Holidays and Nature

Japan has two national holidays during the summer months to celebrate nature, ocean day and mountain day. Ocean day just passed and like the name of the holiday would imply, everyone who could afford it went to the beach, whether that beach was along the Japanese coast, just a river embankment or perhaps a fake beachfront in some place like Caribean Beach, an indoor pradise oasis created in landlocked Gunma prefecture. As soon as the weekend started people went out in droves to every water spot in Japan. Even our family took the time and money to go to our favorite spot to get away from the heat, the mountains. But wait, wasn't it ocean day that I was talking about, not mountain day? The three day weekend just happened to coordinate with our plans and we did play in the water.

Kiryu river, starting as a mountain stream, is all kinds of cold. Perfect when there is an ongoing heat wave. I actually couldn't imagine trying to go to an ocean beach with the blaring sun. No, instead we got all that japan's nature has to offer. It makes so much sense why so many people try to get away and go to the places with lush vegetation, secluded spots(still hard to find) and a bit of tranquility you can’t find anywhere else in Japan. Growing up in Texas and Louisiana, I was always surrounded by nature. Sometimes so surrounded that civilization unreachable. But that nature rarely gave me moments of awe and splendor the way the mountains in Japan do. Texas just isn't Instagram worthy. While our little spot on the river was free from others, barely upstream we could hear other vacationers enjoying barbeque and a cool dip in the water. On the ride home though, no trace of any of the families we saw on the drive up remained. All fires had been put out, trash picked up. You could barely tell there were people here all day eating drinking and being merry. Everyone came out, enjoyed their slice of nature and then left it as it should be as if it was untouched. A big contrast to what I have seen in the states when people go out and barbeque at the river. Japan does a great job celebrating nature.