Trips

Tues., 10/25 - Gokayama

Today another nice bus took us to the district/prefecture of Gokayama in the Japanese Alps. The one hour trip took more than 1 1/2 hours because of traffic behind another bad accident, a truck roll-over at an intersection. The bus finally arrived at the little village of Ainokuro Gassho. The old houses have steep thatched roofs. The village was quite isolated in old times and in winter 10 feet of snow are possible. We climbed to a view point and had a little time to look at the dozen houses. One little garden had taro “potatoes,” big white radishes, bok choy, and buckwheat.

Do you think this truck carries fish?	Rainbow over the fields
This truck has a problem	Village of Ainokuro Gassho
Village map
Pampas grass	Village of Ainokuro Gassho
Village of Ainokuro Gassho- steep, thatched roofs	Village of Ainokuro Gassho - steep, thatched roofs
	Village of Ainokuro Gassho - looks like lots of greenery growing on this roof
At the next village, Toyama, we visited the Taira Mountain School and learned to make Mochi rice cakes. Mochi is made from a short-grain glutinous type of rice - it is stiffer than sticky rice. Group members took turns pounding the rice into a glutinous paste after which the local ladies squeezed it into bite-sized balls and coated some with soy sauce and others with brown sugar and soy powder. It was gummy to eat and hard to swallow. Not a favorite.	Logging operation
Taira Mountain School	Place for experimentation?
Pounding the rice	Pounding the rice
Making the rice cakes or balls - Mochi	Coating the rice cakes or balls with soy sauce or brown sugar
Finished Mochi	Pretty countryside
Rock slide mitigation - method 1	Rock slide mitigation - method 2
Next we went to another area to experience making Washi paper, a fibrous paper made from mulberry bark. It is a 600-year-old process and has at least 15 laborious steps. We got to make paper cards by dipping a screen into the vat of liquid fibers, attaching cut out designs to it and letting it dry. The workmen dried them and finished the cards for us. It was interesting and fun.	Decorative entrance to the paper making building'
	Decorations to put into the paper
Dipping the screen into the liquid fibers	Rotating the frame to dip again
Placing the decorations onto the cards	Putting liquid on top of the decorations
Drying the products	Finishing step
Some time was spent in the shop looking at the beautiful products made from Washi paper. The shop also had paper supplies for sale.	Wall hangings
	A selection of colorful papers
Japanese fans	Such small vehicles!
	Taira Bridge
Macaque monkey	Macaque monkey
Lunch at Yamajin restaurant where we ate Soba (buckwheat) noodles	Local style of music is called kokiriko
Percussion instrument called a sasara	Welcome arch in the shape of a sasara

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