High above the lot, snow caped mountains tower over proceedings, rather uncomfortably close in appearance (Hughesy prefers his snow clad peaks in photographs, not clearly visible through the windows on a day where the temperature's hovering unpleasantly close to zero), with its beautiful emerald green surface.
The mountains climb higher after you cross the Moriishi Bridge and the train passes a couple of isolated onsen establishments on its way to the terminus at Keyakidaira, where there are a couple ofvwalking tracks that allow you to get up close and personal with the coloured leaves.
Given the threat of rain, and the temperature, I wasn't the most enthusiastic participant in the up hill and down dale ramble that took us to the lower observation platform, and,in any case, my eyes weren't holding up that well faced with a continuous display of coloured leaves. sure, they're a magnificent sight, but after a couple of hours they threaten to become overwhelming.
Still, the walk gave me the chance to see one of the stranger sights I've come across in a country where there's plenty to baffle and bemuse a Western observer. I rounded a corner to find a Japanese father doing up an eight-year-old's shoe laces. Well, maybe the kid wasn't quite eight, but he definitely looked old enough to be able to accomplish that everyday task without parental assistance. The incredible bit was that, while the concerned parent was getting those laces under order (we don't want anyone tripping now, do we?) the kid was nonchalantly playing a computer game.
I'd passed the camera to The Supervisor on the grounds that I didn't think I'd be needing it, which was just as well, since I suspect an attempt to snap the scene I found before me would more than likely have produced an ugly incident.
As we made our way back to the station, construction work produced a navigational mistake on Madam's part that took us down to a platform just above the river bed where there were more coloured leaves to see and a thermal foot bath for tired feet. I wasn't in the market for a foot bath, and wasn't looking forward to the climb back up to the station, so I wasn't impressed at all by the situation.