Today (Friday) I took another day off (due to the economy, we kind of have to take a couple days off a month now). So my random town I chose to take a train trip to was Nagiso (南木曽) in Nagano-ken. I chose it simply because it was the closest (time-wise, by train) town to visit in Nagano. It takes just under an hour to get there from Nagoya station. It’s just over the border from Nakatsukawa (中津川) in Gifu-ken. Had no idea what to expect, just wanted to take a couple pictures of the river and mountains, so I just spent an hour there (actually, when I take these trips, the train ride itself is more fun that the visit itself). I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice little park with a bridge built in honor of someone named Momosuke Fukuzawa. I realize sometimes my pictures seem to have no “point” (as has been pointed out to me by some of my Japanese friends), but I like some of the boring-looking pictures, and don’t know how to explain the reason.

南木曽

So, by the way, that brings it up to 21 prefectures (or city-districts, or similar government-units) that I’ve visited in Japan. This is my current Henry’s-style quest - to visit all the kens. The next post will talk about all the ones I’ve visited so far.