Things I Miss About Japan 2 - Hiking Fun!

Continuing on the theme of the last post - I was also lucky enough to have host parents who were in love with nature, and I went hiking with them twice, once just with the family and once with the other members of the program, as a field trip. Since my host parents literally went hiking every week, they picked some perfect locations. Once, while riding the train to Kameoka (a small city right outside Kyoto), I actually passed by the place where we went hiking with the program and had been impressed by the view, so it was exciting to later get the opportunity to hike through that area. Take a look:
The area where I went hiking with my family was similarly impressive. It was about 30 minutes away from the house by bus, so after climbing to the top, there was a great view of the city:

After some hiking, we arrived at a gorgeous lake in between the mountains. It was a perfect day too - nice and cool, blue skies, and just a bit of a breeze making ripples on the lake:

A picture of me and my host family, haha. That's my host parents on my sides, and at the far left is my host mother's younger brother. I absolutely love this picture of them - they're pretty goofy and amazingly energetic, and this picture captures that oh-so-perfectly! I know I already did an entry on my family, but they definitely fall under the list of things I miss...

Remember what I said about them being energetic? Here's an illustration of that. This is the lunch we had by the lake. The best thing is, they brought *so much* food! Besides what you see above, we also had chicken, rice balls, some vegetables, dried fruit, beer (!), and bread and coffee (!!!) for dessert. They refused to let me carry much, and yet I still get the impression that they were less tired at the end than I was...