Hint 2: Quiz of the Month in August

by Kazu

This is what I posted before in this blog site. The name is Ginga-no-taki whchi means Milkyway waterfall in Japanese. The waterfall is Sounkyou Area between my home town Kitami City and Asahikawa City.
From the point of the quiz for August, I dropped by Sekihoku Pass and reached here. It took approximately one hour from the point of the quiz.
This waterfall is showing us on the bank of Ishikari River its graceful curved line. it's very comfortable to walk along the river watching those waterfalls.   

Is it still over 50 degrees in Celcius in Oman, Hamad? We are sorry we Japanese are not good at such hot temperature and most of us have not experienced except for bathing in sauna. I have experienced such hot temperature in Death Valley in the U.S.A. 10years ago. At that time, the wet towel cooled me down because the vaporization took the fever from the towel.

Is this like a "wadi" or oases in your country ? It is not so hot so far in this summer in Hokkaido but heavy rain hit some parts of Japan terribly every year.
In comparison with other area of Japan, Hokkaido Island has not been hit by heavy rain so much albeit heavy snow has annoyed many times in winter.

 After some long tunnels had built and connected Kamikawa Town and Kitami City, the previous road that connected the two municipalities, Route 39 was abolished as an inter-states and turned into a cycling road and a foot path with some parking area with enough space for coaches and cars.

This is Ryusei-no-Taki which means "Shooting star waterfall" in Japanese.
It may be smaller than Takakau Water fall in Canada but this area has many hot spring spas.
After coming back from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, I had been searching for the points of Hokkaido that superior to Canada and the U.S.A., speaking of the nature and sightseeing.I came back from Canada in August of 2002 and the autumnal foliage in that year were not so beautiful in Hokkaido. I missed the

 beautiful  autumnal foliage in  Ontario and Quebec, Canada, actually. The glaring yellow leaves of gingko, maidenhair trees in Orleans Island of Quebec. Aged couples are talking in the restaurant of the auberge in the island.
Then, what is the superior points of Hokkaido?

I thought, thought, thought and got the answer.
In fact, the scale of the nature is much more gigantic and the variety of scenery are much more abundant in the North America than in Hokkaido.

What is the better point ?

I reached the answer. Without driving 1,000 km for ten hours, we can reach the coast and the sea for swimming, scuba diving, fishing, skiing, horse  

riding etc.
The size of the island is compact and driving the car for 1hour to 3 hours in Hokkaido brings us to various kinds of destinations with fantastic draws.
And we can have the gift of the nature and this land and appreciate each taste of the gift every season little by little with gratitude. thanks to the 8 million deities in Japan. That's the spirit and beauty of Japan!
Am I wrong, Norm?

 Going back to the explanation of this area, the two water falls are called "the couple waterfall" or "husband and wife". In Japanese, "Fuufu-daki" or "O-daki and Me-daki" as I introduced before.

The souvenir shop in front of these waterfall is filled with Asian tourists nowadays. Bad manners by them are not seen these days. 

If Japan presented this area to other  countries, are they pleased with and appreciate it enough ? This area does not have oil wells but has only beautiful scenery that ease the pain of the hearts of human beings. They are not interested in such place for the profit of the nations, I think. Japanese people may be getting weak and other countries may get arrogant watching the presence of Japan shrinking. Where is the grace of human beings. 

Traditionally, we Japanese are not good at shaking hands with other countries while kicking or stomping the feet of each other because our islands are isolated with the sea around us.
The Shangrila of the east end of the world will be disappearing from the map?
Everybody is living in the blogosphere and the virtual world. Without sharp cutting-edge and original state-of-the-art technology, we  

Japanese may have to bow out from the international stage. I don't like presumptuous and arrogant manner shown by some countries but Japanese people need real leader who can navigate through the complicated power balance. To be cruel or arrogant ? It is not the Japanese style. As one of the developed countries,   we should not take such attitude like a beast. But we need sharp swords and principle in our hearts!