What an incredible place! There are two large, old Japanese houses which used to stand elsewhere. They were taken apart, transported and reassembled on the property. There are also several other smaller workshops and structures.
This picture is taken looking down the driveway to the main house.
A closer view of the main house.
On the left is a picture of the second house. On the right is the view from the porch on a misty morning.
Looking up from the road, and Walt sitting in the smoking area.
Some interior shots of the entry area and the living room/dining area.
Hiroshi-san had many plans to entertain us. He wanted us to enjoy the best view of the mountains in Toyama, and since the best view is from the sea, he arranged to take us sailing with some friends who belong to a sailing club.
Unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate. When we arrived at the dock, it was cold, wet, and windless, and the mist was so thick you couldn't see more than about 20 feet in front of you. Nevertheless, we boarded the boat and began motoring across the bay.
I was concerned about getting seasick so I had taken some dramamine that claimed to be "less drowsy". Let me tell you, they could market that stuff as sleeping pills. I could barely stay awake. I would nod off, and when I woke up I would see the deeply contented faces of the men as they motored along, happy just to be out on the water.
After a considerable amount of time, we disembarked at a dock and walked to a rest house where we ate the picnic lunch Hiroshi-san and his friends had brought. We explored the area around the rest house, including Ozakai cave and shrine. Since it didn't look like we would be seeing any scenic views of the mountains from the sea, we had left our camera in the car in Toyama. It took quite a bit of web surfing, but I finally found these pictures which I downloaded to illustrate my story. The cave was fascinating to me. It was initially inhabited sometime during the Joman Period (8,000 - 300 BC) and was continuously inhabited for thousands of years.
During my web surfing I also found this picture of Toyama and the mountains. I imagine that this is what we would have seen if it wasn't for all that fog.
We motored back across the bay to Toyama where we visited Hiroshi-san's nephew and his family in their fascinating home (another old reassembled house) and then enjoyed a delicious katsu dinner at his nephew's restaurant. All in all, it was a memorable day.
This picture was taken a few days later behind Hiroshi-san's house. He told us that his yacht sits on the mountain dreaming of the sea.
