Recent hike in Taiwa town, Miyagi

Chinpo

Chinpo

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Aug 25, 2007
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Taiwa is a small town about an hours drive north of where I live.

It was a pretty easy mountain hike, just tough because of the heat. Here's a shot of me in all my sweaty glory:barf:
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This was originally a sign that said "Beware of Bears". I guess the local bear population didn't take too kindly to being branded dangerous, so they ripped it down;)
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Only "scary" wildlife we saw was this little guy. Well, my wife found it scary.
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Very nice pictures!..

I live in Saitama and i haven't been on a hike for ages, but since it has cooled down a lot, i think it is time.
 
Yes Japan has bears ! Especially on Hokkaido. The Akita dogs were bred to hunt wild boar and bears.
 
My wife's parents are farmers and live on their own mini-mountain. They mainly grow rice, vegetables and trees for landscape gardening. Her father also has several beehives (As well as collecting wild honey up in the mountains). It's the best honey I have EVER tasted.
Last week, he found one of his hives ripped apart by a bear. This particular hive was about 50 yards from the house. Luckily, his other hives are further away.
I've only seen one bear here. A friend and I were driving to a camping spot and we saw what I at first took to be a big dog running along the road. It was like a loony tunes double take when I realised that we were coming up on a bear running full tilt in the middle of the road.
 
Cool pics. Looks pretty hot. It's finally starting to cool off a bit here in the lower states now.
 
Hey Chinpo, I spent a lot of time in Sendai. I also used to travel there from Zama to attend bike races.
 
It's really cooled down a lot here. It went from 30C plus and humid in early September to 15C and rainy in the past week.
I just got back from The Japanese Alps in Nagano, where it was hot and humid on the first day and rainy and chilly for the rest. I'll post some of those pics up when I get around to loading them on to photobucket.
 
I think it's the non-venomous Japanese Rat Snake. If you go for a hike around the mountains in summer time, you often see them sunning themselves on trails.
The pic is a bit blurry, I took it in a hurry as it was making it's way off the bridge.
 
Interesting.....I also never knew there were bears in Japan. Are they similar to North American black bears?
 
The Asian Black bear is related to the American Black Bear, only lighter and more slender. They measure about 6 feet in length and weigh about 230 lbs. I think it's also known as the Moon Bear, because of the distinctive white patch on it's chest.
 
jw2n said:
Hey Chinpo, I spent a lot of time in Sendai. I also used to travel there from Zama to attend bike races.
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I like living in Sendai. It's near the mountains to the west and the sea to the east. It's not too cold in the winter and usually not too hot and humid in the summer. It's about 350km north of Tokyo and you can get there in less than 2 hrs by Shinkansen (Bullet train) or about 5 hrs by car.
Sendai also has one of Japan's most famous entertainment areas, Kokubuncho. It's a great place to go drinking and carousing (Though I don't do that much now that I'm married).
 
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