Hiking Adventures

So today I sort of, kind of, not really pilfered a graveyard...

At least, this is as close to pilfering a graveyard as I'm likely to come. So my bud Aine and I were walking around a temple somewhere in Innoshima (after looking at a travel guide I still have no idea which temple it was), and as you might expect we saw lots of stone memorials. Some had unopened beer cans in front of them (????) and a few had artificial flowers--that looked suspiciously like the ones at the Daiso.

On the way back we passed a trash bin nearly full of the same flowers. They were a little dusty, but overall in surprisingly good condition. As I looked at the discarded flowers, I couldn't help thinking, "Hey, I wanted some flowers to decorate my room...Looks like no one is actually using these ones...oh, what the heck." So I surreptitiously picked out some of the better preserved stalks, stuffed them in my purse, and tried to look nonchalant as we walked back to the car. So now I have some in a glass on the shelf and some taped over my mirror. This is decorating for cheapskates.

Later as I was walking in the hills I finally found the tunnel that Collette showed me my first weekend here. It's really like a maze up there. On the way back I also saw my first family of wild pigs! At a distance in the gloom, they at first looked like dogs. Then they snorted as they ran away, and I could still hear them snorting in the undergrowth. I don't know who was more freaked out, me or them. Luckily, there was a house nearby with lights on so I guess if they did decide I was worth attacking I could always use my very limited Japanese to yell "TASUKETE!!!!!"