On Sunday I got a rare treat... road trip in Japan with a friend from work. Ema is the person who met me at the bullet train station, helped me find my apartment, and introduced me to Nagoya. In addition, she has the glamorous job of helping me open my bank account, filing for alien registration, and entering all of my expense reports for the next 12 months (since the system is in total Japanese).
Ema has a friend with a car, Kishi, and he willingly took us to nearby Yourou Park. It is 46 km from Nagoya, about an hour, and in the neighboring prefecture (state) of Gifu. (FYI - Nayoga is in Aichi prefecture.)
Everything is a cartoon in Japan!
Let's go! Kerri's ready for the 1.5km hike up the mountain with the beautiful fall colors!
Kerri & Ema
Quick stop at a rock with a Japanese poem carved in it. (Yuki - feel free to translate for all of us!!)
Since everyone knows I'm not really a climber, I was thankful they opted for the "chair lift" option about halfway up. My exact thoughts were "Now these are my kind of people"! No bars or safety measures (Japan is overpopulated anyway, right?!) so we just hop on and go!
Kerri riding the lift. Notice the drop is about 5 feet max. No exactly death-defying as I was expecting it to be!! But the view was awesome. You could see for miles. Reminded me a lot of the autumn views at Red River Gorge!
We're getting close to the big falls! And I'm still looking for modeling work... seriously someone give me a contract!
We have arrived. I'm standing next to "Yoro Falls". Legend has it that this waterfall can cure baldness, blindness, restores health, and ensures a long life.
My new Japanese friends: Kishi, Kerri, Ema, & Shinnoshi.
The Japanese will stop at nothing for a great photo. I was ordered to climb around the safety barrier in order to get this photo. I'm surprised they didn't ask me to wade in the stream.
Can you spot Kerri?! After my chair lift to the top, I felt like kind of a sellout because I saw old people with canes, women in high heels, people carrying infants, and oddly, a few strollers! Here I was young and able-bodied taking the easy way, with so many other people huffing it up the trail!
We stopped at the Yoro Shrine near the bottom where you toss a yen and make a wish for good relationships!! In the picture, I just rang the giant bell, and now I'm clapping and praying!
More stairs!
Resting at the bottom with a "Yourou Cider". The water from the falls can cure everything except liver damage, I hear!
Next we move on to a local street market. They are selling lots of cool things at very cheap prices, I'm told.
We stopped to see Kishi's friend who works at the market. Kishi suggested this pictures and made me wear this goofy hat!! But I was loving every minute of it!
This meal was super yummy and quite common in this area. You don't place an order, you fight your way to the front, start grabbing & dipping, and then chow down right there. Keep your sticks and when you're done, take them up to the cashier. Everyone laughed at me when I was dipping because it was quite gingerly. I like to go easy on the sauces and savor my fried breading. The Japanese like to dip and soak for a good 3-5 seconds!
We are at another shrine. This time I am lighting a candle before I pray to the Japanese gods. They said it's kind of like Christianity, but I've never lit a candle at my church like this!
Kerri poses with some popular Japanese cartoon characters. They couldn't believe I've never heard of them (and it's not Pokemon!) Also, notice you get to walk around while chugging beer ;)
Here's some Japanese figures. They like cats, and the hand being raised means something. Left arm raised cat means wealth. Right arm raised cat means happiness. At first I thought that meant you can't have both wealth & happiness, but check out the black cat... he's got both arms raised!!
Some market foods. These ones all had samples, and Ema & her friends had me try a bunch of them. They were really hoping I liked something enough to buy it because the prices were so low. But no purchases from me! 
More market foods. They did end up buying me some rice crackers as a gift. Nothing pictured here though.
The guys wanted to stop for some sushi, and Ema & I decided to go across the street to a cheesecake shop called "Sweet of Oregon". (Think Cheesecake Factory on a super small scale!) They had 5 choices + one monthly flavor. So I ordered the monthly flavor "Pear" cheesecake with hot chocolate.
Ema ordered Apple Pie with a cheesecake base and blackberry tea. Everything was super yummy!
Last stop was the hometown of Ema & Kishi. There was a celebration going on to commemorate the "town" becoming a "city". (This is determined by the number of residents.) It was a rather small, intimate celebration, but great for people watching. There was a stage where kindergartners sang Christmas carols or played musical instruments. There were food stands selling ramen noodles, warm drinks, stuff on sticks, and other unidentifiable Japanese carnival food. They also had a clown going around making balloon animals, and a cannon that would periodically blast a bunch of glow bracelets in the air!! Finally, it was followed up by a fireworks display. The fireworks were short, less than 10 minutes, but they shot off from 7 different locations and were choreographed to music. Pretty sweet sight!
To return the favor of Ema's awesome hospitality, I agreed to accompany her to her parent's house for dinner in January! I'm not sure how that's me doing her a favor (unless they serve terrible food), but I guess her parents really want to meet me :)
