Nagiso to Nojiri

We were collected from our hostel this morning by our guide for the day, a lovely chap by the name of Tommy. We were taken to a local washi making artisan nearby where Ijima San (who spoke almost no English) successfully guided us through the art of making washi. Tommy was a helpful translator so between great gesticulation by Ijima San, Tommy and a lot of nodding and hai's, we had a fantastic few hours.

We were presented with the option of making a large sheet of thin washi or a smaller thicker postcard size. Being the practical types, we opted for the postcard size.

Step 1 was to design your bits and bobs to decorate in a dry run using dried leaves, coloured paper, string, seeds, and even little tiny origami love hearts. Our mould consisted of five postcards, so that required five separate creative bits of artistic inspiration. Not my strong suit really... After that you do one scoop of slushy washi mix, translate your design in reverse into the moulds, then two more washes. After that there is some wet/dry vacuum extraction, some rolling over a towel to extract more moisture, removing the frame, tamping down the edges to smooth the paper, and transferring it to a large heated frame with a fire behind it to dry.

Thinking we were at the end, Ijima San says that we then had to make five more! Which meant five more little creative inspirations etc etc.

At the end we had a bit of a tour around the sheds to understand the process right from the native timber. It is only able to be made about three months a year, and Ijima San is paid by the local council to do this to keep this traditional cultural art alive. Otherwise he has a restaurant making handcut soba noodles and also looks after the mountain rest stops and restroom facilities. What a guy! We will have our dried paper delivered to our hotel either tomorrow morning or the next day depending on how long it takes to dry.

Tommy then took us to a local soba noodles restaurant for lunch before we started at 8.4km walking through the Kakizore Gorge. The water was crystal clear, the pools and waterfalls were beautiful and the tinkling bear bell a constant sound. We did a round trip hike and ended back at our Onsen hotel for the night. This place looks like its heydays were in the 1970s but it is still quaint.

Lynette and I took our relationship to a whole new level with an onsen experience after working out the yukata, the "how to" of onsen etiquette, the anxiety of trying to make sure we get it right, weird slippers we have to take on and off all over the place, not putting your towel in the onsen water but rather keeping it on your head (mine fell off into the onsen water... eeek). We met the two Australian ladies from the team room a few days ago when we were in the change room. They had been outside with nervous energy so because we are now old hands we were able to ease them into taking their relationship to a whole new level too 🙂.

Dinner was a seven+ course visual feast. Beautiful sashimi salmon, squid, little dishes of beautiful looking creations. We had finished, and still hadn't eaten everything when the waiter brought out more food of miso, pickled veggies and a bowl of rice. I had just finished reading about how rude it is in Japan to leave uneaten rice because of the amount of effort to make it, but I couldn't eat another thing (except dessert which then followed), so the girls in room 205 must now have a black mark against their name.

Fantastic day all round. Just when we think our holiday can't get any better, it does!Read more