A zoo, a mountain and a river walk into a bar...

Last week we had another long weekend - this time in commemoration of Health and Sports Day, added to the list of Japanese holidays in 1966 in commemoration of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo Japan. They were the first Olympic games in Asia. Interesting trivia: despite being the Summer Olympics, the 1964 games were held in October in order to avoid the notorious Japanese rainy season which occurs over the summer.

Thanks to strategically-placed vacation days, we had a four day weekend ahead of us and thus decided to capitalize on that by getting out and doing a lot of things. First on the list was a trip to the Sendai Yagiyama Zoological Park, a place that looks fairly close on a map but is in reality quite far away. Blind to this reality, we chose to bike there. At first thing seemed to be going well, but as time wore on the route became more and more uphill. And we're not talking a simple uphill incline like the one you had to walk to and from school when you were little. This was uphill to comical proportions. By the end we spent a lot more time walking with our bikes than biking, as to do the latter would inevitably lead to one's demise. But after an hour's trip we had arrived!

Finally arrived!

Kelsey makes friends with the pandas.

Nico displays his love of maps.

A staple in any serious tourist location.

The adorable couple.

For a zoo that's barely a footnote on any Sendai tourism website, it was actually really great. They had all the basic animals any zoo that wants to be taken seriously must have: monkeys, elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes, bears, apes, penguins, etc. What set this particular zoo apart from our vast zoo experience (consisting of a few trips to the Toronto Zoo) was in the promixity of visitors to the animals. While still out of arm's reach, most animals were displayed very close to visitors, and only a small amount of caging was used. While back home the security around the animals is often to keep visitors out, here any determined visitor could be amongst the animals with ease. The result of this was an incredibly enjoyable zoo experience, along with far too many photos (our camera died halfway through our trip).

A particularly energentic monkey; took a while to get him to stand stil.

Feeding time for the elephants!

A giraffe shows off its stuff.

Nico attempts in vain to convince the giraffe that they are brothers.

Kelsey thinks the flamingos have an excellent eye for colour.

Hippo is angry. And hungry. And wet.

An undercover photographer gets a rare look at a napping gorilla.

One of their most exotic creatures

Within the park there was also an interesting monument of national historical importance...

Yup.

The gals all go gaga for baseball players.

Next on our list after the zoo was climbing Mount Taihaku! Mount Taihaku is an oddly-shaped mountain (it looks like a tree-covered pyramid) topping off at a little over 320 metres. It's no Mount Fuji, but it's supposed to be a very scenic climb that people as physically unfit as us could conquer. The mountain is still in Sendai City - we think - but it is quite a ways away from downtown. Getting there (by bus) was a lot less strenuous than getting to the zoo, and we couldn't have picked a better day to hike up the mountain!

Mount Taihaku.

Intrepid yet inexperienced mountain climber Nicholas Lombardi is not impressed.

Overly enthusiastic mountain climber Kelsey Laswick enjoys the trees.

BEWARE OF SOMETHING!!!!!

When we mentioned that Mount Taihaku was a lot like a tree-covered pyramid, we weren't kidding. Especially about the tree-covered part. There were trees everywhere! It might as well be considered a thick forest with a pesky mountain in the middle rather than a tree-covered mountain. While it was the weekend, the official path was still quiet and relatively empty. We crossed paths with a few other hikers along the way, but never for long. Another curious thing was that our fellow hikers were all seniors! Maybe climbing mountains isn't the hip thing to do anymore. We were in for a two hour climb up the mountain and we needed to keep our energy up, so we made sure to pack a lunch (which was promptly eaten on the bus ride up to the mountain).

An example of all the trees, along with some of the other hikers.

The large gateway marks the beginning of the deadly gaunlet.
...not really.

It's just where the pathway starts getting uphill.

Someone was nice enough to leave hiking sticks for us!

Some people need two.

WHO DARES CHALLENGE THE MOUNTAIN OF TAIHAKU?

Kelsey and Nico, elevation unknown.

Unfortunately for us, after about an hour we were strongly discouraged from continuing up the mountain by rope fences and big signs that warned of falling rocks. Not wanting to be forever known by the locals as the photogenic but foolish foreign couple who were crushed by falling rocks, we turned back. Luckily we still technically climbed the Mountain (just not to the top), so we can add "climbing a mountain" to our list of things we did.

A praying mantis we saw on our way to the mountain.

The same praying mantis, on our way back from the mountain...

Wanting to break our theme of exhausting uphill climbs, we decided to do something a lot more relaxing the following day. The area where we live is very close to the Hirose River, a fairly large body of water that flows through Sendai City. We often bike past it on our way here and there, and it is quite beautiful. One thing we've been meaning to do for some time was to go out on the river with a boat. Normally such a wish is impossible due to the fact that we don't own a boat, but luckily for us there is usually a small boat rental guy on the riverbank on nice days. For just 500 yen we could take command of a little row boat and float around to our heart's content on the river for 45 minutes. It's a deal we simply couldn't pass up!

But first; lunch! Delicious pizza-man.

Captain Nico of the S.S. AwesomeBoat.

Kelsey does her best pirate face.

Nico tries to figure out where we are.

"Put your backs into it! Ramming speed!!"

Kelsey gives rowing a try.

And promptly gives up.

With a bike adventure, a zoological extravaganza, a mountain climb, and a boat outing all under our belts, we felt like it was time to spoil ourselves. Feeling a little hungry and wanting to give the local flavour a try, we settled on a little restaurant called "Freshness Burger". Japanese food at its finest!

You know you want it.

Esteemed burger-critic K. Laswick takes her first bite.

It passes! Dig in!

While our diet could use some work, we think our activites in honour of Health and Sports day were appropriate. We were outside, afterall! That'll be all for now.

For the entire unedited album experience, click here!https://picasaweb.google.com/118335130766899996104/ZooMountainRiverBurger?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJuJyIjq_9D9Fg&feat=directlink