Trip out to Ajimu

I know I complain every summer about the heat, but it has really been boiling out here recently. Record temperatures in Japan, people dying of heat stroke up in Gifu (where I used to live).

So, naturally the trips to the waterfalls have been continuing. Between my days off and the days I only work 4 hours in the evening, I've been continuing to make it out to the waterfall several times a week. Last week, just to change things up a little bit, I took Amy and Leann out to the Ajimu waterfalls instead (even though you can't slide down those like the Yabakei waterfall, it can still make a nice swimming hole on a hot day).

As with before, I'm stealing pictures from Amy's website. I'm picking and choosing a bit (mostly just taking out the pictures of me), but you can go to her photosite for the complete set. You can also read her written description of the outing here.

After having lived in Ajimu for 3 years this is, needless to say well, tread ground for me. And it should look famaliar to anyone who has been out here visiting me or been unfortunate enough to have been ambushed by me and my photo album back in the states. But I've never posted any pictures of Ajimu on this blog before, mostly due to a lack of a digital camera. The closest I got was when I linked to pictures in Chris's blog a couple years ago. And a few pictures of Brett and me in Ajimu during a retrospection post.

Here's me by the sign for Fukino Waterfall:

And by the actual Fukino Waterfall:

And going for a swim. The usually crystal clear water was mysteriously brown that day. I'm hoping it was just because of the thunderstorms the day before, and not because of a broken sewage pipe somewhere upstream.

Here's the same waterfall from the overlook point

These last photos don't have me in it, but I think Amy did a really good job of capturing some of the Ajimu countryside with this photo, so I'll put it in.

Here are photos from Higashishiya Waterfall (the other waterfall in Ajimu):

And don't forget there are several more gorgeous pictures of scenery on Amy's photo site

Link of the Day
The Japanese English version paper picked up a syndicated editorial yesterday which deserves to be read by everyone:
Evil as ordinary, and defensible
By Steven Greenhut -
To qoute some of the more gripping parts:

I've always been fascinated by the concept of "administrative evil" -- a term that describes how ordinary and decent people can end up committing horrific acts and oftentimes think they are doing the right thing as they commit them....

In Haditha, U.S. Marines were accused of murdering 24 Iraqi civilians. The Marines' superiors are accused of covering up these crimes by not investigating or reporting them until the media did....

This is from an Associated Press report regarding Lance Corp. Stephen Tatum, who is now facing a hearing to determine whether he deserves a full court-martial: "A Marine charged with murdering two girls and killing several other Iraqis gave orders to shoot into a room full of children and young women before apparently doing the job himself, a squad member testified. ... 'I told (Tatum) there's just women and kids in the room,' (the squad member) said. 'He replied, "Well, shoot them.'" Tatum argues that the killings were unintentional. Murder charges have recently been dropped against two other Marines.