Kinugawa River Cruise

Ok, so when you hear the term "river cruise" what comes to your mind... a slow ride down the Mississippi in a River Boat perhaps... well not in Japan.  In Japan a river cruise is sitting down on your butt in a giant wood canoe looking thing with your legs criss-crossed for 40 minutes!  It really was not all that bad... the views were spectacular and it was definitely a fun experience.  We rode on a bus for three hours each way for this tour and were able to see a lot of neat stuff.

Can you find us in this picture?

We also went to Oyaji Temple where there is a 700 year old Kannon image carved into the side of the mountain.  It is a sacred area so we were not allowed to take pictures of the actual image but this one is of the kids standing just out in front of the temple.

This Kannon statue was made in 1954 and is called a Peace Kannon since it was made after the war as pacification for fallen soldiers.  It stands 27 meters high.



Nick was happy to finally find someone with a head bigger than his!


Next we went to the Oyo Stone Musuem.  Oyo stone is very famous for its softness and many colors.  Frank Lloyd Wright used the oyo stone while designing the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in 1923.  We went deep down into the quarry and it was really cold and wet down there.  There were giant rooms where the rock had been removed.  Come to find out that the Japanese used this area during the war as a secret underground airplane factory for the Zero fighters.

 Our last part of the tour took us across this suspension bridge over the Kinugawa River - we went under it on our "cruise".  While we were crossing it, some people thought it would be funny to move side to side and make the bridge sway - so not funny!