"The Tibet of Japan"

We got off the train in Ikeda and immediately looked for the car rental office which was to be closing any minute.  We made it there in time but when I asked for a car I was told there weren't any left.  I asked if it would be possible for us to rent a car the next day.  He told me that he didn't know.  I asked him who would know if he didn't!  He said "do you even have an International licence!"  I told him yes and I was familiar with driving in Japan.  He was very hesitant but eventually told me to wait a minute while he made a phone call.  I heard him very clearly ask the man on the phone if there was a car for a gaijin.  He then asked me "what time fo you need the car?"  I told him anytime.  He then said "no, there are no cars for you tomorrow either."  I can't help but wonder why the hell he asked me what time I needed the car.  Maybe I am just getting overly suspicious here but I am pretty sure the only reason there was no car "for me" was because I am a gaijin.

We went to get something to eat in Ikeda and talked about what we wanted to do next.  We decided to take the local train one more stop to a hostel in Oboke, in the heart of the valley.  The man from the hostel came to pick us up (it would have been impossible to do it any other way as there is no public transportation and the windy mountain roads would have taken hours to climb).  He told us that the hostel does not have bathing facilities so if we wanted to have a bath or shower tonight we should go to the Onsen near the station.  Mom had been anxiously awaiting her first trip to an Onsen so this was perfect.  He drove us to the Onsen and waited for us for one hour while we bathed and soaked, the only ones in the public baths.

The hostel was a small but very quaint mountain cabin and there were a few others staying there as well, most notably an Australian guy that gave us some tips on what to do for the rest of our trip.

The next morning we got up and got a drive from the hostel man to the train station where we left our bags and caught a bus to the "Rope Bridge."  This is the main attraction in Oboke for Japanese tourists.  It is basically a bridge made of cables covered with wicker.  The main attraction for us was watching all the terrified Japanese people gripping the rails for dear life and inching the length of it.  We just walked in the middle taking pictures and enjoying the view of the river.  They were shocked and just kept saying "abunai abunai" which means "dangerous."

We had planned to do a river cruise after that but it was raining by the time we finished at the bridge.  We also missed the 10:00 bus and would have to wait until 12 for the next one.  We opted to take a taxi back to the train station and get on the next train back to Honshu (the main island of Japan).  When we got back to the station we found that we had another hour and 45 minutes until the next express came.  For some reason we had forgotten all about the river tour and basically sat at the station the entire time.

From Oboke we took a train to Okayama and another train to Osaka.  From there we had to find our way to Koyasan in Wakayama prefecture where we would be staying at a buddhist temple for the night...