Battle at the Source of Hiro River

I had a great post about the 9th, it was funny at times, a bit contemplative at the start and most of all, it was actually complete and ready to post. Too bad that post disappeared from my copy/paste when I shut down the doc I'd been writing it in, and then I didn't have internet for a few days.
It won't be the same, but I'll start fresh. It started out rather slow, I took a walk in the morning around, and took some nice pictures, like this one. There's something very relaxing about taking a walk in a rural area. Good air, occasional smells like fertilizer that quicken your step as you seek a fresh wind, and that rustic feel of buildings that have been there quite a while, and are still in use for the same purposes they were years ago. I get nostalgic no matter where I happen to be when I run into that.
Somewhere in there was some business involving a cellphone, 55 yen and some discussion of how we were attempting to avoid looking suspicious.
After some lunch in the form of delicious sandwiches made by Jeff, it was off to the kikuchi shrine. At the foot of the hill the shrine resides on, there's a large warrior statue and some very beaten grass in several fields for how much they are used. It's a good place for viewing the sakura in spring from what I hear. A group of about 10 boys were tossing a baseball around and called out “Harro!” and “Konnichiwa!” to us at about a 7:3 ratio. We responded, greeting them in Japanese, which really pleased them. They'd been discussing whether or not we spoke Japanese before they'd called out. Kikuchi shrine itself, as you can see here is a good example of Shinto shrines, we participated in the standard donation/prayer, a little omikuji (fortune telling paper) and bought some omamori (charms) for Jeff's studies and my own endeavors as I head to Tokyo. My 'victory' charm is hanging from my bag even now. I'll get a picture up of that one sometime soon.
Behind the shrine a good long way (down the highway a ways, really, but it starts out by wrapping around the shrine hill and heading off behind it) we went hiking up a very nicely maintained trail that follows the Hiro river. Picking a picture for this is very difficult, the falls are wonderful, the water is crisp and clear, the mountains themselves are packed with tall trees and the pools themselves are very nice for wading.
We wrapped up talking about our first week in Japan at a local Joyfull. It's certainly been an experience. I've made some new friends in Kumamoto and look forward to seeing them again. It's been great practice, knocking a lot of the rust off of my Japanese, and it's been fun seeing things just a little off the beaten path.