Inunakiyama

Last August I visited Kansai region in Japan. It was first and only time when I leaved territory of former USSR. Entire year I collected money for this travel. I saved on food, and even owed pile of money to landlord.

It was interesting experience. I'm ashamed to say that I've never travelled by air before. Also I saw mountains and ocean first time in my life.

Japanese are very affable and sometimes a bit naive. Obviously, they were a bit afraid of very tall 'northern barbarian'. ^^'

Thanks Heaven, my low Japanese skill was enough to communicate without sufficient problems. Although I didn't know many basic words like 'friendship' or 'ceiling', I knew some special terms instead - for example 'power line' or 'battlecruiser'. It may sound strange, but such weird knowledge helped a lot.

Family that sheltered me was shocked, I suppose. Reasons are significant cultural differences and my own... eccentricity.

- Paul, have you ever read books of Japanese authors?
- Yyyyep. 'Samurai' by Saburo Sakai, for example. Do you know him?
- Erm, nope. Who is that?
- Japanese famous fighter ace.
- Really? Is he famous in Russia?
- Yes, of course, - I lied with pokerface.

- Paul, what are you going to do?
- I want to have a look on industrial areas, chemical facilities and port area.
- Eh? For what?
- For Motherland's sake.
- What do you mean?
- Espionage. :3
- Oh, goodness! Please say that was a joke!

Despite all such moments, it seems that they like me. On the last day Herr Uehara even got the day off to march with me to the Inunakiyama (note: it was real honor, because it is much harder to get the day off in Japanese company than in Russian) . It is mountain to the south from Osaka, covered by forest. The hotsprings are placed at the foot, and tens of shrines, temples and altars are placed on the flank of the mountain. The name Inunakiyama means something like 'Mountain of dog's howl'. It was some legend that dog saved her master's life; she howled when she saw a snake who wanted to bite a man. By the way, I saw snakes there. Interesting, that they didn't afraid of people at all. Unfortunately, we haven't enough time to reach the top, and Herr Uehara couldn't move such far and fast as 'that crazy white monkey'. This picture represent one of the episodes of that climbing. I hope, Herr Uehara will be glad to see such expression of gratitude for his patience.