Tumbleweeds: Niigata Trip

Well, here, finally, are the photos from my bizarre last minute adventure across the island, from Tokyo to Niigata. The story goes a bit like this: One hot summer day, two girls named Maria and Corinne got together to go to the beach, but when they checked the weather, it seemed the coast was due for rain. By this time, it was getting on in the afternoon, so they decided going to the beach maybe wasn't the best idea. But they knew they had to get out of Tokyo, or suffer a slow death by suffication from dirty humid air. So, in a stroke of genious, they piled their money together, bought the biggest box of donuts the world had ever seen, and rented a car. Then, with no particular destination in mind, nothing but two ears of corn, a box of donuts, a lighter, 4 beers, a roll of toilet paper, and still in their swimsuits, they started heading west, through the countryside of Gunma, where they saw fireworks from the side of the highway. They then stopped for a shenanigan or two at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere, to have the best coffee ever spewed forth from a vending machine, and play the guitar to seedy looking folk in the parking lot. They then journeyed forth out of Gunma, into the mountains of Niigata, where it seemed like a good idea to find the deserted spot in the middle of the mountains where Fuji Rock had been held a few weeks before, and camp in the car there. Well, after an interesting escapade down a gravel "road", a nice spot was found next to a river, and the two girls decided it would be fun to light a fire. After an hour and a half, a roll of toilet paper, most of the lighter fluid, a pile of driftwood, and half a notebooks worth of paper, a small fire was finally crackling merrily. Then the stargazing and beer drinking and corn roasting ensued. By fantastic cosmic coincidence, there was a beautiful meteor shower just at this moment. After the magicalness, the girls climbed into the car to try and get some rest, so they could awake by sunrise (4am) the next morning and make the most of their day of true freedom. After a chilly night where they realised that they had no clothes but their swimsuits and pullover dresses, and two light blankets, they awoke the next morning to find that they had been surrounded by monkeys in the night. Dozens and dozens of monkeys. Ah yes, and there was a hornet that managed to follow them through most of the day, since Maria was deathly allergic to hornets. After washing in the stream and escaping the horde of monkeys, the two girls got back in the car, and wandered through the mountains, went to a muddy foot-onsen on the side of the road, and meandered back to Gunma, where they found a bright green, apparently cursed lake (according to the locals, who told us "sure, its safe to swim in, just kind of deep. Oh, but we don't ever swim in it, because its cursed." Thanks, guys.) saw lots of poisonous snakes and signs warning them about the poisonous snakes which they couldn't read, stood in a waterfall, ate breakfast at a diner where a pimp with a really tacky visor and his hoe and her whole family and two random schoolgirls were all eating together in the booth across from them, finally got their swim when they jumped half naked in this beautiful clear river out the back of an onsen, realised they could see naked men walking around on their little porch area out the back of the onsen, and the men could see them!, got stared at by the naked men, then covered their tattoos not very discreetly and went into the onsen, had a lovely bath, visited the local jinja in Corinne's old hometown in Oniishi (towns in Gunma have supremely weird names), and then ate some soba noodles at a tiny local noodle house, then hauled ass back to Tokyo just in time to fill the car's tank and return it 3 MINUTES before the deadline. Then we woke up. The end. Photos:

Corn.