Week 29: August 19 - 25, 2013 Japan Fukuoka Mission

This post is a week old and not many pictures taken so I'll just focus on Sunday when we visited the Nobeoka ward.  It is on the eastern side of Kyushu island and a 3 1/2 hour drive through mountains.  It is all very beautiful.  We enjoyed visiting with the members and we brought the zone leaders back to Kumamoto after a long trip they took to Oita then on to Nobeoka for Jyunkai (literally "going around", in which they teach and train other missionaries).

It was a very rainy day but we enjoyed the views (from the car, no time to stop much).

Rain on the windshield as we enter the familiar tunnel on the way to Nobeoka.

We were fascinated with the "cute" road construction barrier's used in Japan.

A typical Japanese house style set in a beautiful mountain forest area.

Did I mention that we were fascinated with the road construction barriers.

Also we are so fascinated with the clouds in Japan.  We have so few clouds in the summer in California, but here in our part of Japan, they have all types of clouds most of the time.  There are very few really clear days or nights.

The highlight (scenically) of this trip was a short side trip on the way home to see a couple of famous sites.  The cloud in the picture below is not a cloud.

It is actually the mist rising from a water fall.

When we arrived we were approached by the Japanese man leading the elders below.  He was so enthusiastic about the amazing event that was happening.  Due to all the water (literally sheets so heavy sometimes that it was hard to see the road) the waterfall discharged much more water than normal.  He showed us the path to see it better.

His explanation was very animated.

He was a local resident and volunteer guide for this site.  Here is the top viewing area.

The water volume was so high that it literally shoot out from the wall of the canyon.  You would have to see it normally to know the difference.

Now we are going down to the middle viewing area.

The water mist was so heavy at this point that it was impossible to get a clear picture of the waterfall.

The middle viewing bridge.  This is a suspended foot bridge, a little better than Indiana Jones, but it did sway with our movements.

They even had an English explanation.

Here is a pictogram of the area:

This pictogram show a fantastic aqua-duct used to get water to the water isolated side of the river for the rice.  Here is the picture we took.

And a closer view.  Notice the water drops on the camera lens.  The amazing let up of the rainfall ended as soon as we were allowed to show this site to one of the elders who really wanted to see it before he leaves for home next week.

There are clean out holes on either side of the aqueduct that they open up during festivals.  The next one is near our wedding anniversary and we hope to go.