DAY 30 - After breakfast in the morning, Toshi's mom drove me to the Metitetsu
station, but I unfortunately missed the train so she took me to the JR
station, a little farther away. I was late because I had spent some
time watching videos of Takarazuka, a female troupe performing plays.
The main actress was Saki Asaji and the performance I watches was
Elizabeth. Toshi's mom is a fan of Takarazuka and Toshi actually
came to like them. I was to have lunch with Kayo and
then we were to go to Gifu together. However, she showed up 20
minutes late and was dressed up. It turned out that there was a
company emergency at her Nippon Credit Bank. The bank president,
a Todai guy who worked at Bank of Japan before, was arrested because
he was tampering with the bank records. The situation was supposedly
that everyone knew that he was doing this and this was to prevent
a buyout by a foreign bank... a no win situation and now the bank
will surely be bought out. We ate Kishimen before she had to go to
work. I went by myself to Gifu city and had to get information from
a tourist booth. Sightseeing spots were quite far away and it was
necessary for me to take the bus. I went to a temple which supposedly
has the largest lacquered buddha in Japan. It costed 150 yen to
enter. I found myself to be the only visitor here. The buddha looked
very old. I wanted to go to Gifu Castle, but I did not want to
spent the 900 yen for the lift up the hill. I had the time so I
spent 30 minutes climbing to the top. Upon arrival, I found that
Gifu Castle was about to close. However, because of that, I got
in free and was able to take a quick look around. I took a long rest
to catch my breath, since I had already zipped up the mountain and
through the about-to-close castle. It was much easier walking downward.
I walked all the way to the nearby stream just to take a look around.
To my surprise, there were cormorant fishing boats. This is a
unique way of fishing. Large goose-like birds would be used to catch
fish. However, these birds are unable to eat the birds because of
a ring around their neck. Very very unique. However, I was not
able to see them catch fish because I would have needed to pay money
to be on the guest boats. I stayed a little longer on the beach,
watching grade schoolers and their teachers lighting up fireworks.
When it was time, I returned to Nagoya station to meet Yoshi, who
had just came back from job hunting at Tokyo. I was exhausted from
walking all day, and slept at his house.
