Numa, Numa!

On Saturday, a friend and I took a drive to see the last of the changing leaves and they had pretty much all changed. We planned to drive Bandai-Azuma Skyline to our destination which was a group of ponds called Goshikinuma. The actual Skyline was closed, so we had to make do with the regular highway. Unfortunately, the high altitude and a slightly wheezy bout of asthma prevented me from hiking too far, so we just chilled at Bishamonnuma. (Must have been the asthma along the Azuma.)

Plenty of rowboats aboot. (NO ONE wore life vests.)

We didn't come across any bears. I'm not particularly worried, they're tiny compared to Canajun bears.

That Amabie is a yokai that has become the mascot for preventing Corona. I was given one from a friend, the last one they had.

Back to the pond...

A couple of carp.

Numa is the term for marshland or pond so I scammed the title for today's post from this unusual video.

 

This and most of the surrounding bodies of water were created when Bandai erupted back in 1888. The recently founded Japanese Red Cross helped to keep the death toll down to under 500.

After the pond, we wondered into a mini-Conservation museum and there's a very cool suzume-bachi (Murder Hornets) nest.

The swamp wasn't very impressive. Too cold for froggies, I suppose.

Manhole covers are always a welcome sight. I often forget to look down.

From there, we drove around Lake Hibara.

We couldn't figure out the name of these floating fishing lodges/docks. Any ideas?

That tree is gnarly, dude. 

And... woohoo! It's Bandai-san!

The secondary goal for venturing out this way was to go to a new Mansaido (Like a Mandai, nerdy used shop) in Kitakata. This place was SO CLEAN! Unlike the dingy ones I'm used to. I managed to pick up a few things and I may have a date for the next furry convention.

Finally, I didn't really get a chance to comment on the passing of fellow Canadian, Alex Trebek, so I'll let the Simpsons do it for me.