fallen trees and some small grave slides made the way almost impassable… Almost! Climbing through tiny waterfalls and over and under many trees we made our way down the canyon. A little further down we even saw the remnant of the original path the must have been there before the Taifuns rages and some ropes attached to trees long fallen down^^
Even though we lost a lot of time we had lots of fun on this adventure and made it safely back to walkable roads :D We were even lucky enough to immediately catch a bus (including a short sprint^^) so that we were almost not too late. In the beginning I had chosen this path as a shortcut ^^
Back at the apartment Claudi and here parents already started to pack and René joined in. It took a little longer than expected to fit everything in the suitcases but they finished eventually and we started hauling the stuff back. By chance I grabbed René‘s suitcase which was loaded with books and felt like weighing a ton… On the way back I was even to slow at the metro entrance and needed help from the personnel^^
Back at Umeda station René even managed to sell part of the equip to a very weird Nepalese guy…
In the apartment we finished our sushi supplies and went to bed.Read more