TNT Day 35 - going nutty

 25 oct

Map 25: (Airbnb) sekigahara -> oyama signalling ground -> Ogurige Pond -> sasaoyama -> eco museum -> sekigahara station

Sunny, warm

First stop today was oyama signalling ground which gave me a view of the town and then it was onto ogurige and hachiman ponds. Both have a nice bird hide and walking circuit, making it a lovely start to the day. The only birds around when I was there were some eastern spot-billed ducks.

I climbed sasaoyama for the 3rd time and then went through the 'burbs passing by the back of sekigahara warland.

I popped inside the eco museum, mostly because it was free and right there on the trail. The ground floor had your run of the mill nature education displays - some bugs and butterflies, tracks and scat identification, taxidermy birds, habitat dioramas, flowers and seeds under magnifiers, etc. The second floor was where I was utterly amazed, a local artist, 高木幸子さん, had a nut craft display, and it wasn't simply one or two nuts but hundreds of nuts meticulously positioned to create some very cute creatures.












And back to the outside world, where if whipper snippers hadn't been invented there would be a lot more thumb twiddling. This guy looked like he was going to level his whole field one small arc at a time- surely there's a better way?!



I was back at sekigahara station by noon ready to meet my brother for some more site seeing.

10.5km stepping off trail at midday.

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