Akame Falls

The air is hot in my lungs
Haze drifts through the sky like a lost brown cloud
A train empties and a faceless crowd marches forward, forming puddles at the street corner
Lights turn red. A green man appears.
The puddle oozes forth
Its time to escape the city,
To taste clean air and fill my lungs with the scent of green.

We march forth between the suits
Rocking back and forth with the rhythm of the tracks
The city scape still fills the windows after an hour

The mountains approach
Darkness
Light
Trees appear, Osaka is now another world.
Villages, rice fields, fresh air escapes into the carrige between the cracks.

Rice Field lines

A round of deep breaths. A round of smiles.

3 hours from point A and we stand in a small village
A gravel square, a lonely bus.
We board at the back and take a ticket. Zone 1.

Zone 3 approaches after 15 mintues.

Akame Village

48 Waterfalls over a 8 KM walk

A Salamander exhibit guards the beginning of Falls walk
20 glass cages hide 20 different species

Salamander 1

Salamander 2

Rocky walls grow around us as we decend further into the gorge

Water falls appear

We stop. Remove our shoes and dangle our feet in the icy water.
A nearby pool of tadpoles
Like children we spend 20 minutes scooping them up
Slimy bodies wriggling in wet hands

We continue ...

Further and further, crossing the river, rock hopping

Back in the village, a final lungful before returning to the city

Rice Field Sunset