Nago and the Wheel of Death!

Last weekend I drove up north with some ii tomodachi. There will definitely have to be another blog post about our somewhat bizarre adventures out on the town Friday night (I'm still trying to figure out how much of it might be appropriate to put on a blog) but for now I shall post a more sedate entry about Saturday's exploration and THE WHEEL OF DEATH.

Despite the fact that I live on a tiny island, I never run out of new things to see and do here. Saturday we decided to drive out in search of the elusive Nago Castle ruins and the fabled Wheel of Death. Above and below, you see some photos of our hike in search of Nago Castle (which I think we failed to find in the end, though the jury may still be out on that one. If you haven't noticed, many of the castle ruins on this island are intangible. There are signs saying that they exist, but somehow one can never find them).


So you want me to get on to the WHEEL OF DEATH which is probably the only reason you're still reading this.........

ENTER THE WHEEL OF DEATH!

JETs up north are always talking about this fabled Wheel of Death. Descriptions were rather vague. From what I'd heard, I'd always pictured a large hamster wheel on a stark mountainside or ocean cliff in the deserted northern reaches of the island, upon which generations of drunken JETs had lost their lives trying to pass some right of passage. Running endless circles the night through after shot-gunning 10 beers, or some such nonsense. Well, it wasn't actually a hamster wheel. Nor is it on a stark mountainside. It's actually a playground attraction. Though in all honesty, this playground should have been called the Playground of Death. Seriously, I've never seen anything less appropriate for little people. Not only was the Wheel of Death deadly, there was an immense winding slide that ended mere feet from a short but steep hillside, a tire swing with a few wooden poles placed awkwardly within its swing range (ask Christina about swinging Paul's face right into one of these), and various climbing structures that looked like a parent's worst nightmare.

I suppose if we had arrived at the Wheel of Death at the stroke of midnight instead of on a drizzly Saturday afternoon, something terrifying and inspiring might have happened that would have caused the Wheel to live up to its reputation. The most that happened to us, however, was that everything fell out of Jeff's pockets and into a grassy grave below as he scaled the playground's impenetrable defenses. We decided the whole thing must be a trick thought up by local children to snatch silly gaijin's wallets as they flailed about in the web of ropes overhead. I have to admit, I began climbing through the wheel and decided to back out after about 1/5 of the way. It was a bit scary.

I imagine the wheel really would be a death trap if you were either of these 2 things:

1. under 8 years old
2. drunk and in the dark (no names my fellow JETs, no names!)

After following innumerous tantalizing signs pointing us higher and higher up the mountain to the Nago Castle ruins, we arrived at the top. Where we found nothing but a vending machine, a lot of asphalt, and a lookout tower. It's the journey not the destination that matters. Here's the view!

Pineapples

holy crap,
eBlogger just gave me the new option of changing font as well as font size on my blog!
changing font color has clearly also been added as an option. sorry Caitwin, your vision may NEVER recover now!

Ah, no reason to get over-zealous though. What was I doing here (besides avoiding writing my Statement of Purpose for graduate school?) Yes.....

PINEAPPLES!!!!

The Nago Pineapple Park

I recently journeyed to the distant city of Nago (you've heard that line before, haven't you? Over time it may have become apparent that many of my bestest buddies dwell in the Northern Reaches of my island and I am repeatedly drawn to them and their tatami). There were many plans for the weekend: hikes, waterfalls, pineapple parks.
The park was as far as we got, but boy was it Good Fun. Check it out! To the left you see our descent into the Jungle of Pineapple Park. Automated Pineapple carts escort you along tracks through the undergrowth for a measly 500 yen, as an automated voice tells you many a thing about pineapples, most of which you never dared dream that you wanted to know. The entire experience was heavily reminiscent of Jurassic Park, and made me crave orange juice and yogurt Popsicles (a reference to be understood by 2 people only).


Occasionally, we would spy a fellow Pineapple cart through the dense undergrowth. I felt that the best course of action at such times was to wave frantically with one hand and snap dozens of photos with the other. Slick and Chrissy kept their cool and listened to the pineapple lady's spiel instead. After the journey through the jungle/pineapple fields, the cart let you off at the pineapple winery. Here, you can look at where they produce pineapple wine through glass panes, but unfortunately you cant really get too much info on the actual process. Then you enter the TASTING ROOMS. These rooms are where the pineapple park hopes that a tourist, by shoving as many free samples of pineapple products into their stomach as they want, will be convinced to buy something.

Right, well it worked with me.

First you walk the gauntlet of Pineapple Wines. If you can still see straight upon emerging, you will head for the pineapple cakes (if you cant see straight, you might misdirect yourself to the lady with the Goya Juice... i don't know how much the goya lobbyists are paying the pineapple plant for this woman to be stationed there but seeing as her product probably kills at least 10 tourists a day, it must be quite a hefty sum). Not only pineapple cakes: pineapple breads, pineapple cookies, pineapple chocolate, pineapple crackers, pineapple jelly, pineapple jello, pineapple pie, pickled pineapple.

And thats all there is to know about shrimp.

trip to the waterfalls

Ive received a complaint that i don't put many fotos of my weekend trips and what-not up here. So i'll try to be better about it, starting now. Oh, and a general apology for my bad spelling, age 6-now.

This weekend i made a long and arduous journey up to a secluded lake/waterfall in the northern part of the island. yes, a wonderous adventure. the further north you go, the more signs you have like this: "watch out, weird turtle/bird/snake crossing area!" with a cartoon picture of a very disgruntled loooking beast on it. My safari (consisting of christina, amy, juhi, and myself) dutifully screeched to a halt (or screeched and then backed up into the mountain guard-rail, uh-um, Christina was driving...) to take a picture of each and every one of these signs.

Back to the beginning of the story: after an intense night of karaoke at the Sakura Story in Nago, we dragged ourselves from bed at the early hour of 11.15, and set off. An hour or so of perilous twisting mountain roads, turtle crossings, and decoding of directions taken from an ancient fellow with a towel wrapped around his head (and the better part of his teeth lost somewhere along lifes path), saw us arrive at our destination. That is, at a very dubious looking dirt trail that someone clearly deluded soul had chosen to call a road. But luck was on our side! Christina`s faithful mobile is quite small, and we successfully fought our way down the thin rocky path into the heart of the jungle. This leg of the trip was made easier by the spirit of Aerosmith (he had lingered on in our hearts after a hearty rendition of Cryin the night before at karaoke, and had taken over the vocal tracts of 3 of our 4 passangers with gusto for the last hour of the trip). A great cheer.
Not to be outdone by the so-called road, the path leading to the waterfall was not really a path, but a gently sloping CLIFF, and some ropes to help you retain your life during the descent. Definitely not a handicap accessible tourist attraction. Though we did see one fellow scaling the descent with a 3 week old babe strapped to his chest. Props to you, duders. This picture is a view straight down the path.

Ah, it was worth it however, when after a bit of huff and puff, we arrived at the serenic lake/small falls.



In years of yore, or whatever those things are called, some thoughtful person had shimmied up a tree and tied on a rope swing, which created great group-enjoyment during our visit.

All in all, it was a good day! Heres a shot of the group looking jolly on a rock. One of the best things about the day was getting to watch 4 Japanese students who decided to prove their manhood to one another by leaping down a fantastically high ravine/waterfall into a rock-strewn pool below. Look how high this cliff is.

On the way home, we took the scenic highway and passed through many a pineapple field. Pineapple plants are a lot shorter than I ever would have imagined them to be... I always imagined them tall and imposing, like coconut trees. Check out these short little fatties.

Oh, to be a pineapple.