The rural mountains of Gifu-ken are home to Hirugano and Gujo-Hachiman,
and a place with a whole lot of skiing.
About 4 hours north of Osaka, Hirugano is mainly a resort area, filled
with onsens and villas.
After returning to Osaka after Aya had to return to work, it was time
to head up to yet another villa, hehe.
My aunt's villas. Yes, both of them. Total ski-lodge look and function, with some Japanese flair.
Tomohide's dogs: Sunifu (l) and Noiru (r). Sunifu is well behaved and docile, whereas Noiru is a waribiki, always wanting attention, getting into trouble, and taking off to the limit of her lead. However, both are kinda needy, and tend to whine a lot.
In a market in Hirugano, I found this hat for 560 en (as you can see). I bought it cuz it was funny, and a friend from college always asked me to get him one when I went to Japan, but, stupid me, I left it in "my" room in my Aunt's house, where it's still sitting.
My cousin Masashi, and his fiance Kiyomi. Masashi is a licensed ski instructor, but yea, this is the Takasu Snow Park, right near the villas.
Snowboarding is a truly international sport. I am in great pain in this picture from falling every conceivable way down the mountain, my first venture in the activity. I could have gone skiing, but no, I chose pain. Meanwhile, 13 year old kids were going from rail to halfpipe next to me, then finishing off with aerials. Good thing I hit the onsen right after...
Gujo-Hachiman-jo. Gujo-Hachiman is yet another town in Gifu-ken, but
this one has a castle!!! It was really beautiful, actually...
I just wanted to say that this picture is really cool.
There's Tomohide, standing on the deck overlooking the river. During
the summer, kids jump off the side of that bridge to plunge into the river
12 meters below. As there was still snow on the ground, there weren't any
kids that stupid on this day. Gujo-Hachiman is also home to a company that
makes plastic food for restaurants...