a picnic

the night before ... home made takoyaki

Last week was the Obon season, so took the time to visit a family friend in Osaka and go on a short weekend break at Kamikawa in Hyogo. There a many ways to get to Osaka from Nagoya. One can drive there if one has a car, then there’s the shinkansen, and the highway bus… As weren’t rushing to get there, we opted for the 3 hr highway bus, which departs at 12:30 noon from Nagoya Station and arrive Osaka Station at 3:30pm. Our bus only arrived an hour than scheduled due to a car accident where we saw a car turned turtle on the highway approaching Osaka…

Kamikawa is located in the mountains of Hyogo, northwest of Osaka. It is about two hours drive on the highway, and then another 30 minutes on the country road (the roads are really narrow and winding along the rushing river!) to get to our destination Furusato mura (Shinden Furusato camping village). This place is not listed in my lonelyplanet book!

 

located in a narrow valley ... the Pine Tree Top cabins

firing up the barbie

10 m man-made waterfall within the park grounds

No we didn’t camp, mainly for a barbeque, and to enjoy the outdoor with all the creature comfort. We stayed in the Pine Tree Top cabin, where upstairs is the cozy sleeping area and below, we set up our barbeque.

No, we didn’t even take a dip in the stream, just waded in it, for the water was to icy. Planned to dip in the onsen (15 minutes drive away), but alas, we got there at closing time (10pm)… we were enjoying the barbie too long!! Drove back to the park, and had a real shower (with hot water!) from the 24-hr coin shower within the park area. It costs 200 Yen for 3 minutes. Sounds like a short time, but I surprised myself by finishing with about 40 seconds left (yes, there’s a digital timer on the shower panel!) – my personal best time for quickest shower.

bottom of the bag

In the mean time, I managed to finish knitting a multipurpose bag – may be a picnic bag – during the entire 7 hrs bus ride from Nagoya to Osaka and back! The bag comprise of four rectangular panels and attached together to form the bottom and sides. The four ‘ears’ (triangles) at the opening are divided into two sides, with two ears on each side. Two ears are folded over a round plastic handle, and sewn back to hold the handle in place. This is a very stretchable bag.

knitted picnic bag with two different sides